Read Cantina Valley (A Ben Adler Mystery Book 1) for Free Online

a lawyer from Portland.   And has promised to deal with a little IRS matter.”
    Sonya shook her head.   “What about the EPA?”
    “That’s bullshit!”
    “So is the IRS matter, Ben.   But the EPA can really fine you.”
    “For collecting my own water on my property?   Oregon is full of water.   First the power company wanted me to direct my excess electricity back to the grid instead of storing it in my batteries, then the waste management people keep dropping off garbage cans and recycling bins—even though I never asked them to do so.”
    “Recycling is important, Ben.”
    “I understand that, Sonya.   But I compost all of my yard debris and other organic waste.   I don’t buy normal products with outrageous packaging, so I don’t collect cardboard and paper.   What little I do have, I burn in my wood stove.   That heats my house, along with the wood, which I cut from my own land.   I bring my old wine bottles to you for recycling.   Now the county tries to tell me which trees I can cut from my own land.   And the water really pisses me off.   I draw water into large cisterns during the winter months and use it for my garden in the summer.   When the EPA says I can’t collect the water because it is owned by all of Oregon, that’s the last straw.   The ground around my house is so saturated it’s like walking on a floating bog in my yard.   Can you imagine how that would be if I let the water flow from my roof?”
    Sonya stood with her arms crossed over her chest.   She had heard his rants before.   “I understand, Ben.   But you have to deal with the government sometimes.”
    “I dealt with the Air Force bureaucracy for more than twenty years.   I’m done.”
    “I’m just saying that maybe this lawyer could get the EPA off your back.”
    Ben had already scared them off, showing up at his gate with an AR-15 and his 9mm handgun on his hip.   Although he never pointed either of them at the bastards, the threat he wanted to convey was implied.   “You know how the EPA found out I was collecting water?   They require sellers of cisterns to report the sales to them.   We need to get rid of the EPA and the IRS.”
    “I know.   You should see how they restrict us here at the winery.”
    Ben smiled and said, “You might have a bigger problem with ICE.”
    “Our workers are legal,” she complained.
    “As far as you know,” he said.   “But I’m sure you don’t verify every ID.”
    “We contract out the pickers and pruners,” she said.   “It’s that company’s responsibility.”
    Ben raised his hands.   “Hey, I don’t give a shit one way or the other.   They work their asses off in that vineyard.   I sure as hell don’t want to do that work.”   He hesitated, knowing he had brought peace to the middle east, if not his little piece of Cantina Valley.   “Now, you were going to tell me how you happened upon the man in the picture.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want to water board me for that information?” she asked.
    He stepped in a little closer and said, “Positive.   But maybe I could restrain you and bring you to the point of climax a number of times.”
    “Tease.   Don’t promise without action.”
    “I am nothing if not a man of action.”
    She gulped noticeably.   “That you are.”
    Ben waited for her to answer.
    “I don’t know the man.   But he’s come in here a number of times to taste and buy.”
    “Alone?”
    “No.   With a couple of other guys.   Rough characters.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “I don’t know.   Just a feeling.   They were scary.”
    She wasn’t being too clear.   “Explain.”
    “A lot of tattoos.”
    Ben laughed.   “You mean like everyone else in Portland and Eugene?”
    “Good point.   But no.”   Sonya held the crucifix around her neck gently with her right hand as if saying her contrition.   “It was their eyes that bothered me the most.   They looked soulless.”
    Her Catholic heritage