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been aware she’d been holding. Yep, crazy lives right there behind Pam’s eyes , she thought.
    Another glance at her watch told her she had plenty of time to order some lunch. When she was finished she could even run a few errands and be right on schedule to drop by her uncle’s place before heading home for the day.
    Her phone later rang while she was in line at the post office, but it was Stuart and she let it go to voicemail. She didn’t have the energy for another push-pull conversation at the moment.
    Her next stop was dropping off some soil samples at the Extension Service, where her friend C.C. Duncan worked in the office. They’d been meaning to make plans for a girl’s night out anyway, so she spent thirty minutes chatting and piddling around there before heading out to her uncle’s.
    Edmond lived in a small house on the outskirts of Delphine, and it was just shy of four o’clock when Elise pulled into his driveway.
    She didn’t see his truck and decided it couldn’t hurt to take a look around. As she crossed the small wooden porch, she glanced through the living room window. Though she thought she heard something inside, she saw no movement.
    When her knock went unanswered, Elise rationalized her next action as something anyone would naturally do. She tried the door and found it unlocked. She convinced herself she should at least go in for a minute, make sure everything was okay. Seriously, like the old commercial said, what if he’s fallen and can’t get up?
    She giggled at her own joke. At least that’s what she’d say if she got caught snooping around!
    Slowly she eased the door open. “Hello? Uncle Edmond? Anybody home?”
    When she got no answer, she entered the house. Her first thought was a flashback to a line from an old black and white movie: What a dump . Empty pizza boxes and beer bottles littered the living room, along with dirty clothes that looked as if they’d been dropped where they’d been removed. Old newspapers and unopened mail covered the dining table, and the smell of stale smoke seemed to permeate the walls.
    Good Lord , she thought. Could this be any more disgusting?
    The idea that her uncle would prefer to live like this rather than to move out to the vineyard as her mother had suggested was dumb-founding. The air in the small space was as humid as outdoors but without the benefit of the occasional breeze. How the Texas air could be so humid and the soil so dry, she’d never understand.
    Picking up a ballpoint pen, Elise poked around in the paperwork on the table. There were lots of unpaid bills, and a few hand-written receipts for what looked to be sports bets. That couldn’t be good, but her mother had said he owed money.
    And then she ran across something even more unexpected and disturbing: paystubs.
    And not just any paystubs—these were from Kohler Winery. What the heck was going on? She wasn’t even aware that her uncle had a job, let alone one at a rival vineyard. If she hadn’t seen the proof with her own eyes, she would never have believed it. This was the ultimate betrayal.
    But why work for Henry Kohler? Hadn’t her mother said she’d offered him a job several times, but Edmond had turned her down? Was Henry the buyer her uncle had lined up in his ridiculous scheme to get out from under his debt? Though every vineyard owner in the area was looking for ways to increase their earnings, she couldn’t see Henry Kohler involved in something so underhanded. Besides, she was pretty certain Kohler Winery didn’t have that kind of cash just sitting around.
    Elise sighed. This entire thing was making less and less sense. Though it probably wasn’t a stellar idea, she shoved a few of the gambling markers and a couple paystubs into her purse. Heaven knew Edmond would never miss them in this mess, but they were something the others would need to see.
    Not wanting to venture any