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  “How long will it take you to be ready to roll?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  “Do what you have to do and I’ll fill you in on our way to the first winery.”

  While she’s doing that Derrick pops his head into Bill’s office and says, “Deputy Styversant has my back today and tomorrow.”

  “Okay. When are you heading out?”

  “In just a few minutes.”

  “How did it go in San Francisco?”

  “I picked up a couple of names. Maury Hoagland over at the NSA is helping me check them out. I’ll give you a full report when I’ve paid my visit to the wineries.”

  “Okay. Get out of here and keep your mind on business. That deputy can be a distraction and a half.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned. You actually got your head out of the piles of paper on your desk long enough to notice. There’s hope for the world after all.”

  Smiling the Sheriff waves him out of his office and says, “Get out of here or I’ll assign Perkins to be your back up.”

  “You wouldn’t”

  “Don’t push me.”

  “I’m gone.”

  Perkins is one of the new deputies that just joined the department and to say he was still a little wet behind the ears would be like saying the Colorado River is a stream. On top of that he has a repertoire of commercial ditties he likes to hum over and over again to pass the time and it drives anybody within hearing distance up the wall. And to add insult to injury, he hums off key.

  Walking out of Bill’s office he sees Julie heading his way. Seeing the smile on his face she says, “This is a first for me. I’ve never seen anyone leaving the Sheriff’s office with a smile on his face. Please tell me the secret.”

  “I can’t. It’s guy stuff.”

  “Which really means it’s probably girl stuff.”

  Some women have a knack for hitting the nail on the head without exerting any effort. Julie just demonstrated she’d qualify for carpenter of the decade.

  Although a little taken back by her accuracy Derrick keeps his cool and says, “Believe it or not, many men’s minds run on more than one track.”

  “Yeah, but they all converge and eventually wind up at the same station.”

  Laughing he comes back with, “I can see you’ve got your mind made up on this so it would be futile for me to try to convince you otherwise. To not so subtilely change the subject, I’ve cleared it with Bill for you to be with me tomorrow as well. If I need you any longer than that will depend on what goes down today or tomorrow.”

  “Am I to be just another set of eyes and ears or will I get the chance to learn some of the Sherlock Holmes stuff?”

  Something in the way she asked the question kept him from coming back with a wisecrack. Looking at her for a moment he could see from the expression on her face that she was half serious so he answers with, “I’m more of a Hercules Poirot fan myself, but there’s always the chance to learn if you’re so inclined. Your number one priority on this assignment though is to make sure I don’t wind up with any holes in me and to keep yourself in one piece while doing so.

  “Get us a car and bring it around front while I print out the addresses of the wineries we’re going to be calling on today and tomorrow. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

  As he watches her walk away the Sheriff’s admonition pops into his mind. Deputy Styversant is far from what most people would picture a cop would look like. She looks more like a model or a movie starlet. She’s about six feet tall with the body of an athlete and she moves like one, she has thick naturally wavy dark auburn hair which is cut short and her face with its dark green eyes even though it is devoid of any makeup except for a little lipstick is absolutely gorgeous.

  There’s a lot more to the lady though than an attractive appearance. Underneath all of that is a deadly serious, kick ass, in-your-face deputy sheriff who doesn’t take any guff from anybody. In college, she was an Olympic class swimmer, became very accomplished in some of the martial arts and acquired expert skills with all kinds of handguns. She graduated with honors with a degree in Police Science. This academic pursuit and the proficiency in the tools of the modern day warrior were motivated by revenge aimed at the kinds of low lifes responsible for the death of her father who was killed in the line of duty as a San Francisco detective when she was a freshman in college. Her dad never saw it coming as he was shot in the back.

  On the surface, she’s a laid back, easy to get along with, individual with a quick mind and a good sense of humor, but underneath she’s a very angry and very sad daughter of a man who she adored, who was her hero, and she’s determined to make the low lifes who cross her path rue the day they decided to take the easy way out and pursue a life of crime.

  Chapter 6

  As they pull away from the station Derrick says, “Our first stop is the Aragon Winery. Do you know where that is?”

  “I do. I took my mom and uncle there a couple of months ago for some wine tasting.”

  “Good. You drive and listen. I’ll fill you in on what has been going on. There are eight wineries on this list that have been experiencing some suspicious glitches in their operations lately, some unprecedented. They started to pop up after repeated refusals of offers to buy them out. They’re all family owned and successful companies that have been around for decades, but the big boys have nothing to fear from them.

  “The wine industry is pretty much a family owned industry. Even the giant, Gallo, is family owned and surprisingly they all seem to get along and even help each other out in a pinch. However, all of these companies hold their financial cards close to their chests, so it would be easier to break into Fort Knox than to get a peek at any accounting records, at least legally.

  “Somehow the people seeking to purchase these wineries obtained access to financial information about these companies which they found attractive enough to put them on a list of possible acquisitions. Also, even though ownership in the wine industry is dominated by families, this doesn’t exclude the possibility that there has been a falling out somewhere either within an individual family or the California family as a whole.

  “The point I’m trying to make is the culprit or culprits I’m looking for don’t necessarily have to be outsiders to California or to the winery industry. They might very well be home grown. Notice I say might. These people could be outsiders working on their own or in cahoots with someone local. I guess what I’m really trying to say is no assumptions can be made as to who’s behind these incidents.”

  “I’ve heard all good detectives have good gut instincts. What’s yours telling you?”

  “What it’s usually telling me, it’s hungry and wants to be fed.”

  Laughing she says, “You know what I mean.”

  “Nothing is really standing out for me to zero in on, but I have an uneasy feeling that things are going to get much worse if we don’t get to the bottom of things very soon. It’s the kind of feeling you get when a headache is about to assault you. There’s that tension, that pressure that builds up just before the pain starts pounding away inside your skull.”

  “You’re thinking that besides increases in property damage there might very well be a progression to bodily damage?”

  “I am and I don’t exclude myself as a possible victim of such progression, hence your presence with me today.”

  “Cop killing is very serious stuff. Do you really think these people would resort to that?”

  “Wealth and prestige are powerful motivators, Julie. We’ve got to be on the alert for anything and everything.”

  The rest of the drive to the winery was completed in silence as they both thought about the danger that might be waiting for them at any one of the stops ahead.

  When they get to the winery’s office, the place is empty. As they’re looking around for somebody to help them, a truck comes tearing into an area alongside the parking lot and comes to a screeching halt in front of a Quonset hut like structure and the driver j
umps out like he’s on fire and quickly disappears inside.

  Derrick and Julie walk over to ask him where everyone is and almost get bowled over as the man comes charging out of the structure carrying several large boxes that appear to be very heavy judging from the way he’s struggling with them. Derrick offers a helping hand by taking the box on top and following the man to his truck.

  As the man is putting the boxes in the truck Derrick asks, “Where is everybody? Do you know where we might find David Bedel?”

  “Everyone’s out at the irrigation shed. Someone has made a mess of the timing mechanism and the valves. Some parts of the vineyard aren’t getting enough water and other parts are getting too much. I’m sorry, but I can’t talk now. I’ve got to get these parts out to the shed. The sooner we can get things fixed, the less damage there will be.”

  “We’ll follow you.”

  When they get to the shed there’s activity everywhere, inside and outside the shed. Most of the people aren’t talking much, but one look at their faces tells you they’re doing a lot of thinking and worrying. After the man they followed finishes hauling the boxes he took from the Quonset hut inside the irrigation shed, he comes over to them and points at a man talking to a woman in an SUV. “That’s Mr. Bedel over there.”

  Derrick mutters a thanks and he and Julie head over to talk with the COO. “Mr. Bedel, I’m Sergeant Chandler and this is Deputy Styversant. We talked yesterday about what has been happening at the winery. How long will it take to fix this latest attack on your operation?”

  “That depends on how much internal damage has been done to the irrigation equipment and piping, a few hours to a couple of days.”

  With a slight nod of his head toward the woman behind the wheel of the SUV he says, “This is Audrey Aragon, the CFO of the winery and one of the daughters of the owners.”

  With a slight tilt of her head Ms. Aragon acknowledges the introduction and says, “Have you learned anything yet that will help put a stop to this sabotage?”

  “We’ve just started our investigation Ms. Aragon, but some things have come to the surface that might lead to something. We came out here today to talk with some of your employees to see if they’ve noticed anything unusual going on recently or have seen anyone acting in a suspicious manner. I’d also like a copy of your organization chart to familiarize myself with who does what around here and get a list of employees who have been on the premises when each of these incidents occurred. I’ll be doing this with all of the wineries that have been experiencing the same kinds of problems you have.”

  “David told me what you told him about the other wineries having the same troubles after refusing to sell out. At first I thought these assaults on our winery operations were the doings of some pissed off employees or former employees. However, when I heard about what was happening at other wineries it wasn’t very much of a mental leap to conclude that such a concerted, organized, multi-pronged attack on a select group of small family run wineries soon after repeated refusals to sell had to be launched by some very determined, ruthless and winery savvy people with deep pockets.”

  “You and I are on the same page. The sooner you can give us the employee data I mentioned, the better.”

  “Follow me back to the office and I’ll get the information for you. David, let me know when you’ll have the best estimate as to when we’ll be back to normal operations again.”

  “Will do, Audrey.”

  When they get back to the office, it takes Ms. Aragon a good fifteen minutes to round up the information which gives Derrick and Julie time to snoop around a little. The office building is a single story ranch style structure with a Spanish tile roof and stucco siding and Derrick is estimating it has about 3500 square feet of floor space, most of which is occupied by something. There’s a front and back door and both have simple locks, no dead bolts or electronic key pads are in evidence. There are plenty of windows which provide a lot of natural light in the interior and there is no sign of an alarm system.

  Derrick says, “I’m surprise at the lack of security in this building which apparently is the hub of the enterprise. There’s got to be a lot of information on those computers and in those files that someone up to no good would find very helpful.”

  When Ms. Aragon returns with the requested information, Derrick mentions this to her and gets a surprising response. “I’ve been trying to get my folks to pony up the funds for the installation of a good security system and better locks, but they contend that the only way we’ll have complete security is if we convert the building to a windowless box and have security guards posted everywhere and they say they won’t live like that. They believe that installing an alarm system and better locks on the doors won’t help prevent what we’ve been experiencing lately and if someone wants to get into the building badly enough they could just break a window or cut a piece out of one big enough to allow access to the office. If we hire security guards, they believe they could be dealt with by any intruders as well. They just don’t believe these measures will be sufficiently effective in dealing with what has been happening to warrant the cost of putting them in place.

  “My mom and dad are from the old school. They don’t run from a fight. They believe the best defense is a great offense. They want to hire some independent folks to work undercover to see if they can pick up anything that might tell us who’s behind all of these things that have been happening, maybe even set up some kind of tempting target to lure them into a trap. I’ve managed to talk them out of that for the time being, buying some time for you folks to have a go at finding who is behind all of these things and hopefully putting them behind bars. I don’t want anyone to get hurt and running a civilian sting seems like a good way for that to happen and/or get into trouble with the law if someone does get hurt. Besides, there is no guarantee that these people will continue to mess with us. They could just move on to any of the other wineries on their list.”

  “I admire and respect your parents’ backbone, but you did the right thing by getting them to stand down on that sting idea. However, I like the idea of inserting undercover folks into the daily operation of the winery and that is something that could be done at all of the wineries experiencing these kinds of interruptions. I don’t know about the available manpower in the Sheriff’s Department for such a wide spread operation, but it’s definitely something worth looking into.”

  Julie who hasn’t said anything up until now says, “Ms. Aragon, your folks are making some good points, but there is one security measure that should not be put on the back burner. I don’t know what kind of security currently surrounds your computer system, but I suggest you bring in some high tech person to make sure it is adequate to prevent as much hacking as possible. These people are obtaining a lot of information about your operation and I’d place a small wager that a lot of that is coming from someone accessing your system.”

  “We have some basic software we installed a while back and subscribe to services such as Norton, but we really haven’t thought that much about someone gaining access to our system. Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll get someone on that right away.”

  Looking back at Derrick she says, “If you have no further need of me, I’m going to get back to work.”

  “I think we have everything we need for now. We’ll go over this information you’ve given us, roam around a little bit and talk with some of your employees if you have no objections.”

  “Feel free. You now know where to find me if you need me for anything.”

  As she walks away Julie looks tentatively at Derrick and says, “I hope I wasn’t out of line with my comment about their computer system. I just got caught up in the dialogue and it just popped out of my mouth before I realized what I was doing.”

  “It was a good comment and I’m glad she’s going to take your advice. I’ve been thinking along the same lines because the incidents that have taken place so far, at all of the wineries, required detailed operational information and the
selection process also required reliable financial information and the wineries’ computer systems would be an excellent source for that kind of info.”