A Deadly Draught by Lesley A. Diehl Read Free Book Online Page B

only several seconds. Jake’s police cruiser, lights flashing and siren howling, blew past me on the straight-of-way, then veered into the road leading to Rafe’s place. As he passed, he waved and smiled. Damn. Now we were even.
    Several county sheriffs’ cars, in addition to Jake’s cruiser, stood outside the brewing barn. Two EMTs carried a stretcher with someone on it—I couldn’t see who—to an ambulance idling at the barn door. They loaded the person into it and joined the stretcher. It raced down the drive, rocks and pebbles flying from its tires.
    Workers from the brewery and locals, along with Marsh, Teddy, and Stanley, clustered around the entrance to the barn. Jake was right. It looked as if Rafe called the brewers first, then the authorities. No wonder he was so mad.
    I jumped from the truck and pushed my way through the crowd of onlookers until I got to Teddy, standing outside the barn arguing with a police officer.
    “No one goes in there now. Back off, and we’ll let you know soon enough what’s happening,” the officer said.
    Just then, I caught sight of Rafe exiting the far end of the barn through the gift shop door.
    “Rafe!” I waved my arms and broke free of the crowd. He signaled me to follow him to the house. Teddy didn’t notice us until we were almost up the steps, then he propelled his rotund frame around the back of the group.
    “Wait up. What’s happening?” he asked.
    “What did you do, Rafe, call all of us?” I asked.
    “He didn’t call me. I monitor the police band,” said Teddy.
    “Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain everything to you. Would you mind, Teddy? I’d like a word alone with Hera.”
    Teddy’s round faced turned purple, and he appeared about to say something in retort, but he cleared his throat and backed off the steps.
    “Sure. Fine. I’ll be around if you need me.”
    Rafe showed me into his study and gestured to a leather chair. He moved toward a cabinet and opened it.
    “It’s a little early in the day for this, but I could use a brandy. Want one?” I shook my head no. “I wanted us to have some time alone before the authorities got to you.”
    “What happened? I heard from Jake someone tried to kill your brew master? Is Henry okay?”
    “He’s going to be fine. I called the ambulance first, then had a quick look around the place. Tried your phone, but when I got the busy signal, I sent Manuel. I can’t say how everyone else found out.” Rafe poured a shot of brandy in a snifter and took a quick gulp of it.
    “Someone locked Henry in the fermentation room. I found him there unconscious and pulled him out.”
    “Why would anyone want to hurt Henry?”
    Rafe gave a short snort. “Henry? No. I think someone wanted to get to me. Maybe they thought without Henry I couldn’t continue to brew, or, at the very least, finding another brew master would slow me down. But there’s something else, something I haven’t told the authorities. Not yet anyway.”
    He tossed down the rest of the contents of the snifter, then took a seat across from mine.
    “I like you very much, my dear, but I have to ask you some painful questions before the authorities do. I need to know your answers now.”
    I’d never seen Rafe this way, his face dark with anger, his lips set in a grim line. I wiggled in my chair under his scrutiny. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
    “I haven’t been too forthcoming with the other brewers since I bought this operation. I know all of you think I’m a rich dilettante with little knowledge of the brewing process. That’s not strictly true. I was brewing ales in England before you were born, but I had to leave there suddenly. A small problem with the owner’s wife. So I wandered around the continent, taking brewing jobs here and there. In those years, I had a tendency to take short cuts. A competitor of the brewery I was working for called in the police and accused me of stealing his recipe for a winter ale.” He looked