Plum Gone: A Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mystery (Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by A. J. Carton Read Free Book Online

one knows for sure how deep it goes. Into the wells? The water table? Of course, no one around here cares about historic trees. The question is whether the pollution of our water table might generate a little public outrage to block the sale.”
    Emma stared back at Silas in surprise. “You mean, cause Mr. Ho to back out?” Piers hadn’t mentioned a thing about pollution of the Randall plum ranch water supply, but it certainly would explain his desire to close the deal quickly.
    “Mr. Huang ,” Silas corrected her. “They do it backwards in China.” He blushed and, for a second, Emma thought he was going to cry again. “I thought you might have heard something…”
    A light suddenly went on in Emma’s head. Silas had seen Piers’ name on the purchase and sale documents and knew she was Curt Randall’s lawyer’s mother-in-law.
    “HoCo won’t back out,” Silas continued, lowering his voice. “But surely the Chinese will ask to renegotiate the sale price. Randall’s lawyer will probably push to close the sale quickly. Before anything worse comes to light and the locals finally wake up. But face it, HoCo won’t do anything about pollution to our water table. The Chinese don’t care about pollution. Just look at Beijing. Of course, as far as I’m concerned destroying those historic plum trees is criminal. You may remember that I tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a protest about that. ”
    Silas glared at Emma when he spoke. As though she were personally to blame for his failure.
    He rolled his eyes and gestured at the handful of people in the minivan, “But, of course, who cares about history these days.” He smirked, “Maybe poisoning our water supply will awaken these idiots to what’s happening to our land.”
    Emma looked away again. She well remembered Silas’s attempts to rally support to save the plum trees. In fact, at the time, she’d felt guilty about not joining in the cause. Even more guilty because she knew the only reason she didn’t call the number on the flier she found in her mailbox was because her son-in-law was involved in the deal. Other people will help save the trees, she’d assured herself. But no one had.
    Silas touched her lightly on the arm. When Emma glanced back at him, something about the intensity of his stare almost frightened her.
    “Is there anyone you could talk to, I mean directly?” he said. “Someone, perhaps, who’s involved in the deal? Anything you could do, personally, to stop this…this slaughter of our trees?”
    Emma felt her jaw clamp shut. “I can’t,” she whispered through clenched teeth, angry at being pulled further into the old man’s conflict.
    Silas shifted his gaze over her shoulder and out the window. The van had pulled off the highway and was headed into downtown Santa Rosa. A few minutes later, it came to a stop across the street from City Hall.
    Silas rose from his seat and turned to address the occupants of the van. “All right everyone…” He glanced around the bus. “We have reached our morning’s destination. The van will drop us at the main entrance to the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens. I will guide you on a tour of this extraordinary man’s home. Do not wander. Please stay with me throughout our tour of this registered national, state and city historic landmark.”
    The van deposited its occupants at the front entrance of the white wood framed Victorian building. In many ways, Emma noted, the famed Luther Burbank’s home resembled her own little Blissburg farmhouse. Half the house was one story, its entrance off of a long covered front porch. The other half was two stories high, with two large downstairs windows and a single window in the middle of the second story under the peak of the roof. Indeed, many old houses in Santa Rosa resembled the modest, welcoming little cottage – a far cry from Burbank’s much larger brick Lancaster, Massachusetts birthplace pictured inside the Santa Rosa museum.
    But that was Luther