Heart of Gold, page 11
“Really? How so?”
“They took on partners to try to stay afloat after the theft of all that money, and I guess missus is sick again with her cancer. Randy’s been trying to run the winery but he’s proving to be a very incompetent manager, which I could have told them.”
“No kidding. I wouldn’t put him in charge of anything. Not even the wait staff or the trimming crew.”
“Well, here’s the other thing, they’ve released Sheila from prison. Apparently, she was sent up north to some super-max prison? But something was discovered with her case, and she was released. They said she’d already served her time. I think she only served seven years.”
“All that money and she only served seven years?”
“It was some kind of an error with the judges charging orders, a technicality, and she got a good attorney, and that’s what happened. She’s off. She’s free.”
Tyler heard the little bells and whistles going off in the back of his head. “So where is she?”
“Nobody’s seen her. Nobody knows. She doesn’t have any probationary period, so she doesn’t have to check in with anyone. Except for the fact there’s still an ongoing investigation as to where the funds are, which she claims she doesn’t have and always claimed somebody else had put her up to it, there isn’t anything they can hold her on until they have proof. And that’s the problem.”
“Wow. That’s one dangerous person out there. She’s a really good con artist. One of the best I’ve met. I wonder what the hell she’s up to.”
“Well, apparently, she’s made some friends, because her connections helped her get that high-priced attorney and get her off the hook, and she’s not doing anything as far as anyone knows. But as long as she stays out of everybody’s way, hopefully the Hellers will win out the suit on the insurance claim, which is still ongoing. Devon told me there was some talk about Sheila claiming that money because of her wrongful prosecution, although that hasn’t been ruled. She’s just been released for lack of evidence. So she’s sticking with it all until the Hellers a driven into the ground.”
“She’s diabolical. They weren’t saints, but they didn’t deserve that. What a vampire.”
“I could see how Mr. Heller would be despondent. Not helping Mrs. Heller with her cancer either. All this has just killed the two of them. So unfair.”
“And yet, they caused some of this themselves,” Tyler said.
“It’s true. Came out of pure hubris. Remember when they thought they could order everyone around?”
“There’s a saying about that.”
“Been a problem for them financially. But maybe eventually they’ll get paid off. In the meantime, they have partners that have rebuilt the place and it looks terrible—at least that’s according to Devon. I’m not going to set foot on that property ever again.”
“That’s my girl. You stay as far away from Randy Heller and his family or anyone associated with that winery. And Kate, if you see Sheila, you stay away from her too. Now that she’s out and about, that kind of gives me a whole new perspective on my parents’ fire. Do you suppose she would stoop to something like that? I mean you were friends with her for several years.”
“Tyler, I don’t even know if I ever really knew her. She’s an odd duck, and has just strange reactions to things. I mean look at how she went off on me to try to get to you. She’s just odd and damaged somehow. And blames everybody else I guess. Now going after the Hellers when she was the one who caused their demise in the first place. Give that woman some money, and you’re right, she’s almost evil. Dangerous is too mild a word.”
“Like I said, stay clear away. If you see her, let me know right away.”
“I’ve washed that whole scenario of what we went through 10 years ago, I’ve washed that out of my system. I don’t spend any time thinking about it.”
“Well, that’s probably good. But keep a lookout for any little sign that doesn’t make sense. You may be done with her. Maybe she won’t be done with you, and she knows a lot about you, Kate. Look at what she tried to do with me?
“You’re right. I promise.”
“I need to check with the investigators then and maybe give them a heads-up. Thanks for that, and just remember, I can’t wait till you come home on Saturday.”
“Me too.”
“Oh I almost forgot. Grady’s team won tonight. They’re so excited, that makes them undefeated. And this was the best team in their league so they have high hopes for taking the championship. The coach has asked me to help with the coaching next year. I told them I would have to check with my business manager, you.”
“Thanks Sweetheart. Say, I’ve got to run, but I’ll check in with you before I come home. In the meantime I’m safe, I’m having a great time, I just love your friends Devon and Nick. They’ve treated me like a queen. Nick even said why didn’t I bring the whole family? I think the next time I’d like to do that if you’re up for it.”
“We’ll get our calendars cleared out so we can do that. Maybe after I get back from deployment. We need to have a nice long trip to wine country. I know you’d enjoy it, it’d be great to see your parents, and there’s lots of fun stuff to do. But you take care and stay safe, and don’t go streaking off doing anything on your own okay?”
“Yes sir. Roger that!”
Tyler placed a call to the investigator he had spoken to at the site, and had several follow-up calls with.
“I just wanted to let you know that someone from our past, a woman who professionally embezzled I think over a half a million dollars from this winery in Santa Rosa, has been released unexpectedly and was in one of your prisons in the north, my wife said it was a maximum-security prison, and I am just calling to let you know that she’s been released about three weeks ago and kind of has an ax to grind against our family, but mostly me. However, she did exhibit some rather dangerous behavior against my wife, and I don’t know if this would have anything to do with the arson, but I sure would like it if you would add that to your list of things to check out.”
“What’s her name?”
Tyler gave him her name, as well as the name she went by, and explained the two. “She’s apparently made friends with certain people in prison, she never returned any of the money or they couldn’t find it, as she claimed it was somebody else who was behind her thefts, but apparently she bought herself a high-powered attorney, which tells me she might still have access to the funds. And the fact that she’s only served seven years out of a 15-year sentence, not because of good behavior but because of some kind of an error, that just smacks as something wrong. My wife just mentioned it to me or I would’ve told you earlier. We thought she was safely tucked away and wouldn’t be a problem for years. I doubt though that the time in prison has made her any less ardent about coming after us. But maybe I’m just being paranoid.”
“I remember that case, and I remember hearing that she’d been released too. But my understanding is she’s sort of disappeared into the woodwork.”
“That’s what my wife understands as well. There was some talk when she was behind bars that she would go after the owners insurance claim, if you can believe such a thing. Just when I thought I’d heard it all, something like this happens, and makes me wonder.”
“Yeah, try being in my line of work. You see much more than you ever wanted to.”
“Please, just put your feelers out to check it and see what you come up with. I know you can’t divulge everything, but let me know if there’s anything else I can shed light or background on, and I just would be curious if you have any sightings or anyone has had any communication with her or her attorney.”
“Who’s her attorney?”
“I have no idea. I’m sure you could find it in the record, but nobody informed us, reached out to us, and I don’t even think Mom and Dad know. I’m going to call them so they know that Sheila’s been released, just in case they see her. It would surprise my mother especially if she was on the street. And I don’t think she’d stay anywhere close to where the prison is so she’s probably long gone. But I just want you to know.”
“Thanks Tyler. I’ll put the word out. You take care then.”
Chapter 14
Kate and Devon poured over the websites Devon used to advertise the wedding center, also showed her a list of vendors that she had cultivated over the years running the place.
“You want to have a newsletter sent out to all your former attendees. When they do make reservations online, we get their email addresses and ask their permission to be placed on the list. We also give referrals to people who refer others to our center, and that has really generated a lot of business, because families of families who have attended here love it and then want to use it for their wedding sometimes years later.”
“Got it,” Kate said. “Makes total sense.”
“The winery is a different story altogether and it’s not as fan-based run as the wedding center. So in that event we have our winemaker help us to enter into contests and things so we can get recognition and notoriety. We do every celebrity chef-type activity in Sonoma County we can, any wine tasting that we can be invited to, we do. I think it’s very important that we both are the front and center spokesman for the winery, the lavender farm, and for the events center. And one kind of cross pollinates the other.”
“What do you mean by that?” Asked Kate.
“Well, when we’re at a tasting event, we’re also advertising the wedding center. When we’re doing the wedding and taking reservations for that we make them an offer to use our wines at a discount, so that it’s in essence a wine tasting for a captive audience while they’re at the event. And one does compliment the other. The lavender farm we have contracted with a group of women who have a nonprofit setting up homes for battered women or women with children or women with young babies, and I’ve allowed the proceeds from that, and they’re not tremendous, but it’s something, we’ve allowed the proceeds to be a write off for us and allowed the ladies to use our lavender to make their oils and creams and sprays. It really does my heart good to do that for somebody, and it also is good for business. So it shows that we’re trying to do good things for the county, for the area, and for these women in particular.”
“I knew about the lavender farm, but I didn’t realize you did that.” Said Kate. “I’m amazed at all of this, Devon.”
“Well, it’s taken a while to build and to develop, and for a number of years you know we were wrapped up in this lawsuit with our neighbor. That kind of took us off track for a few years, but it’s now solidified to the point that we are able to do solid growth every year, and barring any unusual event that would say wipe out our grapes or, you know, some weather event that would be difficult to absorb, the center still goes on. As you can see from my reservation list we’re now booking things two years out. And those places have to pay in full at least 12 months in advance.”
“So what happens if they decide not to get married, or they cancel for some reason?”
“That happens, and it’s a case-by-case basis. If it’s a hardship where one of the parties is ill or has passed away and that’s happened to us unfortunately, or perhaps the parents have fallen on hard times and the money is not there to complete what they had promised their son or daughter, those are hardships that are tough. Now if it’s a case of the couple behaving badly and being children, or parents trying to book something to lock them into a wedding, and you know, we see that all the time, we really do, it’s a different story.”
“But you charge for it, right?”
“Yes, we always do charge a cancellation fee, but we don’t ever keep all of their money. That’s just not fair and it causes too much ill will. There are some places that do though, and some of the big hotel chains are not very good about releasing people from their obligations. But we try to work it on a case-by-case basis and give them terms or give them a discount so that they can still go forward and have the event but have it impact them less. You know, at the end of the day, we’re all people in this together, and you won’t get referrals if you treat people poorly.”
“Okay so I see you’ve got these sites. These are pre-made websites that you can lock into?”
“Yes, there are a number of wedding shows, wedding programs, there are many places where you can advertise, I mean, we could spend a fortune on advertising and we do as much as we can, but we don’t want to get overloaded. We attend all of these shows, we’ve tried to get a film crew here to do a destination wedding type of project, but so far that’s still in the works and hasn’t come to fruition. But you can see we’ve got like 15 or 20 places we can advertise online and just like Vrbo, they can click through and see the different places. Some of these sites are even international, so you’re getting people from all over the world who want to come to Sonoma County and book a site. When we first started, this wasn’t as extensive. But now, with the absolute birth of all these destination wedding venues, people are building hotels next to wineries and doing all kinds of things to really enhance the whole experience.”
“You make it look easy. A hotel? Like Hotel Dunn?”
“That will never happen. While that’s not something we want to do, this is a growth industry. And there’s no stopping it. Some people spend obscene amounts of money for their weddings. A little less for anniversaries.”
Kate and Devon went through the bookings, how the bookings were handled, she showed Kate her website, she told Kate they even had a full-time website manager and reservation manager who monitored the traffic and made it so that Devon and Nick were not stuck on the computer all day long.
“That’s a very important hire, when you get to the point where you’re just going crazy and you can’t handle everything, you have to make that hire very strategically, has to be somebody who’s well-organized, who knows how to check things and gets right back to people. We get bookings because we contact people right away. You’d be surprised how many people just never get back to their clients and then a week or two later they’ve found another site. So it’s a very important position.”
She showed Kate into another office area.
“You can see the gal over here,” Devon pointed to a cubicle encased in glass, where a young woman was sitting at a desk with two large screens side by side, a pair of headphones and microphone on her head.
“Molly is our go-to gal, and she also majored in computer science in college, so she was a great find, and she loves doing this job. In fact, she doesn’t want to expand her operation at all, doesn’t want to take on additional duties, and we’d probably give it to her if she wanted. But we’re happy with her, we’re not going to mess with success.”
Kate wanted to visit her mother and she asked if Devon would like to come.
“I’m afraid I can’t, I’ve got too much to do here. But you can borrow my car and go see her if you like. I’m just not going to be available, and I have to do some errands downtown.”
“Why don’t I agree to meet you somewhere, and we’ll have lunch then?”
“Okay, I’ll drive one of the company trucks then and I’ll meet you.”
They chose a small delicatessen downtown that had been one of Kate’s favorites growing up.
After visiting her mother and father, Kate headed for the late luncheon with Devon. Walking up and down the downtown area of Santa Rosa, Kate was flooded with past memories of her childhood, her high school years, and her early years working for Heller Winery. She remembered her first pair of tennies and colorful socks she bought from the eclectic gift center catering to teens. The used record store was gone, but in its place, was a nail bar and beauty salon. A couple of Shabby Chic designer stores sat side by side, as well as a bunch of new bistros, wine bars and children’s clothing outlets.
She knew she wouldn’t recognize anyone, and most of the stores were new to her. There were a few more boarded-up businesses than she had remembered, and a few more people hanging out in the park than she’d remembered. But all in all, it was nothing like the Portland scene. And she hoped it never would be.
Out on the patio of the deli, she got a table, had a light spritzer soda, and waited for Devon. About ten minutes later, she arrived.
“Wow what a morning. I just got back from the insurance company and it looks like we’re going to be saving some money on our insurance because of our lack of claims. And that’s such good news because it’s a huge cost to us.” Said Devon. She sat and leaned into the table.
“I haven’t ordered yet so choose whatever you like. It’s on me.”
“So how do you like downtown Santa Rosa? Does it bring back memories?”
“Oh of course it does. I am accustomed to San Diego now though, and it feels like home, mostly because the kids feel like it’s their home. It took me a while though. This was a beautiful place to grow up. I don’t regret living here at all.”
“That’s what I thought too. I mean we looked at other places and we thought, oh maybe we should go up north or maybe we should go south, maybe we should even consider going down there to San Diego, but with my business also real estate, which is now kind of phasing out—I’ve turned a lot of things over to another agent in the office—I work with some of my key clients on very large projects, but I wouldn’t have that additional business. Now that the winery and center has taken off, I can give up some of that and it won’t impact our future. It’s kind of nice when you can transition from something you loved but had to do into something you love and love to do.”
“That’s what I’m looking for, Devon. And thanks for all this. It’s been an eye-opener. I see how you do this, and I see what difference it’s made for you guys, and I’m just amazed at your operation. Nice thing is that you do most of it, don’t you?”
