Page 7 of A Winter of Discontent for Henry Milch

“Joel Fletcher,” Opal said. “He crashed and burned around Thanksgiving. He thought he was going to make a mint selling books by Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter.”

“My grandmother loves them.”

“And how many books does she buy?”

Other than three copies of the Bible and one copy ofThe Joy of Cooking, there weren’t a lot of books in Nana Cole’s house.

“Penny got the business for a song,” Melanie said.

“I think I’d like to see the ladies’ room,” I said. “You know, like, where it happened.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You don’t want to check and see if anyone’s in there?”

“No one’s in there. It’s not crowded; I can count.”

I hopped off the stool and walked to the back of the room where the restrooms were. I opened the door to the ladies’ room and walked in. I hadn’t realized it, but Opal was right behind me.

The room looked more like the bathroom in most homes. It was meant for one person at a time. There was no stall, just an open toilet and a sink. There was a vase with plastic flowers on the back of the toilet, alongside a Lysol spray can. In case you stank up the place.

“Did she fall off the toilet?” Opal asked.

“No.” Her statement was still fresh in my mind. “She said that after she used the toilet she fell on her way to the sink. That there was water on the floor, and she thinks she slipped.”

“It’s not a very big room.”

I’d noticed that since we were kind of crammed together.

“I think if I started to fall, I’d just grab the sink.”

“Even if you were drunk? Maybe she tried to and it didn’t work,” I suggested.

The door opened and Melanie stood in it. “What do you think?”

“How was she discovered?” I was particularly proud of that question. It sounded veryLaw and Order.

“She was screaming her head off. Her friends heard her and came in.”

“Did you come to see what was happening?”

“Yeah. She was whimpering, moaning, howling. Very dramatic.” After a moment, she added, “Sorry. I had more sympathy before she sued me.”

“But she’s not really suingyou,” Opal said. “Your insurance company is going to pay.”

“There’s a cap on the policy at three hundred thousand. If she gets the million she’s asking for, the winery goes out of business.”

“Can we get back to what happened?” I suggested. “Did you notice if there was water on the floor?”

“There was some water on the floor.”

“How often do you and your staff check the restrooms?”

She gave me a grumpy look that said they didn’t check often. “We don’t know how the water got on the floor, or when. It could have gotten onto the floor when she fell.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “In her statement, she says that she slipped on the way to the sink.”

“No. When I came in the faucet was running. If I had to guess, I’d say she fell while washing her hands.”