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CHAPTER 55

Bend, Oregon Friday, August 2, 2024

SLOAN WOKE FRIDAY MORNING TO A STEADY CLINKING COMING FROM outside her window. It took a moment to remember where she was. The king-sized bed and its down comforter swallowed her and kept at bay the chill from the air conditioner in the guest cottage. The pounding outside continued. She pushed the covers to the side and stood from the bed, lifting the plantation shutters and squinting against the morning sun.

Out in the field, fifty yards from her bedroom window, was a large, yellow construction machine that looked like a backhoe. Instead of a bucket on the end of the long arm that extended out in front of the machine, however, was a metal post. Sloan watched as the man controlling the machine raised the post high in the air and then drove it into the ground. Once speared into the soil, the machine made the rickety sledgehammer noise as the hydraulics drove the pole into the ground until it was waist high. The noise abated for a moment—long enough for the man to load another post into the sleeve of the machine’s extended arm, position it ten feet from the first, and begin the process again.

There was a knock on the door that startled her. She closed the shutters and headed out of the bedroom. When she pulled open the front door Nora stood on the porch.

“Good morning,” Nora said. “Did you sleep alright?”

“Are you kidding me? The bed and the comforter are—”

“Heavenly, I know. It’s ridiculous out here. I always feel like I’m a million miles away from anywhere. I bet you’d have slept later if it weren’t for the racket.”

Sloan squinted. “What is that?”

“That would be Lester.”

“Lester, the handyman? The guy who blocked the news vans for us yesterday?”

“That’s the one. He drove up last night. He’s in charge of the property here. That’s really his full-time job now—taking care of Margolis Manor and the winery. Reid has him putting in a new fence to keep the mountain lions out of the vineyards. Sorry if he woke you. Lester knows no other gear than go-go-go.”

“I needed to get up anyway. Probably would have slept until noon in that bed.”

“Breakfast will be ready soon.”

“Let me shower and I’ll come right over.”