A Will and a Way

a quick scowl for Michael’s manners, Pandora rose and offered her hand. “We appreciate the trouble, Mr. Lockworth. I’m sure you have a great many other things to do, but the results are important to Michael and me.”
    “No problem.” He decided he’d find out why it was important after he’d analyzed the wine. “There’s a coffee shop for the staff. I’ll show you where it is. You can wait for me there.”
     
    “There was absolutely no reason to be rude.” Pandora settled herself at a table and looked at a surprisingly varied menu.
    “I wasn’t rude.”
    “Of course you were. Mr. Lockworth was going out of his way to be friendly, and you had a chip on your shoulder. I think I’m going to have the shrimp salad.”
    “I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. I was being cautious. Or maybe you think we should spill everything to a total stranger.”
    Pandora folded her hands and smiled at the waitress. “I’d like the shrimp salad and coffee.”
    “Two coffees,” Michael muttered. “And the turkey platter.”
    “I’ve no intention of spilling, as you put it, everything to a total stranger.” Pandora picked up her napkin. “However, if we weren’t going to trust Lockworth, we’d have been better off to buy a chemistry set and try to handle it ourselves.”
    “Drink your coffee,” Michael muttered, and picked up his own the moment the waitress served it.
    Pandora frowned as she added cream. “How long do you think it’ll take?”
    “I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.”
    “He didn’t look like one, either, did he?”
    “Bronc rider.” Michael sipped his black coffee and found it as strong as Lockworth had promised.
    “What?”
    “Looks like a bronc rider. I wonder if Carlson or any of the others have any interest in this building.”
    Pandora set her coffee down before she tasted it. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
    “As I remember, Jolley turned over Tristar Corporation to Monroe about twenty-five years ago. I remember my parents talking about it.”
    “Tristar. Which one is that?”
    “Plastics. I know he gave little pieces of the pie out here and there. He told me once he wanted to give all his relatives a chance before he crossed them off the list.”
    After a moment’s thought, she shrugged and picked up her coffee again. “Well, if he did give a few shares of Sanfield to one of them, what difference does it make?”
    “I don’t know how much we should trust Lockworth.”
    “You’d have felt better if he’d been bald and short with Coke-bottle glasses and a faint German accent.”
    “Maybe.”
    “See?” Pandora smiled. “You’re just jealous because he has great shoulders.” She fluttered her lashes. “Here’s your turkey.”
    They ate slowly, drank more coffee, then passed more time with pie. After an hour and a half, both of them were restless and edgy. When Lockworth came in, Pandora forgot to be nervous about the results.
    “Thank God, here he comes.”
    After maneuvering around chairs and employees on lunch break, Lockworth set a computer printout on the table and handed the box back to Michael. “I thought you’d want a copy.” He took a seat and signaled for coffee. “Though it’s technical.”
    Pandora frowned down at the long, chemical terms printed out on the paper. It meant little more than nothing to her, but she doubted trichloroethanol or any of the other multisyllabic words belonged in French champagne. “What does it mean?”
    “I wondered that myself.” Lockworth reached in his pocket and drew out a pack of cigarettes. Michael looked at it for a moment with longing. “I wondered why anyone would put rose dust in vintage champagne.”
    “Rose dust?” Michael repeated. “Pesticide. So it was poisoned.”
    “Technically, yes. Though there wasn’t enough in the wine to do any more than make you miserably ill for a day or two. I take it neither one of you had any?”
    “No.” Pandora looked up from the report. “My puppy did,” sheexplained. “When we opened the bottle, some spilled and he lapped it up. Before we’d gotten around to drinking it, he was ill.”
    “Luckily for you, though I find it curious that you’d jumped to the conclusion that the champagne had been poisoned because a puppy was sick.”
    “Luckily for us, we did.” Michael folded the report and slipped it into his pocket.
    “You’ll have to pardon my cousin,” Pandora said. “He has no manners. We appreciate you taking time out to do this for