Bruno 02 - The Dark Vineyard

opened the door, and then smiled to see him. She came forward to place her hands on his cheeks and kiss him on the lips. He responded with enthusiasm, hugged her close to him and then moved his head back.
    “Don’t misunderstand. I’d like to carry on kissing you for some time, but I’ve got pressing business,” he said. “You know those family photos and files that you saw in Jacqueline’s house? I need to look at them before she gets back, so I’ll need your key, please. It’s official—J-J’s on his way.”
    She took off her glasses. “Is this legal? Do you need a warrant or something?”
    “You’re the property owner. Did Jacqueline sign a lease?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Then it’s legal. Come on, we don’t have much time.”
    Pamela took a key from a row of hooks on the wall and led the way. “Can you tell me what this is about?”
    “I just found out that her mother’s maiden name is Bondino. There was a bitter family feud over the ownership ofthe vineyards, really bitter. So I need to see those files and photos. And since most of them will be in English I’ll need your help.”
    Jacqueline’s closed laptop was on the table, a row of her wine books lined up behind it. In a fat briefcase below the table Bruno found the files, all unmarked but full of material about the Bondino family and its company. In the first file were photographs of people, and on the back of each one was a penciled name. Several depicted the man he knew from magazine photos as Bondino’s father, the head of the company. Some showed him as a vigorous youth. In one photo he was holding a baby girl in the crook of his arm. On the back it said simply “FXB, Maman, 1957.” That would be Francis X. Bondino, Fernando’s father. Maman presumably would be Jacqueline’s mother.
    “This file is all about the Bondino company—business plans, accounts, revenue projections for this year and next year,” Pamela said, suddenly a model of brisk efficiency. “I wonder how she got hold of that? It’s all marked ‘confidential,’ though it looks pretty boring.”
    “Let me see,” said Bruno. The numbers and columns and charts meant nothing to him. He leafed back to the first page, which was headed by a short list of names. It was dated August 20, last month. How had she obtained something so recent? “What’s that say?” he asked, pointing to a phrase at the head of the list.
    “That says ‘Distribution Restricted,’ and it lists FXB and FXB Junior, and then two more sets of initials identified as those of the finance director and the sales director. I think that means they’re the only four people supposed to have this, so how did Jacqueline get it?”
    “I don’t know, but she was already in France by then so she must have obtained it here somehow, maybe from Bondino.”Bruno paused. “Can you think of some reason why he might give this confidential stuff to her?”
    “Maybe she just took it,” Pamela said. “Or maybe this was what she was after, here on the next page. It’s about Saint-Denis.”
    “What?” Bruno came to look over her shoulder. “What’s it say about Saint-Denis?”
    “It’s a report from the research station on drought-resistant vines, along with the photocopy of a bank transfer from Bondino to a company called Agricolae for 120,000 euros to finance the research here in Saint-Denis. There’s another bank transfer, 200,000 euros to a Paris company called Dupuy. The transfers are dated in July of this year.”
    “No wonder Bondino was angry about the research station crops being burned,” said Bruno.
    “How did Jacqueline get hold of all this? It’s like espionage. Do you think she told Max about Bondino and the research station?”
    “That’s a very good question. What’s in the next file?”
    It contained the details of a lawsuit,
Bondino v. Bondino
, that started in 1957 in California. Pamela sifted through the legal papers—affidavits, statements and notices of discovery—and came to a clipping from the
San Francisco Examiner
dated March 11, 1958. The headline read “Bondino Will Upheld,” and Pamela began giving a rough translation of the story.
    “It begins: ‘The elder son of deceased Napa Valley wine magnate Silvio Bondino lost his share of the multimillion-dollar inheritance when the district court ruled that a disputed will was valid.’ Shall I go on?”
    “No, this is familiar stuff. That battle over the will was where the feud began. It replaced an old will that