In Vino Veritas by J. M. Gregson

which rarely left the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet and insisted upon a celebratory toast with his old colleague and friend. ‘I never doubted you could do it intellectually, Bert. I just wondered whether your resolution would hold, with the crazy hours we sometimes work and a family growing up around you.’
    â€˜The boys have been a stimulus really, I suppose,’ said Bert. ‘Once I’d started, I could hardly give up, in the face of all their comments. And of course, Eleanor’s been marvellous. I couldn’t have done it without her looking after the kids for long hours on her own, as well as encouraging me whenever it seemed too high a cliff to scale. I expect it’s Eleanor who’s blown the gaff on me now. I didn’t expect to come into a station which was throbbing with the news.’
    â€˜You can blame me for that. I’m the one who told Chris to put it in the station information bulletin. The grapevine then relays it pretty quickly, especially on a quiet Monday like this. You might as well bask in a little glory whilst it’s there to be had. You know it will be the centre of gossip for about two days, until something more salacious like an officer’s divorce takes over.’
    â€˜I suppose I have Eleanor to thank for you knowing about it.’
    â€˜Christine asked her outright over the weekend. You know what wives are like. You wouldn’t have wanted Eleanor to lie, would you?’
    â€˜I suppose not. And as you say, it’s probably better to get all the jokes out of the way at once. It won’t last.’
    â€˜We could do with a good juicy murder to get everyone’s attention back on the things that matter. Not that one wishes ill upon any of the honest citizens who pay our wages, of course.’ Despite this routine denial, both of them felt the familiar CID men’s lust for a crime that would fully occupy their predatory minds.
    On the Thursday of that week, Sarah Vaughan had an attentive audience and was riding upon the adrenalin which came from it. These people were enthusiasts for wine and the work of producing it, anxious to hear what she had to say about the short history of the industry here and the grapes which had been most successful.
    This was the second tour she had led this week and probably about her sixteenth during the year. She was confident enough now to take the pulse of an audience. She no longer spoke too quickly in her nervousness, as she was sure she had done when she had begun this work. She hadn’t watched her audience’s faces as she spoke in those early days. Now she not only smiled back in response to their friendliness, but even made the odd joke which she knew had succeeded before. The trick was to make the joke seem spontaneous, not carefully calculated or rehearsed.
    There were a lot of questions at the end of the tour, which she took to be a sign of its success. When she was answering questions about the new reds, she let it drop that they had high hopes of the grape in question and that they were taking a low mark-up on last year’s vintage to get the brand established. Two bargain-conscious wine-fanciers among her audience promptly went into the shop and bought cases of red, under the approving eye of Gerry Davies.
    It was four thirty when she finished the tour. As usual, she found herself quite tired once the audience had gone and she was alone in her small office. There was a lot of nervous tension involved in being on show before a live audience. She was learning to enjoy the tension, to relish the need to be on her toes in the face of a constantly changing clientele, but it was tiring nonetheless. She had done practice presentations years ago as part of her Business Studies degree, but it was not until this last year that she had undertaken the real thing. It gave her a kick to find that she was reasonably proficient as a communicator, and getting better with practice. She smiled to