Losing Jack

chapter 3

CHAPTER 3
The next day didn't improve for Sandy. Still upset over her run in with Beth, she headed straight for the office. There was paperwork to be done before she started a long day's work in the shed, calibrating the spray units.

Sandy was greeted at the shed by Muldoon; she rolled her eyes at the thought of having to put up with him. He was not a nice man. There had always been bad blood in the past between Muldoon and the Harpers, because he had always been looking to get his hands on Whispering Vines.

Sandy had never had to deal with him one on one before. Muldoon had always dealt with Daniel, and then pestered Jude, even though he knew Sandy was in charge.

Jude had warned her that it was an intimidation tactic and to watch out for him. She said he was like a snake in the grass, waiting for the first opportunity he got to strike his unsuspecting victim and fill them with his venom.

Muldoon stood with his hands on his hips as Sandy stepped up beside him. Looking at him distastefully, Sandy dared him to give her a reason to kick him off her property, the sooner the better.

"Miss," he nodded, looking at her through bifocals, which were so old the glass had taken on a yellow tinge and looked as old and grubby as the rest of him.
"Muldoon, what can I do for you?" Asked Sandy impatiently.
"Nothing, nothing at all, I didn't get the chance yesterday, so I simply dropped in on my way to an auction, to offer my most sincere condolences on the loss of your... err, loved one."

"Thanks," said Sandy still watching him like a snake ready to strike at any second.

Muldoon may have been a dirty old looking man, but it was no secret that he was filthy rich and was always off to land auctions, foreclosures and clearance sales in the area.

"Well if that's all Muldoon, I won't hold you up here, I'm sure you have better things to be doing, like profiting from the misfortune of others."

He stood there for a moment with an amused look on his face, then turned on his heel as if he were on his way back to his car, then stopped and turned back to Sandy. Glancing and gesturing at his watch he said, "It seems as though your crew may be a little tardy, something you may want to address with them?"

As a matter of fact it's a rostered day off, not that it is any of your concern sir." snapped Sandy defensively.
"Intriguing," smirked Muldoon, "well since you are on your own now, feel free to give me a call if you need some advice...or you find yourself in any financial troubles. Just think of me as good old Uncle M, he said and winked.

Her skin crawling at the thought, she cut him off before he could continue his speech, "I don't want or need anything from you Muldoon, your car is that way, thank you for visiting, but don't come back in a hurry."
"Nothing beats a little country hospitality, I enjoyed our chat, said Muldoon evenly.
"You're welcome," snarled Sandy fumbling for the right keys to open the shed.
Her temper was rising to boiling point; she had to get away from him before she said or did something really stupid.

Muldoon made his way to his car, muttering under his breath "rude little bitch," opened up the door and took something off of his dashboard, then slapped his head in a gesture that he was remembering something and walked back to Sandy.
"The mailman was dropping off your letters when I arrived, he asked me if I might bring them to you," he said holding up a single small envelope for her to see.

Sandy snatched the letter impolitely from his hands as she did he said, "looks like one from the bank, hope it's nothing too troublesome." before walking off quickly and leaping into his car looking quite satisfied with himself.

Sandy watched him disappear in a cloud of orange dust down the driveway and turned to the shed door and kicked it hard, Jesus Christ she hated that old jerk.

Letting herself into the shed she began to worry. Things were tough at the vineyard. Last harvest had been a bad one, they should have had a bumper crop - everything was going perfectly. They had half the crop off when a cold front with frosts come out of nowhere. The grapes froze and split, before they could harvest them.

She shook her head. It broke her heart looking at all those wasted rows of grapes. The loss had cost them too, she guessed they were down about $1 million from their projected income and things were just snowballing from there.

Sitting at her desk she pulled out her expenses folder. Because they were short on money they had to cut operating costs everywhere, but cutting corners she reminded herself, was always a risk. They had taken another blow last month at pruning time.

Instead of getting the spur pruner, which was large and expensive to hire, but did 80% of the work, she had decided to cut that as a cost. It saved them a lot in the short term but it was bad idea. They had to pay more money per vine to the contract crew, and only just finished in time for the vines to start reshooting. The whole fiasco had ended up costing extra money and time they didn't have to spare.

So now she had cut costs by sending the permanent crew on annual holidays, leaving just her and the vineyard supervisor Rick to work the whole place.

Rick lived on site at the vineyard, not far away from where she had moved to after her fight with Beth. Even when he was supposed to take annual leave, he never did.

She sighed, having no staff was a problem too, that meant everything had to be juggled between her and Rick. They would have to pick up the slack now they were down 4 permanent crew members. Somehow they still needed to do maintenance, calibrate, get the pesticides applied as well as sulphur sprayed on the vines before the end of the week, which meant hours and hours of time in the tractor.

As if that wasn't enough she still had Beth and Jack to juggle. Remembering the envelope from the bank Muldoon had given her she opened it up. She knew she wouldn't find puppy dogs and rainbows in there, with a sigh she read the contents.
"Could things get any worse?" she said picking up the phone.

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