Bottle Kill Ch. 03

As the top three were being announced, the Sheriff came up to us. "Great job, Sheriff!" I said as I vigorously shook his hand.

"Aw, I didn't win." he said.

"You were just pronounced the fourth best whiskey taster in the world, Sheriff." I said. "That ain't too damn bad, either here or in the Klingon Empire."

"Har!" barked the Sheriff. "Well, the good news is that I can participate next year, and I can work on my game. I had no idea what that Barrell Seagrass Rye was, but that sample in the flight was damn good!"

"When you're working on the Wilderness Trail Rye," I said, "I'll be happy to take one for the team and help you study..."

Part 22 - Epilogue

3:00pm, Sunday, February 14th. I did not attend the WWTC 'Ballroom Blitz' the night before, which marked the culmination of the week of the Whiskey Convention. The Sheriff did, and it is possible he was all but carried out of the dining room.

Adriana and Nick came with Julia to my office at Headquarters to make their goodbyes. Teresa and I wished them well, and I said I hoped the South Carolina women's basketball team would translate their No.1 ranking into a national title.

"Go Gamecocks!" Adriana replied.

"War Eagle!" Teresa fired back... Auburn somehow had the #1 men's basketball team at the moment.

After they left, Teresa asked "What are you doing for St. Valentine's Day?"

"The Chop House is doing their yearly Valentine's Dinner. Reservations only." I said. "And Laura made the reservation before I was able to. You'd think she doesn't trust me to act in time."

"I don't blame her for making sure." Teresa replied. "They have delicious steaks there. And their Valentines dinners are the stuff of legend in this County."

"True." I said. "So... what are you and Todd doing?"

"Todd and the boys are cooking me dinner." Teresa said, her voice connoting... concern at the unknown. "I'm sure it will be... a disaster."

"It's the thought that counts." I said.

"It will be done with love, I'm sure." Teresa said, anything but sure. Then she became thoughtful.

"Penny for 'em." I said.

Teresa said "I was just thinking about the Boone case. Tiffany Westgate thought Mary Carson was her friend, and left her all that money. And Mary turned to the Dark Side, and ensnared Peter and Mike in her web. And Marty... what must it have been like to go twenty years so full of anger, bitterness... hate. Like my father..."

"No." I said. "Despite his last words to you on the night of Alexis's death, your father did not hate you... not like that."

Teresa wasn't ready to concede the point, so she said "Well, if you ever need to explain to anyone why I gave that hundred million to the Hospital, you can just reference what it did to Mary Carson, and the others. I'm glad I did it; children are already being helped, and like the Lord's Prayer says, it's not leading us into temptation... not me, anyway. I think I'm much happier without it. I'd rather have Todd, the boys... and disasters at dinner."

I laughed out loud. "I hear ya. And yes... a hundred million dollars makes men do evil things... including smashing a perfectly good bottle of Rye whiskey. Okay, what say we go on home and be with our families?" Teresa did not have to be asked twice, and we left.

As I drove home, I contemplated what Teresa had said. Yes, there was a lot of evil out there, people who did not care about others and would do evil things to others to feed their avarice for money.

And then there were good people. People who raised money for good causes, who helped others who needed help. People like Adriana, and Dan and Julie Love, good, generous people. People who made up the WhiskeyTube Community. Good people.

Thank God for 'em.

Finis.

(Author's note: The above chess game is really Kasparov-Karpov, 1990 World Championship (game 16), and it is the game that caused your author to adopt the Scotch Game as my own opening with the White pieces.)