Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 01 - Rise and Die (7 page)

Kori considered going straight downstairs to give the postcard to Zach. She knew she could trust him but he didn’t want her involved in this case. Well, involved as an investigator. She was already involved as a suspect.

Instead, she checked that her doors were locked and that she could see Zach’s patrol car on the street. Then she went to bed, hoping to get at least a few hours of sleep before she had to be downstairs preparing for Thursday’s breakfast.

Thursday’s breakfast! She hadn’t even thought for a second what she would make. That only woke her up more. She had to force herself not to go downstairs and start planning her menu. Instead, she lay in bed and tried to completely clear her mind of everything that was going on.

S
he was surprised when she woke to her alarm feeling well rested at four o’clock. But as soon as her feet touched the floor, she remembered what had kept her awake and worrying last night.

You know too much.

What did she even know? That Tessa was dead and someone was trying to frame her? That was only her suspicion. She didn’t
know
that was what was happening.

She didn’t know
why
Tessa had been murdered.

She didn’t know why Tessa had even moved to Hermit Cove.

Then it hit her: Tessa had been running from someone or something. Before Tessa had turned über competitive, Kori had told her about Hermit Cove. Tessa had been more than a little interested. She’d asked questions that Kori hadn’t considered at the time, but now that she put everything into context it all made sense.

Tessa had asked about career paths and the economy; normal questions if you were thinking of moving somewhere. But then she’d asked about banks and drugs and crime.

After graduating from culinary school, Tessa’d only moved to New York to keep Kori close. Her plan had always been to move to Hermit Cove, Kori was now sure of that.

But who had sent the postcard? Was it a warning? Would Kori be the next target? Could it be Dylan?

Kori threw on clean jeans and a t-shirt and headed downstairs. She’d promised Zach coffee, so she got that started. She was already buzzing from the path her brain had taken since she’d woken up but she knew she’d need a cup later.

She finally made it into the kitchen and was once again reminded of yesterday afternoon’s activities. The kitchen was put away
but it would take days to replace lost inventory and get things where they really belonged. She didn’t have time for that this morning.

Inside the walk
-in freezer, she pulled out muffins that she’d made when fruits were in season. She had apple cinnamon with and without walnuts, strawberry, and blueberry. She turned on the oven to defrost them and she would offer them as part of her menu this morning.

There were plenty of eggs now that she had restocked, so she considered her options and decided on a limited number of popovers and eggs any way with toast and a side of fruit salad. She knew she needed to keep things simple if she was going to let her mind continue to run away. Finally, she’d offer banana pancakes and cinnamon French toast—two staples.

When the menus were all written on their blackboards, she checked the muffins and took out a blueberry one to defrost faster in the microwave. Then she filled a mug with coffee and brought them both outside to Zach.

“Morning,” she said when he rolled down his window and put his seat back into the seated position.

“You look well rested,” Zach teased her.

She couldn’t help but smile. “I brought you breakfast. I hope you like blueberry muffins.”

“They’re my favorite. Thanks.”

“Anything happen while I was sleeping?”

“Nope.” Zach took a bite of the muffin and Kori could see him enjoy it immediately.

“Well, I have something for you.” Kori handed him the postcard.

Zach studied the front, then put his coffee and muffin down to turn it over and read it. “You know too much? Who is this from?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I saw it last night after I got home. Do you think it’s connected to Tessa’s murder?”

“That’s my first thought. What
do
you know that you’re not telling me?” His tone was friendly but the question immediately put Kori on the defense.

“Nothing. Everything I know I told you yesterday.”

“But you’ve known Tessa for a while.”

“Yes.”

“And you would know her colleagues and acquaintances in New York.”

“Not really. We never worked at the same place
but we were always in the same food space.”

“I think it’s time you and I talked more about her past,” Zach said. “There are probably missing pieces for both of us and together it could make more sense.”

“Can it wait until I close for the day? And does Detective Gunn have to be there?”

“It can wait. And yes, he’ll be there. I’ll set some strict rules, don’t worry.”

“Do you at least want to come inside and shower?” Kori offered, relaxing again knowing Zach was fully on her side, whatever side that was.

Zach shook his head. “This coffee is all I need to get me going. Thanks.”

“One last question, Zach. Do you think it’s someone local or from out of town?” Kori asked.

“We have suspects in both of those categories. Tessa hasn’t made
many friends since moving here and it sounds like plenty of enemies. But there are a lot of holes in what we know about her life in New York. So talking with you this afternoon should help narrow that list down.”

Kori turned and headed back to her café and turned the sign around to open when she walked inside. Much to her delight, Jenna was the first person to enter
only moments later. After Nora’s information about Jenna’s behavior, Kori wanted to see if she could get anything else out of her.

“Morning Jenna.
Your regular?”

“Hi Kori. Yeah. Thanks.”

“How’s it going? I haven’t seen you since Monday. Busy with kids this week?” Kori asked, starting the conversation off light as she got her coffee ready and Jenna read over the menu.

“I actually
had to take Tuesday off with the murder right next door. It didn’t feel right having kids next to a crime scene.”

Kori was surprised how relaxed Jenna was. She’d been expecting her to be withholding and standoffish. But she was just the opposite.

“Makes sense. How did families take it? They must depend on you.”

“Yeah, I was worried about that too. But it was okay. I offered them each a free night of babysitting in the future.”

“That seems like a fair trade.”

“Honestly, I just needed a day off too. I wish I had someone working for me, or a sub I could call once in a while.”

Kori could relate perfectly. “I hear you. This week I’ve been thinking the same thing. Hey, you didn’t hear anything when Tessa was killed, did you?”

“Thankfully no. But I did see a car with New York plates at her café on Monday. I never saw the driver
and haven’t seen the car since. But that was the first thing that crossed my mind. It must have been someone from her past.”

“Her ex-husband is in town. He’s from New York. It could have been his car,” Kori suggested. Everything Jenna was offering seemed legit and like she didn’t know enough to be guilty. Kori also didn’t think she was hiding anything, like Nora had suspected.

“I’ve seen a second car from New York since Tuesday when she died but not the same one. This one that’s in town now is white. The one I saw on Monday was red.”

“What kind of car, do you remember?” This could be the information Kori needed to help Zach find the murderer before Detective Gunn put Kori behind bars.

Jenna shook her head. “Some fancy thing that’s never in Hermit Cove. Not even tourists drive that kind of car. We usually get a lot of SUVs or family type cars, you know? This was a Jaguar or Mercedes or BMW. Something that stuck out like a sore thumb.”

“You know what you want yet?” Kori asked, changing the subject but making a mental note to remember Jenna’s description.

“Yeah. Just a blueberry muffin. You toasting them?”

“I can. Butter on it?”

“Lots. Thanks.”

Kori got to work in the kitchen
buttering the griddle and cutting the muffin in half. She was suddenly hungry herself and realized she hadn’t eaten anything since she’d gotten up. She grabbed a strawberry muffin from the warm oven and added hers to the hot griddle as well.

“Rumor has it that you’re involved in this somehow,” Jenna said, shocking Kori into speechlessness and making her turn around to face her. Jenna was clearly studying Kori’s reaction to the accusation.

“What makes you say that?” Kori asked as calmly as she could.

“Well, of anyone in town, I probably saw the most of Tessa. She didn’t have good things to say about you. She thought you were out to get her.”

Kori laughed but she could hear the falseness of it as it left her mouth. “I didn’t know you two were close. She’d only been here a couple weeks.”

“I wouldn’t say
close
but given the proximity of my home business to her café, we bumped into each other pretty regularly. Mostly just small talk but hers seemed to center around you and your past relationship with her at school and in New York.”

Kori was flabbergasted. She’d had no idea that Tessa had been talking about her behind her back. She would have confronted her and attacked the problem head on
but now she had to live with whatever stories had been tossed around. And they had to be stories. Kori couldn’t think of a single time that she’d been anything but civil to Tessa.

“I can’t say we were close friends
but I never thought of us as enemies,” Kori told Jenna.

“Well, I just thought you should know. Thanks for the muffin,” Jenna said as Kori placed it in front of her.

Then Kori dug into her own breakfast and tried her best not to look at Jenna again. She was lucky that more customers started coming in only minutes later.

At eleven thirty, there was an unusual lull in business. Kori usually worked straight
through without a single break. So after looking up Betsy’s payment time on Tuesday—seven twenty three, which would have put her in The Early Bird
after
Tessa’s murder—she got to sit down. She didn’t expect the break to last but when no one came in for a half hour, she decided she should go outside and see why.

To her horror, a second police car was parked right in front of her door. And Detective Gunn was sitting inside. He definitely had something out for her.

“Ms. Cooke, what a surprise. I thought you’d be busy with customers,” Detective Gunn said, getting out of his car.

“I haven’t had any customers for the last half hour. Can you tell me why you’re turning them away from my business when I’m not doing anything wrong?” Kori had to do everything to try to control herself.

“Since your friend Lieutenant Gulch over there decided to keep you out of jail even though you’re our prime suspect, it didn’t seem right that you were profiting while you should have been sitting in a jail cell. So I’ve just been evening the score a little.”

Evening the score? What score? And with whom? With Detective Gunn?
Her mind reeled with questions but she kept her mouth shut.

Kori decided it’d be best to ignore him. She walked back inside, turned the sign to
closed and headed upstairs to shower. She’d just be done for the day. She’d already been able to clean everything up to her satisfaction in her down time, so she considered her options.

She knew she had to talk to Zach
but a call to Nora first wouldn’t hurt. She wanted to update her on the postcard, her conversation with Jenna and that Betsy was likely not in The Early Bird when Tessa was killed.

“Kori, are you okay?” Nora asked after only one ring. It usually took her at least three rings to get her hands clean enough to answer her phone.

“I’m fine. Annoyed but fine. Why?” Kori asked, confused.

“I just got back from Hermit Cove Market and I saw two police cars outside The Early Bird. I know Zach had to be there
but why the second one?”

“Oh. That’s it? You sounded a lot more worried. That was just Detective Gunn trying to shut me down because he thinks I should be in jail so shouldn’t be making any money.”

“What a jerk. I’m glad you’re still home then. You
are
home, aren’t you? I don’t have to come bail you out, do I?”

Kori chuckled. This was all getting so ridiculous. Never in her life had she been arrested until this week
and now Nora thought she might have been arrested again. “Yeah, I’m home. I closed early because Detective Gunn was killing the vibe. And I wanted to tell you what I got in the mail last night and what Jenna told me this morning and where Betsy wasn’t during Tessa’s murder.”

“Great. I’m sitting. Go.”

Kori caught Nora up on all of the sleuthing she’d done that morning, including Jenna’s suspicion of Kori’s guilt. That only sent Nora into a rant about small town gossip and how we should all be on the same side. Never mind innocent until proven guilty.