Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat

by Ginny Gold

  Kori nodded. “And from there you met Marty,” she offered as a segue to what she really wanted to know.

  “It’s hard not to meet people here.” Kori had to agree, but was glad she hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Joline before today. “The town’s so small. And with Marty and Karin right next door, they were my lifeline when I moved here and didn’t know anyone else.”

  “Did Karin help you get this place, then?” Kori asked.

  Joline shook her head, no. “Actually Marty did. He knew the owner who was selling and he negotiated a great deal for me.”

  So those toys outside weren’t hers. They’d probably belonged to the previous owner, Kori decided.

  “So that’s how you met?” Nora jumped in and asked.

  Joline nodded.

  “How would you describe the nature of your relationship?” Kori asked, trying to sound level and not like she was making any assumptions.

  The faraway look returned to Joline’s eyes and a smile formed on her lips. “I love him,” she whispered. Then her face suddenly changed to a hardened expression, her eyes growing dark. “But don’t write that. I would hate for Karin to know about us.”

  “What do you mean, ‘us’?” Kori asked.

  “He loved me too. He was going to leave Karin. I even have his divorce papers. But she didn’t know. And I wouldn’t want her to have any hard feelings toward her late husband. Or toward me, her current neighbor.”

  “Was there anyone you knew of who would want Marty dead?” Kori watched Joline closely and could see the wheels turning in her head.

  “There was one lady he talked about. I don’t remember her name, but she worked at Seeds ‘n More. You know, the place that let him go six months ago?”

  “He was fired?”

  Joline nodded. “I don’t know why though.”

  Nora asked Joline, “Her name wasn’t Ria Mayfield, was it?”

  “Yes! That was her. He didn’t like her. But I don’t know if there was anything bad enough between them that would make her want to kill him.”

  Kori looked at Nora, who looked back at Kori. If Nora was right, Ria didn’t have a mean streak in her body. And Doug certainly hadn’t seemed a reliable source to learn about Ria’s bad side. But if Nora had a suspicion now about Peter, maybe Ria had convinced him to do the dirty work.

  Kori returned to the jilted wife path. “You’re sure Karin didn’t know about the affair Marty was having with you?”

  Joline’s face paled. “Affair? Who said anything about an affair? We were in love. Affairs are for cheaters. You only cheat when you want to get even with your partner. But this wasn’t cheating. He was getting a divorce.” Joline’s voice kept rising in volume as her logic disappeared more with each sentence. She was clearly deluded into thinking that she wasn’t in the wrong and her relationship with Marty couldn’t have hurt anyone. “I think we’re done here,” she said with finality.

  Kori nodded and picked up her phone, turning off the voice recorder. She smiled and asked, “What about that photo?”

  “No,” Joline said and led them to the front door.

  Kori and Nora didn’t say anything until they were on the road and knew no one was following them. Then Kori said, “That certainly took a turn for the worse very quickly.”

  Nora laughed. “I could barely hold it together in there. What does she think that was with Marty if it wasn’t an affair? How old is she anyway? Eighteen? She has no concept of what a healthy relationship is.”

  Now Kori was laughing too. When she’d finally recovered herself and could form a coherent sentence she said, “What about Karin working for Growing Green? It sounds like she stopped freelancing for Growing Green about the same time Joline moved to Hermit Cove. Do you think those two things are linked? If Karin killed Marty because she’d found out about his affair or pending divorce filing, could Joline be in danger because of the relationship and if Joline had anything to do with Karin losing her job?”

  Nora shrugged. “Why wouldn’t she have just killed Joline? She sounds like she was at more fault. Why kill her husband?”

  “I don’t know. And if he was getting a divorce, why would Joline kill him?” Kori asked as they pulled into Nora’s driveway and the dogs ran toward the truck in greeting.

  “Maybe that wasn’t true. Or she didn’t really want to be with him but was using him for something.”

  “Sounds like we have plenty more questions to find answers to.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Kori sat down hard on the couch as soon as she got home. She was exhausted. And hadn’t planned a menu for Saturday so would have to do that in the morning. Would it be so terrible if she just didn’t open one day to give her a day off? Maybe on Monday, but not on a summer weekend. The Early Bird Café existed for mornings like tomorrow.

  Sitting there, letting her body completely relax, Kori’s mind continued to run in circles between what she and Nora were missing about Karin and Joline. Something wasn’t adding up.

  But she was spared the mental agony of going nowhere fast when her phone buzzed with a message. She unlocked it and smiled to herself when she saw that it was from Zach. That smile quickly turned to mild panic when she read the message: Downstairs with dinner. Come let me in?

  Kori had completely forgotten! She’d been so wrapped up in her afternoon pretending to be a reporter that she’d ignored the fact that she had a date tonight!

  Kori typed out a quite reply: Be right there. She then ran into the bathroom where she saw her reflection and cringed. But she didn’t have time to even pretend like she was going to fix her hair. She didn’t know what to do with it anyway. Wash it? That’d be a start. Oh well.

  She smoothed her hair down, changed her shirt and headed downstairs where Zach was waiting patiently on the sidewalk.

  “Hi,” she said, unable to hide her smile when she opened the door.

  He wrapped her in his arms, a paper bag with a delicious smell wafting out of it in his hand. “Hey. Thanks for letting me in.” He stepped back and Kori turned to go back inside to her apartment.

  “Of course.”

  “I was surprised the door was locked. Did you forget I was coming over?”

  Kori was glad her back was to him as she locked the door. She could feel the heat kiss her cheeks in a blush.

  “Of course not.”

  They walked up the narrow stairs, Kori conscious of how close their bodies were and her heartbeat sped up. Without turning to face him she asked, “What’d you bring? It smells delicious.”

  “Oh good. I wasn’t sure if you liked sushi.”

  A single laugh exploded from Kori’s chest and she threw a hand over her mouth. “I love sushi.”

  “Great. I brought all the ingredients but we still have to make it.”

  Kori had never made sushi but she was always up for trying new things and looked forward to a night of learning the ropes of a new dish. And of course next to Zach for dessert.

  ***

  Kori’s alarm went off far too early the next morning and she wasn’t nearly ready to get out of bed. Apparently Zach wasn’t ready either because he rolled over and wrapped his arms around her.

  But Ibis had different ideas. Sentenced to spend the night on her dog bed on the floor instead of her normal spot on the bed next to Kori, she now got up and stuck her nose in Kori’s face. “Okay, okay,” Kori whispered, gently removing Zach’s arms from around her. “You need to go out?”

  Kori didn’t have a choice but to get up, get dressed, leave a note for Zach and take Ibis for a quick walk up Main Street. By the time she was in the café, she was wide awake and Ibis went straight back to sleep.

  Once the coffee was percolating, Kori got to work in the kitchen. After another perfect night with Zach, she was feeling even more ambitious and adventurous. Immediately she put eggs and home fries and green smoothies on the menu. These would be the only regular things she made today, and they were easy to serve since they were both almost completely make-
as-she-went so wouldn’t end up with leftovers. She cut up plenty of potatoes, seasoned them and put them in the oven to start cooking right away.

  Then she started flipping through her binder of ideas she’d been compiling since opening The Early Bird Café. The first one that caught her eye was an apple braided bread. She’d never made it, and had never tasted it, but how could an apple-pie-like filling in a sweet bread be bad?

  Next she settled on a baked pumpkin oat loaf. But instead of a loaf, she’d spread it thinner in cake pans and offer it topped with a variety of nut butters or jams.

  Finally, French toast became the final item on the menu. But not just any French toast. There were still two loaves of fresh bread leftover from yesterday that hadn’t yet been touched. The frittata and Dutch baby had been crowd favorites and now she would use the bread for thick slices of French toast in a decadent buttermilk and egg batter, thicker and tastier than her usual one, fried in butter on the stove top. She had plenty of berries to add as toppings with maple syrup.

  Kori looked over the menu and her mouth immediately started watering. She loved coming up with exciting food options for her friends—and the strangers who ventured into the café—and today she thought she’d done exceptionally better than her average menu.

  Now Kori had to get to work. First she mixed together the baked pumpkin oat loaf—she quickly thawed frozen pumpkin puree from last year’s harvest at Red Clover Farm. When that was in the oven, she looked at the clock and panicked when she realized she only had a half hour until opening.

  Next was the apple braided loaf. She peeled and chopped apples, mixed them with cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and cloves, then tossed them to evenly coat and stuck them in the oven to start baking. Then she got to work on the loaf. She made a triple batch, hoping that this would be a favorite since she was so excited about making it. The dough was easy to make, and when it was a not-very-sticky consistency, she rolled it out flat and made slits on either side of the circle, leaving the middle completely intact.

  She pulled the softened apples from the oven and put a third of them in the center of the loaf and started folding the edge strips into the middle, making it look like a braid. She was pleased with her first loaf, but each successive loaf looked a little bit better.

  Just as she put the final loaf into the oven to bake for almost a half hour she looked at the clock again and had to go prop the door open. The loaf wouldn’t be ready until close to six, but customers could wait. She knew that those who came in early and ordered food were almost never in a hurry and enjoyed the slow pace of sitting and chatting with their friends.

  Finally, still alone in the café, she mixed together a sugary glaze to brush on the loaves as soon as they came out of the oven. As the loaves cooled, the glaze would harden and add a special excitement to each bite—a little extra sweetness.

  At quarter to six, her first customer entered. From behind her. Zach came quietly down the stairs and surprised her with a kiss on the cheek.

  “Good morning. I didn’t expect to see you for at least another hour. Don’t you have today off?” Kori asked, filling two mugs with coffee and handing one to him. She could tell he was thankful to add caffeine to his body. His eyes still looked drowsy.

  “I do. I’m letting everyone else work on the Marty Rivers case and I look forward to spending today doing nothing,” he told her between sips.

  “Oh, rub it in why don’t you.” Kori laughed.

  “Well, when you put it that way, why don’t I stay here and help you out?”

  Kori couldn’t hide her surprise. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be making an offer to an employee on Monday. I can wait until they start.”

  “I know I don’t have to. But I want to. I had a lot of fun cooking with you last night. I could do it again today.”

  “Trust me, making sushi with your girlfriend is not the same as cooking for an entire town.”

  Zach took an apron from a hook near the doorway to the dining area. “Well, I’ll be the judge of that. Where do you want me?”

  Kori went through a whole list of places she wanted him, and none were in the kitchen, before she answered. “If you’re not giving me a choice, then pull the baked pumpkin oat loaf out of the oven and let it cool over there.” She pointed to a stone slab on the counter that wouldn’t be damaged by a hot pan.

  With Kori’s first ever assistant in the kitchen, she relaxed just a bit as the wave of customers started. Betsy Scoop and Anita Price were two of the first customers and Kori walked Zach through taking orders since they were locals and would more easily put up with mistakes.

  Minutes later, Lani entered on the arm of Spencer Graff. Kori couldn’t help but wonder if Lani was trying to make it clear to Kori—or Jay—that she was already looking at someone new. She happily let Zach take their order on his own while she brushed the glaze onto the apple breads.

  As Zach got comfortable in his self-imposed new role, Kori settled into just cooking. There were plenty of egg, smoothie and French toast orders amidst those of apple bread and pumpkin oat loaf. She loved looking out to the dining area and seeing Zach chat with customers like she usually did.

  On one such glance at the tables, she saw Jay sitting with Jenna and Kyle Rhodes, not far from where Lani was still eating with Spencer. She said a silent prayer to the universe to let them not have a fight in her café.

  But she wasn’t so lucky. She heard it before she saw it; the sound of something splashing. By the time she’d come around to the dining area, Jay was on his feet and dripping with what she hoped was water. If Lani had thrown hot coffee at her brother, Kori might have to ban her for life.

  Lani was on her feet, facing Jay, when Kori reached their table. Without giving them a chance to have it out with each other in front of everyone, she grabbed them both by their elbows and pushed them into the kitchen. Everyone was happily eating again when she checked and she had no outstanding orders so she decided to play peacemaker.

  She started with an attack—not the best peacemaker. “What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed at Lani as Zach walked in. He didn’t say anything, but Kori supposed she couldn’t very well kick him out of the kitchen. She allowed him to stay, shooting him a warning glance that he was to do any crowd control with customers if needed.

  “What do I think I’m doing? What is your brother doing?” Lani shot back.

  Jay said, the most calm of all three of them, “I’m just eating breakfast. I don’t know what is going on. But ever since I ended things, all I’ve been hearing is that you’re taking your anger out on all of my family and friends.”

  “My anger? My anger?” Lani’s voice was rising and Kori needed her not to draw any more attention to this fight. Thankfully, Lani lowered her voice. “Jay, I was pregnant.”

  All eyes were on Lani as they stood there in silence, waiting for Jay to respond. Finally he asked, “Was?”

  Lani nodded. “Yes. Was. I lost it right after you broke up with me.”

  The silence stretched on until Kori couldn’t take it anymore. “Why don’t you two go upstairs and talk this out?” she offered.

  Lani shook her head. “There’s nothing to talk about.” Then she stormed out of the kitchen and back to her table with Spencer.

  Zach was next to leave, making the rounds with coffee refills and to take any additional orders. Which left Jay and Kori alone in the kitchen.

  “What are you going to do to make this right?” Kori asked. She didn’t want Lani holding anything against anyone, least of all herself.

  Jay shrugged. Kori knew words weren’t his strong point, making it almost impossible for him to deal with any type of confrontation without shutting down. “Wait it out. Maybe she’ll move. She’s not from here.”

  “Good plan,” Kori said snidely at him.

  “I’ll let you know if I come up with something better,” he said and turned to leave the kitchen.

  Kori was relieved when Lani finally left, and gave a generous tip. The
rest of the morning went smoothly and Kori enjoyed a leisurely lunch with Zach when they were finished working.

  “If you ever decide to give up law enforcement, you can have a job here,” she said, sitting across from him at a table. She was having eggs and the last of the home fries and a small piece of apple bread. She’d made Zach French toast with plenty of fruit and syrup. They were splitting a green smoothie.

  “I’m not sure I could keep up.”

  Kori laughed. “Harder than it looks, huh?”

  “You have a way of making it look easy.”

  When Zach left to take a nap—Kori was jealous—she cleaned up some of the kitchen and then brought Ibis over to Nora’s. But her truck was nowhere to be seen, unusual for a Saturday afternoon, a time she almost always used to get a head start on the coming week.

  CHAPTER 13

  Kori let herself into Nora’s house where the dogs came bounding down the stairs and charged outside before the door was closed. Kori glanced behind her and watched as Ibis joined them in their usual games. She started poking around the house to see if she could figure out where Nora had gone.

  On the kitchen table, Kori found Nora’s laptop and moved the mouse to see if it was awake. The login screen came up and Kori entered the password. Nora was the worst at creating passwords and Kori knew it would the same as all of her others—Clover. Kori assumed that if Nora ever had kids, the first one would be named Clover, regardless of its gender.

  Once logged in, Kori opened Nora’s email to see if she had any appointments this afternoon. It was unlikely but not impossible.

  Before she even opened the calendar, Kori heard Nora’s clunker of a truck drive in and park. She closed the computer and headed out front.

  Nora stepped down from the driver’s seat and said, “I thought I might find you here when I got home.”