Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat (6 page)

Kori woke up smiling the next morning. Her alarm was going off, but she kept her eyes closed, relishing in the last few moments of the dream she was enjoying about Zach. Once reality hit, her smile didn’t disappear because she remembered he was coming over tonight. And bringing dinner.

But she had a whole day to get through before then. Starting with making sure Ibis got a walk before Kori had to start cooking breakfast.

The street was its normal early morning quiet, but when they reached the café to start their day, Kori was surprised to see a man standing outside like he was waiting for something. Maybe for Kori. He wasn’t facing them and she took a moment to study his back to see if she could place him from anywhere.

“Can I help you?” she finally asked once she decided she didn’t know who he was.

The man turned around and Kori was dumbstruck. “Hi Kori. I wanted to stop by to see if you needed any help this morning,” Doug Waters said, a smile on his face.

Kori took a moment before responding, composing the shock she felt at the audacity of his intrusion. “Actually, I’m good, thanks.”

Before she could continue, he interrupted, “I mean, you’re looking to hire someone, so there must be enough work for two people. I’d just like to show you that I’m serious about working for you and that I’d make a great partner to work with.”

Partner?
Who said anything about a partner?
Kori certainly wasn’t willing to bring on a partner for the café she’d started from scratch.

“I’ve planned to work alone for at least another week. So thanks for your offer, but really, I’ll be fine. You’re welcome to come back anytime after five thirty to have breakfast. I don’t think I’ve ever served you food, so that would be your best opportunity to see what kind of things I serve.” She stressed the I, making it clear that this was her pride and joy.

Doug nodded. “I see.” Without any other explanation, he walked past her, nearly bumping her with his shoulder.

Maybe I won’t even contact him to find out about
Ria Mayfield. He seems crazy,
she thought as she unlocked the door and ushered Ibis inside.
So his description of Ria being tough to work for can’t be too reliable.

Kori got straight to work, starting with the bread. She took the dough out of the fridge and shaped them into tight balls that she would then bake. She immediately got the ovens preheated and placed the Dutch ovens inside to preheat.

Then she set to work on the frittatas. Potatoes were first. She sliced them thin and placed them on a baking sheet to roast with oil, salt and fresh garlic. Then she sliced plenty of onions and mushrooms and placed them on a second baking sheet with more oil and garlic. Those went into the oven for twenty minutes, just long enough to get the Dutch ovens preheated and then she could stick the bread in to bake.

Next she moved on to the Dutch babies. She decided to make two: one gluten free and one gluten full. She’d have to
be extra careful again today to not mix up the two.

Finally, she spooned out some overnight oats
into a bowl, added some toppings of coconut and almonds and got some coffee going so it’d be ready as soon as she opened—in fifteen minutes. Every morning she was surprised how quickly the time flew by between getting into the café and having to open for business. She sat down at a table facing the front door and ate her breakfast slowly.

As she ate, she thought about the little she knew about Marty Rivers. Karin certainly seemed to have the most motive. But she was still the only person she and Nora had spoken to. And there were still two unanswered questions she had about Karin. Was she able to move a body? And did she even have access to a gun? Never mind the third question that popped into her daydreaming: How would she have known to dump his body in Nora’s grain delivery?

Kori didn’t have a chance to come up with any possible answers, as she noticed the clock said five thirty-one. She propped the door open to get a breeze going before it got too hot from the summer heat and headed to the kitchen to place her bowl in the dishwasher. She checked the bread, Dutch babies and frittatas and saw that they were all close to being done but not quite there yet. If her first customers came in right now, the food would be perfectly steaming hot and fresh from the oven for them by the time they decided what to order.

Kori did one last check around her kitchen to make sure everything was in place and realized she’d completely forgotten the smoothies! She headed to the walk-in fridge and brought out milk, juice, yogurt and greens. Today’s were kale and
swiss chard. She was running low on spinach. Then she headed to the freezer and brought out a variety of berries. She placed these around the blender and jars she pulled down from shelves and added bananas to the mix.

And it was perfect timing. She heard the first voices chattering away as they entered the café and Kori left the kitchen to greet them. She was surprised to see Zach and
Lani laughing together and heading toward a booth. Kori couldn’t figure how to react—she was happy to see Zach, but her initial insecurities of him being possibly interested in Lani came rushing back knowing she was once again single and was the same beautiful bombshell she’d been since Kori had met her. And this was the first time Kori had seen Lani since Jay had broken up with her. From what she’d heard, Lani had taken it pretty hard.

Kori took a deep breath and came out the rest of the way from the kitchen and headed toward their table. “Hi Zach, Detective Silver,” Kori said, choosing a more formal greeting for
Lani now that they probably weren’t on such familiar terms.

“Hi Kori. How’s it going?” Zach asked, his words coming out between his smile that did nothing to calm Kori’s questioning heart. Was that smile
because he was eating with Lani or was it because Kori was there?

“Great. What can I get you both started with?” Kori asked, risking a glance in
Lani’s direction. She saw that Lani was intently studying the menu on the wall, careful to not look in Kori’s direction. And her expression was the complete opposite of Zach’s—cold, hard and uninviting. Her lips were a barely visible line on her face, pressed together so tightly Kori wondered when her age lines would start showing up.

Oh boy
, Kori thought to herself.
What else did Jay do that he’s not telling me about?

“I’ll have the frittata. And a coffee,” Zach ordered. Then they both turned to look at
Lani. Kori waited patiently, an easy task since no one else was in the café yet.

Finally,
Lani ordered, still looking at the menu. “I’ll have toast and a smoothie with mango, Swiss chard and blueberries. And soy milk. No coffee.”

“No coffee?” Kori could hear the teasing in Zach’s voice and she cringed. She should have been on the receiving end of that. “I can’t imagine you without caffeine.”

Lani’s only response was a facetious smirk.

Kori hightailed it back to the kitchen, hoping their conversation wouldn’t turn into a lover’s quarrel. She put the smoothie ingredients into a jar, screwed it onto the blender and turned it on high. It took only seconds to
smooth out all of the frozen chunks.

Then she headed to the oven where she pulled out the bread and frittata. She had to wait a few minutes before slicing the bread for toast, so she brought the smoothie and a French press with Zach’s favorite—Ethiopian coffee—to their table.

As she approached, she heard Zach reprimanding Lani. “I don’t care
what
her brother did to you. You don’t want to share the details? Fine. But you may
not
take out your frustrations with him on my girlfriend. At least not when we’re working together. When you’re alone, do whatever you want. But this is a business breakfast and you will act professional.”

Kori slowed so they wouldn’t know she’d overheard them and watched
Lani look at her hands. Clearly, something else was going on that no one knew about but Lani and Jay.

When it was clear that Zach was finished, Kori approached and placed the drinks on the table. “The frittata and toast will be ready in a few minutes. Sorry for the wait.” Then she left to get everything else ready.

Just then there were more voices coming through the front door and Kori was spared any future opportunity of being the target of Lani’s anger. Vera Joy, owner of Furry Friends, entered with Mel Styles, owner of The Treasure Chest consignment shop. They were followed by a curious looking elderly couple, likely in town for the weekend. Maybe they’d spent summers in Hermit cove when they were younger, hiking and boating on and around Thrush Lake, and they were making a pilgrimage back. Or maybe they were just passing through. Kori always wondered what the stories were of those she didn’t know. But she rarely got a chance to ask.

Doug never did come in to try the food he’d never be making or serving. Kori was thankful about that.
She mentally scratched him off the potential new employee list. She didn’t want to have to get him to back off in front of other customers.

With just minutes to go until one o’clock and closing time, Nora walked through the door and straight back into the kitchen where Kori was starting to clean up. There were only a few customers left who were finishing their late brunches, though today’s menu could easily pass for a lunch, and Kori had already turned the sign to closed but left the door open. She was sure no one else would come in, so she was surprised to see Nora when she turned around.

Kori jumped in surprise. “Sorry to scare you. But we have to take another look at Peter Jones, the driver. I think he might be closer to this than we originally thought.”

Kori handed Nora a stack of clean plates to put away. If she was going to interrupt Kori’s work, she was going to be put to work.

“What makes you say that?” Kori asked, bending down to pull out more clean dishes from the dishwasher. Nora had come in with a whirlwind of energy, but Kori hadn’t caught up yet and was still calm.

Nora placed the plates on a shelf above the counter. Not where Kori would have put them but they’d do
for now. “He came by today, saying he was in the area and just wanted to stop in to make sure everything had been okay with the delivery since I’d called him the other day about more. And he was poking his head
everywhere
. Like, into the greenhouses and around the barn, into every crevice. Like he thought I was hiding something. It just gave me a bad feeling. Like he knew there’d been a body in my barn. But he hadn’t been contacted by the police so thought I was covering it up or something.”

Kori thought Nora was digging for reasons to check people out. “We can definitely talk to him, but I thought you were sure it wasn’t him.”

“I
was
sure, but now I’m not.”

Kori closed the now empty dishwasher and glanced out to the dining area. She saw that no one was eating anymore so she motioned for Nora to stay in the kitchen and then walked around to the last few diners bringing their bills and accepting their credit cards. She made sure she rang up the correct bill on the correct card and returned them to their owners, then
unpropped the front door to be sure no one else came in and finally returned to Nora.

“What about Marty’s girlfriend. Did you find out who that was?” Kori asked, trying to get back onto the track they’d planned to go down this afternoon.

“Actually yes. Joline Richards.” Nora looked pleased with herself, arms crossed in front of her chest.

Kori started walking back out to the dining area. “Come help me clean up and tell me how you figured out who she was.”

Nora did as instructed and they both headed to different tables covered with cutlery and dirty plates. “I called Karin. We know she knew about the girlfriend. So I told her I was Julie Fellows, calling about the life insurance, and saw that there was a second beneficiary, another woman. I didn’t even have to tell her the name or ask if she was related. Karin told me everything I had to know. It was too easy. Joline Richards. But she corrected me and told me she wasn’t a beneficiary. Oops, my mistake, I told her.”

Kori had to admit that she was impressed. She hadn’t had time to come up with a plan to get in touch with the girlfriend and had considered simply asking Zach. She hated going behind his back to find out who killed Marty Rivers, but with the murder so close to her best friend, she couldn’t help but follow a trail laid out in front of her.

“Great. Know where she lives?”

“She’s Karin’s neighbor,” Nora said over her shoulder as she headed back into the kitchen with a heaping pile of plates. “I’ll drive so Karin won’t see your car and wonder if something’s up.”

“Sounds good, but first I have to interview my last potential employee.”

“Shoot. I forgot about that. Why don’t I take Ibis back to my house to get her outside and then you can meet me there when you’re done.”

Kori joined Nora in the kitchen and they filled another load of dishes into the dishwasher. “Perfect. Thanks.”

Nora headed for the front door and called Ibis, who had no qualms about leaving the confines of Kori’s office for a romp at Nora’s house.

And that left Kori alone for a few minutes before Allen was scheduled to arrive at one thirty. She took that time to eat some toast with fresh jam and drink a liter of water. It had been another one of those days where she didn’t even realize how hungry, thirsty or tired she was until she sat down with lunch.

At exactly one thirty, a knock came on the front door and Kori had forgotten she’d even locked it after Nora had left. Without Ibis around to protect her
if she had an unexpected visitor—which had never happened—she’d felt safer with a locked door. She’d been warned off a murder investigation once by the killer, she didn’t want to take any chances this time.

But it was only Allen Murphy arriving promptly for his interview. Kori opened the door and welcomed him into the café.
He immediately gave off the complete opposite air than Doug had yesterday. Where Doug was abrasive and overpowering, Allen was submissive and passive. She liked him right away.

Kori stuck her hand out and he eagerly shook it. “Allen, thanks for coming in this afternoon.”

“Thanks for having me, Ms. Cooke.” He offered a hesitant smile.

Kori moved aside so he could enter
where he paused to await further instructions. She led him to the same booth where she’d interviewed both Kiera and Doug. She wanted to keep the interviews as controlled as possible so she could see them in similar settings.

They sat opposite each other in the booth and Allen opened a binder containing at least one copy of his résumé and a notebook. He pulled a pen from his pocket and placed it on the notebook. Kori could tell th
at he was professional and taking this interview very seriously.

“Your experience in the food industry is very impressive,” Kori started, looking over her own copy of his résumé.

Allen looked down. “Thank you.”

“Most recently you were a li
ne cook for a diner?”

Allen nodded.

“How did you like it?” Kori asked. The Early Bird Café didn’t require the same fast pace that he had previously worked, but it could still demand a lot from the cook. Kori knew too well.

Allen seemed to relax, like he was comfortable with the question and knew exactly how to answer it. “It took some getting used to, but once I figured out the pace it was a lot of fun. But my favorite thing about that position was the creativity we were allowed.”

Kori made a note. Creativity and confidence in cooking were key skills she needed. Ideally, Kori would be able to split her time between the kitchen and interacting with customers, so she had to hire someone who could fit into any area at any time, depending on the needs in each moment. “Tell me more about that,” she pressed.

“Well, there were set menu items, but I was eventually allowed to tweak and improve them.”

“Can you give me an example?”

“Sure. Pancakes, for example. We used a mix that we bought in bulk. It was good enough. But I eventually created a mix from scratch that we used, and they still do.”

Kori made some more notes. She was liking Allen more and more with each of his answers and she was going to find it hard to hire Kiera over him if he kept this up.

“Why did you leave?” Kori asked. According to his résumé, he’d been out of work for at least a month.

“There was no room for growth. What I really like about this position is that the café is small and growing, which would give me plenty of opportunity to prove myself to you.”

Kori didn’t want to break his spirits, but she didn’t really see a whole lot of growth potential for whoever she hired.
The position she had would be perfect for someone with less experience than Allen, someone like Kiera.

Kori continued asking him questions until just after two and never once felt that he was trying to step on toes like Doug had. His answers and experiences were impressive, but by the end of the interview, she wasn’t quite as excited about him as at the start. He was definitely over qualified.

When Kori was finished, and Allen had no more questions, they both stood and shook hands again. “Thanks again for coming in today. I’ll get in touch with you early next week once I’ve made my decision. Have a great weekend.”

“Thanks. You too.”

Kori closed the door behind him and headed upstairs to change before going to Nora’s.