Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat (4 page)

Kori was thankful Thursday morning that she could sleep until her normal time of four o’clock. She rolled over at the sound of her alarm and turned it off with her eyes still closed. She already had the menu planned so let herself have another fifteen minutes of shut eye until her backup alarm sounded. She didn’t have to use that one very often, but today called for extreme measures.

At four fifteen, Ibis wouldn’t let Kori stay in bed any longer and was antsy to go outside—much more effective than the second alarm clock that was going off. Kori had no choice but to get out of bed, brush her teeth and put on her make shift uniform. By the time the early morning air—still more humid than she had anticipated—hit her face, she was fully awake and ready for the day.

They walked their usual few blocks up and down Main Street in the quiet and then Ibis happily curled up in the back office and Kori got to work. She had to be extra careful today to keep the gluten free and gluten full pancake batters separate. To help her remember which was which, for the gluten full batter she used her brown mixing bowl with a picture of wheat on the side that she hardly ever used. It was smaller than what she
preferred but today it would have to do.

She sliced plenty of bananas, and at the last second decided she would offer blueberry pancakes as well. She took those out of the freezer and placed them next to her cutting board covered in bananas and bowls full of batters.

Next were the popovers. She made a quadruple batch and stuck two pans in the oven to preheat them before the café opened and moved on to cutting potatoes into chunks. The home fries had to cook for a while to make sure they were soft all the way through and then she could just keep them warm.

Finally, she got out her blender and Mason jars and surrounded them with all of her frozen fruits, yogurt, milks, juices and greens for the smoothies.

When she was ready for the onslaught of Thursday morning customers, she headed out to the seating area and got the coffee urns going, hoping that Zach would stop by soon. It had only been twenty-four hours since she’d seen him, but she was missing him more than she cared to admit.

And to her relief, just before five thirty when they risked being interrupted by paying customers, he walked through the front door, another bouquet in his hands.

Kori’s heart melted. “More flowers?” she asked him, unable to keep the growing smile off her face.

“Why not?” he asked, handing over the
colorful flowers and wrapping his arms around her. She loved the feel of being in his arms. It made her feel safe and cared for. “I have to pamper the woman I love.”

Love
. There was that word again. Why had it made Jay run away from Lani when all Kori wanted to do was stay wrapped in Zach’s arms?

She couldn’t bring herself to use the word in return, but in her defense he hadn’t said those three magical words all together: I love you. She wasn’t there yet and would have been surprised if he was.

Kori finally disentangled herself from Zach and took the flowers from him. She got a jar—in lieu of a vase—and placed them on the ledge between her cooking area and counter where customers would soon be sitting and enjoying her food. This way she could see them whenever she needed a pick me up throughout the morning.

“Coffee?” Kori asked Zach, walking to the coffee urns with two empty mugs before waiting for a response.

Zach nodded and Kori filled them, then took a seat next to him at the counter so they could both admire the purple asters and white lisianthus with a few sprigs of eucalyptus.

“Your day must have been busy yesterday. I thought I’d at least hear from you,” Kori said.

“What do you mean? You didn’t get my flowers last night?” A look of hurt crossed Zach’s face, quickly being replaced by a smile.

Kori laughed at her mistake. “Of course I got them. Thanks.”

“But yes, yesterday was busy. I imagine you talked to Nora at some point?” he asked.

Kori nodded. “I spent some time there yesterday afternoon. Did you figure out who the victim was?
She said you hadn’t identified him yet.”

Zach took a sip of his coffee, probably pausing to decide if he would give away this information to Kori. “Yeah. His name’s
Marty Rivers. He used to work for Seeds ‘n More until about six months ago.”

Kori’s mouth fell open. She’d thought a past employee could have been involved as the murderer, but to find out that he was the victim instead sent her head spinning.

“I take it that you were doing some digging into who he might be, then,” Zach said, studying Kori’s face.

She hated and loved that he could read her that well already. “Yeah. I was looking up Seeds ‘n More last night but I hadn’t figured anything out yet. Do you think
Ria or Peter killed him?”

Zach shrugged. “Not sure yet. But we’ve talked to his wife and it turns out he had a mistress on the side. So there are plenty of suspects to look into.”

Just then, a family of four walked in and Kori couldn’t ask Zach any more questions. She and Nora were on their own to get to the bottom of why someone would dump a body in Nora’s delivery of grain.

Kori was completely distracted all morning. She did her best to keep her mind on each task and conversation bu
t all she could think about was who Marty was and why someone would want him dead.

“Morning Kori,” Jenna Rhodes called as she walked through the front door with Anita Price. Kori was in the kitchen cooking, but she managed to smile and wave to the two women. She watched them take a seat at the only open table and as soon as she got a chance she went to take their orders.

“How’s it going?” she asked them, trying her best to make conversation. “You’re starting to show,” she said to Jenna. She’d promised to host Jenna’s baby shower but she thought she had plenty of time still.

“I know. Everyone wants to touch my stomach. It’s kind of weird. At least when strangers ask.” Jenna laughed and put her hands on her stomach protectively.

“I wouldn’t like that,” Anita added.

“No classes to teach this morning?” Kori asked. Anita taught spin and yoga classes at the rec center and Kori’s mom was always trying to get her to go with her.

“Already finished for the day. We had early morning yoga today. I still haven’t seen you there with Gale.”

Kori shook her head. “Maybe once I hire an employee I’ll be able to come once in a while. Can I start you with some coffee?”

“None for me. I’ll take some tea though,” Jenna said.

“Oh right. I’m still used to getting you black coffee and it’s been over a month now.”

“I’ll have coffee,” Anita requested.

Kori left the table and headed back to the kitchen to get coffee and tea for her two friends. As she headed back out to the dining area, she overheard a customer say to his wife, “Are you sure these are gluten free? They’re better than any gluten free pancakes I’ve ever had.”

Kori considered their order for a moment and was 100% confident that she’d given them the right pancake batter. One of them had ordered gluten free blueberry pancakes, the other had ordered gluten free banana pancakes. She knew there was a slight chance she could have given them the non-gluten free mix, especially given how distracted she was, but she also knew her gluten free mix was one of the best she’d ever tried.

Back at Anita and Jenna’s table, she placed the coffee in front of Jenna. Before she could even realize her mistake, Jenna had handed it to Anita and accepted the offered tea from Kori.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. You just told me you aren’t drinking coffee.”
Maybe I did make the wrong pancakes for that couple. I have to start paying more attention
, Kori thought to herself, her stomach flip flopping at the thought of making customers sick. “Do you know what you want for breakfast? I promise not to screw that part up.”

Anita and Jenna laughed, calming Kori slightly. She knew they would still be regulars even if she made a mistake with their orders, but strangers were always a little more challenging to keep from spreading bad publicity.
Maybe it was good she didn’t have her logo on everything in sight yet.

Kori took their orders and headed back to the kitchen, determined to keep her head on straighter this time. She had to pay closer attention to everything and stop letting Marty Rivers’ death enter her thoughts.

She didn’t succeed at staying focused on her work and the first chance she got, she sent Nora a text to let her know the name of the victim.

She got an immediate response:
Looking him up now.

That gave Kori a little peace of mind to focus on the job. Which was good, because at one thirty, Doug Waters showed up for his interview, a half hour before Kori was expecting him.

“Ms. Cooke,” he said, opening the door that wasn’t locked but said closed very clearly.

Kori came out from the kitchen where she was still cleaning up the day’s leftovers and mess. “Yes?” she asked, not sure who was coming in when she was closed.

He approached her, hand extended. “Doug Waters. Nice to meet you.”

Kori did a double take, trying to hide her surprise while not being uninviting. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you for another half hour.” She shook his hand anyway.

“I know. I was hoping that I could help you with anything that needed to get done. I’m great at on the job learning and wouldn’t get in your way at all.”

Kori was immediately not excited about working with him.
He might be older and have more work experience than the other candidates, but this was her café and she got to set the rules.

“Actually, why don’t you take a seat at that booth,” she pointed toward the window furthest from the kitchen, “and I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

Thankfully Doug did as requested and she didn’t have to give him a tour of the entire place when she was pretty confident she wasn’t going to hire him after that introduction. After pausing in her office to pat Ibis and apologize for not taking her outside yet, Kori sat opposite Doug with his résumé in front of her.

“So, Doug, tell me about yourself,” she started, thinking back to the interviews she’d been in on the other side of the table.

Doug seemed prepared for the question and sat back in the booth, a slight smirk on his face. “Well, as you know from my résumé, I used to work in telemarketing. I think that experience has given me great people skills that would be very applicable in this environment.” Kori had to disagree based on what she’d already seen but she started making notes anyway.

Doug paused and Kori used that opportunity to ask him to elaborate. “What kind of experience do you have working face to face with people?”

“I worked in hospitality for a while,” he said, keeping his answer short.

Kori looked up at him to gauge his reaction. “Did you enjoy that?”

“Yes and no.” He nodded, the smirk having disappeared. “My boss at the time was tough to work with—Ria Mayfield.”

Kori looked up, shocked. Maybe he would prove more important than she’d initially thought. But right now she had to regain her composure and use that bit of
information to her advantage. “How did you deal with that—having a boss you didn’t necessarily agree with or work well with?”

“I quit.” Doug leaned forward, hands clasped on the booth in front of him. “Look, I love all things food related. And I have plenty of experience with all of the classes I’ve taken around the world. You’d be hard pressed to find a better employee than I’ll be.” Kori couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Are you going to offer me the job or not?”

Kori looked back down at the papers in front of her and considered how to answer the question without turning him off of her as a person. He might come in handy in the next few days if she wanted to know more about Ria. “Well, I appreciate your excitement and passion for the position. But your confidence comes off as arrogance and I’d like to interview at least one more candidate before making that decision.”

Doug sat back and let the air out from his lungs. “Well, I look forward to hearing from you early next week.”

Kori sat there, stunned.
What just happened? How did he just take over his own interview?
She knew he wouldn’t be hired, but he might be contacted for a different reason.

She shook her head, finished cleaning up the kitchen and finally told Ibis, “Let’s go.” Ibis didn’t have to be invited twice. She happily followed Kori out back to the car and together they drove over to Nora’s.

To Kori’s surprise, Nora’s truck wasn’t parked in its normal spot. And no dogs came running from any direction. She didn’t have long to consider where they might have gone because as soon as Kori had shut her door and Ibis was sniffing the grass around the car, Nora’s truck pulled into the driveway and parked next to Kori’s Subaru. Milo and Otis jumped out of the back while it was still slowing to a stop.

“You’re early,” Nora said, grabbing a bag of food and closing the door to her truck with her hip.

“Am I? I didn’t know I had an appointment.”

Kori walked ahead to open the front door to the house. “I thought you had an interview at two. It’s barely after two now. What happened?” Nora asked as she set the bag on the counter.

“He got there early, tried to insert himself into my routine and then basically told me he’s the best option I have, was I going to hire him or not?”

Nora turned around, anger in her eyes. “Men.”

Kori laughed. “Yeah. Men. Or just Doug Waters. But I did find out something interesting from him that we could use later: he used to work for Ria Mayfield. And he said she was a terrible boss to work for.”