Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat (5 page)

Nora put the last of her groceries away and then focused her attention on Kori. “What do you mean he used to work for
Ria Mayfield? What did she used to do?”

“According to Doug, she was his boss when he was working in hospitality.”

Nora nodded slowly, taking in this new information. “She is very personable.  At least on the phone. I’ve never met her in person.”

“
Not according to Doug. But before we go down that path, what did you find out about Marty Rivers online? Zach told me he had a wife and a mistress, so there’s plenty of motive for either one of them to be pissed enough to kill him. Where do you want to start?”

“I found out where he lived. With said wife, Karin Rivers. I thought we could go visit her. Could pretend to be, oh, I don’t know, representing Seeds ‘n More. See if she can give us any details about Marty, the mistress or his previous employer.”

Kori picked up her keys. “Works for me. What about the dogs?”

“They’ll be fine here. The doggie door’s open in the back. Ibis wouldn’t even think of leaving if Milo and Otis are here. And they aren’t going anywhere.”

Nora grabbed her handbag and followed Kori out to her car. Her Subaru would be much less memorable than Nora’s clunker of a truck that would turn everyone’s heads on the way. They didn’t need to be remembered by anyone. Least of all, Karin.

Kori pulled out to the end of Nora’s driveway and waited for directions. Nora finally figured out why they weren’t going anywhere and said, “Oh yeah. Left.”

Kori did as instructed and went straight until any other directions were offered. As she drove, she told Nora, “I asked Jay about Lani.”

“What happened?” Nora asked with what Kori thought was way more curiosity than needed.

“She used the L word.”

Nora laughed out loud. “Of course Jay would run the other way. He’s such a guy.”

“What does that mean?” Kori asked, feeling the need to defend her brother.

“Every guy is afraid of that word. Women almost always say it first and scare their boyfriend away. They can’t hold their tongues.”

Kori considered what Nora was saying and thought that it was usually true. Just not in her relationship with Zach.

“Turn here,” Nora pointed as Kori sped by the right hand turn they wanted.

Kori pulled over and checked for oncoming traffic before making a U-turn. “A little more notice would be nice.”

“Sorry.”

They followed some back roads to a remote home neither of them had visited before on the outskirts of Hermit Cove, as far from Thrush Lake as they could get. “You’re sure this is Karin Rivers?” Kori asked, skeptical that they were somewhere they shouldn’t be.

“Positive.”

“How’d you even get her address?”

Nora gave her a look like she was asking too many questions. “Don’t worry about it.”

Kori parked and they got out of the car. Kori led the way to the front door, Nora following her. She wasn’t sure bringing up Seeds ‘n More would be the best move to get information so she turned back to Nora and said, “Let me do the talking.” She had a better plan in her head. She just hoped it went smoothly.

Kori noticed that they couldn’t see a single house from the front porch. It was absolutely silent—no noise from traffic, lawn work or neighbors. She considered that they probably should have told someone where they were going. Just in case.

But before she let fear take hold, Kori knocked on the front door and there was no more option of turning back.

Moments later, the door opened and a nondescript woman in her forties greeted them. “Can I help you?” she asked in a quiet voice.

Kori was surprised she didn’t recognize the woman. “Mrs. Rivers?” she asked.

“Yes.”

It was now or never for Kori to test her lying skills. “We’re here about your husband’s life insurance policy—”

Karin’s face relaxed and she moved aside to let them in. “Thank you for coming out so quickly. I just got off the phone with your office not even ten minutes ago.”

Kori breathed a sigh of relief as she spoke so Karin wouldn’t hear it. “Well, we were already in the area. The office called and let us know we should come straight over here. Actually, I don’t even have your paperwork with me. But I’d like to just verify some information with the electronic copy they sent me on our drive over.”

Karin led the way into a comfortably furnished living room and pointed toward the couch for Nora and Kori to take a seat. “Let me go print you a copy. I’ll be right back.”

Karin left the room and Kori turned toward Nora whose face had gone completely white. “What are you doing?” Nora asked, clearly concerned that they were going to get caught.

“Well, I think another motive would be life insurance inheritance. We’ve
gotta find out how much the policy was for and who the beneficiary was,” Kori quietly explained.

Nora nodded, the color returning to her cheeks.

Karin walked back into the room and handed Kori a folder full of all of the information she needed to know. She opened it up and pretended to know what she was looking at. “Thanks Mrs. Rivers.” She rifled through a few more pages. “Just to verify, you were the sole beneficiary on this policy?”

“That’s correct. We made that change just six months ago.”

“And before then—”

“His sister was also a beneficiary,” Karin helpfully interrupted and finished Kori’s thought for her.

“Okay. And when you called the office—”

Karin again didn’t leave Kori hanging but gave her all of the information she needed. “They told me that pending the police investigation they wouldn’t be able to give me anything. I was really hoping the police would get everything wrapped up quickly. Without Marty’s income, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kori said conspiratorially. “And did you have any other questions?” Kori asked.

“No. But thank you for stopping by. It means a lot to have a face to put with a name. Actually, I didn’t get your names.”

Kori felt Nora tighten next to her. “Linda. Linda Smith,” Kori said. “And Julie Fellows.”

“Linda and Julie. I’ll ask for you when I call next,” Karin said, standing up and offering her hand. “This is a terrible time. It means so much to know who’s going to help me through it financially.”

Kori smiled, feeling only slightly guilty about what they’d done. She and Nora both shook Karin’s hand and followed her to the front door.

“We’ll be in touch as we move forward,” Kori said in the most sympathetic tone she could muster.

As soon as the door had closed behind them, Kori wanted to run to the car and get out of there as quickly as possible. Once safely backing out of the driveway she asked Nora, “Did you recognize her?”

Nora shook her head. “No. Which is surprising. I thought between the two of us, we knew everyone in town. And that everyone knew us.”

“She must really keep to herself.”

“I guess so. I feel kind of bad for her that we just duped her like that,” Nora admitted.

“Well, glancing through the papers, I don’t. They may have removed Marty’s sister six months ago, but she just increased the amount a couple weeks ago.”

“What?” Nora exclaimed, turning in her seat to face Kori.

Kori kept her eyes on the road ahead but could feel Nora staring at her. “Yeah. I knew we had a reason to talk to her. Now, pull up Marty’s obituary. It’s gotta be printed by now. See if it tells you where he was working.”

Nora did as instructed and Kori navigated her way back through the maze of streets from memory. She prided herself on her directional skills. Once she’d driven somewhere once, she could almost always find it without a single problem the next time.

Finally Nora told Kori, “That’s funny. Karin said she was going to struggle without Marty’s income. But I just found something that says he was unemployed.”

“In his obituary?” Kori asked, surprised that information would be written about the deceased.

“No. In an editorial he wrote two weeks ago.”

“Well, he could have gotten a job since then,” Kori reasoned.

“Maybe. But he’d been out of work almost six months. Isn’t that how long ago he’d left Seeds ‘n More?”

“Yeah,” Kori confirmed, the wheels turning in her mind about where this might be going.

“So even if he just got another job, they’d been struggling for six months with no income. Could he have been lying to Karin about that?” Nora asked.

“Maybe. And he only told her that he’d found a new job. Or she knew he’d been out of work and that was the reason she upped the insurance. And then killed him.”

Kori knew they were on to something. Karin was looking more and more guilty every second. Marty’s life insurance had just been increased; Karin was the sole beneficiary; Marty had a girlfriend on the side; and now they knew that Marty hadn’t been working for six months. If Karin was in desperate need of money, killing a cheating husband could have been the easy out.

But they certainly didn’t have a confession, just plenty of suspicion.
So instead of calling Zach to check out Karin’s alibi, they went back to Nora’s to see what kind of trouble the dogs had created.

Surprisingly, the dogs were all passed out on the cool wood floor inside instead of still chasing one another around the house and barn.

“Want to stay for dinner?” Nora asked, waking up the dogs who barely lifted their heads at the sound of her voice.

Kori glanced at the clock. “I’d love to but I have some work to get done before I call it a day. How are you already finished with everything on the farm?”

“I’m not. It’s just too hot right now to be out there in the sun or in the greenhouses. I’ll get some more work done after it cools down.”

Kori nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can find out who Marty’s girlfriend on the side was and talk to her. Karin certainly didn’t seem too distraught over losing her husband. Maybe the girlfriend is more upset.”

“Sounds good. Have a good night.”

Nora walked Kori to the front door and Ibis charged past her to the car. She was clearly ready for her own bed—or Kori’s couch.

Back at the café, Ibis made a beeline for Kori’s office and immediately curled up on her bed on the floor. “Too much playing today?” Kori asked her. She would have liked nothing more than to lie down too, but she had some bills to pay, a menu to create for Friday, and a résumé to look over.

She started with the bills—her least favorite part of the month. There was the mortgage, water, heating—which was nothi
ng this time of year—gas, sewer; the list went on.

Next was the menu. Kori decided that she’d be ambitious and really mix things up. She knew her customers didn’t get tired of her rotating menu, but sometimes it was fun to challenge herself and throw a curveball to the crowd.

She started with an egg option. Instead of her normal eggs and home fries, popovers or omelets, she settled on a frittata. She had plenty of potatoes for the base, onions and mushrooms for the veggies, cheddar for the cheese layer and cream cheese to make the custard extra creamy. She had plenty of cast iron pans in various sizes, and baking them in those was the perfect fit.

Next, she picked a new sweet item. No pancakes, waffles or French toast tomorrow. Instead, she’d make her own version of a Dutch baby—not quite as fluffy and plenty of almond extract to give it a unique flavor. On top, she’d offer strawberries and whipped cream, strawberries and powdered sugar or strawberries and maple syrup. There was nothing better than strawberries with something sweet.

Then Kori added a familiar item that she hadn’t offered in a while—overnight oats. She started getting them ready right away: oats, apples, maple syrup, and milk into the crock pot. As toppings tomorrow, she’d serve each order with a small side of sliced, toasted almonds and shredded coconut. Her mouth started watering at the thought of her own breakfast.

Finally, she decided to make bread and offer green smoothies again. On hot summer mornings,
a cool, creamy, fruity drink was the perfect way to start the day.

Before she could move on to reviewing her final candidate’s résumé, Allen Murphy, she made enough dough for four loaves of bread. She combined the flour and water after measuring on her kitchen scale, and set the yeast and salt next to the bowls to add in a half hour.

Then she sat at her desk again and printed off Allen’s résumé. Of all three interviewees, Allen probably had the most impressive list of skills, though Kori was biased toward Kiera. Since Allen had started working, it seemed he’d been only in the restaurant industry. He’d been a dishwasher, a host, a busser, a waiter and most recently a cook. He’d worked in pizza joints, fast food chains, upscale restaurants and breakfast cafés. He certainly had the background, but as Kori had learned this afternoon with Doug, he may not have the people skills or personality to mesh with what she’d created in Hermit Cove.

Finally, she was ready to go home
—after mixing in the salt and yeast. As soon as that was done, she called Ibis and they started heading to the stairs that led to her upstairs apartment. But before she made it there, a pounding on the front door made her stop in her tracks.

“Kori? I see lights on. I know you’re in there!”

Kori relaxed at the sound of the voice. Her mother was still banging on the door so Kori went out front to open it. “Hi Mom. I was just heading upstairs. Come on up.”

“Thanks. I’m starving,” Gale said, heading up the stairs without waiting for Kori who stayed behind to lock the door.

Kori wasn’t thrilled about having her mom stop by unannounced for dinner, but she’d figure something out. She never had a plan for her own meals so Gale would have to deal.

Upstairs, Gale had the fridge opened when Kori found her in the kitchen. “What’s your plan for dinner?” she asked.

“No plan. Whatever you can find enough of for two people.”

“I don’t get it; you plan meals everyday at the café but your own meal schedule is always left to the last minute.”

Kori sat down on a stool and let her mom do the hard work of putting together a coherent dinner. “Yup. I just spent the afternoon planning breakfast so I never have it in me to plan another meal when I get home. Oh, that reminds me, I have to go do one more thing to the bread. Figure out dinner. I’ll be right back.”

Kori rushed downstairs to fold the bread and stick it in the fridge to rise overnight. She looked forward to the morning when she would find it fully risen, full of air bubbles and ready to be baked in
to beautiful crusty bread.

“What’d you find?” Kori asked, closing the door behind her and hoping her mom had been successful with dinner preparations. She really didn’t feel like cooking anything else today.

“Spaghetti with garlic butter sauce and sautéed veggies,” Gale said, standing in front of the stove, staring into a pot.

“Thanks. You do know that a watched pot never boils, right?” Kori asked, chuckling.

“Yes. I think you learned that from me—my one skill in the kitchen, boiling water. Why don’t you get to work on the sauce and I’ll get the noodles made?”

Kori was ready to sit and let someone else do the cooking, but her mom was right; Gale was a disaster in the kitchen. There had been plenty of family dinners growing up, but most of them had either been frozen or delivery after a failed attempt at something homemade.

Kori got out a saucepan, butter, garlic, zucchini, arugula and onions. She would stick to simple sautéed veggies to keep her cooking tonight to a minimum.

When she’d gotten into a routine at the stove, she turned to Gale who was now staring into a pot full of boiling water and cooking spaghetti, and asked, “So what brought you by tonight? I usually only see you Monday and Wednesday morning.”

Gale paused, like she was trying to figure out which words to carefully choose to share with Kori. “I’ll be going away for a little while.”

The way she said it, Kori could only imagine bad news following that. But she waited for Gale to continue and didn’t jump to conclusion. Out loud anyway. In her mind, she asked,
Like, to jail?

“I’ve signed up for an art retreat.”

Now Kori had to laugh. She held up one hand and apologized. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. But I thought your cooking was a good representation of your artistic skills. And enjoyment of it.”

“I know. That’s why I waited until the last minute to tell you. I didn’t want to hear about my complete lack of talent for weeks. But I leave tomorrow for two weeks.”

Kori straightened up and got more serious, stemming the oncoming tide of more giggles. “Where are you going?”

“Well, I’ll be meeting someone in Italy and we’re going to the retreat together. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Meeting someone, like a guy?” Kori asked, the ammo only growing. The last date her mom had gone on was with Mayor Devlin. That relationship had lasted one night because he had “too many girlfriends,” Gale had told her. And Kori had seen that it was true the following morning when he’d shown up in The Early Bird Café with a blonde bimbo for brunch.

Gale returned to staring into the pot. “Actually yes.”

Kori nodded. “That’s … great.” It was, wasn’t it? Her mom was entitled to meet men. Kori could be happy for her. She just didn’t want to hear details.

“I met him online.”

But that got Kori going again. To the best of Kori’s knowledge, her mother barely knew how to send an email, so the thought of her meeting a guy online was way beyond what she could comprehend. “Online?” she asked between hiccupping laughs.

“Yes. He was a friend in high school and—”

Kori interrupted. “Okay, so not really online. You knew him in the past from the non-cyber world.”

“Yes. But we just reconnected. Through—what’s that virtual yearbook thing? Facebook?”

“Yeah, Facebook. That’s great, Mom.” But the most surprising thing to Kori was that her mom was meeting a guy—
any
guy. She had convinced Kori years ago that women were better off independent, ever since Kori’s dad had died and Gale had been left alone. Though in that case, Gale was better off alone. Kori’s dad had been anything but a positive addition to their lives.

Kori grabbed a wooden spoon and placed it over the pot of boiling spaghetti before it boiled over. She didn’t know why, but a wooden spoon prevented any pot from boiling over. It was one of her favorite kitchen hacks.

“Well, then let’s celebrate,” Kori suggested. “Wine?”

Gale nodded and grabbed t
wo wine glasses from the cupboard and Kori got a bottle of wine—her last she noticed—from the pantry. It wasn’t the best place to keep it, but she had limited space in her above-the-café apartment and made do with what she had.

***

It was after ten when Kori was finally alone with a cleaned kitchen. That was one of her pet peeves—going to bed with a mess in the kitchen. She would have loved to get to bed fifteen minutes earlier, but facing a disaster either first thing in the morning or right after working all day in the café was something she tried to avoid.

She was disappointed she had barely seen Zach since their night together, so before going to bed she sent him an invitation to spend tomorrow night at her place:
Friday night date? My place?

It wasn’t the most romantic, but it was clear what she wanted. Her heart skipped a beat a few minutes later when she was brushing her teeth and her phone buzzed with a message.
Love to. I’ll bring dinner
.

Could she get any luckier? She didn’t think so.