Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 03 - Dead and Berried (3 page)

As the competition began, customers began turning back to Kori’s booth and she had to block out the rest of what the mayor said. She was once again working as quickly as she could. A few times she was able to glance toward the stage in the center of the fairgrounds to see a contestant walking in front of the judges with a ridiculous hat on. There were paper
mâché hats in the shape of strawberries, hats with live strawberry plants on them and even a hat that was at least three feet tall, made of balloons that had been drawn on to look as much like strawberries as the creator could manage.

Needless to say, Kori missed most of the competition but she wasn’t disappointed about that. Instead, her thoughts returned to Nora’s absence, and now Zach’s. What was going on?

During her next short break, Kori turned around to check on Ibis. She was relieved to see her lying in the shade, completely unconcerned with all of the strangers around her. Some even paused to pat Ibis on the head and she would barely react.

When she turned back to her tables, Zach was sta
nding in front of her, a look of concern plastered on his face.

“What happened? Where’s Nora?” Kori asked before Zach even had a chance to tell her anything.

He opened his mouth twice before finally answering, as if he was trying to figure out what words to use for the softest blow. “Nora found a body outside her barn this morning. She called it in right after I left you to go check on her. She’s being questioned by Detective Silver right now but I wanted to let you know—in person—what was going on.”

Kori’s mouth hung open and she tried to regain control of her fine motor skills. Before she could, Zach gave her a halfhearted smile, a nonchalant wave and turned away toward his cop car.

Kori finally regained control of her brain and she came up with too many questions but no answers.

Nora was being questioned about a body she’d found on her property? Why hadn’t she called it in
before Kori had seen Zach the first time? Wouldn’t she have found it before eight if she was supposed to be here by then? What had she been doing before eight thirty if she’d found the body but didn’t call it in? Who was it? What had happened to them?

Kori wanted desperately to be able to go to her friend’s side and offer any comfort or help that she could. But she couldn’t leave. She had the rest of the day to get through. A much longer day than she was used to. Maybe Jackie would be able to help after all.

Kori did her best to remain focused on serving customers but she was distracted until she was able to take a break for lunch. She packed everything up in her coolers—she was going to have to restock tonight for tomorrow—and made a beeline for her car, almost forgetting to bring Ibis.

As she walked, she called Nora again, hoping against hope that she wasn’t still being questioned and would be able to answer her phone this time. It kept ringing and Kori’s heart sank. But finally, Nora’s voice answered and it wasn’t her voicemail.

“Nora, what’s going on?” Kori said over whatever Nora was trying to tell her.

She paused before answering. “Just come over.”

Kori could hear that there was something else she wanted to tell her but was maybe worried about saying it on the phone. “I’m on my way.” Then she hung up.

Kori forced herself to focus on the road in front of her. The last thing she needed was to get into an accident and leave her best friend without her partner in crime—
or rather, her partner sleuth—and her booth abandoned. Hermit Cove would never be able to host the Strawberry Festival again if two of the local vendors didn’t even end up selling anything.

As Kori drove up Nora’s short driveway, Milo and Otis came charging out of the barn toward her car. Kori could see that a section behind the barn was taped off with police tape but she
didn’t see any cop cars anywhere. That seemed like a good sign—they’d already processed the whole scene. And Nora was home. That was definitely a good sign.

Nora must have heard Kori drive in because she was coming out of the house when Kori turned around after letting Ibis out. The three dogs took off together, probably charging straight through the crime scene at some point. Now Kori hoped that it had been fully processed.

“Zach told me a cliff note version,” Kori said. “All I know is that you found someone? A dead someone?”

“Yeah. Come inside. How long do you have? How’s the Strawberry Festival going?” Nora turned back toward the house and let them both inside.

Kori glanced at her watch. “About a half hour. It’s going great. I was just so worried about you when you didn’t show up. But I’ll probably sell out what I brought for today before five when it closes for the night.”

“That’s great!” Kori was surprised to hear so much excitement in Nora’s voice when she clearly had bigger concerns than how
the festival was going for Kori.

Kori sat at the kitchen island and asked, “So what’s going on then?”

Nora pulled some fixings for sandwiches and Kori suddenly heard her stomach rumble. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and hadn’t had time to even consider if she was hungry or not. Nora set to work making enough food for both of them.

“I let the dogs out this morning before I was going to head over to the fairgrounds, and they wouldn’t come back. I didn’t even realize I was running late until it was already almost eight
and I’d checked all the irrigation hoses to make sure nothing would die when I was gone. By then I knew I wouldn’t make it on time anyway. I started calling and calling Milo and Otis and they still wouldn’t come back. Then I heard them barking like crazy so I went outside looking for them. I found them behind the barn. And there was a body on the ground with a pint of strawberries next to him.”

All of Kori’s questions
, and plenty more, returned in full force but she started with just one. “Your strawberries?”

Nora shrugged. “I don’t know. But Detective Silver seems to think so.”

“Who was he?”

“Remember on yesterday’s walk, there was that guy who was pissed
that the dogs weren’t on their leashes?” Nora placed two plates overflowing with food in front of them and took the seat next to Kori.

“Yeah …”

“It was him.”

Kori was shocked. She’d never even seen him before and now he had turned up dead behind Nora’s barn.

“How’d he die?”

“Looks like poisoning. There were no external wounds that would have been lethal
, just a minor cut on his head. There could have been a fight or he hit it when he fell. They don’t know yet. Or that’s what Zach told me. I’m so glad you guys are dating so we get the inside scoop.” Nora’s voice had suddenly changed from holding a hint of despair to excitement. They’d solved a murder together months ago when Kori had been the main suspect, now it looked like they would have to take on the challenge of clearing Nora’s name.

“Geez. What now?” Kori took a bite and her stomach responded with more growls.

“Well, I was hoping you could find out if it was poisoning and what was used. Then we could start a list of suspects.”

Kori turned to look Nora in the eyes and saw that she was dead serious. “We don’t even know who he is,” Kori started in protest. “I’m happy to help solve this, but we’ll need a little more than what kind of poison was used.
And what makes you think it was even poison?”

Nora’s eyes brightened. “
No external wounds—how else would he die? Poisoning is the first thing to check. And as for who he is, his name is Dan Roche. You know Stanley? It’s his brother.”

Stanley had lived in Hermit Cove for about ten years. Kori didn’t know him well because he’d moved to town while she was living in New York City. But she occasionally saw him come into the café. And Nora knew everyone in town because she’d
only left briefly to travel and learn farming techniques. Then she’d come straight back home and opened Red Clover Farm. Though she preferred to keep to herself, she knew everyone and everyone knew her.

Kori reached across the counter and pulled a pad of paper
and pen over to her that were just waiting to become their suspect list. “Well, let’s start with Stanley then. What can you tell me about him?”

“He’s a teacher. A teacher can’t be a murderer. And his own brother?” Nora was clearly defending him.

Kori wrote
teacher
next to Stanley’s name. “Well, do you have anyone else we could look into?”

“I don’t know enough yet.”

A knock on the door interrupted them and Nora went to see who it was. Kori took that time to eat more of her sandwich, knowing it would probably be the last chance she got until dinner.

Nora came back into the kitchen followed by Zach and
Lani. Zach’s face lit up when he saw Kori at the island and she had to admit that made her happy.

“Perfect timing,” Kori said, a smile stretching her mouth as wide as it could go.

“Why’s that?” Lani asked. She’d quickly grown into her role in Hermit Cove and was much more confident than a month ago when she’d just moved in and had to help nearby Scoter Circle with a murder case. In which Jay had been a suspect.

“We were just wondering what had killed Dan,” Kori plowed on. She was sure Zach would tell her anything she needed to know since she’d been the one to solve the last t
wo cases he’d worked on. Using unconventional methods, and maybe endangering herself. But she’d still cracked the cases.

“We won’t know for sure until the medical examiner completes his report. But we did a preliminary test on the strawberries and they were covered with rat poison.”

Kori added that to the paper. Any information would get written down and she’d sift through it later when she had more time. Right now she had to finish stuffing her mouth, steal a kiss from her
boyfriend
if she could manage in front of Nora and Lani, and then get back to the festival.

“You came all the way out here to tell me that?” Nora asked. She sounded skeptical.

Zach shook his head. Lani seemed to be deferring to him again suddenly. Maybe he had told her that he would handle this case since he was so close to Nora. “I’m also here to tell you that Dan filed a complaint yesterday that just got processed about your dogs.” He turned to Kori. “Ibis too. Did you guys know Dan?”

Both women shook their heads. “We ran into him yesterday afternoon when we were taking the dogs on a walk around Thrush Lake. When we got away from the beaches we let them off the leash because we didn’t see anyone for a while. The dogs wanted to play with him and he wanted nothing to do with them. Nothing happened. They didn’t do anything to him. And we apologized and leashed them again,” Kori explained. She’d worried that there would be a complaint like he’d threatened yesterday.

Zach nodded, seeming to understand their side of the story. “That’s not what the complaint said.”

Kori looked to Nora and she thought they had the same fear—he’d lied in his complaint and now there was no way to get him to tell the truth.

“Are you sure there were no bites?” Zach asked.

Kori and Nora nodded. “He didn’t say anything about a bite and the dogs were so happy to see him. I can’t imagine them biting him, even if they’d been provoked. You know these dogs, they wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Nora said.

“I know. But we’re looking into a murder and we can’t leave any page unturned. Thanks for your help. I know if we have more questions we can count on you to answer them …”

Zach seemed to be waiting for a response so they both nodded their consent.

“Kori, are you heading back to the festival?” he asked.

She glanced at the clock and realized she had to leave now if she was going to take only an hour off for lunch. “Yeah. You want a ride or are you going back to the office?”

“I’d love a ride. Detective Silver, you can handle everything for a little while?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lani was the first to turn and go. Kori scarfed down the rest of her lunch and put her dishes in the sink. “What are you going to do about your booth at the festival?” Kori asked Nora through a mouthful of food, licking her fingers between words.

“I’ll be there later this afternoon. I can’t believe I’ve already missed half a day. This is always such a great weekend to get off the farm and into the community instead of people always coming to me.”

“Great, I’ll see you there then. My phone’s always on if you need anything.”

Kori and Zach walked out the front door and Kori called Ibis. She came running from behind the barn where the police tape could still be seen around the corner and leapt into the car’s back seat, mud and all.

In the car, Kori was itching to ask Zach more questions about Dan Roche and the crime scene. She tried her best to hold her tongue but couldn’t sit through a silent car ride. “Do you really think Nora could have killed Dan over a complaint about our dogs?” she finally asked.

Zach’s look almost made Kori regret asking. “You know I don’t think Nora’s guilty. But he was behind her barn.”

“Do you think he was killed there? Wouldn’t Nora have heard something?”

“We don’t know yet. But my gut tells me that his body was moved and carefully positioned on her property with the strawberries.”

“So you don’t even think he was poisoned?” Kori asked, surprised.

“No, I think he was. But why leave them there
then?”