Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 01 - Rise and Die by Ginny Gold Read Free Book Online Page A

can I add to their names so we can keep everything straight?”
    “Well, it’s not really evidence. It’s more of suspicions. Betsy was totally out of it this morning when she showed up for breakfast at The Early Bird—”
    “I don’t know if being out of it in the early morning counts as suspicious,” Nora objected.
    “I know. It’s probably nothing. She was talking about a difficult last few days. And she didn’t sleep much. And Tessa was killed this morning. So if it was between when I was at Sunrise and Shine and when Betsy showed up at The Early Bird, she would have had enough time to kill her. And look disheveled about it.”
    “You really think she’d kill Tessa and then go straight to breakfast? And besides, what’s her motive?”
    “She wanted the building Tessa bought for Scoop’s Scoops. She told me that this morning. Tessa bought it just days before she was going to make an offer. She’d had her eye on it since the end of last summer and finally was in a position to make an offer.”
    “Okay. Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. Hey, do you even know how Tessa was killed?” Nora asked.
    Kori shook her head. “It would help I guess if I knew more details about the actual murder. Would it be too suspicious if I invited Zach out to drinks to try to get more information?”
    “ Now you’re thinking. But yes. I think that would be too suspicious. And I’m not one to try to stop you from going out with Zach. But, you could have him over and I could be there too. Just a friendly get together. With old school friends.”
    “Great. Tonight?”
    “Maybe tomorrow. Let’s not rush into something that gets us both in more trouble.”
    Kori laughed. “I’m so glad to have you on my team.”
    “I’m always on your team, honey.” Nora patted Kori on the shoulder as she walked by to get more tea. “What about Derek? Why do you think he’s a suspect?”
    “Yesterday morning, after Tessa stopped by and was so pissed at me, Derek got a call from Tessa. He was having breakfast with Spencer and Tessa was yelling at him so loudly that I could tell it was her. I don’t know what it was about but what if he did some of the work on her café and it wasn’t up to par? Or if she needed the broken window fixed and he wasn’t able to do it soon enough for her? Then she railed on him over the phone. What if it ticked him off to the point of killing her?”
    Nora turned and looked at Kori. “That’s not even a long shot. That’s to the moon and back. Have you ever known Derek to do a shoddy job on anything? And even if she was screaming at him, he’s so even tempered, I can’t see a phone call pushing him over any edge. He’s not near an edge.”
    “ You’re right. But on another note, my mom thinks Jay’s a dad,” Kori said, needing to get that off of her chest too. She hadn’t had time to think about it but having just seen Jay, it was another mystery that needed solving.
    “What? Jay? Yeah right.” Nora was laughing out loud.
    “That’s what I thought. But then my mom was even trying to get information out of Jay about it without telling him why. He asked if I knew what was going on. I told him no. But maybe I should just get it out in the open and ask him. You know my mom. She’s not going to let this go until she gets the answer she wants or has hard evidence that she’s wrong.”
    “Sure. Because if I had a brother and I accused him of hiding a niece or nephew from me, that’d go over really well,” Nora reasoned sarcastically.
    “Well, whatever. I’ll figure something out. I’m sure my mom will ask me about it again if she hasn’t solved it on her own yet.”
    “And what about your tire? Did you figure out who did that? If we’re going to solve mysteries, we may as well get them all out of the way at once.”
    “No. But I assume it was Tessa. She thought that I threw a rock through her window so she was getting revenge. But I don’t know for sure, and now I guess I won’t