Balmy Darlings and Deaths: A Chinese Cozy Mystery (A Raina Sun Mystery Book 4) by Anne R. Tan Page B

kiddo, nothing is worth this kind of sacrifice. You’ve still got to show your face around town.”
    Eden stood, scraping back her chair. “We need to talk outside.” She stalked out of the restaurant, ignoring all the open stares. Her long weave swung back and forth behind her back with a jaunty wave.
    Dale stood before them trembling with some great emotion.
    “Please be gentle with her,” Raina whispered.
    Dale flicked a glance at her, and his lips tightened into a grim line. He marched after his supervisor.
    Raina and Po Po stared at each other, neither one of them knowing what to say. A waitress asked for their orders, and they gave them. Raina ordered for herself and for Eden, knowing full well her friend would want something high-calorie like cheese ravioli after a confrontation with Dale out in the parking lot.
    Things were going from bad to worse for her friend. Raina had no idea how much of it was self-induced. Could her friend be desperate enough to kill LaShawna to generate news?
    “Eden is going to get herself into a lot of trouble,” Po Po finally said. “And I’m not sure how we can help her.”
    “She’s not going to listen to our advice. You know how pigheaded she can be,” Raina said.
    “And she has the finesse of a monkey in a tea shop,” Po Po said.
    “What we can do is to solve this case expediently. The longer this drags out, the more I see Eden milking the limelight.”
    “It’s really a small world out there. In Gold Springs, it’s an even tinier bubble.”
    Raina nodded, dread settling in her stomach. She had to stop her friend from making the biggest mistake of her life. If she kept this up, her reputation would be in tatters and all everyone would remember was how she acted after LaShawna’s death. And then there was the possibility of jail time.
    As the waitress slid the plates of food on the table, Eden returned.
    “What took you so long? Diarrhea?” Po Po asked.
    “How many times have I told you body functions aren’t dinner conversation material,” Raina said, smiling to let her grandma know how much she appreciated her attempt to lighten the mood.
    “At my age, everything is dinner conversation material.”
    “What did you find out today?” Raina asked as a way to introduce the investigation on neutral terms even though the question of what happened outside hung in the air.
    Eden scraped the creamy white sauce off the ravioli. “Not much more than what we already know. Hung around the Venus Café and spoke with a few regulars there. No one saw anything since they were so busy focusing on the car accident. Had a chat with my source down at the police station. I got confirmation that LaShawna died during the car accident. That’s about it.”
    “What’s this special edition?” Po Po asked. “Is it coming out tomorrow morning? I need to make sure I grab the Senior Center’s copy before Smelly Tally gets to it.”
    Raina busied herself with removing the croutons from her salad. She groaned inwardly at Mrs. Tally’s new nickname.
    “Nothing much to it. I printed a few…um…interviews. Did you notice I got one page full of ads for this run? If I could do another special this week, we would more than double our revenue for the month.”
    “Why this sudden focus on revenue?” Raina asked. “Phil had always subsidized the paper with his personal assets.”
    “He’s talking about how it doesn’t make financial sense to keep an unprofitable business. He might be thinking of closing up shop at the end of the year to spend more time at home. If I can show him that we are breaking even, maybe it would influence his decision.”
    “What prompted this decision now? It wasn’t like he didn’t have this option before,” Raina asked.
    Eden shrugged.
    “What did you say to Dale outside?” Raina asked.
    “The truth. If we don’t do something, both of us will be out of a job. He said he would help me.”
    “He did?”
    “The paper might not pay much, but with his