Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse (A Cape Bay Cafe Mystery Book 1) by Harper Lin

I gasped.
    “Oh yeah, you didn’t hear?” He sounded excited. “It’s all over town. But I guess since you’re new here…”
    “Do they know who did it?”
    “No, not yet,” he said. “But it could be anybody. Seriously, dude was angry . He was always yelling about something or other. I’d see him outside his store screaming at his customers, telling them to never come back. Now me, I want to make my customers feel special so they want to come back.” He gave me a slimy smile, as if he needed to make it more clear that he was coming on to me. When I didn’t react, he went back to talking about Mr. Cardosi.
    “He came in here once, like a month ago, to buy a phone. The one he had was so old, it still had an antenna . I mean, come on, the thing was from, like, the nineties! Anyway, he was in here looking at the new touch screens, and forget apps, he couldn’t even make a phone call with one! He kept asking where the keypad was and how he was supposed to dial anybody. It made him so angry, but it was so funny! He just kept poking at it, and every time he’d get close to getting it to do what he wanted, he’d end up hitting the home button or the power button or the volume, then he’d freak out even more. Dude finally just threw the phone on the counter and stormed out. ‘I’m taking my business elsewhere!’” Chris said in an impression of Mr. Cardosi.
    That was the second Mr. Cardosi impression I’d heard that morning, and I preferred Matty’s. Matty’s was affectionate. Chris’s was just… rude .
    “I laughed about it for days !” he added.
    He was still laughing about it. I knew Mr. Cardosi’s fits could be comical, but it seemed wrong to laugh about it now that he was dead. Even if I would have considered going out with Chris before, which I wouldn’t have, I really wouldn’t now. Chris’s diatribe had put a bad taste in my mouth, but it had given me the tidbit that Mr. Cardosi had been looking for a new, more modern phone. Maybe that was something useful.
    “Well, that’s certainly interesting,” I said tersely. I was more than ready to get out of there. I looked at my phone briefly. “Oh, look at the time! I really need to get going!” I made for the door.
    “What about that date?” Chris asked as I hurried past him.
    “I don’t think it’s going to work out,” I said, nearly out the door.
    “But why not?” Chris called.
    “Oh, just, um…” I glanced around the street. “You’re not really my type.” I took off down the sidewalk.

Chapter 9
    I hurried down the sidewalk and turned the corner at the end of the block. I didn’t know if Chris was watching me walk away—I wasn’t about to turn around and look back—but if he was, I wanted to be out of his view as soon as possible. I paused just around the corner to see if I could hear footsteps following me. I couldn’t, but I didn’t know how likely it was that I would actually be able to hear someone behind me. People always could in the movies, but this was real life, not the latest blockbuster thriller.
    I walked for a few more blocks, turning at every corner just in case someone was tailing me. I figured if I was going to investigate Mr. Cardosi’s death, I may as well have fun with it. When I arrived at one of the town parks, I made my way to a bench and sat down to text Matty. I assumed he was at work, but I thought I could go ahead and see if he wanted to get together that evening to discuss the case a little more.
    I leaned back against the bench to relax while I waited for his response. I wasn’t sure if he would be able to respond quickly or not, or if I even merited an immediate response in his book. I gazed around the park. It was one of those cute old parks with a collection of concrete chess tables. My grandfather used to take me there when I was growing up to play chess, but he’d made me practice at home for a long time before he’d let me go to the park and play with his buddies. A scattering of