Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 03 - Dead and Berried by Ginny Gold Page B

and both women looked up at her.
    Holly paused. “Well, he’s a lawyer for one thing. And not just any lawyer, but a corporate lawyer. Did you know that a big box store wanted to sue me because I was selling compost that didn’t meet their standards? And guess who was leading the charge. Yup. Dan Roche. He just has no compassion for people doing the right thing; for the little guy, so to speak.”
    “He was the one representing the manufacturer’s chemical spill too,” Kori added.
    “And not just any manufacturer. But he sits on the board for that company,” Holly said, disgust lacing her every word. “He was always just looking out for his own bottom line. He had no sense of working together for the greater good.”
    Kori didn’t need to hear anything else to know that Holly had a motive. She clearly hated this man, had been involved in a case against him and wanted him gone.
    “Did you hear that he wasn’t poisoned after all?” Kori asked.
    “What do you mean?” Holly asked, repeating Kori’s question from moments ago. Her face had drained of some color but she managed to keep her voice steady.
    “It sounds like the poisoned strawberries were placed ne xt to his body as a distraction to throw off the investigation. But nothing showed up in his blood. And he was allergic to strawberries so he wouldn’t have had the strawberries. Someone had to put them there.”
    “Huh,” Holly said, regaining her composure. “I guess not many people would know that about him.”
    Kori wanted to call Zach right now but she didn’t have a confession. And she knew she wouldn’t get one in such a public place. To put everyone back at ease she asked, “Do you know what you’d like for breakfast?”
    Holly was once again thrown off but quickly recovered and ordered the granola. Mel got a green smoothie.
    Back in the kitchen, Kori couldn’t help texting Nora to tell her about the conversation with Holly. In response, Nora told her, Police traced Dan’s cell phone GPS to Edwards and Greene Friday night before he was killed.
    Maybe Kori was barking up the wrong tree.

CHAPTER 11
     
    Kori couldn’t be done with work soon enough but the day seemed to just drag on, giving her even more inspiration to start looking for some help. Around nine thirty , Jay and Lani came in. Jay was absolutely glowing, something she’d never seen from him before.
    “Hey Kori,” he said, much more cheerful than usual. Lani smiled and gave a slight wave of her hand. She didn’t seem as into Jay as he was into her.
    “Hi Jay. No work this morning?” she asked him as they took a seat at the counter in front of where she was working at the stove.
    “Kyle’s covering for me. He had the early breakfast. I get brunch.”
    “Not a bad deal.” Kori considered asking if he knew Jenna was pregnant but decided it wasn’t her news to tell so she kept her mouth shut. “Thanks again for your help on Sunday. It really made the day so much easier.” She hadn’t seen him yesterday to thank him again.
    “Of course.”
    Their conversation was suddenly cut short with the door opening. All eyes turned toward it to see who was there and Kori was surprised to see Mayor Devlin. Kori placed two cups of coffee in front of Lani and Jay and walked to the front door to greet him.
    “Good morning Mayor,” she said as he continued to look around , confused.
    “You must be Kori Cooke. I heard all about this place on Saturday night,” he boomed and Kori’s face reddened. She knew he’d been at the fireworks with her mom but didn’t really want every patron to know that.
    “There’s an empty seat at the counter, are you eating alone?” Kori asked, hoping to steer him toward a safer topic of conversation.
    “No, no.” A young woman, at most half his age, entered and stood at his arm, beaming. “This is Misty. She’ll be joining me.”
    Kori scanned the café but there were no empty tables or booths. “It’ll be a little while before a table is