Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 01 - Rise and Die (8 page)

“I’ve actually gotta go talk to Zach about the postcard so we can try to figure out who it came from,” Kori said when she had spilled the rest of the details.

“
We
, huh? I like the sounds of that.”

Kori blushed, even though she was just on the phone and not in front of Nora. “Don’t worry, Detective Gunn will be there to kill the mood. I’ll call you later.”

“Thanks. Keep me posted.”

Kori hung up and took a quick shower before changing her clothes and heading back downstairs. There, Detective Gunn was waiting for her and promptly put her in handcuffs.

“Is this really necessary?” Kori asked as politely as she could. She didn’t think she had much bargaining room. And how had Nora seemed to know that she was so close to being in jail?

“Yes it is, now that your friend isn’t here to keep you out of them.”

Kori looked around in a panic. Where had Zach gone? Hopefully just home to shower. She couldn’t bare being alone with Detective Gunn. She didn’t trust him, as he’d given her no reason why she should.

“Where did Zach go?” Kori asked as Detective Gunn pushed her head down and into the back of his car.

“He told me to bring you in so we can all chat. That you have some new information you need to get off your chest. I’m hoping for a full confession.”

Kori decided to keep her mouth shut. She crossed her fingers that Zach would already be at the station when they arrived.

Thankfully, his was the first face she saw when Detective Gunn roughly escorted her into the building.

“That’s not really necessary. Take those off,” Zach instructed when he saw Kori handcuffed. The first thing Kori noticed was that he was clean shaven and in a freshly ironed uniform. She couldn’t really blame him for wanting to get cleaned up
but she pretended he’d done it for her. “I’ll take her from here.”

Detective Gunn unlocked the cuffs and Zach gently took her arm and led her into an interrogation room, the same one she’d seen too many times already this week.

“Is he going to join us?” Kori asked nervously.

“After that behavior, I don’t think that will be necessary. Water? Coffee? Don’t get coffee. It’s not nearly as good as what you make.”

“Thanks for the heads up. Just water then.”

Zach left the room for only a few seconds and came back with two cups of water.

“What else have you figured out?” Kori asked as soon as they were both seated across from each other at the table. “Am I in danger?”

“I have to be honest with you. That postcard is going to help your case significantly. If you’d killed Tessa, why would someone be threatening you with knowing too much?”

“Great. So why’d I just get handcuffed and brought in?”

“You’re not in the clear yet. It’s just looking good.” Zach relaxed back into his seat, giving Kori confidence that she wouldn’t be on the suspect list much longer.

“What about my tire?” she asked.

“
Forensics came back. But there was nothing useful. No fingerprints that came up in any system. And there were only two sets, so we had to assume they belonged to you and Jay. And it was definitely slashed with a knife. Maybe the same knife that was used to kill Tessa. We’re still working on that.”

“Do you want my fingerprints to make sure? I’m sure Jay would be willing too.”

“Maybe down the line. But what I really want to talk about is this postcard and Tessa’s life in New York. What can you tell me?”

“Well, Jenna told me that a fancy red car with New York plates was at Sunrise and Shine on Monday and she hasn’t seen it since. She lives next door, so she just happened to notice it.”

Zach was furiously making notes and Kori paused to let him catch up. “Keep going,” he said without looking up.

“She never saw the driver
and I don’t know anyone with a fancy red car who would have known Tessa. In fact, I don’t know anyone in New York with a car. Or at least I didn’t know they had a car.” Kori could hear herself babbling and Zach stopped writing. She knew what she was saying wasn’t helpful.

“What about past bosses? Lovers? You said her ex was in town—Dylan?”

“Yeah. He didn’t seem too distraught over her death. The last I knew, they were separated. That was before I moved two years ago. I guess they never went through with the divorce, or hadn’t yet but I never knew them to really get along.”

“So if she was sleeping with someone else, it wouldn’t really have been a problem?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Kori said, blushing because she was talking about sex with someone she knew was interested in her. And she had to admit, she wasn’t
un
interested in Zach. He had aged well and now she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him.

“Okay, so a possible ex-husband. But no lovers that you know of?” Kori shook her head. “What about her past jobs? Or in school, any leads there that we should be looking at?”

That’s when it hit Kori like a ton of bricks. “Our professor, Alex Marks. I can’t believe I didn’t see this sooner!”

“See what sooner? Who’s Alex Marks?” Zach wrote the name on his pad of paper and then looked up, waiting for Kori to continue.

The wheels were spinning in Kori’s mind. “He taught a pastry class our first semester. And he had a wildly successful bakery. He always let one student work there while he was their teacher. That student was Tessa.”

“Okay,” Zach said, drawing out the two syllables.

“He called me on Monday. It didn’t make any sense at the time. I didn’t think twice about it because my mom interrupted me and I cut the conversation short. But he called looking for Tessa. And then she came in less than an hour later and accused me of doing something I didn’t even know about. Later, I thought she was accusing me of throwing that rock through her window but that wasn’t it at all. She was mad because I’d told Alex where she was.”

“Why wouldn’t she want Alex to know where she was?” Zach asked.

“I don’t know. That’s what I need to figure out. I need to call him. Follow up on that phone call. See if he knows anything. That postcard, can you fingerprint it?”

“We can
but it’s traveled through who knows how many hands. It’ll be a long shot.”

“What about the
knife? Whose fingerprints came back on that?”

“None. Just Tessa’s DNA. It wasn’t helpful.”

“And the car? What if you looked up Alex’s car?” Kori was on a roll and couldn’t slow down.

Just then, Detective Gunn stormed into the interrogation room. “This conversation is over. I will not let a civilian—who is a suspect, no less—be involved in my investigation!”

“
Your
investigation?” Zach asked him, standing up and staring him down. He was taller and had broader shoulders and looked intimidating when he was angry, which Kori couldn’t remember ever having seen him before.

“Yes,
my
investigation. Need I remind you that I’m the lead detective on this case?”

“No, you don’t. And since I’m your lieutenant, I know I don’t have to remind you that I
’m your supervisor, Detective Gunn.”

Zach stood his ground and Detective Gunn turned and stormed out much the way he’d entered.

“I think it’ll be best if we end this conversation. And I don’t think you should stay at home tonight. With the postcard in evidence, you’ll be cleared so I don’t have to monitor you anymore. Can you stay with Nora tonight?” Zach asked, giving Kori a sympathetic look. “And Kori? Please don’t call Alex.”

Kori nodded
but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to follow that last advice. She knew he was involved and needed to figure out how.

Zach gave her a ride back to her café. She threw a few things into a bag and drove over to Nora’s.

Nora was in the driveway before Kori had even shut off her car. “I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t think you should be staying at home if whoever sent that postcard knows where you live.”

“Yeah, Zach had the same idea. So here I am! Can I crash here tonight?” Kori asked, grabbing her bag from the back seat.

“Of course. Come on inside. Where are you coming from if you closed so long ago?”

“The police station.”

“What?” Nora put her hand on Kori’s arm in surprise. “I thought you called me from your house.”

“I did. But then I went downstairs to head to the station to talk to Zach, and Detective Gunn put me handcuffs again.”

“What’s with that guy? He seems to have something out for you.”

“I know, right? I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

“So then you talked to Zach?” Nora opened the door and Milo and Otis nearly ran them over.

“Yeah. Open a couple beers and I’ll catch you up.”

***

Hours later, and many beers in, Kori finally convinced Nora that it was a good idea to call Alex. “He’s involved. I don’t know how
but he’s definitely involved.”

“Before you call, let’s look him up on Facebook,” Nora suggested as her last line of defense.

“Perfect. I’m actually friends with him. Let’s check out his recent activity. See if he checked in anywhere near here. Or if he has a photo of his car. Or who his friends are.”

Kori started looking at his profile on her smartphone
but Nora brought out her computer. “If we’re going to really check him out, we need to be able to see what we’re looking at. Here, login on this.”

Kori did as instructed and pulled up his profile.
“I’ll start with his friends,” she said and clicked on the tab. She immediately searched for Tessa Doyle, who was listed. Kori wondered what happened to Facebook accounts of the deceased.

“What about anyone else from Hermit Cove?” Nora asked.

“Why would he know anyone else from here? To the best of my knowledge, he’s never been here. Unless he was here on Monday. What about his photos? Let’s look at those instead.”

She clicked over
to the photos and scrolled through them at a moderate pace. “Wait! Stop. Go back up,” Nora said, pointing to the screen. “That one. Is that—”

A loud knock on the door followed by ferocious barking by Milo and Otis interrupted Nora’s question
but Kori had already seen the photo. It was Alex and Detective Gunn standing in front of a bright red BMW. Just like the one that Jenna had described.

“Call Zach!” Nora shouted as she ran for any weapon she could find.
“The dogs don’t bark like this for just anyone.”

Kori knew the dogs would protect Nora
but she wasn’t so sure about herself, so she followed Nora and grabbed a knife from the counter. She was nearly positive that the person at the front door was Detective Gunn. He knew where she was staying because he’d been listening to her conversation with Zach. And he had something against her and it was slowly becoming clear what that might be.

Knife in hand, she followed Nora out the back door and toward the barn. They could stay out of view of the
front of the house but the muddy ground would leave an easy trail for anyone to follow.

When they reached the barn, they hid in the loft and Kori dialed Zach’s cell phone number rather than 911. She didn’t want her call broadcast over the scanner to alert Detective Gunn of her whereabouts. But if that was really him, he already knew where she was.

“Kori, what is it? Are you at Nora’s?” Zach asked. She could hear the worry in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m here,” she whispered.

“Did you call Alex Marks?”

“No. I didn’t. I was going to. But someone’s here. I think they’re after me,” she said, skipping all the details. She could tell him later. She just needed to get him here. Now.

“What? Who?”

“I don’t know.
I think it’s Detective Gunn but we didn’t see him. We ran into the barn. We’re hiding in the loft. Just come. Fast!”

“I’m on my way. Don’t hang up. I want to hear that you’re okay.”

Kori didn’t hang up but she put the phone on the ground. She and Nora made eye contact but nothing passed between them about how Zach was about to be their rescuer. They only conveyed panic and fear.

“Crawl over to that window,” Nora directed and pointed toward the front of the barn. “Then we can see the house.”

Kori did as she was told. “Where are the dogs?” she asked. In her panic, she hadn’t paid any attention to what Nora had done with Milo and Otis when they’d left the house at a run.

“They came out with us. So they either alerted him to where we were, or they’re protecting us and attacking him.”

They peered out the window and were relieved to only see their own two sets of footprints leading to the barn through the mud. They couldn’t see the front of the house but they could now hear the dogs barking wildly.

“Kori?” Zach’s voice came over the phone.

She picked it back up and asked him, “Yeah?”

“I just got to Nora’s
but I don’t see any other cars, just yours. Did you happen to see any cars come up the driveway?”

“No. Where are the dogs?” she asked. She couldn’t even consider that whoever
had knocked—Detective Gunn or not—was going to get away.

“They’re out front, barking. Come down here. I’ll take you both somewhere. Someone knows too much
and you’re not safe here either.”

“Check the house first,” Kori requested.

Kori could hear Zach open the front door. She heard the dogs’ paws on the wooden floor, storming past him, still barking. They weren’t taking any chances either. After another couple minutes of waiting, Zach assured her, “There’s no one here. Let’s get you guys somewhere safe for the night. Any ideas?”

Kori and Nora exchanged a look
and then Nora grabbed the phone before Kori could stop her. “I think the only place we’ll feel safe is your house, Zach.”

Kori’s eyes filled with panic. She couldn’t say she didn’t enjoy that idea
but she would have never acted on it.

“Oh. Okay,” Zach sputtered. “Why don’t you come back to your house and we can talk about it.”

Without hanging up the phone, the women descended the ladder from the loft and walked silently back to the house. The dogs were happy to see them and Zach was blushing a deep red, seated at the table.

Nora and Kori silently took seats at the table
and Kori finally hung up her phone.

“What are our options?” Kori asked Zach.

“You’re both in danger, that much is clear. My gut tells me that it’s connected to the postcard. Which we haven’t gotten the fingerprint analysis on but I’m not hopeful.”

“Before you go on,” Kori interrupted, looking at Nora for backup. “We looked up Alex Marks on Facebook
and it turns out he’s friends with Detective Gunn. We think that was him coming after us. Did you look up the car registration?”

“I did. It’s not Alex’s—”

“Well, then, we’re led to believe that it’s Detective Gunn’s. There’s a photo of the two of them standing in front of a red car,” Kori explained.

“I’ve never seen him driving a red Beamer,” Zach objected. “But I did find something interesting when I was looking into Alex; he’s married to Detective Gunn’s sister.”

Kori saw Nora’s face blanch and she suspected hers did the same. No one spoke for several moments as they absorbed that new information.

“So you believe that Detective Gunn is involved in this as more than just the lead detective?” Kori finally asked, making sure she was reading his statement correctly.

“I’m starting to believe that. But we don’t have anything concrete to link Alex and Gunn to Tessa’s death.”

“If we can find him, I think I can get him to admit it. Use me as bait,” Kori pleaded.

“Not a chance. That’s way too risky,” Zach said, shaking his head.

“You’d be there the whole time, somewhere hiding. Just let me try to get the information out of him.”

Kori and Zach went back and forth for several minutes before Nora jumped in. “I think Kori’s right. I think this is our best shot. Not only are we both in danger but it looks like Hermit Cove has a rogue cop on its hands. We have to find him and Kori’s the key to getting him to at least show his face.”

“Fine. Fine. If this is the way you want to get yourself killed—”

“I’m not going to get myself killed,” Kori said, exasperated. She understood that Zach was trying to protect her, and she appreciated that, but right now she had to end this nightmare. “It’s still light out. Let’s go find Detective Gunn.”

All three of them piled into Nora’s truck. They weren’t going to take a chance in the police cruiser or Kori’s car that had already been a target. Without discussing their plan, they headed to Detective Gunn’s house, hoping to find him there.

“Wait. No. Not his house. That will be too invasive,” Kori said suddenly, coming up with a better plan.

“Where, then?” Nora asked.

“Sunrise and Shine. Zach, call him and tell him you found new evidence. But not yet. Let’s go look for anything that would tie this to Detective Gunn or Alex Marks. Then call him and we’ll all be there.”

“You don’t think we’ve already scoured the place for anything that would solve this?” Zach asked.

“But
who
did the scouring? How much of it was you and how much was Gunn?”

“Fair point. Let’s go to the café,” Zach agreed and Nora turned around to head to the center of town.

She parked in front of Kori’s house so when Detective Gunn showed up, he wouldn’t suspect that she and Kori were there. They wanted him to think it was Zach drawing him there and then Kori planned to intercept him outside.

Once inside the police tape that was still around Sunrise and Shine, Kori headed straight to the office. As a fellow café owner, she knew better than the others what she was looking for. She didn’t know specifically what she would find
but she was suspicious of Tessa’s relationship with Alex after all those years. Had they been sleeping together? Or was it much deeper than that?

In the office, Kori completely ignored Zach and Nora. She took in her surroundings quickly—photos on the wall, framed certificates that Tessa had received over the years in both school and at work. But nothing with Alex in it.

She knew Tessa to be organized to a fault, so when she opened the filing cabinet, she was shocked to find it a huge mess. “Did you search in here?” she asked Zach.

He shook his head. “This was Gunn’s area. I took the kitchen.”

“He might have already gotten what he needed then to hide this. Look for a list of passwords. We have to get on her computer.”

Nora found passwords and usernames hidden in the middle of a cookbook above the desk and handed it to Kori.

“Perfect.” Kori turned the computer on and waited. She scanned the list of logins and found the one she would start with: a bank account local to New York.

When the computer had started and she had successfully logged on, Kori opened up an internet browser. Instead of bringing her to a home page, it logged her straight into Tessa’s email.

“Come here,” she called to Zach and Nora who quickly hovered behind her, looking over her shoulder. “Look at all these emails on Monday and Tuesday from Alex.”

“Open the first one,” Nora said, pointing to it.

Kori did as instructed and they all read silently. Kori felt her stomach tighten into knots at the implication.
You can thank your friend Kori Cooke for confirming what I already knew—you’re in Hermit Cove. Well, you couldn’t have chosen a better place to hide. You won’t get away with this any longer.

It was time stamped just after her call with Alex early in the morning.

Tessa had been angry with her for telling Alex where she was, not for any vandalism like she’d been accused. But if Tessa had known it wasn’t Kori who had thrown the rock through her window, why had she accused her and gotten her arrested?

She didn’t have time to find the answer to her question, because just then a crashing sound and breaking glass came from the front of the café. Kori turned around and saw that Zach already had his hand on his gun and was walking back out front.

“Stop,” she hissed to him. Thankfully he stopped. “Did you call Detective Gunn already?”

Zach shook his head. “But I think that’s him.”

“Let me go out there. It’s me he’s after. If he doesn’t know you’re here, he might tell me what’s going on.”

“Doubtful,” Nora whispered.

Zach nodded, agreeing with Nora.

Before either of them could stop her, Kori darted past them both and was in the front of the café. She was glad there was still enough light from the setting spring sun to be able to see clearly.

“I thought I might find you here,” Detective Gunn said, an already bloody knife in his hand.

She tried her best not to lose her cool
but she’d never been threatened before. “What made you think that?” she asked in what she hoped was an innocent tone.

“Like I said, you know too much.” His mouth twisted into a snarl.

“Well, I only know what you’ve let slip. Like that you’re friends with Alex Marks. And more than that, he’s actually your brother-in-law.”

“And you think that matters to me?” Detective Gunn’s hand never wavered, always ready to
strike at his target.

“I know that Tessa worked for Alex in college. And that she was hiding from him. And she happened to hide in the place where you lived, making it awfully convenient for you to take her out and make it look like I did it.”

Before Kori could move, a gunshot sounded and Detective Gunn was suddenly writhing on the ground, screaming. Blood was coming out of his leg where the bullet had penetrated his skin. Zach came rushing past her and handcuffed Detective Gunn while Kori stood in shock.

Nora guided Kori to a chair and waited for her gaze to return to life before she explained what had happened.

“We read more emails while you were out here,” she started and Kori nodded. “Tessa was stealing money from Alex; had been for over ten years. Probably since she worked for him. Alex couldn’t figure out what was going on until the address on the account the money was going into changed. He thought it was you at first but then called and learned Tessa was here too. So he was using you as a scapegoat. And he used Detective Gunn to do the dirty work. If you hadn’t thought to bring us here, who knows what Gunn would have done to you. We wouldn’t have known enough for Zach to take him out like that.”

Kori took in all of the information slowly. “So Gunn threw the rock through the window on Monday and then pinned it on me?” she asked

Nora nodded. “Convenient, isn’t it?”

“And who slashed my tires?”

“I think I just heard Gunn tell Zach it was him too. It was all part of the cover story. They needed it to look like you and Tessa were really out for each other.”

Kori slowly absorbed all this information as Zach got the rest of the details from Gunn. Gunn and Alex Marks were guilty
and Kori was off the hook.

That was all she could remember the next morning when she woke up in Nora’s guest room. She hadn’t had the nerve to go home alone.

Kori had a sudden moment of panic when she saw that the clock read six fifty but then remembered that she had the freedom to take a day off for personal reasons. And Friday seemed like the perfect day for that.

Slowly, she got out of bed and headed downstairs. Nora was nowhere to be seen
but Zach was sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a cup of coffee and a plate of eggs and bacon.