Rise and Die (The Early Bird Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Read online

  Rise and Die

  The Early Bird Café Cozy Mystery Series

  by Ginny Gold

  Copyright © 2014 Ginny Gold

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and/or publisher. No part of this publication may be sold or hired, without written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the writer’s imagination and/or have been used fictitiously in such a fashion it is not meant to serve the reader as actual fact and should not be considered as actual fact. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  IN THE KITCHEN WITH GINNY GOLD

  CHAPTER 1

  Kori Cooke couldn’t believe her bad luck. She’d worked her butt off for the past two years to get The Early Bird Café to be the place to go for breakfast in Hermit Cove. She’d said no to dates—not that there had been many. She’d worked on Friday and Saturday nights. She’d put every penny she’d earned in New York City into her baby.

  And now she had competition. Good competition.

  Kori had known Tessa Doyle in New York. They’d been competitors since culinary school. Tessa had pegged Kori as her only worthy adversary in a first semester class—knife skills—and had kept her close.

  Too close.

  After graduating, Kori took a job at a bakery in New York and Tessa had followed her just around the corner. Kori had quickly realized that baking wasn’t where her heart was but she put in a few years to gain the experience she needed. And the funds.

  When she’d finally felt ready, she’d moved back home to Hermit Cove in the Green Mountains and opened The Early Bird Café. It had taken only two years for Tessa to follow her.

  Now, Tessa’s Sunrise and Shine was at the opposite end of Main Street and Kori was livid.

  She didn’t mind that she had competition. But why had Tessa followed her to Hermit Cove? The town was a tourist attraction and almost nothing else. They got adventurous travelers in the summer—hikers, canoers and kayakers—leaf peepers in the fall, skiers in the winter and the spring was pretty slow. Which was perfect for Kori.

  But there weren’t enough residents and tourists to support two cafés. The country was certainly big enough for both Kori and Tessa, so why had Tessa followed her to the middle of nowhere?

  That was Kori’s first thought when she woke up well before the sun on Monday morning. She’d worked all weekend and it was all she could do to convince herself to roll out of bed. She couldn’t be late this morning—or any Monday—because she had to meet Nora Farmer with a week’s worth of eggs.

  She loved that she lived above the café. It made it possible for her to sneak home if she forgot something, and it allowed her to sleep as late as possible every morning. But four a.m. was never late enough.

  Kori pulled on the pair of jeans that was lying crumpled on the floor where she’d thrown them the night before and put on a black t-shirt, her standard uniform. She still hadn’t designed a t-shirt with her logo but that would come. Whenever she had a minute to breathe.

  She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and let it hang down her back. She’d also meant to keep her hair short but she’d run out of time for a hair cut as well.

  By the time she was downstairs and unlocking the front door, Nora was already parked outside, waiting patiently in her old pickup truck. It wasn’t quite road worthy but at four in the morning, who was going to tell her to take it back to her farm?

  Kori quickly turned on the coffee that was already setup to brew and headed outside.

  “Good morning, sleepy head,” Nora said, getting out of the driver’s side and heading to the back of the pickup.

  “Morning,” Kori responded, stifling a yawn. She’d have to make strong coffee to get through today. “How are the hens doing now that it’s getting warmer and the days are getting longer?”

  “Better and better. I have about one hundred eggs for you today, you think that’ll get you through the week?”

  “I sure hope so. If not, I’ll have to buy you some more chickens just so I can feed everyone.”

  “I wouldn’t be opposed to that. The eighteen I have would be plenty if I didn’t eat so many.”

  The two women carried the cartons of eggs into the café together, each making at least two trips. They’d known each other their whole lives, having both grown up in Hermit Cove. Nora had never left. Even when her parents and siblings got sick of the small town and moved away to various cities, Nora couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She’d spent a couple years after high school traveling the world and working for her keep on various organic farms, learning different tricks and techniques. When she was finally ready, she settled down on ten acres and started her own organic farm.

  “I brought you some goat cheese too,” Nora told Kori when all of the eggs were in the walk-in refrigerator. Nora handed her two quarts of fresh soft cheese and they sat together in a booth, drinking steaming cups of coffee.

  “This will be perfect. I’ll make today’s special goat cheese omelets. Everyone loves this cheese and it’s usually gone within a couple hours.”

  “You need any veggies for fillings?”

  Kori shook her head. “I’m fully stocked right now. The weekend was slow with customers so everything you brought me on Friday barely got touched.”

  “Slow for the weekend, or just slow?” Nora asked. Usually Saturday and Sunday were Kori’s busiest days.

  “Slow for any day. Everyone must have been trying out the new Sunrise and Shine. I just can’t believe that Tessa still feels like she has to compete with me. Why else would she move to Hermit Cove?”

  Nora and Kori hadn’t stopped talking about Tessa since she’d officially opened the café two weeks ago.

  “She actually had the nerve to call me yesterday to order some vegetables,” Nora said.

  “She didn’t!” Kori was stunned. “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her the truth. It’s still early in the season and I barely have enough coming in to keep you stocked. I just don’t have the inventory to supply a second café.”

  Nora had two greenhouses full of vegetables and the cold crops were finally starting to pick up. They’d been slow all winter and Kori’d had to be creative with some of her menu items. She’d offered a lot more pancake varieties when she was low on veggies but eggs seemed to be a lot more popular. She now knew she had to plan better to get through the winter.

  “But even if you did have enough . . .?” Kori let the question hang between them.

  “I’d love to be able to turn her down, you know that. But I have to make enough to pay the bills too.”

  “I know, I know. I’d get used to it. And it looks like I’ll have to get used to it if she’s taking my business away. Hopefully this goat cheese will remind everyone who buys
local. And organic. And the best. And who’s been here longer.”

  “I’m sure it’ll work out,” Nora assured her friend as she stood up from the booth. “I’ve gotta get back home. Those chickens don’t collect their own eggs.”

  “Thanks for coming by. And for the eggs and cheese. Anything else out of the ordinary that you need to sell?”

  “Not yet. Give me a couple months and then you’ll be swimming in fresh produce. And jams. Just wait for that.”

  “I’m looking forward to it. I’m planning to make my own bread when you have the jams ready. Any chance you’re going to be growing your own wheat?”

  “Not yet. But I’ll add it to the list of demands you have for me.” Nora laughed and waved as she let herself back out the front door.

  That was Kori’s cue to get to work for real. While Mondays were always the hardest day for her to get out of bed, they were her favorite once she was in the café. It was the only day she could count on Nora stopping by and she loved spending the morning with her friend. The rest of the week, Kori was alone until she opened at five thirty.

  And it was already four thirty. She had a lot to do before she’d be ready for her first customer. She still had to get the menu written out, after taking stock of what she was going to offer. Besides the goat cheese omelet, which she knew she could charge more for, she was going to offer plain, banana and lemon pancakes, cinnamon and stuffed French toast, and biscuits and gravy.

  Her menu changed daily, based on what she had on hand and she never bothered typing one up. She had three chalk boards that she had painted on the walls and between the three of them, the menu was easily visible from every booth and table. This cut down on her overhead and helped save the environment.

  Kori set to work getting all of the pancake ingredients out of the walk-in fridge. She took out the first dozen eggs from Nora and the milk from the dairy down the road. Kori tried to buy everything from Nora but there were just some things she didn’t carry. Yet. She had two goats but they didn’t produce nearly enough milk for Kori’s needs and she preferred cow’s milk for anything that was cooked, baked or fried.

  She got the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and vinegar down from the shelves and set to work. The best way to get light and fluffy pancakes was to use buttermilk, or to make her own. She poured the milk into her large mixing bowl and then added enough vinegar to curdle it. She set that aside and started assembling the stuffed French toast.

  She was interrupted by her cell phone ringing in her pocket. She glanced at the clock and saw it was still before five, then looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. It had a New York area code, so it wasn’t too unusual. It could be anyone she’d worked with in the past, or even someone trying to recruit her.

  “Hello?” she answered after wiping her hands on a towel.

  “Kori Cooke,” a familiar voice stated. “Alex Marks. Remember me?”

  “Alex, how are you?” She hadn’t heard from or talked to him since college when he’d been hers and Tessa’s professor. And hired Tessa to work for him instead of herself. She hadn’t held it against Tessa but it did make this call even more unusual.

  “You’re back home in Hermit Cove, I hear. How’s business there?” he asked conversationally.

  “It’s fine. Nothing like New York but it’s the right place for me.” She wondered if this was in fact a recruiting call.

  “Hey, I heard Tessa moved there too. You guys working together?”

  “Nope. She opened a café just down the road. Competition.” Kori couldn’t keep the annoyance out of her voice.

  Alex laughed. “She was always one to compete.”

  “That she was. So what can I do for you?” Kori assumed this wasn’t just a friendly catching up.

  “I’ve been trying to get in touch with Tessa for a while now. You wouldn’t have her number, would you?”

  Kori was only slightly confused about how he’d gotten her number but didn’t have Tessa’s. “Give me a second. I’ll see if I have it.”

  Kori scrolled through her contacts and found Tessa’s phone number. She was surprised she even had it. And she had her email too. She wrote both down and then got back on the phone. “Alex? I have her phone number and email address. It looks like they’re both new since she opened her café here. You ready?

  “Yup.”

  Kori recited all of Tessa’s contact information for Alex and then he quickly ended the conversation.

  “Great to chat but I’ve gotta run,” he said.

  Kori only gave the call a half second more thought before she heard the front door open and she glanced at the clock to see that it was still only five.

  “Kori!” she her heard mother, Gale, call.

  Kori took a deep breath and prepared herself for the whirlwind of energy she was about to endure.

  “In the kitchen!” she called back when she knew she wasn’t going to be able to hide any longer and was about to be found anyway.

  “You’ll never believe it—” Her mother stopped dead in her tracks when she entered the kitchen. This was a common routine. She would get all worked up, open with some exclamation and then wait for Kori’s reaction. But she wouldn’t have anything to react to yet.

  “What won’t I believe, Mother?” she asked, looking up to take in her mother’s expression. She could see that her mother had likely been up at least as long as Kori. She couldn’t understand why her mother would inflict that kind of schedule on herself.

  “It’s too much, I don’t even know if I should tell you,” her mother finally continued, another habit of hers.

  Gale was the town gossip, or at least one of them. She’d been able to retire early, thanks to a hefty life insurance payout when her husband had suddenly died of a heart attack. She couldn’t have asked for a better blessing. She’d been about to leave him anyway.

  Kori had secretly suspected that her mother had had a hand in his death but she couldn’t blame her. He’d been a mostly absent father until she’d gone away to culinary school. Her success had brought him back into her life against her will.

  Kori turned back to her pancake batters and added flour to each bowl of curdled milk. She knew her mother would share her gossip when she was ready and Kori likely didn’t want to know anyway.

  “It’s about your brother,” Gale finally divulged.

  “What about Jay?” Kori asked. Her mother had named her two kids after birds—the blue jay for her older brother and the kori bustard for Kori. She’d had a miserable few years through middle and high school when kids found out what she was named after and changed bustard into an insult she heard almost daily. Gale’s full name was Nightingale, a name she’d despised early on but had finally accepted as her identity.

  “He might be a father.”

  This brought Kori to a stop. She looked back up at her mother. Sometimes she shared ridiculous stories just to get Kori’s attention and then told her the real story that always disappointed in terms of excitement.

  “No way,” Kori challenged.

  Gale only nodded.

  “How do you know? Did he tell you this?” Jay had an even harder time relating to their mother than Kori did.

  “Heavens no. I can’t get him to tell me what his weekend plans are, never mind that I might be a grandmother. A grandmother! And I didn’t even have a clue.”

  Gale rambled on but Kori tuned her out. The few words and phrases that permeated her consciousness didn’t give Kori a good idea if her mother was excited or terrified of being a grandmother.

  “So what do you think I should do?” Gale finally asked. This was how Kori knew her mother was finished with her gossip. She always wanted Kori’s help in dealing with whatever catastrophe she had uncovered.

  “Well, you could leave it alone and let Jay figure out if he even wants us to know. Or let him figure out if he really is a father before you go asking him about it.”

  “Mm hmm.” Gale nodded, seriously considering Kori’s advice.
“Or I could plant some clues about it. Jay might not even know. I could discretely lead him to the evidence.”

  Kori didn’t know why she even tried. Her mother asked her how she should deal with something big but then she always ignored her advice. Now she had to figure out how to get Gale out of the café so she could get back to work.

  Kori was suddenly spared that challenge. “Well, I’m off to spin class. I’ll see you later!”

  Kori waved and her mother headed back out front. She hoped this wasn’t going to become a daily routine. She could handle her mother stopping in before spin twice a week but everyday would be a headache.

  Kori buckled down and got all of the pancake batters finished and set them next to the griddle, which she turned to low heat to start warming up before her first order. The stuffed French toast went into the oven to bake for a half hour and she set to work cutting out the biscuits from dough she’d made over the weekend and hadn’t used. The gravy was also already made and just had to be gently rewarmed in a pot on the stove.

  She was finally ready for business at five twenty-nine and walked to the front door to flip the sign to open. She didn’t bother with locking the door after her early morning visitors left, knowing that no one else in town was crazy enough to be out and about that early.

  Usually Kori didn’t get her first customers until close to six, so she was surprised when she heard the door open as she was still walking back to the kitchen where she was going to keep working. She turned around and saw the last person she expected.

  CHAPTER 2

  Tessa Doyle looked beyond angry; so far past it that she had moved into a whole new realm. And Kori had no idea why.

  Tessa’s eyes were open wide—wider than Kori thought was humanly possible. Her fists were clenched at her sides and a vein was throbbing in her neck, a second one starting to swell in her forehead.

  “Good morning, Tessa,” Kori said in the nicest voice she could muster for the only person in Hermit Cove to whom she truly had nothing to say.