Murder at Jade Cove (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 2) by Dianne Harman Page A

can go somewhere in the spring. I’d rather not get involved in
making plans for the wedding and a honeymoon all at the same time, and to be
honest, after last night, I’m not sure we even need a honeymoon. Let’s face it;
I think we’re already living and enjoying it!”         
    “Stay in bed,” Mike said.
“I know Sunday is your favorite day of the week. Tell you what. I’ll bring you
the newspaper and some coffee. I’ll even give you the crossword puzzle and you
can do it while I read the rest of the paper. Deal?”
    “Perfect, but I need to
spend some time at the coffee shop this afternoon. When I left Friday I noticed
we were pretty low on a few things. I need to place an order with Lucy at the
market and do some prep for the coming week. What are your plans?”
    “I want to spend some time
working on the Jeff Black case. There are still so many loose ends. For one
thing, there are too many people who have a motive to kill Jeff. I’d like to
eliminate some of them. I’m just not sure how to do it. Maybe I’ll construct
some kind of a pyramid chart. Like putting the ones who have the best reason
for killing him at the top and working down from there, but right now I’m going
to bring us bagels with all the trimmings. That gravlax is about the best thing
I’ve ever had. I don’t remember you ever serving it at the coffee shop. Did I
miss it?”
    “No. I was afraid the name
‘gravlax’ would scare people off and they wouldn’t order it. It shouldn’t
because it’s nothing more than salmon that’s cured in the refrigerator with
some herbs, salt and sugar. The problem is that gravlax doesn’t really sound
like a coffee shop kind of thing. I mean everyone knows what caramel rolls are
or sausage and gravy, but gravlax, don’t know if it would sell.”
    “Tell you what. Try it and
if it doesn’t sell, I’ll be happy to eat whatever’s left over,” he said,
grinning at her as he left the room.
    Two hours later after
gorging themselves on gravlax on toasted bagels and working the crossword
puzzle, Kelly said, “Mike, I’m going to 11:00 mass. Stay where you are. I’ll be
back after that. I haven’t been able to reach Julia and Cash about the wedding,
so I need to call them and make sure they can attend the wedding in February.
Cash will probably have to put in his request for leave as soon as possible. I
sure hope he can come home for it. It seems like every week some new form of
violence erupts in the Middle East. I wish he was stationed a little closer to
home.”
    “Yeah, I know you’re
worried about him being stationed in such an unstable part of the world, but
he’s got a lot going for him. He’s street smart and that’s often more important
than having some degree from an Ivy League school. He’s going to get out of
there and be fine.”
    “Hope you’re right. See
you later.”
    *****
    Kelly called Lucy with her grocery
order and picked it up on the way to the coffee shop. Wish there was a
Costco or another discount store in Cedar Bay. I know Lucy has to pay to have
everything delivered to her, but it sure would make my profit margin larger if
I could buy directly from one of them. I appreciate the discount she gives me,
but I guess I just don’t have the volume to have it delivered directly to me.
Oh well, cost of living in a small town. At least most everything else is
cheaper than if I lived in San Francisco or Portland.
    Three hours later she’d
prepared everything she could for the coming week, caught up on some bookwork,
and got the coffee ready for the following morning. Wonder if Marcy’s back
from Portland. Never did get a chance to talk to her the other day. I know,
I’ll get some of my bacon chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and take
them to her. They defrost in minutes and if she doesn’t want them, she can
always put them in her freezer.
     

CHAPTER 16
     
    Kelly stood at the front door of the
Black’s ranch house and knocked on the door. While