Free Cooking Up Murder by Miranda Bliss Page B

signal that the pleasantries, such as they were, were over. He was all business now. "I understand you two were with Drago Kravic when he died."
    Eve didn't so much frown as she pouted. In a pretty sort of way, of course. "Why, that sweet little Kaitlin told you that, didn't she? I'll bet that little girl just tells you all sorts of things. Sharing. It's so important to any relationship." She finished her riff with a lift of her shoulders. "Now, what was it we were talking about?"
    "Drago Kravic." Tyler was not amused. I could tell because a muscle twitched at the base of his jaw. "What can you tell me about him?"
    "Not a thing, of course," Eve said, at the same time I blurted out, "We saw him with Beyla, just a little while before he died."
    Eve gave me one of those looks but I wasn't about to be put off. She might have steamrolled me into keeping quiet when Kaitlin questioned us the night Drago died, but that's when we thought the man had died of a heart attack. Now that we knew it was murder . . .
    Well, it was my civic duty to tell Tyler everything I knew, wasn't it?
    "You saw the deceased? With her?" Tyler's laser gaze swiveled over to where Beyla was chopping parsley while she talked quietly to John. "She just told me she didn't know the man."
    "Then she's lying," Eve interjected. And I had to admit, her theory about Beyla was growing more and more convincing. "They were fighting, her and Drago. Right before he keeled over."
    After a year of dating her and another few months of engagement, Tyler was well aware of Eve's tendency to overstate things. He turned to me. "Is it true?"
    I nodded.
    "And when exactly was that?" he asked.
    I thought back to everything that happened that night. "It was just after nine o'clock," I told Tyler. "I remember because Eve left her watch here. We were already on our way home, and we turned around and came back. When we got here, we saw Drago and Beyla in the parking lot. We couldn't hear everything they were saying, but it was pretty obvious that it wasn't a friendly chat. A couple minutes later, we came up here and got Eve's watch. When she slipped it on, she commented that it was exactly nine twenty-five."
    "That's impossible, officer." Though we'd kept our voices down, John, the accountant, had apparently been listening. He walked over and joined in the conversation. "Beyla and I went for coffee after class that night. By nine twenty-five . . . well, I'm certain we'd already ordered and had our lattes in front of us. There's no way she could have been anywhere near here at that time, or even for a half hour or so before then."
    I shook my head, certain of the facts. "Eve checked her watch. It was--"
    "I'm sure I have the receipt somewhere." John patted down the pockets of his brown polyester pants and peeked in the pocket of the yellow shirt he had buttoned all the way to the neck. (After all, he is an accountant.)
    "Maybe it's at home in the jacket I wore that night," John said. "Yeah, I'm sure that's where I stuck it. I'd be glad to stop at the police station with it when I find it. Then you'll see, officer. Beyla and I got to Starbucks just a couple minutes before nine. I know their receipts are stamped with the time. There's no way these ladies could have seen Beyla arguing with that man. At nine twenty-five, Beyla was with me."
    Tyler dismissed John with an appreciative nod, then turned toward Eve and me. "You were saying?"
    "We were telling you what happened!" Eve stepped toward him, her eyes snapping. "If you'd pay half the attention you need to pay, Tyler Cooper, you'd know--"
    "What? That you'd like nothing better than to see me fall flat on my face when it comes to this investigation?" Tyler snorted. "Oh yeah, don't pretend it isn't true, Eve. Kaitlin told me how uncooperative you were the night she was here."
    "We told her everything she needed to know." I butted in. Better fudge the truth than to watch Eve and Tyler go at each other. Even though they kept their voices low,