Free Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat by Ginny Gold Page B

anywhere. I didn’t want to jump right into a city, so I ca me out here to Hermit Cove.”
    “What exactly is the work you do?” Kori asked, mentally crossing her fingers.
    “I’m an editor for an online publication.”
    Kori had to do a double take and she felt Nora shift beside her. How did someone smart enough to be an editor come off as such a bimbo? “What’s the publication?” Kori pressed.
    “It’s called Growing Green. It’s for urban gardeners to get information,” Joline explained.
    Kori wondered if she could be connected to Seeds ‘n More. Could that have been further motive than just her relationship with Marty? Kori nodded and waited for Joline to decide where she wanted to take the conversation.
    “That’s actually how I met Karin.” Kori tilted her head to one side. Was Karin even connected to Seeds ‘n More? She hadn’t said anything about that yesterday. “She was a regular contributor to the publication until about a year ago. I don’t know why, but she stopped adding anything to the magazine. She’d been freelancing, so maybe they just moved on without her. I’m not sure. But I met her at a conference the company put on. She told me about Hermit Cove, and well, here I am!”
    Kori nodded. “And from there you met Marty,” she offered as a segue to what she really wanted to know.
    “It’s hard not to meet people here.” Kori had to agree, but was glad she hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Joline before today. “The town’s so small. And with Marty and Karin right next door, they were my lifeline when I moved here and didn’t know anyone else.”
    “Did Karin help you get this place, then?” Kori asked.
    Joline shook her head, no. “Actually Marty did. He knew the owner who was selling and he negotiated a great deal for me.”
    So those toys outside weren’t hers. They’d probably belonged to the previous owner, Kori decided.
    “So that’s how you met?” Nora jumped in and asked.
    Joline nodded.
    “How would you describe the nature of your relationship?” Kori asked, trying to sound level and not like she was making any assumptions.
    The faraway look returned to Joline’s eyes and a smile formed on her lips. “I love him,” she whispered. Then her face suddenly changed to a hardened expression, her eyes growing dark. “But don’t write that. I would hate for Karin to know about us.”
    “What do you mean, ‘us’?” Kori asked.
    “He loved me too. He was going to leave Karin. I even have his divorce papers. But she didn’t know. And I wouldn’t want her to have any hard feelings toward her late husband. Or toward me, her current neighbor.”
    “Was there anyone you knew of who would want Marty dead?” Kori watched Joline closely and could see the wheels turning in her head.
    “There was one lady he talked about. I don’t remember her name, but she worked at Seeds ‘n More. You know, the place that let him go six months ago?”
    “He was fired?”
    Joline nodded. “I don’t know why though.”
    Nora asked Joline, “Her name wasn’t Ria Mayfield, was it?”
    “Yes! That was her. He didn’t like her. But I don’t know if there was anything bad enough between them that would make her want to kill him.”
    Kori looked at Nora, who looked back at Kori. If Nora was right, Ria didn’t have a mean streak in her body. And Doug certainly hadn’t seemed a reliable source to learn about Ria’s bad side. But if Nora had a suspicion now about Peter, maybe Ria had convinced him to do the dirty work.
    Kori returned to the jilted wife path. “You’re sure Karin didn’t know about the affair Marty was having with you?”
    Joline’s face paled. “Affair? Who said anything about an affair? We were in love. Affairs are for cheaters. You only cheat when you want to get even with your partner. But this wasn’t cheating. He was getting a divorce.” Joline’s voice kept rising in volume as her logic disappeared more with each sentence. She was clearly deluded