Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 02 - Deadly Surprise Read Online Free PDF

DNA is there. We’ll have to question him.”
    Kori got up from the stool she’d been sitting on and got herself a glass of water , a pad of paper and a pen. “I’ll start with Jay. We both know him. And my dad’s dead so unless there’s something really weird going on, it’s not him.”
    “What about cousins?” Zach asked, standing next to Kori as she wrote.
    “My mom was an only child so I didn’t have any cousins on her side. Dad had a sister. I don’t even know the last time I thought about her, never mind saw her. They didn’t have a close relationship and I guess that was passed on to us. But she had two kids, older than Jay and me. They were Tyler and Janie, a boy and a girl. I’ll have to dig to find out where Tyler is now. This might sound crazy, but I hope it’s him and not Jay.”
    “Obviously,” Zach said, laughing. “No one wants their brother to be a murderer.”
    “No one wants their cousin to be a murderer either.”
    Zach nodded his agreement.
    Kori paused, thinking about the best way to approach this situation with Jay. Finally she said, “Okay. I’ll call him.”
    “Really? You will?” She could hear the surprise in Zach’s voice. Apparently he’d stopped hoping.
    “But I have to be there when he’s questioned. I’ll ask him to come here. For a beer.”
    Zach agreed and Kori made the call. They waited anxiously for the half hour it took for Jay to finish whatever he was doing and get to her house. When he finally arrived, Kori breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t stood her up and made himself look guilty.
    “Hey Jay. Thanks for coming over. Beer?” Kori asked, holding a bottle out to him without waiting for a response.
    “Thanks. What’s up?” he asked, suspicion on his face.
    “I told Zach the only way I’d call you was if I was here when he talked to you—”
    “Is this about Heidi?” he asked accusingly.
    Kori nodded and Zach came into the kitchen.
    “I thought you knew I was innocent?” He sounded betrayed.
    “I do know you’re innocent—” Kori protested but was interrupted.
    “Jay, I wanted to talk to you before anything goes on the record,” Zach started. “I told Kori that our office was contacted by the Scoter Circle police because there was a hit on a DNA match for Heidi Fischer’s murder. A familial DNA match for someone in the system. That someone was Kori. We had her DNA because of Tessa’s murder. And we know that the DNA they found was from a male relative. And, well—”
    “So you’re telling me that my DNA was at the scene of Heidi Fischer’s murder?” Jay asked, his voice rising with each word.
    “No. I’m saying that there was a familial match for a male related to Kori. And you’re our first option. So you can willingly give me a sample now and I’ll get it processed, or you can wait until Scoter Circle arrests you.”
    “Wow. Really leaving me a lot of options. What do you need for a DNA sample? And what about our cousin, Tyler?” Jay asked, turning to look at Kori.
    “We just talked about that. Do you know where he is, what he’s been doing? Kori said she hasn’t kept in touch with him.”
    Jay shook his head. “I haven’t either. He was older. We never really got to know his family.”
    Zach nodded and took a long Q-tip from his pocket. “Open up. This will only take a second and I’ll get it processed right away.” Zach glanced at the clock. “I have a half hour to get it back to the station.”
    Jay did as he was told and Zach had his sample in thirty seconds.
    “Okay. I’ll give you a call when I know,” he said and headed for the door.
    Kori followed him downstairs and out of ear shot of Jay. “Zach, you don’t really think it’s Jay, do you? What else do you have on him?”
    “No, I don’t really think it’s him. But this doesn’t look good. I’ll be honest with you about that. But the fact that he willingly gave his DNA is a good sign. We’ll either confirm that he was there or that he