Read Online Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse (A Cape Bay Cafe Mystery Book 1) by Harper Lin - Free Book Online Page A

much I almost forgot that I was supposed to be looking for suspects. “Was there anybody your dad had been feuding with recently?”
    Matty leaned back again and crossed his arms thoughtfully. I took a drink of my coffee while I waited.
    Finally he sighed. “He’d been complaining a lot about the cell phone store across the street from the shop. He thought the signs in the windows were tacky and the guy who runs it was a jerk. He really hated when they had somebody out front dancing around in one of those giant squishy cell phone costumes.” Matty chuckled. “That drove him nuts. I remember him yelling that you didn’t see him having someone dress up as a giant pair of scissors and dance around outside the barbershop. ‘If you need someone to dance around dressed up like what you sell, you must not be a very good salesman!’”
    “Do you know if they ever spoke? Or did your dad just complain about him?” I asked.
    “Oh, they had words,” Matty replied. “You think my dad would pass up that opportunity? I know Dad went in there at least once because he was telling me about the cheesy cell phone cases the guy was selling. It annoyed the hell out of Dad for some reason. I mean, he didn’t need to go in there and look at them. He didn’t even have a cell phone that one of those cases would fit. I guess the guy just got under his skin for some reason. Dad yelled at him plenty from across the street, and the guy yelled back. I’ve seen him out there a couple times. He doesn’t seem like the nicest guy anyway. Kind of a jerk. Really arrogant. I’m not surprised Dad couldn’t stand him.”
    “Was it personal?”
    Matty scoffed. “Everything was personal with Dad.”
    “Do you think it was personal for the other guy?”
    He shrugged. “Hard to know. I mean, like I said, he seems like a jerk, but I kind of think he was just playing with Dad, antagonizing him because it was fun for him to see Dad get so angry. I don’t know if he actually disliked Dad though. Especially enough to kill him.” He stopped and drummed his fingers on the table. “Of course, until we got that autopsy report, I didn’t think anyone disliked Dad enough to kill him.” He took a deep breath. “But can you imagine being mad enough about getting blacklisted from a barbershop to kill somebody? What else could it have been? It’s not like it was random.”
    “Well, I guess Cell Phone Guy is a place to start,” I said. “Your dad didn’t keep a list of who he banned, did he?”
    Matty laughed. “With my dad’s memory for imaginary offenses, he didn’t need to keep a list. I swear he could remember—in detail!—people who pissed him off before I was born. He once told me a story about a guy who cut him off in traffic in 1976 !”
    “So I’ll start with Cell Phone Guy and work my way back. Did he happen to give you the name and contact information of the guy from 1976?”
    Matty grinned. “No, but if that guy came back to kill him after all these years, he even beats my dad at holding a grudge!”
    I laughed with Matty. I certainly hoped for the sake of everyone involved that neither the police nor I had to go that far back through Mr. Cardosi’s history to find out who killed him.
    “So you have any more questions?” Matty asked after we stopped laughing.
    I thought back over my notes from the night before. For some reason, I hadn’t thought to bring my notepad with me. I’d either have to go home to get it before I went to talk to Cell Phone Guy or run by the drugstore and pick up a new one. A new one would probably be good. The one at home was a giant yellow legal pad—not very subtle for toting around town.
    “I don’t think so,” I said, unable to think of anything else I needed to ask him.
    He glanced at the clock on the wall and groaned. “Looks like I have to get going anyway. Thank you for breakfast.”
    “No problem at all,” I replied. “Someone’s got to eat all this stuff.”
    “Oh, I don’t think