Read Cold Turkey for Free Online Page B

off. She’d just look. It might be an emergency. If she didn’t recognize the number she would let it go to voice mail.
    Caller ID read Lakeside Inn.
    Liv bolted upright and grabbed her phone. “Hello?”
    “Liv, is that you? It’s Corrine Anderson over at the Inn. Miss Ida said it would be okay if I called you if I needed help. But I think there’s something you should know.”
    “I’m listening, Corrine. What is it?”
    “They’re in the bar, the three of them. Bill just left after telling them the news. They got really mad. Said they were going to sue the town and the Events Office.”
    “What?”
    “That’s what they’re saying. I thought you’d want to know.”
    “I do.”
    “They look like they’ve settled in for the night. If you just happened to come over for dinner, you could learn something.”
    “Not a bad idea.” They didn’t know she was the event coordinator. She might pick up on something that would help the town or Bill.
    “And they reserved a room for the wife of the dead man. Mrs. . . . Bonhoff. She’s coming in tonight. Oh, Liv, this is just a mess. What should I say to her? What if she blames us all for her husband’s death?”
    Liv was out of bed. “Save me a table. I’m on my way.” She hit speed dial.
    “Buttercup Coffee Exchange.”
    “BeBe, it’s Liv. I need you to have dinner with me at the Inn.”
    “When.”
    “Now.”
    “That sounds ominous.”
    “It is, kind of. Can you close early? We need to do some spying.”
    “I’m turning off the steamer now. Pick me up in ten. I’ll be waiting out front.”
    Liv hung up, threw off the covers. Whiskey looked up from his doggie bed, started to get to his feet. “At ease, troops. I have to go out, but you can sleep. Lucky dog.”
    She pulled on jeans and a hand-knit sweater and stuffed her tired feet into clogs. When she pulled up outside the Coffee Exchange, the Closed sign was on the door and BeBe was already outside.
    BeBe was all curves, thirtysomething, half country girl and half urban entrepreneur, and Liv’s best friend in town. She was always ready for fun or adventure. She jumped in and Liv took off.
    “Okay, bring me up to speed.”
    In the five minutes it took to drive to the Inn, BeBe went from openmouthed astonishment, to sympathy, to outrage. “They can’t sue Celebration Bay. I’ve never heard of anything so absurd. Ooh. That makes me fighting mad.”
    “No fighting,” Liv said. “Act nonchalant. We’re just two girls out for a burger.”
    “And if they happen to want to buy us a drink . . .” BeBe smiled broadly and shrugged.
    “We’ll be very careful not to tip our hand.”
    “Absolutely.”
    Liv pulled into an empty parking space near the entrance and they went inside. Then Inn not only had a three-star restaurant but a bar that served the best burgers in town.
    As soon as they stepped into the softly lit lobby, they were greeted by Corinne Anderson, who owned the Lakeside Inn with her husband, Walter. She was fashion-model thin, dressed in a twin set and tweed skirt, and wore sensible shoes as befitted the hostess of a country inn. Her hair was pulled back in a neat twist, though a few stray strands flew around her face as she hurried to greet Liv and BeBe.
    “Thank goodness you came.” She motioned them to the back of the lobby. “I put them in a booth halfway down the room and saved you a table close by where you could hear what they’re saying without them seeing you.”
    Liv didn’t try to dissuade her from thinking that they were here to spy on the three remaining partners. Liv was curious, yes, and she might be able to overhear something that they wouldn’t tell Bill, but she was purely on a fact-finding mission. She needed to keep tabs on what was happening and how it impacted the town and its festivals.
    If Max Bonhoff’s death really led to a lawsuit, she wanted to be prepared.
    “They don’t even seem sad about his death,” Corinne continued. “They’re so busy talking