Key Lime Pie Murder (33 page)

“Detective Mike Kingston of the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department.”

Tucker gave a little gasp. “Is Curly all right? I mean…he didn’t…die, did he?”

“Oh, no. I’m here about the burglary at the fairgrounds. You didn’t see anything suspicious between six and six forty-five on Tuesday night, did you, Tucker?”

“Can’t say as I did. That’s the time I usually eat, so I was probably in the food court, or maybe at Bri’s trailer.”

“Bri?”

“Brianna Webber, my fiancée. She’s trying to learn how to cook, and I’m her guinea pig. I was probably with her, but you can check to make sure.”

“And I’ll find Brianna where?”

“Somewhere around here. She left with…” Tucker turned to Hannah. “What was her name again, darlin’?”

Mike gave Hannah a long, hard look. “Let me guess. Michelle, right?”

“That’s right,” Hannah jumped in quickly. “Michelle went to school with Dot.”

“And she came out here with you because Dot’s having a baby. You told me already.” Mike glanced down at the coffee table in front of the row of seats. “You don’t have coffee. Let me go get you some.”

“Oh, well…” Hannah started to say she didn’t want any more coffee, but Mike had already started for the door. She turned back to Tucker. “I guess I can drink one more cup. How about you?”

“I’m always up for coffee. Say…you don’t think he thinks I had anything to do with that robbery, do you?”

Burglary, Hannah mentally corrected him. “I don’t think so,” she said. “If he suspected you, he would have asked you more questions.”

“Well, good! Because I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Hannah caught Andrea’s eye and motioned her over. She’d pushed Tucker as far as she could, and more questions would just put him on guard. Andrea caught her signal, and she brought Sam Webber over to join them.

The conversation was trivial from that point on. Hannah was just getting sleepy again, when Mike came in carrying a tray with coffee.

“Here you go,” he said. “Sorry about the cups, but all I could find were these plastic ones. I thought I’d better use doubles since the coffee was really hot.”

That made sense. Hannah reached for a cup. But before she could offer it to Tucker, Mike passed him the tray. Tucker took a cup, sipped it, and made a face.

“This is almost as bad as chuck wagon coffee,” he said, putting his cup down on the table.

“You must have gotten the gunk at the bottom of the pot,” Mike told him. “Here. Take another one.”

Tucker did, and he sipped it. “This is better,” he said. “Thanks.”

“I’ll go get rid of this one,” Mike said, picking it up by the rim and heading for the trash can.

Mike had just resumed his seat when Michelle and Brianna came in. Brianna rushed to Tucker and gave him another kiss on the cheek.

“Good news?” Tucker asked.

“The best. Curly’s out of surgery, and the doctor thinks he repaired all the internal damage. He upgraded his condition from critical to stable.”

“Can he talk yet?”

“Not yet. The doctor put him in a drug-induced coma. He’ll be out cold for two days, and then they’ll wake him up and reassess.”

“But…he’ll be all right eventually?”

“The doctor thinks so, but he warned me that Curly’s not out of the woods yet.”

“I’m so glad for you,” Michelle said, giving Brianna a hug and then glancing at Mike. “We’d better go see how Dot’s doing. The nurse said she’s almost ready to go to the delivery room.”

Hannah didn’t wait for a second invitation. She stood up, said her goodbyes, and they were out the door. On their way down the corridor, Hannah glanced behind her to see if Mike was following, and then she turned to Michelle. “Is Dot really in the delivery room?”

“I don’t know. I just said that so we could leave. Do you want to check on her?”

“I think we’d better. If we don’t, Mike will find out about it.”

It only took a minute to check on Dot. And it only took another two minutes to drop off the flowers in her room. They took a quick peek at Baby Girl Larson in the nursery, and then they headed for the exit.

“Wait,” Hannah said, as they passed the alcove with complimentary coffee.

“You want more coffee?” Andrea sounded incredulous.

“No, I just want to check something out.”

Hannah ducked into the alcove while her sisters waited. There was a thirty-cup coffee pot, similar to the one they used at The Cookie Jar, and baskets of sugar, artificial sweetener, and coffee creamer in packets. A box of straws and plastic spoons sat next to the coffee pot, and there were stacks of Styrofoam cups for coffee and plastic cups for water. From sheer force of habit, Hannah poured herself a cup of coffee and walked back to join her sisters.

“I thought you didn’t want coffee,” Andrea said.

“I don’t, but now that I’ve got it, I’ll drink it. Waste not, want not. Come on, let’s go.”

Hannah didn’t see the look her younger sisters exchanged on their way out the door. She was too busy wondering what reason Mike had for claiming they’d run out of Styrofoam coffee cups when they hadn’t.

She was on a sailing ship, and the sun had crossed the yardarm. Whatever that meant. Even though she was right there, she still didn’t know precisely what a yardarm was. A warm breeze kissed her cheek, and salty spray kicked up like sandpaper against her skin. Except salty sea spray didn’t feel like sandpaper. The only things that felt like sandpaper were sandpaper itself, and a cat’s tongue.

“Moishe?” she asked, opening her eyes to see two unblinking yellow orbs staring into hers. She blinked, but Moishe didn’t. She’d lost the staring contest.

“What time is it?” she asked, sitting up in bed and noticing that light was streaming in her western exposure window. Of course Moishe didn’t answer, but one glance at the alarm clock on her bedside table told Hannah that it was ten after two in the afternoon. She’d forgotten to set her alarm! She was late to work, extremely late to work! Why hadn’t anyone called to wake her?!

She was just starting to enter full-scale panic mode when she saw a note propped up by the clock. It said, Don’t you dare come to work today! We’re closing at two, and that gives me plenty of time to get out to the fairgrounds. I don’t have to be there until three today. I’ll be helping Lisa, and Andrea is doing the deliveries. Don’t worry, I won’t let her bake. And it was signed, Michelle.

There was an old saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth, and Hannah decided it had merit. There was no point in dressing and driving to town. The Cookie Jar was already closed for the day. She had absolutely nothing to do until seven this evening, when she’d watch Michelle at the Miss Tri-County competition. After that, she’d judge tonight’s baked goods entries, and then she’d be through for the day.

The smile on her face stayed with her all the way to the kitchen. Michelle had left the coffee all ready to go, and Hannah poured in the water. While she waited for it to drip down, she sat down at the kitchen table and found herself staring at her new cell phone.

It was no longer attached to the charger. Michelle must have unplugged it, because there was another note on the kitchen table. It read, I don’t know if this is important—Bri showed me her engagement ring, and it had an inscription. It said, “Yesterday and Today.” Didn’t the card you found in Willa’s apartment say something like that?

Hannah stared down at the note in shock. The florist’s card they’d found in Willa’s apartment had started in exactly the same way! There was a connection between Tucker and Willa and this proved it!

Mike should know. Hannah was reaching for the phone when she thought of all the questions he’d ask her. Who had thought of the inscription for the engagement ring? Did Brianna tell the jeweler what she wanted? Or was it Tucker’s idea? Was Yesterday and Today, Tomorrow and Forever a common phrase? Or was it unique and therefore did it tie Tucker to Willa in some way?

Hannah went to pour herself another cup of coffee and sat back down at the table. Unless she wanted to look like an idiot, she needed more information before she alerted Mike.

Her new cell phone was on the table. Hannah flipped it open, pressed the button marked ON, and immediately heard a burst of tinny music. It appeared that she was up and running. She’d call Norman to thank him for her new phone. She punched in his number, but when nothing happened and she wasn’t connected, she knew she’d done something wrong. She was about to hang up and try again when she spotted anther button with a phone receiver in green.

Her Grandmother Ingrid used to say that if at first you didn’t succeed you should try, try again. Hannah pressed the green button and heard a ringing tone. There was another ringing tone, and then Norman’s voice came on the line. “Hello?” he said.

“Hi, Norman. It’s Hannah. I just wanted to thank you for this phone. I’m using it right now.”

“Did you dial my number?”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

Norman laughed. “You can if you want to, but there’s an easier way. I’m number one.”

“Of course you are,” Hannah said, and paused while he laughed again.

“Thanks, but I meant that I programmed your phone for speed dial and my cell phone is number one. Just turn on the phone, punch in a one, and hit the green phone button. The phone will do the rest.”

“That’s great,” Hannah said with a smile, wondering what other numbers, if any, Norman had programmed. “If you’re a one, who’s a two?”

“I am. That’s my home number.”

Hannah grinned. She was beginning to see a pattern here. “And three is your number at the dental clinic?”

“That’s right.”

“How about four?”

“That’s Andrea’s cell phone number.”

“Five?”

“Michelle’s cell phone.”

“Six?”

“Your mother’s cell phone.”

Hannah blinked. Surely she hadn’t heard him correctly. “Did you say that Mother has a cell phone?”

“Yes. She just got it a couple of weeks ago.”

Hannah groaned. As usual, she was the last person in the family to embrace new technology. “I suppose your mother has one, too?”

“Of course. She had hers first. I’m pretty sure that’s why your mother got one.”

“Keeping up with the Joneses? Or in this case, the Rhodeses?”

“Could be. I’m really glad you called, Hannah. I heard from Professor Tate.”

“He called you?”

“No, he e-mailed me. They’re in a remote area, but a truck comes to pick them up every two weeks and take them to the nearest place to replenish their supplies and pick up their messages. In their case, it’s a village without an airstrip.”

“So he couldn’t have flown back here to kill Willa?”

“That’s right.”

“Hold on a second,” Hannah said, reaching for her purse. She pulled out the shorthand notebook she thought of as her murder book and flipped it open to the list of suspects. “Okay. He’s an ex.”

“An ex?”

“That’s ex-suspect. I crossed him off my list. I must be getting close to solving this case, because I’ve only got three suspects left.”

“How many were there?” Norman asked.

“Thirteen. I had Tasha’s three brothers, Mr. Hicks, Mrs. Adamczak, the high school boy Willa flunked, Professor Tate, Jess Reiffer, the old boyfriend who may or may not be Jess Reiffer, and the new boyfriend who may or may not be the cowboy someone saw with Willa on the night she was killed.”

“Okay. Who else is on the list?”

“The burglar.”

“The one who broke into the office at the fairgrounds?”

“Right. He’s not crossed out yet. It could be a case of Willa’s being in the right place at the wrong time. But there’s something else that just came up.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s that florist card Andrea and I found in Willa’s apartment. It’s the only personal thing she saved, other than the little photo album we found in her desk. I told you about it, didn’t I?”

“If you’re talking about the card that said, Yesterday and Today, Tomorrow and Forever, you did.”

“That’s the one. Michelle got a look at Brianna’s engagement ring last night when we went back to the hospital.”

“You went back to the hospital after I left?” Norman sounded concerned. “How much sleep did you get?”

“Fourteen hours, but I’ll tell you about that later. Anyway, Brianna is the owner’s daughter, and she was there with her fiancé Tucker Smith.”

“The cowboy who tried to kill Curly?”

“Yes, if that’s really what happened. He’s a real piece of work, Norman. Slick and handsome, with a grin that he thinks will melt any woman’s heart.”

“And you’re thinking Willa knew him in the past and he’s the one who gave her the flowers?”

“Could be. Do you think you could find out anything about that phrase on the Internet? I’d like to know if it’s a common one.”

“I’ll give it a try.” Hannah heard paper rustle, and she knew that Norman was making a note. “Anything else?”

“Not really.”

“Okay. I’ll get back to you on that. One last thing. You mentioned twelve suspects so far. Who’s the thirteenth?”

“The wild card.”

“The wild card?”

“Yes. I add him to every one of my suspect lists. He’s the unknown person who kills for some unknown reason.”

“Which makes him impossible to find.”

“Right.” Hannah shut her notebook with a snap. “Are you going to the Miss Tri-County competition tonight?”

“I wouldn’t miss it. How about you?”

“I’ll be there. Do you want to come over after?” Hannah asked the question, and then she laughed at the way she’d lapsed into regional Minnesota dialogue.

“Sure. Do you want to drive? Or shall I drive and you can come with?”

Hannah cracked up. Norman was quick on the uptake, and he’d wasted no time throwing another Minnesota phrase back at her. “I’d better drive.”

“Okay. See you later.”

“You bet. Norman?”

“Yes, Hannah.”

“I really like this phone.”

“I’m glad.”

“There’s only one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“Can you tell me which button I should press to hang it up?”

It was six hours later, and Hannah couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so good. Norman had used his most powerful search engine, and he’d gotten over eight million hits on the words Yesterday and Today, Tomorrow and Forever. That meant the phrase was a lot more common than any of them had guessed. While the popularity of the phrase didn’t rule out her hunch about Willa’s knowing Tucker in the past, it was a lot less likely. She supposed she should be depressed, but she wasn’t. Fourteen uninterrupted hours of sleep had put things into perspective, and she felt she was thinking clearly for the first time since Willa’s death.