Key Lime Pie Murder (36 page)

And then he was turning away. The raincoat had worked! She was saved! But a second later, it was snatched away and he was grinning down at her. “Did you really think I wouldn’t see you?”

It was too late for hiding, but perhaps she could buy a little time. “I was hoping,” she said.

“And now you’re going to try to keep me talking until your boyfriend gets here, right?”

“Which boyfriend?” Hannah asked, the reply coming to her lips almost automatically.

“That deputy in the hospital.”

“Mike Kingston,” Hannah said his name, half-hoping he’d magically materialize. Of course that didn’t happen, so she went on. “I thought maybe you meant Norman Rhodes.”

“A gal like you has got two boyfriends?” Tucker Smith, or Jess Reiffer, or however the man who meant to kill her thought of himself, gave an ominous little chuckle. “That’s enough talking from you. This’ll be over in a second.”

“Did Willa know it was coming?” Hannah asked, shuddering as he bent over to pick up the strong man mallet.

“Naw. I got her in the back of the head. I’m gonna have a little trouble with you, being as you’re inside that tilt-a-whirl cage. Might take me two or three tries.”

“Wait!” Hannah called out as he reached out for the mallet. “Why did you kill Willa? She wasn’t any threat to you.”

“Two million dollars. That’s why I killed her. That’s how much money I’m gonna inherit when I marry Bri and Sam dies. But I couldn’t marry Bri when I was already married, could I?”

“What was wrong with divorce?” Hannah asked.

“Willa didn’t want a divorce. She said she was still in love with me. And if I hadn’t played along, she would have said something to somebody about that time I spent in jail. And then…”

“Were you driving that car that was behind us when Norman and I left the school?” Hannah interrupted him.

“Yeah, that was me. The guy you had with you is some driver. I still don’t know how I lost you.”

Hannah sent a silent thank-you to Norman, along with a silent plea for someone, anyone to do something to save her. “And right before we got to the school, you went through Willa’s desk and cut yourself out of your wedding picture?”

“That’s right. Didn’t want anyone to recognize me. Now stop talking, sister, and sit real still. I don’t want to hurt you any more than I have to.”

“I thought you were a good rider,” Hannah said, hoping his vanity would distract him.

“I am a good rider.”

“It didn’t look like it in the arena. Unless…did you let that bull throw you on purpose?”

“Of course I did.”

“Then it all makes sense. And because you’re such a good rider and you made it look so real, nobody suspected that you set Curly up.”

Tucker was smiling as he took a step closer to her cart. “You know, you’re pretty smart. Too bad it won’t do you any good.”

“I’m not that smart,” Hannah retorted. She had to keep him talking. “I still haven’t figured out why you tried to kill Curly.”

“That one’s easy. Curly found out who I really was, and he gave me an ultimatum. He said if I didn’t leave town right after the rodeo was over, he’d tell Brianna and Sam.”

“So you tried to kill him?”

“Yup. And I’ll finish the job right after I take care of you. Now you just stay there nice and still and it’ll be over real quick.”

Hannah raised her purse to block his blow, but he grabbed it out of her hands and dropped it on the ground. “That’s just gonna delay things.”

Hannah watched the mallet rise up in his arms. It hovered overhead and was just starting its whizzing descent when she flew forward, then, backward, then around in a circle.

For a second, she thought she was dying. People who’d described near-death experiences talked about walking into the white light, but she’d never heard anyone mention a whirling wind tunnel. She was aware of the wind blowing against her hot cheeks, she could see the sliver of moon flashing by overhead, she could hear calliope music playing loudly, and she could feel her stomach churning. Since there was no way throwing up to the stains of Yankee Doodle could be a part of anyone’s journey to the hereafter, she must be still alive. And someone had turned on the tilt-a-whirl to whisk her away out of danger!

Hannah struggled to lift herself off the floor. It took some doing, but after several attempts, she managed to scramble onto the bench seat and grasp the safety handle. As the cart whirled crazily, she looked down to see Mike fighting with Tucker.

Mike was alone! And while he was strong and fit, so was Tucker. Hannah watched as she whirled past. On the first whirl, Mike was on top, but on the second, Tucker had the upper hand. Then it was Mike, Tucker, Mike, Tucker…she had to do something to give Mike an edge!

She could help Mike if she were on the ground, but the tilt-a-whirl was going too fast for her to jump out. She’d never make it. She couldn’t even stand up in the cart without being thrown back into her seat. If her phone was working, she could call for backup, but it was as dead as she would have been if Mike hadn’t flipped the lever to start the tilt-a-whirl. What could she do with a dead phone besides throw it away and…

That was it! She’d throw the phone to distract Tucker. Hannah tried to stand up, but she was thrown back when the cart began its dizzying descending whirl. She couldn’t even lean out to throw. The centrifugal force pinned her against the back of the seat like a bug on a moving windshield. She was about to throw the phone anyway and hope for the best when she noticed something.

Most of the time, the cart whirled madly this way and that, alternating between left swirls and right swirls. But there was one place, just as it reached the apex, when the cart hovered for a moment, caught between two equal forces, one from the left and one from the right. If she threw the phone then, she might actually hit something that would distract Tucker so that Mike could finish him off.

The music played gaily as Hannah’s cart whirled. Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony. Stuck a feather in his hat and called it…She reached the apex on the third syllable of macaroni, raised her arm and let loose with all the force she could muster. And then the dizzying whirl began again and she had no idea if she’d succeeded, or not.

“Way to go, Hannah!” she heard Mike yell. “You hit him in the head!”

And then there were other voices yelling over the sound of the calliope. There were several deputies with Mike now, and she thought she heard Norman calling her name. She was about to shout out for someone to put an end her newest least-favorite carnival ride when the music ceased and her cart slowed and stopped at the very bottom.

“Thanks,” she said, as Norman took her arms and helped her out. “What are you doing here?”

“I jumped in the car the second after you called me. They patched me through to Mike and I talked to him on my way out here. He was already halfway here.”

“But if you hadn’t called him yet, how could Mike have been halfway here?” Hannah asked, congratulating herself for regaining her powers of logic. Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet regained her powers of locomotion, because she felt as wobbly as one of Winnie Henderson’s newborn foals.

“I ran Tucker’s fingerprints and I got a hit for Jess Reiffer,” Mike arrived just in time to answer her question. “Come on, Norman. You take one arm and I’ll take the other and we’ll walk her to your car. I’ll bring her truck by later.”

“Hold it,” Hannah said, digging in with both feet as they rounded the corner by the box office. She was still shaky and a bit woozy, but what Mike had said didn’t make sense.

“Come on, Hannah.” Mike pulled her forward. “You know you’re in no condition to drive. You were on that tilt-a-whirl for at least five minutes and you’re still dizzy.

“I’m not arguing about that,” Hannah let them walk her forward again. “I want to know how you got Tucker’s fingerprints without arresting him.”

“I lifted them from his coffee cup at the hospital.”

“Of course you did,” Hannah said, mentally chiding herself for not figuring it out on her own. She’d caught Mike’s lie when he’d said that there were no more Styrofoam cups, but she hadn’t guessed the reason he’d substituted a double layer of slick plastic cold drink cups. “What I want to know is why you checked on Tucker in the first place.”

Mike looked as if he didn’t want to answer her question, but he felt he should. “It’s like this. Sometimes a cop will operate on a hunch and I had a hunch about him. I just knew he was no good.”

“What did he do to give you the hunch?” Hannah persisted.

Mike opened the passenger door of Norman’s car and practically shoved her in. “I didn’t like it when he called you darlin’. Nobody’s supposed to do that except me.”

Norman cleared his throat pointedly, and Mike turned to look at him. “Okay. You’re right. What I meant to say was nobody’s supposed to do that except me. And Norman. Is that all right with you, Hannah?”

“That’s fine with me,” Hannah said, snapping on her seatbelt before Mike could do it for her and taking her purse from Norman’s hand.

“Okay. See you later,” Mike said.

Hannah waited until he’d closed the door and walked away, and then she turned to Norman. “You were right.”

“About what?” Norman started his car and drove out of the lot.

“About that cell phone you gave me. It’s not exactly how I thought it would happen, but it did save my life.”

Hannah was just starting to relax when Norman pulled up in her extra parking spot and parked directly in back of Michelle. “This is all right, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure it’s fine. I don’t think Michelle’s going out. Lonnie will be tied up with Mike.”

“I think I’ve got Moishe’s problem narrowed down to a specific unit,” Norman said, getting out of the car and coming around to open the door for Hannah. “It’s the one directly across from you. I was sitting there in the dark watching out the window with Moishe, and I swear I saw the curtain pull back and a little face peek out.”

“A little face?”

Norman nodded. “It looked like a cat to me, but it was dark and I couldn’t really tell. It could have been a small dog, I guess.”

“It couldn’t have been either one. That’s where the Hollenbeck sisters live and they don’t have any pets. Clara’s violently allergic to cats and dogs. I can’t even go over there to see them unless she takes an allergy pill first.”

“She’s allergic to you?”

“No, to Moishe. And since he lives with me, I’ve got dander and cat hair practically imbedded in everything I wear.”

“So they couldn’t possibly have a cat,” Norman said, staring off into the distance at something Hannah couldn’t see.

“That’s right.”

“Okay. Get out of the car, Hannah. I want you to see something.”

Hannah got out of the car and turned to look. “What did you want me to…” she stopped speaking as she saw Marguerite Hollenbeck carrying something to the dumpster.

“Is that a littler box?” Norman asked, when Hannah’s voice trailed off.

“Looks like one to me. And that would explain absolutely everything. Let’s go find out if we’re right.”

Marguerite was standing by the dumpster, tying off the litter box liner and preparing to drop it inside. Hannah was about to greet her when she saw that tears were running down her neighbor’s cheeks.

“Marguerite!” Hannah said, putting her arms around the older woman. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Cuddles. It’s breaking my heart, Hannah. I love her so much and I’ve got to give her up.”

Norman took care of the litter while Hannah took care of Marguerite. After a few moments of sobbing on Hannah’s shoulder, she finally wiped her eyes and drew a deep breath.

“I know I’ve got to be strong, but it’s just awful. I’ve wanted a cat for so long. Clara and I really thought we had her allergies under control, but it’s just not working. Clara’s miserable and Doc Knight can’t give her any stronger medication. She’s just as upset as I am. She loves Cuddles every bit as much as I do. But we’re going to have to find a new home for her!”

“Right here,” Norman said, stepping up to the plate with a speed that amazed Hannah. “I’ll take Cuddles and you can come out to visit her any time you want to.”

“You will?” Marguerite looked as astonished as Hannah felt. “Just like that?”

“Just like that. And if Cuddles gets along with Moishe, I’ll bring her over here to visit a couple of times a week. Then you won’t have to drive all the way out to my place.”

And that means you’ll be here to visit a couple of times a week, Hannah thought, admiring Norman’s tactics. But she wasn’t at all upset. Norman was welcome at her condo anytime.

“Oh, Dr. Rhodes!” Marguerite gave him a hug.

“You’d better call me Norman since I’m going to be your cat’s foster father,” Norman said, earning a big smile from Marguerite.

“All right…Norman. You’re the answer to our prayers! Would you like to meet Cuddles now?”

“I’d love to. Do you have a cat carrier?”

“Why yes. I do.”

Norman turned to Hannah. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll go meet Cuddles. And then Marguerite and I will bring Cuddles over to meet Moishe. Will that work?”

“Perfectly,” Hannah said, smiling at both of them. Her problem was solved because Willa’s killer was behind bars. And Moishe’s problem was solved because he’d been pining away, hoping to meet Cuddles. Everything was coming up roses except for the purple taffeta dress she’d be wearing on the front page of the Lake Eden Journal, the dunking she was bound to get at Bernie No-No Fulton’s hands at the Lake Eden Historical Society booth, and the fact that she had yet to experience the sinful pleasures of a deep-fried Milky Way.

The curtain was about to come down. Hannah shifted slightly on the dunking stool in the Lake Eden Historical Society booth and did her best to smile pleasantly. Mike and Norman had promised not to dunk her, but Bernie No-No Fulton hadn’t.

“Time?” she asked Michelle, who was standing by with a towel.

“Ten minutes until closing. And Andrea hasn’t seen him come in yet,” Michelle gave her report. Andrea and Tracey had taken up a position near the entrance, and they were all hoping that No-No wasn’t coming to the Tri-County Fair tonight. Michelle had been crowned Miss Tri-County tonight, and they’d planned a celebration at the Lake Eden Inn at ten-thirty, a half-hour after Hannah’s shift was over. There wouldn’t be time for her to go home and change, so she’d brought another outfit with her. But her hair would be another matter. Once dunked, it would look resemble a bright red plastic pot scrubber, and she wouldn’t have time to wash and condition it.