Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen, #13)(12)

Hannah prayed for a loud clap of thunder to drown out his words. Or a tornado to touch down and whirl her away to another land, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Any sort of major disaster would do as long as it would keep him from revealing her painful secret.

Bradford leaned closer and gave her a little wink. “You might not know this, but Hannah makes the best plum pudding I’ve ever tasted. I’m her sister’s faculty advisor and I had the pleasure of joining the whole Swensen family for dessert on Christmas Eve.”

He didn’t remember! Hannah felt weak with relief. He hadn’t remembered on Christmas Eve and he still didn’t remember. She was safe! He had no idea she was the naive graduate student who’d fallen under his spell while they were in college. But he would remember … eventually. That knowledge was like the sword of Damocles suspended over her head.

“Nice to meet you, Lisa,” Bradford continued, “and it’s good to see everyone else again. I just stopped in for a quick hello when I saw you through the window. Now I’ve got to run back out to the college. There’s a department meeting I can’t miss.”

As the front door shut behind Bradford, Hannah felt her composure begin to return. The crisis was averted … for now at least. She took a few deep breaths, pasted a pleasant expression on her face, and began to listen to the conversation again. With a little luck, no one had noticed how distressed she’d been.

“We’ll leave the pricing of the turnovers up to you, Mrs. Bascomb,” Lisa was saying. “All you have to do is tell us what day you want us to deliver.”

“All three days,” the mayor answered quickly. “They’ll be a big hit during intermission at the talent show on Wednesday night.”

“You’re absolutely right, Richard!” Stephanie beamed at her husband.

“There’s a talent show?” Lisa asked, and Hannah hid a grin. It was clear her young partner hadn’t opened her charity information packet, either.

“It’s a show for local talent in the Tri-County Area,” Stephanie explained. “We’re going to poll the audience and give cash prizes to the top three acts of the evening.”

“Thursday night is Casino Night,” Mayor Bascomb explained. “We’ll be playing for prizes that are donated by local merchants, and people will be walking around from table to table.” The mayor turned to his wife. “I think you should sell turnovers during Casino Night too … don’t you, my sweetness?”

“Yes, I do. We can set up a little bistro in a corner of the auditorium. We’ll put out chairs and little tables and people can wander in for coffee and turnovers.”

“How about during donkey baseball on Friday afternoon?” the mayor asked her.

“That’s a natural, Richard. We’ll be right there on the school baseball field and we can use the snack shack to sell them. Actually … we could send the volunteers into the stands to sell coffee and turnovers the way they sell peanuts at major league baseball games.”

Hannah risked a glance at Lisa. Her partner didn’t look at all worried. Hannah hoped that was because Lisa had baked apple turnovers hundreds of times at home. Hannah had made plenty of pies, but she’d never even tried to make a turnover!

“Is there still time for people to enter the talent show?” Lisa asked, and Hannah assumed she was asking for Herb’s benefit.

“I have room for five more contestants, and all you have to do is pay the twenty-five dollar entrance fee,” Stephanie told her. “Will you be singing? Or dancing?”

Lisa gave a little laugh. “Oh, not me! I don’t have any talent like that. I was asking for my husband. Herb’s an amateur magician and he’s really good.”

“That’s right! Someone told me he was fabulous at the Tri-County Fair. We’d love to have him enter. We don’t have any other magicians and everyone loves a magic show.”

“Then I’ll pay his entrance fee right now,” Lisa said, rushing behind the counter to get her purse. “Herb just loves to perform his illusions.”

Hannah watched as the deed was accomplished. Lisa handed over the money, Mrs. Bascomb assured her that every cent of it would go to charity, and then she wrote out a receipt on a napkin.

“You’ll just love the talent show,” Stephanie commented, handing over the napkin. “Perry and Sherri Connors are dancing right after the intermission.”

“Perry and Sherri are in the talent show?” Lisa asked, her voice high and strained.

Hannah read her partner’s expression and she could tell exactly what Lisa was thinking. Why had she just paid twenty-five dollars to enter The Amazing Herb in a talent contest he couldn’t possibly win? Perry and Sherri were world-class dancers. They’d won every competition they’d entered, and just last week the Lake Eden Journal had run an article announcing that the Connors twins would be showcasing their dancing talent in a live television special that would air Christmas Day. The twins would be reprising famous dance routines that Fred As-taire and Ginger Rogers had performed during their long careers.

“Oh, they’re not talent show contestants,” Stephanie explained. “They’re just going to demonstrate one of the routines they learned for the television special. I thought it would be a real treat for the audience.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Lisa said with a smile and Hannah could see her visibly relax.