Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen, #13)(78)

“Hi, Sherri. You look like you’re feeling better.”

“Oh, I am! That medicine Doc Knight gave me settled my stomach and I haven’t … well … you-know-what in forty-eight hours. The only thing is it made me so hungry I can’t seem to stop eating.” Sherri accepted the plate with her turnover and gave a little shrug. “I probably shouldn’t, but I’d like a hotdog, too.”

“One hotdog coming up,” Bonnie said, handing over Hannah’s coffee. She took a hotdog off the revolving spit that kept them hot and placed it inside a bun. “Ketchup or mustard?”

“Mustard. Four or five packets, please.”

“How about pickles?”

“Yes, I just love pickles. And a …” Sherri hesitated, eyeing the array of bottles on the shelf behind the counter. “I’ll have a root beer to drink.”

“And this is my treat,” Hannah said, handing several bills to Bonnie.

“Oh, but you really shouldn’t …”

“Yes, I should,” Hannah cut off Sherri’s objection. “We’re celebrating the fact that you’re feeling good enough to eat.”

Once Sherri had picked up her tray, Hannah followed her over to the picnic area under the trees. They chose a table and sat down.

“Mmmm,” Sherri said, biting into the turnover. “This is so good! But it’s dessert, so I’d better eat my hotdog first.”

Hannah watched as Sherri made short work of the hot-dog, opening the packets of mustard, making a yellow pool on her plate, and dipping in the hotdog as she ate it. She took a large swallow of root beer and smiled at Hannah. “It’s so good to eat again. You have no idea. I was beginning to think I’d never be able to enjoy food again.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Hannah said, smiling back. And then she watched Sherri attack her apple turnover.

“Oh, this is heaven!” the young dancer exclaimed after her second bite. “Tender, and flaky, and sweet, and good. This is the best apple turnover I’ve ever had.”

And then, as Hannah observed her, a thoughtful expression crossed her pretty face. “I wonder how it would be with … I know it sounds crazy, but … I’m going to try it and see!”

Sherri dipped the apple turnover in her pool of yellow mustard and took a bite. She chewed, smiled delightedly, and looked up at Hannah. “It’s good! You really ought to try it sometime.”

Hannah didn’t say anything, because alarm bells were clanging in her mind. Doc Knight had said Sherri didn’t have the flu or food poisoning. He’d remarked that it was a pity, but she’d be all right in a week or so. That information coupled with Sherri’s current meal of dill pickle slices eaten with gusto, a whole hotdog devoured in four bites, an apple turnover dipped in yellow mustard and declared delicious, and a sick stomach that wasn’t sick anymore led Hannah to one conclusion.

“Sherri,” Hannah leaned close across the table. “Maybe this isn’t exactly a polite question to ask, but I have to know. Are you pregnant?”

Sherri’s face turned white and her hands began to tremble. “Please don’t tell anyone,” she begged, and Hannah saw her blink back tears. “I should be so happy, but now I just don’t know what to do!”

“Please don’t cry. I’ll help you any way I can,” Hannah promised, reaching out to pat Sherri’s hand. “You have options, you know. There are places you can go, people who will help you. If you can’t keep the baby, you can give it up to a reliable agency for adoption.”

“No!” Sherri cried. “I’ll never do that! Look what happened to Perry and me. I’ll never let my baby grow up without a mother and a father.”

“How about the baby’s father? Do you love him?”

Sherri nodded, and when she spoke her voice was husky. “Oh, yes! And he said he loved me. He promised me we’d always be together.”

“Can you marry him?”

Sherri shook her head and that action seemed to bring about a flood of tears. They rolled down her cheeks and fell on the table, making dark, painful-looking splotches on the wood.

“Help me understand,” Hannah said, reaching out to touch Sherri’s hand again. “You love the baby’s father, but you can’t marry him?”

Sherri made a soft, strangled sound in the back of her throat. “Yes,” she gasped.

“He’s already married?”

“No!” Sherri covered her eyes with her hands. “No, no, no!”

“He’s not married, but you can’t marry him.”

“Yes! I thought I could, but I can’t marry him … not now!”

And with that anguished cry, Sherri was up and fleeing, her dancer’s legs churning across the parking lot and around the corner of the school building, leaving Hannah to sit there wondering what she could possibly do to help her young friend.





Chaper Twenty-Seven


Hannah sat there for a long time after Sherri had fled, attempting to decide the right thing to do. Since she didn’t know the name of the baby’s father, she had to forget about contacting him. She had to go to the person who cared most about Sherri’s welfare, her twin brother, Perry. He’d be shocked when Hannah told him about Sherri’s pregnancy, but he loved his sister and together they could work out some way to help her.