Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen, #13)(80)

“Oh. Well, I’ll take care of it.”

Hannah began to frown. Perry was answering her, but he wasn’t really communicating. It was clear he wished she’d leave well enough alone. “The only thing is,” Hannah said, wondering how she could persuade him that she really did want to help both of them. “I’m sure you’ll do your best, Perry, but you may need some help. I’m really worried about Sherri’s mental state.”

“Why?” Perry reached the second light post and jotted down the measurement. Then he checked his rolling device again, and walked on toward the third light.

“I’m worried because she needs someone to help her through the days ahead. It won’t be easy.”

“She’s got me. That’s all she needs.”

Hannah stopped walking as Perry came to the third light post and jotted down yet another measurement. She really didn’t like his attitude. She reminded herself that she had to make allowances for the fact he’d grown up alone, with no father or mother to guide him, and he’d learned to rely only on himself. It was clear that he was determined to take care of Sherri and that was admirable, but she wished he’d accept outside help when it was offered.

Perry was moving toward the fourth light post and Hannah hurried to catch up. “I’m not trying to be nosy, Perry. Really I’m not. It’s just that Sherri told me she wants to keep her baby, and that’ll be very difficult for her. She said giving the baby up for adoption was out of the question.”

“She’s right about that.” Perry’s voice was hard. “Most of the kids at the Home were put up for adoption, but they didn’t get adopted. They stayed right there until they were old enough to go.”

Hannah waited until Perry had stopped to write down the measurement at the fourth light post, and then she tried again. “Isn’t there any possibility that Sherri could marry the baby’s father? She said she loved him.”

“No. There’s no possibility at all.”

“But she said he loved her, too. I don’t understand.”

They walked in silence to the fifth light post, where Perry jotted down the measurement. Then he turned to her with a hard smile. “He never loved Sherri. He was getting ready to cut her loose anyway. I warned her. I told her that he was a jerk and not to listen to him. I pointed out that we were only inches from making it, that the movie deal was our ticket out of here. So what did my stupid sister do? She got pregnant and waved that movie deal goodbye. She actually believed him when he said that she was his inspiration, and they were like Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.”

Hannah’s mind screamed a warning. Run! Run away now! But her feet seemed glued to the ground. “You killed Bradford Ramsey?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“I did the world a favor … at least the female half. He used women and then he threw them away. You should have seen his face when he saw the knife. He knew what was coming and he knew he deserved it, but he still sniveled like a baby and begged me not to do it!”

As she looked into Perry’s glittering and frenzied eyes, the signal from Hannah’s mind finally reached her feet. She whirled and ran as fast as she could over the hilly ground, not caring where she was going as long as it was away from the Bradford’s killer and danger.





Chapter Twenty-Eight


He was gaining on her, which was no surprise. Hannah chided herself for one fleeting moment about not keeping up her exercise regimen at the gym, but kicking herself mentally would do no good now. Perry was ten years younger and about a thousand times more athletic than she was at her best. Her only hope was outsmarting him.

Hannah darted around two weeping willow trees. The selection was quite appropriate for a cemetery, but she certainly didn’t stop to dwell on that thought. She emerged from the green canopy that had hidden her for a few seconds and dashed across the road that divided the historic section of Spring Brook Cemetery from the resting place of the more recently deceased.

Of course he’d seen her. She’d expected that. But since it was physically impossible for her to outrun him, it might be possible for her to lose him among the crumbling old mausoleums and huge statuary.

She knew this part of the cemetery fairly well from her bicycle trips to the edge of town as a child. Hannah recognized the Ezekiel Jordan mausoleum with its four colors of granite and its grouping of seraphim artfully arranged by the steps leading up to the door. Since it hadn’t been erected on a hilltop or even a gentle rise of land, the first mayor of Lake Eden had been laid to rest in a structure with a floor built of granite slabs that were three feet thick.

No place to hide in the first mayor’s crypt. It would be locked anyway. The city preserved the graveside of its founder and the key would be under lock and key.

The key would be under lock and key, her mind repeated as she ducked under another weeping willow and jumped over a low crumbling wall. Hannah gave her mind a piece of her mind, which earned her another censure from her grey cells as she darted around a massive statue of virgin and child. This was no time to criticize her use of English. It was a time to look for a hiding place … and fast!

The Pettis family mausoleum was directly in front of her. Hannah remembered a missing block of granite at the back, providing access to the crypt itself, where brave kids used to hide in games of Hide and Seek. Hannah had not been a brave kid. But she wasn’t being chased by a killer back then, either. She raced around the building, heading for the farthest corner, and stopped dead in her tracks. The hole had been repaired. She couldn’t hide here.