Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(25)

“Probably not. Did you find Gus’s wallet?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because if you didn’t, the motive could be robbery. Gus was flashing money around all night.”

“Someone else mentioned that,” Mike said, not saying where he’d gotten his information. “We recovered the victim’s wallet. It was still in his pocket. And it contained a little over two hundred dollars.”

“Good!”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he owed Ava for the groceries he bought last night, and now she’ll get her money. It’s interesting that robbery wasn’t the motive, though.”

“We can’t rule it out. It’s possible that the thief didn’t intend to kill him, and fled when he realized what he’d done.”

“Or he was after something other than money. Gus was wearing a Rolex and a diamond pinkie ring last night. When I found him, I didn’t notice if he still had them.”

“We recovered both of them, and Bill had the guys in robbery take a look. The pinkie ring’s a fake. Everybody agrees it’s paste. They’re still not sure about the watch, so we’re having a jeweler take a look at it.”

“Why would Gus wear a fake ring?” Hannah asked him.

“Lots of rich people do. They keep the real jewelry locked in a safe and wear paste rings and fake watches.”

“Why bother to buy the real stuff when you’re never going to wear it?”

“Search me. Some people buy expensive jewelry as an investment. It’s probably more interesting than buying a lot of stocks or bonds.”

Hannah shrugged. “Maybe. So you think that Gus has a safe at home filled with real jewelry?”

“That’s my guess. We’ll have someone check it out when we get a minute. In the meantime, we’re treating this like a routine homicide.”

Was homicide ever routine? Hannah doubted it. But she chose not to argue the point with Mike. “Any suspects?” she asked instead.

“Everybody’s a suspect until we start weeding them out. It all depends on where they were at two this morning.”

“That’s the estimated time of death?”

“Doc Knight puts it between one and three. And since Ava says he left her place after one-thirty, and he had time to eat a piece of your carrot cake and drink some milk before he died, we’re asking everyone where they were between two and three in the morning.”

“I was home at two-thirty,” Hannah said, before he could ask, “and I can prove it.”

Mike gave a little laugh. “Moishe’s testimony doesn’t count, Hannah. We don’t speak cat down at the sheriff’s station.”

“Actually…it does count.” Hannah was a bit disappointed that Mike hadn’t drawn another conclusion about her middle-of-the-night companion. Or maybe she was pleased that he trusted her. She couldn’t quite decide which. “Moishe was chasing around inside my bathtub, and Sue Plotnik called to ask me if everything was all right.”

“I guess that clears you. There’s no way you could have stabbed the victim, and driven home in time to take the phone call.”

“Well that’s a relief!” Hannah said, but Mike didn’t react to her sarcasm. He just stared at her with a frown that knit his reddish-blond eyebrows.

“Why was The Big Guy chasing around inside your bathtub? Do you have mice?”

“No. And that could be part of the problem, right along with the fact that I can’t find the Animal Channel on my new cable lineup.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been gone a lot lately, and Norman thinks Moishe’s bored. When I came home from church yesterday, he’d ripped open one of my couch pillows and scattered the stuffing all over the rug.”

“Maybe he needs a playmate. Why don’t you ask Norman to bring Cuddles over to visit?”

“That would probably help, but Cuddles is up in Duluth this week, vacationing with Marguerite and her friend.”

“Oh. Well…maybe I should drop by for a little cop-to-cat talk. I could tell him about bathtub noise abatement and willful destruction of couch pillows.”

“Anytime,” Hannah said, smiling at Mike’s description.

“Anything else you want to know about the murder?”

Hannah blinked several times. Was she hallucinating, or was Mike actually offering to give her information?

“Hannah?”

“Actually…yes. It’s been bothering me, and of course I didn’t look. What was in that disposable cooler on the bar?”

“A bread wrapper with six ham and cheese sandwiches inside.”

Hannah was puzzled. “You mean…already made?”

“Right. He must have put them together right there at the bar and stashed them in the cooler. I can’t figure out why he’d do that, though.”

“He told Ava that the refrigerator in his cabin wasn’t working right,” Hannah offered. “But I opened it when I went to the cottage to look for him, and it felt cool to me.”

“You’re sure?”

“Pretty sure. The ice tray was still frozen solid.”

“Maybe it was cutting on and off. The old ones do that sometimes. The water in the ice cube tray would freeze right back up again, but he might not have wanted to take the chance with a ham and cheese sandwich, especially with mayo.”