Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(32)

The moths beat themselves silly against the screens as Hannah finished loading one dishwasher and poured in the heavy-duty detergent. Only one more to load and she could go home.

Hannah yawned again as she rinsed out the crock of a slow cooker and found a place for it on the bottom rack of the second dishwasher. She was short on sleep and long on worries. For one thing, she was still having trouble banishing the thought of that ice pick. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, since she’d found victims who’d suffered more violent and much gorier deaths in the past. But there was something about the fact that the killer might have used one of her grandfather’s Christmas gifts to his customers as a murder weapon that really disturbed her. Perhaps it was because she had an ice pick just like it at home.

There was another reason Hannah was worried, and it had to do with Moishe. Would she arrive home to find that the cat she’d adopted had shredded every pillow and piece of stuffed furniture in her condo?

“Hannah?” a voice called out, accompanied by a knock on the wooden frame of the screen door. “I need to talk to you, Hannah.”

Hannah recognized the voice. It was Ava from the Eden Lake Store. “Come on in, Ava. It’s not locked.”

“Do you need some help?” Ava walked over to the sink and stared down at a saucepan that was waiting to be scoured.

“Not really. I’m almost done. What’s on your mind?”

“There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about Gus.”

Hannah turned to look at her. Ava appeared extremely upset, and Hannah hoped she wasn’t about to hear a confession! “What is it?” she asked.

“The Beesemans from Red Wing were in, and she mentioned that they weren’t sure the body they found was really Gus.”

“That’s right. Marge had some doubts, and so did Patsy.”

“And this Mrs. Beeseman…Betsy, I think her name was…said there wasn’t any way to tell, since Gus hadn’t had any distinguishing marks or scars on him when he left Lake Eden.”

“That’s right.”

“Well…he did.”

“He did what?”

“He did have a distinguishing mark on him.”

“A scar?”

“No, a tattoo. It was two crossed bats and a ball, almost like that major league baseball logo they show on TV before every game.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“But why didn’t anyone else mention it?”

“I don’t think anybody else knew.”

“Not Marge? Or Patsy?”

“Neither one of them. It was a tattoo in…well…a kind of a private place.”

Hannah didn’t really want to ask, but she knew she should. “What kind of private place are we talking about here?”

“Backside private. On the left.”

“You mean…?” Hannah used her own anatomy to pat the area in question.

“That’s it. That’s exactly where it was.”

“And this isn’t just hearsay. I mean, you’re sure this tattoo was…there?”

“It was there. I saw it with my own two eyes way back in high school.” Ava stopped and looked highly embarrassed. “But it’s not what you’re thinking,” she added quickly.

“I wasn’t thinking. I was trying really hard not to think.”

“Good. It’s just that I went over to visit Marge and Patsy one day, and Mrs. Klein told me I could wait up in their room and read some of their movie magazines. So I went up there, and on the way I passed by Gus’s bedroom. The door was open, and he was inside getting dressed. And his backside was to me.”

“And you saw it?”

“Yes. That was when I saw it. He didn’t see me standing there, so I hurried on down the hall as quiet as I could be. And I went straight into Marge and Patsy’s room. I’m absolutely positive he didn’t know I was there, and that’s all there was to it.”

Ava finished her account in a rush, as if she’d rehearsed it several times before delivering it to Hannah. That made Hannah doubt that Ava was being entirely truthful, but she couldn’t prove otherwise and it really didn’t matter in the long run.

“Thanks for telling me, Ava,” Hannah said. “And if Marge and Patsy knew, they’d thank you, too. It’s one sure way to tell if the victim really was Gus.”

Ava looked worried. “I’m not going to have to testify, or anything like that, am I?”

“I wouldn’t think so. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the murder. It’s just a question of whether he was who he said he was…or not.”

“Good! I was worried about that, but I thought I should tell you anyway.” Ava headed for the door, but she turned back before she got there. “Thanks a lot, Hannah.”

“That’s okay. I’m really glad you told me.”

“So am I, but that’s not it.”

“Not what?”

“That’s not what I’m thanking you for. You see, Bill dropped by and paid Gus’s bill out of the money they found in his wallet. So now I’ve got the money, and I don’t have to be worried about that anymore.”

“I’m glad,” Hannah said, figuring that Bill had pulled some strings to do that. Everyone knew that Ava was on a tight budget and couldn’t afford to absorb many losses.