Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(33)

“I’m getting a new Popsicle flavor in next week. Drop in and have one on me.”

“Thanks, Ava. I’ll do that.” Hannah gave her a wave as she went out the door, and then she turned back to her dishwashing chores. At least now she knew how to tell if the body she’d found was really Gus Klein…if he hadn’t had his tattoo removed after he’d left Lake Eden. She’d just finished adding several soup ladles, a bean pot, and two slow cooker crocks to the bottom rack when there was another knock, a very timid knock, on the frame of the screen door.

“Who is it?” Hannah called out.

“Barbara Donnelly. I need to talk to you, Hannah.”

“Come in. It’s open.” Hannah made quick work of stashing a metal spatula on the top rack of the dishwater. She had no idea why Bill’s secretary wanted to talk to her, but perhaps she could pump Barbara for information. “I thought you were at the slide show.”

“I was, but Norman told me that my pictures of Marge and Patsy at Girl Scout Camp won’t come for another half hour. And I wanted to see you, so I came right over.” Barbara walked to the sink and picked up a scouring pad. “Do you need some help?”

“Not really, I’m almost through,” Hannah said, experiencing a flash of déjà vu. “Why did you want to see me, Barbara? You look a little upset.”

“It’s what Marge said about Gus at the family meeting.”

“And that was…?” Hannah asked to encourage her.

“That they didn’t have any way of telling whether Gus was really their brother. She said a lot of time had passed and they really couldn’t tell by just looking at him. And then she mentioned that Gus didn’t have any distinguishing marks.”

“Right,” Hannah said, that sense of déjà vu growing stronger.

“Well, he did except Marge didn’t know about it. Patsy didn’t either. Nobody did unless they happened to…” Barbara stopped and cleared her throat. “Maybe I’d better start again.”

Hannah gave her an encouraging nod. “Go ahead.”

“It was the summer right before my senior year at Jordan High. A bunch of us went out to the lake to swim, and we needed a place to change into our suits. You’ve seen the changing rooms, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Hannah had used those same changing rooms when she’d taken swimming lessons as a child. They consisted of a concrete slab enclosed by an eight-foot high block wall on three sides. The fourth wall did not complete the enclosure. Instead it ran parallel to the first wall making a passageway about four feet wide. It also stopped about four feet short of joining the second wall so that a swimmer could walk inside the hallway that was formed, turn the corner into the large part of the enclosure, and have privacy from anyone outside.

“You know how the changing rooms don’t have a roof, and they’re open on top?”

“I know.”

“The Lion’s Club had them built that way so they wouldn’t get all moldy inside. My dad explained it to me. But the girls’ changing room had a low spot on the floor right by the door. If it rained, there was a big puddle full of all sorts of nasty leaves and things and it didn’t dry up for a couple of days.”

“I understand,” Hannah said because Barbara seemed to be waiting for her to say something.

“Well, we didn’t want to walk through the leaves and yuck, so we decided we’d use the boys’ changing room if nobody was in it. The only problem was that somebody had to check to see. I was the only one that could scale the wall, so I did and I peeked inside. And there was Gus Klein just ready to step into his swim trunks.”

Hannah thought she knew what was coming next, but there was only one way to make sure. She clamped her lips shut and waited for Barbara to go on with her story.

“His back was to me, and I saw his tattoo. It was two crossed bats with a baseball in between. And it was on his left side, just about where his back pocket would have come if he’d been wearing pants. I jumped down in a hurry so he wouldn’t know I’d seen him. And then we ran back to the car and held up the blanket my dad always kept in the trunk, and took turns changing in the backseat.”

“Did you mention what you’d seen to anyone else?”

“Good heavens, no!” Barbara looked shocked. “I didn’t want Gus to know I’d seen him and one of the girls would have told. Anyway, that’s it, Hannah. I just thought I should tell you right away. I didn’t want to mention it to Bill for the obvious reason.”

“What obvious reason is that?” Hannah was curious.

“He’d think I was a snoop, or maybe worse. I did date Gus for a while, you know.”

“I didn’t know, but thanks for telling me.” Hannah gave her a warm smile. “And don’t worry. I won’t mention what you said to anybody.”

After Barbara left, Hannah turned back to the work at hand. She scoured two frying pans, a pasta pot, and a scoop encrusted with something that looked like scrambled eggs but probably wasn’t. She stashed them in the dishwasher, poured in the heavy-duty detergent, and gave a final look around the kitchen to make sure everything was spotless. Then she turned both dishwashers on, gave a final wipe to the kitchen counters, switched off the lights, and headed for the door. She was just stepping out when she ran smack into Rose McDermott.