Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(45)

“Oh, dear. I can’t really remember all the girls that Gus dated. He was the love-them-and-leave-them type.”

“Could you get together with Marge and Patsy when you get out to the reunion, and see if they remember any names?”

“Of course. You know I want to help, dear. I’ll just take these yearbooks with me and see if they remember anybody. And I’ll see whether I can find any of his old classmates to talk to. Lottie Borge is here. She married a Herman cousin. And she was only a year behind Gus in high school.”

Just then Luanne Hanks stuck her head in the door. “Lisa just called and she said to tell you that Iris tasted a cookie. She said she thinks they’re perfect.”

“Great!” Hannah exchanged a high five with her mother.

“And Mike Kingston’s here and he says he wants to talk to you. Should I send him back?”

When Hannah nodded, Delores picked up her stack of yearbooks and headed for the door. “What does he want?” she asked as she pulled it open.

“He wants to pick my brain.” Hannah gave a little laugh and waved goodbye to her mother. “And since I want to pick his, it amounts to a draw.”

“Hi, Mike,” Hannah said when he came through the swinging, restaurant-style door that separated the coffee shop from the kitchen. “I’m a little short on time. Do you mind if I mix up a batch of cookies while we talk?”

“I don’t mind, especially if you feed me.” Mike flashed her his famous grin.

Hannah glanced over at the trays of cookies ready to be packed up and taken out to the birthday party. “I’ve got Raisin Drops, Molasses Crackles, Red Velvet Cookies, and Party Cookies.”

“What are Party Cookies?”

“These.” Hannah held up one of the pretty four-color pastel cookies she’d made earlier this morning. “They’re for Jack Herman’s birthday party tonight, but I’ve got plenty.”

“I’ll take one of those and one of the Red Velvet Cookies. I’ve never had either one of them before.”

“You got it!” Hannah said, grabbing the cookies and delivering them, along with a mug of black coffee.

“Thanks, Hannah. I expect you’ve been asking questions.”

“Some.”

“Did you find out anything?”

“Not much.” Hannah started to melt chocolate for the Red Velvet Cookies to give her a few seconds to think. She didn’t want to tell Mike too much, but she had to tell him something. “Marge and Patsy talked to me right before dinner last night,” she said.

“And?”

“They had some doubt that the victim, the man who claimed to be Gus Klein, really was their brother.”

“Really?

Mike’s eyes widened slightly, and Hannah knew she’d handed him a nugget he hadn’t panned. “I guess Marge and Patsy didn’t tell you that.”

“No. But it figures they’d tell you.”

Hannah stopped in her tracks and turned, six squares of unsweetened chocolate in her hand. “I thought this was supposed to be an exchange of information, not a contest about who’s going to get all the clues and catch the killer first.”

“It is an exchange of information! At least that’s what I want it to be.” Mike looked very sincere. “Do you think I could be letting my ego get in the way?”

Duh! Hannah thought, but of course she didn’t say it. “What makes you say that?” she asked instead, unwrapping the chocolate, which was beginning to melt in her hand, dumping it into a half-pint measuring cup, and popping it into the microwave.

“It’s just that I pride myself on my interviewing techniques, and I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on something like that and pursue it.”

Hannah glanced at him as she set the timer on the microwave. “Maybe it’s a girl thing,” she said.

“And maybe I’m losing my touch and you’re just really good at this.”

“Fat chance,” Hannah told him, melting the chocolate squares and salvaging his ego simultaneously. “I’m just lucky, that’s all. And people talk to me because I was raised here. I’ve got the hometown advantage.”

Mike considered it for a moment and then he said, “You’re right. That probably counts for a lot. I like these Party Cookies, Hannah. They remind me of something, but I don’t know what.”

“Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies.”

“That’s right!”

“It’s close to the same recipe, but with different flavoring and pretty colors.”

“Right. So let’s get back to the identity of the victim. Why did Mrs. Beeseman and Mrs. Diehl have doubts about it?”

Hannah was stymied for a moment and then she realized that Mike was talking about Marge and Patsy. “It’s just that they hadn’t seen him for so many years,” she tried to explain. “And both of them thought that his personality had changed since he left Lake Eden.”

“It probably did. He was pretty young then, wasn’t he?”

Hannah did some mental arithmetic and came up with a figure. “He was in his twenties, I think.”

“Point taken. You’re not the same person you were when you were twenty, are you?”

“I hope not!” Hannah said, without thinking. And then she was a bit embarrassed over the vehemence of her answer. She’d been horribly na?ve at twenty, and she preferred to think that she was wiser and more sophisticated now.