Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(50)

“Maybe it seems that way, but it’s not. Married women don’t date anymore, and that means they don’t do any wild and crazy things like single women do.”

“I see.” Hannah picked up the pepper grinder again and gave it a series of twists. “And since I’m single, you assume that I do wild and crazy things?”

“Well…no. Maybe you don’t. But you could, if you wanted to.”

“Hmm.” Hannah made the most noncommittal comment of all. “So what did you want to tell me? Or did you change your mind?”

Michelle walked over to the counter where Hannah was working, and pulled up a stool. “It’s about Sunday night and the murder. I think I saw the killer.”

“Really?!” Hannah was glad she hadn’t opened the bottle of cumin. If she’d been in the process of measuring it, the whole thing might have landed in her hotdish.

“Well…maybe. It was really quiet and there wasn’t anyone else out. It just stands to reason that the person I saw go across the road and around to the front of the pavilion is the murderer.”

Hannah drew in her breath sharply. “Did this person see you?”

“No. He didn’t even know I was there. Or maybe it was a she, a woman wearing pants and a jacket. I was a long ways away, and I couldn’t really tell.”

Hannah glanced out the window over the sink. If Michelle had been in the kitchen of the cottage at two in the morning, she would have had a perfect view of the road and the entrance to the pavilion. “You were standing at the sink at two in the morning?”

“Not exactly.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that’s not precisely correct.”

“I know that’s what it means!” Hannah gave a little sigh. That made twice today that she’d fallen into a semantic trap. “Why don’t you just tell me where you were?” she suggested.

“Down on the dock with Lonnie. We were swimming and we climbed up on the dock to take a rest.”

At two in the morning?! Hannah’s mind shouted, but she didn’t voice the sentiment. And she didn’t ask about swimming attire, either, since she was supposed to be the nonprude.

“And you saw this person at two o’clock?” she asked instead of the thousand and one questions she really wanted to ask.

“I think it was about two. I met Lonnie on the dock at one-thirty. Mother and Carrie were asleep by then. And by the time we climbed back up on the dock and got our towels, it was probably close to two.”

“But you don’t know for sure, because you weren’t wearing a watch.”

“That’s right. I don’t have a waterproof watch. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t wearing…”

“You said you saw this person walk across the road. Did he get out of a car?”

“There was no car. I would have heard it drive up. It was really quiet except for the crickets and the frogs and the mosquitoes. And the lapping of the waves against the dock, and the loons across the lake.”

“Describe the person for me,” Hannah interrupted her sister before she could hear more than she wanted to hear. “You said you couldn’t be sure whether it was a man or a woman?”

“That’s right. I just saw him or her through the trees. And this person went inside and didn’t come out while we were sitting on the dock.”

“And that was how long?”

“I was in bed by two-thirty. I know because I looked at the clock. Do you think I should tell Mike what I saw?”

Hannah shrugged. “You probably don’t need to do that. I’m sure Lonnie has already told him.”

“No, he hasn’t. Lonnie didn’t see the person. He was sitting with his back to the road. I was right next to him, facing the other way. I really don’t want to tell Mike unless you think I absolutely have to. Mother’s bound to hear about it, and I shouldn’t have been out that late.”

“Let me get this straight,” Hannah said, reaching into her purse for her steno notebook and grabbing a pen. She really wanted to cut her baby sister a break, but this was a murder investigation. “Tell me exactly what you saw and when you saw it.”

“I saw a person walk across the road, go around the side of the pavilion, and enter through the front door.”

“You know, for sure, that this person went inside?”

Michelle nodded. “Light spilled out on the concrete when the door opened. A second later, the light disappeared, so the door must have shut again.”

“Makes sense. And you were so far away you couldn’t tell the identity of this person, or even if that person was a man or a woman?”

“That’s right.”

“Giving your best estimate, you think it was about two in the morning when the person went inside the pavilion?”

“I think so.”

“Would you have seen the person if he or she had come back out while you were still sitting on the dock?”

“Yes. The light would have spilled out again when the door opened, and I would have noticed it.”

“So you believe that the person was inside the pavilion for the entire period from two to two-thirty? And two-thirty is the time you left the dock and went back into the cottage?”

“A little before two-thirty. I already told you, I looked at the clock when I climbed in bed, and it was two-thirty. And I know the lights were still on inside the pavilion.”