Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(68)

“That’s probably right,” Norman said, but he didn’t look completely convinced. “But a hired killer could have hidden himself in the crowd of people here for the reunion, bided his time, and killed Gus when nobody else was around.”

“Impossible.”

“Why? There’s got to be at least a hundred and fifty people at the lake.”

“And they all get together and talk,” Hannah explained. “Somebody who’s not a relative would be found out in a hurry. I walked through that crowd enough to know everybody asks everybody else about how they’re related, and their background, and the other relatives they know.”

Norman thought about that for a moment. “You’ve got a point. It would be a lot harder than trying to crash a convention or another event like that.”

“Back to the suspects,” Hannah said, flipping the page. “There’s Jack, of course. You already know about that. And then there’s the gambling Gus used to do. It could be someone who thought Gus cheated him, someone who carried a grudge all these years. Or it could be someone he borrowed money from and never paid back. Mother told me he was terrible about that. He still owed her twenty dollars from high school when he left Lake Eden for good.”

“He sounds like someone I’m glad I met only once,” Norman said, shaking his head.

“Well put!” Hannah complimented him. “But that doesn’t mean he deserved to die.”

“True. Anybody else on your suspect list?”

“Ava.”

Norman looked shocked. “Ava Schultz from the store?”

“That’s right.”

“Because of the canceled gas card?”

“No, Ava didn’t know she’d been cheated until today, when she called in the charges. She doesn’t have the kind of automatic pumps that accept or reject gas cards. She just writes the number on a form, has the person sign it, and calls them in.”

“Okay, but why would Ava want to kill him if she didn’t know about the canceled card?”

“Because he didn’t stay with her.”

“Ava asked him to spend the night?” Norman asked, looking surprised.

“I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that she was very quick to tell me that when Gus came back to the store with her after the dance was over, it wasn’t what I was thinking. She assured me that the only thing he wanted was to get some groceries.”

“Maybe that’s all it was.”

“Maybe, but I added her to the suspect list anyway. A woman scorned is a prime suspect.”

“So Ava’s still a suspect?”

“No, I cleared her when Andrea brought me the crime scene photos. Gus is a couple of inches over six feet tall, and Ava’s more than a foot shorter. She’s also much lighter. I don’t think she can weigh more than ninety pounds dripping wet.”

“That’s about what I’d guess,” Norman said.

“So there’s no way Ava could stab him in the chest with enough force to kill him…unless she stool on a step stool, of course.”

“And there was no step stool?” Norman asked.

“None in the whole pavilion. I know because Patsy was looking for one so she could replace the lightbulb over the back door.”

“How about if she knocked him down on his back and then stabbed him?”

“How?” Hannah asked him. “He outweighed her by at least fifty pounds.”

“Right. Well…you were probably right to take her off the list. She’s a pretty unlikely candidate. Anybody else on there?

“Just one. And I’m beginning to think this last one is the one who did it.”

“Who’s that?”

“The unidentified suspect who killed Gus for some unknown reason. I don’t know about you, Norman, but this case has really got me stymied.”

“You’ll solve it. You always do. Something will happen to put a few of the pieces in place and then the rest will follow.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“You’re welcome. Maybe that baseball coach is a piece of the puzzle. Fire up your computer, and let’s see if we can find out more about him.”

Once the computer was online and Norman was sitting in what Hannah thought of as the driver’s seat, he turned to her. “What’s the name?”

“Toby Hutchins.”

“Is that Toby as in Tobias?”

“I don’t know, and Mother didn’t either. I asked. Before I wrote it down.”

“Okay, let’s go with Toby. I’m going to load the University of Michigan Web site and see what’s there.”

Hannah watched while the Web site loaded. “There’s a place to click for athletics,” she said, pointing at the screen.

“Right. We’ll try that first.” Norman waited, and when the athletics page loaded, he clicked on the link for baseball. Once that page came up, there was another link for history, and then one for coaches.

“We might have something here,” Norman said, letting the page for baseball coaches load. But when it came up on the screen, he gave a little groan.

“What is it?” Hannah asked.

“It only gives head coaches and the years they headed up Wolverine Baseball. Didn’t you say Toby Hutchins was an assistant coach?”