Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(69)

“That’s what Mother said.”

“This is a dead end, then.” Norman went back to the original screen. “At least we know he lived in Ann Arbor at one time. Maybe there’s something about him in the local papers.” A few moments later, he asked, “Do you want to try the Ann Arbor News? Or the University paper, Michigan Daily?”

“Let’s try the Michigan Daily. Mother was pretty sure he coached there.”

Norman pulled up the Web site and did a search for Gus’s high school baseball coach. There were several mentions in sports coverage, but then Norman’s search took them to another page.

“Uh-oh,” Hannah breathed as she saw the heading on the page. Toby Hutchins was dead and had been for three years now. He’d been killed in a boating accident. According to the obituary, there were no survivors and no one to contact. “Another dead end,” she sighed. “Literally.”

“Let’s try the Atlantic City yellow pages,” Norman suggested.

“For Toby Hutchins?”

“No, for Gus’s nightclub. I want to find out if Mood Indigo actually exists.”

It didn’t take long to pull up the Yellow Pages and find the address for Mood Indigo. Norman printed it out, along with the phone number, and glanced at his watch. “Too late to call,” he said. “They’re two hours ahead, and they’re probably closed by now.”

“What are you doing now?” Hannah asked as Norman typed something in and started loading another Web page.

“Making reservations. Maybe someone at Mood Indigo knows why Gus came back to Lake Eden.”

“You’re going to fly to Atlantic City?” Hannah was dumbfounded.

“Why not? Doc’s filling in for me tomorrow, anyway. I’ll drive to the airport, catch the red-eye, sleep on the plane, and get there before noon.”

“But don’t you have to go back home to pack a suitcase?”

“Not really. I’ll pick up what I need at the airport.”

“How about clothes?”

“I’ve got what I’m wearing, and I can pick up another shirt. If Gus’s nightclub really is as fancy as he claimed it was, it’ll probably have a dress code. I’m just glad I’ve got my suit hanging in the car, and I can take off for the airport from here.”

Hannah just stared at him for a moment as the gears in her brain whirred and then meshed. Pieces of the puzzle clicked into place, and she reached out to hug him. And then, because that wasn’t enough, she placed a big kiss on his lips.

“Wow!” Norman said when she released him. “If I’d known that flying to Atlantic City would affect you that way, I would have done it a long time ago!”

“That’s not it,” Hannah said, still slightly breathless from the way Norman had returned her kiss.

“Then what is it? Not that I’m complaining, of course.”

“Remember the suitcase on the bed?” she waited until Norman nodded. “And the empty closet at Gus’s cottage?”

“Yes.”

“And the linen suit hanging in the Jaguar?”

“Of course I remember. I’m the one who climbed the fence at the impound lot. But what does that have to do with me?”

“Gus didn’t unpack and hang up his clothes, because he knew he wasn’t staying. And he hung his linen suit in the car when he changed clothes for the dance because he was planning on leaving later that night.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Everything adds up. Ava told me he gassed up his car before he even found out which cabin was his. That tells me he was planning to take off again before Ava opened up in the morning.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“There’s the pill I saw him take at the dance. He said it was an antacid, but I described it to Jon Walker and he thought it was a type of amphetamine. Gus wanted to be alert so he could drive back to Atlantic City. That’s why he bought all those candy bars and snacks. He told Ava they were for his breakfast, but they weren’t. That’s why he bought the disposable cooler, too. And made his ham and cheese sandwiches at the bar in the pavilion. He was going to take them with him in the car and drive all night.”

Norman thought about it for a moment. “That does make sense. But why did he want to leave after only one day? The reunion doesn’t end until Saturday night.”

“My guess is that he never planned to come to the reunion in the first place. He just saw the posters Lisa and Herb hung on Main Street and thought it was a handy excuse. He came for another reason.”

“To see his family?”

Hannah shook her head. “I really doubt that. If he’d wanted to reconnect with his relatives, he would have stayed for the whole reunion. My guess is that Gus came for a purpose. And he must have accomplished it before he hung that linen suit in his car and took that pill to keep him awake.”

“Okay,” Norman said, standing up and giving Moishe a scratch behind the ears before he headed to the door. “I’ll find out why he came here. And I’ll check out his apartment to see if he really had a safe with watches and jewelry.”

“Be careful,” Hannah warned, feeling strangely bereft as he pulled her into his arms for a hug.

“I will be. Where’s your cell phone?”