Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(73)

“I hope you didn’t speed through town,” he said.

“I didn’t. I did take the gravel road around the lake a little too fast, though.”

“How fast?”

“I didn’t look at the speedometer, but it was fast enough to bump my head on the top of the truck three times.”

“That should teach you to slow down,” Herb said, looking very stern. “I really ought to give you a ticket, but it’s not my jurisdiction.”

“But Lisa said it was important,” Hannah repeated.

“That’s what Jack told us. Come on in, Hannah. Jack’s at the kitchen table. He wants to talk to you alone, so after I take you in to him, I’ll go down and see if I can help with the breakfast.”

Hannah stepped in, and Herb led her to the table where Jack was sitting with a cup of coffee and the box of cookies she’d given him for his birthday. “Here’s Hannah to see you, Jack.”

“Hi, there,” Jack said, smiling at Hannah. And then he turned to Herb. “Thanks for keeping me company, son. Hannah will walk me down to the breakfast when we’re through here…” he turned to Hannah, “…won’t you, Hannah?”

“Of course I will.”

Jack waited until Herb had left, and then he gestured toward the counter. “Would you like a cup of coffee? Marge made a full pot.”

“I’d love a cup, thanks. I’ll get it,” Hannah filled the clean cup that was sitting by the coffeepot and carried the carafe over to refill Jack’s cup. Then she sat down in the chair across from him and waited.

“Your cookies did it, girl!” Jack grinned at her. “I remembered the last time Emmy made them, and that made me remember the reason I got into that fight with Gus. I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to promise me you won’t tell anyone else, not even Lisa.”

“I promise,” Hannah said firmly. What Jack was about to tell her might give her a lead to follow, but it was unlikely that his memories from over thirty years ago would have a direct bearing on the events that had transpired after the dance on Sunday night.

“Gus asked me to lend him some money on the night he left town for good,” Jack told her. “We were friends, and I would have given it to him if I’d had any extra, but Emmy and I were barely making it on my salary. Iris was almost two years old, and Emmy was due to have Tim any day. Emmy couldn’t work, and it was hard to make both ends meet.”

Hannah nodded. She could understand how a young married couple with a toddler and a baby on the way would have trouble paying the bills on only one salary.

“I told Gus I was sorry, but I couldn’t help him. And then he said I had to help him because he owed money from a card game, and they’d come after him if he didn’t pay it back. I felt awful, but I didn’t have anything to give him. All Emmy and I had was the little bit of money we’d put away for Doc Knight to deliver Tim.”

“I understand.”

“Well, Gus didn’t. He wanted me to give him our savings for the new baby. I told him I couldn’t. And then I suggested that he ask Patsy. She was working, and she had a pretty good job.”

“Did he?” Hannah remembered Patsy saying something about a loan she’d made to Gus that Mac had wanted to collect.

“He said he couldn’t, because he hadn’t paid Patsy back for the last loan. He owed Marge money, too. And his parents wouldn’t help him out again. The last time he borrowed money from them, they’d told him it was time he grew up and accepted responsibility for his own debts.”

Hannah was beginning to understand exactly what the fight had been about. “And you got into a fight because Gus wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

“In a way, but that’s putting it mildly. Now, you need a little background here, or you’re not going to understand this next part.”

“Okay.” Hannah took another sip of her coffee. “Go ahead.”

“Well…” Jack swallowed hard. “You’re sure you won’t tell anybody?”

“I swear I won’t,” Hannah promised.

“Okay, then. I was kind of shy around the girls in high school, but Gus wasn’t. We were friends, so I asked his advice about asking Emmy to go out on a date with me. But before I could get up the nerve, Gus asked her out.”

“That rat!” Hannah breathed.

“That’s right, but it was okay because Emmy only dated him a couple of times and then she said she wouldn’t go out with him anymore. When I asked Gus why he’d asked her out in the first place, especially when he knew I wanted to, he told me he was just testing the waters and they were pretty cold.”

“That scum!” Hannah stated, a little louder this time.

“Another good word to describe him.” Jack gave her a smile. “Of course I didn’t believe Gus, but it didn’t really matter because the next day Emmy asked me out.”

Hannah clapped her hands. “Wonderful! And you fell in love and got married.”

“That’s right. Not quite that quick, of course, but we got married right after we graduated from high school. Emmy was always a good cook. I think that’s where all my girls get it. And her specialty was…what did you call these things again?”

“Red Velvet Cookies.”