Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)(20)

“Okay, but consider yourself on overtime.” Hannah gave her a long, level look. If this was Lisa’s idea of fun, she really needed to get out more. “I have to talk to Bill. Have you seen him?”

“Not yet. Your sister said he’d be late. I guess there was a whole lot of paperwork for him to do. Do you want me to tell him you’re looking for him when he gets here?”

“Yes, thanks.” Hannah needed to tell Bill about Danielle Watson, but in the meantime, she might be able to find out why Danielle was with Ron when he stocked the school’s cooler. “How about Coach Watson’s wife? Is she here?”

“They were both here a couple of minutes ago. Coach Watson said that he just got back from a basketball clinic. He was gone for three days.”

Hannah’s mind was spinning as she set off to find Andrea. Coach Watson had been gone and Danielle had been with Ron, early this morning. Hannah didn’t want to believe that Ron was the type to have an affair with another man’s wife, but that was the obvious conclusion.

Andrea was talking to Mrs. Rhodes, but she excused herself when she saw Hannah. “What happened to you? You look fantastic!”

“Thanks, Andrea. Do you have a minute?”

“Of course I do.” Andrea led the way over to a less populated corner of the room. “Why are you wearing makeup?”

“Luanne Hanks gave me a makeover and I didn’t have time to wash it off. That’s why I needed to talk to you. When I was out at Luanne’s, I noticed that her daughter doesn’t have many things. I was just wondering if you had any of Tracey’s old furniture and toys that you could give her.”

“Of course I do. I saved every single thing she outgrew. I’d give it all to Luanne in a heartbeat, but I know how she is about taking charity.”

“No problem. I told her that you were hauling some of Tracey’s things to the dump and I asked her if she’d mind if you dropped them off her at house instead.”

“And she agreed?”

“Only after I said that you didn’t have time to go through the boxes and it was a real shame that all that nice stuff would be rotting out at the dump. She’s going to pull out what she can use and take the rest to the thrift shop.”

“Good job, Hannah!” Andrea reached out to pat her on the back. “I didn’t think you had a devious bone in your body, but I guess you must have learned something from Mother.”



Hannah spotted Danielle Watson from across the room. She was a part of a group that contained her husband, Marge Beeseman, Father Coultas, Bonnie Surma and Al Percy. Danielle was wearing an ice blue dress, and her light blond hair was arranged in a fashionable twist at the nape of her neck. Several feathery curls hung down near her cheeks to make her hairstyle less severe and her lips were colored with the lipstick that Hannah now recognized as Pretty Girl’s Pink Passion.

Hannah moved forward and joined the fringes of the group. The topic of conversation was Ron LaSalle and that didn’t surprise her. Ron’s murder was the biggest news to hit Lake Eden since little Tommy Bensen had released the brake on his mother’s Ford Escort and crashed through the plate glass window of the First Mercantile Bank.

“My Herbie says he was shot clean through the heart,” Mrs. Beeseman offered her tidbit of gossip. “Now Max is going to have to reupholster the truck because there was blood all over the place.”

Coach Watson looked sad. “It’s a terrible loss for The Gulls. Ron came to every practice and he was a real inspiration.”

“Do you suppose it was some kind of sports vendetta?” Al Percy asked, his dark bushy eyebrows almost meeting in a frown. “After all, Ron was The Gull’s star player for three years in a row.”

Father Coultas shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense, Al. Everybody liked Ron, even the boys on the opposing teams.”

“You’re right, Father.” Coach Watson was quick to agree. “Ron was popular because he played fair.”

Al continued to frown and Hannah could see that he wasn’t ready to give up his sports vendetta theory quite yet. “Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with high school sports. From what I heard, it was an execution-style killing and that sure smacks of bent-nose types to me.”

“Bent-nose?” Bonnie Surma bristled and Hannah remembered that her maiden name had been Pennelli. “Are you talking about the Mafia?”

Al nodded. “It’s not impossible, Bonnie. Everybody knows that they run the sports books and they could have recruited Ron to pick up bets with his milk orders. If Ron’s take came up short, they might have put out a hit on him.”

“You’re crazy, Al.” Marge Beeseman obviously didn’t believe in mincing words. “Ron was one of ours and he never would have done something like that. Besides, my Herbie says that Mafia hit men always shoot their victims in the back of the head. Or they use that wire thing to choke them like they did in The Godfather.”

As Hannah watched, Danielle’s naturally pale face turned a shade of sickly gray. The polite smile on her face crumpled and she looked as if she were struggling not to burst into tears. She turned to her husband, whispered a few words, and then she left the group. Hannah watched her as she pushed her way through the crowded room and headed out into the hallway that led to the ladies’ room.