Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)(80)

“I don’t think so. Our drivers check for lost items after every run and there’s no briefcase in our lost-and-found bin.”

“Uh-oh,” Hannah groaned, hoping that she sounded dismayed. “Is it possible that someone at your office mailed it to him and it just hasn’t gotten here yet?”

“We don’t usually do that, but a couple of our drivers are here right now and I can ask. Would that have been the two o’clock, four o’clock, or six o’clock shuttle?”

That stumped Hannah completely, but she recovered quickly. “I should have asked Mr. Woodley, but he just left and I didn’t think of it. Is there some way that you could check for me?”

“No problem. The passenger’s name was Woodley?”

“That’s right,” Hannah said, and spelled it out for her. “Benton Woodley.”

“I’ll have to put you on hold. Just a moment please.” There was a brief silence and then music spewed out from the little holes on the receiver. It sounded like the chorus from “It’s a Small World,” and Hannah was in the process of wondering whether Tammi had chosen the song when her cheerful voice came back on the line. “Mr. Benton Woodley was our passenger on the two o’clock shuttle. I checked with the driver, but he said he didn’t find anything except a pen and a monogrammed handkerchief. Maybe you should check with the airlines?”

“Good idea. Thanks, Tammi. I really appreciate your help.” Hannah hung up the phone and thought about what she’d learned. Moishe jumped up on her lap and started to lick her arm with his raspy tongue. He seemed to sense that she was upset and he was doing his best to comfort her. Hannah stroked him absently and thought about the times of the murders. The fact that Benton had taken the two o’clock shuttle didn’t rule him out as the killer. He could have flown in the night before, rented a car from Compacts Unlimited, and made a round-trip to Lake Eden to kill Max and Ron. If he’d returned the car to the airport location, he could have walked to the shuttle station and boarded the two o’clock bus to give himself an alibi. But why would Benton want to kill Max Turner? He hadn’t visited Lake Eden in years, and as far as Hannah knew, he’d never spoken more than a few words to Max.

Her mind spinning, Hannah reached for the phone again, intending to call Compacts Unlimited to find out if Benton had rented a car. But perhaps she should leave that to Bill. He knew the manager and he could get the information much faster than she could. Hannah punched out Bill’s number and reminded herself of the things she had to tell him. There was the photo of the rental folder and her suspicions about Benton. Bill didn’t know anything about that. There was also Boyd Watson and she had to tell Bill that she’d eliminated him as a suspect. She wouldn’t mention Danielle’s painful secret right now. It would be better to wait until she had Bill’s full attention. Perhaps they could think of some way to put the fear of God into The Gull’s head coach.

“Bill? I’ve got some information that…” Hannah stopped short as she realized she was talking to a recorded message. Bill wasn’t at his desk. When the beep sounded, she almost hung up in sheer frustration, but better sense prevailed. “Bill? It’s Hannah. I eliminated Coach Watson as a suspect. He’s got an alibi. But remember those pictures we took in Del Woodley’s den? Norman brought them over on his lunch break and one of them showed a Compacts Unlimited rental folder. I figure that Benton must have rented it. Judith wouldn’t be caught dead driving a compact and Del’s got his fancy Mercedes. The W in Max’s appointment book could stand for Woodley, but I don’t have a motive. I’m going to nose around to see what else I can find out about the Woodleys.”

Hannah sighed and hung up, picturing Bill in the sheriff station’s lobby, eating dozens of the cookies she’d baked for the open house and mingling with the people who’d driven out to see their new cruisers. He was probably having the time of his life while she was sitting here agonizing over clues that didn’t fit and suspects that disappeared like snowballs in the sun. She was supposed to be assisting Bill, not doing all of his legwork for him. Who was bucking for detective here, anyway?

Just then the phone rang, jolting Hannah out of her glum mood. She reached out to answer it, expecting Bill, but it was her mother.

“I’m so glad I caught you, Hannah. I have the most amazing news.”

“Yes, Mother?” Hannah held the phone an inch from her ear. Her mother could deafen the person on the other end of the line when she was excited.

“I’m here at the mall with Carrie. She needed a new battery for her watch. You’ll never guess what I just saw at the jeweler’s! What do you think it was?”

Hannah made a face at Moishe. She was almost thirty and her mother still wanted her to play guessing games. “I’ll never be able to guess, Mother. You’d better tell me.”

“It was Del Woodley’s ring!”

“His ring?” Hannah didn’t understand what was so startling about that. Everyone she knew took rings to the jeweler’s when they needed repair or resizing.

“It was for sale, Hannah. The jeweler had it displayed in a glass case and he wanted twenty thousand dollars for it.”

“Twenty thousand dollars?” Hannah gasped.

“That’s not unreasonable for a platinum setting and a diamond that size. Now why would Del Woodley’s ring be up for sale?”