Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)(82)

“That’s okay. Just do me a favor and don’t mention it to my mother. It’ll give her new ammunition.”

“She’s still trying to fix you up with every man in town?” Sue gestured toward the couch and they both sat down.

“You could say that.” Hannah took a sip of her coffee and decided to change the subject. “How’s DelRay doing, Sue? That’s really what I came down to ask you about.”

“Everything’s fine now. Phil said Del is even talking about branching out into the mail order business like Fingerhut did in St. Cloud. But it didn’t look so good a couple of…” Sue’s voice trailed off as she heard a key in the door. “Phil’s coming. He can tell you all about it.”

Phil opened the door, spotted Hannah, and gave her a grin. “Hi, Hannah.”

“Hello, Phil.”

“Hannah put Kevin to sleep for me.” Sue gestured toward the crib. “She just walked like an elephant and it worked.”

Phil gave his wife a glance that suggested she might be losing her marbles, but then he shrugged. “Whatever works. Is there more of that coffee?”

“Half a pot in the kitchen,” Sue told him. “Get a cup and come join us, honey. Hannah came down to ask us about DelRay.”

Phil poured a cup of coffee and came back to sit in the chair across from the couch. He tried a cookie, pronounced it the best he’d ever tasted, and then he asked, “What do you want to know about DelRay?”

“I just hoped there wouldn’t be any big changes, now that Benton’s come back,” Hannah went into the opening of the speech she’d planned on her way down the stairs.

“I don’t think Benton will last for long.” Phil took another cookie and shrugged. “From what I hear, he was living it up on the East Coast and he just came home to make sure that the money wouldn’t run out.”

“Will it?” Hannah asked the obvious question.

“I don’t think there’s any danger of that. Sue’s sister works in the accounting office and she told me that Del just landed a fat new contract on Thursday.”

Hannah nodded, but it didn’t really matter. Thursday was the day after Max had been killed. “How about before that? Was DelRay in trouble?”

“There was a problem about four years ago. It was right before Sue and I got married and I was already starting to look for a new job.”

“Things were that bad at DelRay?”

Phil raised his eyebrows. “Bad? It was gruesome. We lost five big contracts, and the front office cut the workforce in half. They did it on seniority and I’d only been there for a year. I was just lucky I survived the cut. The guy who was hired right after me got pink-slipped. But then Del got some new financing and ever since then we’ve been doing better.”

“New financing?” Hannah’s ears perked up. “You mean like a bank loan?”

Phil shook his head. “I don’t know where the money came from, but it wasn’t a bank loan. Sue’s sister told me that the bank turned Del down. Something about being overextended.”

“But there hasn’t been a problem since that loan or whatever it was?” Hannah took another sip of her coffee and waited for Phil’s answer.

“It wasn’t so fine on Wednesday morning,” Sue spoke up. “Tell her about that, Phil.”

“Sue’s right. I was a little worried when I came home from work on Wednesday morning.”

“A little worried?” Sue laughed. “You were ready to start sending out resumes again.”

“That’s true. When I was leaving the plant, I saw the old man and he looked pretty grim.”

“What time was that?” Hannah held her breath. The pieces were starting to fall in place.

“About six-fifteen, give or take a couple of minutes. I just got off shift and I was heading out to the parking lot when I saw him talking to the night shift supervisors.”

Hannah was confused. “I thought you were a night shift supervisor.”

“I am, but these guys are one level up from me. That’s why I thought there might be trouble. The old man never comes in before nine, unless there’s a real crisis.”

Hannah spent another couple of minutes making conversation and then she said she had to go. As she climbed up the steps to her own unit, she tried to fit the new pieces of the puzzle into place. Del Woodley couldn’t have killed Max, not if Phil had seen him at the plant. But it was certainly possible that Del had secured a loan from Max Turner four years ago. She had to check on that, and there was only one person who might know.

When she unlocked her door, no furry orange ball barreled across the room to meet her. Hannah glanced around anxiously. Where was Moishe? Then she saw him sitting on the back of the couch. The novelty of having her dash in and out had obviously worn off for him.

“Hi, Moishe.” Hannah walked over to pet him anyway. “Go back to sleep. I just came home to make another phone call.”

Moishe yawned and settled back down, and Hannah reached for the phone. Betty Jackson might know if Del Woodley had borrowed money from Max four years ago.

Betty’s extension was busy and Hannah had to press the redial button a dozen times before she finally got through. When she said hello, Betty immediately started to tell her what was going on.