Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(84)

“No. I always put things away when I leave the bedroom in the morning.”

“Then whoever it was assumed that something was hidden in your closet or in one of your dresser drawers. And whoever it was didn’t take the time to put anything back.” Mike frowned slightly. “You didn’t notice the mess on the carpet, Hannah?”

“I don’t remember if I did or not. The only thing I remember clearly was the bed. And . . . him. That’s all.”

“You’re sure?”

Even though she didn’t want to relive those painful moments, Hannah thought back to her first sight of the bedroom. “If I saw the things on the floor, my mind didn’t process it.”

“All right. Is there anything that you normally keep in your bedroom that either Ross or the killer might have wanted?”

“The money!” Hannah gasped, the answer hitting her squarely in her solar plexus. “I think someone was searching for the money! Remember when Doug told us he didn’t think Ross believed him when he claimed that he never kept the large amount of money that Ross wanted in the bank safe? That’s when Ross accused Doug of giving the money to me.”

“Exactly.” Mike reached out to give her a little pat on the back. “That was the first thing that occurred to me. It could have been the money, but it also could have been something else.”

“Like what?”

“Like something Ross left behind in your bedroom, something he needed to take with him when he left.”

“That makes sense,” Hannah said. “It could even be something he hid in my bedroom on purpose and he planned to come back for it later.”

“That’s possible, too. Did you clean out your closet, or reorganize it, or anything like that after Ross left?”

“No. I didn’t have the heart or the time to do that. And don’t forget that, at least at first, I expected him to come back any day. I just closed his side of the closet and didn’t even open it while he was gone, and then, when I realized that he probably wasn’t coming back, I felt so betrayed, I didn’t want to see anything that reminded me of him.”

“That’s understandable, Hannah. It was a very painful time for you. I felt that way on a smaller scale when my wife was killed. I didn’t want to look at her clothes and remember. It was over six months before I was able to pack them up and give them to charity.”

Mike looked so sad that Hannah knew she had to change the subject. “Do you think that I should go back to the condo and look to see if I notice anything that’s missing?”

“Eventually, yes. Right now your condo is still off-limits to everyone. The crime scene team is lifting fingerprints and it’s going to take them a while.”

Hannah gave a little groan. Her condo would be an absolute mess when the crime scene people got through. She’d gone through this once before when Connie Mac was killed in her walk-in cooler and she’d needed to run countless loads of baking pans, cookie sheets, and mixing bowls through her industrial dishwasher to make sure they were free of fingerprint powder.

“I know they leave a mess,” Mike said, accurately reading her thoughts. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about that. They have to be thorough, and they may find something that’ll help to catch the killer.”

“I know. It’s okay, Mike. Do you have a crime scene photo of my closet, one that doesn’t show . . .” Hannah stopped speaking and took a deep, calming breath. “. . . that doesn’t show . . . him?”

“Yes, I’ve got one,” Mike said. He opened his briefcase, pulled out a photo, and handed it to her. “Here. It doesn’t show anything else, Hannah. I won’t give you those.”

“You don’t have to. I remember.” Hannah took the photo from Mike and studied it. “The boxes on the floor were on the top shelf when I left for work in the morning. Whoever did this pulled them down, took off the lids, and dumped them out. Then they pawed through the contents and just left them on the floor. Ross must have done it. It couldn’t have been the killer.”

“Why not?”

“Because Ross was . . . shot, wasn’t he?” Hannah paused to take another deep breath. “And then the killer would have wanted to get out of my condo right after he shot him. He wouldn’t have taken the time to take down those boxes and dump them out. He’d be much more concerned about getting away before anyone realized that the noise they’d heard was a gunshot and they called the police.”

“Yes, Hannah, he was shot. You make a good point about the noise, but everything changes if the killer used a silencer.”

“Did he?”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s no way to tell by just looking.”

“Do you know the caliber of the bullet? The ballistics report hasn’t come in yet?”

“Not yet. I’ll tell you when it does.”

“So we really don’t know anything except that Ross was murdered and Ross needed a hundred thousand dollars in cash for some reason.”

“That’s about it. This is going to be a challenge, Hannah.”

Both of them were silent then, sipping their coffee and thinking. When the plate of cookies was as empty as their coffee cups, Mike said goodbye and left. Hannah locked the back kitchen door behind him, walked directly to the drawer where she kept her blank shorthand notebooks, and took one out. Then she sat down at the work station and began to write down the suspects she already had in Ross’s murder case.