Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(88)

“I’m not sure. They said they called me first because I won the leading actress award and they knew I’d arrived two weeks early. Do you want to call the mayor and let him know, Hannah? I called you right after I got the call from the PR guy at KCOW.”

Hannah gave a short laugh. “There’s no way I’m going to break the news to the mayor!”

“Then do you think I should call him?”

“Absolutely not! There’s no way you should give the mayor bad news. Mayor Bascomb’s the type of person who’d shoot the messenger!”

“Thanks for the warning, Hannah. I know exactly what you mean and I won’t even consider calling him.”

After she’d accepted the dinner invitation with Lynne and Tom, Hannah said her goodbyes and hung up. Then she went to the freezer to check the status of the peanut butter balls she’d formed. She’d decided to make candy for Valentine’s Day. They’d never done that before, but there was always a first time.

Hannah slipped on a pair of food service gloves and picked up one of the candy balls to see if they were hard enough to dip in chocolate. They weren’t so she returned them to the freezer and turned to look at the clock. Another hour should be enough, especially if she kept the temperature of the melted chocolate that she’d use for dipping as low as possible.

Hannah was just gathering the ingredients for more cookies when there was a knock on the back kitchen door. It was a distinctive knock and even though she didn’t really have to look through the peephole to know who was there, Hannah looked before she opened the door. “Hi, Norman,” she said, ushering him in. “I was wondering when you’d get here.”

“I’m sorry it took so long. I thought I’d be back earlier, but Cliff had a problem downloading the photos from Clara’s phone.”

“You mean he couldn’t do it?”

“No, he got them, but it took longer than he thought it would. I got everything, Hannah. And I printed out several photos I’d like you to see.”

“I’ll get coffee for us and then you can show me,” Hannah said, setting a platter of bar cookies on the surface of the work station. “Will you try my newest bar cookie?”

“You betcha!” Norman reached out for one, took a big bite, and gave her a thumbs-up signal. Then he swallowed and smiled. “They’re great, Hannah! Is that butterscotch with the chocolate?”

“Yes, Mother thought that combination would be good.”

“She was right,” Norman said as he reached for another bar cookie.

Hannah carried two mugs of coffee to the work station and took a stool across from Norman. “Do you have Clara’s phone with you?”

“I have it, but after Cliff gave me her new phone, I went home and put all her photos on my computer. And then I printed out the ones that I thought were important.”

Hannah watched as Norman opened the folder he’d carried in with him. “I enhanced them a bit because they were taken at night in moonlight. The first is one of the pine tree Clara used as the constant in her shadow photos.”

“I’ve always thought that pine was the most beautiful one,” Hannah said. And then her slight smile faltered a bit as she remembered stopping beneath that very tree on one of the walks she’d taken with Ross and how he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

“Here’s the second photo Clara took.” Norman handed it to Hannah. “I worked on the color, but since it’s taken after dark and the moon was out, it’s difficult to judge colors.”

Hannah glanced down at the photo and gasped. “There’s a man standing under the pine!”

“Yes. I think that he saw Clara taking the photo and that’s why he pushed her down and stole her phone.”

“That makes sense if he knew that Clara had taken a picture of him and he didn’t want anyone to know he was there.”

“Yes, and since Clara said she hadn’t even seen the man, she probably didn’t realize that she’d caught his image in her photo. But she would have noticed him when she printed out her photos. And she would have wondered why he was crouching there.”

“That’s true,” Hannah agreed. “What’s around the man’s neck, Norman?”

“I think it’s a pair of binoculars. One of the lenses is catching the moonlight.”

Hannah studied the photo again. “Yes, I think you’re right. I wish we could see his face.”

“So do I, but I’ve enhanced the image to the maximum. Any more and it’ll break down. I did manage to catch the color of his cap, though. It could be blue, but moonlight adds blue to most colors. I used a meter to measure the strength of the blue hue in the shadow and when I subtracted that from the man’s hat, it looked more green than blue.”

“So it’s a Buffalo Plaid hat with squares of black and green?”

“Yes, if that’s what you call that big checkerboard design. Where did they get a name like Buffalo Plaid anyway? I’ve never seen a buffalo wearing plaid.”

Hannah laughed. “And I doubt you will unless one of the park employees in Little Falls decides to put a Buffalo Plaid blanket on one of their bison.”

“If they did, it would be Bison Plaid,” Norman said. “They’re not the same animal, you know.”