Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen, #15)(76)

“And I just made a big bowl of Carrot Slaw,” Michelle added, smiling at Lonnie.

“I love your Carrot Slaw,” Lonnie said, smiling back.

Michelle burst into peals of laughter and Lonnie looked puzzled. “Did I say something funny?”

“Yes. You said you loved my Carrot Slaw, and tonight is the first time I’ve ever made it.”

“Oh. Well ... how about this? I love anything you make, Michelle.” That said, Lonnie walked over to her and gave her a kiss.

Hannah felt good, watching her sister and Lonnie interact. They appeared to have a clear understanding between them, and they were definitely a couple.

“Okay, guys. Five minutes to dinner.” Norman flipped the steaks on the grills. “I just want you to know that we expect you to do justice to this meal.”

“Oh, we will,” Mike promised, reaching out to snag a biscuit.

“You’ll spoil your dinner!” Hannah warned, but it wasn’t until the words left her mouth that she realized she sounded exactly like Delores when she’d caught them snacking on cookies an hour before dinner. “Forget I said that. If you want a biscuit now, eat a biscuit. There’s softened butter on the counter.”

The kitchen was filled with the mouthwatering smells of prime-cut steak cooking on a grill. Hannah’s stomach growled even though she’d eaten Sally’s excellent dinner less than three hours ago and sampled the Peaches and Cream Cookies even more recently than that. She certainly wasn’t hungry, but she knew that this was going to be a wonderful meal.

Since both Lonnie and Mike liked their steaks rare, it didn’t take long before they were cutting off chunks of rare beef and washing them down with fresh, hot coffee. There wasn’t much time for conversation between bites of steak, biscuit, and slaw, but Mike finally stopped eating long enough to say, “There was a partial print on the murder weapon, but it belonged to the nurse who brought supplies to the treatment room.”

“How about defensive wounds?” Hannah asked, even though she’d read the autopsy report and knew there hadn’t been any.

“No. That’s probably because the victim was tranquilized. Doc’s theory is that he didn’t even see it coming.”

“Do you think that the killer had some kind of medical training so that he knew exactly where to stab Buddy?” Hannah asked.

“Maybe. It was a hospital, after all. There are a lot of people with medical training at a hospital. Either that, or the killer simply got lucky. We won’t know until we catch him.”

“Or her,” Hannah added.

“Or her.” Mike gave a little nod. “It could have been a woman. It didn’t take that much strength. The scissors were very sharp.” Mike looked down and grinned. “Hi, Moishe. Hi, Cuddles. Are you two sniffing around my steak?”

“Rowwww!” Moishe said, rubbing up against Mike’s ankle.

“Sorry, Big Guy. I’m not going to give you anything quite yet. Go over and see if Lonnie’s a softer touch.”

Michelle laughed. “Lonnie’s a softer touch,” she said. “He’s been feeding them both little pieces of meat for a couple of minutes now.”

“That’s it, though,” Lonnie said, pushing back his plate. “My steak is history.”

“I still have some left, but you two aren’t getting any,” Mike said, “not until the last bite. Then I might reconsider if you stop bugging me now.”

Hannah watched the two cats in amazement as they backed off, turned tail, and walked out of the kitchen.

“How did you do that?” she asked Mike.

“It was cop to cat. They understood that they couldn’t sway me, so they gave up. It’s my commanding manner.”

“Right,” Hannah said, almost believing it, but not quite.

“Did you have any luck finding out who Buddy really was?” Michelle asked Lonnie.

“Not yet, but we’re working on it.”

Hannah was silent. It was Doc’s place to tell Mike he was posting Buddy’s photo in the Hospital News, not hers.

“How about you, Hannah?” Mike asked her. “Any luck?”

“I don’t know who he really was, either. Norman tried to find out online tonight.”

Mike turned to Norman. “What did you find?”

“Basically ... nothing. When I go back to the office, I’m going to go at it another way.”

“What way is that?”

“I’m going to approach it from the jazz keyboard player angle. There’s got to be some kind of organization Buddy might have joined. Or maybe there’s a list of jazz keyboard players posted online somewhere.”

“You’ll let me know if you find anything?”

“Absolutely.”

Hannah heard the sound before anyone else did. It was the scratching, scrabbling noise two cats make when they run at top speed across wall-to-wall carpeting. The sound was coming closer and she shouted out a warning. “Feet up, everybody. Quick!”

“Is it chase?” Mike asked, and Hannah knew he remembered the chase game he’d seen Cuddles and Moishe play at her condo.

“Yes.”

“Put your legs up Lonnie,” Mike ordered. “The cats are coming through, and they’ll total out on your feet.”