Cream Puff Murder (Hannah Swensen, #11)(53)

“Maybe I saw you out here when you were on duty,” Michelle suggested.

“I don’t think that’s it. I know I saw you somewhere, but I don’t think it was out here.”

Hannah tuned out again. She moved back slightly so that she could see what appeared to be bookshelves on the far wall. They were filled with tapes, clearly labeled with the day and date, and there was an obvious gap for the night of Ronni’s murder.

Pay dirt! Hannah sidled a bit closer. The span of the tapes covered two weeks, and that was obviously as long as the security team kept them. Perhaps the older tapes were archived. It didn’t really matter. What mattered was the gap for the night of Ronni’s murder, a bare spot on the shelf.

There was only one conclusion to draw. Hannah assumed that the sheriff’s department had taken the tapes. If she carried her theory further, Detective Stella Parks could be viewing them at this very moment.

There were other assumptions to draw as well, although spotting the gap in coverage had nothing to do with it. Hannah had to assume that Ronni’s murder had not been caught on tape. If the killer had been identified, an arrest would have been made, and the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline would be buzzing like a whole boxcar of bees. Delores would have wasted no time in calling to tell all three of her daughters, and no such call had come.

Perhaps viewing the tapes would be a waste of time, but Hannah’s gut feeling was that they might learn something about the people who had visited Heavenly Bodies that night, gym members who might have seen something that would prove to be important.

Try to get those tapes, Hannah made a mental note. And then she added, And meet Stella Parks to find out her agenda.



“What an absolute nerd!” Michelle said as she climbed into the rear seat of Hannah’s cookie truck. They’d decided to go out to the inn together in Hannah’s truck. On the way back, Andrea would pick up her Volvo in the mall parking lot.

“You’re talking about Tad Newberg?” Andrea asked her.

“Who else? The only thing that bothers me is where I met him before. It’s one of those questions that’ll keep me up for hours tonight.”

“Nothing is going to keep me up for hours tonight!” Hannah pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the Lake Eden Inn.

They were just turning onto the access road that led to the inn when Andrea’s cell phone rang. “It’s Bill,” she said, identifying her husband’s ring tone. “I’d better take this.”

As Hannah guided her truck over the bumpy road that wound through the trees, she heard Andrea’s end of the conversation.

“Oh, hi, honey!” Andrea said, and Hannah could almost hear the smile in her voice. “Don’t tell me you’re coming home early! We’re just about to meet Mother at the inn for dinner.”

There was a silence, and then Andrea spoke again. “Of course. I entirely understand. You have to make Detective Parks feel welcome. Where are you taking her?”

In her rearview mirror, Hannah saw Michelle lean forward so that she could hear better. Was trouble brewing in paradise?

“You’re coming here, too?” Andrea sounded surprised. There was a beat of silence while Bill obviously said something. “But we can’t! Of course we’d love to, honey, but Mother planned this out so that we could discuss Ronni’s murder case. I don’t think you want her to hear about that…do you?”

Another beat and Andrea laughed. “That’s what I thought. It’s okay, honey. You just tell her all about Lake Eden and how nice it is to live here.”

“And if he wants us to join them for coffee afterward, that would be nice,” Hannah jumped in, even though it meant that she had to admit she’d been following what was supposed to be a private conversation.

“Nice touch,” Michelle said, patting Hannah on the shoulder.

Hannah smiled. “I thought so. I want to meet her.”

“But does she want to meet you?” Michelle countered.

Andrea shushed them both by holding up her hand. “Bill says that’ll be fine. She wants to meet us all anyway. They’re leaving the sheriff’s station now, so they’ll be only fifteen minutes or so behind us.”

Michelle waited until Andrea had ended the call, and then she tapped her on the shoulder. “Have you met her yet?” she asked.

“No. I just hope she’s not…”

“Really attractive?” Michelle guessed.

“That, too. But I was thinking more about the department. I hope she’s not critical of the way Bill’s been running things.”

“Right,” Hannah said.

“I understand,” Michelle added. “Maybe we should point out that Bill has no unsolved murder cases on the books.”

Hannah gave a nod. “That’s good. We could all sing Bill’s praises, but if his cliché is true and her mind really is like a steel trap, she’ll see right through it. Maybe we ought to give her some cookies for her office instead. That usually brings people around.”

“Good idea.” Michelle turned to look at the cookies Hannah always carried in the back. “Do you have anything good to give her?”

“Do I have anything good?” Hannah did her best to sound outraged.

“You know what she means,” Andrea gave a little laugh. “Do you have anything that a tough-as-nails, brave-as-a-lion, mind-like-a-steel-trap visiting detective would like?”