Cream Puff Murder (Hannah Swensen, #11)(63)

“Who else? I’m going to take him a thermos of coffee. He’s waiting in my truck.”

“But you lock your truck, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then how did he get inside?”

“He’s a seasoned law enforcement professional. I’m sure they teach them how to break into a truck in cop school.”

“You’re probably right. Do you want to take him some cookies?”

“No. This isn’t a twenty-four hour diner. He’s lucky to get fresh coffee.”

“Let me guess…somebody just moved to the top of your list? And that somebody starts with an m and ends with annoying?”

Hannah laughed. “That would be Mike, all right. He should know better than to call me this time of night.”

“Do you want me to get up and put on a second pot of coffee? I’m awake anyway.”

“More coffee’s the last thing I need. Go to sleep, Michelle. One of us has to be awake and alert tomorrow morning.”



“Thanks for coming down, Hannah,” Mike said, leaning over to open the passenger door for her. “Is that a thermos of coffee?”

“It is.” Hannah slid into the passenger seat. It felt strange to be on this side of her truck. She didn’t think she’d ever been in the passenger seat before. “What’s so important that you had to get me out of bed?”

Mike stared at her for a moment, taking in her old sweatpants and sweatshirt partially covered by the faded chenille robe she’d picked up at Lake Eden’s only thrift store, Helping Hands. “You really wear that to bed?”

“Yes. Without the robe and slippers, of course.”

“Somehow I never imagined you wearing something that…never mind. I just came to ask you if you’re making any progress on the case.”

“It’s too early to say,” Hannah said, giving him nothing except a hard stare.

“How’s Moishe doing with his Kitty Valet?”

Hannah’s mood improved slightly. Mike really did care about Moishe. “He loves it. There’s only one thing…he’s going through two and three full food tubes a day.”

“That’s way too much! He’s going to be as fat as a pig if he keeps that up.”

“I don’t think he’s eating it. It doesn’t look as if he’s gained any weight, and with that much food, he would have. I think he’s taking out the food and hiding it somewhere.”

“That makes some kind of sense, especially since he was a stray. He probably hid food as a survival tactic.”

“That’s what I thought, but I can’t figure out where he’s hiding it. There’s got to be quite a pile by now.”

“Well…you can’t keep an eye on him twenty-four-seven. What you should probably do is install a surveillance camera.”

“A surveillance camera for my cat?” Hannah was amused.

“I think it’s a good idea. They have nanny-cams. You need a kitty-cam.”

Hannah laughed. “You’re probably right, but I’m on a limited budget. I really can’t afford to buy an expensive surveillance camera to discover where my cat is hiding his food.”

“You don’t have to buy one. I’ve got a state-of-the-art model in the car. I test out products for a company that makes security devices. All I have to do is rate them, and then the department gets to keep them. It’s a great way to get free equipment.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “It’s also a great way to save the county some money.”

“You bet. The security staff at the mall tests them, too. They don’t have much of a budget out there.”

“Uh-oh. Is this camera going to break down like the one outside the back door at Heavenly Bodies?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. For one thing, it’s inside. And for another thing, it’s a brand-new, improved model. Some of the older models are affected by temperature and moisture, but this new one is supposed to be completely reliable. I can install it in your kitchen right now if you want me to. All I have to do is put in a bracket and two screws, and that won’t take more than a minute or two. Then, when we find out which direction Moishe goes with the food, we can move the camera to that room and track him to wherever he’s hiding it.”

“Okay,” Hannah said. “That sounds like a sensible solution to me. I’ll drive you to your car to get it. Where did you park?”

“Right next to you.” Mike gestured toward the car that was parked in the slot next to Hannah’s cookie truck. It was an old, faded green sedan with a fake convertible top that had ripped and was spewing out fiberglass stuffing.

Hannah just stared at the wreck in surprise. “Where did you get that?”

“It was Ronni’s new car.”

“Did you say…new?”

“Well, it was new to her. She bought it for five hundred dollars from someone at the bar where she used to work.”

“And it runs?”

“So far, so good. Ronni could never get it to run right. She was always asking for rides because it was broken down. It’s been sitting on the street outside the apartment complex for at least two weeks now, and I figured I’d better move it before it was towed away. But the funny thing is, it runs like a champ for me. I haven’t had a single problem with it.”