Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(11)

"Not exactly."

"How, exactly?"

"It's Mike." Andrea took another sip of her coffee and her eyes began to flash fire. "He's a first-class jerk! I still can't believe that I invited him into my home and fed him sandwiches and everything, and then he turned on us like a rat in the grass!"

"Snake," Hannah corrected her automatically.

"What?"

"It's snake in the grass, not rat in the grass. What did Mike do?"

"He betrayed our trust, that's what he did! If you ever speak to him again, I'll… I'll disown you!"

Since Andrea only used that threat when she was upset, Hannah decided not to mention the fact that sisters couldn't disown sisters. If looks weren't deceiving, Andrea was working herself up into a full-scale snit. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were flashing fire. Hannah hadn't seen her this angry since high school, when someone had spilled grape soda on her favorite pink cashmere sweater.

"Mike is… just awful! He's a… a…" Andrea stopped and covered her tummy with her hands. "I'd better not say what I'm thinking. I just read an article that said babies hear sounds before they're born and I don't want little Billy to hear how mad I am."

"Just take it easy and tell me what Mike's done to get you so riled up."

"Mike…" Andrea stopped and took another deep breath, letting it out with a whoosh. "Mike thinks Bill murdered Sheriff Grant!"





Chapter Five





Hannah felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach. She was about to ask Andrea what she meant when she noticed the color of her sister's face and rushed to the counter to get her a medicinal dose of chocolate.

"Here, Andrea." Hannah shoved two Black and White cookies into her hand. "You need chocolate."

"What I need is for Mike to drop dead!"

"Understandable, considering the circumstances." Hannah gestured toward the cookies. "Eat. Now."

"All right, all right," Andrea sounded peeved, but she took a big bite of the first cookie. Then she took another bite, and another, finishing it in a gulp. The second cookie was gone just as quickly as the first and Hannah was relieved to see that a little color was beginning to come back to Andrea's cheeks.

"You look better," Hannah told her, feeling a lot better herself. Andrea had turned so pale she'd wondered if she ought to call Doc Knight.

"I feel better. But I'm still mad at Mike."

"Can't blame you for that," Hannah said leaning over to pat Andrea's hand.

"It's just awful, Hannah! I'm so mad I'm speechless."

"No, you're not," Hannah said, regretting the words the moment they'd left her mouth. Now was not the time to argue semantics. "Just tell me exactly what happened. Maybe there's something I can do to help."

Andrea shook her head once to clear it and then she took a deep breath. "It all started this morning at work. Mike said he had to suspend Bill because Bill was home alone last night and he didn't have an alibi for the time when Sheriff Grant was killed."

"Hold on a second. Mike suspended Bill? How did he have the authority to do that?"

"He's acting sheriff, now that Sheriff Grant's dead. It's right in the rulebook. The highest ranking deputy assumes the sheriff's position until a new sheriff is elected."

"Oh." Hannah grabbed her shoulder bag purse and pulled out one of her ever-present stenographer's notebooks, the kind she used for important notes. "You said Bill didn't have an alibi for the time that Sheriff Grant was killed. What time was that?"

"I don't think Bill knows. Mike hustled him out before he could find out anything about the investigation."

"Okay. You also said that Bill was home alone. Where were you?"

"I took Tracey and two of her friends to a movie at the mall. Now I wish I hadn't. The movie was awful, one of those horrible cartoony things where the people don't even look real and the…”

"Okay," Hannah interrupted what she figured would be a tirade about the quality of children's movies. "Let's get back to Bill's suspension. Is this just a procedural thing? Or does Mike really think that Bill killed Sheriff Grant?"

"I don't know for sure. But Bill told me that Mike really sounded serious when he suspended him. I'm still reeling in shock. I thought Mike was Bill's best friend and I just can't believe that he'd betray him this way."

"It's hard to believe, all right." Hannah agreed, since she was having trouble digesting it herself. But unless Mike's evil twin had come to town and was keeping the real Mike hog-tied in a closet, that was exactly what he'd done.

"Bill didn't do it, Hannah. My husband's no killer."

"Of course he's not," Hannah said in her most comforting tone. It was true. Bill wouldn't hurt a fly, unless he wanted to use it for fishing. "Let's approach this systematically, Andrea. Exactly what did Bill do last night while you were gone?"

"He watched football on cable. And he told Mike that. He even gave Mike the highlights of the game, but Mike said that wasn't good enough, that Bill could have seen all that on the sports news."