Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(40)

Chapter Fifteen





Andrea gave an exasperated sigh as Hannah approached her house. "Bill did it again!"

"Did what?"

"He put the trash cans in front of the driveway again. Do you want me to move them so you can drive in?"

"Don't bother. I can park right here behind Bill's car. There's plenty of room."

Once Hannah had parked, Andrea led the way to the front door and fumbled in her purse for her keys. "I hope Harry called at the right time."

"What time is that?"

"Before Bill finished cleaning the attic. If I'm lucky, he didn't get to that big box by the chimney and I won't have to answer a bunch of questions about why I saved all those back issues of fashion magazines."

"Hi, honey!" Bill called out as they walked into the house. "Bring Hannah back here to the kitchen. I made coffee for her."

Hannah followed Andrea into the kitchen and they sat down at the kitchen table. Once Hannah cupped her hands around the mug of coffee that Bill had brewed, and inhaled the fragrance, she smiled. "This is real coffee!"

"It's French roast. I ground the beans myself," Bill told her, and then he turned to Andrea. "Doc Knight called here and I gave him your cell phone number. There's nothing wrong, is there?"

Andrea sighed. "Nothing that a little rest won't cure. I'm anemic and I'm retaining water."

"I was afraid it would be something like that. It's a good thing I'm home, because now I can take care of you. Doc gave you instructions, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did." Andrea rolled her eyes behind Bill's back, and Hannah did all she could do to not laugh. "We can talk about that later. Tell us what Harry had to say. Hannah's got to get home soon."

"I'll tell you just as soon as you get on the couch and put your feet up. Your ankles are swelling again. Come on, Hannah. Bring your coffee and come into the living room."

Once Andrea was settled on the couch, Bill told them the gist of his conversation with Harry. "He said Sheriff Grant gave him a choice between early retirement with full benefits or a demotion in rank. It was all because of a case he was working."

"What case was that?" Andrea wanted to know.

"The Dew Drop Inn case."

"Oh, that!" Andrea exclaimed and sat up a little straighten "Do you remember it, Hannah?"

"No. But I know the building that Sean and Ron turned into The Quick Stop used to be the Dew Drop Inn."

"You must have been away at college at the time," Andrea said. "It was in all the papers. Sheriff Grant closed it down in a big raid for illegal gambling and selling liquor after hours."

"It happened right before the last election," Bill explained. "It was all over the papers and it's probably the reason Sheriff Grant won by a landslide."

"That's what everybody said at the time," Andrea recalled. "But I don't remember reading anything about Harry Wilcox in any of the papers."

"That's because his name wasn't there. Sheriff Grant took over the case on the day of the raid and claimed credit for everything Harry did. And when Harry complained, Sheriff Grant accused him of insubordination and forced him into early retirement."

Andrea's mouth dropped open. "That's horrible! I just can't believe Sheriff Grant had the gall to take Harry's case right out from under his nose like that!"

"Well, he did. And Harry said that if we dug back into the records, we might find a pattern. He figured that if Sheriff Grant stole his case, he might have stolen other cases to win the other elections."

"Makes sense. And it's motive," Hannah said, pulling out her notebook and writing it down.

Andrea frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Harry was pretty mad about being taken off the Dew Drop Inn case, wasn't he, Bill?"

"He sure was! It was the biggest case of his career and Sheriff Grant stole all the glory. But he told me that there was nothing he could do about it. He needed that retirement money and Sheriff Grant didn't give him any options."

"The biggest case of his career," Hannah murmured. "That's got to hurt when it happens. Even now when it's years later, it still has to rankle. I can see where someone might want to even the score."

"Harry?" Bill sounded shocked. "That's crazy, Hannah. There's no way Harry flew back here from Arizona and killed Sheriff Grant!"

Hannah took another sip of her coffee. It really was very good. "I didn't mean Harry… necessarily. What if the lead man on one of those other cases decided to put a permanent stop to Sheriff Grant's stolen glory?"

"You mean kill Sheriff Grant before he could do it again?" Andrea asked, looking a little sick.

"That's right. Who would know about all those old cases?"

Bill shrugged. "They'd be in the old files, but it would take months to dig through them all."

"We don't have to do that," Andrea said, looking very pleased with herself.

"We don't?" Hannah asked.

"Of course not. We'll just get it from the horse's mouth."

"But Sheriff Grant's dead," Hannah pointed out.