Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(45)

Hannah wasn't at all sure what he meant. "Why would I be relieved?"

"Because now that Bill's back on the case with me, you can drop your murder investigation."

"That's right," Bill said, smiling at Hannah. "We're really grateful for everything you've done so far, but it's time for you to step aside and let the professionals take over."

Hannah's mouth fell open and she clacked it shut again, hoping that no one had noticed. "You… um… want me to step aside?"

"Yes." Bill zipped up his jacket. "Don't worry, Hannah. Now that we're both on the case, we'll have two trained observers to assess the situation."

And this from the trained observer who was ready to paint Andrea's light blue living room with bright yellow enamel! Hannah thought.

Mike began to frown and Hannah knew that he, at least, had noticed her lack of enthusiasm. "I really hope you're not going to interfere in our investigation. You are planning to drop it, aren't you?"

Hannah just stared at Mike for a moment. Who did he think he was kidding? Dropping her investigation now would be like jerking a cake from the oven before it had time to rise…But both Mike and Bill seemed very serious and Hannah, knew it wouldn't be prudent to tell them that it was simply not in her nature to leave a job half-finished.

"Of course I'll drop it," Hannah said.



"I really thought they were smarter than that," Andrea said digging into her stack or pancakes. "They actually expect us to drop it?"

"That's what they said. And I told them I would."

"You did?" Andrea's fork dropped from her fingers with a clatter. "But you were lying, weren't you?"

"I wasn't exactly lying. I prefer to think of it as a half-truth. I promised them I'd drop the investigation, but I didn't say when I'd drop it."

"That's different." Andrea gave a relieved smile. "So what do we do next?"

"Since you can't be on your feet, you can run our office from here."

"We have an office?" Andrea looked amused.

"We do now."

"Okay, I'll run the office. Do you want me to call the rest of the names on that list Nettie gave us and see if they have alibis?"

"That would be great. You're really good on the phone."

"Of course I am. I'm a real estate agent. What are you going to do?"

"I'll run out to the sheriff's station and pump Barbara Donnelly for information about those old cases Sheriff Grant may have stolen. And while I'm there, I'll ask her about his work schedule. If we can figure out what he was doing and who he saw the day he was killed, that might help."

"A timeline," Andrea said, nodding wisely. "That's what they do in all the detective movies, but it hasn't really helped us yet."

"I know." Hannah sighed deeply. Establishing a timeline for the day of Sheriff Grant's death would probably work about as well as standing at graveside, attempting to spot anyone suspicious.

"Well, there's always a first time." Andrea, ever the optimist, grabbed the maple bar Hannah had brought her for dessert and took a big bite.

"Okay, I'm out of here," Hannah said, plumping Andrea's pillows, moving the phone closer so that it was at hand, and fetching a second pen just in case the first ran out of ink. Then she waved goodbye and went back out to her cookie truck. She'd stop in to say hello to Lisa, ask her to tell Herb to call off the search for roofing trucks, stop at the vet's office to ask for more advice about Moishe and their on-going battle with the senior food, and deliver cookie orders on her way to the sheriff's station. And if she just happened to run into Shawna Lee Quinn while she was walking down the ugly green corridors of the sheriff's station, she planned to nicely, very nicely, put a little crimp in her plans to snare Mike.



"Hannah? Is that you?" Shawna Lee's mouth curved up in a smile as Hannah walked into the sheriff's outer office. "Mike told me all about you and how nice you were. I know I only met you once before, but I feel as if we're friends already!"

Hannah forced a pleasant expression. There was a limit to how much bubbling enthusiasm she could take in any one day. One more comment from Shawna Lee and she'd be on overload. "Hi, Shawna Lee. Is Barbara on a break?"

"No." Shawna Lee put on a tragic face. "It's just so sad, Hannah. Barbara took a leave of absence… you know, one of those compassionate things? I'm afraid it's of indefinite duration."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we don't know how long she'll be gone," Shawna Lee answered Hannah's question literally. "Barbara worked with Sheriff Grant for years, you know. And she said she just wasn't sure she could come back to work without him. They were like partners. You know what I mean?"

"Sure," Hannah said. "So you're filling in for Barbara until she comes back?"

Shawna Lee nodded and her ash blond curls bounced. Then she leaned a little closer and said, "Just between you and me, I don't think Barbara will be back. She really lost it when she heard that Sheriff Grant had been killed. She even misfiled a bunch of daily reports."

"She did?" Hannah was surprised. Everyone said that Barbara was a great secretary and it would be out of character for her to misfile reports. "Do you remember what was in those reports?"