Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(47)

"Your sister called," Lisa greeted Hannah as she came into the kitchen. "Barbara's going to be at Danielle Watson's dance studio at three today. She'll be watching her granddaughter's dance practice."

"Thanks, Lisa. Do you want a break? I can take over the counter for a while."

"No, I'm fine. It's been slow today, except for a couple of girls who were skipping science class. They wanted me to turn on MTV while they were eating their cookies and they were really disappointed when I told them that we didn't have cable. The cable was out last Monday night and they told me that there was some big concert on MTV. The station was rerunning it at ten this morning and the girls weren't happy about missing it again."

Hannah was about to reply when what Lisa had said hit her. "Are you sure the cable was out on Monday night?"

"I'm positive. Dad wanted to see a movie and I had to run out to the video store so he'd have something to watch."

"Do you think the cable was out all over town?"

"Their recorded message said it was. Lake Eden and surrounding areas, was how they put it. I'm going to subtract a day from our cable bill."

"Good idea." Hannah pulled her notebook from her purse and started paging through it. "Thanks for telling me, Lisa. There's something here that doesn't make sense."

"What?"

"Here," Hannah said, joining Lisa behind the counter. She glanced at the few tables that were filled, but no one was paying any attention to them. "Nettie doesn't have an alibi. She was working alone in her sewing room and she had the window open. When I asked her if any of the Maschlers might have seen her through the window or heard her sewing machine, she said no, they were out for the evening. But she also said the television was on really loud and Kate had left it tuned to a kung fu movie."

"What time was that?"

"Between seven and nine."

Lisa shook her head. "Impossible. You can only get four channels without cable and none of them were showing movies. Believe me, I know. I flipped through before I went out to the video store for Dad."

"So… it must have been a tape," Hannah said, frowning slightly. "But Kate wouldn't have put on a tape and then left the house."

"Of course not. But she has a teenage son, doesn't she?"

"Richie. Kate told Mike that he was out that night with friends."

"Wrong. Richie was in that night with friends. And he probably didn't tell his parents. They watched a tape, the movie that Nettie heard, and then they cleared out before Kate and Jerry got home."

"And they lied about it because they probably drank some beer while they were watching the movie?"

"It's good to know you're not that old." Lisa gave Hannah a pat on the back. "If it wasn't beer, it was probably a girl. And in that case, they might not have been all that interested in the movie."

"Right. So I should talk to Richie?"

"Sure. Unless you want someone younger and more in touch with the teenage mentality to do that research for you."

Hannah grinned. "And that would be you?"

"It would be me. And it just so happens that one of the girls who was here this morning left her class notebook. I'll call the school to tell them it's here and when she comes to pick it up, I'll ask her which girl is dating Richie Maschler. And then I'll talk to his girlfriend and find out what really happened on Monday night."





Chapter Seventeen





Hannah opened the street door at the side of the Red Owl Grocery and climbed the long stairway leading up to the second floor. The stairs had been newly carpeted and Hannah admired the way that Danielle had decorated the walls with dance diagrams, each set of footprints in a different color.

As she climbed, Hannah heard faint strains of music that became louder with each step she took. And when she opened the heavy door at the top of the stairs, the music rolled out to greet her, something upbeat and jazzy that she didn't recognize.

Hannah stood there staring for a moment. Danielle's dance studio was impressive. With the exception of a wall that sectioned off rooms at the rear and an area of red deep pile carpeting in front of it that contained padded theater seats, the rest of the space gleamed with a highly polished wooden floor and mirrored walls. The only wall that wasn't mirrored was the one facing the street and it contained the high narrow windows that Danielle had loved when Andrea first showed her the loft.

Looking up, Hannah noticed tracks on the ceiling. She was puzzled for a moment. Then she spotted the red velvet curtains that were stored in alcoves in the walls and realized that the curtains could be pulled to cordon off a large area for the stage.

"Clever," Hannah murmured, looking back up at the tracks again. She'd seen tracks like that on the ceilings of hospital rooms so that an individual patient in a double or triple room could have privacy.

Danielle rushed over the moment she noticed Hannah standing by the door. "How wonderful to see you, Hannah! Tracey's doing very well in her dance class."

"That's good to hear," Hannah said, giving her a warm smile. Danielle looked really good. The anxious, scared-rabbit expression she'd worn in the past had gone the way of the theatrical makeup she'd been forced to use to cover up the signs of her husband's abuse. "How's business, Danielle?"