Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(61)

"I get it," Hannah began to smile. "The recipe calls for half a cup and there's more than that in the can. But maybe Alma doubled the recipe."

Lisa shook her head. "Edna thought of that. Even if she doubled the recipe, she'd still have a quarter cup left in the can. Edna said Alma never would have stood still for that."

"Edna's probably right," Hannah said, refilling her coffee cup. "When you get a second, Mayor Bascomb needs another Molasses Crackle and Mrs. Jessup wants a dozen Peanut Butter Melts to take home with her. Call me if it gets really busy. I'm going to mix up a batch of Corn Cookies for us to test."



Hannah had just finished decorating her first pans of Corn Cookies when there was a knock at the back door. She slid the pans on shelves in the bakers' rack and hurried to the door.

"Sorry to bother you, Hannah." Barbara Donnelly stood there, shivering in the bitter wind that blew down the alley, "but I just thought of something you should know."

Hannah glanced up at the iron-gray sky. The KCOW weatherman hadn't predicted snow, but he could be wrong… again. "Come in and warm up, Barbara."

"Do you think it's going to snow?" Barbara asked, stepping into the warm kitchen and sniffing appreciatively.

"Maybe. Sit down at the workstation and I'll get you a cup of coffee. You can be my taste tester for the test batch of Corn Cookies I just baked."

"That's a job I can sink my teeth into," Barbara quipped, accepting the cookies that Hannah brought her. "These must be for Halloween. They're cute, Hannah. I like the candy corn on top."

Hannah waited until Barbara took a bite, then asked the important question. "Are they good?"

"Very good. They'll be perfect for the party." Barbara took another bite. "I think he had it with him, Hannah."

"Who had what where?" Hannah asked, missing only the when and the why. According to her college journalism professor, the five w's were the basis of all good reporting.

"Sheriff Grant. I've been thinking about that missing report and I'm almost positive that he took it. There were only two keys to the file cabinet. I had one and Sheriff Grant had the other."

"But wouldn't you have noticed it was missing?" Hannah asked, fetching her steno pad and flipping it open to take notes.

"Not unless I'd had a reason to look for it. I didn't go through the files every day."

"So you have no idea when Sheriff Grant took it?"

"None at all," Barbara shook her head, "but I might know where it is."

Hannah's head snapped back from her notes as if a puppeteer standing above her had pulled a string. "Where do you think it is?"

"In his briefcase. He always put the important papers in there."

"But… wouldn't Mike have found it?"

Barbara shook her head again. "Not unless he knew how to open the secret compartment. And I'm almost positive that Sheriff Grant didn't tell anyone about that."

"What secret compartment?"

"The one in the James Bond briefcase I gave him for Christmas last year. I always bought him James Bond things for gifts. I ordered it from a catalogue."

"And it had a secret compartment." Hannah jotted down a note. "What did it look like, Barbara?"

"The secret compartment?"

"No, the briefcase."

"It was just an ordinary brown leather briefcase. That's what was so great about it. You could never tell it had a secret compartment just by looking at it."

"So Mike could have found it, searched it, and not realized that something was hidden inside?"

"That's certainly possible. The secret compartment is tricky to open and you'd never see the catches if you didn't know they were there. You have to release them in a certain order."

"Do you know how to do it?"

"Of course I do. I had to help Sheriff Grant figure it out. You just…"

"I don't have to know, Barbara," Hannah said, interrupting her description of the procedure. "If I come across the briefcase, I'll bring it to you to open. Any ideas on where I might find it?"

Barbara thought about that for a moment. "If it's not in his squad car, it has to be in his home office."

"Couldn't it be in his office at the sheriff's station?"

"No. I already called there to check." Barbara held up a hand to cut off Hannah's question. "Don't worry. Shawna Lee doesn't know why I wanted to know. I just told her that she might find some extra keys in Sheriff Grant's briefcase and she ought to take them out and give them to Mike."

Hannah thought about what Barbara had told her. "If the briefcase was in the squad car, Mike must have it. But if it's in Sheriff Grant's home office, he probably doesn't. I'd better go over to Nettie's and check."

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Sheriff Grant's home office is still taped off. Nettie told me that before she left town."

"Nettie's gone?"

"She left yesterday morning for Wisconsin. Jim's youngest sister took it really hard and Nettie went to help her with the kids. She told me she'd be gone at least a week, maybe two."