Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(73)

"It was twenty minutes ago. I took the long way around to let you sleep."

"Oh," Hannah felt a little foolish for conking out in Norman's car. "Well… thanks."

"Didn't you get enough sleep last night?"

"I guess not," Hannah said and left it at that. There was no way she was going to tell Norman that she'd been awake for over an hour after he'd left, trying to decide whether she'd preferred Mike's kisses, or his.

Hannah climbed the steps to Barbara's neat little house and opened the front porch door. It was a screen porch to keep out mosquitoes and other bugs, and since it was already nearing the end of October, Barbara had winterized it by tacking up heavy plastic on the outside of the screens to keep out the snow flurries that would be coming soon.

"Indoor-outdoor carpeting?" Norman asked, glancing down at the porch floor.

"Artificial turf," Hannah corrected him. "Barbara's brother works for the company that makes it and she gets it for free. She doesn't have room for a garden in back, so she sets pots of flowers out here in the summer and it looks really nice. It's almost like sitting outside without any bugs."

Norman rang the bell and Barbara pulled the door open so fast Hannah concluded she'd watched them come up the walk. "Come in. I just made fresh coffee."

"You're a lifesaver, Barbara. I was so tired, I fell asleep on the way over here."

"Then it's a good thing I made it strong," Barbara said, leading them to her kitchen and seating them at the table. "How about you, Norman?"

"Yes, thanks. I can always use a cup of coffee."

Barbara poured the coffee, handed Hannah and Norman theirs, and took a cup for herself. She put cream and sugar on the table, and then she motioned to the briefcases. "Let me take a look at those. I'm assuming you don't want me to ask where you got them?"

"That's right," Hannah said with a little sigh of relief. She hadn't wanted to lie to Barbara, but Barbara was an employee of the sheriff's department and she had a duty to report any crime that she encountered. Since Hannah had unlocked Nettie's door with the key, she could argue that they didn't break in. But gaining access to Sheriff Grant's home office by picking the lock with dental tools, whether or not the door had been incorrectly crisscrossed with crime scene tape, was as illegal as all get out.

Barbara shook her head as Norman set the three briefcases on the table. "That's not it, and neither is this. But this one…”

Hannah held her breath as Barbara picked up the third briefcase. And then she let it out again when Barbara nodded.

"This is it." Barbara opened the briefcase and glanced inside. "It looks completely empty, doesn't it?" When Norman and Hannah both nodded, Barbara tipped the briefcase so that they could see inside. "Now look at the liner. It's got little squares with letters and numbers in them as a design."

"And the letters and numbers mean something?" Norman guessed.

"That's right. You have to put the briefcase on a flat surface and press them in the right order. You start with zero-zero-seven."

"For James Bond?" Hannah guessed.

"Yes. And when you're finished with that, you have to punch in the code word. It's Bond."

Norman and Hannah watched while Barbara punched in the name that had become almost synonymous with spy.

"Now you have to hold the briefcase in place with your left hand and twist the handle really hard to the right. When you pick it up again, this is what happens."

Hannah gasped as the bottom of the briefcase dropped down to reveal a space that was open on one side and about a half an inch thick. "Wow!"

"Wow is right," Norman said, staring in awe at the briefcase. "Is that deep enough for a gun?"

Barbara laughed. "That's exactly what Sheriff Grant asked me when I gave it to him. I told him that there was another one for guns, but since he could wear his right out in the open, I figured he didn't need it. This one's for important papers, like the files he used to carry home with him."

"Is there anything in it now?" Hannah asked the important question.

Barbara reached into the narrow space with her fingertips and pulled out a file folder. "Here's that missing report. Let's see what's in it."

Hannah held her breath as Barbara read it. She had the urge to grab it out of Barbara's hands, and she just barely managed to curb that impulse.

"I'm sorry, Hannah." Barbara said as she passed it over. "It's just an incident report that Lonnie Murphy filled out right before he left on vacation."

"Could it be important?" Hannah asked. "I don't see how. It's just routine."

Norman looked curious. "If it's just routine, why did Sheriff Grant put it in the secret compartment?"

"I don't know, unless…" Barbara glanced down at the report again and she gave a little humorless chuckle. "I think I just figured out why. Lonnie forgot to assign a number to it and Sheriff Grant was a real stickler for office protocol. He probably took it home with him, intending to write Lonnie a reprimand."

"That figures," Hannah said under her breath, remembering how picky the sheriff had been about rules and procedures. If Sheriff Grant hadn't been the unlucky recipient of a violent death, Lonnie would most certainly have had a reprimand in his file when he came back to work.