Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(79)

"I will." Lisa looked very pleased as she picked up the cupcake box. "Do you want me to take the Halloween cookies?"

"I'll bring them when I come with Tracey. If you take them, the kids will just get into them early."

"Okay. See you tonight, Hannah. I'll be the cat with the broken tail and Herb's going to be an outhouse."

"An outhouse?" Hannah repeated, not sure she'd heard Lisa correctly.

"That's right. He made his costume himself. It's a big box with the bottom cut out and holes in the sides for his arms. The box goes up to the top of his head and he's got a toy rooster he's gluing on the top."

Hannah tried to imagine it, but she couldn't quite do it. "If his head's in the box, how does he see?"

"He made cutouts of a moon and stars and he looks through those. A lot of outhouses have those for ventilation. But that's not the best thing."

Hannah was almost afraid to ask, "What's the best thing?"

"He rigged it so the door opens. And when we dance, I'm going to open the door and step in. Isn't it just great, Hannah? I really think he's going to win the prize."

"Great," Hannah said, and she gave a little wave as Lisa went out the back door. If Herb didn't win the prize for best costume, he certainly should get points for the strangest.



Hannah glanced out the plate glass window and sighed. It was four o'clock in the afternoon and the only customer she'd had was Freddy Sawyer. Doc Knight had placed an order for four-dozen Halloween cookies so that Freddy could dress up in a Superman costume and pass them out to the nurses and patients tonight.

A Siberian husky on a leash trotted past the window and Hannah watched for the owner. It seemed to take a very long time and, for a moment, Hannah thought perhaps someone was playing a Halloween joke. Then Eleanor Cox came into view, holding the handle of a retractable leash. She waved at Hannah, Hannah waved back, and that was Hannah's only excitement for the next fifteen minutes.

Time had never gone so slowly. Hannah decided she should do something more constructive than count the birds that landed in the huge pine across the street, and she reached for the phone. Beatrice hadn't been home the last time she'd called to invite her to taste the cupcakes, but perhaps she'd returned by now.

After ten rings, Hannah disconnected the call and punched in her youngest sister's number. Since she was having no luck reaching Beatrice, she might as well try Michelle again. The phone rang once, twice, and then Michelle answered.

"Michelle?" Hannah asked, hardly daring to believe her good luck. "I'm really glad I caught you."

"Hi, Hannah. What's up?"

"It's Lonnie. I tried everywhere, but I can't find him."

There was a long silence and when she spoke again, Michelle sounded wary. "Why do you need to find Lonnie?"

"I found his incident report in Sheriff Grant's briefcase and I think it might have something to do with the murder."

"What murder?!"

Hannah froze for an instant. Was it possible that Michelle hadn't heard? "You know about Sheriff Grant, don't you?"

"What about Sheriff Grant?"

"Somebody killed him last Monday night. They hit him over the head and toppled him into a Dumpster in the Jordan High parking lot. I found him when I carried out the garbage from my cooking class."

Michelle gulped so loudly Hannah could hear it over the phone. "That's just awful! And it happened last Monday night?"

"That's right. And Mike suspended Bill because Bill was a suspect, but we managed to clear him and he's back on the job."

"I really don't believe this, Hannah." Michelle gave a huffy sigh. "I'm less than a hundred miles away, and nobody bothers to tell me anything! Are you sure you didn't leave anything out?"

"Just one thing. Doc Knight ordered Andrea to stay home with her feet up and she's going crazy."

"This is surreal, Hannah. Mother called me last night and she didn't say a word about anything! She just asked me if I knew where Lonnie was and when I said I didn't, she hung up."

"Sorry, Michelle." Hannah began to feel guilty that she'd left her baby sister out of the loop. "I should have called you, but I figured you must know. I can't believe you didn't hear anything about it. You'd think the murder of a county sheriff would make the news."

"Um… it might have made the news. It's just that I've been out of touch for a while. I've been really busy… uh… studying."

"Right," Hannah said, not believing a word of it. Michelle was hiding something and Hannah was pretty sure the thing she was hiding was a who. "Let's cut to the chase, Michelle. Go get Lonnie and put him on the phone. I need to know more about that incident report."

"Lonnie? Um… what makes you think that Lonnie is here? When Mother called last night, I told her I hadn't seen him."

Hannah sighed. "That was Mother. This is me. Let me talk to him, Michelle. And stop hedging. I won't tell anybody he was with you."

"He's not exactly with me, Hannah. It's a big house and there's plenty of room."

"Right," Hannah said, grinning a little.

"Well, there is. It's not like we're staying in the same room, or anything. I just didn't want Andrea or Mother to know. They'd never understand."