Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(19)

"Really?" Hannah stepped closer and let the beam of her flashlight play over the jars. "I don't see any. These are pickles, and canned corn, and things like that. Maybe Rhonda took all the jam."

The door to the furnace room was open and hanging by one hinge. Hannah was surprised that her mother had ventured so far into the basement without a flashlight. The lure of antiques must have been stronger than her distaste of spiders and grime.

"Hold on, Hannah." Norman held up his hand. "I want to make sure this door doesn't fall. I'll hold it to let you through and then I'll find something to prop it up."

Norman held the door and Hannah stepped into the fur-

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nace room. It was much larger than most, a rectangular, dirt-floored space with the furnace near the center. There was a coal chute set into the outside wall, and Hannah surmised that this room had once been the entire basement. A homemade set of shelves was sitting against one of the walls. Hannah saw that it contained jam. A few jars were broken and she stepped over the shards of glass as she made her way past the furnace.

"Something's been digging back here," she called out to Norman, as she spotted a mound of dirt. "It was probably a big badger or mole."

"Do you think that's what your mother saw?"

"Maybe. I don't see anything resembling a body, though. Mother's imagination must have been working overtime.'"

"Where are you?" Norman asked, his voice floating eerily into the darkened silence.

"In back of the furnace. Go around it to the right. Be careful where you step. There's some broken glass on the floor near the shelves."

Hannah stepped closer, shining her light over the mound of dirt. Just beyond it, there was a large hole in the dirt floor and she could see why Delores had assumed it was a grave. She moved closer, letting the beam of her flashlight play over the partially filled-in hole, and she drew her breath in sharply as she saw something that couldn't be explained by any animal, no matter how large. It was a tennis shoe and it was attached to a human foot.

"Oh!" Hannah gasped, turning and almost bumping into Norman.

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you later," Hannah said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the doorway. "Let's go."

"Was it a body?" Norman asked, puffing a little as he hurried to catch up with Hannah.

"Yes!"

"In the hole?"

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Joanne Fluke

"Yes!" Hannah took a deep breath. "Mother was right. We have to get out to the sheriff's station and tell them about it."

Hannah left Norman getting coffee for Delores at the bank of machines that lined the lobby. The coffee was awful; she'd had it before, but even bad coffee was good in a pinch. She'd driven out to the sheriff's station on autopilot, trying not to think about the gruesome discovery they'd made. The tennis shoe she'd seen had been lime green and the only person in Lake Eden who wore shoes that color was Rhonda Scharf.

"Hannah," Mike smiled as he saw her coming toward his desk. "How's it going?"

"Not good. Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Mike nodded, led her to one of the conference rooms, and closed the door. When he motioned her to a chair, Hannah noticed that he looked anxious. "Don't tell me that..."

"Norman didn't propose," Hannah said, guessing what was foremost in his mind. "This is something entirely unrelated."

"What?"

"There's a body in the basement at the Voelker place. I don't know for sure, but I think it's Rhonda Scharf."

Mike looked stunned for a moment and then he pulled out his notebook. "You found another body?"

"Not this time. Mother had that honor."

"Delores?" Mike looked even more stunned. "Is she all right?"

"Yes, if she survives the coffee in your vending machine. Norman's with her and I gave her a triple dose of chocolate."

"What happened?"

"We were out there looking for antiques and Mother went down to the basement to search for old tools. When she came back up, she told us she'd found a body. Norman and I checked it out, and she was right."

LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER 71

"Hold on a second," Mike interrupted her. "Let me get Bill in on this, and we'll take your statement right now. We'll catch your mother later, after she calms down a little."

"Good idea," Hannah said, settling down for a lengthy session. These things always took time and there was no rushing it. She knew that from prior experience.

By the time Hannah got back to The Cookie Jar, it was almost four in the afternoon. Jed and Freddy had finished work for the day, the customers had thinned out, and almost all of their cookies had been sold. Hannah joined Lisa behind the counter to tell her what had happened, but she didn't say anything about the identity of the body. That could wait for official confirmation.

"Well, at least your mother was first on the scene," Lisa said, speaking in an undertone so their customers couldn't hear her. "This time she can't accuse you of trying to embarrass her by finding dead bodies."

"Oh yes she can. I'm not sure how, but I know this'll wind up being all my fault."