Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(44)

"What are you thinking about?" Mike asked, swallowing the last of her pasta. "You look really intense."

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Joanne Fluke

"Dessert, and how I can't have any."

"That's not it." Mike shook his head. "You'd look sad if you were thinking about missing dessert. What was it?"

Hannah thought about dissembling, but she couldn't come up with a likely subject. Perhaps the truth was her best bet. "Actually, I was thinking about Rhonda and how jealousy could make someone mad enough to kill. I figured that Rhonda might have been part of a love triangle."

"Rhonda was involved with a married man and his wife killed her?"

"Maybe, but I was thinking of another way. If Rhonda was involved with two men, one of them could have killed her rather than let the other one have her."

Mike thought about that for a moment. "That makes more sense. Doc Knight said a woman could have stabbed Rhonda. It doesn't take that much force to kill someone with a knife if the blade hits a vital spot. But we've got to assume that the person who killed her is the one who dug that grave and that dirt is as hard as concrete. Bill and I tried to dig a hole in the corner and it was tough going."

"Then how did the killer manage to do it?"

"He used a pickax and then he shoveled it out. We found the tools in the corner of the basement."

"Were there any prints?"

Mike shook his head. "Not even a partial. The fingerprint guys are sure he wore gloves."

"How about the murder weapon? Did you recover it?"

"No. We think it was a hunting knife with a long blade, the kind you can buy almost anywhere for field-dressing big game. The killer probably took it with him and ditched it later. Unless we get lucky, we probably won't find it."

There was a note of frustration in Mike's voice and Hannah could understand that. Every hunter in Minnesota had a hunting knife. "How about Rhonda's apartment? Did you search it?"

"Of course we did, but we didn't find anything that related to her murder."

LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER 151

"Was there anything unusual about the autopsy?"

"Not really. Rhonda ate dinner that night and her stomach contents helped Doc narrow down the tune of death. Her blood alcohol level showed that she drank almost a whole bottle of red wine with her dinner."

"Then she was pretty tipsy when she went down the basement stairs?"

"She must have been. Good thing she wasn't driving. Since her car is still parked at her apartment building, we figure someone must have dropped her off at the Voelker place."

"Do you know who?"

Mike shook his head. "We spent hours trying to track that down, but we got nowhere. How about you?"

"I got the same place you did." Hannah felt cheered. Mike wasn't asking her to back off and he hadn't even mentioned locking her up to keep her from interfering. "So you're okay with me doing my own investigation?"

"I'm not happy, but I'm okay with it. Maybe reconciled would be a better word. Just keep out of trouble and tell me if you discover anything you think I should know."

"Haven't I always?" Hannah sidestepped any promises. "How about the crime scene? I didn't really look around that closely. Did you find any clues?"

"Just one. We thought we had a suspect, but it turned out to be nothing."

Hannah leaned forward. This was the first she'd heard about a suspect. "Who was it?"

"Jed Sawyer. We found an old Minnesota Twins baseball cap in the basement and Bill remembered that he'd seen Jed wearing one just like it. We questioned him, but it turns out Rhonda hired Jed and Freddy to do some handyman work when she was getting ready to sell the Voelker place."

"That's true. I heard they fixed some of the windows."

"That fits with what Jed told us. He says he remembers taking off his cap while he was replacing one of the basement windows and he must have forgotten it down there."

"And you believe that?"

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Joanne Fluke

"It checks out. We took another look at the crime scene photos and the window that Jed said he replaced still had the sticker on the glass."

"Too bad," Hannah said with a sigh.

"What's the matter? Don't you like Jed?"

"It's not that I don't like him. It's just that... I'm not sure he's a good influence on Freddy."

"What do you mean?"

"It's probably nothing."

Mike gave her a stern look. "Spit it out, Hannah. It's not like you to beat around the bush."

"I think Jed's pushing Freddy too hard and giving him ideas he can't handle."

"Like what?"

"Like trading in his mother's car for a truck and going out to attract girls. Freddy idolizes Jed and he wants his approval. He'll do anything Jed says and that worries me." Hannah thought back to her conversation with Jed and that gave her an idea. "Would you check out something for me?"

"Maybe. Does it have anything to do with the murder investigation?"

"No, I'm just curious. Jed said that he worked on the maintenance crew at the prison and he made a point of telling me that he was a civilian worker. I don't have any reason to think he's lying, but there's something about Jed I don't quite trust."