Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(57)

"What time was that?"

"About six."

Hannah jotted down the time in her notebook. "What happened when you got there?"

"I dropped her off and then I went to pick up our dinners. I figured I'd tell her after we ate."

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"The takeout was from Alfredo's Ristorante?"

"Yes. I ordered in advance. They have osso buco on Friday nights and Rhonda said she liked it."

"Where was Rhonda when you got back?"

"In the kitchen. She was taking a break, waiting for me to get back. We sat down at the table and I opened the wine. I brought a really good bottle of Chianti, because I thought it might ease the situation."

"Right." Hannah tried not to sound too sarcastic. Ken was a fool if he thought a bad situation would improve with alcohol.

"I sat down to dinner but I was so nervous, I couldn't eat much. I just had the garnish off the osso buco and that was it. Rhonda noticed that I wasn't eating and she asked me if something was wrong. That's when I told her."

"And was her reaction as bad as you thought it would be?"

"It was worse. She got angry and accused me of treating her like a ..." Ken stopped speaking and cleared his throat. "Do you really need to know what she said?"

"No. What happened next?"

Ken reached for his glass of water and took a sip. "She started screaming at me and calling me names. They were really ugly names, if you get my drift."

"I do. Go on."

"By this time I'd taken just about all I could take. I knew there was nothing I could say to calm Rhonda down, so ... I left."

Hannah pulled out her notebook. "What time was that?"

"Around seven-thirty."

"Where did you go?"

"I drove home and called Kathy at her mother's house."

Hannah groaned. "Did you tell Kathy what had happened with Rhonda?"

"Of course not. I realize I was irresponsible and stupid when I started this whole thing with Rhonda, but I've never harbored a death wish."

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Hannah had to grin at that. "What did you tell Kathy?"

"Just that I'd had a rough day and I needed to hear her voice. We talked for quite a while about the reunion and the cousins she hadn't seen since she was little. When I finally hung up, I felt a lot better. I also felt hungry, because I skipped lunch and all I'd eaten were the sliced olives on top of my dinner. There wasn't much to eat in the house, so I decided to go out and get a hamburger or something. I went back out to my car and that's when I realized that I'd left Rhonda at the Voelker place with no way back to town."

"I was wondering when you'd get to that. So you drove back out?"

"Yes. I didn't want to, but I couldn't just leave her there. It was too far to walk back to town."

"What time did you get back there?" Hannah held her pen at the ready. The time frame would be crucial.

"At nine-thirty or so. The lights were on so I figured that Rhonda was still there. I sat there in the car for a minute or two. I really didn't want to go in and start fighting with her again. But I'd driven out there to give her a ride and I figured I might as well do it."

Hannah flipped back to the page where she'd listed Rhonda's time of death. If Doc Knight was right, and he usually was, Rhonda had been dead and cooling off in the basement when Ken had knocked on the door. "Were there any other cars in the driveway when you drove up?"

"No. I wouldn't have stopped if there'd been another car. Whoever it was could have given Rhonda a ride."

"What happened when you went in?"

"I didn't go in, not right away. I knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. And when she didn't, I knocked again. Then I opened the door and went inside."

"What's the first thing you did when you stepped inside?"

"I called out for Rhonda. It's not a big place and I knew she could hear me. When she still didn't answer, I got nervous. I thought maybe she'd had an accident, or something like that. I went from room to room, looking for her, but she

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wasn't anywhere in the house. I even went out in me backyard to search for her."

"What made you think that Rhonda might have been out there?"

"The takeout boxes were gone and the back door was standing open. I figured she'd gone out with the garbage and ..." Ken stopped talking and swallowed hard. "Do you think Rhonda's killer went out that way?"

"It's possible."

Ken shivered. "I guess I could have scared him away. I never thought about that. If he was still in the basement when I drove up, he could have run out the back way."

Hannah nodded as another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. She'd discussed the grave with Mike. Both of them thought that the killer had intended to fully bury Rhonda, but someone or something had frightened him away before he could finish his grisly task. Ken Purvis could be that someone. If Rhonda's killer had been in the basement when Ken's car drove up, he would have had plenty of time to flee out the back door.

"Maybe the killer was still there when I went to the backyard," Ken speculated, his voice shaking slightly. "I didn't hear anything, but it was dark and he could have been hiding anywhere."