Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(64)

"That's right"

"And it happened in Redwing in nineteen seventy-four?"

"That's what Doug Greerson told me."

"Then it's easy. It must have been a lead story in the local newspapers at the time. I'll check to see if any of them have archives on-line."

"You can do that?" Hannah was impressed. Her computer skills were limited.

"No problem. I've got my laptop in the car. Do you want me to get on-line right now?"

"Not now." Hannah shook her head. "I want to keep this private."

214 Joanne Fluke

"Private, as in not telling Bill or Mike?"

"That's right. I'm already involved in investigating Rhonda's murder and they're okay with that. But if they find out that Michelle is the one who had that ten-dollar bill, they'll have to tell the Feds. Michelle doesn't need that. They'll ask her a million useless questions and ruin her vacation."

"You've got a point. How about if I come over to your condo with my laptop when the party breaks up?"

"That'd be great." Hannah looked up as she heard footsteps. Mike and Bill were coming down the stairs.

Bill was the first on the dock and he walked over to Andrea. "We've got to take off, honey. We just got word that the autopsy report's in and we need to go over some things with Doc. Tracey wants to know if it's okay if she stays out here overnight. Delores and Carrie promised to play a board game with her."

"Tell her it's fine. She loves to stay overnight with Grandma."

"That'll work out perfectly," Michelle said. "Tracey can have my bed and then Mother won't be alone."

Hannah turned to her youngest sister in surprise. "Alone? Where are you going?"

"I've got a date."

"Don't let him take you to any isolated spots," Mike jumped into the conversation. "We still haven't caught Rhonda's killer."

Michelle laughed. "You don't have to worry about me. I'll be perfectly safe."

"Are you sure?" Mike still looked concerned.

"I'm positive. I'm going out with Lonnie Murphy."

Hannah stifled a laugh. That ought to take the wind out of Mike's sails. Lonnie was the newest hire at the Winnetka County Sheriff's Department and Mike liked him. Lonnie's older brother, Rick, had been with the department for three years, and Mike had told Hannah that eventually the two Murphy brothers might make a good detective team.

^lou said Tracey could have your bed," Mike reminded Michelle. "Are you planning to stay out all night?"

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"Of course not, but Lonnie and I went to high school together and we've got a lot of catching up to do. It could be a late night. I don't want to wake Mother when I come in, so I was going to ask Hannah if I could stay with her."

"Of course," Hannah agreed quickly, before Mike could think about giving any other dating advice.

"I don't like leaving you alone, honey." Bill sat down and slipped his arm around Andrea's shoulders.

"I won't be alone. I'll drive over to Hannah's. When you're through working, you can get Mike to drop you off there and we'll go home in my car."

"It could be three or four hours. We're meeting with Doc and then we have to catch up on the paperwork."

Andrea reached up to pat Bill's chest. "Don't worry about me, honey. If I get tired, I can sack out on Hannah's couch."

Hannah wasn't sure how she felt as she listened to this tender exchange. On the one hand, it was nice to have someone who was concerned about you. But on the other hand, you couldn't ever feel truly independent. Marriage was a trade-off. You gave up some things and you gained others. Since Hannah knew she'd balk at the trade-off aspect, it must mean that she wasn't ready for that walk down the aisle, at least not quite yet.





Chapter TWenty

Hannah reached out for Moishe, who seemed fascinated with Norman's computer and was sitting on the coffee table, pawing at the keyboard. "Guard your computer, Norman. I'll carry him in the kitchen and fill his food bowl. Then he might leave you alone."

"He's okay. He's just curious." Norman scooped Moishe up and settled him down on his lap.

"He shouldn't be that close to your computer," Andrea advised, waving away some orange and white cat hairs that were floating around in the air. "He's shedding."

"That's what cats do. It's not his fault." Norman scratched Moishe behind the ears with one hand and typed with the other. "I'll blow out the keyboard with compressed air when I get home."

"Are there any more leftover cookies, Hannah?" Andrea picked up an empty bag and crumpled it.

"No, but I'm baking fresh. Let me go see how they're coming."

Hannah stepped into the kitchen and sniffed the air. The new cookies smelled wonderful, a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and a secret ingredient that Norman and Andrea would never

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be able to identify. It was so unusual, no one would ever think of it and it would remain a mystery to anyone who tasted the cookies. And that's what she'd call them, Mystery Cookies.

As if on cue, the oven timer beeped and Hannah opened the door to take out the sheet of cookies. She'd gone into the kitchen to mix up this batch right after she'd noticed that Norman and Andrea were going through her bags of leftover cookies like starving wolves at a sheep convention. At first she'd planned to make Chocolate Chip Crunches, but she'd been out of chips and cornflakes. Peanut Butter Melts had been out, since the jar of peanut butter was nearly empty. Her Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies would have worked, but they required chilling time and the wolves in the living room might attack if their stomachs weren't placated. She'd stared at her pantry shelf for a moment to assess her stock of ingredients, and then she'd flipped through her cookbook for the recipe Grandma Ingrid had called Red Spice Cake and adapted it for cookies on the fly.