Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(13)

“What?” Hannah asked.

“It sounded like something crashed above us. I think it came from several stories up, perhaps on the roof of the hotel.”

Delores shook her head. “I didn’t hear anything. Of course, I was talking.”

“You’re usually talking,” Doc told her and then he turned to Hannah. “Did you hear it?”

“No. I was listening to Mother, just like I always do.”

“Right,” Delores said, giving a little laugh.

“Wait!” Doc held up his hand. “I think I heard something again.”

All three of them were silent for several moments, listening for the sounds that Doc had heard. Other than the noises of the party, the clink of glasses, the clatter of silverware, and the faint strains of music coming from the band in the lobby, they heard nothing amiss. Hannah was about to say that she still hadn’t heard any thumps from above when all three of them reacted to what sounded like a faint scream. No more than a heartbeat or two later, something hurtled past the windows.

“What is it?” Delores gasped.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” Before she had even finished her sentence, Hannah was on her feet racing to the windows to look. The sight that greeted her was strange to say the least.

Butterflies flitted between two bushes in the rose garden. It took a moment of disbelief before Hannah realized that they weren’t real butterflies. They were embroidered butterflies on a black background and Hannah swallowed hard.

“What is it?” Delores asked again, coming up to the window behind her.

“I’m not sure, but . . .” Hannah stopped speaking, more certain than she wanted to admit. The butterflies were on a piece of material from a skirt she’d admired only minutes ago. And the broken string of amber beads glittering in the lights from the baby spots trained on the rose garden was equally familiar. The owner of the skirt and the beads was face-down on the ground at the base of one of the rose bushes.

“What is it?” Delores asked for the third time. “I can’t see past you. Tell me what’s going on!”

Hannah moved slightly to the side. Then she drew a deep, steadying breath. “It’s Barbara Donnelly. I think she fell off the roof from the edge of the penthouse garden.”

“Oh, no!” Delores moved closer to peer past Hannah’s shoulder. “Barbara said she wanted to try to spot her house from up there. Can you see her? Is she . . . alive?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah replied with a heavy heart. “All I know is Barbara is face down right next to a rose bush. And she’s not moving at all.”

Chapter Four


They all stood by anxiously as Doc Knight bent over Barbara’s still form. They couldn’t see exactly what he was doing because Herb had marshaled the six employees of Cupcake Security and they’d formed a circle around Barbara’s body. The boys were facing out, holding hands to form a protective barrier, and they looked every bit as anxious as Hannah felt. Herb was standing guard at the entrance to the rose garden to make sure that no one who wasn’t a medic or a police officer gained access to the scene.

Delores, who was standing next to Hannah, gave a little shiver. “Do you think Barbara went too close to the edge and fell?”

“I don’t know,” Andrea answered her. “It seems really unlikely that Barbara would be that foolish. I told her about the barricades and why they were there. I can’t believe she’d actually move them.”

Delores didn’t look convinced. “Maybe somebody else did. And when Barbara went up there, she simply walked into that area, thinking that it was okay. Maybe she didn’t even go all the way to the edge, but the height made her so dizzy, she stumbled and . . .”

“It couldn’t have happened that way,” Andrea interrupted her mother. “For one thing, Barbara wasn’t afraid of heights and they didn’t make her dizzy. She was the one who always climbed the ladder to put crepe paper streamers on the ceiling for birthdays at the sheriff’s department.”

“Then how did she fall?” Delores asked.

Hannah looked just as puzzled as Andrea and Delores. “None of this makes sense,” she said. “The only thing we know for sure is that something happened up there in the rooftop garden. And maybe we’ll never know what it was if Barbara ends up . . .”

“She’s not!” Andrea interrupted her. “I’m sure I just saw her leg move.”

Delores drew a relieved breath. “And Doc’s still bending over her with his stethoscope. That means he’s still checking her vital signs. He wouldn’t be doing that if there weren’t any.”

There was a faint wail of an ambulance siren in the distance and all three women drew breaths of relief. Someone had called for the paramedics and that meant there was hope.

“Where did Bill go?” Andrea asked, noticing that her husband had left the scene.

“Mike’s gone, too,” Delores noted.

“They’re probably up in the penthouse garden, searching for evidence,” Hannah guessed. “I can almost guarantee you that they’re going to treat the whole penthouse floor as a crime scene unless they learn something that proves it’s not.”

“They’re loading Barbara on a gurney now,” Delores pointed out, gazing through the window. “Thank goodness they’re not using a backboard. That means her back isn’t broken.”