Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(86)

Andrea laughed. “I know it’s not very wide even now, but you should have seen it before the contractors enlarged it. Remember Barbara’s mother?”

“Theresa Donnelly? Yes, of course I do.”

“When she worked at the Albion in her senior year at Jordan High, she must have been a whole lot thinner than she was when we knew her. I saw a photo of her on the third floor landing and there was barely enough room for her to carry up a breakfast tray.”

Hannah didn’t say anything. She was too busy trying to breathe as they crossing the second floor landing. Andrea was like a gazelle leading the way, and she felt like an elephant lumbering up the stairs.

“Almost there,” Andrea said, taking the last five steps in staccato rhythm and crossing the third floor landing to the door at the top of the stairs. “Just wait a second and I’ll unlock it.”

Just wait a second? Hannah might have laughed if she’d had the breath for it. Of course she’d wait a second. She wasn’t going to move until she stopped panting.

Luckily, Andrea had trouble with the key and it took at least a minute before the tumblers rolled back and the door opened. “Here we are, Hannah,” she announced.

“Great,” Hannah said, finding her voice for one word at least.

Andrea stepped in and flicked on the lights. “Where do you want to start?” she asked.

“Let’s look around and see if we can spot the things that Doctor Bev moved in.”

“I know there’s nothing of hers in here,” Andrea said, glancing around the kitchen. “It was perfectly bare when they delivered the furniture. There was nothing in the living room either. I would have noticed. Let’s try the master bedroom. She might have put something in one of the closets.”

“That sounds . . .” Hannah’s comment was interrupted by another boom of thunder and a near-blinding flash of lightning. “Does this place have lightning rods?” she asked.

“You don’t need them on the roof anymore. They have built-ins now. Come on, Hannah. Let’s go check the closets.”

Hannah followed her sister into the master bedroom. The master closet had double doors and Andrea opened them. “I thought so!” she said, spying several matching suitcases on the floor. “This wasn’t here the night of the party. I showed several people the closets.”

Andrea carried the suitcase to the bed and opened it as Hannah watched. The clothes inside were clearly new. Their tags were still attached.

“Wow!” Andrea said, pulling out a pair of white leather pants and a matching vest. “I’d kill for something like this.”

Maybe someone did, Hannah thought, not eliminating jealousy as a motive. Did Roger have any serious girlfriends in Minneapolis who might be inclined to get rid of his new fianc ée so that they could try to take her place?

“Jewelry,” Andrea breathed, opening a cleverly constructed velvet folder that contained pockets and slots for rings, necklaces and bracelets. “Oh, Hannah! Just look at this one!”

Hannah looked and knew just enough about jewelry to echo Andrea’s gasp. The necklace Andrea was regarding with an emotion bordering on reverence glittered with diamonds and rubies. “Is it real?” she asked, hardly daring to believe that it was.

“Oh, yes. And it’s probably worth twice the price of this expensive penthouse.”

“Enough,” Hannah said, reaching out to close the velvet jewelry folder. “Let’s see what else is here.”

Five minutes passed as they went through the contents of a second suitcase, and another five or six minutes were taken up with a third. They were about to open the fourth matching leather suitcase when Andrea’s cell phone rang.

“Hello?” she answered. As Hannah watched, worry lines furrowed her forehead. “But I thought Mrs. Dunwright was coming to pick you up from dance class.”

That was enough to tell Hannah that her niece Tracey was calling. She waited as Andrea gripped the phone a bit tighter.

“Of course I will,” Andrea said. “Don’t worry about a thing, Tracey. Just tell Florence I’m on my way. There’s lightning outside, so stay inside the Red Owl with Karen until I get there.”

“Sorry, Hannah,” Andrea said, as she ended the call. “Tracey and Karen Dunwright are stuck at the Red Owl and I have to go pick them up. I’ll take them to the house and be back here in ten minutes, okay?”

“That’s fine,” Hannah said. “I’ll go through the fourth suitcase and look around for anything else.”

It didn’t take long to go through the fourth suitcase. When she was finished, Hannah put it back in the walk-in closet and shut the door. As she went back into the living room, she heard her cell phone ringing in her purse.

“Coming!” she called out, even though there was no one to hear her. And for once she was lucky, locating her cell phone almost immediately and answering it before the caller hung up. “Hello?” she said quickly.

“Thank goodness you answered!” Jenny said, sounding relieved. “Barbara asked me to call you. She remembered something else about her father. She said he was underground in a cave or a cavern and there were lots of rabbits down there with him. What’s that, Barbara?” There was a pause and then Jenny came back on the line. “Barbara says it’s not a silly rhyme like Stormin’ Norman, or Berry and Terry. It’s just where he is.”