Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(53)

There had been other employees, guests, and bosses that Carol had mentioned, but none of them had possessed a compelling reason to kill P.K. Even though Carol had been very forthcoming with the gossip she’d heard about everyone, nothing she’d said about anyone had convinced Hannah to add any of them to her suspect list.

“Hi, Hannah.” Betty appeared in the doorway. “Here’s Scotty. Give him a couple of those incredible bar cookies, will you? I don’t dare even look at them or I’ll leap across the table, grab the platter, and run to the nearest office with a door I can lock.”

Scotty laughed, and Hannah could tell that he liked Betty. “And you’ll eat every single one before anyone can unlock the door with the master key?”

“You got it,” Betty said with a nod.

“Well, I won’t stand in your way as long as you leave at least five for me,” Scotty told her.

When Betty left, Scotty stopped smiling and faced Hannah squarely. “I know what you want, and you’re barking up the wrong tree if you think that I had anything to do with what happened to P.K.”

“But you didn’t like P.K., did you, Scotty?” Hannah asked as she passed the platter of bar cookies to him.

“Not at first, no. But then we got to talking, and once I figured out what was going on, I liked him just fine.” Scotty took a bar cookie from the platter and grabbed a napkin from the dispenser. “It’s like this, Hannah. I just thought I got a raw deal from the bosses. I’ve been a cameraman here since KCOW Television went on the air, and I know that I’m a better cameraman than P.K. is.” He stopped speaking and frowned. “Than P.K. was,” he corrected himself. “Sorry, but it still doesn’t seem real, you know? I keep waiting for him to come in every morning, and . . . he doesn’t.”

Hannah watched while Scotty took a sip of his coffee, gave a sigh, and blinked several times. “It just doesn’t seem real,” he repeated.

“I know,” Hannah said, echoing his sigh.

“Is it always like this?” Scotty asked.

“I think it is.”

“It’s like, you turn around and somebody’s not there anymore because something awful happened to them.” Scotty took another swallow of his coffee, and then he bit into one of Hannah’s creations. “These are good,” he said.

“Thank you,” Hannah accepted the compliment, but she wasn’t about to let Scotty sidetrack their conversation. “You seem to have given people the impression that you didn’t like P.K. And now you’re telling me that you did?”

Scotty shook his head. “I didn’t always like him, but I did after I found out that it wasn’t P.K.’s fault he got the head cameraman job instead of me. Then I was okay with it. As a matter of fact, we had a drink together after work last Wednesday.”

“You did?” Hannah frowned slightly. Was Betty wrong about the animosity between Scotty and P.K.? “Where did you go?”

“Out to the bar at the Lake Eden Inn. Dick makes his Pizza Dip on Wednesdays and P.K. was crazy about it. We were there for an hour or so, and both of us had a couple of drinks.”

Hannah was puzzled. Michelle had mentioned that P.K. didn’t drink, and Cyril had said the same thing. “I thought P.K. didn’t drink.”

“He didn’t. He told me he cracked up his dad’s car when he was a teenager and he was just lucky he didn’t get a DUI. He said he hasn’t had a drop to drink since then.”

“But he went out to Dick’s bar?”

“Yeah, but that was for the Pizza Dip. I told you before, he was really crazy about it. I had a couple of beers, but P.K. stuck to Cokes with lime in them. Dick calls those Virgin Cuba Libres because real Cuba Libres have rum in them and he leaves out the rum for P.K.”

Hannah made a mental note to check that out and went on with her questioning. “So you were on friendly terms with P.K.?”

“I wouldn’t go quite that far. We sure weren’t best buds or anything like that. But I know he didn’t cozy up to the bosses to get that promotion. As a matter of fact, he was just as surprised as I was!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He talked to me about it right after it happened. And he told me he didn’t apply for it or anything like that.”

“And you believed him?”

“Yeah. P.K.’s always been a straight shooter.”

“But you resented the fact that P.K. moved up to be Ross’s assistant?”

“No, not that. I didn’t want that job.”

“Why not?”

Scotty looked a bit surprised at the question. “It’s the hours. You’re always on call. And it’s the travel. Maybe, if I’d been younger, I would have wanted it. But living out of a suitcase isn’t for me. I resented the fact P.K. moved into that office, but that’s it.”

Hannah decided to be perfectly sincere. “I talked to two people here and they both said you looked really angry every time you went past Ross’s office and saw P.K. sitting there.”

“That’s true, but it was envy. That’s a great office. It’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and it’s got a great view. I’m stuck in the back in a cubbyhole with one little window so high, I can’t see out of it.”