Carrot Cake Murder Part 29

"I'm sure. Tell me, Ava."

"It was the night Gus got killed. I did what I told you. Once he left and went back to the pavilion, I got ready for bed. I was about to climb under the covers when the bell rang in front."

"You had a customer?"

"Right. My father installed that bell in case somebody had car trouble or they were running out of gas. n.o.body's used it for twenty years, but it worked, and I put on my robe and went to the front door."

"And it was...?"

"Jack. Jack Herman. He was standing there looking confused, so I unlocked the door and let him in. I know about his troubles, and I figured that if he was sleepwalking or something like that, I'd take him back to the cottage and wake Marge."

"So what happened?"

"He wasn't sleepwalking. He was perfectly normal, at least I thought he was. He said he knew it was late, but he saw the light on and he hoped I'd open up and sell him a jar of pickled pig's feet for Marge."

"And you said...?"

"I told him I'd be happy to, but why did he want to buy them now? It wasn't like Marge would want to eat them for breakfast, was it?"

"What was his reaction to that?"

"He laughed and said no, they weren't exactly breakfast food, but they were going to be really busy tomorrow with the family photos and all, and he thought he'd buy them now and have them on hand."

"Did he pay you?"

"Oh, yes. Jack always pays his bills. Even when he and Emmy were poor as church mice, they never charged anything as far as I know."

"Okay. Thanks for telling me, Ava." Hannah fought a feeling of defeat as she turned and headed for the door. She'd hoped that Mac was lying about seeing Jack, but now it seemed that Jack had been out at the time of Gus's murder.

"Hannah!" Patsy looked delighted to see Hannah when she appeared in the kitchen of the Thompson cottage to see if Andrea was there. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Well, you found me." Hannah made herself at home by walking over to the thirty-cup coffee pot the ladies kept going in the kitchen, and pouring herself a cup.

Patsy looked around. The kitchen was crowded with ladies loading the dishwashers and washing pots and pans in the sink by hand. She motioned to Hannah to follow her into the deserted living room, and they took a seat on the couch.

"Marge just told me what Mac told you last night. You don't think Jack did it, do you?"

Hannah hesitated. What Ava had told her seemed to substantiate Mac's story, but she was on an emotional keel with Ava. There was no way she could believe that Jack had killed Gus. "No. Or at least I'm hoping that Jack didn't do it. I talked to him, and he doesn't remember confronting Gus."

"Would he remember it?" Patsy looked sick as she asked the question.

"I'm not sure, but I'm afraid his memory of that night doesn't count for a whole lot."

"That's what I thought." An angry expression crossed Patsy's face. "I'm so mad at Mac for telling you and Lisa that he ran into Jack on his walk. They were buddies in high school, and I thought they were still good friends. A true friend wouldn't have said anything to anybody."

"Hold on a second," Hannah's mind spun and then screeched to a shocked halt. "You said something about Mac being out on a walk when he ran into Jack?"

"That's right. Mac goes for a walk every night before bed. The doctor told him it was good for his circulation. If he misses his walk, he gets muscle cramps in the middle of the night."

Hannah felt her confusion grow at the two stories she'd heard, one from Mac and one from Patsy, that didn't jibe. "Maybe I'm confused, but this doesn't make sense. Mac told me he saw Jack through the kitchen window at the cottage."

"He did?" Patsy looked shocked. "Where did he say Jack was when he saw him?"

"Coming up the road. And Mac watched him cross over to the pavilion and walk around the side. He said it was the side with the entrance, but he couldn't see whether Jack went inside or not."

"But that can't be right!" Marge looked shocked.

"What do you mean?"

"Mac couldn't have seen Jack walk to the pavilion. There's a big pine tree in the way. We can't see the pavilion at all from the kitchen window. Mac must have run into Jack on his walk. That's the only explanation."

"I don't understand." Hannah was horribly confused. "Why would Mac lie about being out for a walk?"

Patsy just shook her head. "Oh, that's easy. Mac hates being in the middle of trouble, and I'm sure he didn't want to answer a bunch of questions from the police. If he admitted he was out for a walk when he ran into Jack, the police might have thought Mac went into the pavilion and killed Gus over the money."

Hannah felt as if her brain was an unfinished sweater that was starting to unravel. Nothing seemed to make any sense. "What money?" she asked.

"I told you before. It's that old loan I made to Gus. Mac wanted to go to Gus and demand that he pay back the money with interest."

"Did he ask Gus to do that?"

"He'd better not have! It was money I earned before we were married, and it was mine to spend as I wanted. I lent it to Gus to keep him from getting into trouble over a big poker game he lost. And I told him he didn't have to pay it back as long as he stopped gambling."

"Did he?"

"For a while, but it was in his blood. Some people are born to take chances, and Gus was one of them. But Mac had no right to try to collect my money. And that's exactly what I said when he told me he was going to do it. It wasn't his business in the first place, and if he'd succeeded, he just would have spent it on the stock market anyway."

"Mac invests in the stock market?"

"He doesn't invest. Investors make money at least part of the time. Mac speculates, and he loses. He's been doing it ever since we were married, and he hasn't made any money yet!"

Hannah decided it was time to get back to the subject. Patsy was getting frustrated, and that wouldn't help. "So Mac didn't want to admit that he was out for a walk, because the police might think he had something to do with Gus's murder?"

"Exactly. And it would be even more suspicious if the police found out about the loan and the fact that Mac had wanted to try to collect it. Mac was afraid they'd take him in for questioning and lock him up. That's why he asked me to lie for him if they came around asking questions. He asked me to say he was home and we were together all night."

"But you weren't."

"No."

"What did you tell him when he asked you to lie for him?"

"I told him I wouldn't, not if they asked me directly. It's just not right to lie. I said I wouldn't volunteer the information, but if someone asked me, I'd have to tell the truth."

Hannah was silent for a moment, adding up the information she'd gotten. "Was Mac angry with you when you told him you wouldn't give him an alibi?"

"He didn't seem to be." Patsy gave a little shrug. "Mac said he could understand how I felt, and he just hoped the police wouldn't nose around."

"He took it that well?" Hannah was surprised. "I would think he'd be upset with you for not supporting him."

"I don't think so. Of course with Mac, it's hard to tell. He can smile on the outside and seethe on the inside. We've been married long enough for me to know that."

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Hannah was walking down the road from Ava's store to the gra.s.sy area that Lisa and Herb had designated for the nonwater games when she heard the James Bond theme again. For a moment she ignored it, a.s.suming that it was someone's radio, but then she realized that it was coming from her purse. Norman was calling her again. She grabbed her cell phone, flipped it open, and answered. "Is it Rhodes, Norman Rhodes?" she asked in her best James Bond voice.

"Hannah! You recognized my ring tone."

"I did. It's the only one that doesn't play the default."

"What's the default?"

"It rings just like a real telephone. Why is yours different?"

"I set it that way before I left for Atlantic City. You can have personal sounds or songs for everyone in your phone book. That way you know who it is before you answer. I'll program it for you when I get back."

"And that'll be tomorrow morning?" Hannah asked, hoping that nothing had delayed him.

"That'll be later tonight. I'm at the airport right now, and I'm catching a flight in twenty-five minutes. It lands at a little after nine. "

"Your time, or my time?" Hannah asked, feeling a bit like a world traveler.

"Your time. Do you want me to meet you at your place?"

"Absolutely! And if I'm not home yet, just go downstairs and get the key from Sue or Phil again," Hannah said. And then she wondered if she'd sounded too eager. "I mean...if you want to, that is."

"I want to. Let me tell you what I learned from Alison."

Hannah detoured off the road and into the picnic area. It was deserted since lunch was long over, and she took a seat at a picnic table under a shady tree.

"Okay, shoot," she said.

"Let's start with no safe," Norman said, "and no money, either. The apartment was in an okay area, but it wasn't anything like the penthouse Gus bragged about."

"Then it was all lies?"

"Yes, and that includes the ma.s.seuse and manicurist on call, the dinner parties catered by a four-star restaurant, and anything else he mentioned. Everything about Gus was fake. Mood Indigo pulls in enough money to stay in business and pay living expenses, but that's about it."

"How about the Jaguar?"

"Leased. Alison said Gus had one valid credit card when he left, and that was canceled yesterday. She got the notice in the mail. Even worse than that, a month ago he borrowed money from the kind of people who break arms and legs if you're late paying them back, and they charge a lot more than the prime lending rate. Do you get my drift?"

"Oh, yes," Hannah breathed, actually feeling sorry for Gus.

"Alison said they came around looking for Gus at Mood Indigo right before he left. He gave them the money from the till, but they said that if he didn't come up with the rest by the end of this week, they'd have to think of some way to encourage him."

"Uh-oh!"

"Uh-oh is right. Alison said Gus was pretty worried when they closed the club that night, and she tried to distract him with some programs she'd taped. One was an antiques show with appraisers that travel around the country and do appraisals for people."

"I know the one she's talking about. It's one of Mother's favorite shows."

"Well, Alison and Gus were watching it, and all of a sudden Gus got up and started to pack his best clothes. He told Alison that he had to go back to his old home town, because he'd left something there that was worth a whole lot of money."

"What was it?"

"He didn't tell her, but she's almost sure that something he saw appraised on the television show gave him the idea."

"What was on the show that night?" Hannah asked the logical question.

"Alison wasn't sure. She said she was tired and she kept falling asleep. The only things she could remember were a black teddy bear, some kind of famous photograph, and some baseball cards."

Hannah pulled her notebook out of her purse and rummaged in the bottom for a pen. "Okay," she said. "The Antiques Show with a black teddy bear, a famous photograph, and baseball cards. I'll find Mother and Carrie, and ask them if they saw that episode."

"Great. I think we're getting close, Hannah."

"Me, too," Hannah said, although she still didn't have any definitive answers. "You did a great job, Norman."

"Thanks. Just remember what you promised me about calling Mike to watch your back...okay?"

"Okay," Hannah said, stacking a second promise on top of her first, and wondering if the penalty was exponential for breaking a double promise.

Hannah spotted her mother on the edge of the crowd, looking like the queen at Ascot. She was sitting up ramrod straight in a green Adirondack lawn chair, and she was dressed in a white chiffon gown that tied at the waist with a wide red sash. As a concession to the bright summer sun, or perhaps as a tribute to outmoded fashion, she wore a wide-brimmed white hat with a red chiffon band around the crown. The band was adorned with red and white flowers, and Hannah began to smile as she approached. No other women in Lake Eden would have the nerve to wear such an outlandish hat, but Delores carried it off with panache.

"Hi, Mother," Hannah took the empty chair next to her mother and turned to Carrie. "h.e.l.lo, Carrie. I've got a question I need to ask both of you."

"First I've got some information for you," Delores said, leaning closer, even though there was no one close enough to hear. "Carrie and I drove out to the Inn this morning, and we asked Sally about that credit card Gus used for the brunch."

"The charges went through just fine," Carrie picked up the story. "Sally said she always runs it through right away when it's a credit card from someone out of state."

"I'm glad Sally was so prompt," Hannah said. "If she'd waited a few days, she would have been out of luck."

"The credit card's been canceled?" Delores guessed.

"Right. You two watch the Antiques Show on television, don't you?"

Delores nodded. "Every week. Stan says we can deduct it as a legitimate business expense so we watch it live, and then we order the whole season through our Granny's Attic account. Since we own an antique store, it's research for us."

"Makes sense," Hannah said. "Did you watch it last week?"

Carrie laughed. "Of course we did. We haven't missed an episode yet."