Fudge Cupcake Murder (32 page)

Hannah gasped as another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Barbara Donnelly had told her that Ted had been wearing coveralls when he picked up Leah and Krista from dance class. What if Ted had used his coveralls to hide clothing splattered with Sheriff Grant's blood? And what about that scratch on his arm? Had he done it here at the salvage yard, or had he injured it on the lid of the Dumpster as he'd tumbled Sheriff Grant inside?

With her heart beating much faster than its normal rate, Hannah let the sheriff's murder play out in her mind. Sheriff Grant had spotted Ted as he pulled into the school parking lot in his work truck. Before Ted could switch to Beatrice's sedan and leave to pick up the girls, Sheriff Grant had asked him some tough questions. Ted put two and two together and realized that Sheriff Grant had discovered his stolen car ring. Ted knew that he was about to be arrested and he refused to go down without a fight. He resisted, getting in a lucky swing with something hard enough to break Sheriff Grant's skull, something he had with him in his truck like… a tire iron.

Hannah glanced out at Ted's work truck, which was parked right next to the trailer. Perhaps the murder weapon was still in there. It wouldn't take long to get his tire iron. Even if Ted had washed it off, it could still have trace amounts of Sheriff Grant's blood. She could take it out to the sheriff's office when she delivered Bill's taillight and they could test it.

In less than a minute, Hannah was back with the tire iron in hand. She supposed she should take it out and hide it in her truck, but the wind was gusting with a vengeance now and she was freezing. There was no reason why she couldn't hide it in plain sight. When Ted came back, she'd just buy it and he'd never suspect that it hadn't come from the big bin of tire irons in his parts shed.

Hannah put the tire iron on the counter, slid onto the stool she'd so recently vacated, and thought about the murder again. If Ted had scratched his hand while he was tumbling Sheriff Grant's body in the Dumpster, all Mike and Bill needed was a blood sample and they could match it to the blood they'd found.

Feeling much better now that she had two possible pieces of evidence, Hannah went back to her scenario. It all made sense, but something was missing. She thought about the information that everyone had given her and remembered the stain on Krista's dress. What if the stain wasn't rust? What if it was Sheriff Grant's blood, smeared inside the truck by Ted when he was in the process of slipping on his coveralls?

Suddenly Hannah had a frightening thought. If Clara and Marguerite Hollenbeck came back early, they might remove the stain from Krista's dress. She had to call and tell them not to touch what could be important evidence. Hannah picked up the phone, dialed their number, and breathed a sigh of relief when their answer machine kicked in. They weren't back yet. She'd leave a message telling them not to touch Krista's dress.

The two sisters had recorded a lengthy outgoing message and Hannah listened to more about Clara and Marguerite's schedules than she needed or wanted to know. She was just waiting for the beep to record her message when she heard a roar outside the window and looked up to see Ted Koester's tow truck pulling up in front of the trailer.

Hannah hung up the phone, waved at Ted, and plastered a smile on her face. It was a good thing he couldn't read her mind! All she had to do was explain where Beatrice was, tell him she'd taken his delivery, offer him a cupcake, pay for the tire iron, and get out.

"Hi, Hannah." Ted stepped inside the trailer, looking puzzled. "Where's Beatrice?"

"She had to go repair Leah's dance costume. I said I'd stay until you got here. Your delivery came. I signed for it and put the paper on the clipboard the way Beatrice told me to do."

"Thanks." Ted eyed the white bag on the counter. "What's that?"

"Cupcakes. I think I've got your mother's recipe figured out. Taste one and see."

Ted took a cupcake out of the bag and tasted it. He took another bite and then another. "You got it. What was the secret ingredient that Beatrice was grousing about the other night?"

"Raspberry syrup."

"I'll be!" Ted looked utterly amazed. "I never would have guessed that. So now the recipe will go in the cookbook?"

"Definitely."

"Glad to hear it. It serves my mother right for refusing to give anybody else the recipe. Did Beatrice tell you about that?"

Hannah nodded, wondering about the best way to excuse herself and get out with the evidence.

"Every time she came to visit, she said she forgot it. And then she promised to mail it to Beatrice, but she never did. Now everybody that reads the cookbook can have it. It serves her right."

Hannah swallowed hard. She'd never heard Ted do anything but praise his mother before. He wasn't acting like himself tonight and she should leave. "I need to pay for this tire iron and get out of here, Ted. I promised to take Tracey to the Haunted Basement and I'm late already."

"Okay. Leave those cupcakes here and I won't charge you for the tire iron."

"It's a deal," Hannah said, reaching for the tire iron at the same time Ted did.

"Hold on a second." Ted grabbed it first and reached for a bag. "It might be dirty."

Hannah watched as Ted flipped open a bag. He started to slide the tire iron inside, but he stopped and began to frown. "Where did you get this?"

"Uh… Beatrice found it for me. I got a taillight and a cigarette lighter too, but I already paid for those."

"Where did she get it?"

Hannah shrugged and did her best to look completely clueless. "From the parts building, I guess. I was busy picking out the cigarette lighter."

"No, she didn't. She got it from my work truck."

"How can you tell?" Hannah asked, trying to appear genuinely puzzled. "Don't all tire irons look alike?"

"This one's longer and heavier. It came from an old motor home and they knew how to make them back then. I need it because it's got better leverage and it's easier on my back. I just don't understand why Beatrice would sell it to…”

Hannah blanched as Ted stopped speaking and stared at her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Then he picked up the tire iron and began to whack the end of it against his palm. This wasn't good. Ted knew she'd been in his work truck and he also knew why she'd taken his tire iron. Trying to talk her way out of trouble hadn't worked and she'd run out of both time and options.

"Beatrice didn't get this for you. You got it yourself." Ted's voice was filled with menace. "And there's only one reason you'd want…"

Hannah didn't stick around to hear the rest of Ted's reasoning. She just whirled around, pulled open the door, and ran for her life.

The darkness folded around her like a welcoming blanket as Hannah raced across the uneven ground, heading straight toward her cookie truck. The advantage of surprise worked in her favor and she made it all the way there before she realized that she'd grabbed the bag of cupcakes, but she'd left her keys on the counter.

Her cookie truck sat adjacent to an area filled with disabled vehicles. Hannah whirled and ran with the wind at her back, across the dirt road that divided the salvage yard in half and straight into the darker area where the disabled vehicles were parked. Since there weren't as many lights in this area, there was less chance that Ted would spot her. Hannah ducked down and zigzagged past the hulking wrecks, heading toward the car at the very end, an old Cadillac with peeling paint and a cracked windshield. The door was a bit rusted, but Hannah's frantic jerk on the handle did the trick. In a flash, Hannah was inside the back seat, huddled on the floorboards, with the door shut tightly behind her.

For long moments Hannah didn't breathe, but all she could hear was the howling wind outside the car and the thudding of her own panicked heart. If Ted hadn't spotted her, she might be safe. He'd have to search every vehicle on his lot if he wanted to find her and while he was searching, she'd take a clandestine hike down the access road in the dark and catch a ride back to town.

Cautiously, Hannah took a peek out the back window, but she didn't see Ted. Should she attempt to run for freedom now? Or was he out there somewhere, his eyes scanning the rows of junked cars, hoping that was what she'd do? If only she had a cell phone! Her former objections seemed petty compared to the advantages in a situation like hers! They ought to issue them like pillows on an overseas flight. Anyone who jumped on-board a murder investigation would get one.

Even though the suspense was killing her and her muscles were screaming for action, Hannah decided to wait and listen. Since the cars were parked on gravel, she'd hear Ted's footsteps long before he arrived at her hiding place. She hunkered down on the floorboards, barely daring to breathe, listening for Ted over the sound of the wind and the occasional far-away honk of a car on the highway.

Was Ted still out there looking for her? Or was this an exercise in futility? Perhaps he had realized that it would take hours to find her and given it up as a bad job. His first priority would be to avoid arrest. It was possible that he was miles away by now, fleeing Winnetka County and the State of Minnesota in the fastest car he had on his lot.

Hannah reached for the door handle, but she pulled her hand back before she touched it. It was smart to be cautious. She'd count to a thousand and if she hadn't heard anything by then, she'd inch open the door and make a run for it.

Counting in the dark, her face pressed to a dusty floor mat, was a trial of the patience Hannah didn't possess. She got to a hundred quite easily, and to two hundred with a bit more effort. Three hundred was a struggle and four hundred a real battle. Five hundred was iffy, but she made it. And six hundred was even iffier. Seven hundred was achieved through sheer force of will, the eight hundred mark bespoke endurance she'd only dreamed of in the past, and nine hundred was a milestone of both determination and fortitude. Hannah had reached nine hundred and thirty-two and she was beginning to think she'd make it all the way to the goal that had seemed so unreachable only minutes ago, when she heard a loud roar. And then something hit the Cadillac so hard, her whole body bounced up from the floorboards and smacked down again.

Hannah curled up in a ball, dizzy and disorientated. She didn't seem to be injured, but it had felt exactly as if another car had smacked into the Cadillac at highway speeds. When she recovered her equilibrium, she realized that something else was wrong. The Cadillac was rocking back and forth. When at least thirty seconds had passed and the rocking had failed to stop, Hannah risked a quick peek out the back window.

"Ohhh!" Hannah moaned, her mouth dropping open in total shock. The Cadillac was no longer sitting on terra firma!

Her mind refused to accept what her eyes were seeing. Hannah blinked but the ground was still dropping down below the Cadillac's tires. It took a moment for Hannah to make sense out of what was happening. The ground wasn't dropping; the Cadillac was rising. Ted was lifting it with the claw, a giant crane he used to move disabled cars and trucks.

Hannah glanced down again and wished she hadn't. The car was swaying sickeningly and the ground was receding fast. She shut her eyes and moaned softly in fear. She was terrified. It wasn't the height that frightened her. She could climb a ladder or an open staircase. She could even descend a fire escape, as she'd had to do in college. But when it came to swaying high in the air with nothing beneath her, she would much rather take a pass. It was the reason she'd never ridden in a hot air balloon, and why she'd refused to take Tracey on the Ferris wheel at the Winnetka County Fair last summer. Call it crazy, or phobic, or whatever, she really couldn't cope.

It was better if she didn't watch. The sight of the world swaying beneath her was enough to paralyze her mind. Hannah sank down with a groan and hugged the floorboards again. She had the sickening feeling that she knew what Ted was doing and it didn't bode well for her. Beatrice had told her about the new car crusher and how Ted used the crane to hoist the cars he wanted to crush and drop them inside. Beatrice had also mentioned that their efficient new piece of heavy machinery could reduce a luxury car into something approaching the size of a breadbox. Hannah wasn't sure exactly how big a breadbox was since no one had used them in years, but it was certainly smaller than she was and that brought up something she didn't really want to think about.

Cringing on the floorboards of the Cadillac wouldn't save her. Hannah took a deep breath and forced herself to look out the back window again. She was up really high, almost as high as the top of the trees, but she wouldn't think about that either. She took another deep breath and held it as she looked down at the ground.

Help had arrived! Mike was here in his squad car and he was talking to Ted!

Hannah stuck her head out the window and shouted, but her loudest yell was no match for the roar of the heavy machinery and the howling of the wind. The Cadillac was swaying right over Mike's head, but he didn't hear her. It was too far to jump, even if she were a daredevil, but there might be a way she could get Mike's attention.

Hannah scooted up between the front bucket seats. She grabbed the steering wheel and leaned on the horn. That should do it. But nothing happened and Hannah realized that there was no battery in the Cadillac. Ted must have removed it to sell it for parts before he scheduled this car for the crusher.

Not to be defeated by the absence of an easy way to get Mike's attention, Hannah stuck her head out of the hole where the passenger window used to be. Mike had gotten out of his cruiser and he was standing right below her. It was a case of so near and yet so far. Hannah knew she had to get his attention before he finished talking to Ted and left.

Quickly, Hannah wiggled out of her bomber jacket. She'd drop it right on Mike. Then, when he looked up to find out where it had come from, he'd see her leaning out the window. Hannah poked the jacket through the window, gave a little prayer for gravity to do its thing, and dropped it. It was perfect. It was going to fall right… uh-oh!