Key Lime Pie Murder (25 page)

“While you’re gone, I’ll call Marge about Tasha’s father,” Lisa offered.

“Good. We’ll get that ball rolling.”

“If we can find out Willa’s address when she was in high school, I’ll go through the sales records and see how much the house sold for,” Andrea told them. “And I can also check to see if there were any liens against the property.”

“Good. Don’t forget Mrs. Adamczak,” Hannah reminded her.

“I won’t. I’ll go see her right after we get back from searching the apartment. What kind of ribbon did she win again?”

“White. That’s just an honorable mention. It’s bound to be a letdown for her.”

“Would she know it was Willa’s fault that she didn’t win?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t say anything, and I don’t think Pam did either, but Pam hands in our scorecards to other people. It’s possible that Mrs. Adamczak knows Willa was the one who kept her from being in the finals.”

“Okay. I’ll find out how mad she is that she didn’t win.”

“I still have a couple of hours before I have to drive out to the fairgrounds,” Michelle said. “Is there anything else I can do?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“You can deliver the cookies to the Cookie Nook booth when you go out to the fairgrounds. And if you go early, you can help me with something else.”

“I’ll go early.”

“Great. Do you know where you can get a picture of Willa?”

“Sure. There’s one in the front of the program. We all have our pictures in there.”

“Take a program with you, and stop by the 4-H building. There were some kids wearing 4-H shirts standing around when I said goodbye to Willa on Tuesday night. It’s a long shot, but maybe one of them noticed where she went or who she met.”

“Any idea which kids were there?”

“Not really. It was getting dark and I didn’t notice. Just make the rounds with the photo and see what you can come up with.”

“I will.”

“How about me?” Lisa asked. “All I’m doing for you is asking Marge about Tasha’s father. Can’t I do anything else?”

Hannah laughed and held up her fingers as an aid in counting. “Let’s see…you came in early to start the baking this morning, you’re finding out about Mr. Hicks, you’re running The Cookie Jar while Andrea and I go off to search Willa’s apartment, you made some great suggestions at our meeting…isn’t that enough?”

“Not in return for all you’re doing for me!”

Hannah was puzzled. “What am I doing for you?”

“You’re saving me from a giant panic attack by taking my place as Herb’s assistant.”

Hannah groaned. She’d forgotten all about her costume, and time was definitely running short.

“Uh-oh!” Lisa said, looking worried. “You are going to be Herb’s assistant, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. Absolutely. It’s just that I haven’t found a costume yet. I looked for one last night, but I couldn’t find the skirt with the stars on it that I bought in college. And I can’t go like this.” Hannah looked down at her bright blue T-shirt that said EAT DESSERT FIRST in black block letters.

“That’s okay. When I call Marge, I’ll ask her to go through the clothes at Helping Hands Thrift Shop. There’s bound to be something you can use, and Dad just loves to go there. Don’t worry about a thing. They’ll take care of it.”

Hannah was even more worried, but there was no way she’d say so. Lisa adored her mother-in-law and either didn’t realize or totally ignored the fact that Herb’s mother favored a style of clothing that Hannah secretly thought of as “visually-impaired gray-haired Hippie.” Instead of addressing that problem, she said simply, “Not red.”

“I’ll tell her. Just go on with Andrea and leave your costume to us.”

“All right, I will,” Hannah said, already regretting it. But she’d only have to wear the costume for an hour at the most, and then she’d never have to look at it again. How bad could it possibly be?

“Find anything yet?” Andrea asked. She was sitting at Willa’s desk, going through the drawers while Hannah tackled the small kitchen that was built into an alcove.

“Yes.”

“You found something?”

“Yes, but not what you think. I found three boxes of macaroni and cheese, and a two-pound can of coffee. Those were the only consumables in her kitchen cupboard. For a home economics teacher, Willa didn’t do much cooking.”

“Pam probably invited her to eat with them every night.”

“That could be. Did you find anything?”

“A couple of things. Come and take a look.”

Hannah ducked out of the alcove and pulled a chair over to join Andrea at the desk. “A diploma?” she asked, taking the paper from Andrea.

“From high school. It’s got the year, and that means I can start researching the sale of her parents’ house.”

“Great. Anything else?”

“Yes. Willa was a romantic.”

Hannah took the hardcover volume that Andrea handed her. “A copy of Gone With The Wind makes her a romantic?”

“I think it does. But look inside and you’ll be really convinced.”

Hannah flipped the book open and discovered a flower pressed in a small cellophane bag. “Is that an orchid?”

“Yes. Read the card.”

There was a florist’s card under the flower and Hannah pulled it out. It read, Yesterday and Today, Tomorrow and Forever. “Do you think it’s from her high school prom?”

“Maybe. Or it could be from some other special occasion. She saved it, so it must have been important to her.”

“Very important, especially since she didn’t save anything else.” Hannah glanced around her. They’d searched every nook and cranny of Willa’s apartment, and the pressed flower and card were the only two personal items they’d found. “Let’s go up and talk to Pam. I want to find out if Willa ever brought any friends here.”

“Not really,” Pam responded to Hannah’s question and filled her coffee cup at the same time. “I didn’t think we were ever going to meet Gordon, but finally she agreed to bring him to dinner.”

“Gordon?” Hannah pulled out her steno pad.

“Gordon Tate. Professor Gordon Tate. He’s head of the archaeology department at Tri-County College.”

“And Willa was dating him?” Andrea asked.

“Yes. He was a bit older than she was, but that didn’t seem to matter. They were both loners, and they got along really well together. George and I were absolutely delighted when she told us he’d asked her to marry him.”

“Whoa,” Hannah said, frowning. “You didn’t tell me Willa was engaged.”

“That’s because she wasn’t. She told Gordon she couldn’t marry him, and they broke up two months ago.”

“Was it a bad breakup?” Andrea asked.

“No. If you ask me, there wasn’t enough passion in their relationship for it to be bad. The only thing either of them were passionate about was riding.”

“Riding?”

“Gordon had a place with a stable, and they went riding almost every weekend. Willa was a real cowgirl on her days off.”

“What about after they broke up?” Andrea asked.

“Oh, she still went out to his place to ride. They even dated for a while after she turned down his proposal. It was just that Willa really didn’t want to marry him. She said Gordon was much too set in his ways.”

“How do you mean?” Hannah wanted to know.

“He had a rigid schedule. Willa told me about it once. He had toast and orange juice for breakfast every morning, he read the paper from the front page back and never sneaked a peek at the comics first, and he washed the car every Thursday. That type of thing.”

“Sounds deadly dull,” Hannah commented, sighing a bit and wondering if she could use a little less passion and a little more dullness in her own love life.

“Well, Gordon was a bit of a stuffed shirt. He’s a very nice man. Don’t get me wrong. But Willa had so much more life in her. George and I weren’t too upset when they called it off, and Willa didn’t seem that upset either.”

“But was Gordon upset?”

“Upset enough to have taken revenge?” Andrea followed Hannah’s question with one of her own.

“Oh, no,” Pam waved off that suggestion. “Gordon would never do anything like that! I’m absolutely positive of it. And even if I’ve completely misread his personality, Gordon couldn’t have done it.”

“Why’s that?” Hannah asked her.

“He’s been out of the country for at least a month, and he’s not coming back until fall semester starts at the college. He’s taken six of his best students to a dig in Mexico.”

“Do you know where in Mexico?”

“No. Sorry. But you could probably check with the college. Whoever’s filling in for him at the department should know.”

Hannah was thoughtful on their way back to The Cookie Jar. Pam had always been a good judge of character, and Gordon didn’t sound like the type to murder Willa over a rejected proposal, but Hannah wasn’t willing to let it go. It was possible that Gordon had done it. People flew back and forth to places like Acapulco all the time. Until she’d eliminated that possibility, Gordon would remain on her list.

Hannah stared down at the pile of formal dresses that Marge and Jack Herman had placed on the work island in her kitchen and mouthed the words that the little girl in Poltergeist had exclaimed. “They’re back,” she said, under her breath.

“What was that?” Marge looked puzzled.

“Nothing. Where did you get all these?”

“From Helping Hands. They let us bring all of them. You choose the one you want, and we’ll bring the rest back.”

“Great,” Hannah said, because the first phrase that occurred to her would have shocked everyone.

“I really like the pink satin, but you probably won’t want to wear it with your hair,” Marge went on. “The Kelly green silk is nice, though. And the dotted Swiss with the lavender lining is just darling.”

“I like the purple,” Jack offered his opinion. “It’ll match Herb’s…whatchamacallit.”

Marge turned to him with a smile. “You’re right, Jack. It’ll match Herb’s cape perfectly.”

“That’s it, cape.” Jack returned her smile. “I’m surprised I forgot that word. Especially since we just watched that latest Superman movie. Which dress do you like, Lisa?”

“The turquoise voile. Or…maybe the yellow chiffon. Either one would look nice on you, Hannah.”

“I like the yellow, too,” Marge said, “but I’d take off that orange flower. It looks a little shopworn.”

“Right,” Hannah said, glancing at the huge orange flower that adorned the neckline of the yellow dress. Unfortunately, it covered a plunging neckline, and removing it would expose a whole lot more of her than she wanted to expose. If only Norman weren’t quite so efficient. He’d obviously dropped off her dresses at Helping Hands this morning, and now they were haunting her. She hadn’t expected him to keep them in his trunk forever, but another twenty-four hours would have been nice.

“Do you want to try them on?” Marge asked.

“No, that’s okay. They look like they’ll fit.”

“So which one will you wear?” Lisa asked after a long moment passed and Hannah hadn’t reached out to take one.

Hannah felt like a condemned man ordering his last meal and discovering that his only choices were foods he hated. As far as the dresses were concerned, they were equally bad. She told herself that she’d worn each of these outfits once, and she could make everyone happy if she wore one of them again. It wasn’t too much to ask.

“The purple?” Jack looked hopeful.

“Definitely the purple,” Hannah said, earning a huge smile from Jack. “I think it would be good if I coordinated colors with Herb, don’t you?”

“It’ll be perfect,” Lisa said.

“That’s very sweet of you, Hannah,” Marge said, and Hannah suspected that Marge had guessed the real reason she’d chosen the purple dress.

“Let’s take the rest of these back,” Jack suggested, carefully removing the purple taffeta from the pile and handing it to Hannah. “You’re coming, aren’t you, Marge?”

“Of course I am.”

After Marge and Jack had gone out the back, carrying the dresses, Hannah went to hang the purple taffeta in the bathroom so that she could change before she left for the fairgrounds. When she came out, she found Lisa waiting for her.

“Thanks, Hannah,” Lisa said, giving her a hug. “You made Dad really happy. But are you sure you really want to wear that dress? It’ll look horrible with your hair.”

Hannah shrugged. “That’s okay. It’s only for fifteen minutes or so, and then I’ll change clothes. It’s not like I’m going to wear it forever, you know.”

Hannah glanced at the clock. It was almost two, and they hadn’t had a customer in forty-five minutes. Everyone was out at the fairgrounds, and it was a waste of time and energy for them to stay open. “How about closing at two?” she asked Lisa.

“That’s fine with me. Herb’s getting off at two-thirty, and we’re going out to the fair early with Marge and Dad. And that reminds me, you can cross Mr. Hicks off your suspect list. Marge knows the family, and he’s been in a wheelchair for months. He broke his leg in a bar fight.”

“Thanks, Lisa.” Hannah took out her notebook and crossed off Tasha’s father. “I saw Willa’s killer running away, so it couldn’t possibly have…”

“I’ve got to go to the kitchen right now,” Lisa said. “Tell me later.”

“But we’re all through with the baking. Why do you have to go to the kitchen now?”

“Because Mrs. Rhodes just pulled up out front, and your mother’s getting out of the car.”

Hannah glanced out the plate glass window. Lisa was right. “And you’re deserting me in my hour of need?”

“Yes, but it’s for my own safety. Your mother might be looking for more volunteers. Herb and I saw that piece Wingo Jones did on KCOW television about No-No Fulton. If your mother asked me, I’d probably say yes, and I don’t want to get dunked.”

Hannah laughed and waved her away. She certainly couldn’t blame Lisa for that. She didn’t want to get dunked, either!

“Hello, dear,” Delores said, coming through the doorway as if she owned the place. “Carrie and I just got back from lunch. She’s going to check in with Luanne at the store, and I stopped in to bring you a kitty bag.”

“Don’t you mean doggy bag?”

“No, it’s for Moishe. We had the trout at that new fish place in the mall. It was so good, I ordered takeout for Moishe. There’s coleslaw in there, too, if you want it. He doesn’t eat that, does he?”