Cream Puff Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  After Frank had let them into the gym, Hannah and Andrea stashed their coats in the dressing room and went straight to the exercise room they thought of as their own. Andrea chose to start with the cross-country ski simulator, and Hannah began her routine on the machine she called the Walk to Nowhere.

  Ten minutes passed, and they switched to other equipment. Hannah was amazed at how much easier it was getting. At first she’d had trouble even using the machines. She’d forget which foot to push and which handle to pull. Now it was like second nature. If this was an example of the muscle memory the fitness gurus talked about, she was in favor of it!

  Fifteen minutes into their routines, Hannah noticed that Andrea was shivering. It was cold in the exercise room, and even though they were moving, the chill seemed to seep through their skin and into their muscles and bones.

  “Jacuzzi?” Hannah asked.

  “Yes! I’m freezing!”

  They hopped off the machines and walked at a fast clip to the recently renovated gazebo. Frank was right. The latticework frame was gone, and in its place was a thatched hut with open space for windows.

  “Nice,” Andrea said, climbing up the stairs and stepping inside. “I think this is an improvement.”

  Hannah was right behind her, and she was surprised at the amount of work that had been done. The area was completely different, and even the hot tub was a different configuration, octagonal instead of round.

  Andrea reached down to feel the water. “It’s hot,” she said, smiling in anticipation. “I’m getting in. How about you?”

  “I’m right behind you.”

  It didn’t take long to slip out of the loose pants they’d worn over their leotards. The leotards could double as bathing suits, and that was one of the reasons they’d bought them. Andrea stepped in first and gave a sigh of pleasure. “It’s perfect. Turn on the jets before you get in, will you, Hannah?”

  Hannah turned on the jets and joined her sister in the tub. There was nothing quite as nice as sinking into a tub of swirling, bubbling, heated water when you were shivering with cold. “Heaven,” she declared, sinking down until only her head was above the surface of the water.

  The two sisters sat there smiling for several minutes, thinking their own thoughts and luxuriating in the warmth. Then reality intruded in the form of Andrea’s cell phone.

  “Uh-oh,” Andrea groaned, clambering out of the tub. “I have to get that. Bill said he’d call.”

  Hannah leaned back against one of the molded backrests built into the tub and half-listened as Andrea talked to her husband. It was obvious that Andrea was pleased about something. She was using words like wonderful, and marvelous, and fantastic as she listened to Bill talk. When she came back to the hot tub, she was smiling from ear to ear. “Bill’s got an alibi, and he’s back on the case. Isn’t that great?”

  “It certainly is!” Hannah was just as delighted as Andrea and every bit as relieved that her brother-in-law was in the clear.

  “Bill’s been doing a little legwork, going back to all the places he went on the night Ronni was murdered,” Andrea explained. “Three different people gave him alibis at three different times. That means there’s no way Bill could have driven out to the mall, killed Ronni, and still been at those places at those times.”

  “Good for him for tracking them down,” Hannah complimented her brother-in-law.

  “Anyway, he’s coming home early, and he wants to take me out for dinner to celebrate. I told him I’d be home in thirty minutes, so I’d better go get dressed. I hope you don’t mind that I won’t be having dinner with you and Norman.”

  “Of course not.” Hannah wasn’t at all disappointed. She liked her times alone with Norman.

  “Are you going to leave now, too?”

  “I’ll get dressed and see how I feel. I might do that final ten minutes on the cross-country ski machine.”

  Hannah got out of the Jacuzzi, wrapped a towel around her shoulders, and followed Andrea to the dressing room.

  The first thing Andrea did when they got there was to pull her cell phone from her purse and plug it into one of the wall sockets at the mirrored dressing table. “Don’t let me forget it,” she said to Hannah.

  “You’re charging it while you dress?”

  “Yes. It’s got a built-in high-speed charger so I can do it anywhere. That’s one of the features I love about this phone. I don’t think it holds a charge very well, though.”

  “Really?” Hannah opened her locker and took out the sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt she kept there.

  “There was a lot of interference when Bill called, and that happens sometimes when the battery’s low. I’ll let it charge up while I dress and see if it’s better when I’m ready to go.”

  Both sisters toweled off with the large bath towels the spa provided and began to dress. Andrea put on the clothes she’d worn on the drive out, and Hannah pulled on her sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt.

  “Don’t forget your cell phone,” Hannah reminded Andrea.

  “Thanks!” Andrea unplugged it and flipped it open. She dialed a number and listened for a minute, and then she nodded. “It’s fine now. No interference at all.”

  “Who did you call? You didn’t say anything.”

  “I called the number for time of day. I didn’t want to get involved in a long conversation.” Andrea dropped her cell phone in her purse, picked up her winter jacket, and headed for the door. “Are you leaving or staying?”

  “I’m staying.” Hannah grabbed her purse and her parka and followed her sister out of the dressing room. “I’ll still have lots of time to drive home and dress for dinner with Norman.”

  “I’ll touch base with you tonight, then,” Andrea said, giving a little wave and heading for the exit. But she took only a couple of steps before she turned and came back again. “Here,” she said, drawing a plastic bag from her purse. “I almost forget to give it to you. I got one for Michelle, and Lisa, and Norman too. Now we can all have roses in the winter.”

  Hannah glanced inside the bag and smiled. Andrea had given her a red plastic rose with a very long stem. “For my antenna?” she asked, remembering their conversation about Andrea’s flower on the antenna of her Volvo.

  “That’s right. There’s a wire in the stem so you can just wind it around your antenna and it’ll stay there. And because it’s plastic, it won’t get ruined by the snow and ice.”

  “This is really sweet of you, Andrea,” Hannah said, and she meant it. Andrea had cared enough to shop for the roses and give them to Norman, Lisa, and her sisters. For someone who’d been extremely self-centered a few years ago, Andrea had turned into a thoughtful and caring person.

  After Andrea had left, Hannah glanced down at the rose in her hand. Instead of shoving it into her purse where it might not see the light of day for several weeks, she put it, plastic bag and all, in the horizontal patch pocket on the front of her sweatshirt, the one that could be used as a hand warmer. She’d keep it there while she finished her workout routine and put it on her antenna when she got back out to the parking lot.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The rhythmic swooshing of the cross-country ski simulator was soothing, releasing her mind for other pursuits. Hannah watched the video of a winter scene rolling past on the screen in time with her movements, and she relaxed. Only a small portion of her mind took charge of the repetitive motion and pace, and she began to think of what she’d learned about Ronni’s murder.

  Swooshing down the hill, push with the left foot, push with the right foot, to the first clue that entered her mind. Sonny Newberg told Sue Plotnik that his uncle Tad gave flowers to Nikki. It was pretty clear that Nikki was a nickname and Tad had nicknames for the women he liked. Ronni’s real name was Veronica, but what if Tad gave her his own personal nickname? Could it have been Nikki, based on the last part of her name?

  According to Frank, Tad didn’t have much luck with women. That meant his self-confidence was probably low. When Ronni
had refused to take his flowers and insulted him at her birthday party in front of the other guests, it must have been a terrible blow to Tad’s ego. Could he have gotten embarrassed enough and angry enough to go back when all the party guests had left and kill Ronni?

  Hannah thought about that on a slight downhill slope as she skied her way past a small stand of pines. Dig in with the right pole, dig in with the left pole, swoosh to the next clue to Ronni’s killer. There was the security tape of the parking lot with Ronni’s old car in the picture. Mike said Ronni hadn’t driven it recently and Hannah believed him. What if the tape she’d watched hadn’t been recorded on the night of Ronni’s death? What if it was an old tape slipped into a new sleeve, a tape that had been made when Ronni’s car was still working?

  It would have been easy for Tad to switch the tapes. And if Tad had killed Ronni, he might have wanted to set it up so that everyone who came to Ronni’s birthday party was automatically a suspect. It would certainly muddy the waters and hinder the investigation, especially since quite a few attendees were members of the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department.

  Hannah’s hips swiveled and her legs shot back and forth on the pretend skis. Right leg forward, left leg forward, skiing up a slight rise to the suspect list. Tad wasn’t listed as a suspect…or was he? The only three suspects left on the page were the stalker, the suspicious man in the blue parka, and the unknown suspect with the unknown motive. Tad saw Ronni every day on the security cameras in the exercise rooms. Ronni knew she was on camera and she certainly wouldn’t think of that as spying. But Ronni had specifically mentioned the Jacuzzi to the bartender at The Moosehead and there was no security camera in there.

  The Jacuzzi! With a gasp, Hannah remembered the interference on Andrea’s cell phone. That had happened in the room with the Jacuzzi. Andrea thought it was a low battery, but Hannah had experienced a similar interference when she’d been standing next to the kitty-cam Mike had installed in her condo kitchen. What if there was a surveillance camera hidden in the room with the Jacuzzi and Ronni had somehow sensed it? Mike had mentioned that the mall security staff tested surveillance cameras for the same company. It was entirely possible they’d been given a camera identical to Mike’s and Tad had installed it in the room with the Jacuzzi so that he could spy on Ronni.

  There was only one way to find out. Hannah jumped off the ski simulator at the top of a steep incline dotted with bumpy snowdrifts. But instead of tumbling head over heels with arms and legs akimbo as a real skier might have done, she hit the floor running, grabbed her purse, and headed for the Jacuzzi at a trot.

  When she arrived at the steps leading up to the thatched-roofed hut, Hannah took her phone out of her purse and switched it on. Then she punched in the number for time of day and listened to the recorded voice. There was no interference. She continued to listen as she climbed the steps and stepped into the hut. There was a high-pitched squeal that grew louder as she approached the spot where Andrea had answered her phone. Another step and the squeal intensified even more. It was loudest right next to the wall.

  Since she could no longer hear the recorded voice, and she didn’t really care what time it was anyway, Hannah switched off the phone and slipped it back in her purse. And then she began to examine the wall to see if she could spot the lens of the camera.

  The thatched-roof hut had been decorated like a tropical paradise with hanging ferns and flowering trees in earthenware pots, and the wallpaper picked up on the lush jungle theme. Glossy leaves, thick green vines, and riotously colored flowers snaked their way up to the ceiling. Exotically shaped tree branches displayed tropical birds in splendiferous plumage, including an impressively large toucan just above Hannah’s head.

  The best way to proceed was methodically. Hannah started at the top left corner of the wall and let her eyes scan to the right, almost as if she were reading a line of very large print. She told herself to ignore the designs on the wallpaper and concentrate on finding any irregularities in the wall itself. Once she’d reached the right corner, she dropped her focus down six inches or so, and let her eyes move in a horizontal line to the left. She repeated this pattern over and over, lower and lower with each trip from left to right and then back again.

  It wasn’t until she’d reached an area about a foot over her head and midway between the left and right walls, that she discovered something unusual. It had to do with the toucan. This particular bird had only one eye as the artist had rendered it in profile.

  The eye of the toucan bulged out slightly, just like the lens of her kitty-cam. But wallpaper was flat. It didn’t bulge unless there was something behind it. Hannah reached up to feel the bird’s eye and touched a glass lens. There was a kitty-cam hidden behind the wall by the Jacuzzi. Except it wasn’t a kitty-cam. It was a killer-cam! No wonder Ronni had felt that someone was spying on her! Someone was. And that someone was Tad Newberg.

  Hannah grabbed her purse and pulled out her phone. She had to call Mike and tell him to arrest Tad Newberg right away. He had killed Ronni. She was sure of it! She punched in the number and waited breathlessly for it to ring. But the interference was so heavy she couldn’t hear anything but a high-pitched whine. The best thing to do was to go out to the security station and call from…

  Uh-oh! Hannah’s mind said. You’re out here alone and this is where Tad works. What if Tad comes in early and realizes that you know? The best thing to do was to get to safety first, and then stop somewhere to call Mike. She raced across the floor, fairly flew down the steps, and crashed straight into the arms of Frank Hurley.

  “Frank!” she gasped, shaking with relief. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you!”

  “And you have no idea how glad I am I caught you before you left,” Frank said. “You figured it out, didn’t you, Hannah?”

  There was a note of menace in Frank’s voice that Hannah had never heard before. It puzzled her and her mind spun through the possibilities until it came to a shuddering halt at a terrible suspicion. She tried to step back, but Frank’s arms were like bands of steel around her.

  “Figured what out?” she asked, hoping he’d think she was thoroughly mystified by his question.

  “You found the camera,” he said.

  Careful. If you’re careful, you may be able to talk your way out of this. You have to give him a kernel of truth so he thinks you’re ingenuous and you can’t let him guess that you suspect him.

  “Yes. Yes, I did find the camera. I’m really sorry, Frank. I know you’re just as disappointed as I am.”

  An expression of doubt crossed Frank’s face. “Disappointed?”

  “Yes. I really like Tad, but he shouldn’t have hooked up that surveillance camera so he could spy on Ronni. That wasn’t a nice thing to do. I can’t say I blame him though. I know he was crazy about her. I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “He was crazy about her, all right!”

  “Ronni brought this on herself, you know. She was horribly mean to Tad at her birthday party when he gave her those lovely flowers. I can’t say I entirely blame him for waiting until everyone else had left and fighting with her in the hot tub. I’m sure he didn’t mean to kill her though. Tad’s no killer.”

  “You’re right about that! So that’s what you figured out, huh?”

  “Yes. I just called Mike and he’s going to go talk to Tad.”

  Frank laughed and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “No, you didn’t. I was watching you on my laptop monitor. You never got through to him.”

  “You’re right. I was going to call him, but I couldn’t get a good signal, not with all that interference. But he’ll be here any minute anyway. He’s picking me up. I’ll tell him to talk to Tad then.”

  “You won’t be telling him anything, not where you’re going.” Frank pulled his gun, whirled her around, and stuck the barrel against her back. “Walk. It’s cold in here, and you’re going to spend some time in the sauna. Too bad you’re going to overdo it. You’ll suffer a heat stroke and die, and
everyone will think it’s a terrible accident.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Hannah asked, willing her voice not to shake. “I told you I didn’t think Tad killed Ronni on purpose. Once he explains, I’m sure everyone will believe that it was an accident.”

  “But it wasn’t an accident.” Frank laughed again and prodded her with the barrel of the gun to make her move faster. “And it wasn’t Tad either. It was me. I killed Ronni.”

  “But why?” Hannah gasped, stumbling a bit as she moved forward. She had to keep him talking, distract him, and figure out some way to escape.

  “Tad’s like a son to me. My sister died when he was born and the poor kid never had anyone. Tad’s father always blamed him for my sister’s death. Tad’s older brother got all the attention. The only one who ever cared about Tad was me. I knew Ronni was a bad influence the first time I saw her flirting with Tad.”

  Hannah tried to slow her steps, but every time she hesitated, Frank prodded her with the gun again. Her eyes scanned the deserted hallway, hoping for something she could grab, whirl, and use to hit him, but the hallways were perfectly empty. “Did you try to warn Tad off?”

  “’Course I did. What kind of fool do you take me for? I told him she was the kind to play games with men and I proved it by showing him the tapes of her in the Jacuzzi with other men.”

  There was a broom leaning up against the doorway to the Snack Shack. If she could just get close enough to grab it, she could use it to knock him off balance and…

  “Don’t even think about it,” Frank warned her, effectively reading her mind and pushing her over to hug the far wall. “I’ll shoot you here if I have to.”

  Hannah told herself there’d be another opportunity. There had to be! And then she went on asking questions. “What did Tad say when you showed him the tapes of Ronni in the Jacuzzi with the other men?”

  “He was upset, but he wasn’t mad at Ronni. He said she hadn’t dated the right man yet, but the minute she realized that he was perfect for her, she’d settle right down with him and be happy.”