by Joanne Fluke
“Do you think this was a picture of Jess Reiffer?” Norman asked.
“Yes,” Hannah answered. She’d told Norman everything she’d learned from Mike on their way to the school.
“And do you think the noise you heard before I opened the door was Jess Reiffer cutting himself out of this picture?” Norman took things a step further. “Or is that too farfetched?”
“I guess it could have been Jess Reiffer, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. He had no reason to kill Willa. And why would he track her down just to cut himself out of their wedding picture?”
“Good point. But you still think the noise you heard was Willa’s killer searching her desk?”
“That’s my guess. And if he took something, it’s gone. And since we don’t know what was in here in the first place, we can’t even guess what it was.” Hannah dropped the photo album in her shoulder bag and stood up.
“Ready to go?” Norman asked.
“Oh, yes.” Hannah picked up her rolling pin and gripped it tightly. “Get your rolling pin on the way out, okay? I can return them to Pam tomorrow.”
“Good idea. It never hurts to be ready.”
Hannah did her best to keep from wondering how much damage a rolling pin could do to a determined killer and gave Norman a smile. “That’s right. You never know when you’ll have to roll out a piecrust.”
Hannah locked her door and buckled her seatbelt. They’d seen absolutely nothing out-of-the-way in the parking lot, and they’d arrived at Norman’s car without incident. “He’s probably long gone.”
“Probably. If you’re right and he got whatever he came for, there’s no reason for him to stick around.”
Not unless he thinks I’m closing in on him, Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it. It would be counterproductive to make the driver nervous. They’d been in Pam’s classroom for at least twenty minutes. Willa’s killer was probably across the Winnetka County line by now.
“Home?” Norman asked, pulling out of the parking lot and onto Gull Avenue.
“Yes.” Hannah took a deep breath and prepared to ask for another favor. “I know you’re really busy and you want to print those photographs tonight, but do you think you’ll be on your computer?”
Norman laughed. “I have to be on my computer. That’s where I download the photos. And that’s how I print them.”
“Oh. Well…do you think you might be able to e-mail someone for me?”
“I can do that. And then I can hook up your computer this weekend so that you can discover the joys of cyberspace for yourself.”
Hannah gave a little groan. “I’m sorry, Norman. I should have hooked it up weeks ago. It’s just that I’ve been so busy, and I’m trying to decide just where to put it, and…”
“You’re resisting,” Norman interrupted her. “Some people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.”
“It’s the twenty-first century?” Hannah acted shocked. But then, before their good-natured kidding could go on, she noticed headlights in the rearview mirror. “There’s a car behind us, and it’s coming up fast.”
“I know. I’ve been watching it for a couple of blocks, now. Is your seatbelt fastened?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I want you to hang on. We’re going to make a few sharp turns.”
Hannah braced herself as Norman took a hard left onto Third Street. She’d never been in a car that went around the corner on two wheels before, and she did all she could do not to scream. But just when she was recovering from the first turn, Norman made another hard left onto Maple.
Hannah felt the breath whoosh from her lungs. Her life hadn’t quite flashed before her eyes, but it was close.
It was the screeching left onto Fourth Street that did it. Hannah was sure she was going to die in a fiery wreck. And then Norman took another hard left that put them back on Gull Avenue, and before Hannah had even caught her breath, he pulled into someone’s driveway, cut the engine, and flicked off the lights.
“What are you…?” Hannah gasped out.
“Duck.” Norman reached over, then pushed her down in the seat. “He missed that first turn, so it’ll take him a minute to catch up.”
“You…you mean the…the car that was following…?”
“Yes.” Norman interrupted her attempt to ask an intelligent question. “He should be coming around the corner of Fourth and Gull any second now.”
Hannah’s window was down an inch or so, and she listened for the sound of a car. For a breathless moment, all she heard was the sound of crickets in the grass next to the driveway and two cats yowling somewhere in the distance. She was about to tell Norman that they must have lost him when she heard the sound of an engine.
“There he is. Stay down,” Norman warned her. “If we’re lucky, he’ll think he’s still behind us and keep on going.”
Hannah shut her eyes and did her version of positive thinking. Keep on going, we’re ahead of you. Keep on going, we’re ahead of you, she chanted in her mind. And then she risked a glance. Her silent suggestion must have worked because the car kept on going right past the driveway where they were hiding and on down the street.
“Did you see him?” she asked Norman, wondering if he’d also risked a peek.
“Yes. Lone driver. Looked like a man to me,” Norman said, turning on the engine and backing out of the driveway. “Is that what you saw?”
He knows me too well, Hannah thought. But she said, “What makes you think I looked?”
“We both put our heads up at the same time. I saw you. It’s a good thing he wasn’t looking at my car.”
“You’re right,” Hannah said, agreeing completely. “And I saw the same thing you did. Do you think we ought to tell Mike?”
“Tell him what? That we think someone followed us from the school, but we don’t have a description or a license plate?”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. “Guess not,” she concluded, and then she changed the subject. “You know how people who’re about to die say that their lives flash before their eyes?”
“I’ve heard that.”
“Well, mine almost did.”
Norman was silent for a moment and then he reached out to take her hand. “You were never in any danger, Hannah. There’s no way I’d risk your life.”
“I wasn’t?”
“No. Every turn I made was carefully calculated.”
Hannah wasn’t sure that made her feel any better, but she nodded. “Okay. I believe you. How did you learn to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Drive like that. You took those corners at just the right speed. Any faster and we would have wiped out. Any slower and he might have caught up to us.”
“Oh, that,” Norman said, shrugging slightly. “I used to race when I was in college.”
“You mean…professionally?”
“Yes. It was only two years, though. When I started out, I was on the pit crew. Did you know that I can change a tire in ninety-three seconds flat?”
“No…”
“Well, I can. I’ll show you if we ever have a flat. You don’t mind if I take you back to the condo by a different route, do you? I think it might be safer, just in case he’s still out there.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
The moon was almost full, and Hannah stared at Norman all the way back to her condo. A race car driver! Norman was full of surprises. Just when she thought she knew him as well as anyone could know anyone else, he threw her a curveball.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Will you be all right alone?” Norman asked, standing just inside the door to the condo.
“I’ll be fine. Nobody can drive in without a gate card.”
“Unless they drive through that flimsy plywood arm at the entrance. Or park outside and walk in.”
“True, but no one followed us here. You checked.”
Norman stood there for a moment, clearly undecided. And then he sighed. “Okay
. But turn on the alarm system after I leave. It’ll make me feel a whole lot better about leaving you here.”
“I will. I promise,” Hannah said, wondering if she remembered how to do it or whether she’d have to look for the instruction sheet.
“All right, then. I’ll see you in the…” Norman stopped speaking and started to frown. “Look at Moishe! He sees something outside that window. I’m sure of it!”
“Me, too. Or maybe he just hears another animal or a person. Whatever it is, it’s out there and he’s reacting to it.”
They moved together to the window. Hannah stared out into the darkness, but she saw nothing moving. “Do you see anything?” she asked.
“No, but maybe it’s something small that we’re not noticing, like a field mouse or a snake.”
“That must be it,” Hannah agreed, moving away from the window again and leaving her cat to keep watch.
“Where were we?” Norman asked her, walking to the door again.
“You were about to kiss me goodnight.”
“I was?”
“Oh, yes. At least twice.”
Norman chuckled and pulled her into his arms. And then he exceeded her suggestion by at least a half-dozen kisses. When he let her go and opened the door, Hannah swayed slightly on her feet. Norman definitely knew how to kiss!
Hannah stepped out onto the landing with him, and they were just sharing a final kiss when she heard voices below.
“Sorry,” Michelle called out. “We didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
Hannah turned to see Michelle coming up the stairs, followed by Andrea. Both of them were grinning, and Hannah knew they’d seen her kissing Norman.
“I was just leaving,” Norman said, heading down the stairs. “I’ve got pictures to print tonight.”
“Will you let me know how the one you took of Tracey and me turns out?” Andrea asked.
“It’ll be great. You’re remarkably photogenic, and so is Tracey. And that one of you should be really good, Michelle. You’re photogenic, too.”
Perhaps her two sisters weren’t aware of the omission, but Hannah was. As Norman went down the stairs and her sisters climbed up, Hannah gave a little sigh. She was always the odd sister out. If there was something she was not, it was photogenic, and everyone who’d ever tried to take her picture knew she was about as far from camera-friendly as a person could get. The picture Norman had taken of her at The Cookie Jar, the photo that had won first prize in the photography exhibit and now hung over Mike’s couch, had been nothing short of remarkable, a stroke of good fortune that might not happen again in her lifetime.
As she opened the door and ushered her sisters in, Hannah thought about the picture of her that Norman had taken this afternoon. It would also be remarkable, but in the negative sense of the word. The purple dress would clash spectacularly with her red hair.
“What’s wrong, Hannah?” Michelle asked, as they entered the living room.
“Just thinking,” Hannah said, leaving it at that. There was absolutely nothing she could do to change the picture of her that Rod would run on the front page of the Lake Eden Journal on Sunday. The deed was done. The dress had been worn. And if she could somehow rewind her day to the point where Marge, Jack, and Lisa had spread all the dresses out on the work island and asked her to pick one, she’d probably choose the purple taffeta all over again. It had been worth it to see the smile on Lisa’s dad’s face.
“So there was something out there, after all!” Hannah gave Moishe a scratch behind his ears and a chicken-flavored treat for hearing Michelle and Andrea drive in and watching for them to come up the stairs.
“He heard us?” Michelle sounded amazed.
“He heard something, and that’s good enough for me. Coffee?”
It was a silly question to ask a family of coffee drinkers, so Hannah didn’t wait for an answer. She just went to the kitchen and put on the coffee. Then she sliced the rest of Sue Plotnik’s orange cake, arranged it on a plate, and carried everything out to the living room, where Andrea and Michelle were waiting for her.
“So what brings you out tonight?” Hannah asked Andrea.
“You said you’d tell me everything you found out later. This is later.”
Hannah took a huge swig of her coffee, even though it was only a few degrees short of scalding. She was too low on sleep, too high on caffeine, too much had happened today, and her brain was spinning too fast. She needed a minute or two of downtime to recover, or she’d never be able to keep things straight.
“Give me just a minute,” she said, putting her coffee down and heading for the bathroom sink. Splashing cold water on her face might help. It wouldn’t help as much as a full eight-hours’ sleep, but it might be enough.
The cold water was a shock, and she relished it. Perhaps she should have offered to take the late shift at the Lake Eden Historical Society Booth tonight. Then Bernie No-No Fulton could have pitched at the bull’s eye and dunked her awake.
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked when she came back into the living room.
“No, but I’m better. I haven’t seen you since this morning, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Hannah turned to Andrea. “And I haven’t seen you since right after the judging, but you didn’t have time to talk then. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay. Here’s what I learned today that neither one of you knows about.”
Hannah started at the beginning and told them about climbing in the magic cabinet and overhearing the two cowboys talking.
“And they really thought Tucker tried to kill the clown?” Andrea asked.
“They sounded as if they meant it to me! According to them, it’s a rivalry over the owner’s daughter, Brianna. She used to date Curly, the clown, before Tucker joined the show.”
“I heard that one of the clowns was hurt at the rodeo,” Michelle said. “But the girl who told me about it thought it was an accident.”
“That’s because it looked like an accident. It happened during the Brahma bull riding competition. The two cowboys thought Tucker got thrown on purpose to put Curly in danger.”
Andrea began to frown. “But wouldn’t that be hard to do?”
“I don’t know enough about rodeos to know. But they sounded so convincing, Norman and I went to see Curly in the hospital.”
Both sisters put down their coffee mugs and leaned forward. “What did you find out?” Michelle asked.
“I asked Curly some questions, but he was on a ventilator so he couldn’t talk. I had to use questions he could answer by nodding and shaking his head. He nodded yes when I asked him if he thought Tucker tried to kill him. And he nodded yes again, when I asked him if he’d been looking into Tucker’s background. Then I asked him whether he’d found anything that would make Tucker want to kill him, but the sedative Doc Knight gave him knocked him out before he could answer.”
“You have to talk to him again.” Andrea looked worried. “If Tucker tried to kill him once, he’ll try again.”
“If Tucker tried to kill him,” Michelle pointed out. “We don’t know that for sure. All we know is that Curly thought he did.”
“You’re both right. Doc Knight said he’d call me when Curly’s out of surgery, and I’ll go right out there to talk to him again. But that’s not all that happened today. After Norman and I came back from the hospital, we went to the food court to grab a bite to eat. I saw Mary Adamczak there.”
“Oh, good!” Andrea said, looking relieved. “I went to her house this afternoon, but she wasn’t home.”
“Right. Well, both Marys were at the food court.”
Andrea looked puzzled. “Both Marys?”
“Mary Lou Adamczak and Mary Kay Adamczak. Mary Lou is the one who won all the first place ribbons. Mary Kay is her daughter-in-law. Since Mary Lou hurt her stirring arm, Mary Lou used her recipe and entered the baked goods contest for the first time this year. She won an honorable mention, and t
hey’re all delighted about it.”
“Cross her off the list as a suspect?” Michelle asked.
“That’s right. And we can cross off Mr. Hicks, too. Marge Beeseman knows the family, and Mr. Hicks has been in a wheelchair for the past two months. He broke his leg, and he still can’t stand on it. Since I saw Willa’s killer running away, there’s no way it could have been him.”
“It’s not Lyle Mortensen, either,” Michelle said.
“Who?” both Hannah and Andrea asked, a half-beat apart.
Michelle laughed. “You two sound like you have an echo. Lyle Mortensen is the home ec student Willa flunked.”
“Right.” Hannah pulled out her notebook and wrote down his name. “And where was he when Willa was killed?”
“In Minneapolis watching Toxic Thompson trounce the Racine Ripper.”
“Huh?” Hannah just stared at her youngest sister.
“It’s professional wrestling. Lyle’s dad works with Toxic’s father, and they go to every match. The kids went along this time. There’s no way Lyle could have killed Willa. They didn’t get back here until midnight.”
Hannah looked down the list of suspects and zeroed in on another name. “I’m waiting for more information, but I think Gordon Tate is out.”
“Who?” Michelle asked.
“Willa’s former boyfriend. He’s an archaeology professor at Tri-County, and he’s been on a dig in Mexico. Norman’s trying to communicate with him by e-mail.”
“So he’s out of the country and he couldn’t have done it?” Andrea asked.
“I’m waiting for confirmation on that. He’s not eliminated, not until we know for sure he didn’t fly back here, but it’s really unlikely.”
“So who do we have who’s still in the running?” Michelle asked.
“The new boyfriend we don’t know about, the one she got all dressed up for,” Hannah said.
“But who is he?” Andrea asked.
