Carrot Cake Murder (28 page)

Less than twenty minutes later, Hannah was knocking at the door of the cottage. She’d pushed her cookie truck to the limit on the highway and paid no heed to the health of her shocks as she’d flown over the gravel road that ran around the perimeter of Eden Lake.

“Hannah!” Herb greeted her, looking surprised. “How did you get here so fast?”

“Lisa said it was important.”

Herb began to frown, and Hannah knew he was mentally calculating the distance and figuring out her average speed. As the only traffic enforcement officer hired by the city of Lake Eden, he’d given out enough speeding tickets to know when someone had broken the law.

“I hope you didn’t speed through town,” he said.

“I didn’t. I did take the gravel road around the lake a little too fast, though.”

“How fast?”

“I didn’t look at the speedometer, but it was fast enough to bump my head on the top of the truck three times.”

“That should teach you to slow down,” Herb said, looking very stern. “I really ought to give you a ticket, but it’s not my jurisdiction.”

“But Lisa said it was important,” Hannah repeated.

“That’s what Jack told us. Come on in, Hannah. Jack’s at the kitchen table. He wants to talk to you alone, so after I take you in to him, I’ll go down and see if I can help with the breakfast.”

Hannah stepped in, and Herb led her to the table where Jack was sitting with a cup of coffee and the box of cookies she’d given him for his birthday. “Here’s Hannah to see you, Jack.”

“Hi, there,” Jack said, smiling at Hannah. And then he turned to Herb. “Thanks for keeping me company, son. Hannah will walk me down to the breakfast when we’re through here…” he turned to Hannah, “…won’t you, Hannah?”

“Of course I will.”

Jack waited until Herb had left, and then he gestured toward the counter. “Would you like a cup of coffee? Marge made a full pot.”

“I’d love a cup, thanks. I’ll get it,” Hannah filled the clean cup that was sitting by the coffeepot and carried the carafe over to refill Jack’s cup. Then she sat down in the chair across from him and waited.

“Your cookies did it, girl!” Jack grinned at her. “I remembered the last time Emmy made them, and that made me remember the reason I got into that fight with Gus. I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to promise me you won’t tell anyone else, not even Lisa.”

“I promise,” Hannah said firmly. What Jack was about to tell her might give her a lead to follow, but it was unlikely that his memories from over thirty years ago would have a direct bearing on the events that had transpired after the dance on Sunday night.

“Gus asked me to lend him some money on the night he left town for good,” Jack told her. “We were friends, and I would have given it to him if I’d had any extra, but Emmy and I were barely making it on my salary. Iris was almost two years old, and Emmy was due to have Tim any day. Emmy couldn’t work, and it was hard to make both ends meet.”

Hannah nodded. She could understand how a young married couple with a toddler and a baby on the way would have trouble paying the bills on only one salary.

“I told Gus I was sorry, but I couldn’t help him. And then he said I had to help him because he owed money from a card game, and they’d come after him if he didn’t pay it back. I felt awful, but I didn’t have anything to give him. All Emmy and I had was the little bit of money we’d put away for Doc Knight to deliver Tim.”

“I understand.”

“Well, Gus didn’t. He wanted me to give him our savings for the new baby. I told him I couldn’t. And then I suggested that he ask Patsy. She was working, and she had a pretty good job.”

“Did he?” Hannah remembered Patsy saying something about a loan she’d made to Gus that Mac had wanted to collect.

“He said he couldn’t, because he hadn’t paid Patsy back for the last loan. He owed Marge money, too. And his parents wouldn’t help him out again. The last time he borrowed money from them, they’d told him it was time he grew up and accepted responsibility for his own debts.”

Hannah was beginning to understand exactly what the fight had been about. “And you got into a fight because Gus wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

“In a way, but that’s putting it mildly. Now, you need a little background here, or you’re not going to understand this next part.”

“Okay.” Hannah took another sip of her coffee. “Go ahead.”

“Well…” Jack swallowed hard. “You’re sure you won’t tell anybody?”

“I swear I won’t,” Hannah promised.

“Okay, then. I was kind of shy around the girls in high school, but Gus wasn’t. We were friends, so I asked his advice about asking Emmy to go out on a date with me. But before I could get up the nerve, Gus asked her out.”

“That rat!” Hannah breathed.

“That’s right, but it was okay because Emmy only dated him a couple of times and then she said she wouldn’t go out with him anymore. When I asked Gus why he’d asked her out in the first place, especially when he knew I wanted to, he told me he was just testing the waters and they were pretty cold.”

“That scum!” Hannah stated, a little louder this time.

“Another good word to describe him.” Jack gave her a smile. “Of course I didn’t believe Gus, but it didn’t really matter because the next day Emmy asked me out.”

Hannah clapped her hands. “Wonderful! And you fell in love and got married.”

“That’s right. Not quite that quick, of course, but we got married right after we graduated from high school. Emmy was always a good cook. I think that’s where all my girls get it. And her specialty was…what did you call these things again?”

“Red Velvet Cookies.”

“That’s right. Red Velvet Cookies. People used to beg her to make them, and then they started offering her money to bake. Marge’s mother hired Emmy to bake for her sewing circle. What do they do at those sewing circles, anyway?”

Hannah blinked. She’d been so wrapped up in Jack’s story of the past, his question was a jolt. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to a sewing circle, but maybe it’s the same thing they do at the Lake Eden Quilting Club.”

“And what’s that?”

“They quilt a little, and then they eat cookies and drink coffee. And after that, they gossip about whoever’s not there.”

Jack threw back his head and laughed. His laughter made Hannah feel good. Except for brief moments with Marge and his children, he’d been solemn and dour for the entire duration of the reunion.

“Go on, Jack,” she said, nudging him gently. “Tell me the rest of the story.”

“Sure thing. Well…” Jack stopped, and all traces of his smile disappeared. “I’m sorry, my dear. I forget.”

For a brief moment, the term of endearment puzzled Hannah. Then she remembered that Lisa had taught her father to use my dear when he couldn’t remember a woman’s name.

“That’s okay,” Hannah said, giving him an encouraging smile. She felt like groaning in disappointment, but of course she didn’t. It would have hurt Jack’s feelings and served no positive purpose. Instead, she tried to set the scene for him and take him back to the time he’d been describing. “You were just telling me how Emmy used to bake for people,” she prompted. “And you said Marge’s mother asked Emmy to bake cookies for her sewing circle?”

“That’s right! I don’t know how I could have forgotten. Anyway, Emmy baked those…what are they called again?”

“Red Velvet Cookies.”

“Yes. She baked Red Velvet Cookies for the sewing circle. We only had the one car, and she took me to work that morning because she had to deliver them. Her mother was there for a visit, so she was taking care of…of…”

“Iris?” Hannah prompted.

“Yes, Iris. Our daughter, Iris.” There was so much love in Jack’s voice that Hannah felt a lump form in her throat. “And when Emmy got to Marge’s mother’s house to deliver the cookies, she ran into Gus. He wasn’t supposed to be there. Everybody thought he’d left the night before. But he missed the bus, and he was waiting around for the next one to take him to camp.”

Jack stopped and Hannah could see that he was confused. “What is it?” she asked him.

“That doesn’t make any sense. I must be remembering it wrong. Gus was too old for camp. We’re the same age, and I was already married to Emmy. Say…did I tell you we got married right out of high school?”

“Yes. I think you were talking about baseball camp,” Hannah said quickly, before Jack could get off on a tangent. “Wasn’t Gus supposed to leave for his Triple A baseball training camp?”

A huge smile spread over Jack’s face. “That’s it! Gus was supposed to leave the night before, but he missed the bus so he was still home. I bet he was out playing poker and didn’t watch the time. He did that a lot. And if you’re late for that kind of training, they fine you, and…” Jack stopped and looked confused again. “Where was I?”

“You were telling me about the cookies Emmy delivered to Marge’s mother. And when she got there, she ran into Gus.”

“That’s what happened. How did you know that? Say…you weren’t there, were you?”

“No, but Emmy was. And Gus was. What happened when Emmy saw Gus?”

“She said hello. Emmy was always polite. And then she gave Marge’s mother the cookies. Right after that, she went out to the car to come home, but it wouldn’t start. And that’s when Marge’s mother told Gus to take their car and give Emmy a ride home.”

This time Hannah had even more trouble stifling a groan. From what she’d learned about Gus and the women he fancied, this couldn’t be a good thing.

Jack took a sip of his coffee, and it was clear to Hannah that he didn’t want to go on. But she needed to know, and perhaps he needed to tell the story to someone who’d promised never to repeat it. “What happened when Gus took Emmy home?”

“He didn’t take her home.” Jack’s eyebrows met and knit in an angry line.

“Will you tell me? I promise you I won’t repeat it. You can trust me, Jack.”

“I know. Everybody says that. I didn’t know anything, my dear. I was completely in the dark. Emmy didn’t tell me about it until I got into that big fight on the night Gus left Lake Eden for good.”

“Tell me what Emmy told you.” Hannah reached out and took Jack’s hand.

“She said Gus got fresh with her and she slapped him and walked over four miles home. Do you know why she didn’t tell me about it?”

“She didn’t want to worry you?” Hannah guessed.

“No, she didn’t want me to kill Gus and go to jail for the rest of my life. She said she needed me and she loved me. And since nothing really happened, she didn’t want to tell me about it.” Jack stopped talking and blinked back tears. And after a moment, he seemed ready to go on. “Say…do you think that’s what’ll happen? “

“What do you mean?”

“I could have killed him. I was out there walking. Mac saw me from their cottage.”

Hannah’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“Mac told me. He didn’t know what to do about it. He said he didn’t tell the cops, but he had to tell me.”

Hannah was caught off guard. Mac hadn’t mentioned anything about telling Jack. She regrouped quickly and asked her own question.

“Do you remember going out for a walk after the dance?”

Jack shook his head. “Marge took her sleeping pill, and we went to bed, the same as we do when we’re at home. But I don’t sleep very well if it’s a different bed. I could have gone out for a walk. That’s what I do when I can’t sleep.”

“You really don’t remember walking that night?”

Jack shut his eyes and bowed his head. He kept that position for a long moment and then he raised his head and looked her straight in the eyes. “No, I don’t remember,” he said. “But there’s no reason Mac would say it if I didn’t. Will I go to jail if I killed Gus?”

“You didn’t kill anybody,” Hannah said, purely on instinct. And then, after giving it thoughtful consideration she confirmed it. “I know you didn’t.”

Jack looked grateful, but dubious. “I hope you’re right, my dear. Anyway, I didn’t know anything about this Gus getting fresh business until he threatened to tell lies about Emmy.”

Hannah felt something niggling in her memory. It was something she heard, and Gus was there. Jack was there, too. It was something from the night of the dance.

“He said if I didn’t give him our savings, he’d tell everybody in town that Emmy had…Emmy had…I can’t say it.”

“Been unfaithful to you that afternoon?” Hannah guessed, and suddenly she remembered part of the conversation she’d heard in the booth between Jack and Gus.

“Yes! But that wasn’t the worst. The worst was…was…I’m sorry. I forget.”

Hannah almost gasped as the section of dialogue between Jack and Gus came back to her in its entirety. Gus had said, I met another pretty girl today, Jack’s oldest daughter, Iris. And then he’d turned to Jack and said, She doesn’t look at all like you, so I guess she must take after her mother.

“What is it?” Jack asked, looking confused.

“I just figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“What your fight with Gus was about. Did Gus claim Iris was his baby?”

Jack’s eyes widened, and he clenched his hands into fists. “Yes! That’s exactly what he said! I knew he was lying, and I told him so, but he just laughed. And then he said that if I didn’t give him our savings, he’d tell everyone in town!”

“So you punched him?”

“You bet I did! Nobody can lie about Emmy like that! Emmy’s my wife! I hit him, and I hit him, and I hit him, and the next thing I remember is waking up in the clinic. Doc was stitching up the cut on my face so I wouldn’t scare Emmy.”

“And Tim was born that night,” Hannah said, hoping to bring him back to a more pleasant memory.

“That’s right.” Jack started to smile. “I was right there. I held her hand until Doc told me to go outside and walk around. And when I came back, there he was! My son, Timmy!”

Hannah knew she should try to bring Jack back to the present. Reliving the memories of his fight with Gus had been painful for him, and it was time to move on. “Timmy’s here, you know.”

“Timmy’s here?” Jack looked disoriented for a moment and then he smiled. “I know that. He came with his wife and my three granddaughters. They’re in that big house thing…what’s it called?”

“A motor home?”

“That’s right. Timmy and his family are in that big motor home parked down by the picnic grounds. He drove it all the way from Chicago for our reunion.”