Carrot Cake Murder (32 page)

“Did he ask Gus to do that?”

“He’d better not have! It was money I earned before we were married, and it was mine to spend as I wanted. I lent it to Gus to keep him from getting into trouble over a big poker game he lost. And I told him he didn’t have to pay it back as long as he stopped gambling.”

“Did he?”

“For a while, but it was in his blood. Some people are born to take chances, and Gus was one of them. But Mac had no right to try to collect my money. And that’s exactly what I said when he told me he was going to do it. It wasn’t his business in the first place, and if he’d succeeded, he just would have spent it on the stock market anyway.”

“Mac invests in the stock market?”

“He doesn’t invest. Investors make money at least part of the time. Mac speculates, and he loses. He’s been doing it ever since we were married, and he hasn’t made any money yet!”

Hannah decided it was time to get back to the subject. Patsy was getting frustrated, and that wouldn’t help. “So Mac didn’t want to admit that he was out for a walk, because the police might think he had something to do with Gus’s murder?”

“Exactly. And it would be even more suspicious if the police found out about the loan and the fact that Mac had wanted to try to collect it. Mac was afraid they’d take him in for questioning and lock him up. That’s why he asked me to lie for him if they came around asking questions. He asked me to say he was home and we were together all night.”

“But you weren’t.”

“No.”

“What did you tell him when he asked you to lie for him?”

“I told him I wouldn’t, not if they asked me directly. It’s just not right to lie. I said I wouldn’t volunteer the information, but if someone asked me, I’d have to tell the truth.”

Hannah was silent for a moment, adding up the information she’d gotten. “Was Mac angry with you when you told him you wouldn’t give him an alibi?”

“He didn’t seem to be.” Patsy gave a little shrug. “Mac said he could understand how I felt, and he just hoped the police wouldn’t nose around.”

“He took it that well?” Hannah was surprised. “I would think he’d be upset with you for not supporting him.”

“I don’t think so. Of course with Mac, it’s hard to tell. He can smile on the outside and seethe on the inside. We’ve been married long enough for me to know that.”

Hannah was walking down the road from Ava’s store to the grassy area that Lisa and Herb had designated for the nonwater games when she heard the James Bond theme again. For a moment she ignored it, assuming that it was someone’s radio, but then she realized that it was coming from her purse. Norman was calling her again. She grabbed her cell phone, flipped it open, and answered. “Is it Rhodes, Norman Rhodes?” she asked in her best James Bond voice.

“Hannah! You recognized my ring tone.”

“I did. It’s the only one that doesn’t play the default.”

“What’s the default?”

“It rings just like a real telephone. Why is yours different?”

“I set it that way before I left for Atlantic City. You can have personal sounds or songs for everyone in your phone book. That way you know who it is before you answer. I’ll program it for you when I get back.”

“And that’ll be tomorrow morning?” Hannah asked, hoping that nothing had delayed him.

“That’ll be later tonight. I’m at the airport right now, and I’m catching a flight in twenty-five minutes. It lands at a little after nine. “

“Your time, or my time?” Hannah asked, feeling a bit like a world traveler.

“Your time. Do you want me to meet you at your place?”

“Absolutely! And if I’m not home yet, just go downstairs and get the key from Sue or Phil again,” Hannah said. And then she wondered if she’d sounded too eager. “I mean…if you want to, that is.”

“I want to. Let me tell you what I learned from Alison.”

Hannah detoured off the road and into the picnic area. It was deserted since lunch was long over, and she took a seat at a picnic table under a shady tree.

“Okay, shoot,” she said.

“Let’s start with no safe,” Norman said, “and no money, either. The apartment was in an okay area, but it wasn’t anything like the penthouse Gus bragged about.”

“Then it was all lies?”

“Yes, and that includes the masseuse and manicurist on call, the dinner parties catered by a four-star restaurant, and anything else he mentioned. Everything about Gus was fake. Mood Indigo pulls in enough money to stay in business and pay living expenses, but that’s about it.”

“How about the Jaguar?”

“Leased. Alison said Gus had one valid credit card when he left, and that was canceled yesterday. She got the notice in the mail. Even worse than that, a month ago he borrowed money from the kind of people who break arms and legs if you’re late paying them back, and they charge a lot more than the prime lending rate. Do you get my drift?”

“Oh, yes,” Hannah breathed, actually feeling sorry for Gus.

“Alison said they came around looking for Gus at Mood Indigo right before he left. He gave them the money from the till, but they said that if he didn’t come up with the rest by the end of this week, they’d have to think of some way to encourage him.”

“Uh-oh!”

“Uh-oh is right. Alison said Gus was pretty worried when they closed the club that night, and she tried to distract him with some programs she’d taped. One was an antiques show with appraisers that travel around the country and do appraisals for people.”

“I know the one she’s talking about. It’s one of Mother’s favorite shows.”

“Well, Alison and Gus were watching it, and all of a sudden Gus got up and started to pack his best clothes. He told Alison that he had to go back to his old home town, because he’d left something there that was worth a whole lot of money.”

“What was it?”

“He didn’t tell her, but she’s almost sure that something he saw appraised on the television show gave him the idea.”

“What was on the show that night?” Hannah asked the logical question.

“Alison wasn’t sure. She said she was tired and she kept falling asleep. The only things she could remember were a black teddy bear, some kind of famous photograph, and some baseball cards.”

Hannah pulled her notebook out of her purse and rummaged in the bottom for a pen. “Okay,” she said. “The Antiques Show with a black teddy bear, a famous photograph, and baseball cards. I’ll find Mother and Carrie, and ask them if they saw that episode.”

“Great. I think we’re getting close, Hannah.”

“Me, too,” Hannah said, although she still didn’t have any definitive answers. “You did a great job, Norman.”

“Thanks. Just remember what you promised me about calling Mike to watch your back…okay?”

“Okay,” Hannah said, stacking a second promise on top of her first, and wondering if the penalty was exponential for breaking a double promise.

Hannah spotted her mother on the edge of the crowd, looking like the queen at Ascot. She was sitting up ramrod straight in a green Adirondack lawn chair, and she was dressed in a white chiffon gown that tied at the waist with a wide red sash. As a concession to the bright summer sun, or perhaps as a tribute to outmoded fashion, she wore a wide-brimmed white hat with a red chiffon band around the crown. The band was adorned with red and white flowers, and Hannah began to smile as she approached. No other women in Lake Eden would have the nerve to wear such an outlandish hat, but Delores carried it off with panache.

“Hi, Mother,” Hannah took the empty chair next to her mother and turned to Carrie. “Hello, Carrie. I’ve got a question I need to ask both of you.”

“First I’ve got some information for you,” Delores said, leaning closer, even though there was no one close enough to hear. “Carrie and I drove out to the Inn this morning, and we asked Sally about that credit card Gus used for the brunch.”

“The charges went through just fine,” Carrie picked up the story. “Sally said she always runs it through right away when it’s a credit card from someone out of state.”

“I’m glad Sally was so prompt,” Hannah said. “If she’d waited a few days, she would have been out of luck.”

“The credit card’s been canceled?” Delores guessed.

“Right. You two watch the Antiques Show on television, don’t you?”

Delores nodded. “Every week. Stan says we can deduct it as a legitimate business expense so we watch it live, and then we order the whole season through our Granny’s Attic account. Since we own an antique store, it’s research for us.”

“Makes sense,” Hannah said. “Did you watch it last week?”

Carrie laughed. “Of course we did. We haven’t missed an episode yet.”

“That was the one with the black Steiff bear, wasn’t it, Carrie?” Delores asked.

“Yes. And the heart-shaped jewelry box with real diamonds and rubies on the top. There was a signed Ansel Adams, too.”

“Maybe I’d better tell why I’m asking,” Hannah said. And she proceeded to tell them part of what Norman had uncovered in Atlantic City. Naturally, she didn’t mention Mood Indigo’s true character. She just said that it wasn’t a fancy nightclub the way Gus had described it to them. In her version of events, Mood Indigo was merely a cheap bar, and Alison was Gus’s manager.

“So that’s why I need to know what was on the show,” Hannah wound up her story. “Gus’s manager said they watched the show together, and then he told her that he had to go back to Lake Eden because he’d left something there that was worth a whole lot of money.”

“And Norman uncovered all that?” Carrie asked, looking very proud of her son.

“Yes, he did,” Hannah told her.

“Maybe he should have gone into the detective business. He certainly seems to be good at it.”

“Don’t even say something like that!” Delores warned her. “Just think of how you’d worry if Norman had to chase around after dangerous criminals.”

“You’re right,” Carrie said, giving a little nod. “I didn’t even think of that part of it.”

Hannah decided it was time to get off that train of thought before Delores remembered that her own daughter had come into contact with the very same criminals she was warning Carrie against. “Anyway, we’re sure that Gus came back here to get something valuable he left behind. I know he went through some of his old things. That night at the dance, he was talking about going through the trunk in Lisa’s attic and looking for keepsakes from his childhood. He said he took a teddy bear and the baseball bat he used in high school.”

“Maybe the bear was a Steiff,” Carrie suggested. “A genuine nineteen-oh-seven black alpaca Steiff was worth a fortune, and it wasn’t even in mint condition.”

Delores agreed. “There’s the bat, too. It could have been signed by a famous baseball player.”

“But there weren’t any baseball bats on that episode,” Carrie reminded her. “There was the young boy with the baseball cards, but no bats.”

Hannah realized that they were getting nowhere fast. “Let’s go find Marge and Patsy,” she said. “You can tell them what items were on the show, and they can tell us if they think Gus might have had something like that in his old room.”

They sat around the kitchen table in the cottage where Marge and Jack were staying, sipping fresh coffee that Marge had just made. A plate of the Red Velvet Cookies Hannah had baked for Jack sat in the center of the table, contributed by Jack before Tim had come to take him off to the softball game.

“A Steiff bear?” Marge exchanged glances with Patsy and they both burst out laughing.

“Believe me, it wasn’t an antique Steiff!” Patsy said, still chuckling. “The bear Gus took was from Uncle Carl’s Five and Dime. Aunt Minnie and Uncle Carl gave every one of us a teddy bear when we were born.”

Hannah listened while her mother and Carrie described the items on the show. She was amazed at how much they remembered, but Marge and Patsy kept shaking their heads.

“And then there were the baseball cards the little boy brought in,” Delores said.

“They were appraised at eight hundred dollars for insurance purposes, but you wouldn’t get more than half of that if you sold them at auction,” Carrie said. “That wouldn’t be enough to bring Gus back to Lake Eden, would it?”

Marge shook her head. “He spent more than that while he was here. Gus treated over twenty relatives to champagne brunch, and that didn’t come cheap.”

“Gus did have Grandpa’s baseball cards, though,” Patsy reminded her. “Dad gave them to him when he made the team at Jordan High.”

“He didn’t happen to have…I mean…it’s not possible that there was actually a…um…do you remember if he had…”

“Wait!” Hannah interrupted her mother. Delores was so excited she couldn’t seem to get the words out. “Take a deep breath, Mother. And then tell us what you’re trying to say.”

Delores took a deep breath. And then she exhaled with a whoosh. “Honus Wagner,” she said.

“You’re right!” Carrie’s mouth dropped open for a moment, and then she closed it with a snap.

“After the little boy left with his baseball cards, the appraiser mentioned that there was a holy grail of baseball cards. That’s what he called it. The last time that card came up for auction, it sold for over two million dollars.”

Patsy made a little sound, and they all turned to gaze at her. She looked dazed, almost as if someone had bopped her over the head.

“What is it?” Hannah asked her.

Patsy just sat there motionless, staring at the wall and not blinking. Hannah was wondering if she should call for medical help, but then she seemed to snap out of it.

“Oh, my!” she said. “It’s just…I think I remember that card. Honus Wagner is a really unusual name.”

“Do you remember what the card looked like?” Delores asked her.

“I’m…I’m not sure. It’s been over thirty years, but…” Patsy stopped and took a deep breath. “I think it had a picture of short-haired man with a black collar and “PITTS-BURGH” written across his chest in block letters.”

“That’s it!” Carrie shouted.

And at almost the same time, Delores exclaimed, “Gus actually has a Honus Wagner baseball card?”

“Had one,” Hannah reminded her mother.

Marge drew in her breath sharply. “Do you think that’s the reason Gus was killed? For the baseball card, I mean?”