Cream Puff Murder (24 page)

“You have a lot of baking to do?”

“I don’t have to do any baking. Lisa and Michelle are taking care of that. I have to meet Andrea out at Heavenly Bodies.”

“So you’re still doing your early-morning exercises,” Mike said, looking pleased.

“Of course. We work out first, and then both of us go to Roger’s Classic Body Sculpting class.”

Mike eyed her appraisingly. “You look like you lost a little weight, Hannah.”

“I do?” It was Hannah’s turn to look pleased.

“Definitely. Your face looks thinner.”

Her face? Hannah had all she could do not to groan. If her face was the only place she’d lost weight, she’d never get thin enough to fit into her Regency dress!

“It takes a while to start losing,” Mike said, the man who was all muscle, no fat. “How long is your class?”

“Half an hour. But I’ve got classes in the afternoon, too.”

“Good for you! Which classes are you taking?”

“Every one of the ones that Ronni used to teach.”

Mike looked puzzled. “Why are you doing that?”

“To find out if any of the other class members had a grudge against her. I’m exercising, but I’m listening, too. Ronni wasn’t exactly complimentary toward some of the ladies she taught, and they’re still talking about the things she said.”

“Oh, but that was just Ronni. I don’t think anybody thought that much about it. Do you really think that some woman she insulted in class got mad enough to kill her?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“Maybe, but it’s a real long shot. Seriously, Hannah…it won’t do you any good to nose around out at Heavenly Bodies. There’s nothing to learn out there, and you’re just wasting time. You’d be a lot better off reading those books I gave you and improving your investigative techniques.”

They’d reached the front door, and Hannah opened it. She could hardly wait for Mike to leave. She was sick and tired of everyone telling her how she should spend her time.

“Night, Hannah,” Mike said, and then he pulled her into his arms for a kiss.

Conflicting emotions assailed Hannah. On the one hand, she was irked at Mike for telling her how to run her investigation, her weight-loss program, and her life in general. On the other hand, he was the best kisser in the whole county, perhaps even the whole state. Hannah felt the tingles spread up from her toes and travel all the way to the top of her head. They made the return trip from head to toes as the kiss went on for second after delicious second.

“I’d better let you get some sleep,” Mike said at last, breaking their embrace. “See you soon, Hannah.”

Hannah nodded. She was incapable of further speech. As she closed the door behind him, she thought that perhaps she wouldn’t mind Mike’s high-handedness quite so much if he’d kiss her like that more often!

H annah refilled the food tube on Moishe’s Kitty Valet and secured the lid. Then she put the sack of cat food back in the broom closet and locked the door. Everything was set. All she had to do was remember to turn on the kitty-cam when she left, and her stockpiling cat would be caught red-pawed.

“All set?” Michelle asked, coming into the kitchen in her winter parka and boots.

“I am. But you really don’t have to go down to The Cookie Jar this early. If you get there by six, that should be plenty of time to help Lisa with the baking.”

“I’m leaving with you. I want to give Moishe plenty of time to hide his food. I bet it’s behind the stove.”

“You’re wrong about that. Moishe can’t fit in back of the stove. Besides, the camera wouldn’t catch that. It’s trained on the living room door. Mike wants to see Moishe leaving the kitchen with the food in his mouth so we can find out which way he goes.”

“Do you really think it’ll work?” Michelle looked dubious as Hannah reached up to flick the red switch.

“Why not? Unless Moishe’s savvy enough to jump up there with a can of spray paint and coat the lens of the camera, we’re going to see him heading into the living room with a load of kitty crunchies in his mouth.”

“Here they are,” Andrea said, pulling three envelopes out of her briefcase and placing them on the table as if she were dealing giant cards in a game of solitaire. She tapped the envelope on her left with a perfectly manicured fingernail. “The crime lab report,” she announced, and then she moved to the middle envelope. “Autopsy. And this…” she tapped the envelope on the right, “…this envelope contains copies of the crime scene photos.”

“Norman and I haven’t had our cookies yet,” Michelle complained. “Let’s start with the crime lab report. Anything else might make us lose our appetites.”

“I think that’s doubtful,” Hannah said. And she watched her youngest sister in amusement as Michelle handed Norman a napkin with two cookies and then took three for herself. If Michelle didn’t start watching what she ate, she’d be joining them in their Classic Body Sculpting class before you could say, Pass the cookies, please.

It was the eleven o’clock lull at The Cookie Jar, the time of day when most people felt it was too late for a midmorning snack cookie and too early for a lunch cookie. Lisa’s husband, Herb, was talking to their sole customer, Earl Flensburg, so that Lisa could join in their crime-solving discussion at the table in the back of the shop.

The crime lab report was short, and everyone listened as Hannah read it aloud. There were no surprises and no clues. Since the gazebo was a public area in a busy spa and gym, there was no useful fingerprint evidence. The hair and fiber evidence was more of the same. The Jacuzzi was used by hundreds of people every day, and there was no telling whether the samples they’d collected were from members, guests, or the killer, who could also be a member or a guest. In short there was nothing found at the scene that provided any clue to the identity of Ronni’s killer.

Andrea sighed. “Well, that was a waste. Let’s go on to the autopsy report.”

“Wait a second,” Michelle said, popping the last bite into her mouth and swallowing. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Hannah handed the envelope to Norman. “You’d better read it. You know all the medical words, and you can translate it into laymen’s terms for us.”

“Okay,” Norman said, taking a final sip of coffee and clearing his throat.

As Norman read and translated, Hannah found herself holding her breath and hoping that something in the report would exonerate one of her detective “bosses.” Since one way of determining the time of death had to do with internal body temperature, Doc had used some scientific formula that allowed for the heat of the water in the Jacuzzi to come up with a time frame. Ronni Ward had breathed her last sometime between the hours of one and two thirty in the morning. And that meant the trio at the sheriff’s department were still suspects.

“Doc says the blow to Ronni’s head knocked her unconscious and she drowned in the Jacuzzi. He thinks she was in there already, and the killer walked up to the tub and killed her.”

Hannah did her best not to imagine Ronni’s last moments in living Technicolor. There was something really creepy about leaving an unconscious victim to drown.

“Her blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit. That means if she hadn’t been knocked unconscious, she might have passed out on her own.”

“Drunk as a skunk,” Andrea said, but she didn’t sound censorious. Hannah figured that was probably because Ronni was dead and couldn’t cause problems for her any longer.

“There was no evidence of rape, and other than her blood-alcohol level, all of her blood work came back normal. That means no drugs, and no infectious diseases. There was a slight bruising of her lower lip, but it wasn’t serious and Doc’s not sure what it’s from.”

Kissing everybody at her birthday party, Hannah thought, and she looked up to find both of her sisters staring at her. It was clear they were thinking alike.

“The last page is just a listing of physical characteristics.”

“What physical characteristics?” Hannah asked.

“Her height, her weight, the size and weight of her organs, and a detailed description of scars and markings on her body.” Norman slid the report back into the envelope and leaned back in his chair.

“How much did she weigh?” Andrea asked quickly.

Hannah was puzzled. “What difference does that make?”

“It makes a lot of difference to me.” Andrea turned back to Norman. “Look it up for me, will you, Norman?”

Norman nodded and removed the papers from the envelope again. He flipped to the last page and read Doc’s description. “Female in her late twenties identified as Veronica Alice Ward.”

“Veronica?” Michelle repeated, before Norman could read on. “I thought Ronni was her real name.”

“It was a nickname, I guess,” Hannah said, turning to Norman again. “Please go on.”

“Victim was sixty-three inches in height, one hundred and eleven pounds, fourteen ounces in weight.”

“Almost a hundred and twelve!” Andrea exclaimed. “I’m an inch taller and I weigh only a hundred and ten.”

Hannah exchanged glances with Michelle. There was no reason to point out that the majority of Ronni’s weight had been muscle, and muscle was heavier than fat. That would have been cruel. Instead she decided to change the subject.

“Now that we’ve got a window for the time of the murder, it’ll be a lot easier to check alibis,” she said. And then she reached for the third envelope, the one with the crime scene photos, and drew them out to pass around.

To Andrea and Michelle’s credit, neither one flinched when it came to studying the photos. Perhaps they were getting used to seeing pictures of crime scenes. Or perhaps it helped that neither of them had liked the victim.

“Look at this last one,” Andrea said, passing the photo back to Hannah. “Do you think my flower looks silly?”

At first Hannah thought her sister had flipped round the bend. It was a photo of the back entrance of Heavenly Bodies, and there were two cars parked by the door. Hannah’s cookie truck was on the right, and Andrea’s Volvo was on the left. She studied the photo for another moment and noticed the flower in question. There was a red rose with the stem wound around the radio antenna on Andrea’s Volvo.

“Well, do you? You don’t have to be afraid of hurting my feelings. It’s not like anybody gave it to me for a present or anything. I just put it there when I took Tracey and her friends to the Minnesota Zoo last summer. Hundreds of people go, you know, and I thought it would make it easier to spot my car in the parking lot.”

“I think your rose looks good,” Hannah told her. “Winter’s so bleak, and it’s a bright touch of color.”

“I think it’s nice, too,” Norman said, looking at the photo over Hannah’s shoulder.

“I love it,” Lisa said, giving a little smile. “Sometimes winter seems so endless. It’s like Mom always used to say when I’d complain about how long winter was. When the sun shines and the tulips go up, we’ll all feel a lot better.”

“Maybe I’ll get roses for all of us,” Andrea said, lifting her briefcase to the top of the table and flipping it open. “Here are the tapes Bill sent for you, Hannah.”

“Videotapes?” Lisa looked puzzled.

“Yes, but they’re not just any videotapes,” Hannah explained. “They’re the Tri-County Mall security tapes of Heavenly Bodies on the night Ronni was killed.”

Lisa’s eyes grew wide. “They caught the killer on tape?” she asked, and Hannah noticed that her voice was shaking slightly.

“Unfortunately, no.” Andrea turned to smile at Lisa. “I know exactly where the security cameras are located. I took pictures of the monitors with my cell phone at the security station. The gazebo that holds the Jacuzzi doesn’t have one. And neither does the pool area, the sauna, or the bathrooms and dressing rooms.”

Lisa nodded. “I can understand about the bathrooms and dressing rooms. That would be an invasion of privacy. But why didn’t they put cameras in the gazebo, and the pools, and the sauna?”

“That’s easy,” Herb said, and everyone turned to look at him. While they’d been talking, Earl Flensburg had left and Herb was standing there with the carafe of coffee in his hand.

“The invisible waitress trick!” Lisa said with a giggle. “Herb refilled my coffee cup, and I didn’t even notice him.”

“Right.” Hannah gave her the thumbs-up sign, and then she turned to Herb. “Why don’t they have surveillance cameras in the sauna, or the pools, or the hot tub?”

“Because the owner’s biggest concern is theft. The exercise machines are expensive, so of course they’ve got cameras in the exercise rooms and the weight rooms. They’ve got them by the exits, too, so they can see if someone tries to leave with something they shouldn’t. But what can you steal from a sauna? Heat? And what can you steal from a pool? Water?”

Hannah had a laugh at her own expense. “It’s obvious, now that you explain it, but I didn’t even think of it that way.”

“Don’t feel bad. Most people wouldn’t. It’s just I’ve been looking into surveillance systems lately.”

“Lisa said you were checking out the red-light camera at the mall for Mayor Bascomb,” Hannah said. “Do you really think he’s going to put in a stoplight with a camera on Main Street?”

“Not after he gets my recommendation, but it’s nice duty for me while it lasts. I’m also looking into smoke and fire detectors. Mrs. Bascomb wants one installed in the new sauna they’re building, but it has to be a special type.”

“What type is that?” Andrea asked, and Hannah wondered if her sister and brother-in-law were thinking about adding a sauna to the new basement recreation room they’d been planning to build.

“It can’t be a heat alarm. If it is, it’ll go off every time someone turns on the sauna. It has to be a flame alarm, or a smoke alarm. Smoke’s the best bet because the redwood benches in a sauna smoke before they burn.”

“I see,” Hannah said. “The smoke detector would pick up the problem sooner than the flame detector.”

“Exactly right,” Herb said. “I’m going to recommend a smoke alarm that’s tied directly to the Lake Eden Fire Department. The minute it goes off, they’re alerted. That’s what they have at Heavenly Bodies. The owner has to pay the fire department a monthly fee to monitor it, but it’s worth it. He had to set it up that way to get insurance. There are a lot of ways people can hurt themselves at a gym.”