Double Fudge Brownie Murder (Hannah Swensen series Book 18) (11 page)

 

“H
ow much time would you say elapsed between the time you heard the crash and the thud, and the time you entered Judge Colfax’s chambers?”

Hannah blinked and stared up at Mike’s face. She was still in shock and she had no idea how much time had passed. “I don’t know.”

“Give me your best estimate.”

“Not very long. Maybe . . . two minutes? Or three at the most?”

“Okay.” Mike paged back through his notes. “Do you have any idea why Judge Colfax wanted to see you before the trial started?”

“No.”

“Does Mr. Levine have any idea?”

“I don’t know. Howie got a phone call and went out to the hall to take it right after the clerk left us in the anteroom.”

“And he was still on the phone when you left the judge’s chambers?”

“Yes.”

“Was it still in response to the original call that came when both of you were in the anteroom?”

Hannah frowned slightly. What difference could that make? But this was an official interview and she had to answer. “I don’t know. When I went out into the hall, I didn’t hear anything Howie said. He was standing down by the water cooler. I just saw him end the call.”

“You mean you heard him end the call?”

“No, I
saw
him end the call. At least I
think
he ended the call. He dropped the phone back into his pocket so that’s what I assumed.”

“And then you told him that Judge Colfax was dead?”

“Yes. And I waited in the hall while he went to get help. I . . . I didn’t want to go back inside the judge’s chambers and be alone with . . .” Hannah’s voice trailed off and she shuddered visibly.

Mike reached out to give her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Hannah. I understand.”

“And I didn’t want to go back in the anteroom, either. The connecting door was open. And I didn’t want to see . . . you know.”

“Of course you didn’t.”

Was Mike being condescending? Hannah searched his expression, but she still wasn’t sure.

“I mean . . . I’ve seen lots of dead bodies before, but this was . . .” she stopped and swallowed hard. “This was particularly brutal.”

“Do you think that whoever killed him really hated him?”

“It looked that way. And it was personal. The killer had to get right up next to Judge Colfax to hit him with the gavel. It’s not like he was shot from the doorway. And the gavel belonged to Judge Colfax’s father. He was a judge, too.”

“How do you know that?”

“Howie mentioned it when I was in court for the bail hearing.”

“Do you think there’s any significance to the fact that his father’s gavel was used as the murder weapon?”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s possible there could be a connection. I guess we’ll have to catch his killer to find out.”

Mike began to frown. “
We’ll
have to catch the killer?”

Hannah sighed. It seemed she was on the outs with Mike and the sheriff’s department again. There were times when Mike welcomed her help in solving a murder case, but at other times he resented it. She’d thought about his inconsistency a lot and she still wasn’t sure what caused it. Of course, she didn’t know exactly what caused the wind to blow, either.

“Let me rephrase that,” Hannah said, deciding it was time to tiptoe around Mike’s moods or whatever they were. “What I meant to say was, I guess you and your detectives in the sheriff’s department will have to solve the case before we can know for sure.”

Mike’s frown eased a bit and Hannah was glad. She wanted this interview to end so she could check with Howie and find out what would happen to her court case now that Judge Colfax was no longer in charge.

“You’re the prime suspect, you know,” Mike said, lowering his voice so that no one else could hear even though they were completely alone in the anteroom.

“
What?
Why would
I
want to kill Judge Colfax?”

“To delay the trial until Judge Flemming comes back. You were worried about Judge Colfax’s competency. You said that the last time we all got together for dinner at your place.”

“Well . . . yes. I admit I felt that way and I probably mentioned it. But things changed.”

“What things?”

Hannah thought fast. She knew why things had changed. Now that she was involved with Ross, she didn’t want anything like a trial hanging over her head. She’d hoped that the trial would be over by the time Ross came to Lake Eden for his job interview at KCOW Television. And of course she’d hoped that she would be acquitted.

“What things changed, Hannah?” Mike expected an answer and she wasn’t about to tell him about Ross. She would tell both Mike and Norman, but this was neither the time nor the place. “The stress of waiting was getting to me,” she answered quite truthfully. “I just wanted everything to be over as soon as possible.”

Mike didn’t say anything. He just nodded and scribbled for several minutes in his notebook. That made her wonder what she’d said that was so interesting, but at last he looked up. “I have what I need for now, Hannah. You can . . . oh, wait a second.” He drew a folded note out of his pocket. “This is from Norman. He caught me on the way in. He wanted to wait for you, but I told him that you already had a ride.”

“But I don’t. I rode here with Howie.” Hannah stuck the note in her pocket. It could be personal and she’d read it later.

“I know. I saw his car in the garage when I pulled in. Howie’s waiting for you in the hall.”

“But I thought Lonnie was going to be interviewing Howie.”

“Lonnie did, and the interview’s over. Howie’s waiting for you outside by the water cooler.”

Hannah was puzzled. Mike had been in the anteroom with her the whole time and she knew he hadn’t made any phone calls. “How do you know that?”

“I told Lonnie to text me when he was through with Howie. See?”

Mike held out his phone and Hannah looked at the screen.

 

“Okay,” Hannah said, getting up from the tortuous wooden chair. She remembered that Mike’s phone had made a little dinging sound during the interview and he’d glanced down at the display. That must have been when Lonnie’s text message had come in.

As she walked toward the door, she wondered if she should update her cell phone to one that could send and receive text messages. Her mother and her sisters had been trying to persuade her to get a new phone for the past two years. Even though she’d insisted that all she needed was a phone that would make and receive calls with none of the fancy extras, perhaps they were right. They’d been right about buying a computer to store her recipes and using the Internet to search for ingredients that Florence didn’t carry at the Red Owl. She’d resisted when they had suggested it, but now she loved being able to print out a clean copy of a recipe and search the Internet for hard-to-find ingredients. That had come in very handy. They could be right about updating her cell phone, too.

“Hannah?” Mike stopped her as she was about to open the door.

“Yes?’

“If I have any more questions, I’ll drop by your condo later. I still have to interview Judge Colfax’s clerk. And do me a favor, okay?”

Hannah wasn’t about to agree until she knew what Mike’s favor was. She’d learned her lesson when she’d promised to do a favor for Andrea without knowing what it was. “What is it?”

“See if you can figure out how to shut off your
slaydar
before you discover another dead body.”

“I’ll try,” Hannah promised, heading for the hallway. Mike accused her of having
slaydar
. He said it was like radar except that instead of using it to locate speeders, she used it to locate murder victims. If she had
slaydar
, then Mike had
foodar
and he used it to locate a meal. She had no doubt that he would knock on her door just as she and her sisters were sitting down to eat their Chinese takeout.

 

“That’ll be Mike,” Hannah said, spooning a bit of Kung Pao shrimp over the small helping of rice on her plate. “Will you girls let him in while I get another plate?”

She took another plate from the cupboard, along with a place setting complete with chopsticks. Then she headed back out to the living room and stopped in the doorway as she saw Norman sitting at the table.

“Hi, Hannah,” Norman said, smiling at her. “I brought Cuddles. She’s already in the bedroom, playing with Moishe. Why did you buy so much food? I told you I was bringing Chinese.”

“You did?”

“Yes. In my note. Mike promised to give it to you.”

“He did.”

“Then you knew?”

Hannah was mortified. “Not exactly. I . . . I really hate to admit this, but . . . I was so upset when I left the courthouse that I forgot it was in my pocket. I’m sorry, Norman.”

“That’s okay. It’s entirely understandable. Now we have only one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“I brought takeout and you’ve already got takeout. We have to think of five other people to invite.”

The doorbell rang as if right on cue. Hannah laughed. “We don’t have a problem, Norman. That’ll be Mike.”

“You invited Mike?”

“No, but he said he’d drop by if he had any more questions for me.”

Norman chuckled. “And you figured it would be right when you were sitting down to eat.”

“We all figured that,” Michelle spoke up. “That’s his pattern. Mike always drops by when we’re eating. I think it’s the only time he gets a hot meal.”

“I’ll go let him in,” Andrea offered.

“And I’ll get another place setting.” Michelle got up from her chair. “Chopsticks or a fork?”

“Both. That way he can have his choice.” Hannah sat down next to Norman and took a small helping of chicken chow mein. She loved to take a bite or two of everything to sample it. She had just sprinkled on a few crispy noodles when Mike came up to greet her.

“Sit down and join us, Mike,” Michelle offered, placing the plate, napkin, and utensils on the other side of Norman’s chair.

“Are you sure? It seems I always drop by at mealtime.”

Norman turned to Mike. “We’ve got plenty of food tonight. Andrea and Michelle brought takeout and I brought takeout. We need someone to help us eat it. Dig in, Mike.”

“Thanks. I was busy doing interviews and I didn’t have time for lunch. This looks really good.”

“It is,” Andrea told him. “It’s from the Lan Se Palace.”

“Lan Se means
blue
in Mandarin Chinese,” Hannah told her. “That’s why they hung those blue mirrors on the outside of the building.”

“I remember when it used to be the Watering Hole,” Andrea said. “It was a rundown wreck inside. Now it looks really nice.”

Hannah began to frown. “Wait a second. When did you go inside? You were still in high school when the Watering Hole shut down.”

“Oh. Yes, yes I was. I was . . . um . . . out with Bill one night and it was . . . raining. And his car got stuck in the mud. He didn’t want to leave me in the car alone at night, so we walked to the Watering Hole to see if some of the guys there could help us push his car out.”

“Right,” Mike said, giving her a knowing grin. “I heard about that night from Bill.”

Andrea looked shocked. “You did?!”

“I like those blue mirrors,” Michelle said, quite obviously trying to change the subject. “How about you, Norman?”

Before Norman could answer, the doorbell rang again. “Will you get that, Andrea?” Hannah asked, trying to save her sister from further embarrassment.

“Check the peephole,” Mike warned as Andrea got ready to open the door.

“Right.” Andrea peeked out and when she turned to face them, her eyebrows were raised in a question. “It’s Howie Levine. Any idea what he wants?”

“No,” Hannah answered, “but let him in and he’ll tell us.”

Andrea opened the door, Howie stepped in, and he began to frown as he saw the full plates at the table. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t know you were just sitting down to eat.”

“Join us,” Hannah told him, getting up from her chair. “I’ll get another plate.”

Howie looked a bit uncertain. “That’s nice of you, Hannah, but are you sure I’m not interrupting?”

“Not at all. We’ve got way too much food.”

“And it’s from the Lan Se Palace,” Andrea told him. “Do you know that Lan Se means
blue
in Chinese?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. I looked it up for them when they were trying to think of a Chinese name for their restaurant.”

“They’re Chinese and they couldn’t think of a Chinese name?” Andrea was clearly surprised.

“Adam Wang is third generation American. And his wife is second generation. As far as I know, they’ve never been to China and I know for a fact that they don’t speak Mandarin.” Howie gave a little smile. “You’ve never seen the chef, have you?”

Andrea looked thoughtful. “I don’t think so. I’ve never been back to the kitchen.”

“Well, his name is Carlos Fernandez. He used to work at a Chinese restaurant in the Cities. It was the Wangs’ favorite restaurant and when it closed, they jumped at the chance to hire Carlos as their head chef.”

Hannah looked down at her plate. She wasn’t sure why Howie had come and it made her so nervous, she didn’t feel like eating. She decided to take the bull by the horns and ask the important question. “Why did you come to see me, Howie?”

“Later, Hannah. Let’s enjoy the meal.”