Blackberry Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery)

by Fluke, Joanne

  “Yes. Bill knew it was a joke. He even thought it was funny. And so did everybody else at the sheriff’s station.”

  “That’s not the same thing!” Delores said, giving Andrea the look that all three girls had named Mother’s Death Ray. “You girls may think this is funny, but I’ll never be able to hold my head up in this town again!”

  The sisters exchanged glances, but no one was about to argue the point. Despite the fact that she’d reached for another cookie, their mother was still in a terrible mood. The silence stretched on for several more seconds and finally Michelle spoke up.

  “Where’s Lisa?” Michelle asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

  “At Cyril’s garage,” Hannah told her. “Her car was supposed to be ready by seven and Herb dropped her off there on his way to work.”

  Andrea glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. “It’s eight-thirty. I guess Cyril didn’t have it ready on time.”

  “That’s not surprising.” Delores gave a little laugh. “The last time I took my car in for an oil change, it took two days. What’s wrong with Lisa’s car?”

  Hannah’s spirits lifted considerably as her mother helped herself to a third cookie. “Her fuel pump went out. She was going to call if Cyril couldn’t have it ready to go by nine.”

  As if on cue, the phone rang and Michelle got up to answer it. Hannah listened to Michelle’s end of the conversation for a beat and then she got up to retrieve her car keys.

  “It’s not ready?” Andrea asked, as Michelle hung up the phone.

  “Not yet. I’ll open the coffee shop if you want to drive out there, Hannah.”

  “And I’ll help,” Andrea added. “I’m good at pouring coffee and talking to people.”

  Delores nodded. “I’ll help too, but I’m going to stay out here in the kitchen so I don’t have to talk about Rod’s horrid article. I’ll fill the display jars and you girls can carry the cookies into the coffee shop.”

  “Thanks for helping,” Hannah said sincerely. Her family had never failed to volunteer whenever she needed help. She glanced out the window and frowned slightly as she realized the sky was overcast. “I wonder if it’s going to . . .” Hannah stopped speaking abruptly as they all heard a crashing boom outside. A few seconds later, a blinding flash lit up the darkening sky.

  “You’d better take an umbrella, dear,” Delores warned her. “I was listening to KCOW radio in the car on my way here and Rayne Phillips said that there was a sixty-percent chance of a summer storm this morning.”

  “He should have made that a hundred percent chance,” Andrea commented as raindrops began to pelt against the windowpane.

  Hannah grabbed an umbrella from the coat rack by the back door. “I’d better hurry. If Lisa calls, tell her I’m on the way and I’ve got an extra umbrella in the car for her.”

  “Just a minute,” Delores said, stopping Hannah before she could leave.

  “What is it?” Hannah asked, turning to face her mother.

  “I want you to promise me you won’t find any dead bodies on your way out to Cyril’s garage.”

  There was a smile on her mother’s face and Hannah was glad. The chocolate in the cookies must have helped. Delores was getting her sense of humor back.

  “I promise,” Hannah said.

  “Or on your way back, either.”

  “Yes, Mother,” Hannah promised, heading out the door and into the rain.

  Chapter Two

  Arainy morning in August presented problems that appeared almost insurmountable just as soon as Hannah drove out of the parking lot in back of The Cookie Jar. It was so muggy that the windows in her Suburban were already starting to fog up. By the time she got to the end of the alley, she’d used her hand to wipe off a clear space to peer through, and she had to lower the driver’s side window to keep it from fogging up again. This meant the rain came in, but she figured that a little rain was better than running into a building or another vehicle.

  Naturally, the air conditioner wasn’t working. It seemed the only time it worked was in the winter when she didn’t need it. Ditto for the heater, which seemed to work best in the summer. In order to keep the windshield from fogging up so much that she couldn’t see the pavement, she had to endure a wet left sleeve. “At least I don’t wear glasses,” Hannah muttered as she turned right on First Street and headed for the highway that would lead her to Murphy’s Motors.

  At highway speeds, the rain no longer came in the window and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t go as fast as she would have liked because it hadn’t rained in over a week and the asphalt was slick with oil from the trucks that barreled down this route every day. Every time the lightning flashed, she could see an answering gleam in the surface of the wet roadway and the rumbling of thunder outside her open window made listening to the radio impossible.

  The giants in the sky are bowling, Hannah thought, smiling as she remembered her father’s reassuring words when the booming thunder had frightened her as a child. But why is it flashing? she’d asked him, pointing up at the lightning. Because their bowling balls have flashing lights in them, he’d answered. And from that moment on, Hannah had wished for a toy bowling ball with lights in it each and every Christmas until she was old enough to realize that it was all a figment of her father’s imagination.

  She was almost there. Hannah pulled off at the next exit and took the access road to the turnoff that led to Cyril’s garage. It was two miles down a gravel road and even though it was bumpy, she was glad to be off the highway. She pulled in past the gas pumps, past the metal shed where the limousines were kept for Cyril’s second business, Shamrock Limo, and pulled up close to the door that led to the customer waiting room.

  Lisa must have been watching for her because she dashed out the door almost before Hannah’s truck stopped, holding a newspaper over her head as an umbrella. “We’re going to be late,” she said, climbing into the passenger seat. “It’s almost nine.”

  “No problem. Andrea and Michelle are opening for us and Mother offered to fill the cookie jars. Everything’s under control.”

  “Oh, good!” Lisa buckled her seatbelt. “Cyril thought he’d be finished by now, but they sent the wrong fuel pump and he had to order a new one. He promised to have my car ready by five and I can pick it up when I get off work today.”

  “I’ll give you a ride out here,” Hannah offered, glancing down at the newspaper that Lisa had dropped to the floorboards. “Is that the Lake Eden Journal?”

  “Yes. I think you should buy up all the copies so your mother doesn’t see the article.”

  “Too late. Mother came in this morning waving the paper and spitting nails.”

  “I can understand that. But everybody knows that Rod tends to go too far when he tries to be funny. Did you manage to calm her down before you left?”

  “I think so. She ate four Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies.”

  “And that did it?”

  “It seemed to. Before I left The Cookie Jar, she actually smiled and made me promise not to find any more dead bodies.”

  “Okay then.” Lisa frowned slightly. “I’m sorry I missed the wedding planning meeting, but maybe it’s a good thing I did. I just don’t have any more ideas for the wedding cake and the table decorations. It’s hard to plan when she hasn’t settled on the wedding colors yet.”

  “That’s okay. We didn’t have time for the meeting anyway.” Hannah came to the entrance that led to the highway, but she bypassed it to continue down the gravel road.

  “Aren’t we taking the highway?”

  “No. My windshield wipers need replacing and I was practically blinded every time someone passed me. I figured we’re better off taking the back roads to town.”

  “Fine with me.” Lisa rolled down her window and breathed in the cool air.

  “You’re going to get wet,” Hannah warned her.

  “I know, but I’ve got another blouse at the shop. And it’s like a sauna in here. It’s
too bad you can’t get your climate-control system fixed.”

  Hannah laughed. “What climate-control system? They didn’t call it that when my cookie truck was built. And even if I had one, it probably wouldn’t work. At least Mike had the heater fixed . . . sort of. And the air-conditioning has never worked right. Cyril says I need a whole new unit and it’s just not worth sinking the money into something this old.”

  “Time for a new cookie truck?”

  “Yes, but only when I can afford it. I don’t want to take on any big car payments while I’m still paying off my condo.”

  “I can understand that. Herb and I were talking about getting something newer for me when the fuel pump went out, but we decided to nurse my car along for as long as we could.”

  “That’s exactly the way I feel. I’m going to hang on to this truck . . .” Hannah paused for a moment as thunder rumbled loudly overhead. With the windows up, it had been quieter, but the advantages of cool air outweighed the ease of conversation. “. . . just as long as I can,” she finished.

  Lisa gave a little gasp as a blinding flash of lightning struck a tree in a nearby field. “It’s really bad out there,” she said, reaching up to cover her ears as the thunder boomed.

  “That’s another reason I decided to take the back way,” Hannah told her once the volley of thunder had reached its crescendo and faded. “This road is lined with trees and lightning will hit them before it’ll hit us.”

  “So all we have to worry about is a tree getting struck by lightning and toppling in front of us?”

  “Right.” Hannah listened to the rain drumming on the roof of her truck for a moment and then she gave a little laugh. “That and the road washing out.”

  “I don’t think that’ll happen. It’s only been raining for . . .” Lisa paused as the thunder boomed again, and then she continued, “. . . less than half an hour.”

  Hannah picked up speed as they entered an open area and slowed down when the road was tree-lined again. “At least we’re not the tallest thing on the road right now.”

  The two women rode in silence for a moment, safely ensconced in their metal cocoon and listening to the electrical storm raging outside. Then Lisa spoke. “I wonder if we’ll get any customers at all today.”

  “My guess is not many.”

  “That’s exactly what I think. Maybe we’ll have time to sit and have a cup of coffee, and talk about something besides your mother’s wedding.”

  “That would be a welcome change.” Hannah gripped the wheel tightly as they passed another open area. The blinding lightning flashes and crashing thunder were unnerving. She steered to avoid a puddle that was building up in a low spot on the road and her truck fishtailed slightly. There was a sharp bend ahead and she regained control barely in time to make the turn.

  “Watch out!” Lisa hollered as she saw a large branch that had fallen in the center of the road.

  “Hold on!” Hannah called out almost simultaneously as she spotted the obstacle and hit the brakes as hard as she could. The Suburban fishtailed again on the loose, wet gravel as she swerved to avoid the branch and then there was a sickening thump as Hannah’s front bumper hit something on the shoulder of the road.

  Hannah uttered a phrase she never would have voiced if her nieces had been within earshot. “Sorry, Lisa. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. You weren’t going that fast. And don’t worry about what you said. It’s exactly what I was thinking. Did you hit that tree branch?”

  “I don’t think so. I’m almost sure I avoided it. It must have been something else.”

  Hannah leaned forward to wipe fog from the inside of the windshield and Lisa did the same. Then both of them peered out into the driving rain. “Can you see anything?”

  “Not much. There’s something there and I think part of it is light-colored, but . . .” Lisa stopped her description as lightning flashed and then she gave a little cry. “Oh, Hannah! I think it’s . . . it’s a person!”

  As if of one mind, both women opened their doors and jumped out into the elements. Hannah didn’t feel the rain that pelted down with the force of a spewing faucet. She didn’t flinch as a second and then a third bolt of lightning arced down only feet from where they were standing. She was concentrating solely on the motionless figure on the gravel.

  “I can’t quite tell what . . . Oh, no!” Lisa was clearly badly shaken as she arrived at the front of the truck. “It’s a man, Hannah! And I think he’s . . . he’s . . . dead!”

  Hannah heard the panic in her partner’s voice, but she was too busy to deal with it now. She knelt down beside the man on the ground and with cold and wet fingers, she felt for a pulse. For one brief moment, she thought she felt a slight sign of life, but that hope quickly faded when she saw that the man’s neck was bent at an impossible angle.

  “Is he . . . ?” Lisa attempted to ask the question again.

  “He’s dead,” Hannah answered.

  Lisa swallowed hard, and then she asked another question. “Who is it?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”

  “A stranger,” Lisa said in a shaking voice.

  “Come on, Lisa.” Hannah motioned to her partner as she got up and walked back to the truck. “We need to call this in to the sheriff’s station.”

  A few moments later, the call had been made and the two partners were silent, sitting in their respective seats, staring out at the rain splattering big, fat drops against the windshield. Tree branches were dipping low with the weight of the rain, thunder was rumbling like a prehistoric beast, and flashes of lightning caught the scene outside in freeze frame. It was a bad storm, a nasty storm. Inside the truck, they were lucky to be protected from the elements.

  “Where are you going?” Lisa asked as Hannah grabbed her umbrella from the back seat and opened the driver’s door.

  Hannah didn’t answer. She couldn’t find the words. Head bent, her eyes on the ground, she walked around to the front of her truck, opened the umbrella, and propped it up over the dead man’s face. No one should have to be outside and unprotected in this storm. It just wasn’t right.

  Tears were running down Lisa’s face as Hannah climbed back in the truck. She reached over to pat Hannah’s hand and then she reached in her purse for a tissue. Hannah handed her the box that she always kept on the console.

  “I’m glad you did that,” Lisa said, wiping her eyes.

  “I had to,” Hannah replied, and then she began to shake almost uncontrollably. She knew it was a combination of the rain, the cold, and the wet clothing she was wearing. It was also the fact that despite her promise to her mother at The Cookie Jar, she’d found another dead body. And this time it was even worse because she’d killed him herself!

  Chapter Three

  It didn’t take long for the ambulance to arrive since the hospital was only a few miles away. Hannah watched from the driver’s seat as Doc Knight, clad in a yellow slicker and hat, checked for vital signs. It took him awhile, Doc was nothing if not thorough, but she knew there was no hope because of the grim expression on his face when he came around to her side of the car.

  “He’s dead?” she asked, fearing the worst.

  “Yes.”

  But before Doc could do more than pat her on the shoulder, Mike Kingston and Lonnie Murphy pulled up. Even though Hannah dated Mike occasionally and usually felt a surge of excitement when she saw him, today it was different. She wasn’t sure why, but perhaps it was because she felt heartsick and guilty about the accident and the fact that a man had died. Looking back, she didn’t think she could have anticipated and avoided it, but she was utterly miserable all the same. Coupled with the fact that she was shivering almost uncontrollably from shock and thoroughly chilled from wearing wet clothing, there was no joy at seeing one of her boyfriends.

  “Hannah,” Mike said and there was a warmth in his voice that she would have gloried in under any other circumstances. “What happened, Hannah?”

  “It
was raining really hard, and I wasn’t going fast, but my truck skidded when I tried to avoid that tree branch, and . . .”

  “Hold it,” Mike ordered, reaching out to squeeze her arm as he pulled out his notebook. “Start from the beginning and don’t leave anything out. Lisa? Lonnie’s going to take your statement in the squad car, so please go with him.”

  As Lisa opened the passenger door to get out of her truck, Hannah had the crazy urge to beg her not to leave. But before she could act on her impulse, Mike patted her shoulder.

  “It’s okay. You’re going to be all right, Hannah. Just start from the beginning and tell me exactly what happened.”

  The next period of time seemed impossibly long as Hannah described the details of the accident and Mike proceeded to ask questions. The volleys of questions and answers seemed endless and Hannah wished she could just go back to her condo, climb into bed, and pull the covers over her head. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. When she got up this morning, the sky was clear and she’d looked forward to the day. Now, less than four hours later, she was guilty of causing a man’s death!

  “Okay, Mike. That’s enough,” Doc Knight called out, walking up to the open window of Hannah’s truck. “I need to take Hannah and Lisa back to The Cookie Jar now.”

  “But I’m not finished taking . . .”

  “Yes, you are.” Doc glanced at Hannah. “Do you have dry clothes at work?”

  Hannah nodded. Her teeth were chattering so hard it was difficult to speak.

  “All right then. I left the heater on in my car and Lisa’s already inside. Leave your keys for Mike, hop out, and go join her. I’ll be there in just a second.” He turned to Mike. “You’ll make sure that Hannah gets her truck back when you’re through with it?”

  “Yes, but I really need to . . .” Mike started to object, but Doc shook his head.

  “Whatever you need to do, you can do later at The Cookie Jar when they’re dry and warm. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for two cases of pneumonia compounded by severe shock, would you?”