“A one-two punch?” Lonnie suggested, and then he explained to Michelle, “That’s one punch with the right hand and the other with the left hand.”
“No,” Doc said, and he sounded very certain. “Both blows were delivered with the same fist, the right one. My guess is that the ring slipped off with the first blow. But the man didn’t stop fighting to pick it up. He delivered a second blow that was even harder than the first blow. It did some very serious damage.”
“How serious?” This time Delores was curious. “You told Hannah that the fight didn’t kill him.”
“It didn’t, but it did cause the inter-cranial hemorrhaging to intensify.”
Hannah sat up a little straighter. This was new! “What inter-cranial hemorrhaging?” she asked him. “You didn’t mention that before.”
“Sorry. I got a little ahead of myself. It’s been a very long day.” Doc took a sip of his coffee and smiled at Hannah. “There was already some hemorrhaging from the massive blow to the frontal bone. The combination of the two new blows caused him to hemorrhage more rapidly.”
Hannah thought she knew exactly what Doc was saying, but she still felt the need to clarify. “And all this was done before I hit him with my truck?”
“That’s right. It was prior to the impact.”
“How long before the accident was it?” Mike asked.
“It’s difficult to tell, but my guess would be shortly before Hannah hit him.”
“Can you put a time limit on it?” Lonnie asked, his pen poised to write it down.
“No more than a half hour for the massive blow to the front bone, and the blows to the face came after that. If Hannah hadn’t hit him with her truck and killed him right then, he would have died from his other injuries within an hour, perhaps less.”
“Let me get this straight,” Delores said. “Even if Hannah hadn’t hit him, he would have died anyway.”
“That’s right, Lori. It was inevitable. Even if I’d been right there on the scene, there would have been no way to save him.”
“Did you hear that, dear?” Delores turned to Hannah. “He would have died anyway.”
“I heard.”
“Well, doesn’t that make you feel better?”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. “No,” she said. “I killed him. It doesn’t matter when he would have died. Think about it, Mother. Anybody I hit and killed would have died anyway. Everybody dies, sooner or later.”
“Don’t say that, Hannah.” Delores gave a little shiver. “That’s morbid.”
“But it’s true,” Hannah argued. “There’s no getting away from it, Mother. I hit him and I killed him. It was an accident and I really don’t think it was my fault, but it happened. The person he fought with isn’t responsible for his death. I am.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Well, that was depressing,” Michelle said, propping her pajama-clad legs up on the coffee table, giving Moishe a scratch behind the ears, and taking a sip of the mango iced tea that Hannah had poured for her.
“Not really. I thought about all that while I was in jail. I can’t duck my responsibilities, but I don’t have to dwell on them. The best thing I can do for that man, at this point, is figure out who he is and exactly why he was there.”
“By doing that, you might clear yourself of the charges.”
“I doubt it, but that would be nice. I’m still going to have to live with the fact that I hit someone with my truck and killed him.”
“Can you live with that?”
“Yes. I have to. The first thing we have to do is find out who the man was and why he was here.”
“I know. And then we have to find out who he fought with. That was interesting about the ring. Now we have two rings to investigate.”
“Maybe not.” Hannah took a sip of the glass of white wine she’d poured for herself.
“What do you mean?”
“It could be the same ring. Doc said the second blow was delivered by a bare fist and he thought the man could have dropped the ring.”
“That’s possible, especially if it was too loose.”
“And if the man’s assailant made a quick getaway when he heard my truck coming, the victim could have picked it up and slipped it back on his finger before I hit him.”
“I guess it could have happened that way.” Michelle thought about that for a moment. “Then the ring you saw on the victim’s finger was really the ring his assailant was wearing when he delivered the first blow.”
“That’s right. That’s not to say it happened that way, but it could have happened that way.”
“I’ll go online first thing in the morning and see if I can identify that school seal. Do you think it’s a high school ring? Or could it be a college ring?”
“What does it look like?” Hannah asked, trying to recall her high school seal. She’d never bothered to buy a college ring, and she’d opted to use the money her parents would have spent for her high school ring on college expenses.
“It has a pine tree, a tall narrow building, and waves. It doesn’t have the name of the high school or college, though. Lonnie and I looked at it under a magnifying glass.”
“How about initials engraved inside the band?” Michelle shook her head. “There aren’t any. We looked for that, too.”
“Maybe it’s not a high school or college ring.”
“Then what is it? It’s got some kind of a seal on it.”
“It could be an organization. Or maybe a branch of some government agency. I’ll ask Mike if he can find out. He has access to all sorts of things ordinary people don’t have.”
“Not anymore. He’s suspended, remember?”
Hannah sighed. “For a moment there, I forgot.”
“I can ask Lonnie. Mike can tell him how to do it and he can use the computer at work and run a search.”
“No, Michelle. I don’t want you to ask Lonnie to do that.”
“Why not?”
“Lonnie could get into trouble accessing a law enforcement computer for personal use. It’s bad enough that Mike is suspended.”
“That’s true, I guess.”
“It would be different if he had Bill’s permission, but I doubt Bill would let Lonnie spend his time on something like that.” The phone rang and Hannah reached out to answer it.
“Hi, Carly,” she said when the caller identified herself. She listened for a moment and then she said, “Sure thing. She’s right here.”
Michelle took the phone that Hannah handed her and held it up to her ear. “What’s up, Carly?” she asked.
Hannah got up to give Michelle some privacy to talk to her friend. She was just flicking the lights on in the kitchen when Michelle called out to her.
“Hannah? Is it okay if Carly comes over for a while? She says she’s been driving around for hours, wrestling with a problem, and she needs to talk to someone about it.”
“Of course Carly can come. I’m going to turn in soon, anyway. You two can sit up and talk for as long as you want to talk.”
“I hate to ask you this. I know it’s been a really long day for you, but Carly wants to talk to you, too. She said something’s really bothering her about her sister and she needs your opinion.”
“Okay,” Hannah said quickly, walking back to the couch and sitting down. She’d been looking forward to climbing into her own bed in her own bedroom, and simply relaxing in the luxury of her own home. Staying up to talk to one of Michelle’s friends was the last thing she wanted to do, but Hannah had always liked Carly and if Carly needed to talk to her, she was willing to forget about going to bed for as long as it took and try to help Carly any way she could.
“I’m going to bake some chocolate cookies,” Michelle said, getting up from her seat on the couch. “ If Carly’s been driving around for hours, she’s really upset and chocolate will make her feel better.”
“Good idea. She can eat leftover pizza first and have your cookies for dessert.”
“She could, but
the pizza’s all gone.”
“There’s no leftover pizza?”
“Not even crumbs. Mike polished off the last two pieces. And that means there won’t be any pizza for our breakfast.”
“We’ll go out for breakfast,” Hannah said, deciding on the spur of the moment.
“To the Corner Tavern?”
“Not there. We’re going to go to Hal and Rose’s Café. I need to ask Rose if she served blackberry pie to anyone one Thursday or early Friday morning.”
“Good idea,” Michelle said, catching on instantly. “But Rose is a member of the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline and Mother said no one was expecting any visitors that didn’t arrive.”
“Rose didn’t know that the man I hit had blackberry stains on his shirt. Nobody knew until Doc told us tonight. She may not have mentioned that someone she didn’t know came into the café. She gets strangers there all the time. Sometimes it’s someone just passing through, or truck drivers she doesn’t know delivering something to a business in town.”
“That’s true. And it’s still fishing season. She gets people she doesn’t know from the cabin rentals out at Eden Lake.”
“Uh-oh!” Hannah said, and followed it with a big sigh.
“What?”
“I forgot all about the cabin rentals until you mentioned them right now. The man I hit could have rented a cabin at the lake.”
“He didn’t look like a fisherman,” Michelle pointed out.
“That’s true, but fishermen aren’t the only ones who rent summer cabins. Lots of families do.”
“He didn’t look like a family man, either.”
“I know. Forget about family men. Maybe Grandma Knudson was right. He could have rented a cabin for a week to check out a new venue for his prostitution ring.”
Michelle laughed. “I didn’t know you heard. I thought I’d just about die when Grandma Knudson said that. I was carrying a tray of coffee cups and I almost dropped them.”
“And I was laughing so hard, I had to put my hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t be heard in the coffee shop. We’ll have to check out the cabins anyway, if only to eliminate that possibility.”
“Okay. Maybe Mike can take care of that. Since he’s suspended, he doesn’t have anything else to do. He might even appreciate having something he can investigate. He said he wanted to do anything he could to help you. Why don’t you call him and ask? It’s only ten-thirty and he’s probably not in bed yet.”
“That’s a good idea,” Hannah agreed, reaching for the phone. She started to punch in Mike’s home number, but she stopped in mid-digit. If Mike was home, he always answered his land line. Did she really want to know if Mike was home in his own apartment? Or was it better if she didn’t know whether he was home, or not?
Hannah clicked the button to end the call and began to punch in a different number. She’d call Mike’s cell phone. If he was sleeping, he wouldn’t answer his cell phone. And if he was otherwise engaged, he wouldn’t answer it, either. The first option was fine. If Mike was sleeping, she wouldn’t want to disturb him. The second option was more problematic. If Mike was otherwise engaged, she didn’t want to know what he was doing and whether anyone else was involved in whatever it was. Calling his cell phone would tell her nothing about what Mike had decided to do when he’d left her condo. And since she wouldn’t know why he hadn’t answered his cell phone, it would preserve her own peace of mind.
“This is probably silly of me, but I have this feeling I just can’t shake,” Carly said as Michelle handed her a glass of iced tea.
“Before you start to tell us, would you like a Chocolate Hazelnut Crisp Cookie?” Michelle asked her.
“I’d love one, but you didn’t have to bake just for me.”
“They’re not just for you,” Michelle told her with a grin. “I’m going to have one, too. And so is Hannah. Right, Hannah?”
“Right. It’s a new cookie of yours, isn’t it, Michelle?”
“Yes. I made it with Nutella. I read the ingredients and it’s made from hazelnuts and cocoa.”
“I love Nutella!” Carly said. “When Florence first started carrying it at the Red Owl, Mom and I used to spread it on toast instead of butter and eat it for breakfast if we were in a hurry. I think cookies made out of Nutella would be really good.”
“You’re about to find out,” Michelle said, getting up and heading for the kitchen to get a plate of warm cookies. She was back in record time to set them on the coffee table. “You might have to wait a minute or two. They just came out of the oven when you were walking up the stairs.”
“Perfect timing,” Hannah complimented her youngest sister. “Is this one of your original recipes?”
“Yes. I made them for a girl in my psychology class who has a peanut allergy.”
“But she’s okay with hazelnuts?” Hannah asked.
“Yes. In her case, it’s just peanuts and anything made with peanut products like peanut oil.”
In the space of a minute or two, three cookies had disappeared. All three of them reached for a second cookie and Carly began to smile. “These are great!” she told Michelle. “Will you give me the recipe?”
“Sure. They’re simple, too. They’re just as easy as peanut butter cookies.”
“And they taste a lot better because they have chocolate,” Hannah added.
When the first plate of cookies was gone, Michelle brought more from the kitchen. Hannah refilled their iced tea glasses and poured one for herself, and they settled down to talk.
“Thank you both,” Carly said. “I was so upset, I forgot to eat all day today.”
“I can believe that,” Michelle said, “ I think you’ve lost some weight since the last time I saw you.”
Hannah could believe it, too. Carly had always been a petite blonde, even in high school, but now she looked almost gaunt. “Didn’t you see Carly just a couple of days ago?” Hannah asked her sister.
“Four days ago,” Michelle answered, and then she turned to her friend. “Something’s really bothering you, Carly. What’s going on?”
“It’s Jennifer. Or maybe it’s not. That’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked her.
“I mean, I could be cracking up here, but . . . please don’t think I’m crazy if I tell you . . . okay?”
“You’re not crazy,” Hannah reassured her. “Tell us. Both Michelle and I are here to help any way we can.”
“Thanks.” Carly drew a deep breath and then she blurted it out. “I don’t think Jennifer is my sister.”
“You mean you don’t think Jennifer ever was your sister?” Michelle asked. “Or you don’t think the woman who calls herself Jennifer is really Jennifer?”
Carly looked confused for a moment and then the puzzled expression left her face. “Oh, I see. It’s no to the first question. I don’t have any reason to believe that the Jennifer I knew when I was almost four years old wasn’t my sister.”
“But there’s some question in your mind that the Jennifer who came back after running away isn’t the sister you knew in the past?” Hannah asked, seeking to clarify it for all three of them.
“That’s exactly right.” Carly sighed deeply and took a sip of her iced tea. “I don’t think she’s really Jennifer. I think she’s just pretending to be my sister Jennifer.”
“What makes you think that?” Hannah asked the most important question.
“Little things. Just little things, like she didn’t remember what I gave her for her birthday right before she ran away.”
“How many years ago was that?” Hannah asked, even though she knew the answer to her own question because Michelle and Carly had been in the same high school class and their birthdays were ten months apart.
“Sixteen years ago.”
“Do you remember what Jennifer gave you for your birthday that year?” Michelle asked her.
“Yes. It was a doll with blond hair and blue eyes. She told me it looked just like me.” Carly stopped and swa
llowed hard. “I just loved that doll. I still have it. And Jennifer was the one who planned my party. She even baked me a cake with a big number four on it.”
“What did you give Jennifer for her birthday?” Hannah asked.
“Bath beads. They were really pretty and they were in a round see-through plastic case. They came in all sorts of colors and they looked like jewels.”
“What did Jennifer say when you asked her if she remembered?” Michelle leaned forward, waiting for the answer.
“She said, ‘I’m so sorry, Carly. I don’t remember. I really don’t remember very much about that last year at home. I hope you’re not hurt, but I don’t want to lie to you and say I remember, when I don’t.’ ”
Michelle nodded. “That was a good answer, Carly. Maybe she really doesn’t remember.”
“Or maybe she’s not really Jennifer and she never knew,” Carly said, looking a bit sick at the prospect. “I realize that doesn’t prove anything, but it’s just one of several things.”
“Tell us some of the other things that make you suspect her,” Hannah said.
“Well . . . there’s the bath. Jennifer loved baths. I remember that. It’s why I gave her the bath beads. They melted when you put them in the bottom of the tub and ran bath water in, and they smelled so good.” Carly turned to Hannah. “I’m not sure they even sell them anymore, but you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
“I know,” Hannah told her.
“Jennifer didn’t sleep well the night before last, so before I went to bed last night, I asked her if she wanted me to run her a nice, relaxing bath. She used to love taking long baths right before bed. She’d give me a bath and then she’d clean out the tub and take one herself while Mom was reading me a bedtime story.”
“That’s nice,” Michelle said.
“I know. It’s one of my fondest memories. But when I asked her if she’d like to take a bath, she said thank you for offering, but she preferred showers to baths.”
“People do change their preferences,” Hannah pointed out.
Blackberry Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery) Page 16