by Joanne Fluke
Hannah moved forward and joined the fringes of the group. The topic of conversation was Ron LaSalle and that didn’t surprise her. Ron’s murder was the biggest news to hit Lake Eden since little Tommy Bensen had released the brake on his mother’s Ford Escort and crashed through the plate glass window of the First Mercantile Bank.
“My Herbie says he was shot clean through the heart,” Mrs. Beeseman offered her tidbit of gossip. “Now Max is going to have to reupholster the truck because there was blood all over the place.”
Coach Watson looked sad. “It’s a terrible loss for The Gulls. Ron came to every practice and he was a real inspiration.”
“Do you suppose it was some kind of sports vendetta?” Al Percy asked, his dark bushy eyebrows almost meeting in a frown. “After all, Ron was The Gull’s star player for three years in a row.”
Father Coultas shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense, Al. Everybody liked Ron, even the boys on the opposing teams.”
“You’re right, Father.” Coach Watson was quick to agree. “Ron was popular because he played fair.”
Al continued to frown and Hannah could see that he wasn’t ready to give up his sports vendetta theory quite yet. “Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with high school sports. From what I heard, it was an execution-style killing and that sure smacks of bent-nose types to me.”
“Bent-nose?” Bonnie Surma bristled and Hannah remembered that her maiden name had been Pennelli. “Are you talking about the Mafia?”
Al nodded. “It’s not impossible, Bonnie. Everybody knows that they run the sports books and they could have recruited Ron to pick up bets with his milk orders. If Ron’s take came up short, they might have put out a hit on him.”
“You’re crazy, Al.” Marge Beeseman obviously didn’t believe in mincing words. “Ron was one of ours and he never would have done something like that. Besides, my Herbie says that Mafia hit men always shoot their victims in the back of the head. Or they use that wire thing to choke them like they did in The Godfather.”
As Hannah watched, Danielle’s naturally pale face turned a shade of sickly gray. The polite smile on her face crumpled and she looked as if she were struggling not to burst into tears. She turned to her husband, whispered a few words, and then she left the group. Hannah watched her as she pushed her way through the crowded room and headed out into the hallway that led to the ladies’ room.
This was her chance and Hannah wasn’t about to waste it. She set off after Danielle as fast as she could. Once she’d gained the hallway, Hannah headed straight for the ladies’ room with only one purpose in mind. She had to find out exactly what Danielle knew about Ron’s murder.
Chapter Seven
As Hannah approached the door to the ladies’ room, she heard the sound of muffled sobbing. Maybe it wasn’t fair of her to take advantage of Danielle in her grief, but playing fair wasn’t as important as helping Bill solve Ron’s murder.
Hannah pushed open the door and found Danielle standing in front of the long mirror above the sinks. She was dabbing at her eyes with a soggy tissue and she looked helpless and frightened. As Hannah stepped into the pink-tiled room, she felt like Simon Legree confronting Little Eliza.
“Danielle?” Hannah remembered the old flies-and-honey maxim and she put every ounce of sympathy she could muster into her voice. “What’s wrong?”
Danielle whirled around, looking terribly guilty. “Nothing. I just…uh…I got something in my eye, that’s all.”
“Both eyes?” Hannah spoke without thinking and instantly regretted it. She wouldn’t get anywhere by alienating Danielle before she’d asked her first question. “It’s probably dust. It’s been really windy today. Do you want me to take a look?”
“No! Uh…thanks anyway, Hannah. I think I got it.”
“Good.” Hannah gave her the best of her friendly smiles. She knew that the excuse Danielle had given her was a bald-faced lie, but she was willing to ignore it, providing Danielle told her what she wanted to know. “Isn’t it awful the way everybody’s talking about Ron?”
Danielle’s face blanched again. “Yes, it is.”
“Did you see Ron in the past couple of days?” Hannah held her breath. If Danielle admitted she’d ridden along to the school with Ron, she’d be one step closer to gathering the facts that Bill needed.
“No. We don’t take home delivery and I really didn’t run into him all that much. I’ve got to go now, Hannah.”
“You just got here.” Hannah moved to the side to block Danielle. “Stay for a minute, Danielle. If I were you, I’d fix my makeup. Your mascara’s starting to run.”
“No, it’s not. I just checked it. I’ve really got to go. Boyd’s waiting for me and he doesn’t like me to be gone for long.”
“Why not?” Hannah could feel Danielle’s panic and it didn’t make sense.
“He…uh…he worries about me when I’m not with him.”
Danielle was standing right under the overhead light fixture and Hannah noticed that the makeup on one side of her face was much thicker than it was on the other. Was it covering the skin problem that Luanne had told her about?
“We can talk later, Hannah. Boyd won’t be happy if I don’t get right back out there.”
“Not quite yet.” Hannah reached out to take Danielle’s arm as she tried to brush past her. The flies-and-honey tactic hadn’t worked and it was time to play hardball. “I know you were with Ron this morning and I need to know why.”
Danielle’s eyes widened in an attempt to look innocent, but a telltale blush rose to her cheeks. “Ron? You’re mistaken, Hannah. I told you I haven’t seen him for weeks.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. Why were you at the school with Ron when he stocked the cooler?”
“Who says I was?” Danielle turned to face her directly and there was a definite challenge in her eyes. It was clear she wasn’t willing to give up the information without a fight.
“Nobody says it, but I know you were. Your coffee cup was sitting on the counter and you left a smear of lipstick on it. You’re the only one in Lake Eden who wears that color, Danielle. Were you having an affair with Ron?”
“An affair?” Danielle seemed genuinely shocked. “That’s ridiculous, Hannah! It’s true I was with Ron, but we were just friends. He…uh…he helped me through some rough times.”
Danielle’s face had the very same expression Hannah had once seen on a trapped rabbit. She’d freed the rabbit, but Hannah wasn’t about to let Danielle escape before she’d given her some truthful answers. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight, Danielle. Your husband was out of town, you spent the night with an attractive man who’s just a friend, and your friend just happened to get murdered this morning only minutes after you had coffee together?”
“I know it sounds bad.” Danielle sighed and all the bravado seemed to go out of her. “You’ve got to believe me, Hannah. That’s exactly what happened.”
“Does Boyd know that you spent the night with Ron?”
“No!” Danielle looked sick. “Please don’t tell him! Boyd would never understand!”
“I won’t have to tell him if you start being honest with me. If you and Ron weren’t having an affair, why were you with him?”
Danielle glanced at the door and then she looked down at her arm where Hannah’s fingers gripped it. She shivered and then she nodded. “All right. I’ll tell you, Hannah, but you’ve got to respect my privacy. I…I can’t let Boyd know where I was last night.”
“Deal,” Hannah agreed. “But if you know anything about Ron’s murder, I’ll have to give the information to Bill.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with Ron’s murder! At least, I don’t think it does. I lied to you, Hannah…Ron and I were more than just friends. He was my GA sponsor.”
“GA?”
“Gamblers Anonymous. We meet every Tuesday night at the community college.”
That confession threw Hannah for a loop. “You’re a recovering gambler?�
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“Yes, but Boyd doesn’t know.” Danielle reached out and steadied herself against the wall. “Could we sit down, Hannah? I don’t feel very good.”
Hannah led her over to the couch and chairs that were arranged in a corner of the ladies’ room. When Danielle had taken a seat on the couch, Hannah pulled up one of the chairs. “You said that Boyd doesn’t know about your addiction?”
“No. He’s not an easy man, Hannah. He wants perfection from a wife. I think he’d divorce me if he ever found out the truth.”
Hannah suspected that Danielle was right. Coach Watson demanded perfection from everyone around him. He was hard on his team when they made errors on the playing field or the court, and he’d be even harder on Danielle. Danielle might be exaggerating when she said that her husband would divorce her, but Hannah was willing to bet that he’d be plenty upset. “You said you go to GA meetings every Tuesday night. Doesn’t Boyd ask you where you’re going?”
“I told him I was taking an art class at the college. I had to lie to him, Hannah.”
It was time to cut Danielle a little slack and Hannah knew it. “I can understand that. I’d probably do the same thing in your place. Were you at the GA meeting last night?”
“Yes, I was there.”
“How about Ron?”
“Ron was there, too. He never missed a meeting.”
Hannah zeroed in on the crux of the matter. “Did you go home from the meeting with him?”
“Of course not. I thought that Boyd would be back by then and we were going to drive out to The Hub to have a late supper together. Boyd really likes their steaks. He says an athlete doesn’t get enough protein from chicken and fish, and he always makes his boys eat plenty of red meat when they’re in training.”
Hannah had seen the boys from Coach Watson’s teams wolfing down hamburgers at Hal and Rose’s Cafe and she didn’t think there was much danger they’d be protein-deficient. But Danielle was digressing and Hannah needed to get her back on track. “Your husband didn’t come home last night, did he?”
“No. When I walked in, there was a message from Boyd on the answering machine. He said he’d decided to stay over at his mother’s house and he’d be home by noon today. He doesn’t see her that often and I should have just taken it in stride, but I expected him to come home and…and it just threw me off.”
Hannah gave her an encouraging smile. “Of course it did. What happened next?”
“I opened the mail and I found a check from my mother. We bought some stocks together and we made a good profit when we sold them. If that check hadn’t come, I think I would have been all right. But just looking at that money made me want to gamble.”
“That’s understandable. What did you do?”
“I called Ron. We’re supposed to call our sponsor right away when we think we’re in trouble. But Ron wasn’t home and—” Danielle swallowed hard. “I’m not proud of what I did next, Hannah.”
Hannah figured she knew what Danielle had done, but she asked anyway. “You went out to gamble?”
“Yes.” A tear rolled down Danielle’s cheek and she wiped it away with her soggy tissue. “I used the ATM to deposit the check and take out some cash. And then I drove out to the Indian casino. That’s where I ran into Ron.”
“Ron was gambling at Twin Pines?”
“No.” Danielle shook her head quickly. “Ron was a tower of strength, Hannah. He’d completely beaten his addiction. He told me once that he didn’t even have the urge to gamble anymore.”
“Then what was he doing there?”
“He was passing out brochures in the parking lot. One look at me and he knew I was in trouble, and he got his car and followed me back to my house. I was really glad he did. Boyd’s Grand Cherokee wasn’t running very well and I was afraid it would break down on the way back.”
“Do you know what time that was?”
“Eleven o’clock,” Danielle answered promptly. “The grandfather clock in the hallway was striking when I walked in the door.”
“And Ron stayed there with you?”
“No, he waited around the corner for me. I was in pretty bad shape, Hannah. I almost scraped the side of my Lincoln when I pulled into the garage.”
Hannah nodded and waited for her to go on. She could sympathize with Danielle, but this wasn’t the time. She still needed more information from her.
“I went inside to check the answering machine again, and then I walked down the alley to meet Ron. He drove me to his apartment and we stayed up all night, drinking coffee. That’s exactly what happened, Hannah. I swear it!”
“Why did you go to work with him?”
“Ron was late and he didn’t have time to take me home until later. I went along on his home delivery route and then we went back to the dairy and he loaded up for his commercial customers. I only went to one commercial place with him. Right after we stocked the school cooler, he dropped me off at home.”
“What time did Ron bring you home?”
“It was seven-twenty. I looked at my watch before I got out of his truck. I figured that my neighbors might be up by then, so I ducked in the alley and went in through the garage.”
“Do you think you would have noticed if anyone was following Ron’s truck?”
“I don’t know.” Danielle looked frightened. “I’ve been thinking about it all day, but I don’t remember seeing anyone behind us.”
Hannah leaned forward. If Danielle knew where Ron had been planning to go when he’d dropped her off, it could be very helpful. “Think hard, Danielle. Did Ron say anything about where he was going when he left you?”
“He didn’t say anything except goodbye,” Danielle’s voice quavered and she dabbed at her eyes again. “I tried to talk him into going to the dentist for his tooth, but I don’t think he did. Ron had this thing about being totally reliable and making his deliveries on time.”
Hannah’s eyebrows shot up. “His tooth? What was wrong with his tooth?”
“I think it was cracked. He got into a fight with one of the casino bouncers when he tried to hand out some pamphlets inside. His jaw was all swollen up and it was hurting him a lot. I made him put ice on it. That’s good for the swelling.”
Hannah flashed back to the last time she’d seen Ron alive. He’d been standing by his truck, cupping the side of his face. She’d thought that he looked pensive, but he could have been holding his hand over a cracked tooth. “Was Ron’s cracked tooth on the left side, Danielle?”
“Yes!” Danielle gasped and stared at Hannah as if she’d just pulled a rabbit out of a hat. “How did you know?”
“I saw him loading the truck when I drove to work this morning and he was cupping the left side of his jaw. But I didn’t see you.”
“That’s because I was scrunched down in the seat. I didn’t want anyone to spot me with Ron and get the wrong idea.”
That made sense. Hannah knew the local gossips would have had a heyday if they’d seen Danielle with Ron. “Can you describe the bouncer who hit Ron?”
“I wasn’t there. It happened about an hour before I got to the casino. I think you could find him, though. Ron told me he landed a couple of good punches and he was pretty sure he gave the guy a black eye.”
“And that’s all you know?”
“That’s everything, Hannah.” Danielle gave a deep sigh. “You don’t have to tell Bill about this, do you? Boyd thinks I was home all night and I really don’t want him to find out.”
Hannah made one of her lightning decisions and she hoped she wouldn’t regret it. “I’ll tell Bill what happened, but I’m not going to use your name, Danielle. There’s no reason he has to know.”
“Oh, thank you, Hannah! You don’t know how much I appreciate this. I wanted to say something sooner, but—”
“I understand,” Hannah interrupted her. “You couldn’t say anything without letting Boyd know that you were with Ron.”
Danielle dipped her head in a nod. She still looked beautiful, ev
en though her makeup was smudged and her eyelashes were stuck together in clumps from the tears she’d shed. Hannah was amazed at the difference between them. Every time she cried, which wasn’t often, her nose turned as red as the light on top of Bill’s cruiser and the skin around her eyes puffed up. It was pretty clear that when they’d handed out the gorgeous genes, women like Danielle and Andrea had stolen her share.
“Take a couple of minutes and fix your makeup.” Hannah gave her a bracing smile. “Your mascara really is running now.”
Danielle looked scared again. “But Boyd’ll come looking for me if I’m not out soon.”
“I’ll find him and tell him that you got a piece of dust in your eye.” Hannah helped her up and propelled her toward the mirror. “Don’t worry, Danielle. Your secret is safe with me.”
“I know, Moishe. I was gone a long time.” Hannah scooped up the orange blur that hurled itself at her ankles when she opened her condo door. That action seemed to appease the needy feline because he started to rumble, deep in his throat. He licked her hand and Hannah laughed. “I’m home to stay now. Just let me make one phone call and then we’ll have our bedtime snack and hit the pillows.”
Moishe followed her out to the kitchen and watched as she poured herself a glass of white wine from the green gallon jug of Chablis that sat in the bottom of her refrigerator. It was far from fine wine and Hannah knew the difference, but it was cheaper than Sominex or Bayer P.M. She opened the cupboard to grab one of the antique dessert dishes that her mother had given her as a Christmas present and filled it with Moishe’s favorite brand of vanilla yogurt. Her mother would be horrified to learn that the only one who’d ever used one of the cut-glass dessert dishes was the cat who’d shredded her stockings.
“Okay, we’re all set.” Hannah clicked off the kitchen light and let Moishe precede her into the living room. He hopped up on the coffee table and waited for Hannah to set down the dessert dish. “You can start, Moishe. I’ll drink my wine while I talk to Bill.”