by Joanne Fluke
“Be careful when you wash them. I only paid twenty dollars for the set at an auction, but they had two in the window of the antique store. They’re selling for fifty dollars apiece now.”
“Really?” Hannah was highly amused. She could imagine her mother’s reaction if she mentioned that Moishe had just finished eating from a fifty-dollar dessert dish.
“I’ve got to run, Hannah. Carrie wants to shop for some new linens, and there’s a line of people waiting to use this phone.”
“I’m really glad you called, Mother,” Hannah said. And this time she meant it.
There was a spring in Hannah’s step as she walked up to the Plotniks door and rang the bell. Delores didn’t know it, but she’d been a big help. Phil Plotnik was a night supervisor at DelRay and he might know if Del’s business was in trouble.
The door opened and Sue Plotnik stood there, juggling a dishtowel and a crying baby. She looked surprised to see her upstairs neighbor, but she smiled. “Hi, Hannah. I hope Kevin didn’t disturb you. He’s got an ear infection and Phil’s out getting his prescription refilled.”
“I didn’t even hear him,” Hannah reassured her. “Did I come at a bad time?”
Sue laughed. “There isn’t a good time, not with a new baby, but that doesn’t matter. Come in and have a cup of coffee with me. I just made a fresh pot.”
Hannah didn’t really want to intrude, especially when it looked as if Sue had her hands full, but she really needed to talk to Phil. At least she could help while Sue got the coffee.
“I brought some cookies for you.” Hannah walked in and placed the bag on the table. Then she held out her arms and smiled at Sue. “Let me hold the baby for you. I’ll walk him around while you get the coffee.”
Sue handed over the blanket-wrapped bundle with visible relief. “Thanks, Hannah. He’s been crying all morning and I dropped his bottle of medicine. That’s why Phil had to make a run to the drugstore. Did you get my message about catering next week at Mommy and Me?”
“Yes. Thanks for thinking of me, Sue. I’ve already written it on my calendar.” Hannah jiggled the fussing baby a bit and then she started to pace the floor with him. Michelle had been a colicky baby, and Hannah was no stranger to crying infants. As the eldest sister, almost eleven at the time, Hannah had taken over when Delores had needed a break.
It didn’t take long for the baby to quiet. Hannah paced rhythmically back and forth with a satisfied expression on her face. It was pretty obvious that she hadn’t lost her touch.
Sue came in with two cups of coffee and a plate for the cookies. She set them down on the coffee table and then she stared at Kevin with openmouthed amazement. “How did you do that?”
“It’s easy. You just have to keep your steps slow and a little bouncy. I used to pretend that I was an elephant in a circus parade. I’m going to put him down, Sue.”
Sue watched while Hannah walked over to the cradle and tucked the baby inside. There was an anxious expression on her face, but it faded after several long seconds of silence. “You’re a genius, Hannah.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve just had plenty of practice, that’s all. Michelle had at least four bouts of colic before her first birthday.”
“You should be a mother, Hannah. All that talent going to—” Sue stopped in midthought and looked very uncomfortable. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“That’s okay. Just do me a favor and don’t mention it to my mother. It’ll give her new ammunition.”
“She’s still trying to fix you up with every man in town?” Sue gestured toward the couch and they both sat down.
“You could say that.” Hannah took a sip of her coffee and decided to change the subject. “How’s DelRay doing, Sue? That’s really what I came down to ask you about.”
“Everything’s fine now. Phil said Del is even talking about branching out into the mail order business like Fingerhut did in St. Cloud. But it didn’t look so good a couple of…” Sue’s voice trailed off as she heard a key in the door. “Phil’s coming. He can tell you all about it.”
Phil opened the door, spotted Hannah, and gave her a grin. “Hi, Hannah.”
“Hello, Phil.”
“Hannah put Kevin to sleep for me.” Sue gestured toward the crib. “She just walked like an elephant and it worked.”
Phil gave his wife a glance that suggested she might be losing her marbles, but then he shrugged. “Whatever works. Is there more of that coffee?”
“Half a pot in the kitchen,” Sue told him. “Get a cup and come join us, honey. Hannah came down to ask us about DelRay.”
Phil poured a cup of coffee and came back to sit in the chair across from the couch. He tried a cookie, pronounced it the best he’d ever tasted, and then he asked, “What do you want to know about DelRay?”
“I just hoped there wouldn’t be any big changes, now that Benton’s come back,” Hannah went into the opening of the speech she’d planned on her way down the stairs.
“I don’t think Benton will last for long.” Phil took another cookie and shrugged. “From what I hear, he was living it up on the East Coast and he just came home to make sure that the money wouldn’t run out.”
“Will it?” Hannah asked the obvious question.
“I don’t think there’s any danger of that. Sue’s sister works in the accounting office and she told me that Del just landed a fat new contract on Thursday.”
Hannah nodded, but it didn’t really matter. Thursday was the day after Max had been killed. “How about before that? Was DelRay in trouble?”
“There was a problem about four years ago. It was right before Sue and I got married and I was already starting to look for a new job.”
“Things were that bad at DelRay?”
Phil raised his eyebrows. “Bad? It was gruesome. We lost five big contracts, and the front office cut the workforce in half. They did it on seniority and I’d only been there for a year. I was just lucky I survived the cut. The guy who was hired right after me got pink-slipped. But then Del got some new financing and ever since then we’ve been doing better.”
“New financing?” Hannah’s ears perked up. “You mean like a bank loan?”
Phil shook his head. “I don’t know where the money came from, but it wasn’t a bank loan. Sue’s sister told me that the bank turned Del down. Something about being overextended.”
“But there hasn’t been a problem since that loan or whatever it was?” Hannah took another sip of her coffee and waited for Phil’s answer.
“It wasn’t so fine on Wednesday morning,” Sue spoke up. “Tell her about that, Phil.”
“Sue’s right. I was a little worried when I came home from work on Wednesday morning.”
“A little worried?” Sue laughed. “You were ready to start sending out resumes again.”
“That’s true. When I was leaving the plant, I saw the old man and he looked pretty grim.”
“What time was that?” Hannah held her breath. The pieces were starting to fall in place.
“About six-fifteen, give or take a couple of minutes. I just got off shift and I was heading out to the parking lot when I saw him talking to the night shift supervisors.”
Hannah was confused. “I thought you were a night shift supervisor.”
“I am, but these guys are one level up from me. That’s why I thought there might be trouble. The old man never comes in before nine, unless there’s a real crisis.”
Hannah spent another couple of minutes making conversation and then she said she had to go. As she climbed up the steps to her own unit, she tried to fit the new pieces of the puzzle into place. Del Woodley couldn’t have killed Max, not if Phil had seen him at the plant. But it was certainly possible that Del had secured a loan from Max Turner four years ago. She had to check on that, and there was only one person who might know.
When she unlocked her door, no furry orange ball barreled across the room to meet her. Hannah glanced around anxiously. Where was Moishe? Then she saw him sitting
on the back of the couch. The novelty of having her dash in and out had obviously worn off for him.
“Hi, Moishe.” Hannah walked over to pet him anyway. “Go back to sleep. I just came home to make another phone call.”
Moishe yawned and settled back down, and Hannah reached for the phone. Betty Jackson might know if Del Woodley had borrowed money from Max four years ago.
Betty’s extension was busy and Hannah had to press the redial button a dozen times before she finally got through. When she said hello, Betty immediately started to tell her what was going on.
“It’s been a madhouse out here!” Betty sounded even more harried than usual. “I can’t get into Max’s office. There’s yellow tape blocking the doorway, and Bill warned me not to go in there. And everybody in town has been calling me to find out what’s going to happen to the dairy.”
“Do you know yet?”
“Yes. I just got off the phone with Max’s nephew and he’s planning to move here and take over the operation. He asked me to call an employee meeting and tell everyone on the payroll that he’s not planning to make any changes. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“It certainly is.” Hannah did her best to sound enthusiastic. She was glad that the dairy was staying open, but she had a lot of other things on her mind. “I’m sorry to bother you, Betty, but I need to ask you a very important question. Do you know if Max ever had any business dealings with Del Woodley?”
“Just a minute and I’ll get that invoice for you. Could you hold, please?”
There was a thunk as Betty set the receiver down on her desk, and Hannah heard her tell several people to leave her office because she had an important supplier on the line. A few seconds later, there was the sound of a door closing and then Hannah heard heavy footsteps as Betty returned to her desk.
“Sorry, Hannah. I didn’t want to say anything while there were people in the office, but Max did have dealings with Del Woodley. I’m not supposed to know anything about it, but I just happened to pick up the extension while Max was talking to Del.”
Hannah grinned. It sounded as if Betty spent most of her working hours listening in on conversations that she wasn’t supposed to hear.
“Del called a few months ago,” Betty continued. “It was about a personal loan. He was complaining about the high interest rates, and Max wasn’t very nice to him.”
“Really?” Hannah feigned surprise.
“As a matter of fact, he was very nasty. Max told Del that if he didn’t like the interest rates, he could just come up with the money and pay off the loan.”
“Did Del pay off the loan?”
“I don’t know, Hannah. Del didn’t call again and that’s the last I ever heard about it.”
“Thanks, Betty.” Hannah hung up the phone and dropped her face in her hands. This was all very confusing. Perhaps she should take a run out to the dairy and look at the crime scene again. It was possible that Bill might have missed something that pertained to the loan that Del had taken out with Max.
“I’m leaving again, Moishe,” Hannah announced as she stood up and felt around in her pocket to make sure she had her keys. But Moishe didn’t rush to the food bowl as he usually did. He just opened his good eye and gave her what amounted to an extremely bored kitty shrug.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hannah zipped down Old Lake Road at seventy miles an hour, just about as fast as her Suburban would go. She had almost reached the intersection at Dairy Avenue when she began to reconsider her destination. It would be a waste of time to go over the crime scene. The killer had planned everything carefully, making a private appointment with Max and tricking him into opening the old safe in the original dairy. There was no way such an organized killer would have left any incriminating evidence behind.
So what should she do? Hannah took her foot off the gas pedal and let her Suburban slow to the legal limit. Perhaps she should run out to the sheriff’s station to find Bill. She had more facts for him, information that she hadn’t yet learned when she’d left her voice mail message. She could pull Bill aside and tell him everything. Between the two of them, they could figure out what to do next.
Hannah glanced in her rearview mirror and saw that the road was clear behind her. She slowed her truck to a crawl and did something she’d never done before in her life. She hung a U-turn right across the double yellow line and headed for the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Station.
As she pushed the speedometer up to seventy again, Hannah thought about Del Woodley. He couldn’t have killed Max. The laws of physics were absolute and he couldn’t have been in two places at the same time. Even if Phil had been wrong by five minutes and Danielle’s watch had been off by the same amount, it still wasn’t possible to drive from DelRay Manufacturing, out on the interstate, to the Cozy Cow Dairy in that length of time.
But Benton could have killed Max. Hannah’s hands tightened on the wheel as that thought occurred to her. Phil had said he’d come home because he was worried that the family money would run out. If Max had called in his loan and Del had told Benton about it, Benton could have decided to protect his inheritance by shooting Max and stealing the paperwork.
Hannah thought about Benton as she raced down the highway. He’d always enjoyed having money. From first grade on, Andrea had come home from school talking about Benton’s new leather backpack, or the complete set of Disney movies that Benton’s parents had bought for him, or the souvenirs that he’d brought back from his summer vacations. Benton had been the most popular boy in the class because he’d treated his classmates to the luxuries their parents couldn’t afford. “Give them things and make them friends” had been his motto.
Benton’s family wealth had been even more apparent in high school. Then Benton had dazzled the girls, Andrea included, by picking them up in his shiny new convertible and showering them with expensive gifts. The huge bottle of perfume that he’d given Andrea for Christmas had been just one example. Delores had priced it and she’d told Hannah that it had cost over two hundred dollars.
Hannah doubted that Benton’s habits had changed in the years since he’d been gone. She was sure that he was still buying friendship with his money. What if all the cash that he used to impress people suddenly started to dry up? Would that be a strong enough motive to kill the person who’d threatened Benton’s whole way of life?
There was a slow truck ahead and Hannah pulled out to whiz past him. Yes, Benton could be the killer. He was smart enough to have arranged the whole thing, and people had murdered for a lot less. And Benton didn’t really have an alibi for the times of the murders. Unless he could come up with a plane ticket that proved he hadn’t landed at the airport until after Max and Ron had been murdered, Benton Woodley was the number one suspect on Hannah’s list.
Actually, Benton was her only suspect. Hannah sighed deeply and tromped even harder on the accelerator. She had to find Bill at the open house and tell him her new theory. Bill didn’t know that Del Woodley had put up his ring for sale and he’d never guess that Del had borrowed money from Max. She couldn’t expect him to solve the case unless he had all the facts.
Hannah’s foot lifted from the gas pedal again as another thought occurred to her. Exactly how would she manage to get Bill alone? Mike Kingston would be there and he was Bill’s new supervisor. And Bill had warned her not to let on that she was helping with the investigation. It was true that Mike didn’t start until Monday, but he’d be there at the open house. She couldn’t just barge in and announce to Bill and Mike that she’d solved the case.
The truck had turned off and now there was no one behind her. Hannah hit the brakes and peeled another U-turn. Going out to the sheriff’s station had been a bad idea. She’d have to wait until Bill got home tonight before she could tell him that she knew who the killer was. But what should she do now? It was only three-thirty and the rest of the afternoon stretched out ahead of her.
The moment she thought of it, Hannah began to smile. She’d go out to DelRay Ma
nufacturing to talk to Benton. She’d make polite conversation and ask him about his flight. She could always say that a friend of hers, a fictional friend who lived on the East Coast, was planning to come out for a visit. That would be a perfect excuse to ask him which airline he’d used, how long his flight had taken, and whether he’d had to wait long at the airport for the shuttle. Thanks to Andrea, she had the advantage of knowing that Benton always flicked his fingernail with his thumb when he was lying. She’d watch Benton carefully to weed out the truth from the lies….
No, she couldn’t talk to Benton. It wouldn’t look good if she interrogated a murder suspect without Bill. Hannah eased up on the accelerator again, preparing for another U-turn. Her last instinct had been right. She’d drive straight out to the sheriff’s station and give some excuse for needing to see Bill alone. It could be a family emergency, something to do with Delores. Then Mike would leave them alone and she could…
She was running in circles and she had to stop it. Hannah pulled over to the shoulder of the road and shut off her engine. Three consecutive U-turns was quite enough and she’d been about to make the fourth. What was wrong with her today? Why couldn’t she think logically? It felt as if she’d been trying to assemble a complicated jigsaw puzzle with a blindfold on, and someone kept slipping in a piece from a totally different puzzle to confuse her.
“Think,” Hannah muttered to herself. “Just sit here and think. You’re smart. You can figure out what to do.”
She’d already eliminated a ton of suspects until all she had left was Benton. Hannah was sure that he was the killer, but how could she help Bill to prove it? She had to take a giant step back and think about what had led her to suspect Benton in the first place. And that took her back to the Compacts Unlimited folder in Del Woodley’s den. She had to prove that Benton had rented the black compact car that Mr. Harris had seen speeding out of the driveway at the dairy. Hannah supposed she could wait for the list of customers that the manager had promised to send to Bill, but it meant that a whole day, perhaps two, would be wasted. There was another way for her to find out, a way that should have occurred to her immediately if she’d just taken the time to think about it.