Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)

by Joanne Fluke

  The crowd gave a collective gasp and then a prolonged “Oooooh” as two more pyrotechnic stars burst overhead, one red and one blue. Joe Dietz was doing a good job of mixing large displays with the smaller displays to make the fireworks last as long as possible. It was a perfect evening for the show. There was a light breeze that cleared away the smoke, so each flash looked as brilliant against the night sky as the one that had come before it.

  They were only five minutes into the fireworks show when Mike’s police radio crackled and he held it up against his ear. He listened for a moment, responded with an “On my way,” and turned to Hannah. “They called me in. There’s a six-car pileup out on the highway with a bus involved.”

  Mike stood up and no more than a second later, so did Lonnie. Another moment and Bill also got to his feet.

  “They called everyone in?” Hannah asked.

  “Everyone. It’s a bad one.” Mike turned to Norman. “Have you seen Doc Knight? The dispatcher said she couldn’t reach him on his pager.”

  “He was talking to Edna a couple of minutes ago,” Norman said.

  “Can you find him and tell him to go straight to the hospital? County’s setting up triage out there and they’ll be sending him some casualties.”

  “I’ll find him and then I’ll drive out. If you have any facial injuries, I can help. Where’s the accident?”

  “Two miles south of the Lake Eden turnoff. Thanks, Norman.” Mike motioned to Bill and Lonnie. “I brought the squad car. You can ride with me.”

  In less time than it took to swat a mosquito, Hannah’s two Lotharios had deserted her and she was left sitting in the center of her quilt alone. Michelle was also alone, now that Lonnie had left, and so was Andrea.

  “If you marry a cop, you go through a lot of nights alone,” Andrea commented with a sharp glance at Michelle. “You don’t have to like it, but you do have to cope with it.”

  Hannah didn’t like the way this conversation was starting. As far as she was concerned, Lonnie was a better choice for Michelle’s boyfriend than the guy from New York who didn’t know beans about small-town life and thought Michelle’s descriptions of her hometown were humorous. She was about to horn in and change the subject when Delores reached back to tap her on the arm.

  “Do you have an extra sweater in your truck, Hannah? It’s getting a little chilly.”

  Hannah hesitated. If she offered her mother the ratty old hooded sweatshirt she carried in the back of her truck, it would lead to a long lecture about revising her wardrobe and weeding out the clothing that wasn’t fit to be worn. “No, but I’ll run to the cottage and get you a sweater.”

  “But you’ll miss the fireworks.”

  “Not if I walk along the shoreline. I can see it just fine from there. And the cottage is only about a block away.”

  “Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind…. No! I’ve changed my mind! I don’t want you to go, Hannah!”

  “Why not?” Her mother had sounded panicked.

  “Because…well…” Delores leaned back and turned her head to whisper, “The killer could be out there.”

  “Don’t worry, Mother. The shore is crowded with people. He wouldn’t attack me in front of all those witnesses.”

  “But they wouldn’t be witnesses, not if they were looking up at the sky. And fireworks is perfect cover for a gunshot with all the banging and booming.”

  “Things like that only happen in the movies.” Hannah was amused. Her mother was well intentioned, but totally irrational. “Besides, there wouldn’t be a gunshot because the killer doesn’t use a gun. Rhonda was stabbed, not shot.”

  “You’re right. I forgot about that.” Delores sighed deeply. “Do you think I’m overreacting?”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  “Well…you’re probably right, but you’d better stay here. I’d just worry the entire time you were gone.”

  “I’ll go along with Hannah,” Michelle offered. “There’s no way anyone would take on both of us. That would make you feel better, wouldn’t it, Mother?”

  “Much better,” Delores said, and she sounded very relieved. “And while you’re there, you can put on the coffee. It would be nice to have a cup when the fireworks are over. And thaw that coffee cake I stuck in the freezer. Ten minutes in the microwave on defrost should do it. And would you carry out the garbage on your way back? I forgot to do it when I left.”

  “Sure, Mother,” Hannah said, grabbing Michelle’s hand and making a quick getaway before their mother could think of more tasks for them to do.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Eight

  “W e’re done,” Hannah said, gathering up the sweater they’d initially been sent to fetch and switching on the coffeepot. “Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready.” Michelle came out of her room wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.

  Hannah opened the front door and they both stepped out. “I’m locking it. Do you have the key?”

  “I’ve got it.” Michelle whistled as a multicolored shower of streamers shot across the sky. “That was pretty spectacular. Is it the finale?”

  Hannah glanced at her watch as another fiery flower blossomed in the sky. “Not yet. The show is supposed to run forty minutes this year. We’ve still got over twenty minutes left.”

  The two sisters climbed down the steps to the shore by the light of the fireworks that were bursting in the sky. As they reached the bottom, a huge white shower rained down and Michelle gasped. “What’s that , Hannah?”

  “What’s what?”

  “That big thing sticking out under the dock. It wasn’t there this afternoon.”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” Hannah walked closer and waited until another shower of lights illuminated the area. Her voice was sharp as she spoke again. “Is there a flashlight in the cottage?”

  “Yes, Mother keeps one in the kitchen.”

  “Go get it and bring it down here.”

  Michelle turned and walked toward the steps. “Okay, but what is it?”

  “Just get the flashlight, okay?”

  The fates were kind and another volley of fireworks burst in the sky after Michelle had left. Hannah reached out toward the object and shuddered as she realized that the “thing” Michelle had seen was someone’s leg. Delores hadn’t been so crazy after all when she’d warned Hannah not to come here alone. Hannah stared at the leg for a moment and then she gave a deep sigh. There was only one thing to do and she was the only one here right now to do it.

  It took all the strength that Hannah possessed, but she managed to free the ominously still form from its watery prison under the dock and pull it up onto the shore. By the time Michelle got back with the flashlight, Hannah had flipped it over. “Shine the flashlight, Michelle.”

  Michelle turned on the flashlight and both sisters stared at the inert figure for a moment, the beam of light illuminating the bloody wound on Freddy Sawyer’s head.

  “Is he dead?” Michelle asked, her voice shaking.

  “Only one way to find out.” Hannah dropped to her knees and felt for a pulse. “Not yet, but it doesn’t look good. Run back to the cabin and call for an ambulance fast.”

  “But there aren’t any. Lonnie said they were all called out to that accident out on the highway.”

  “Right.” Hannah shook her head to clear it. The sight of Freddy’s still face and the awful wound on his head had rattled her. “Okay. I’ll take him to the hospital myself. I hate to ask, but can you stay here with him while I get my truck?”

  “I’ll stay,” Michelle said.

  Her baby sister sounded calm and that reassured Hannah. “Okay, I’ll be back just as fast as I can. Don’t try to move him. If he starts to thrash around, talk to him and do your best to hold him still. We don’t want that cut on his head to open up and start bleeding again.”

  Hannah raced for her truck and made short work of driving it down to the shoreline. She backed up as close as she could, opened the rear doors, and got ou
t to find Michelle still sitting right where she’d left her, holding Freddy’s hand. “Pulse?”

  “It’s still there.” Michelle stood up and Hannah noticed that there were traces of tears on her cheeks. “How are we going to load him in?”

  “Sideways. I’ll take his head and shoulders and you take his legs. If he’s too heavy for you, holler out and we’ll put him back down.”

  “I can do it,” Michelle said, and she knelt by Freddy’s feet.

  Hannah was about to lift Freddy’s shoulders when she caught a whiff of a telltale odor. “Do you smell anything, Michelle?”

  “Yes, booze. Do you think Freddy got drunk and hit his head when he passed out under our dock?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s a possibility. I’m ready to lift if you are.”

  It wasn’t easy, but between the two of them they managed to load Freddy into the back of Hannah’s cookie truck. Hannah cushioned his head with the ratty old hooded sweatshirt her mother would have advised her to throw out, and shut the rear doors. “I’ll drive him straight to the hospital. Call and tell them I’m coming. Say it’s Freddy Sawyer and he’s got a bad head wound. They should meet me at the emergency entrance with a stretcher.”

  “Okay, but don’t you want me to ride along to help?”

  “You don’t have any medical training that I don’t know about, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Then you’re better off here. Make that call to the hospital and then go and tell Andrea and Mother what happened. I want all of you to look for Jed Sawyer and tell him that I’m driving Freddy to the hospital. I’ll call the cottage as soon as I have any news on his condition.”

  “Got it,” Michelle said. “Good luck, Hannah.”

  Hannah got in behind the wheel and lowered the window. “You’re really great in a crisis, Michelle.”

  “Thanks.” Michelle gave a little smile. “I think I must have inherited that from you.”

  By the time Hannah took the turnoff for the Lake Eden Memorial emergency entrance, her nerves were shot. She’d driven a distance of only ten miles, but it had been gruesome. Freddy had cried out and mumbled from the back of her truck and what she’d been able to understand had been heartbreaking. Freddy was upset because Jed was mad at him. Jed hated him and thought that Freddy was stupid. If Freddy could only get that present back for Jed, then Jed might forgive him and not go away. Then they could be friends again and everything would be all right.

  Hannah had attempted to talk back to Freddy to reassure him, but she didn’t think he’d heard her. He’d just gone back to the mumbling again about how he had to give Jed the present.

  About five miles from the hospital, Freddy had stopped mumbling. He’d groaned once or twice, and then he’d been disturbingly quiet. While Hannah had been hoping that Freddy would calm down and stop mumbling, his total silence had been worse. Hannah had tromped on the accelerator and prayed that he’d only lost consciousness and not died.

  By the time she pulled up at the doors of the emergency room, Hannah was shaking like a leaf. She flicked her lights and honked her horn to let the E.R. staff know that she’d arrived, and then she cut her engine and leaned back in her seat, watching as the emergency room crew loaded Freddy on a stretcher.

  Hannah sat for a few minutes, just working to get her breathing back to normal. When her legs had stopped shaking and she felt able to walk, she got out of her truck and went inside to the nurses’ desk. “I just brought in Freddy Sawyer,” she told the stern-looking older nurse who was behind the desk. “Is he…alive?”

  “Yes. Doctor Knight’s with him right now.”

  “Did he say anything about Freddy’s condition?”

  “It’s borderline critical and they’re working to stabilize the patient. Doctor said to tell you that you did your part and you should go home and get some rest.”

  “No way,” Hannah said, shaking her head. “I got Freddy this far and I’m not leaving now.”

  The nurse smiled and she looked much less forbidding. “Doctor said you’d say that, and he’ll come to talk to you as soon as he can. That might be a while. He’s pretty backed up.”

  “From the accident out on the highway?”

  “They called in everyone from the staff and reserve list. I’m retired, but I came in to handle the intake desk. The big waiting room’s packed, but Doctor said you should use the small waiting room at the end of the hall. There’s a wall of vending machines near the door if you want something to eat or drink.”

  Armed with a Diet Coke, Hannah checked out the small waiting room. The hard plastic chairs didn’t look appealing so she used the pay phone in the hall to call Delores and tell her that Freddy was at the hospital and Doc Knight was treating him.

  “We located Jed,” Delores told her, “and the poor boy was beside himself. He said that Freddy was with him all day, but they got separated in the crowd when the fireworks started and he couldn’t find him anywhere.”

  “Is he coming out here?” Hannah asked.

  “He’s on his way. He said you’re a hero for saving Freddy’s life, but of course he meant heroine.”

  The words had no sooner left Delores’s mouth than the door to the emergency room opened and Jed rushed in. “Jed’s here, Mother. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back when I know more about Freddy’s condition.”

  “Just a minute. Edna said to tell you it was a tree.”

  Hannah was about to ask what that meant when she saw Jed’s face. “I’ve got to go, Mother. Jed looks frantic.”

  Hannah hung up the phone and hurried over to Jed. “It’s okay, Jed. Doc Knight’s with Freddy right now.”

  “How is he?”

  “I don’t know for sure. Let’s go sit in the small waiting room. Doc Knight said he’d come and tell us more when he’s finished treating Freddy.”

  Jed followed Hannah to the waiting room and sat down in a chair across from hers. He was still clearly distraught. “I tried to keep an eye on Freddy, but I turned my back for just a second to talk to somebody. When I turned around again, he was nowhere in sight.”

  “Nobody’s blaming you, Jed. These things can happen.”

  “Yes, but I should have been more careful with him. Sometimes I forget he’s retarded, you know? Most of the time he acts almost normal.”

  Hannah didn’t know what to say to calm him down.

  “Your sister told me that Freddy was hurt real bad. How did it happen?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Couldn’t Freddy tell you?”

  “No, he was semiconscious when we found him and he didn’t respond to any of my questions. And on the way to the hospital all Freddy did was mumble about how mad you were at him.”

  Jed sighed. “I wasn’t real mad at him. I was just a little aggravated, you know? Freddy kept asking me if he could set off some firecrackers and I told him he couldn’t. After about the dozenth time he asked, I got a little fed up. I guess I should have had more patience with him.”

  “That’s hard to do sometimes.”

  “I know. I’d already explained that fireworks were dangerous and Freddy could burn himself. I said it over and over, every way I could think of, but he just didn’t get it.”

  Hannah decided it was time to take the bull by the horns. “I hate to mention this Jed, but when we loaded Freddy in my truck, he smelled like alcohol. Did he have anything to drink today?”

  “No! And I didn’t drink either, because I know it’s a bad influence on Freddy.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, but I’m almost positive that Freddy smelled of alcohol. My sister smelled it, too.”

  Jed was silent for a moment and then he sighed. “I know Freddy didn’t have anything when we were together, but maybe somebody gave him a beer or something after we got separated. Do you think he got drunk and hit his head on something?”

  “That’s certainly possible. We’ll know more when Doc Knight comes in to talk to us.”

  Hannah and Jed waited uneasily
and every so often one or the other of them would get up and pace across the tile floor of the waiting room. It was almost impossible to sit in the plastic chairs for long. They were so hard, they gave Hannah aches in places she didn’t even know she had.

  After about fifteen minutes of pacing and sitting, sitting and pacing, Doc Knight appeared in the doorway. “Hey, Hannah. Are you trying out for the paramedic spot I have open?”

  “No. Thanks anyway. This is Freddy’s cousin, Jed.”

  “We’ve met,” Doc Knight said, looking at Jed. “Freddy’s stable, but it’s very serious.”

  Jed gulped so loud Hannah could hear him. “But he’ll be all right though, won’t he?”

  “It’s too early to tell, but it doesn’t look as though his injuries are life threatening. They could have long-lasting results, though. Freddy took a massive blow to the head and I won’t be able to assess the extent of inter-cranial damage until the test results are in.”

  “Does it look like he fell and hit his head?” Jed asked.

  Doc Knight shook his head. “Not unless he fell off a tall building head-first. My guess is that someone hit him with a hard object like a tire iron that they wielded with considerable force.”

  “Freddy couldn’t tell you what happened?”

  “No, son. He was unconscious when Hannah brought him in. Freddy won’t be doing any talking for a while.”

  “Poor Freddy!” Jed looked extremely distressed. “Can I see him?”

  “Come with me.”

  Hannah followed Jed and Doc Knight down the hospital corridor even though Jed had been the one to ask to see Freddy. They hadn’t told her she couldn’t come along, so she convinced herself that it was all right. Hannah knew she’d rest easier tonight if she saw Freddy and he looked better than he had when they’d loaded him in the back of her truck.