Part 2 (2/2)
Edna followed her back to the kitchen and she gasped when Hannah lifted the lid on the box. ”Just look at that! Those are real pretty, Hannah.”
”I think so, too.” Hannah smiled as she arranged the cookies on a tray. Lisa had piped on yellow and blue frosting in the shape of the Boy Scout logo. ”Lisa Herman did the decorations. She's getting to be an expert with the pastry bag.”
”Lisa's real talented. I swear that girl could do anything she put her mind to. It's just a pity she had to give up college to take care of her father.”
”I know. Her older brothers and sisters wanted to put him in a nursing home, but Lisa didn't think that was right.” Hannah handed Edna a box with small blue paper plates, gold napkins, and blue plastic cups. ”You take this. I'll bring the cookies.”
It didn't take long to arrange the plates, cups, and napkins on the table. Once everything was done, they went back into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. They were sitting at the square wooden table in the corner of the kitchen, waiting for the Scouts to arrive, when Edna gave another long sigh. ”It's just such a pity, that's all.”
”You mean about Ron?”
”Yes. That poor boy was running himself ragged with those routes of his. He was putting in a sixty-hour week and Max doesn't pay overtime. It was getting to him.”
”Did Ron tell you that?”
Edna shook her head. ”Betty Jackson did. She was there when Ron asked Max for an a.s.sistant. That was over six months ago, but Max was too cheap to put anyone else on the payroll.”
Hannah knew. Max Turner had the reputation for pinching a penny until it screamed in pain. For someone who was rumored to have money to burn, he certainly didn't live the part. Max drove a new car, but that was his only luxury. He still lived in his parents' old house in back of the Cozy Cow Dairy. He'd fixed it up some, but that had been necessary. It would have fallen down around his ears if he hadn't.
”I just think it's a shame that Ron had to die on the day that he finally got his a.s.sistant.”
”Ron had an a.s.sistant?” Hannah turned to look at Edna in surprise. ”How do you know that?”
”I keep out a jar of instant coffee for Ron. He always liked something to warm him up after he came out of the cooler. There were two two coffee cups on the counter when I came in this morning so I figured he finally got his a.s.sistant. But I never thought that Max would hire a woman!” coffee cups on the counter when I came in this morning so I figured he finally got his a.s.sistant. But I never thought that Max would hire a woman!”
Hannah felt her adrenaline start to pump. Ron's new a.s.sistant might have witnessed his murder. ”You're sure that Ron's a.s.sistant was a woman?”
”There was lipstick on the cup. She must have been young because it was bright pink and that color looks terrible on someone our age.”
Hannah bristled at being lumped in a category with a woman who was at least twenty years older than she was. She had half a notion to remind Edna of that, but it might be counterproductive. ”Did you wash the cups, Edna?”
”Nope. I threw them in the trash.”
”You threw them in the trash trash?”
Edna laughed at Hannah's astonished expression. ”They were the disposable kind.”
”They could be evidence,” Hannah informed her, and Edna's laugh died a quick death. ”Bill's in charge of the investigation and he'll need to see them.”
Hannah turned and headed for the wastebasket by the sink, but before she could start to rummage inside, Edna stopped her. ”Mr. Hodges emptied my trash right after lunch. I'm really sorry, Hannah. I never would have thrown them away if I'd known that they were important.”
Hannah realized she'd been abrupt. ”That's okay. Just tell me what Mr. Hodges does with the trash.”
”He throws it all in that big orange Dumpster in the parking lot. Somebody's going to have to dig through it before it gets hauled away.”
”What time does that happen?”
”Around five.”
Hannah muttered a curse under her breath. She couldn't stand by and let the trash truck haul away important evidence. She'd try to reach Bill, but if he wasn't here by the time the awards banquet was over, she'd have to go through the trash bags herself.
”Great job, Hannah!” Gil Surma, the Lake Eden scoutmaster and Jordan High counselor, gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. ”It's a good thing you brought extra cookies. I never thought that eighteen boys could eat seven dozen.”
”That's less than five apiece and they're growing boys. I just figured that since I was catering a Boy Scout banquet, I'd better live up to the Boy Scout motto.”
It took Gil a minute. As Hannah watched, the corners of Gil's eyes began to crinkle and he chuckled. ”You mean, 'Be Prepared'? That's very clever.”
Hannah smiled and carried the punchbowl out to the kitchen. When she came back, Gil was still there. ”You don't have to stay, Gil. I can clean up.”
”No, I'll help you.” Gil began to gather up the plastic cups and plates and toss them into the trash. ”Hannah?”
”Yes, Gil.” Hannah paused to stare at him. Gil looked very earnest.
”You found Ron, didn't you?”
Hannah sighed. Everyone she met wanted to know something about Ron. She was becoming a local celebrity, but being catapulted to instant fame by virtue of Ron's murder made her feel rotten. ”Yes, Gil. I found him.”
”That must have been very upsetting for you.”
”It wasn't exactly my idea of fun.”
”I was just thinking...that's a terrible thing you had to go through and you might want to talk to someone about it. My office door is always open, Hannah. And I'll do my best to help you through this.”
Hannah wanted to tell him that she didn't need a shrink. Even if she did, a Jordan High counselor who dealt with the heartbreak of acne and dateless Sat.u.r.day nights wouldn't be the shrink she'd choose. But then she reminded herself that she'd vowed to be tactful, and she took a deep breath, preparing to lie through her teeth. ”Thanks for the offer, Gil. If I need to talk to somebody about it, you'll be my first choice.”
Edna had left by the time Hannah had packed up her supplies and carted them out to her Suburban. She'd tried to call Bill several times, but she'd been told that Bill was out in the field and couldn't be reached. Hannah glanced at her watch. She'd promised Lisa that she'd be back by four, and she had only five minutes to make it. But finding the cup with lipstick was more important than getting back to The Cookie Jar on time.
Hannah glanced down at her best dress slacks and sweater set. She was catering the mayor's party tonight and she'd planned to wear it.
The knit outfit was light beige, but it was washable. Giving a little groan for the load of laundry she'd have to do the moment she got home, Hannah pushed up her sweater sleeves and marched to the Dumpster, girding her loins to do battle with the cafeteria leftovers that awaited her.
The Dumpster was huge. Hannah wrinkled her nose at the stench that rolled out of the metal bin and muttered a curse. The lip of the container came up above her armpits and there was no way that she could lift all the bags out to examine them. Muttering another curse, a more colorful one this time, Hannah walked back to her Suburban and drove it up nose-to-nose with the front of the trash bin. Then she clambered up on the candy-apple red hood and reached into the Dumpster to pull up the first trash bag.
Her first attempt yielded wadded napkins, globs of b.u.t.terscotch pudding, and clumps of something brown that looked like beef stew. At least she knew what the students had eaten for lunch. Hannah was about to haul up the second bag when she remembered that the kitchen wastebasket had been lined with a smaller green plastic bag. She stretched out over the hood and lifted the black bags one by one, dragging them over to one side. Near the bottom-she should have known that it would be on the bottom-she saw one lone green bag.
Even though she scrunched forward until her entire upper body was hanging over the edge of the Dumpster, the tips of her fingers were still a good three inches from the top of the green bag. Hannah sighed and then she did what any good sister-in-law and dedicated amateur detective would do. She turned around to dangle her legs over the lip of the metal bin, took a deep steadying breath, and slid down into the bowels of the Dumpster.
Now that she was on the inside, grabbing the green trash bag was simple. Climbing back out of the Dumpster wasn't. Hannah had to stack the big black bags in a pile so that she could scramble up on top of them, using them like a slippery and squishy staircase. One bag broke under her weight and she groaned as her shoes sank down into a mora.s.s of stew. By the time she emerged from the malodorous depths and pulled herself back up on the hood of her Suburban again, Hannah knew that she smelled every bit as bad as she looked.
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