Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Part 8

Hannah smiled. "I'm really glad they went over so well. Lisa worked a long time on the recipe."

"They're Lisa's?" Andrea looked surprised. "That's funny. She didn't say a word about it to me."

"She wouldn't. Lisa's still a little shy about her baking."

"Well, she doesn't have to be. These are winners." Andrea reached for another cookie.

"What brings you in, Andrea?" Hannah mentally prepared herself for another sibling crisis. "I just got off the phone with Bill and he sounded fine. Tracey's okay, isn't she?"

"Tracey's fine. Everything's fine. I don't have another showing until three and I just dropped in to say h.e.l.lo."

Hannah raised her eyebrows. Andrea never just dropped in. just dropped in. "I'm busy tonight, but I can be home by eight-thirty. Is that too late to drop Tracey off?" "I'm busy tonight, but I can be home by eight-thirty. Is that too late to drop Tracey off?"

"Why would I want to drop Tracey off?" Andrea looked confused. "What are you talking about, Hannah?"

"You don't need a sitter tonight?"

"No." A dull flush rose to Andrea's cheeks. "I've really been taking advantage of you, haven't I?"

"Of course not." Hannah shook her head. "I enjoy spending time with Tracey. She's a great kid."

"I know, but when I came in, you just a.s.sumed that I needed something. I'm not a very good sister, Hannah. I take and I take, but I never give back."

Hannah was uncomfortable. This was getting altogether too serious to suit her. "Oh yeah? You urged me to open The Cookie Jar. I'd call that giving back in spades."

"You're right. I did did suggest it." Andrea looked pleased for a moment. "But I really should do more for you, Hannah. You help me out all the time and I never know how to return the favor. If you'd just ask me for something, I'd do it." suggest it." Andrea looked pleased for a moment. "But I really should do more for you, Hannah. You help me out all the time and I never know how to return the favor. If you'd just ask me for something, I'd do it."

Suddenly Hannah had a brilliant thought. "That's about to change. If you really want to do something for me, you can come along with me to the dentist. My appointment's at one."

"Of course I'll come, but I didn't know you were afraid to go to the dentist."

"Believe me, I am," Hannah said with a grin, "especially when the dentist is Norman Rhodes."

Andrea's mouth dropped open. "But Mother said she tried to set you up with him! Why are you letting him work on your teeth?"

"I'm not. Right before Ron was killed, he had an appointment with Norman. I called him this morning and he confirmed that he'd seen Ron, but he refused to discuss it on the phone. He said he'd tell me all about it if I met him for lunch at his office."

Andrea lifted her eyebrows. "Very sneaky. And you're afraid that he's using this opportunity to put the moves on you?"

"No, that's not it. He seemed genuinely nice on the phone, but I don't really want to be alone with him."

"Why not? Unless..." Andrea stopped speaking and her eyes widened. "Do you think Norman's a suspect suspect?"

Hannah shrugged. "No, but I can't entirely rule that out. Norman was one of the last people to see Ron alive, and I won't know if he's got an alibi until I ask him."

"I'll go with you," Andrea agreed quickly. "He can't try anything with both of us there. And while you're having lunch and grilling him about Ron, I'll snoop around to see if I can find any evidence."

"Uh...maybe that's not such a good idea, Andrea."

"Why? I'm a great snooper, Hannah. I used to snoop through Mother's things all the time and she never knew I did it. Besides, I'll be helping Bill, and a wife's supposed to help her husband."

"It could be risky, Andrea."

"Not if we work out a time schedule and stick to it. How long do you think you can keep him occupied?"

Hannah considered it seriously. "No more than twenty minutes."

"I've got to have longer than that. How about thirty?"

"Twenty-five and not a second more," Hannah said firmly. "I'll tell him I want to eat lunch in his office and your time starts the instant that I close the door."

"Okay. We'll synchronize our watches before we go in and I promise I won't get caught."

"I hope not. I think it's illegal." Hannah was already beginning to regret asking Andrea to go along.

"How can just looking through somebody's things be illegal? It's not like I'm going to steal anything, Hannah. If I find any evidence, I'll leave it right where it is and we can tell Bill."

"I'm still not sure this is such a good idea."

"Maybe it isn't, but we've got to do something to help Bill solve Ron's murder. He won't mind, not when I explain it to him. Is it a go?"

Hannah agreed reluctantly. If Bill ever found out that she'd allowed Andrea to snoop through Norman's office, he'd do more than mind. He'd kill her first and ask questions later.

Chapter Ten.

Hannah speared a piece of romaine lettuce with her fork and managed to glance at her watch. Only five minutes had pa.s.sed since she'd closed the door of Norman's private office and he'd already told her all about his appointment with Ron.

Norman's account hadn't held any surprises. Ron had come in complaining of pain and Norman had given him a shot of Xylocaine. Ron hadn't wanted to take the time to repair the tooth right then, but he'd promised to come back to Norman's office right after he'd finished his deliveries. Of course he hadn't come back. Ron had been killed before the shot had even begun to wear off.

"Did Ron seem nervous about anything?" Hannah asked another question from the mental list she'd prepared.

Norman chewed and swallowed. "Not really. He was anxious about getting back to work, but that was all."

"Did he tell you how he cracked his tooth?"

"He said he'd been in a fight, but I didn't press him for the details. Now I wish I had."

"That's okay, Norman." Hannah gave him her friendliest smile. "You didn't have any way of knowing that Ron was going to leave here and get himself shot."

"I guess not. I wish I'd paid more attention, though. I could have asked him more questions about it when I examined him. He was in the chair for at least twenty minutes."

"I don't think that would have done much good. With his mouth propped open and that little rubber sheet covering his tongue, he couldn't have told you very much."

"It's called a rubber dam," Norman corrected her, and there was a gleam of humor in his eyes. "You've got a point, Hannah. They taught us about conversing with patients in Dental Procedures 101. Never ask a question that can't be answered by Gghhh, Gghhh, or or Gghhh-Gghhh." Gghhh-Gghhh."

Hannah laughed. Norman's sense of humor was a pleasant surprise. Perhaps he wasn't so bad, after all. And he'd certainly spruced up his father's clinic. The inst.i.tutional green walls in the waiting room had been freshly painted with a coat of suns.h.i.+ne yellow, the dusty and faded venetian blinds had been replaced with tieback curtains in a sunflower print, and the old gray couch and hard-backed chairs had given way to a new set of matched furniture that would have looked good in any Lake Eden living room. The only things that hadn't changed were the copies of outdated magazines that were stacked in the new wooden magazine holder on the wall.

"You've done a lot with this place, Norman." Hannah glanced around Norman's office appreciatively. He'd kept his father's old desk, but it had been refinished with a light oak stain and there was a fresh coat of pale blue paint on the walls. She looked down at the darker blue wall-to-wall carpeting and asked a question that had nothing to do with Ron's murder. "Did you install this same carpeting in the examining rooms?"

Norman shook his head. "I couldn't. The floors in there have to be washable. I replaced the linoleum and painted the walls, but that's about it."

"How about the windows?"

"I ordered some fabric vertical blinds, but they haven't come in yet. And I'm looking for new artwork for the walls."

"That's good. That old Rockwell print of the boy in the dentist's waiting room used to scare me half to death when I was a kid."

"It scared me, too," Norman admitted with a grin. "He looked so miserable with that big white napkin tied around his jaw. I told Dad I didn't think it was a very good advertis.e.m.e.nt for painless dentistry, but he seemed to think that it was funny. Dental humor, I guess."

"Like, I got my tongue wrapped around my eyetooth and I couldn't see what I was saying?"

"That was one of Dad's favorites," Norman laughed and took another Pecan Chew from the bag that Hannah had brought. "These cookies are really good, Hannah."

"Thanks. Next time I'll leave on the sh.e.l.ls and you'll get lots of new patients."

"I've already got that covered, Hannah. I'm going to send out tins of taffy for the holidays with my office number printed on the lids."

Hannah laughed, but she reminded herself to get back on track with her questions. Norman seemed a lot different here in his office, and she was actually enjoying their visit. "Did you notice anything unusual about Ron when he came in? Anything at all?"

"No. I told you everything I could think of. I wish I could help you more, but Ron seemed like just an ordinary dental emergency to me."

"Will you call me right away if you remember anything else?"

"Sure," Norman agreed. "I know you're helping your brother-in-law solve the case, but I just don't have any more information to give you."

"Hold on, Norman. I haven't told anybody that I'm helping Bill. How did you guess?"

"n.o.body's that that nosy about a twenty-minute dental appointment," Norman pointed out. "And when your mother told me that your sister's husband was working on the case, I just put two and two together." nosy about a twenty-minute dental appointment," Norman pointed out. "And when your mother told me that your sister's husband was working on the case, I just put two and two together."

"Please don't tell anyone, Norman."

"Relax, Hannah. I won't give you away. Do you have any other questions for me? Or can I ask you my question?"

"There's one more." Hannah took a deep breath. She had to find out if Norman had an alibi for the time of Ron's death. "Did any other patients come in right after you treated Ron?"

"Just one. It was another fissured molar, but it was part of a bridge, so it was simple to repair. She was in and out in less than thirty minutes."

Hannah felt strangely relieved that Norman had an alibi. She was really beginning to like him. All she had to do was check with Norman's second patient of the morning and he'd be in the clear. "I need to know her name, Norman."

"You don't know?"

"How could I? Look, Norman, I know your patient list is confidential, but all I need is her name. I have to ask her if she saw Ron when she came in."

Norman began to grin. "I guess you haven't called your mother back yet."

"I called her. She wasn't home and I got her machine. What does my mother have to do with it?"

Norman's grin grew wider. "I thought she would have told you by now. Your mother was my second appointment."

"That's just great!" Hannah gave a deep sigh. "Mother left me a dozen messages saying that she had something important to tell me, but she's always always got something important to tell me. Did she talk to you about seeing Ron?" got something important to tell me. Did she talk to you about seeing Ron?"

"Yes, but she didn't actually see him. And she didn't realize it was important until she got home from the mayor's fund-raiser. She saw Ron's truck driving away when she parked in front of the office."

Hannah decided she would check with her mother at the Regency Romance Club meeting, but it seemed as if Norman had an ironclad alibi. If Delores had been with him, he couldn't have followed Ron and killed him. That made Hannah wish that there were some way to stop Andrea in midsnoop.

"Now, Hannah?"

"Now what?" Hannah looked up at him, startled.

"Are you ready to listen to my question now?"

"Of course I am. What is it, Norman?"

"I was in dental school when my parents moved here and I only came to vist a couple of times. I really don't know much about Lake Eden."

"There's not much to know." Hannah grinned.

"But I'm invited to the Woodleys' party and my mother says it's the social event of the year. She's never had the chance to go. Mom and Dad always took their vacation the last week in October and they were out of town. She says that I should go and try to promote new business for the clinic."

"Your mother's right. All the important people in Lake Eden are invited and it's a great party. I think you should go, Norman. You need to meet all the local families if you want your practice to be a success."

"Then I'll go. Tell me about the Woodleys. I've never met them."

Hannah sneaked a peek at her watch again and she was surprised to see that twenty minutes had already pa.s.sed. "Delano Raymond Woodley is one of the richest men in Lake Eden. He owns DelRay Manufacturing and the company employs over two hundred local workers."

"Delano?" Norman picked up on the name. "Is the Woodley family related to the Roosevelts?"

"No, but they'd like to be. From what I hear, Del's mother and father were strictly middle-cla.s.s. His mother just wanted to give him a famous name. It must have worked because Del married a Boston socialite. Her name is Judith and her family's in the social register."

"Judith, not Judy?"

Hannah laughed. "I called her Judy once and she nearly took my head off. She comes from 'old money,' but one of Mother's friends did some research and found out that Judith's father squandered it all away. All Judith has left is her social standing, and that's more important to her than anything."

"So he's a rich social climber and she's a dest.i.tute blue blood who married him for his money?"

"You got it. I couldn't have put it any better myself."

"You're going to their party, aren't you?"

Hannah thought of her new dress and smiled. "Of course I am. I do all right, but I'm still on a jug-wine and jelly-gla.s.s budget. This is my one chance to sip Dom Perignon out of fine crystal."

"Do you have a date?"