Carrot Cake Murder Part 30

"That was the one with the black Steiff bear, wasn't it, Carrie?" Delores asked.

"Yes. And the heart-shaped jewelry box with real diamonds and rubies on the top. There was a signed Ansel Adams, too."

"Maybe I'd better tell why I'm asking," Hannah said. And she proceeded to tell them part of what Norman had uncovered in Atlantic City. Naturally, she didn't mention Mood Indigo's true character. She just said that it wasn't a fancy nightclub the way Gus had described it to them. In her version of events, Mood Indigo was merely a cheap bar, and Alison was Gus's manager.

"So that's why I need to know what was on the show," Hannah wound up her story. "Gus's manager said they watched the show together, and then he told her that he had to go back to Lake Eden because he'd left something there that was worth a whole lot of money."

"And Norman uncovered all that?" Carrie asked, looking very proud of her son.

"Yes, he did," Hannah told her.

"Maybe he should have gone into the detective business. He certainly seems to be good at it."

"Don't even say something like that!" Delores warned her. "Just think of how you'd worry if Norman had to chase around after dangerous criminals."

"You're right," Carrie said, giving a little nod. "I didn't even think of that part of it."

Hannah decided it was time to get off that train of thought before Delores remembered that her own daughter had come into contact with the very same criminals she was warning Carrie against. "Anyway, we're sure that Gus came back here to get something valuable he left behind. I know he went through some of his old things. That night at the dance, he was talking about going through the trunk in Lisa's attic and looking for keepsakes from his childhood. He said he took a teddy bear and the baseball bat he used in high school."

"Maybe the bear was a Steiff," Carrie suggested. "A genuine nineteen-oh-seven black alpaca Steiff was worth a fortune, and it wasn't even in mint condition."

Delores agreed. "There's the bat, too. It could have been signed by a famous baseball player."

"But there weren't any baseball bats on that episode," Carrie reminded her. "There was the young boy with the baseball cards, but no bats."

Hannah realized that they were getting nowhere fast. "Let's go find Marge and Patsy," she said. "You can tell them what items were on the show, and they can tell us if they think Gus might have had something like that in his old room."

They sat around the kitchen table in the cottage where Marge and Jack were staying, sipping fresh coffee that Marge had just made. A plate of the Red Velvet Cookies Hannah had baked for Jack sat in the center of the table, contributed by Jack before Tim had come to take him off to the softball game.

"A Steiff bear?" Marge exchanged glances with Patsy and they both burst out laughing.

"Believe me, it wasn't an antique Steiff!" Patsy said, still chuckling. "The bear Gus took was from Uncle Carl's Five and Dime. Aunt Minnie and Uncle Carl gave every one of us a teddy bear when we were born."

Hannah listened while her mother and Carrie described the items on the show. She was amazed at how much they remembered, but Marge and Patsy kept shaking their heads.

"And then there were the baseball cards the little boy brought in," Delores said.

"They were appraised at eight hundred dollars for insurance purposes, but you wouldn't get more than half of that if you sold them at auction," Carrie said. "That wouldn't be enough to bring Gus back to Lake Eden, would it?"

Marge shook her head. "He spent more than that while he was here. Gus treated over twenty relatives to champagne brunch, and that didn't come cheap."

"Gus did have Grandpa's baseball cards, though," Patsy reminded her. "Dad gave them to him when he made the team at Jordan High."

"He didn't happen to have...I mean...it's not possible that there was actually a...um...do you remember if he had..."

"Wait!" Hannah interrupted her mother. Delores was so excited she couldn't seem to get the words out. "Take a deep breath, Mother. And then tell us what you're trying to say."

Delores took a deep breath. And then she exhaled with a whoosh. "Honus Wagner," she said.

"You're right!" Carrie's mouth dropped open for a moment, and then she closed it with a snap.

"After the little boy left with his baseball cards, the appraiser mentioned that there was a holy grail of baseball cards. That's what he called it. The last time that card came up for auction, it sold for over two million dollars."

Patsy made a little sound, and they all turned to gaze at her. She looked dazed, almost as if someone had bopped her over the head.

"What is it?" Hannah asked her.

Patsy just sat there motionless, staring at the wall and not blinking. Hannah was wondering if she should call for medical help, but then she seemed to snap out of it.

"Oh, my!" she said. "It's just...I think I remember that card. Honus Wagner is a really unusual name."

"Do you remember what the card looked like?" Delores asked her.

"I'm...I'm not sure. It's been over thirty years, but..." Patsy stopped and took a deep breath. "I think it had a picture of short-haired man with a black collar and "PITTS-BURGH" written across his chest in block letters."

"That's it!" Carrie shouted.

And at almost the same time, Delores exclaimed, "Gus actually has a Honus Wagner baseball card?"

"Had one," Hannah reminded her mother.

Marge drew in her breath sharply. "Do you think that's the reason Gus was killed? For the baseball card, I mean?"

"It could be," Hannah told her. "If it's worth that much money and the killer knew it, it's certainly a compelling reason."

"Then that means the killer has the Honus Wagner card!" Carrie looked very excited. "If we can find the Honus Wagner card, we'll find the killer!"

Hannah knew she could punch several elephant-sized holes in Carrie's logic, but she chose to refrain. What Carrie had said would work to her advantage.

"The killer doesn't know we found out about the card," Hannah told them. "And that means we can't breathe a word about it."

"Because anybody here could be the killer?" Delores guessed.

"Exactly. And even if you tell someone you know couldn't possibly be the killer, news like this is bound to get out. Just one wrong word could do it. Or even a suspicious reaction to something someone says. And if you actually mention it, someone could overhear you, or the person you tell could inadvertently let something slip. We have to keep our guard up and pretend we don't know a thing about it."

"Very true," Delores said with a nod. "Your father used to say that three men can keep a secret, but only if two of them are dead."

That lightened things up a little, but Hannah wasn't through. She had a plan, and she wasn't about to let loose tongues ruin it.

"Just think about how wonderful it'll be if we can recover that baseball card," she said. "I'm sure Mother and Carrie would be happy to help you sell it."

"Of course we would!" Delores said quickly.

"Naturally," Carried echoed. "And since we're friends, our fee would be just a tiny bit of what some antique dealer who didn't know you would charge."

"Of course all that goes up in smoke if the killer gets a whiff of what we know," Hannah reminded them. "It would be a real pity if he tossed a two-million-dollar Honus Wagner card in the lake to keep from being incriminated!"

There were collective sighs around the table. Patsy and Marge exchanged glances, and Hannah knew they'd keep mum. Carrie and Delores would, too, especially since she'd reminded them of the stakes. If the killer thought that they were hot on his trail and ditched the Honus Wagner card, they could be the antique dealers who'd lost the sale.

"Let's meet right here after the talent show," Hannah said. "Mich.e.l.le, Andrea, and I won't be there. We're going to come up with a plan to smoke out the killer, and that's when I'll tell you about it."

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

The mosquito lotion had been slathered on, her coffee cup had been filled, her cell phone was in her hand, and Hannah sat on the end of the dock at their family cottage. To call, or not to call...that was the question. She'd made that infernal promise to Norman, not once, but twice. If what they were planning to do was dangerous, she was honor bound to tell Mike. But was it dangerous? Hannah wanted to believe it wasn't, but they were about to search the cottages. The thief who had the two-million-dollar Honus Wagner card had already killed once to get it. There was no reason to doubt that he'd kill again to keep it!

She had to tell Mike. Hannah punched in his number and waited for her call to connect. She half-hoped he wouldn't answer, but of course he did.

"Hi, Hannah," Mike said, before she could even open her mouth.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I could tell by your ring tone."

Prudence warred with curiosity, and curiosity won out. "What's my ring tone?" she asked.

"Oh. Well...actually it's...an old Beatles song that I like."

Mike sounded embarra.s.sed, and Hannah couldn't resist following up. "What's the name of the old Beatles song?"

"'Here Comes The Sun.'"

"Why did you choose that one for me?" Hannah asked, although she was secretly relieved that it hadn't been "Eleanor Rigby."

"It's kind of crazy, but whenever I'm around you, I feel like the sun is s.h.i.+ning. Whether it is or not, I mean."

Hannah came close to tearing up, it was so sweet. She really didn't know how to respond, but she was saved by an electronic beeping that came over the line.

"Can you hold on a second?" Mike asked. "That's Lonnie, and he's out in the field."

Hannah told him she would, and she sat there contemplating the dusk. The sun had gone down, but the moon appeared brilliant tonight, looming over the opposite sh.o.r.e like a huge silver globe in the sky. It was a full moon, or very close to it, and Hannah thought that if she had a book or a magazine, she could probably read it in this light.

"Sorry about that." Mike came back on the line. "Lonnie's at Bertanelli's Pizza to check on Bert's alibi, but Bert and Ellie took the night off."

"They're out here at the lake for the children's talent show," Hannah told him.

"Thanks. I'll call Lonnie back and send him out."

"Don't bother. Andrea and I checked it out when we were in there for lunch today, and Bert had an ironclad alibi."

"But Bert wasn't there. I asked. That's the only reason I took Ronni out to lunch."

I'll bet! Hannah thought, but of course she didn't say it. She was still too flattered at learning the ring tone Mike had chosen for her.

"How did you substantiate his alibi?" Mike continued, and Hannah knew he'd opened his notebook and was sitting there, pen poised to write down what she said.

"We talked to the head waitress. When they checked the tape from the register after they closed at midnight, it didn't match the total from the order slips. The head waitress, Bert, and Ellie were there until a quarter to three in the morning, looking for the error."

"Bert was there the whole time?"

"Yes. You can cross him off your list." Hannah decided it was time for a gentle nudge. "If you'd mentioned that you suspected him, I would have told you to cross him off right away."

Mike sighed. "My mistake. What else did you find out?"

"Some things you probably know already."

"Like what?"

"Like Gus didn't own any upscale nightclubs. Mood Indigo is a strip joint, and he lives in a little apartment with one of his dancers."

"How did you...?"

"Never mind," Hannah cut off the question. If he didn't ask it, she didn't have to answer it.

"Okay. What else do you know?"

"He changed his name to Grant Kennedy."

"We knew that. It was on his driver's license."

Hannah wanted to ask why he hadn't told her, but she figured she'd just get the runaround again. "Gus borrowed money from some well-connected thugs who have some scary ways of collecting."

"That figures. Go on."

"The night he left Atlantic City, Gus and his girlfriend were watching the Antiques Show, the one where they do the appraisals. She said that before it was over, he got up and started packing a suitcase. And he said that he left something valuable in Lake Eden, something that could get him out of money trouble, and he had to go back and get it."

"Of course!" Mike sounded amazed that he hadn't thought of that himself. "He came back to Lake Eden to get the Honus Wagner trading card. Our appraiser said it was worth over two million."

Hannah gulped audibly. "You know about the Honus Wagner baseball card?"

"Sure. We've got it in the evidence room. It was with a bunch of other baseball cards in his suitcase."

"And you didn't tell me about it?" Hannah began to do a slow burn.

"It's evidence, Hannah. I can't give you a list of the evidence unless you're a sworn peace officer."

Hannah counted to three. And then, because she was still seeing red, she counted on to ten. She should have known that Mike wouldn't bend any rules for her. "Do you think Gus was killed for the Honus Wagner card?" she asked.

"I doubt it. If the killer knew about it, he would have searched the cottage, looked in the open suitcase, and grabbed the card. It may be the reason the victim came back to Lake Eden, but it wasn't the reason he was killed."

"Do you have any idea why he was killed then?"