-26- "You concentrate on the Connie Mac people," Hannah told her sister after they'd reentered the inn and removed their coats and boots. "Most of them will be out at the mall, but you might find a few who stayed here. I'll talk to the maids and whoever was manning the front desk last night."
Andrea pulled her organizer out of her purse and flipped through it. "I've got my list of questions about Connie Mac. DO you want me to ask them anything about Alan?"
"Yes, but you can't say that he's dead."
"I know. I'll just tell them I'm looking for him and I can't seem to find him. I'll ask them if they saw him today."
"They didn't. You know that already."
"I know, but that'll lead me into my next question. They'll tell me about the last time they saw him and they won't even guess that that's what I was really after in the first place."
Hannah gazed at her sister in admiration. "You're really good at this, you know?"
"Do you really think so?"
"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."
"That's true. You never say anything you don't mean. Sometimes I wish I had the luxury, but. . ."
"But you're a real estate agent." Hannah finished the sentence for her and they both laughed.
"Sometimes it bothers me a little," Andrea admitted, "but I'd lose a sale if I told a prospective buyer that the roof would probably leak within the first three years or the plumbing might need to be replaced."
"Caveat emptor??
"I know what that means, Hannah. It's 'let the buyer beware.' I guess it's true to a certain extent, but I don't actually lie about anything. If they ask me straight out, I tell them. I just don't volunteer the negative things, that's all: And don't think you're so smart just because you know Latin. I picked up a few phrases in real estate school."
"Like what?" Hannah challenged.
"Like Illegitami non carborundum."
Hannah translated that in a flash. She wasn't certain that the syntax and word order were correct, but the meaning was clear and she stared at her sister in shock. "Do you know what that means?"
"Of course. It's 'Don't let the client grind you down.' Our instructor at school had it stamped on his briefcase and I asked him about it."
"I see," Hannah said hiding a grin. It was obvious that Andrea's teacher hadn't wanted to tell her the literal meaning of illegitami. "Let's get a move on, Andrea. Bill and Mike could be here any minute, and I don't want them to catch us asking questions."
The two sisters parted ways at the bottom of the staircase: Andrea went up, and Hannah headed for Sally's office. When she got there, Alex Matthews was just leaving.
"I'm glad I caught you, Hannah." Alex gave her a big smile. "I cleared it with Sally and if it's all right with you, I'm going to give Janie a ride to your condo and help her pack up her things."
Hannah was puzzled. "That's fine with me, but why?"
"Janie's moving back into her room out here. She spoke to Paul on the phone and he told her that he couldn't get along without her. He even gave her a raise to make up for all the trouble that horrible woman caused her."
"I'm glad to hear it, but I'm going to miss her."
"That's exactly what she said. You're one of her favorite friends, Hannah. Thank you so much for helping her."
"Hannah?" Sally hailed her from the open doorway. "Come in and shut the door. I've got some news for you."
Hannah walked in and took the chair in front of Sally's desk. "I've got news for you, too. We found Alan's car and it's been out there all night. We figure he was killed between midnight and four this morning, give or take half an hour."
"Well, that's one mystery solved. It explains why he never picked up his prune Danish,? Sally said, and she sighed deeply.
"Don't think about that," Hannah advised, and then she started to frown. Whenever someone told her not to think about something, it had quite the opposite effect. Once she knew she shouldn't dwell on something, it took on even more importance in her mind. Rather than try to take back her advice, which was impossible anyway, she decided to enlist Sally's help on the one aspect of Alan's death that they could do something about. "I need your help, Sally. What was Alan wearing when you saw him in the bar last night?"
"A gray suit with a light-blue shirt. He was carrying a black overcoat when he came in and he put it down on an empty barstool. Was that what he was wearing when you found him?"
Hannah shook her head, deciding not to go into detail. Sally didn't need a mental picture of how Alan had looked when they'd pulled him from the icy water. "He must have gone up to his room to change clothes. You said you had news. What is it?"
"I checked with the maid who took care of Alan's room, and his bed hadn't been slept in. Do you think he was killed while he was out on his walk?"
"It's beginning to sound that way. I need a list of your night people, Sally. I have to find out if anyone saw Alan last night."
"They didn't. I already checked. And I talked to Chris. He's the college kid I hired to man the front desk from ten to six. He said Alan walked out the door at a quarter past midnight, and he wasn't back when Chris left at six."
"Didn't he think that was odd?"
"No, he figured that Alan had driven out to the mall. Alan did that sometimes. There were a couple of nights when he left here at ten-thirty or eleven at night and went out to the boutique to work. He told Chris that there were too many distractions during the day and he got his best work done in the middle of the night."
"That makes sense to me," Hannah said. She'd pulled her share of all-nighters at The Cookie Jar with Lisa, especially in December when the parties were plentiful and they'd booked back-to-back catering events.
"I have a piece of good news," Sally said.
"Let's hear it. I could use some good news about now."
"Dick called me a couple of minutes ago and his mother came through the surgery just fine. They've already got her sitting up in bed."
"That's great," Hannah said, "and it must be a huge relief for Dick."
"Oh, it is. He's been worried sick. His mother's not young, you know. When he called, I knew everything was fine before he even told me."
"By the tone of his voice?" Hannah guessed.
"He sounded relaxed for the first time in almost a week. And that reminds me: he wanted to know everything that was happening here."
"You didn't tell him about Alan, did you?"
"Of course not. I could trust him not to say anything. That's not the problem. But he sounded so upbeat, I didn't want to say anything to change that. I told him about Greg Canfield, though. That was all right, wasn't it?"
Hannah shrugged. "Why not? Greg didn't tell me to keep it a secret."
"I mentioned that he made a real killing in the market, and Dick was really glad for him. But I must have gotten the name of the stock wrong. What was it again?"
"Redlines."
"That's what I told him, but Dick pulled Redlines up on his laptop while we were talking and he said it peaked about six months ago. Then the stock started dropping and the company went bankrupt at the end of last month."
Hannah frowned. That certainly didn't match what Greg had told her. "Is Dick sure?"
"Positive. He checked the history of the stock for me. About a week before Redlines hit rock bottom, there were rumors about a new infusion of foreign cash. Some investors bought in on the strength of the rumors, but it never happened and they all lost their shirts."
Hannah's frown grew deeper. She was positive that Greg had told her he'd invested in Redlines.
"You must have gotten the name wrong. Dick said there was no way anybody could have made any money on Redlines unless they bought when it first went public and sold at the peak six months ago."
Hannah thanked Sally for all she'd done and left her office thoroughly puzzled. Greg had told her he'd more than tripled his money on Redlines, and he'd lied to her. Was that because he was too embarrassed to admit that he'd made a bad investment?
There was a pay phone at the end of the hall, and instead of turning off at the entrance to the dining room, where she was supposed to meet Andrea, Hannah kept on walking and dug into the bottom of her purse for change. Sally had done all the legwork for her, and she still had forty-five minutes before she hooked up with her sister. There was no time like the present to talk to Greg about Redlines. She'd call him right now and ask him why he hadn't trusted her enough to tell her the truth.
One of Sally's waitresses headed for Hannah's table with the coffee carafe, but Hannah smiled and waved her away. She'd had four cups already and that was enough, even for her. She picked up a french fry and dipped it into the side of blue cheese dressing she'd ordered. French fries and blue cheese dressing was one of her favorite treats. Sally's french fries were perfect, golden brown and crisp on the outside and made from real, hand-peeled potatoes. Her blue cheese dressing was also made from scratch, with chunks of tasty Roquefort blended with heavy cream. Normally Hannah would have been in hog heaven, but today even the tastiest food had lost its appeal. There were too many questions buzzing in her mind, and her brain felt like a mixer that had gone into warp speed.
As she munched, Hannah tried to concentrate on the most important question. Who had murdered Connie Mac and Alan? She'd eliminated a lot of suspects, but she was no closer to solving the crimes than when she'd started.
The second question concerned Andrea's pregnancy. Was she putting her sister and unborn baby in jeopardy by agreeing to let Andrea help with the murder investigations? Andrea didn't know that she was pregnant, and she'd gotten a little hot under the collar the second time that Hannah had brought it up. That subject was obviously off limits, and other than driving to Lake Eden Neighborhood Pharmacy, buying a home pregnancy test, and forcing Andrea to, use it, Hannah really couldn't confirm what she strongly suspected. She could always come up with an excuse to exclude Andrea from the sleuthing, but she'd be jeopardizing their friendship. And if it turned out that Andrea wasn't pregnant, her sister would never forgive her.
In addition to these problems, there were other questions of lesser importance. Some were minor. Did Mayor Bascomb really have a new girlfriend? How had Alex and Janie become such good friends on such short acquaintance? Was Francine going to get Sally and Dick in trouble by dressing up and pretending to be Ezekiel Jordan's ghost?
A final question, one that was very important, almost overshadowed Hannah's murder investigation. What was going on with Greg Canfield? Something was very wrong, and Hannah would be a lousy friend if she didn't even try to help him.
Greg hadn't been home when she'd called, but she'd spoken to his grandmother. The information that Mrs. Canfield had given her had caused Hannah to worry about Greg even more. Greg had claimed that he was trading stock on-line, but his computer had been broken for over two weeks. He'd said he'd tripled his money on Redlines, but the company had gone bankrupt. He'd also said that he'd paid off his creditors, but his former suppliers wouldn't be leaving urgent messages with his grandmother on a Sunday afternoon if that were true. As if all that weren't enough to handle, Mrs. Canfield was convinced that Annette had left Greg for good. She'd seen the packet of legal papers that had arrived for him last week from a family law firm in Denver.
Even though Greg's financial and personal world was crashing down around his ears, Hannah's immediate concern was for his safety. When he'd left the condo this afternoon, he'd told his grandmother that he was going to gas up his car and come right back. That had been almost three hours ago, and Hannah could understand why Mrs. Canfield was get- ting worried. There had been two murders in Lake Eden already and the killer was still out there. Hannah hoped that she was just borrowing trouble, but she was glad she'd told Mrs. Canfield to leave a message for her at the inn the moment that Greg walked in the door.