Chapter Twenty-Six
It looked like an ordinary office with a desk and desk chair, two less comfortable chairs sitting in front of it, and a filing cabinet. There was a mirror on the wall opposite the door, perfectly placed to observe the door opening and see who was there if her back was turned. Somehow Hannah didn’t think the mirror’s placement was a lucky accident.
She closed the office door, dialed her own number, and got the answering machine. It was a little strange listening to her own voice on the outgoing message, and she found herself wishing she sounded a bit more businesslike. On the other hand, no one called her home phone for business, so casual was perfectly all right. If Lenny happened to pick up the phone behind the bar and listen in, he’d hear her talking and hang up. She hoped.
“Are you there, Norman?” she asked when her recorded voice stopped speaking and the beep sounded. “It’s me. If you’re there, pick up the phone.”
Of course Norman didn’t pick up the phone. She didn’t expect him to come to her condo because she hadn’t heard from him all day.
“I hope you get this message because we really have to talk about something,” she said, pulling out the first desk drawer. There was nothing there except pens, a ruler, and a telephone book. She paged through the telephone book as she told Norman that they needed to discuss his mother’s birthday present, but there were no marks by any of the names or any cryptic notes.
“Whatever you do, don’t tell her we’re getting together on this,” she said into the phone. And then she shut the center drawer and opened the top drawer on the right side.
The drawer was almost empty. There was absolutely nothing inside except a fake leather datebook. “I was thinking of perfume, but I don’t know which scent she prefers,” she said as she opened the datebook. It was filled with names and numbers, obviously the work schedule for the waitresses. Hannah closed it, put it back in the drawer, and tried the next drawer down.
“It seems to me I remember her wearing Chanel,” she said, choosing the first perfume name that came to mind, “but I don’t think it was number five. I saw a bottle in the guest bathroom once, and I think it was a different number.”
Rubber bands, paper chips, staples, and two kinds of tape. “I’d really hate to get her some brand she won’t wear. Everybody’s got favorites, you know. Maybe we’re better off with a really good silk scarf.”
Hannah closed the drawer. It contained nothing but office supplies. And then she opened the bottom drawer, the one that was intended to be a file cabinet.
There were no files inside. Instead, there was a leather pouch. “Or maybe we could find a nice dressy sweater, but you’re going to have to take a peek in her closet for the size. I’ll ask Mother, but she might not know.”
Hannah drew out the pouch. It was heavier than she expected it to be. She unzipped it and almost dropped the contents, she was so surprised.
“A gun,” she breathed, and then, when she realized that she still had the phone up to her mouth, she cleared her throat and said, “Again, you’ll have to get the size somehow. I don’t want to have to guess on something that important.”
Hannah stared down at the gun and frowned slightly. It was a thirty-eight revolver, and it couldn’t be the murder weapon. Mike had told her that the gun used to kill Paul was a twenty-two semiautomatic.
One-toe-over-the-line, Hannah thought as she zipped up the pouch and put it back exactly where she’d found it. Those were the words Lonnie’s Uncle Pat had used to describe Lenny. The gun was probably illegal, but she wasn’t here to nail him for illegal possession of a firearm. She was here to find out if he had the stolen jewels.
“The more I consider it, the more I think we should go more generic,” Hannah said. “Maybe we should get her a new watch. You said she’s always losing watches.”
A search of the file cabinet was next, and Hannah stretched out the phone cord and spoke of various brands of timepieces as she riffled through the three-drawer cabinet. There were papers, nothing but papers. Hannah didn’t bother to read any. She just shut the drawers after she inspected them and returned to the desk.
There was only one place left to look, and that was the bookcase against the wall. It contained video tapes in sleeves with numbers written on the spines. Some of the numbers were the same, but they had alphabetic extensions. This could refer to three episodes of a television series, but Hannah doubted it.
“Of course we could buy another type of jewelry,” she suggested as she walked over to the bookcase. She hadn’t seen any list of movies in any drawer she’d searched. Hannah pulled out a tape at random, number forty-three C. There was no videotape inside the sleeve. Instead of a movie, she found a packet of tissue paper with a string of pearls inside.
“Pearls!” she gasped, but she recovered quickly. “I just remembered that your mother loves pearls. That’s what we could get her for her birthday. Or maybe …” Hannah opened sleeve number twenty-seven, “… a nice cocktail ring.”
By the time she was through checking the tissue and jewelry inside the videotape sleeves, Hannah had tired of talking to her own answering machine about a gift for Carrie’s imaginary birthday.
“This would be easier in person, Norman,” she said. “I’m going to use up my whole answering machine tape if I keep on talking, so I’ll see you when I get home, okay?”
Once Hannah was back on her stool and Lenny was re-locking the office door, she leaned close to her sister. “Nothing,” she said. “Bill could get him on other things, like running a pawnshop without a license, but he’s not connected with that robbery in the Cities.”
“Oh, drat! I was hoping.”
“I know you were. I don’t know if I should be disappointed, or relieved. I like Lenny, but…Uh-oh!”
Andrea turned to look where Hannah was pointing and her eyes widened as she saw the guy in the red shirt and another, equally large man, facing off on the dance floor.
“I’ll get Mother, you get Michelle,” Hannah said sliding off her stool and heading toward the fracas as fast as she could.
“I’m right behind you,” Andrea said, racing to keep up with her older sister.
“Where’d they go?” Hannah asked as they reached the edge of the dance floor.
“I don’t know. They were right there a second ago…wait! There’s Mother!”
Andrea’s eyes widened as she saw their mother with her elbows pointing forward, swinging wildly from side to side. It was such an odd sight that everyone around her got out of her way as she scurried through the crowd.
“Michelle’s a few feet ahead of Mother,” Hannah said, catching a glimpse of Michelle’s sweater. “She’s doing the same thing with her elbows and everyone around them is falling back.”
“I didn’t know Mother could move that fast!” Andrea said, sounding shocked.
“It’s all about incentive,” Hannah told her. “Move fast and intimidate the rest of the crowd or you get stuck.”
“I’ll have to remember that for Macy’s next white sale,” Andrea commented. “Come on, Hannah. Let’s go meet them outside the door.”
Hannah and Andrea hurried toward the door, but before they got there, they heard the sound of beer bottles breaking and the thud of fists hitting their mark. Andrea turned to look back as they exited and let out a whistle.
“What?” Hannah asked her as they exited and the door closed behind them, muffling the noise.
“It’s a real brawl. I just saw the guy in the red shirt pick up two other guys and bash their heads together. And I thought that only happened in the movies!”
They found their youngest sibling and their mother next to Bud Hauge’s truck. Hannah marched up to them and asked the important question. “What happened?”
“Later,” Delores told her. “I have to get this truck back to Bud. Follow us there and pick us up. We’ll all go to Bertanelli’s to debrief.”
Debrief? Hannah’s mind repeated the word in the form of a question, but Hannah didn’t ask out loud. Pizza would be good, and she could wait. “Just tell me if you learned anything.”
“Oh, my yes!” Delores replied. “How about you?”
“I learned something,” Hannah answered, and then she turned to Andrea. “Did you find out anything else?”
“Of course I did. I know how to pump people for information.”
“To Bud’s house and then to Bertanelli’s,” Delores said, activating the keyless entry on Bud’s fancy truck. “I need to get my coat. This leather’s not as warm as I thought it would be.”
Forty-five minutes later, Hannah, Andrea, Michelle, and Delores were seated at one of the round tables at Bertanelli’s Pizza. Delores had dropped off the truck at Bud Hauge’s house, and they’d idled in front of their mother’s house while Delores had dashed in to change clothes. The black leather costume was now in a bag in the trunk of her sedan, awaiting return to the costume shop at the Tri-County Mall.
“So now will you tell us what the fight was about?” Hannah asked, once their waitress had written down their order and left.
“You first,” Delores replied, pointing at Andrea. “What did you discover, dear?”
“I found out where Lenny got the Sacagawea gold dollar. Silky, the waitress who delivered our horrible wine, took it in as a tip on Saturday night. Lenny cashed it in for her and he paid her two dollars for it.”
“Saturday night?” Michelle repeated what Andrea had said.
Andrea nodded. “That’s right. On Saturday night. I checked it out with Silky and she said the same thing.”
“If she got it on Saturday, it couldn’t have been a part of the church collection on Sunday.”
“That’s right,” Hannah said. “It’s just like Jon Walker said. It’s a coincidence.”
“Then Lenny’s in the clear?” Delores asked.
Hannah shook her head. “Not quite yet. We need to find out if he has an alibi.”
“He has,” Michelle said. “The guy I was dancing with said he went drinking with Lenny on Sunday night and they stayed out until three in the morning. Since Doc said Paul was killed between midnight and two, that means Lenny’s cleared.”
“It does,” Hannah agreed. “Thanks, Michelle. How about you, Mother?”
“You first, dear,” Delores said, taking a sip of her coffee. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go last.”
It cost her nothing to humor her mother, and Hannah didn’t really mind. “I found out that Lenny is running an illegal pawnshop from his office at the Eagle.” And then she proceeded to tell the story of how she’d come to look inside the videotape sleeves while she was leaving a message on her own answering machine that Norman would never hear.
“I wonder if Bill will arrest him,” Michelle said.
“I don’t know,” Hannah said with a shrug. “In a way, I hope he won’t. It didn’t look as if Lenny was charging exorbitant rates, and people would probably rather go to him than a pawnbroker.” She turned to Delores. “Come on, Mother. Tell us what the fight was about.”
“It was about me,” Delores admitted. “Spike wanted to dance with Trixie, and Hub wouldn’t give her up.”
“Who’s Trixie?” Andrea asked.
“Trixie’s me. It’s the name I used at the Eagle. I wasn’t about to give my real name. Michelle thought it was perfect with my outfit.”
“And Hub is the guy in the red shirt?” Hannah asked.
“It’s short for Hubbard,” Michelle told them. “I was dancing with his son.”
“Hub Hubbard,” Andrea gave a little shiver. “Bill mentioned him once. He said all the Hubbards were real troublemakers.”
Michelle nodded. “Bill’s right. Hub’s son told me his dad just got out of county lockup.”
“What was he in for?” Andrea asked her.
“I don’t know, but he was there for three months. They were out at the Eagle to celebrate Hub’s first night home.”
“You sure know how to pick ‘em, Mother!” Hannah couldn’t resist saying.
“I didn’t pick him. He picked Trixie. And you should be really glad he did!”
All three daughters stared at their mother in shock. “Why?” Andrea finally asked.
“Because I found out who made those prank phone calls to Bill about that fake job in Florida.”
“You did?!” Andrea was clearly amazed.
“Yes, I did. Hub just volunteered the information when I told him I’d been harassed by the sheriff last week.”
“Mother!” Andrea was obviously shocked. “Bill doesn’t harass anyone! You know that’s not true!”
“Of course I do, but I was playing Trixie. And Trixie might have been harassed by the sheriff. Actually, you should be glad I said that, because Hub was very sympathetic and he tried to make Trixie feel better.”
Hannah was almost afraid to ask, but she did. “How did he do that, Mother?”
“He asked if Trixie knew about the trick somebody played on the sheriff a few months ago, calling him about a great job in Florida.”
“What did you say?”
“Trixie said she’d heard about it and she thought it was really funny. And then she added that she’d just love to meet the guy who did it.”
Andrea was all ears. “And he told you?”
“He told Trixie,” Delores corrected her. “Hub came right out and admitted that he was the one who thought up the dirty trick in the first place, and his son was the one who made the calls.”
“Good work, Mother!” Hannah complimented her. “Or should I say, good work, Trixie?”
“Mother is fine, dear.”
“I’d better tell Bill right away,” Andrea said, reaching in her purse for her cell phone.
Delores shook her head. “Oh no, you don’t. I’ll call Bill. I was the one who had to wear that ridiculous costume and pretend I was having a good time.”
Delores waited until Andrea dropped her cell phone back into her purse and then she turned to Michelle.
“And that reminds me,” she said to Michelle. “I want to know exactly how and where you learned that trick about leading with swinging elbows!”