“And I want to protect you. That’s how sisters feel about each other. I’m positive that if we’d told Andrea what we’d planned to do, she would have moved heaven and earth to go with us.”
Hannah couldn’t deny the truth in Michelle’s statement. “I think it’s a good thing we didn’t tell Andrea. Just think of what it would do to Bill’s career if the Winnetka County Sheriff’s wife was caught removing crime scene tape and searching a murder victim’s apartment.”
“That would be bad,” Michelle agreed.
“That would be a disaster! There’s no way Bill would be re-elected and he might even be kicked out of the department, leaving him without a job and with two kids to support.”
“True,” Michelle admitted, “but I’m not in that position. The college wouldn’t kick me out unless they prosecuted me. And even then, they probably wouldn’t. I’m going with you, Hannah, and I’m not going to change my mind about that. Let’s stop arguing about it and start working out a game plan.”
Hannah considered that for a moment and then she nodded. “Okay. What do you think we should do first?”
“First we get the key from Mother. And then we take the back stairway down to Tori’s condo, so no one sees us use the elevator.”
“Good.”
“Then we search, room by room. How many rooms are in Tori’s condo?”
Hannah thought back to the night she’d seen the condos on Tori’s floor. “Three bedrooms—she used one as her acting studio—two baths—a guest and a master—a powder room, the large living room, a den, and a large kitchen.”
“Nine rooms in all?”
“Yes. The other condo on that floor is exactly the same size, but the order of the rooms are reversed.”
“Tori didn’t have a patio?”
“She did have a patio right off the living room and the master bedroom. It’s on the side of the building that faces city hall.”
“How big is it?”
“Not that big. It’s long, but it’s not very deep. And it’s doubtful that Tori would have stored any papers out there.”
“Why not? Isn’t it a covered patio?”
“It is a covered patio, but the sides are open to the elements. There’s no way Tori would have put a filing cabinet, or a desk, or anything that could be ruined by the weather out there.”
“Okay. That’s ten rooms including the patio, but that’s a quick walk-through. We’ll take four rooms apiece and check out the patio and the living room together. If we divide it that way, we’ll be through in half the time it would take you to search alone.”
Hannah sighed and then she nodded. There was no arguing with Michelle’s logic.
“Which room do you think is the most likely to contain the papers we need?”
“The den. Mother told me that Tori has a desk and filing cabinet in there and she used it for her home office.”
“Okay then,” Michelle said. “I’ll search the den with you and you can do the living room alone. The filing cabinet and desk will be the most labor intensive and it’ll help to have two sets of eyes.”
“That’s true,” Hannah told her. What Michelle had said made perfect sense.
“Okay. Let’s go!” Michelle grabbed a take-out box from the back seat and opened the driver’s side door to get out.
“What’s that?” Hannah asked, noticing the Styrofoam box in Michelle’s hand.
“A slice of Sally’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Chocolate Sauce. While you were talking to Sally, I ordered dessert for Doc. Mother was in such a hurry to go, he didn’t even get a chance to have coffee.”
Both sisters got out of the cookie truck and walked through the parking lot. As they neared the door to the Albion Hotel, Hannah reached out to take Michelle’s arm to stop her before she could open the door. “Do you think we should use the penthouse staircase so no one sees us go up in the elevator?”
“I don’t think that matters. If people see us go up, they’ll just assume that we’re visiting Mother and Doc. And we are, before we go down to Tori’s apartment.”
“You’re right. I guess I’m getting a little paranoid.”
Michelle shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt to be a little paranoid when you’re about to do something illegal.”
“I guess that’s true,” Hannah agreed, but her mind was saying, You’re jumping into jeopardy again, Hannah Swensen. You’d better be very careful, because this time you’re taking your baby sister with you!
*
Delores answered the door at the first chime of the doorbell, and Hannah knew that her mother had been waiting for them.
“Bad news,” Delores said, and then she put her finger to her lips. “Doc’s out in the garden with Norman.”
“Norman’s here?” Hannah was surprised.
“Doc called him and he came right over. He was working late, doing paperwork at the dental clinic.”
“Why did Doc call Norman?” Hannah asked, getting right to the heart of the matter.
“Because he didn’t want me to go down to Tori’s apartment with you. He said it might trigger my nightmares again.”
Hannah was surprised. “I didn’t know you had nightmares! Are they about finding Tori?”
“Yes. I had them for the past three nights, and last night was the first night I didn’t have one. I kept seeing Tori down on the floor with her spilled champagne glass and all that blood. It was awful! Doc said I woke up, screaming her name.”
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Hannah told her, wishing that there were some way to console her. She’d had nightmares about her milkman, Ron LaSalle, being shot on the front seat of his Cozy Cow milk truck. Tori had also been shot and seeing her must have been a horrible shock for Delores.
“I think Doc is right and you shouldn’t go with us,” Michelle said quickly. “Having nightmares is probably an occupational hazard when you find a murder victim. It happened to me after I found Judge Duquesne in Sally’s cooler. I haven’t been able to go into a walk-in cooler since then without taking a deep breath and telling myself that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice, and it won’t happen again.”