“What time was this?” Hannah asked.
“A little after two in the morning. Lucy said she walked through the lobby on her way downstairs for her break, and Rodney wasn’t there. She presumed that he must have taken the wine to someone else’s room and he was still there.”
It took a moment for the information Dick had given her to register in Hannah’s mind. When it did, Hannah came close to gasping as the puzzle pieces twisted and turned, and then clicked into place. She gave Dick a smile. “Thanks, Dick. There’s just one more thing. Is the back door you use for deliveries locked at night?”
“It’s not locked, but it’s automatically alarmed from seven at night until six in the morning.”
“So if anyone uses it during those hours, the alarm goes off?”
“Yes, unless they know the code to disarm the alarm.”
“How about the kitchen staff? Do they know the code?”
“No. We don’t give it to them. When they leave for the night, they deposit any waste in the Dumpster in the hallway by the back door and the garbage service collects it every night.”
“But doesn’t someone have to wheel the Dumpster out to the parking lot?”
Dick shook his head. “The garbage service has the code. They load the Dumpsters in the parking lot first, and then they punch in the code and get the one in the hallway outside the kitchen.”
“How many people have the code?”
“Only four. There’s the garbage service, Sally, the maintenance man, and me. That’s it.”
“But how about the other delivery men? Don’t they have it?”
“No. We don’t get deliveries at night. They all come during the day when the alarm is off.” Dick paused to smile at her. “Are you planning to open a restaurant, Hannah?”
“No!” Hannah was shocked. “Of course not, Dick. I’ll leave that up to the professionals like you and Sally.”
“Okay. If you’re not planning to open a restaurant, all these questions must have something to do with Chef Duquesne’s murder.”
“They may,” Hannah admitted, “but right now I’m just gathering information and hoping it’ll all fall into place for me.”
“It will. You’re good at this, Hannah. And nobody’s more eager than I am to get that killer behind bars. The fact that it happened out here is frightening. For all we know, the killer may still be here.”
“That’s a possibility,” Hannah admitted.
Dick glanced at his watch. “Do you need anything else, Hannah?”
“Not right now. Thanks, Dick. Tell Sally I’ll see her at the church. Grandma Knudson said she’s planning to have coffee and cookies in the basement after the service, and then everyone will drive out here for the reception.”
“We’ll be ready. Happy wedding, Hannah.”
“Thank you. Just one other thing, Dick. Rodney Paloma’s still here, isn’t he?”
“He’s here. Rodney’s not checking out until early tomorrow. All the contestants are coming to your wedding. And every one of them has baked a dessert for Sally’s dessert table.”
“Wonderful! You don’t happen to know where Rodney is right now, do you?”
“Actually, I do. He went out for a walk by the lake and he ought to be back pretty soon. He said he was going to come in the back way so I told him about the automatic alarm on the door. He said he’d be back by the time it activated.”
“Then he’s coming in the back way?”
“Yes. And he said he’s going straight in the kitchen to check on his coconut cream pies. He just baked them this afternoon and he wanted to make sure they were properly chilled in time for Sally to put them out on your dessert table.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Luckily, she’d brought her key. Hannah sat in Sally’s kitchen, staring at the clock on the wall. The kitchen staff had gone and there was nothing to do but wait. They’d done all the prep work and they would come back at eight to start preparing the reception dinner, which would be served at ten in the evening.
She wished she could bake. It would help to pass the time. But Sally’s kitchen was spotlessly clean, since the staff had readied it for the wedding reception. There was nothing to do but sit here and wait. She’d have to leave by seven-thirty at the latest to be at the church in time to get dressed for her wedding. Dick had told her that Rodney would be back before the automatic alarm activated on the back door at seven. There was plenty of time to catch him when he came into the kitchen to check his pie.