“Was it . . . suicide?”
“I doubt it. It would be almost impossible to plunge a knife into your own chest and then fall to the floor on your back.”
“Then . . . he was . . . murdered?”
“I believe so.”
“It’s awful!” Michelle gasped, and Hannah was relieved to hear that her sister’s voice was a bit stronger.
“I know,” Hannah said. She took Michelle’s arm and pulled her away toward the door. “Come with me. I’ll get you some water.”
Once Michelle was seated on a stool at their workstation and Hannah had given her a glass of water, Michelle looked up at Hannah again. Tears were forming in her eyes. “It’s awful!” she repeated.
“Yes, it is. It’s always awful when someone is murdered.”
“It’s not that! We’re baking Vanilla and Butterscotch Hopscotch Cookies because Aunt Nancy told us that Judge Duquesne loved butterscotch when he was a kid. And now he’s dead and we’ve lost our advantage!”
Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, Hannah! Not again!”
Hannah gave a deep sigh. She hadn’t really wanted to call Mike, but Michelle was in no shape to talk to him and someone had to do it.
“Yes, but this time Michelle was the one to discover the body.”
“I’ll bring Lonnie with me. He can calm her down before I interview her. You say you preserved the crime scene?”
“Yes. I shut the walk-in cooler door and we’re here in the kitchen at our workstation. The kitchen door’s locked and the next contestant isn’t due to arrive here for another forty minutes.”
“I’ll call Dick and have him guard the kitchen door from the outside, just in case someone tries to get in.”
“Okay.”
“I probably don’t have to say this, but don’t go back inside the cooler.”
Hannah shivered. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“And don’t touch anything else until I get there.”
“Okay.”
“Do you know if Michelle touched anything while she was in the cooler?”
“I don’t think she did. She was still holding the cookie sheet with our cookie dough on it when I went in the cooler to see what was keeping her so long.”
“And she would have had to put the cookie sheet down to touch anything else?”
“Yes. She was just standing there like a statue, staring at . . . him. I led her out of the cooler and poured her a glass of water.”
“Did you touch anything in the kitchen?”
“Of course we did. We mixed up the cookie dough we’re making for the competition tomorrow night. Our fingerprints are all over.”
“Hold on a second. Let me pull out of the parking lot. Lonnie and I are in the cruiser and we’re on our way to you.”
Hannah held on to the phone and waited. She heard the squad car accelerate and then there was the sound of a siren. Mike was on his way. Just knowing that made her feel much better.
“All right. We’re on the highway and I’ve got you on speaker phone. Lonnie’s taking notes for me. Did you notice anything unusual about the kitchen when you first walked in?”
“No. Everything was nice and clean, but it always is. And we were the first ones to come in this morning.”
“Was the kitchen locked?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Who let you in?”
“Nobody. Sally gave all the contestants and judges individual keys to the kitchen door.”
“Did anyone else get keys?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Sally if . . .” Hannah gasped and stopped speaking in mid-thought.
“What?”
“When we came in, there were two wineglasses on the counter by the refrigerator. One was half full and the other was empty.”
“Did you touch them?”
“No. We just went straight to our workstation, set the countdown clock for an hour, and got right to work on our cookie dough.”
“You said two wineglasses?”
“Yes. Chef Duquesne must have had someone with him in the kitchen.”
“Perhaps. We’ll have to check for prints. Tell me exactly what you and Michelle did when you entered the kitchen. Step by step, Hannah.”
“Okay. I unlocked the kitchen door and turned on the lights.”
“The lights were off?”
“Yes. There are dim night lights and those were on, but the big banks of fluorescents were off.”
“All right. What did you do once you’d turned on the lights?”
“I waved at the . . .” Hannah stopped and gasped again. “Oh, Mike!”
“What?”
“There’s a security camera in the kitchen! Sally asked Dick to install it the minute she learned the competition would be held at their restaurant. When we came in the first day, she told everyone it was there for their protection.”
“Protection?”
“Yes. The Food Channel paid for added security to make sure that every contestant got the same length of practice time in the kitchen and the integrity of their ingredients were preserved.”