The lovely lilac-print wardrobe was hers! Delores had insisted on paying for it, and Hannah had left it with Claire, who had promised to make the minor alterations that were needed. Both Hannah and Michelle were smiling as they walked across the parking lot to the back door of The Cookie Jar.
Hannah opened the door, they stepped inside the kitchen, and both of them spotted it at once. A dark green wool coat with a fur collar was hanging on one of the pegs on the wall by the door. There was a scarf draped over the peg, and it had a red and green checkerboard design!
“Our mystery woman,” Hannah said, staring hard at the coat. “Nobody hangs their coat back here except Lisa, Marge, Jack, and Aunt Nancy.”
“And Mother, Andrea, Tracey, Mike, Norman, Ross, and anyone else who comes in the back door with them.”
“That’s true, but I’m sure I’ve never seen this coat before. How about you?”
Michelle shook her head. “I know I haven’t. It’s pretty and I would have noticed it. Let’s go see who’s out front. It could belong to someone who came in the back way.”
The two sisters pushed through the swinging door and entered the coffee shop. It was crowded with customers, and it took them a full five minutes to get to the front where Lisa was standing, because everyone wanted to wish them luck for the competition that evening. Finally they arrived at the cash register, where Lisa was ringing up sales.
“There’s a green coat hanging in the kitchen. Do you know who hung it there?” Hannah asked her.
“Yes,” Lisa said. “It’s Aunt Nancy’s new coat. Did you get my text?”
“No. My phone’s been in my purse and I didn’t hear it come in. What did you say?”
“I just wanted to tell you that Mayor Bascomb came in to join Stephanie. He had makeup on his cheek, but I could see the red skin right through it. Somebody slapped him really hard.”
“Maybe Stephanie?” Hannah suggested.
“That would be my guess. But it’s okay now. They stayed for my story and then they left.”
“How did they react to the story?” Michelle asked her.
“Stephanie loved it, but the mayor looked a little green around the gills. I don’t think he liked the way I described the murder scene.”
“When is the next performance?” Hannah asked.
“At eleven. I do it on the hour and people start coming in twenty minutes or so before I start. See that table with Bonnie Surma, Donna Summers, Babs Dubinski, and Ava Schultz?”
“I see them.”
“They’ve been here through two performances already and it looks like they’re staying for a third. Dad said they just ordered more Chocolate-Covered Raisin Cookies.” Lisa turned to Michelle. “Are you going to stay for a performance?”
“I don’t think I’d better. You’re too good, Lisa. I’m afraid it would be too much like finding him all over again and I don’t want to go through that twice!”
“Michelle and I will go bake a few batches of cookies,” Hannah told her. “From the size of the crowd in here, it looks like you’ll need them. And Lisa?”
“Yes?”
“When you’re through with your story, will you ask Aunt Nancy to come back to the kitchen? There’s something I need to ask her.”
“About the murder?”
“Yes,” Hannah answered quite truthfully, and then she said something that could be taken in a multitude of ways. “It could really help that she knew the victim as well as she did.”
Hannah and Michelle had just finished mixing up a batch of Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies when Aunt Nancy came into the kitchen. “Lisa said you wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” Hannah answered. “Sit down and have a cup of coffee with us. I need to ask you some questions about Chef Duquesne.”
Aunt Nancy sat down at the stainless steel work counter and accepted a cup of coffee from Michelle. “Thank you, Michelle,” she said. “I’m so sorry you had to be the one to find him.”
“So am I,” Michelle replied. “Is that your green coat hanging by the back door?”
“Why yes it is.”
“And that’s the same one you wore the night of the baking competition?” Hannah asked her.
“Yes, I wore it that night. What is this about, girls?”
“It’s about Chef Duquesne. We know you went up to his room with him on the night he was killed,” Hannah said, going straight to the heart of the matter.
“Oh, dear! I was hoping no one would hear about that!”
“Tell us about it,” Hannah prompted her.
“It was my own fault.” Aunt Nancy looked very upset as she answered. “It was very foolish of me to go to his room. We were the only people in the bar, and Allen said we should go so that the bar could close. I was going to go home, but he invited me to his room. He told me that he had a suite with a living room and he could make coffee. He said he wanted to catch up with my life and tell me about his. And he wanted to hear all about the people we’d known in high school. And I believed him!”