it out.'
'How did you do that?' Hannah was curious.
'I took Kristi out to the bar at the mall last night, and a couple of the guys remembered that she walked in at ten-twenty. I'm not surprised they noticed her. Kristi's a very attractive woman.'
Hannah bit her tongue so she wouldn't ask how long Mike's interview with Kristi had lasted and exactly where they'd gone after they'd left the bar. She told herself she should be grateful to Kristi for providing Janie's alibi, but that did nothing to reduce the sharp stab of jealousy she felt.
'You said you had two pieces of news for me. What's the second?'
'I cleared Norman Rhodes.'
'How did you do that?'
'It was that attack he suffered last night. At first I thought it might be faked, but there's no way he could have bashed himself on the back of the head. I think the murderer hit Norman and only Luanne Hanks's arrival kept him from being killed. What I don't know is why Mrs. MacIntyre's murderer was after Norman.'
'I do,' Hannah said, unlocking the passenger door to her truck. 'Climb in and have a cookie, and I'll tell you.'
Mike went through four cookies in the time it told her to tell her story, and Hannah figured that it was a good investment. When she was finished, she leaned back in her seat with a sigh. 'What do you think? Does it make sense?'
'It makes perfect sense. Good for you for figuring it out. Just between you and me, Hannah, I'm really glad that Norman's off my suspect list.'
'Why?'
'Because suspecting Norman made me really uncomfortable. My gut instincts told me that he was innocent, but what if I'd been wrong? I had to warn you, Hannah.'
'I understand.'
'There's another thing, too. I was afraid you'd think I was jealous of your relationship with Norman, and that was the reason I put him on my suspect list.'
'Really? I didn't even think of that!'
'You didn't?'
'It never crossed my mind,' Hannah told him quite truthfully. It had crossed Andrea's mind, not hers. 'You aren't, are you? Jealous, I mean?'
'No. To tell you the truth, I'm relieved. I'm just not ready to settle down yet, and I'd feel guilty if you just sat around like a lovesick teenager and waited for me to call.'
Hannah bristled. 'I don't think you have to worry about that.'
'I know. I figure the time will come when I want that kind of commitment again, but not right now. If I did want to get remarried, though. . .' Mike reached across the seat and pulled Hannah into his arms. He kissed her until both of them were breathless, and then he chuckled. 'When I get to that point, you'll be the first to know.'
Hannah sighed, still a little dazed from Mike's kiss. She had the urge to cuddle back up to him, but he'd been the one to break their embrace.
'I'll tell you one thing. Norman really impressed me.'
'He did?'
'Absolutely. He left a message on my voice mail and I just retrieved it a couple of minutes ago. Do you know that he offered himself for bait so that we could set a trap for the killer?'
Hannah winced, wondering if she had messed up some sort of sting operation by planting the ghost story with Larry Kruger. 'Are you going to take him up on it?'
'Of course not. We can't involve a civilian in something that dangerous. I called him right back to tell him that, but he wasn't home. I think we'll arrange a tail for him, though. He could be in real danger.'
'I already took care of that,' Hannah said. And then she told Mike what she'd done. 'I was worried about him and I thought he might try to do something on his own.'
Mike stopped in the act of taking another cookie and gave her a sharp look. 'You were worried about Norman?'
'Of course I was. Norman's one of my very best friends.' Mike stared at her for a moment. 'Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Well. . . I've got to get back to work. Thanks for the cookies, Hannah.'
Hannah waved at him as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to her condo to pick up Janie. As she zipped down the highway, she reached up to touch her lips with the tip of her finger. The thrill of Mike's kisses always lingered, and they made her hunger for more. But Norman's kiss had lingered, too. What kind of woman could be in love with two men? Or did it mean that she wasn't really in love with either of them?
-21- Hannah heard a door close as she climbed up the steps from the garage. The sound seemed to come from Mrs. Canfield's unit, and she bent down quickly to form a snowball and dropped it into the pocket of her parka. A moment later, Greg Canfield came around the corner of the building.
'Hi, Hannah. You're home from work early. Do you want to get a cup of coffee or something?'
'I'd love to, but I can't. I have to be back at the park in less than an hour. How's your day-trading going?'
'Just fine.' Greg gave her a big grin. 'Did you hear the latest news about Ezekiel's ghost?'
'I don't know. What's the latest?'
'KCOW radio says it attacked Dr. Rhodes last night because he tried to take its picture. They said that when Dr. Rhodes developed his film, it was blank, because you can't take a picture of a spirit. I figure that's about as believable as Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. How do they dream up stories like that?'
Hannah laughed. 'I gave them that story. Thanks for telling me, Greg. I'm glad it's out there already.'
Greg looked shocked. 'Don't tell me that you actually believe in ghosts!'
'Of course I don't.'
'Then why did you tell a whopper like that?'
Hannah hesitated, but Greg was an old friend. She'd known him for years and she could trust him. 'I'll let you in on it, but you need to keep it under your hat.'
'My lips are sealed.' Greg pantomimed zipping his lips, a childhood ritual they'd learned in second grade from Miss Gladke.
'Norman Rhodes is a good friend of mine, and I planted that story to keep him safe. We think Connie Mac's killer attacked him.'
'But why?'
'Because he thinks that Norman took his picture.'
'Did he?'
'No. Norman was next door the night that Connie Mac was killed and he was testing his lights. He didn't have film in his camera, and he wasn't even aiming it out the window. We think the killer saw the flashes when he was hanging around my shop, and he thought that Norman got a picture of him.'
'Did Dr. Rhodes see the killer?'
Hannah shook her head. 'Norman didn't see anybody. He didn't even know that Connie Mac was dead until the next morning.'
'So he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?'
'You got it,' Hannah said with a sigh. 'And he almost got killed for nothing.'
'Wait a second.' Greg looked confused. 'I can see why you wanted to let the killer know that Dr. Rhodes didn't take his picture, but why didn't you just tell KCOW the truth?'
'The truth isn't news. I had to tie in the ghost so that KCOW and the papers would carry it.'
'That's brilliant, Hannah.' Greg looked impressed. 'You always were the smartest one in our class. And that reminds me, Grandma said she heard that you helped to solve two murder cases already. Are you working on this one?'
Childhood friendships notwithstanding, Hannah decided that she'd gone far enough. She'd already been forced to tell several people that she was working to catch Connie Mac's killer, and it was past time to zip her own lips. 'I offered to help, but they made it plain that they don't want me to get involved.'
