'No, it was what you said.'
Hannah was confused. 'What did I say?'
'That it stopped snowing at four this morning. If somebody dragged Alan out there after four, there would have been tracks in the snow.'
'That's true'
'Well, there weren't any. When we drove up, there was only one set of footprints leading up to the door.'
'Good for you, Andrea. You're incredibly observant and you have a great memory for detail.'
Andrea looked slightly uncomfortable. 'Actually, no. The only reason I noticed was that I overheard Sara Thompson talking to Patsy Berringer in the caf' the other day. They were gossiping about the mayor's new girlfriend.'
'I didn't know he had one,' Hannah commented, feeling a wave of contempt for their town's illustrious leader. Mayor Bascomb had come within an eyelash of getting into big trouble for his last affair, and she'd hoped the close call had taught him a lesson.
'They didn't mention who his girlfriend was, and it might not be true. I usually don't put much stock in gossip, but I didn't want to interrupt him if he was. . . uh . . . you know. That's the only reason I noticed, Hannah. It was all because of the gossip I heard. But it helped, didn't it?'
Hannah's grin grew wider. 'You bet! It narrows our time frame down to four hours and saves us a whole lot of trouble. This has got to be the first time in history that gossip actually turned out to be good for something.'
-26- 'You concentrate on the Connie Mac people,' Hannah told her sister after they'd reentered the inn and removed their coats and boots. 'Most of them will be out at the mall, but you might find a few who stayed here. I'll talk to the maids and whoever was manning the front desk last night.'
Andrea pulled her organizer out of her purse and flipped through it. 'I've got my list of questions about Connie Mac. DO you want me to ask them anything about Alan?'
'Yes, but you can't say that he's dead.'
'I know. I'll just tell them I'm looking for him and I can't seem to find him. I'll ask them if they saw him today.'
'They didn't. You know that already.'
'I know, but that'll lead me into my next question. They'll tell me about the last time they saw him and they won't even guess that that's what I was really after in the first place.'
Hannah gazed at her sister in admiration. 'You're really good at this, you know?'
'Do you really think so?'
'I wouldn't have said it if I didn't.'
'That's true. You never say anything you don't mean. Sometimes I wish I had the luxury, but. . .'
'But you're a real estate agent.' Hannah finished the sentence for her and they both laughed.
'Sometimes it bothers me a little,' Andrea admitted, 'but I'd lose a sale if I told a prospective buyer that the roof would probably leak within the first three years or the plumbing might need to be replaced.'
'Caveat emptor?'
'I know what that means, Hannah. It's 'let the buyer beware.' I guess it's true to a certain extent, but I don't actually lie about anything. If they ask me straight out, I tell them. I just don't volunteer the negative things, that's all: And don't think you're so smart just because you know Latin. I picked up a few phrases in real estate school.'
'Like what?' Hannah challenged.
'Like Illegitami non carborundum.'
Hannah translated that in a flash. She wasn't certain that the syntax and word order were correct, but the meaning was clear and she stared at her sister in shock. 'Do you know what that means?'
'Of course. It's 'Don't let the client grind you down.' Our instructor at school had it stamped on his briefcase and I asked him about it.'
'I see,' Hannah said hiding a grin. It was obvious that Andrea's teacher hadn't wanted to tell her the literal meaning of illegitami. 'Let's get a move on, Andrea. Bill and Mike could be here any minute, and I don't want them to catch us asking questions.'
The two sisters parted ways at the bottom of the staircase: Andrea went up, and Hannah headed for Sally's office. When she got there, Alex Matthews was just leaving.
'I'm glad I caught you, Hannah.' Alex gave her a big smile. 'I cleared it with Sally and if it's all right with you, I'm going to give Janie a ride to your condo and help her pack up her things.'
Hannah was puzzled. 'That's fine with me, but why?'
'Janie's moving back into her room out here. She spoke to Paul on the phone and he told her that he couldn't get along without her. He even gave her a raise to make up for all the trouble that horrible woman caused her.'
'I'm glad to hear it, but I'm going to miss her.'
'That's exactly what she said. You're one of her favorite friends, Hannah. Thank you so much for helping her.'
'Hannah?' Sally hailed her from the open doorway. 'Come in and shut the door. I've got some news for you.'
Hannah walked in and took the chair in front of Sally's desk. 'I've got news for you, too. We found Alan's car and it's been out there all night. We figure he was killed between midnight and four this morning, give or take half an hour.'
'Well, that's one mystery solved. It explains why he never picked up his prune Danish,' Sally said, and she sighed deeply.
'Don't think about that,' Hannah advised, and then she started to frown. Whenever someone told her not to think about something, it had quite the opposite effect. Once she knew she shouldn't dwell on something, it took on even more importance in her mind. Rather than try to take back her advice, which was impossible anyway, she decided to enlist Sally's help on the one aspect of Alan's death that they could do something about. 'I need your help, Sally. What was Alan wearing when you saw him in the bar last night?'
'A gray suit with a light-blue shirt. He was carrying a black overcoat when he came in and he put it down on an empty barstool. Was that what he was wearing when you found him?'
Hannah shook her head, deciding not to go into detail. Sally didn't need a mental picture of how Alan had looked when they'd pulled him from the icy water. 'He must have gone up to his room to change clothes. You said you had news. What is it?'
'I checked with the maid who took care of Alan's room, and his bed hadn't been slept in. Do you think he was killed while he was out on his walk?'
'It's beginning to sound that way. I need a list of your night people, Sally. I have to find out if anyone saw Alan last night.'
'They didn't. I already checked. And I talked to Chris. He's the college kid I hired to man the front desk from ten to six. He said Alan walked out the door at a quarter past midnight, and he wasn't back when Chris left at six.'
'Didn't he think that was odd?'
'No, he figured that Alan had driven out to the mall. Alan did that sometimes. There were a couple of nights when he left here at ten-thirty or eleven at night and went out to the boutique to work. He told Chris that there were too many distractions during the day and he got his best work done in the middle of the night.'
'That makes sense to me,' Hannah said. She'd pulled her share of all-nighters at The Cookie Jar with Lisa, especially in December when the parties were plentiful and they'd booked back-to-back catering events.
'I have a piece of good news,' Sally said.
'Let's hear it. I could use some good news about now.'
'Dick called me a couple of minutes ago and his mother came through the surgery just fine. They've already got her sitting up in bed.'
'That's great,' Hannah said, 'and it must be a huge relief for Dick.'
'Oh, it is. He's been worried sick. His mother's not young, you know. When he called, I knew everything was fine before he even told me.'
