of fingerprint powder.
“I know they leave a mess,” Mike said, accurately reading her thoughts. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about that. They have to be thorough, and they may find something that’ll help to catch the killer.”
“I know. It’s okay, Mike. Do you have a crime scene photo of my closet, one that doesn’t show . . .” Hannah stopped speaking and took a deep, calming breath. “. . . that doesn’t show . . . him?”
“Yes, I’ve got one,” Mike said. He opened his briefcase, pulled out a photo, and handed it to her. “Here. It doesn’t show anything else, Hannah. I won’t give you those.”
“You don’t have to. I remember.” Hannah took the photo from Mike and studied it. “The boxes on the floor were on the top shelf when I left for work in the morning. Whoever did this pulled them down, took off the lids, and dumped them out. Then they pawed through the contents and just left them on the floor. Ross must have done it. It couldn’t have been the killer.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ross was . . . shot, wasn’t he?” Hannah paused to take another deep breath. “And then the killer would have wanted to get out of my condo right after he shot him. He wouldn’t have taken the time to take down those boxes and dump them out. He’d be much more concerned about getting away before anyone realized that the noise they’d heard was a gunshot and they called the police.”
“Yes, Hannah, he was shot. You make a good point about the noise, but everything changes if the killer used a silencer.”
“Did he?”
Mike shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s no way to tell by just looking.”
“Do you know the caliber of the bullet? The ballistics report hasn’t come in yet?”
“Not yet. I’ll tell you when it does.”
“So we really don’t know anything except that Ross was murdered and Ross needed a hundred thousand dollars in cash for some reason.”
“That’s about it. This is going to be a challenge, Hannah.”
Both of them were silent then, sipping their coffee and thinking. When the plate of cookies was as empty as their coffee cups, Mike said goodbye and left. Hannah locked the back kitchen door behind him, walked directly to the drawer where she kept her blank shorthand notebooks, and took one out. Then she sat down at the work station and began to write down the suspects she already had in Ross’s murder case.
* * *
“Hannah.” Grandma Knudson came into the kitchen. “How are you?”
“Still a little shaky, but I’m all right. Have you told anyone about your new hearing aids yet?”
“Not yet. I will eventually though. You want to know if I’ve heard anything, don’t you, Hannah?”
“Yes. Someone killed Ross and I have to find out who did it and why.”
“Of course you do. It’s that insatiable curiosity of yours. That drives you as much as your thirst for justice.” Grandma Knudson smiled. “You’re a good person, Hannah. And before you ask me, I didn’t do it.”
Hannah was shocked. “I never thought that you did!”
“What a pity. I’d like to think that I might be capable of a bold action like that. But no, Hannah, I haven’t heard anyone in town mention anything about it. Everyone’s speculating just like you and Mike are.”
“Carrie was worried about Earl because he carried a rifle and a handgun on his snowplow.”
“Do you suspect Earl?”
“Not really. I talked to him and I don’t think he’d be that violent. But there’s always the possibility that I’m wrong.”
“What time was Ross shot, Hannah?”
“Doc says between noon and five p.m., but since Mike arrived at my condo at a little past three, we know that the time of death was between noon and three.”
“Then Earl didn’t do it.”
“How do you know? Earl said he wished that Ross would come back to Lake Eden so that he could teach Ross a permanent lesson.”
Grandma Knudson laughed. “Earl talks a good game, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Have you heard the story about the bobcat he shot?”
“Yes. Carrie mentioned it when she told me about the firearms that Earl carried on his snowplow.”
“Earl loves that story, but he told me the truth about the whole incident.”
Hannah was surprised. “Earl didn’t shoot the bobcat?”
“Earl shot over the bobcat.”
“You mean . . . he didn’t actually kill the bobcat.”
“I mean Earl didn’t hit the bobcat at all. He just fired over the bobcat’s head to scare it away from the snowplow.