But why hadn’t the deputies found the gun when they’d searched Granny’s Attic? Hannah considered that for a moment and came up with a possible explanation. The sewing machine had looked exactly like a table with a false front and two small drawers on either side. What if the deputies had searched the drawers but hadn’t realized that the sewing head swiveled up from a hollow below, where there would be plenty of room to hide a revolver?

“Holy cow!” Hannah gasped, taking Daisy, Buttercup, and Petunia’s breed in vain. She knew where Burke had hidden the prop gun and she had to get it before it headed off on a moving van for California!

Chapter

Chapter

Thirty-Two

A light, lazy snow was falling as Hannah drove to Granny’s Attic. There weren’t quite enough snowflakes to keep her windshield wipers from squeaking against the glass, but the snowfall was a bit too much not to use them. She was about to turn into the alley when she saw the taillights of a semi idling in back of Granny’s Attic. Rather than drive in behind it, Hannah went around the block and entered the alley from the other way, effectively blocking the semi. Expecting to hear an angry shout from the driver when she got out of her much smaller truck, Hannah heard nothing but the powerful motor idling. She’d gotten here just in time. The driver must be inside with Delores, getting ready to load Burke’s sewing machine.

Hannah raced for the back door, almost slipping on the blacktop in her dress shoes. She hadn’t wanted to take the time to get her boots and it was a good thing she hadn’t or she might not have caught the semi. “Mother!” she called out as she opened the back door and hurried past the section her mother called “Trash or Treasures,” the unsorted items that might or might not be valuable.

“In here, dear,” Delores sounded surprised. “We’re just filling out some paperwork for a shipment.”

“Stop!”

“What was that, dear?” Delores sounded even more surprised and she looked surprised, too, as Hannah burst into the large main room of Granny’s Attic, the room that was still decorated as a living room set.

“I need to look at that sewing machine, Mother!”

“You mean the one that Burke bought?”

“That’s right. Where is it?”

“Over there,” Delores pointed to a large crate sitting on a dolly near the door. “You can’t look at it now, dear. It’s all crated up.”

Hannah turned to the driver. Do you have a crowbar?”

“Got one in the truck.”

“I’ll need to use it. I have to uncrate that sewing machine and inspect it. It may contain evidence in a murder investigation.”