Once the garage was flooded with light, Hannah walked around the Cadillac and opened the passenger door. She glanced down at Max’s briefcase and took a deep breath. Max’s wallet was inside and she picked it up.

“Do you really think you should snoop through his personal things?”

Hannah turned to give her sister a long, level look. “Why not? It didn’t seem to bother you in Norman’s office.”

Andrea’s cheeks turned a dull red and she snapped her mouth shut. She didn’t say a word as Hannah opened the wallet and counted the bills inside.

“Twelve hundred in cash, his driver’s license, and a folder of credit cards,” Hannah reported.

“Then Max didn’t kill Ron and run away.” Andrea sounded very sure of herself. “He might have left the credit cards and his driver’s license, especially if he was afraid of being traced. But the cash? He would have taken the cash.”

“You’re right.” Hannah flipped through the papers in the briefcase and pulled out an agenda for the Tri-State Buttermakers’ Convention. A line was highlighted in yellow and it read: Opening Address by Maxwell Turner—10 A.M.

“Look at this, Andrea.”

Andrea stared at the highlighted line. “The speech Max didn’t give.”

“I wonder where it is.” Hannah began to frown. “Betty said she worked late Tuesday night, typing it up. She left it on her desk for Max, and it was gone when she came in to work on Wednesday morning.”

Andrea looked puzzled. “It’s not in Max’s briefcase?”

“No. Let’s check out the house.”

Andrea looked as if the last thing she wanted to do was go into Max’s house. “Do we have to?”

“I think we do. Max may have left something behind that’ll give us a clue to where he is.”

“Okay,” Andrea reluctantly agreed. “Do you think we should arm ourselves, just in case?”

“Good idea.” Hannah grabbed a claw hammer from the workbench by the door and handed Andrea a rubber mallet. A hammer and a mallet were no match for a killer with a gun, but she was almost positive that no one was inside. If arming themselves with carpenter’s tools made Andrea feel safer, that was fine with Hannah.

Hannah tried to turn the knob on the connecting door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Oh, great! Max did lock his door. See if his keys are in his Cadillac, will you? I think I noticed them in the ignition.”

Andrea hurried back to the Cadillac and came back with the keys. She handed them to Hannah and watched as her sister unlocked the door.

Hannah stepped into the kitchen, flicked on the light, and jumped slightly as the refrigerator kicked in. “Nice kitchen. I guess Max had a thing for cows.”

Every round handle on the row of kitchen cabinets was painted with black and white patches like a Holstein cow. There was a collection of china cows in various poses on the shelves of the greenhouse window over the sink, and a large painted plate with frolicking cows around the border hung over the stove. There were cow magnets on the refrigerator door, a cow creamer and sugar bowl on the table, and a cow cookie jar sitting on the counter. A farm dog would have gone crazy in Max’s kitchen, trying to round up all the cows.