“That’s it. You have such a good vocabulary, dear. I think it comes from all that reading you did as a child. I wonder what’ll happen to those loans now?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah replied, making a mental note to ask Bill if he’d found any current loan papers in the stack of files he’d confiscated from Max’s safe. But those files would only serve to eliminate suspects. If Max had been killed over a current loan, his killer would have taken the papers.

“I’ve already had four calls this morning about Max,” Delores informed her. “The whole town’s talking, and everybody’s got a story to tell.”

That gave Hannah an idea and she started to smile. Delores belonged to a dozen groups and she heard all the gossip. What if her mother heard about a loan that Max had made, a name that wasn’t on any of the files that Bill had removed from the safe? That person could very well be Max’s killer. “Will you do something for me, Mother?”

“Of course, dear. What is it?”

“Keep your ears open and call me if you hear anyone discussing any business dealings with Max. It’s important. I really need to know.”

“All right, dear. I’m sure there’ll be talk—there always is. But I don’t see why it’s so import—” Delores stopped, and Hannah heard her gasp. “They didn’t go into any details about Max’s death on the radio. Was he murdered?”

Hannah groaned. There were times when Delores was much too perceptive to suit her. “I’m not supposed to say anything about that. It could cost Bill his promotion.”

“Then I won’t breathe a word. You can count on me, Hannah. I’d never do anything to hurt Bill’s career. But it’s just going to kill me not to tell Carrie!”

“I know, but the news should break any minute. Just keep listening to the radio.”

“How do you know? Did Bill tell you or…” Delores gasped again. “Don’t tell me that you discovered Max’s body!”

“I really can’t talk about it, Mother.”

There was another lengthy pause, and then Delores sighed. “You really have to stop doing this, Hannah. You’re going to scare all the eligible men off if you keep on finding murder victims. The only one who might give you a second glance would be a homicide detective!”

“I suppose you’re right.” Hannah started to grin. Perhaps finding bodies wasn’t so bad, after all. “I really do have to run, Mother. Just remember to call me if you hear anything, okay?”

Hannah hung up and turned to Lisa. “That woman can talk longer than anyone I know.”

“Mothers are like that,” Lisa responded, but she looked very grave. “I couldn’t help hearing your end of the conversation. Was Max murdered?”

“I’m afraid he was.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. He was a loan shark. One of our neighbors almost borrowed some money from him, but Dad looked over the papers and told him not to sign. He ended up getting a bank loan instead.”