“Hi, Hannah.” Bill came in and hung up his coat on the strip of hooks near the door. “I found out about that rental car that Andrea’s client saw. The name of the company is Compacts Unlimited.”

Hannah ducked behind the counter to pour Bill a mug of coffee. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“They’re a small outfit. Their main office is in Minneapolis and they’ve got a total of fourteen lots all over the state. I talked to the woman in charge of reservations. She said their office didn’t rent to anybody with a Lake Eden address, but she’s sending me a printout of everyone who’s rented from them in the past two weeks.”

“When?”

“ASAP. She doesn’t know how to gather the data from the other locations, but she said she’d call in their computer expert.”

“So you’ll have it today?”

“That’s doubtful. The computer guy went away for the weekend, but she’s trying to find him.” Bill’s gaze shifted toward the cookies behind the counter. “Are those Chocolate Chip Crunches?”

Hannah nodded and set out two cookies for him. This wasn’t the time to remind him that he should probably watch his weight. “Did you get a chance to look at the files that were in Max’s old safe?”

“Mmm.” Bill swallowed. “Max made a lot of loans to a lot of people. Some of them were old, but I found about ten active ones. That’s ten more suspects I’m going to have to check out.”

Hannah shook her head. “I think that’s a waste of time. If someone shot Max to get his loan papers, he wouldn’t have left them behind.”

“Good point. What do you think I should do with them?”

“Make a list of the names and then lock them up in the evidence room.”

Bill looked confused. “Why should I make a list of the names when none of those people are suspects?”

“So that you can check them against any gossip we hear. If somebody talks about one of Max’s active loans and it’s not on your list, it could point to the killer.”

“That’s very clever, Hannah. I’ll do it just as soon as I get to the station. Did you think of anything else that I should do?”

“Not really, but at least we’ve got a theory.”

“Is it the same one you told me about the other night?”

“Absolutely. I was watching Klute and that’s what gave me the idea. We’ll know if it’s right just as soon as the ballistics reports come back.”

“That’ll take a while, but I talked to Doc Knight this morning. He’s got a good eye and he told me that it looked like the same type of bullet that killed Ron.”

Hannah laughed. “I could have told him that!”

“Me too. Lake Eden’s too small to have more than one murderer. Tell me your theory again, Hannah. I want to see if everything fits.”

Hannah poured a mug of coffee for herself and sat down on the stool behind the counter. “Ron saw Max meeting with the killer at six-fifteen on Wednesday morning. After Ron left, the killer shot Max. The killer was afraid that once Max’s body was found, Ron would put two and two together and identify him. That’s why he tracked Ron down and shot him.”