“Lisa’s real talented. I swear that girl could do anything she put her mind to. It’s just a pity she had to give up college to take care of her father.”

“I know. Her older brothers and sisters wanted to put him in a nursing home, but Lisa didn’t think that was right.” Hannah handed Edna a box with small blue paper plates, gold napkins, and blue plastic cups. “You take this. I’ll bring the cookies.”

It didn’t take long to arrange the plates, cups, and napkins on the table. Once everything was done, they went back into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. They were sitting at the square wooden table in the corner of the kitchen, waiting for the Scouts to arrive, when Edna gave another long sigh. “It’s just such a pity, that’s all.”

“You mean about Ron?”

“Yes. That poor boy was running himself ragged with those routes of his. He was putting in a sixty-hour week and Max doesn’t pay overtime. It was getting to him.”

“Did Ron tell you that?”

Edna shook her head. “Betty Jackson did. She was there when Ron asked Max for an assistant. That was over six months ago, but Max was too cheap to put anyone else on the payroll.”

Hannah knew. Max Turner had the reputation for pinching a penny until it screamed in pain. For someone who was rumored to have money to burn, he certainly didn’t live the part. Max drove a new car, but that was his only luxury. He still lived in his parents’ old house in back of the Cozy Cow Dairy. He’d fixed it up some, but that had been necessary. It would have fallen down around his ears if he hadn’t.

“I just think it’s a shame that Ron had to die on the day that he finally got his assistant.”

“Ron had an assistant?” Hannah turned to look at Edna in surprise. “How do you know that?”

“I keep out a jar of instant coffee for Ron. He always liked something to warm him up after he came out of the cooler. There were two coffee cups on the counter when I came in this morning so I figured he finally got his assistant. But I never thought that Max would hire a woman!”

Hannah felt her adrenaline start to pump. Ron’s new assistant might have witnessed his murder. “You’re sure that Ron’s assistant was a woman?”

“There was lipstick on the cup. She must have been young because it was bright pink and that color looks terrible on someone our age.”

Hannah bristled at being lumped in a category with a woman who was at least twenty years older than she was. She had half a notion to remind Edna of that, but it might be counterproductive. “Did you wash the cups, Edna?”

“Nope. I threw them in the trash.”

“You threw them in the trash?”

Edna laughed at Hannah’s astonished expression. “They were the disposable kind.”

“They could be evidence,” Hannah informed her, and Edna’s laugh died a quick death. “Bill’s in charge of the investigation and he’ll need to see them.”