After Andrea had left, Hannah glanced down at the rose in her hand. Instead of shoving it into her purse where it might not see the light of day for several weeks, she put it, plastic bag and all, in the horizontal patch pocket on the front of her sweatshirt, the one that could be used as a hand warmer. She’d keep it there while she finished her workout routine and put it on her antenna when she got back out to the parking lot.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The rhythmic swooshing of the cross-country ski simulator was soothing, releasing her mind for other pursuits. Hannah watched the video of a winter scene rolling past on the screen in time with her movements, and she relaxed. Only a small portion of her mind took charge of the repetitive motion and pace, and she began to think of what she’d learned about Ronni’s murder.

Swooshing down the hill, push with the left foot, push with the right foot, to the first clue that entered her mind. Sonny Newberg told Sue Plotnik that his uncle Tad gave flowers to Nikki. It was pretty clear that Nikki was a nickname and Tad had nicknames for the women he liked. Ronni’s real name was Veronica, but what if Tad gave her his own personal nickname? Could it have been Nikki, based on the last part of her name?

According to Frank, Tad didn’t have much luck with women. That meant his self-confidence was probably low. When Ronni had refused to take his flowers and insulted him at her birthday party in front of the other guests, it must have been a terrible blow to Tad’s ego. Could he have gotten embarrassed enough and angry enough to go back when all the party guests had left and kill Ronni?

Hannah thought about that on a slight downhill slope as she skied her way past a small stand of pines. Dig in with the right pole, dig in with the left pole, swoosh to the next clue to Ronni’s killer. There was the security tape of the parking lot with Ronni’s old car in the picture. Mike said Ronni hadn’t driven it recently and Hannah believed him. What if the tape she’d watched hadn’t been recorded on the night of Ronni’s death? What if it was an old tape slipped into a new sleeve, a tape that had been made when Ronni’s car was still working?

It would have been easy for Tad to switch the tapes. And if Tad had killed Ronni, he might have wanted to set it up so that everyone who came to Ronni’s birthday party was automatically a suspect. It would certainly muddy the waters and hinder the investigation, especially since quite a few attendees were members of the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department.