“Are you kidding?” Michelle looked shocked. “What’s going on, Hannah? I thought you liked to keep the results of your questioning to yourself.”

“I do … usually. But it’s different tonight. Mike’s really shorthanded and I want to help him.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Michelle didn’t look convinced, but she let Hannah lead her up the stairs and down the hall to the room that Mike had commandeered. “Should I tell him everything?”

“Everything,” Hannah said, feeling generous. Shawna Lee was gone, perhaps never to return, and Mike was all hers if she wanted him. She thought she did, at least partially. And unless Mike got high-handed and told her to back off on his investigation, she’d help him all that she could.

<12>

Hannah chatted with a few people while she was waiting for Andrea to find Shirley. She was on a fishing expedition for reactions to Martin’s new wife without letting anyone know that Brandi was dead. Most women thought it was a shame that Martin had brought his younger, more glamorous wife to the party, since it was bound to upset Shirley. Most men just shrugged and claimed they really didn’t have an opinion, but Hannah saw the gleam in their eyes, and she knew that Brandi had made an impression even if they wouldn’t admit it in front of their wives.

“I’m sorry, but I have to run. Andrea’s waving at me,” Hannah said, spotting Andrea and Shirley behind the dessert table and excusing herself from a conversation with Immelda Giese, Father Coultas’s housekeeper. A devout Catholic, Immelda had just told Hannah that despite the tenets of Christian charity, she thought Shirley should scratch Brandi’s eyes out.

Hannah arrived at her sister’s side slightly winded. People were still hovering in front of the dessert table, and she’d had to excuse herself more times than she could count. She turned to Shirley and smiled. “I’m glad Andrea found you. We really need to talk.”

“What about?” Shirley asked.

“Martin. And Brandi.”

“Oh,” Shirley said, drawing a deep breath and looking a lot like Moishe the last time he’d tipped over his litter box.

“Where were you for the past hour?”

“Do you really need to know?”

“Yes, I do.” Hannah put on the most no-nonsense expression she had, the same one she’d used when she’d told Moishe never to tip over his litter box again. It hadn’t worked with him, but she hoped it might work with Shirley.

“Well … “ Shirley clasped her hands together and gave a deep sigh. “I guess I’d better confess.”

Andrea gasped, and Hannah gave her a waning glance. “Confess to what, Shirley?”

“I still love Martin and he still loves me. that’s why we were together for the past hour. When Brandi went to the ladies’ room, he came over to our table and talked to us for a few minutes. Then he said he needed to talk to me in private, and we went to that space under the stairs where they store all the tables and chairs.”