Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

drink some milk before he died, we’re asking everyone where they were between two and three in the morning.”
    “I was home at two-thirty,” Hannah said, before he could ask, “and I can prove it.”
    Mike gave a little laugh. “Moishe’s testimony doesn’t count, Hannah. We don’t speak cat down at the sheriff’s station.”
    “Actually…it does count.” Hannah was a bit disappointed that Mike hadn’t drawn another conclusion about her middle-of-the-night companion. Or maybe she was pleased that he trusted her. She couldn’t quite decide which. “Moishe was chasing around inside my bathtub, and Sue Plotnik called to ask me if everything was all right.”
    “I guess that clears you. There’s no way you could have stabbed the victim, and driven home in time to take the phone call.”
    “Well that’s a relief!” Hannah said, but Mike didn’t react to her sarcasm. He just stared at her with a frown that knit his reddish-blond eyebrows.
    “Why was The Big Guy chasing around inside your bathtub? Do you have mice?”
    “No. And that could be part of the problem, right along with the fact that I can’t find the Animal Channel on my new cable lineup.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’ve been gone a lot lately, and Norman thinks Moishe’s bored. When I came home from church yesterday, he’d ripped open one of my couch pillows and scattered the stuffing all over the rug.”
    “Maybe he needs a playmate. Why don’t you ask Norman to bring Cuddles over to visit?”
    “That would probably help, but Cuddles is up in Duluth this week, vacationing with Marguerite and her friend.”
    “Oh. Well…maybe I should drop by for a little cop-to-cat talk. I could tell him about bathtub noise abatement and willful destruction of couch pillows.”
    “Anytime,” Hannah said, smiling at Mike’s description.
    “Anything else you want to know about the murder?”
    Hannah blinked several times. Was she hallucinating, or was Mike actually offering to give her information?
    “Hannah?”
    “Actually…yes. It’s been bothering me, and of course I didn’t look. What was in that disposable cooler on the bar?”
    “A bread wrapper with six ham and cheese sandwiches inside.”
    Hannah was puzzled. “You mean…already made?”
    “Right. He must have put them together right there at the bar and stashed them in the cooler. I can’t figure out why he’d do that, though.”
    “He told Ava that the refrigerator in his cabin wasn’t working right,” Hannah offered. “But I opened it when I went to the cottage to look for him, and it felt cool to me.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Pretty sure. The ice tray was still frozen solid.”
    “Maybe it was cutting on and off. The old ones do that sometimes. The water in the ice cube tray would freeze right back up again, but he might not have wanted to take the chance with a ham and cheese sandwich, especially with mayo.”
    “There was mayonnaise?”
    “Mayo and mustard.”
    The light dawned, and Hannah nodded. “I get it,” she said, shaking her head.
    “Get what?”
    “That’s one of the reasons he came back here, to use the mayo and mustard in the kitchen refrigerator.”
    “You know there was some in there?”
    “Yes. We ran out of cream for the coffee, and I went to the refrigerator to get another carton.”
    “And you’re sure he didn’t buy the mustard and mayo at the store?”
    “I’m almost certain. Ava’s the type to keep a running tab in her mind, and she named everything he bought last night. She didn’t say a word about mayonnaise and mustard.”
    Mike laughed. “So he took those from the pavilion refrigerator. That’s pretty cheap for a man who flashes money around and wears a Rolex and a diamond pinkie ring.”
    “A Rolex that could be a fake and a diamond made out of paste,” Hannah reminded him.
    “That’s true, but I already explained that. And that suit he was wearing didn’t come cheap. Maybe he just forgot the mayo and the mustard. And