Free Cinnamon Roll Murder by Joanne Fluke

can type them up, so Vonnie must have known, too. There could be several people at the hospital who knew.”
    “Hmm. I didn’t think of that. I guess it doesn’t really matter, not in the long run. The news always gets out one way or the other.”
    “Here you go!” Michelle came back with a large piece of cake on a plate and handed it to Mike. She refilled his coffee cup, took a seat, and waited for him to taste it.
    “Wow!” Mike said, after his first bite. “This is a really good cake, and I love the frosting.”
    “We like it, too,” Michelle said. “Do you have any idea what Hannah should call it?”
    Mike took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. “I’m thinking. What’s in this frosting?”
    “Browned butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and cream,” Hannah answered him.
    “Butter in the cake, and butter in the frosting?”
    “And a butter sauce poured on top before you frost it,” Hannah added. That’s what gives it that little crunch on top.”
    “There sure is a lot of butter in here,” Mike commented as he took another bite. “Whoa! I got it!” He took a swallow of coffee, and grinned at them. “Butterama Cake,” he said.
    “Butterama Cake?” Hannah repeated, and then she began to smile. “I like it. From now on I’m calling this cake Butterama Cake.”
     
    “Okay, Hannah,” Mike said, pulling out his notebook. “Tell me everything you saw and heard from the moment you entered the bus until the moment you left the scene.”
    Hannah knew Michelle was answering a similar question for Lonnie. They’d separated into couples so that Mike could take Hannah’s statement in the living room. Michelle had taken Lonnie in the kitchen to feed him some of the Hamburger Bake. She’d heard Michelle put Lonnie’s dishes in the sink and start another pot of coffee. Undoubtedly Lonnie had also begun to take Michelle’s statement.
    Mike was looking at her expectantly, and Hannah thought back several hours, replaying the scene in her mind. “The bus was upside down. You probably already know that.” She waited until Mike nodded and then she went on. “Buddy Neiman unlocked the back door from inside and that’s how Michelle and I got in. We asked if anyone was injured and he said that he had the most serious injury. He showed us the splint Lynnette made for him.”
    “Lynnette?”
    “She’s one of the …” Hannah stopped and frowned slightly. “I guess you call them groupies. Lynnette and another girl named Cammy travel with the band. She told us they help the band set up, and … I don’t know what else.”
    “I’ll bet I do,” Mike said under his breath, and Hannah pretended not to hear him. “You said Lynnette put a splint on Mr. Neiman’s wrist. Is she a nurse?”
    “No, but she used to work in a doctor’s office. Anyway, Michelle asked Buddy if there were any other injuries, and that was when he told us that the driver was dead. We asked how he knew that and he said that Lynnette had gone up to the front of the bus to check on the driver, and when she came back, she said he was dead.”
    “Okay. I’ll have to get her prints in case she touched anything on or around Mr. Wallace. Do you know if she felt for a pulse?”
    Hannah shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. We talked to her about that. She said she did, but I don’t think so.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because she said it was creepy and she didn’t want to see him again. I don’t think she would have had the nerve to touch him.”
    “All right. Describe the scene for me.”
    Hannah took a deep breath. “The only light was an LED strip on the ceiling. Of course the ceiling was upside down, and we walked on it like a floor. There were things all over that had fallen from the seats. The bus had a vaulted ceiling, so we were walking in the trough. It was hard to keep our balance, and we took small steps, one foot in front of the other, the way you’d walk on a tightrope. Since there was so much debris that had scattered