by Joanne Fluke
“We’d like to do that,” Norman told her. “I’ll rent the truck.”
“Then let’s go to the office and take care of the paperwork,” June told him.
“Thank you, June,” Hannah said as June locked up the unit again and they all followed her to the door.
“Okay then.” June led the way back to the office. “Who’s going to drive the rental truck? I’ll need a driver’s license.”
“I am,” Norman said, and then he turned back to Hannah and Michelle. “Who’s going to drive my car?”
“I will,” Michelle volunteered. “Hannah can ride with you in the truck. And don’t worry, Norman. I’m a good driver. One of my former roommates had a car just like yours and I used to drive it all the time.”
The arrangements with June at the rental office were made very quickly. She handed Hannah a key to the unit and gave Norman the truck keys. Norman, Hannah, and Michelle drove the truck down to the building that contained the rental unit and worked together to load the contents. Since everything was already packed in cases and boxes, it didn’t take long, and within thirty minutes the truck was loaded and ready to go.
“I’m not sure where I’m going to put all this,” Hannah confessed, looking at the contents in the back of the truck.
“I can store it at my place,” Norman offered. “I’ve been doing some work on the house and I enlarged the garage. It’s heated now, and there’s plenty of storage.”
Hannah drew a relieved breath. “Thanks, Norman. I don’t think the storage above my parking spots would hold it all.”
“I know it wouldn’t,” Michelle told her. “I tried to put my suitcase up there and it wouldn’t fit.”
Norman turned to Michelle. “Then we’ll all meet at my place. And once we unload, you can drive my car to the rental office by the college. We’ll drop off the truck and then I’ll take you two back to The Cookie Jar.”
* * *
Sooner than they expected, Norman turned into his driveway and pulled the truck up to the garage. “We can store all this equipment in the annex I built out here.”
Hannah stared at the garage in surprise. “You really enlarged this garage!”
“Yes. It’s triple the size it used to be. I’m planning to make several guest rooms on one side and we’ll use one of those as a storage place for now.”
The unpacking didn’t take long, and then Hannah and Michelle followed Norman to the truck rental place so that Norman could drop off the truck. While they waited for him to finish at the truck rental office, Michelle called Marge at The Cookie Jar to see if they needed to bake more cookies.
“Marge says no, they have enough,” she reported to Hannah.
“At the convention booth, too?”
“Yes. Marge checked with Lisa and she said they had plenty.”
It didn’t take long for Norman to finish at the truck rental office. “Do you have to go back to The Cookie Jar?” he asked them.
“Not today,” Hannah replied. “You can take us back to the condo.”
“Dinner tonight?” he asked them.
“Yes, but we’ll cook,” Hannah answered. “You took us out last night and it’s our turn.”
“Aren’t you tired after loading and unloading the truck?”
Michelle shook her head. “Are you kidding? Today’s a short day for us.”
“But I can take you out tonight, too.”
“No, Norman,” Hannah told him. “You’ve done enough for us today. We want to make dinner for you.”
“Yes, we do,” Michelle agreed. “Just take us back to the condo, drop us off, and come back at seven for dinner. And bring Cuddles with you.”
This is almost like old times, Hannah thought as she climbed the covered staircase with Michelle. Dinner with Norman, and Mike is bound to show up with Lonnie. All we have to do is figure out what to make. She did a mental inventory of the supplies she had in the freezer and began to smile. “How does Chicken Paprikash sound to you?”
“It sounds great. I love your Chicken Paprikash and I can bake something easy for dessert.”
Chapter Thirty
As they climbed the covered staircase past her living room window, Hannah glanced into her living room. No Moishe. But perhaps he was waiting by the door to greet them by jumping up into her arms.
“You or me?” Michelle asked her when they reached the second-floor landing.
“I’ll catch him this time,” Hannah answered, bracing herself as Michelle unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The expected feline missile did not launch and land in Hannah’s arms. There was no sound of rushing feet and no orange and white blur as Moishe went airborne. Hannah sighed. Moishe was probably sleeping again, and as they went inside and shut the door behind them, she wished she knew why he was always so tired.
As they stepped into the living room, Hannah heard a whining noise. “What’s that?” she asked Michelle.
“I don’t know, but it sounds like it’s coming from my room.”
For a moment, Hannah was puzzled, but then she realized that they were home much earlier than they usually were and the RoboVac was still vacuuming the wall-to-wall carpeting. “It’s the RoboVac,” she told Michelle.
“I’ve never seen it operate,” Michelle replied. “Let’s go look.”
Hannah led the way as they walked down the hallway to watch her new vacuum do its job. They looked in the open guest room door and the sight they saw both amazed and amused them. The RoboVac was whirring away, twisting and turning around the furniture in the guest bedroom. And right behind the robotic vacuum was Moishe. The hair was bristled on his back, and his ears were flat against his head.
The vacuum turned and Moishe leaped back, startled. He gave the round case a swipe with his paw, but it didn’t stop moving. Instead, it turned again and Moishe reacted again. Then the RoboVac moved toward Moishe, and Moishe sprang out of the way as it headed toward the door. Hannah and Michelle stepped aside and left the room.
“So that’s why you’re so tired!” Hannah said, startling her feline roommate even more than the RoboVac had. “Come here, Moishe. I’ll pick you up and Michelle will go get the kitty treats.”
Contrary to his usual reaction to that invitation, Moishe walked past them as if they were invisible and followed the RoboVac down the hallway, stalking it as it made its way back to the living room. Only when the vacuum had gone back to its corner and shut itself off did Moishe rush back to them.
“Just wait until I tell Norman and Mike about this,” Hannah said as she picked Moishe up and carried him to his favorite spot on the back of the couch. “I’ll bet that Cuddles stalks Norman’s RoboVac, too.”
* * *
Dinner was tasty and, just as Hannah had expected, Mike and Lonnie arrived shortly before they were ready to sit down to eat. Hannah had already told Norman about watching Moishe stalk the RoboVac, and he’d laughed and promised to set both of their machines on a schedule that wouldn’t exhaust their pets.
“This is really good,” Mike said as he took a third helping from the slow cooker crock in the center of the table. “I’m glad we dropped by.”
“Michelle and I knew that you would if your food-dar was working,” Hannah told him. “By the way, we found out that Ross had a storage unit at the Superior Storage location in St. Paul.”
Mike dropped his fork with a clatter, even though he’d barely begun to eat his third helping. “But you gave me the key! How did you get in?”
“The rent was three months in arrears, so all we had to do was pay the back rent and the manager let us in,” Norman told him.
“They’re not supposed to do that unless . . . was the unit in Ross’s name?”
“Not exactly,” Michelle explained, “but the manager thought it was close enough. The name on the application was Russ Burton.”
“You lucked out,” Mike said. “The manager must have thought that someone got the name wrong.”
“That’s exactly what she thought,�
� Hannah said. “She said they’d hired a part-time worker to type the names of the tenants in the computer when they’d switched over to a new system and the worker must have misread the name on the application.”
“Amazing!” Mike said, shaking his head in disbelief. “She shouldn’t have done that, you know.”
“I know, but it turned out that the things stored inside did belong to Ross. I recognized a couple of the luggage tags that Ross’s fiancée made for him while we were in college.”
“And the unit was number three-twelve?” Mike asked Hannah.
“No. It was in the building marked five hundred and the unit was five-twenty. Everything inside was from our college years. Ross must have rented it after he graduated and moved out of the apartment building. The manager told us the unit was rented almost five years ago.”
“Did you leave the stuff there?” Mike asked.
“No,” Norman told him. “Hannah paid the back rent on the unit, and we got a small truck to move everything into my garage.”
“Is there anything interesting there?” Mike asked Hannah.
“I don’t think there’s anything personal, if that’s what you mean. Everything was in cases, and it all looked like camera or video equipment.”
“I don’t suppose you talked your way into checking unit three-twelve,” Mike said.
“No. She wouldn’t have let us do that,”Hannah told him.
“Okay, then here’s what I’m going to do, we’re not going to bother going through those cameras and equipment right now. And I’ll give the guys out there one more day to come up with something. Then I’m going to pull them back here and give them another assignment. Rick’s good at interviewing people, and they can do some legwork for us.”
* * *
Hannah’s sleep was deep and peaceful. No problems plagued her and no nightmares haunted her night. She woke up in the morning without the alarm, cuddled with Moishe for a moment or two, shut off the alarm so that it wouldn’t ring while she was in the shower, and got out of bed to begin her morning ritual.
Fifteen minutes later, when she came out of the shower, she smelled the tantalizing aroma of freshly brewed coffee and she dressed as quickly as she could. Michelle was up early too, and she’d put on their morning coffee. No mouth-watering baking scents were in the air, probably because they’d told Norman that they’d meet him early at the Lake Eden Inn to take advantage of Sally’s excellent breakfast buffet.
When Hannah walked down the hallway, Moishe at her heels, she felt better than she had in a long time. She was actually looking forward to the day and the work that awaited them. Selling cookies wasn’t work; it was fun. And baking was always enjoyable.
“Good morning, Michelle,” Hannah greeted her sister as she stepped into the kitchen. “How are you today?”
Michelle smiled. “I’m fine, and you look a whole lot better than you have in a while. I guess some time away from work restored your positive attitude.”
Hannah poured herself a cup of coffee and thought about that. Michelle was right. She’d lost her positive attitude when she’d lost Ross. She hadn’t realized that his disappearance had affected her personality as deeply as it had.
The winter sky was just beginning to lighten slightly as Hannah drove to town. Marge, Aunt Nancy, and Lisa were already at The Cookie Jar, and Michelle was just parking when Hannah pulled into her spot. Hannah was smiling as she met Michelle at her car, and they walked in the back kitchen door together. With all five of them working, the baking would be done in record time.
“Hannah? Do you have a minute before we start packing up the cookie truck?” Aunt Nancy asked her.
“Sure. What is it?”
“Not here. I don’t want Marge or Lisa to hear. I’ll go in the coffee shop. Do you think you can follow me in a couple of minutes without them noticing?”
“Let’s try it. Go ahead, Aunt Nancy. And give me a minute or two to follow you.”
“What’s going on?” Michelle asked Hannah when Aunt Nancy had left.
“Aunt Nancy wants to speak with me personally in the coffee shop. Could you distract Marge and Lisa so they don’t miss us while we’re talking?”
“I can do that. Just watch.”
Hannah watched as Michelle picked up a tray of unbaked cookies and headed toward the oven, where Lisa and Marge were standing.
“Oh, no!” Michelle exclaimed as she pretended to stumble and the unbaked cookies went flying all over the counter. “I’m so sorry. I just lost my balance for a second.”
“That’s okay, honey,” Marge said, hurrying over to help Michelle. “You go sit down and catch your breath. There’s no harm done. Isn’t that right, Lisa?”
“Marge is right,” Lisa agreed. “None of the cookies hit the floor so they’re perfectly usable. You just sit and relax. Marge and I will reshape the dough and put it back on the cookie sheet.”
Hannah reminded herself to compliment Michelle on her quick thinking and made her escape through the swinging door to the coffee shop. Aunt Nancy was sitting at a table near the plate glass window and she motioned Hannah over to her.
“It’s Heiti,” Aunt Nancy said as soon as Hannah sat down with her. “I think he’s going to give me an engagement ring!”
Hannah was puzzled. “But that’s good, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes! It’s wonderful! But I think that Lisa might feel hurt if I don’t confide my suspicions to her.”
Hannah smiled. “That’s easily solved. All you have to do is tell Lisa.”
“But what if I’m wrong? Heiti said something about good things coming in small packages and I know he went out to the jewelry store at the Tri-County Mall. If he’s giving me a necklace or a bracelet instead of a ring, I’ll be horribly embarrassed.”
She’s making a mountain out of a beaver dam, Hannah thought. It had been one of her father’s favorite sayings, but she didn’t repeat it aloud. Instead she said, “Just act surprised at whatever it is and don’t let Lisa and Herb know that you expected anything else.”
Aunt Nancy thought about that for a moment. “You’re right! I shouldn’t tell them unless I know for sure, and I don’t.”
“Then you solved your own problem, Aunt Nancy.”
Aunt Nancy thought about that for a moment and then she smiled. “I did, didn’t I?”
Hannah stood up. “We’d better get back to work before anyone misses us. And if they noticed that we were gone, we’ll just say we were checking to make sure everything was ready in here. And, Aunt Nancy?”
“Yes, Hannah.”
“Heiti’s a wonderful man, and I really hope that you’re right!”
Chapter Thirty-one
It seemed that everyone and their cousin had turned out for the final day of Sally’s Holiday Gift Convention. From their vantage point in the center of the convention hall, Hannah, Michelle, and Norman could tell that every booth was doing booming business. The Cookie Jar booth was no exception. Norman had driven back to town twice to pick up more cookies. Now, at four in the afternoon, their supply was getting low again.
“Do you want me to go to town again?” Norman asked them.
“No.” Hannah made an executive decision. “It’ll take you twenty minutes to get to town and twenty minutes to drive back here. By that time, it’ll be almost a quarter to five and the convention closes at five.”
“You’re right,” Norman agreed, “but I hate to see you run out.”
Michelle smiled, and it was the smile that Delores described as the cat that got into the cream pot in the Regency romances she wrote. “We won’t run out,” she said.
“How can you be sure?” Hannah asked her.
“I stuck four pans of bar cookies in a cooler in the back seat of your cookie truck. I decided to bring them just in case.”
“That was a wise decision,” Norman complimented her.
“It certainly was.” Hannah headed toward the chair in the back of the booth to grab her parka. “I need some fresh air. I’
ll go get them.”
As she passed by Gary’s booth, Hannah stopped to say hello. “We’re almost sold out. How are you doing today?”
“It’s the same here. I just sold my last handmade sleigh ornament and everything else is in short supply. Today was my best day.”
“I’m sorry to hear that you’re out of the sleighs,” Hannah told him. “I was going to buy one for Mother for her Christmas tree.”
“I have another box, but it’s in the passenger seat of my Jeep,” Gary told her. “I was going to go out to get it earlier, but I got busy before I could do it and I haven’t had time since.”
“I’m going out there anyway,” Hannah told him. “I can bring the box back for you.”
“That would be great!” Gary said, reaching in his pocket to pull out his car keys and hand them to her. “Use the driver’s side door. The lock on the passenger’s door doesn’t work very well in the winter. It’s the black Jeep Wrangler with a small trailer hitched to the back.”
“I know which one it is. I’m parked right next to it. I’ll bring back your sleighs if you’ll sell me one.”
“I’ll give you one,” Gary promised, turning to smile at the customers who were approaching his booth. “Thanks, Hannah.”
“No problem,” Hannah said, leaving him to his customers. She walked down the row of booths to the back door, waving at the vendors she’d met. The back door was unlocked, and she pushed it open and stepped outside, breathing deeply of the still, cold air. She coughed once, and immediately held her winter scarf over her mouth, breathing through that to warm the air slightly. The temperature outside was so cold that taking a deep breath hurt her lungs.
Hannah unlocked the driver’s side of the Jeep, pulled it open, and spotted the small box on the passenger’s seat. It had the word SLEIGHS written on the side, and she leaned across the driver’s seat to lift it out.
There was a Styrofoam cup of coffee in the cup holder between the seats, but Hannah didn’t notice that as she lifted the box and pulled it toward her. The corner of the box hit the cup, which contained only an inch or two of coffee in the bottom. The impact caused the cup to come out of the holder and upend, splashing the cold coffee all over the tan leather covering the driver’s seat.
