Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)(63)

“I’m certainly not going to sit in the parking lot alone, not with a killer on the loose! And it’s not like we’re actually breaking in or anything. You’ve got Max’s keys.”

“Right.” Hannah knew that this wasn’t the time to remind Andrea that they’d broken into Max’s garage to get those keys. “Grab the flashlights. I don’t want to turn on any lights inside. Someone might see them from the road.”

Andrea reached into the back for the flashlights. “You’re going to owe me a whole batch of cookies for this, Hannah. I’ll take the Chocolate-Covered Cherry Delights.”

“Deal.” Hannah grabbed her flashlight from Andrea’s hand and got out of the truck. The temperature had dropped in the past hour and she shivered as they walked across the parking lot to the rear door. She glanced down at the keys in the glare from the security lights and blessed Max for labeling them. She selected the one marked “Rear Door,” and was about to insert it in the lock when Andrea gasped.

“What?” Hannah turned to look at her sister.

“I just thought of something. What if the dairy has a security system? We could set it off.”

“Are you kidding? A security system for a place this big would cost a bundle. Do you really think that Max would spend that kind of money?”

“No, maybe not.” Andrea breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Go ahead, Hannah. It was just a thought, that’s all.”

Hannah didn’t mention that she’d thought of the same thing. She’d even glanced at Max’s birth date on his driver’s license. If there was a keypad by the inside of the rear door, she planned to enter the numbers two, three, and forty-nine. She’d read somewhere that most people used their birth dates as a code for their security systems. If bells started to clang and sirens began to wail, they’d hightail it back to her Suburban and leave as fast as they could.

The key turned, the door opened, and Hannah stepped in. No keypad, no flashing red lights, no buzzing or clanking or wailing. That was good. It would have been out of character for Max to fork out the extra money for an alarm system, but Hannah hadn’t been one hundred percent sure.

“Come on, Andrea.” Hannah motioned to her sister. “His office is down this hall and to the right.”

Andrea stepped inside rather gingerly. “How do you know that?”

“I took the grand tour when I was in sixth grade. We came out here on a field trip and Max showed us around.”

“We didn’t get to go when I was in grade school.” Andrea sounded a little miffed.

“I know. They stopped the tours right after my class went through. I think it had something to do with Dale Hoeschen. He tripped over a box and almost fell into a cream vat.”

Andrea grinned. She was clearly in better spirits now. “I knew there was something I didn’t like about Dale.”

Hannah led the way down the hall and into the main part of the dairy. It was large and cavernous, not a comfortable place to explore at night. Their flashlights were powerful, but the twin beams did nothing to dispel the looming shadows. Hannah was sure that the place would seem very ordinary if they could turn on the overhead lights, but several rows of glass-block windows peppered the face of the building and she didn’t want to take the chance that someone on the highway would notice the light.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Andrea’s voice sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness.

“I think so,” Hannah replied. “There should be another hallway—there it is.” Hannah trained the beam of her flashlight on the entrance to the second hallway. “Max’s office should be the second door on the left. Betty’s office is the first door.”

As they entered the second hallway, Hannah noticed that Betty had posted the delivery schedules on a corkboard right outside her door. The drivers’ names were listed and their routes were marked with the times of each delivery. Ron’s name was still on his route. Betty must be waiting for instructions from Max before she changed the name of the driver.

Max’s office was right where Hannah remembered and it was marked with a brass nameplate on the door. Hannah opened the door, stepped inside, and played the beam of her flashlight over the walls. There were no outside windows. If they closed the door behind them, they could turn on the lights.

“Come in and shut the door,” Hannah called out to her sister.

Andrea stepped in quickly and shut the door. “Good. It’s creepy out there.”

Hannah agreed. Her knees were still shaking slightly, but she decided to make light of it for her sister’s benefit. “That’s only because it’s so big and dark. You can turn on the lights. There’s probably a switch right by the door.”

“Are you sure?” Andrea sounded very nervous.

“I’m positive. I checked and there aren’t any windows. No one will notice the light if we keep the door closed.”

Andrea located the wall switch and a moment later, bright light flooded down from an overhead fixture. Both sisters breathed a sigh of relief as they gazed around the room. Max’s office was huge and it was tastefully decorated with dark gray wall-to-wall carpeting and pale yellow grass cloth on the walls. There were several framed prints of flowers hanging in strategic positions, and the upholstered furniture, done in a striped pattern of muted coral, dark green, and gold, picked up the colors from the flower prints.