Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen, #15)(26)

“How did you get them so soon?” Delores asked her.

“Everything’s digital now. They sent them to Bill over the Internet, and he downloaded them to a disk before he came home last night.”

“And he gave them to you?” Delores was clearly shocked.

“Not exactly. Let’s just say that I managed to copy the disk and print them out while he was sleeping.”

“Andrea!”

Andrea just shrugged as Delores gave her a stern look. “Come on, Mother. It was the only way I could think of to get them. And you do want us to work on the murder case, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I told you that.”

“Well, having the crime scene photos is bound to help. Would you like to see them?” Andrea offered, pulling a manila envelope out of her purse.

“No!” Delores said definitively, and then she gave a little shudder. “I was there. That’s quite enough for me! Just let me know if I can do anything to help your investigation. I’m good at undercover work, you know. And I’m at the hospital almost every day.” She turned to Lisa. “I’ll be back here around one to see your new puppy. Little Sammy sounds just darling.”

“He’s a love.” Lisa smiled a proud smile, almost as if her new puppy was a newborn baby she’d just brought home from the maternity ward.

“When I come, I’ll bring a copy of the autopsy report,” Delores promised. “I’ve got a key to Doc’s cabinet. I can copy it right at the hospital.”

“Mother!” Andrea treated her to the same stern look that Delores had given her earlier. “You thought I was wrong for copying Bill’s disk of the crime scene photos without his permission. Now you’re going to do the almost same thing to Doc Knight.”

“Doc’s not my husband,” Delores pointed out. “That’s different.”

Hannah exchanged glances with her sisters, and they all began to smile. Since little on, they’d known that what their mother thought was bad behavior for them wasn’t necessarily bad behavior for her.

“Don’t forget your cookies,” Lisa reminded Delores.

“I won’t.” Delores hurried to the counter and picked up one of Hannah’s bakery boxes. “Doc and the nurses are going to love these. Thanks so much, Lisa.”

Hannah waited until Delores left, and then she turned to Lisa. “What kind of cookies did you give her?”

“Chocolate Chip Crunch. I figured the chocolate would do them some good. It’s got to be a madhouse out there.”

“Right. Mother said she’d come back at one to see Sammy. Where is he?”

“Herb’s got the morning off, so he’s taking Sammy to Doctor Bob’s for a complete checkup with blood work and everything. I told him that the paramedics said that Sammy was fine, but he insisted. He said you can’t be too careful with a little guy like Sammy.”

“Very true,” Hannah said, smiling at her partner. It sounded as if Herb had fallen in love with Sammy, too.

“Let’s get started,” Lisa said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Hannah glanced over at the bakers’ racks. They were filled almost to overflowing with freshly baked cookies. “But the racks are full. Didn’t you already do all the baking?”

“I did. Sammy was snuggled up in bed with Herb and Dillon, so I came in to work early. And I baked extra cookies because I knew we’d be jam-packed with customers today.”

“Because you’re going to tell the story of how Mother found the body?” Andrea asked.

“I’m definitely going to do that. Your mother told me to make it just as theatrical as I wanted, and she’s going to come in and listen.” Lisa turned to Hannah. “We always get tons of customers when I tell murder stories.”

“I know,” Hannah said. “But we don’t open the coffee shop until nine, and it’s only seven. What else is there to do before we open?”

“We have to start working on this murder investigation right away. And after we get everything organized, I want you and Michelle to tell me exactly what it was like when you went up to the front of the bus to see the dead bus driver’s body. Our customers are going to want to hear about that, too.”

“You’re doing a double feature?” Michelle asked her.

“You betcha. Now let’s get back to business. You met Buddy last night and so did Michelle. Andrea and I need to know your impressions of him. And then we need to figure out a reason why somebody wanted to kill him.”





Hannah was greatly relieved when Andrea slipped the crime scene photos back into the envelope. This was definitely a crime of passion. Buddy had been stabbed multiple times with the scissors, and some of the wounds hadn’t bled. This led her to believe that the killer had kept stabbing him even after he was dead. Of course she wasn’t a doctor or a forensic specialist. She’d have to wait for Delores to bring in the autopsy report to make certain she was right. Lisa and Michelle had gone into the coffee shop to open it for business, but not until they’d talked about the direction their investigation would take, and Hannah and Michelle had told Lisa about entering the overturned band bus and seeing the dead driver.

“I’m going to mix up more cookie dough,” Hannah said, rising from her stool at the stainless steel work island.