“Okay,” Hannah said quickly, walking back to the couch and sitting down. She’d been looking forward to climbing into her own bed in her own bedroom, and simply relaxing in the luxury of her own home. Staying up to talk to one of Michelle’s friends was the last thing she wanted to do, but Hannah had always liked Carly and if Carly needed to talk to her, she was willing to forget about going to bed for as long as it took and try to help Carly any way she could.

“I’m going to bake some chocolate cookies,” Michelle said, getting up from her seat on the couch. “ If Carly’s been driving around for hours, she’s really upset and chocolate will make her feel better.”

“Good idea. She can eat leftover pizza first and have your cookies for dessert.”

“She could, but the pizza’s all gone.”

“There’s no leftover pizza?”

“Not even crumbs. Mike polished off the last two pieces. And that means there won’t be any pizza for our breakfast.”

“We’ll go out for breakfast,” Hannah said, deciding on the spur of the moment.

“To the Corner Tavern?”

“Not there. We’re going to go to Hal and Rose’s Café. I need to ask Rose if she served blackberry pie to anyone one Thursday or early Friday morning.”

“Good idea,” Michelle said, catching on instantly. “But Rose is a member of the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline and Mother said no one was expecting any visitors that didn’t arrive.”

“Rose didn’t know that the man I hit had blackberry stains on his shirt. Nobody knew until Doc told us tonight. She may not have mentioned that someone she didn’t know came into the café. She gets strangers there all the time. Sometimes it’s someone just passing through, or truck drivers she doesn’t know delivering something to a business in town.”

“That’s true. And it’s still fishing season. She gets people she doesn’t know from the cabin rentals out at Eden Lake.”

“Uh-oh!” Hannah said, and followed it with a big sigh.

“What?”

“I forgot all about the cabin rentals until you mentioned them right now. The man I hit could have rented a cabin at the lake.”

“He didn’t look like a fisherman,” Michelle pointed out.

“That’s true, but fishermen aren’t the only ones who rent summer cabins. Lots of families do.”

“He didn’t look like a family man, either.”

“I know. Forget about family men. Maybe Grandma Knudson was right. He could have rented a cabin for a week to check out a new venue for his prostitution ring.”

Michelle laughed. “I didn’t know you heard. I thought I’d just about die when Grandma Knudson said that. I was carrying a tray of coffee cups and I almost dropped them.”