“Right. Let’s hope Doc’s got something good in mind because I’m fresh out of ideas. Go tell Lisa about it, will you please? Doc wants her to come to the dinner, too. And ask if you can ride out to the Lake Eden Inn with her. I’ll call Andrea and tell her to meet you and Lisa in the dining room. Doc wants the whole wedding planning committee to be there.”

“You’re coming too, aren’t you?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“But you asked me to ride with Lisa. Where will you be?”

“I have to run home to feed Moishe. And then I need to drive out to Loretta’s farm to meet Jennifer at four.”

“Jennifer asked to talk to you?” Michelle sounded surprised.

“No, it’s the other way around. I asked to talk to Jennifer. I need to check her out for myself. Loretta came to see me this afternoon and she’s in a really bad situation. She knows Carly doesn’t think Jennifer’s her sister, but Loretta told me that she knows Jennifer is.”

Michelle stared at Hannah for a moment and then an expression of doubt crossed her face. “Wouldn’t you think Loretta would know? Jennifer didn’t run away until she was a teenager.”

“Yes, I think a mother would know. Maybe not if Jennifer had been kidnapped when she was a baby, but she wasn’t. Loretta knows.”

“But then . . .” Michelle stopped and took a deep breath. “You think Loretta’s lying, don’t you!”

It was more accusation than question, and Hannah nodded. “I think she could be.”

“But you don’t know for sure and that’s why you have to go out there?”

“Precisely. I want to talk to Jennifer alone, without Loretta or Carly anywhere around. I need some answers from her.”

“Better take some cookies with you. Sweeten her up first and then ask the hard questions.”

Hannah chuckled. “Has Lonnie been giving you interrogation lessons?”

“No, you have. I’ve seen you do that sort of thing before.”

“Did it work?”

“Beautifully. Most people will tell you anything you ask after a couple of your cookies. You could probably sell them as a substitute for truth serum.”

Hannah was still chuckling softly as she began to bake yet another batch of cookies. She just hoped that Michelle was right and her sweet potato cookies would be a good substitute for truth serum. In any event, Yummy Yam Cookies, the name she’d given them, would be a double-edged sword. Either Jennifer would love them and Hannah would know she was a fraud, or or she would hate them and Hannah would know that she was the real Jennifer after all.

YUMMY YAM COOKIES
(Sweet Potato or Yam Cookies)