Chapter Five

It seemed like forever, but at last Hannah’s day was almost over. As Delores had promised, she had called after the board member luncheon to say that none of Doc Knight’s paramedics or hospital staff had recognized the man that Hannah had hit. She’d also said that, just as Hannah had suspected, the man’s neck had been broken. Doc was planning to perform an autopsy later in the afternoon to ascertain the exact cause of death.

Everyone else was gone and the shop was closed. Andrea had left when they locked the front door and Herb had come to get Lisa. Lisa’s car was ready. Herb had checked, and they were picking it up at Murphy’s Motors before they went home. Hannah and Michelle had done the prep work for the morning and, except for the two of them, The Cookie Jar was deserted.

“Are you almost ready to go, Hannah?” Michelle came out of the walk-in cooler after stashing the final batch of cookie dough for the morning’s baking.

“I’m ready, but my truck’s not here yet.”

“I know. Lonnie just called me on my cell and said that they need to keep it overnight.”

“Oh, great!” Hannah said sarcastically. “What are we going to do for transportation?”

“Lonnie took care of that. He checked with his dad and a couple of Cyril’s mechanics are dropping off a loaner for you from the shop. You can keep it until you get your truck back.”

“That’s nice of Cyril, but I wonder why they need to keep my truck so long.”

“Lonnie said something about waiting for the autopsy report so they could make sure the man’s injuries were consistent with the damage to your truck.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “Okay. I guess that makes sense.”

Both sisters sat down at the workstation and propped their feet up on neighboring stools. They munched on a couple of Treasure Chest Cookies, which both of them agreed were perfect for Little Matt’s party, until there was a knock on the back door and the mechanics with the loaner arrived. Less than twenty-five minutes after that, the two sisters were pulling into Hannah’s condo complex. Michelle was driving. Hannah had explained that she didn’t want to drive any motor vehicle quite yet, and Michelle had volunteered.

“Home never looked so good!” Hannah said as her sister drove down the ramp of her underground garage and pulled into her parking spot.

“Home’s a good place to be after a rough day.” There was empathy in Michelle’s voice. “And you had a very rough day.”

“Not as rough as the man I hit.” Hannah got out of Cyril’s loaner, which was a newer model Buick with air-conditioning that actually worked, and started up the stairs. For the first time she wished her garage didn’t have stairs to the street level and her condo wasn’t on the second floor. She felt like a zombie and she simply had to get back some energy before Norman arrived to take her out to dinner.