Hannah’s sisters were regarding her curiously and Hannah began reading the article aloud. “It’s been over four months since a member of the Swensen family has sniffed out the body of a murder victim,” she began, but Delores held up a hand to stop her.

“Reading it once was quite enough for me. I don’t want to hear it again!”

“I understand,” Hannah said, even though she was secretly amused at Rod’s heading No Body Nose and his reference to sniffing out murder victims. Although it took a great deal of restraint on her part, she kept a solemn expression on her face as she pushed the cookie plate a bit closer to her mother. “I baked these just for you, Mother.”

“All right, dear. I’ll have one. I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Hannah breathed a sigh of relief as her mother reached for a cookie. Perhaps the endorphins in the chocolate would have a calming effect. Then she spread out the newspaper in the center of the worktable and motioned for her sisters to crowd around her so that all three of them could read it silently.

The article continued in the same vein, pointing out that with the exception of Coach Watson, every other Lake Eden homicide victim had been discovered by someone in the Swensen family. There was even a tally sheet, arranged like a baseball box score, showing Hannah with the most “hits,” followed by Delores and Andrea. Michelle was in last place with nothing but strikeouts. Under the score box was a quote from Andrea’s husband, Bill Todd, the Winnetka County Sheriff, who said that the drop in the murder rate had made it possible for his deputies to take care of routine matters like serving warrants for smaller crimes and tracking down citizens who had failed to show up for jury duty. Then Rod quoted one of Hannah’s boyfriends, Deputy Mike Kingston, who said his homicide detectives were almost caught up on paperwork. The article ended with another quote from Mike that had Hannah wincing slightly because he speculated that perhaps Hannah’s uncanny ability to find murder victims, an attribute he called her “slaydar,” was on the blink.

There was an awkward moment of silence as they all finished reading and then Hannah spoke. “We really shouldn’t be that upset over this,” she said, attempting to put the best spin on what she’d just read. “Rod didn’t have enough real news so he put this in as one of his little jokes.”

“It’s not funny!” Delores said, and her tone was icy. “It’s cruel. And after Doc reads it, he’ll be just as embarrassed as I am. I wouldn’t blame him a bit if he called off the wedding!”

“Doc would never do that,” Hannah told her. “He loves you. You know that. And Doc knows Rod well enough to realize that this is just another one of his spoofs. Nobody’s going to take it seriously, Mother.” Hannah turned to her sisters. “Right, girls?”