Hannah was frowning slightly as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen. She wasn’t head-over-heels delighted about her grand prize, but she had to admit it was impressive. Unfortunately, they’d given it to the wrong person. She could think of several people right here in Lake Eden who’d really enjoy it and would use it every day. Giving it to her was almost like throwing money up in the air and watching it blow away. She might use it, sooner or later. And it would probably be later, if she were entirely honest about it. But she wasn’t thrilled by the prospect. At least Michelle seemed to appreciate it and that was good. Now that she thought about it, there were several people she knew who might appreciate it. She’d show it to Norman when he got here and get his opinion, and she’d certainly show it to Mike the next time he came over. Mike was the expert when it came to exercise equipment. He’d ordered all of the fitness machines for the gym at the sheriff’s station, and Bill had told her that they had the best equipped law enforcement exercise facility in the whole state of Minnesota.

Hannah entered the kitchen, flicked on the lights again, and took an apron out of the drawer. Then she opened the refrigerator to see what was there. Perhaps Michelle had gone shopping while she was in jail, and there would be some special ingredient she could use for her dessert.

“No such luck,” Hannah said aloud, staring at the empty shelves. Lonnie and Michelle must have gone out to eat or brought in takeout every night that she was gone. It was time to try the pantry and hope she could find something there.

Of course the basic ingredients for cookies were in her pantry. She kept them on hand in case of fire, flood, earthquake, blizzard, or any other natural disaster. Cookies made everything bearable. Hannah and every one of her customers at The Cookie Jar would testify to that!

What could she put in the cookies to make them interesting and different? She had several different flavors of chips including white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter, but she wanted something more special than a variation on her Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies. The only item that was even remotely promising was a packet of sweetened dried cranberries that had been on her shelf since Christmas before last. Hannah read the “use by” date on the package. It was good until September this year. Of course the sweetened, dried cranberries were still good. Nothing affected sweetened dried cranberries if the package hadn’t been opened. And this package was not only unopened, it had also been sitting untouched on her pantry shelf ever since she’d bought it at Florence’s Red Owl grocery store twenty months ago.