Deliberately averting her eyes from the dairy as she passed it, Hannah made her way into town. There was no way she wanted to be reminded of Max’s lifeless body this early in the morning. She spotted Herb Beeseman a block from her shop and flagged him down. Plying him with the rest of the Chocolate-Covered Cherry Delights in exchange for information, she verified that he’d talked to Mr. Harris at the Peterson farm at eight on Wednesday morning.

Hannah pulled into her parking place at six forty-five. After she’d locked up her truck, she plugged in the head-bolt heater and opened the back door to the bakery. The sweet dark scent of chocolate greeted her, and Hannah began to smile. Next to coffee, chocolate was her favorite aroma.

After she’d flicked on the lights, fired up the ovens, stuck on her cap, and scrubbed her hands at the sink, Hannah got out a mixing bowl. She had to make a sample batch of Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies for the woman who’d catered the Woodleys’ party.

Hannah poured herself a cup of coffee from the car caddy and read over the recipe while she ingested more caffeine. Mixing cookie dough was something she never did on automatic pilot. She’d tried it once and left out an ingredient that was essential to every cookie: sugar.

When the dough was ready, Hannah covered it with plastic wrap and stashed it in her walk-in cooler. The dough for the Black and Whites was thoroughly chilled and she grabbed a bowl and carried it over to the work island. She’d just finished rolling enough dough balls for two sheets of cookies when Lisa came in the back door.

Hannah glanced at the clock. It was only seven-thirty and Lisa wasn’t scheduled to come in until eight on Saturdays. “Hi, Lisa. You’re half an hour early.”

“I know. I just thought you might need some help with the customers this morning. We’ll be packed.”

“We will?”

“You bet. They’ll all come in to find out what you know about Max.”

Hannah’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “How did you find out so fast?”

“I was listening to Jake and Kelly, and they said that Max was dead. Those two guys are crazy. They were making bad cow jokes and calling it a tribute to Max.”

“Bad cow jokes?” Hannah looked up from her task of rolling the dough balls in powdered sugar.

“You know the type,” Lisa explained as she hung her jacket on the hook by the door. “‘Why did Farmer Brown buy a black cow? Because he wanted to get chocolate milk.’ That was the best of them. The rest were so bad, I don’t even remember them. Do you want me to start the coffee and set the tables up in the shop?”

Hannah nodded and slid the first two cookie sheets into the ovens. She set the timer for twelve minutes and walked back to the work island to start rolling more balls. Lisa was right. If Jake and Kelly had discussed Max Turner on their show, The Cookie Jar would be flooded with customers this morning. And when the news got out that she’d been the one to find Max’s body, it would be standing room only. Hannah sighed as she rolled more dough balls in powdered sugar. If she were ever unlucky enough to find a third body, she’d probably have to buy the building next door and expand.