A quick glance at the list of ingredients and Hannah realized that she was in luck. She had everything, even a package of Club Crackers. They were her mother’s favorite cracker and Hannah had stocked up for the holidays.

It didn’t take long to line a pan with foil and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Hannah covered the foil with crackers and mixed the toffee ingredients together in a saucepan. As she was stirring the boiling toffee mixture, waiting for five minutes to elapse, she thought about Candy again. It certainly couldn’t hurt to ask an expert some questions, and she had an expert right in the family. Her brother-in-law, Bill, was a sheriff’s deputy.

Hannah glanced at the clock. It was eleven-thirty, but Bill always stayed up until midnight. If she were in luck, he’d answer the phone before it woke her sister, Andrea. Hannah reached for the phone, punched in the number, and kept right on stirring while it rang.

“It’s right here on the table by the front door. You must have set it down while you were looking for your car keys. I’ll drive it out there right now if you want me to, but that means I have to wake Tracey and…”

“It’s me, Andrea,” Hannah said, interrupting what was obviously an explanation meant for her brother-in-law. “Bill left for work and he forgot his lunch?”

“Yes, and he’s pulling a double. One of the guys called in sick.”

“Do you want me to take something out to him?”

“That’s nice of you, Hannah, but you don’t have to. He can just call out for pizza again. He’s done this same thing a couple of times before, and that’s what he did then.” There was a pause, and when Andrea came back on the line she sounded puzzled. “Come to think about it, it’s usually when I make bologna and pimento cheese sandwiches. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he didn’t like them.”

Hannah didn’t join in as her sister gave a little laugh at what she assumed was an absurdity. Hannah had tasted Andrea’s bologna and pimento cheese sandwiches. Once. On a scale of one to ten, they were a minus six.

“What are you doing up so late?” Andrea asked.

“Making toffee. If it’s good, I’ll save some for you.”

“Anything you make is good. And I love toffee. Is it the kind with the chocolate and nuts on top?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, good! That’s Bill’s favorite, too. Maybe you can teach me how to make it.”

When cows do calculus, Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it. Andrea was a disaster in the kitchen. There was no way a mere mortal could teach her to cook.

“So did you need something?” Andrea asked, erasing Hannah’s mental image of bovines standing on their hind legs to write complicated mathematical formulas on a chalkboard.

“Not really. I just wanted to ask Bill a question.”

“About Mike Kingston, I’ll bet.” Andrea named the newest detective on the squad. “Well, I can save you the trouble. Mike told Bill he had a great time going bowling with you. And he’s going to ask you out again for this weekend.”