A dim light began to flicker in the back of Hannah’s mind, and in less time than it took her to realize that she had to hurry or she’d be late meeting Andrea at the mall, she had an idea. She wouldn’t mention it now. She didn’t want to raise hopes and then dash them.

“You can relax, Phil,” she told him. “I’ve got something that’ll perk Sue right up. What’s your schedule like today?”

“It’s like every other workday. I play with Kevin for a while so Sue can get some work done, and then I sleep from about eight to three.”

“Can you drop by the coffee shop when you wake up?”

“Sure. Are you going to make something special for Sue?”

“You bet. It’s impossible to worry about anything when you’re eating chocolate, and I’m going to come up with a cookie for Sue that’ll cheer her up for the whole week.”

It was almost bright enough to drive without headlights when Hannah pulled into the parking lot at the Tri-County Mall. She passed Bergstrom’s Department Store, locked up tight until it opened at ten, and headed to the north end of the shopping center where the street door for Heavenly Bodies was located. The parking lot was completely deserted, and Hannah pulled into the space at the right of the door. Andrea wasn’t here yet, which didn’t surprise Hannah. It had taken a blaring alarm clock, several none-too-gentle shakes on the shoulder, and threats of dire bodily harm to get Andrea out of bed when they were in high school.

The inside of her windshield was beginning to fog up, and Hannah opened her window a crack. There was a delightful scent in the air, a sugary, chocolaty scent with undertones of cinnamon and maple that set her mouth watering and her mind flipping through the sweet possibilities. She knew this scent. She’d smelled it before. But where?

When speculation didn’t lead to an answer, Hannah zipped her knee-length jacket and stepped out of her truck. She started to the right, but the scent faded. It was something to her left, and she was going to find it!

When she walked around the corner of the building, she encountered the back doors of several closed shops. There was no way Bianco’s could be the origin of this delightful scent. It was an Italian shoe store, and it smelled of leather and packing material. The next store was an upscale kitchen boutique. Unless they were doing a cooking demonstration, which was unlikely since there were no other cars in the parking lot, it couldn’t be coming from there either.