“Hi, Hannah!” Shawna Lee walked gracefully down the stairs balancing a platter, something Hannah wouldn’t even have attempted, especially in four-inch high heels. “I really hope I did these right. I followed the recipe exactly.”

“I’m sure they’re just fine,” Hannah said, hoping that her words would be prophetic. She’d given the blond secretary one of the easier recipes. Susan Zilber’s Spinach Rollups. Once the spinach had been cooked and drained, there was no other cooking involved.

“I hope they make the cookbook. The only thing I did different was I cut them on the slant. I think they look better that way.”

Hannah glanced down at the platter Shawna Lee was holding. It was covered with plastic wrap and the rollups looked just fine to her. “They’re very attractive.”

“I know. And they’re good, too. I tasted the end pieces when I cut them off.”

“Cook’s prerogative,” Hannah commented, smiling at Shawna Lee. She could afford to be charitable now that her rival was leaving town. “Just take them in the kitchen and give them to Edna. She’ll see that they get out to the right table when it’s time to serve. And tell her what we should do with your platter after it’s washed.”

“Oh, Mike can take it home for me. He’s got the key and he knows where it goes in the cupboard.”

Hannah saw red, and that made her forget all about being charitable. Only a frequent visitor to Shawna Lee’s kitchen would know where her dishes belonged. Visions of intimate candlelight dinners and early breakfasts danced through Hannah’s mind and made her long for retribution.

“I’m really sorry I can’t stay for the dinner,” Shawna Lee interrupted Hannah’s contemplations of double homicide. ‘I just know it’ll be wonderful! But I’ve got a ten o’clock flight and I have to be at the airport two hours early. Mike’s taking me. Isn’t that nice of him?”

“Nice,” Hannah said, putting on a smile that wouldn’t have fooled anyone except perhaps a brand-new acquaintance with a severe visual problem.

“While you’re in the kitchen, why don’t you see if the coffee’s ready?” Mike suggested, giving Shawna Lee a little push in that direction. “I could use a up before we hit the road.”

“Cream, two sugars, right? Except in the morning, when you don’t take cream.”

“Right.” The moment Shawna Lee had left, Mike turned to Hannah. ‘I need to talk to you about those brownies.”

Hannah gulped slightly, glad that she had witnesses just in case this turned ugly. “Look, Mike. I’m really sorry about … “

‘I haven’t had a chance to thank you in advance. That was really nice of you, Hannah. I would have opened them right away and had a few, but it’s been a totally impossible day. I just put them in my drawer so the other guys wouldn’t snitch them and I never got back to my desk.”

Hannah nodded, but she hadn’t really listened to anything Mike had said beyond the first sentence. “ So … you haven’t had a chance to taste the brownies?”