Blackberry Pie Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

fast,” Hannah repeated one of her great-grandmother’s favorite homilies as she headed across the kitchen floor to open the door. “Might as well get it over with.” She added the phrase she’d been repeating to herself ever since she’d realized that the stranger she’d struck was dead, and then she winced a bit at her grammar. It was probably Bertie Straub from the Cut n’ Curl at the end of the block. Bertie was on the third tier of the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline, the phone tree Delores and Carrie had established to disseminate breaking news in Lake Eden, and Bertie would have heard about the accident by now. She was undoubtedly arriving to get the full details from Hannah so that she could repeat them to her morning clients.
    “Hi, Ber . . . Norman!” Hannah changed names in mid-speech as she saw the other man she dated, Norman Rhodes, standing there. “Come in, Norman.”
    BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER
    29
    Norman closed his umbrella and stepped inside, placing it on the rug Hannah always kept by the back door when it was raining. “I wasn’t sure you’d want to talk to anybody.”
    “You’re not just anybody,” Hannah told him, stepping into his arms for a most welcome hug. His arms tightened around her and she realized that this was the first time she’d felt completely safe and thoroughly comforted since Doc had confirmed that the man she’d struck on the road was dead.
    Norman was her haven, her safe harbor from the calamities of life. Was she a fool for not marrying him and staying secure with him for the rest of her life? Some said yes, and some said no, and Hannah knew that both sides were right.
    She was a fool. She had everything she needed right here in Norman’s arms. And she wasn’t a fool because no woman should marry when she still had strong feelings she couldn’t ignore for a different man. She pulled away slightly as if in reaction to her last thought.
    And as if Norman somehow sensed her mood, he released her so that she could step back.
    “So tell me about it,” Norman said, and then he paused for a moment. “But only if you want to, of course.”
    “I want to. Just let me get you a cup of coffee first.” Hannah gestured toward the stainless steel workstation. “Have a seat. I’ll get you a couple of cookies, too.”
    “Great! I didn’t have time for breakfast. Cuddles learned how to chase a ball this morning and we played longer than we should have.”
    Hannah felt the corners of her mouth turn up in a smile on her way to the kitchen coffeepot. Norman was a great kitty-daddy. “I thought Cuddles knew how to chase a ball.”
    “Oh, she did. But she finally figured out that I’d throw it again if she brought it back and dropped it in front of me.”
    As she plucked a Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookie, a Lovely Lemon Bar Cookie, and a Molasses Crackle from the bakers rack, Hannah thought about how her cat, Moishe, brought 30
    Joanne Fluke
    his toy mouse back to her every time she threw it. “Do you think she learned it from Moishe?”
    “She must have. I didn’t try to teach her to do it. I’m almost sure she learned it last night when I brought her over to your place to play.”
    It had been a wonderful night and for a brief moment, Hannah wished she could go back in time to the exact instant that Norman had arrived at her condo, and live it all over again. Perhaps things would be different the second time around and Cyril would have Lisa’s car ready. Of course, then Lisa might have hit the stranger on her way back to The Cookie Jar and she wouldn’t wish the guilt of taking someone’s life on anyone else, especially not her good friend and partner.
    “What is it?” Norman asked her when she set their cups of coffee and the plate of cookies down. “You look very serious.”
    “It was nothing really. I was just thinking that you can’t mess with fate.”
    “What were you doing? Wishing that you could go back in time so that you wouldn’t have the