Hannah rolled her eyes heavenward. Was there no end to this? “What’s the other thing, Mother?”
“I need you to fill out your gift registry. All you have to do is go out to some of the stores in the Tri-County Mall and choose the things you’d like people to give you as wedding presents. Then Tracey and I will go out to the mall and sign you up at the stores you’ve chosen. That way, when someone chooses a gift from the list, the store will put a little tag on it saying it’s already been purchased and you won’t get a dozen toasters, or whatever.”
“No!” Hannah was very firm. “I refuse to tell people what to give me for a gift and where to buy it. These are people from Lake Eden. If they want to give me a gift, they already know where to buy it. I run a business, Mother. I’m not going to choose one store over another store. That would be bad for my business. If I told people to go out to the mall for a toaster . . . and by the way, I don’t need a toaster because I already have a perfectly good toaster . . . I’d be taking business away from Lake Eden Hardware. If you want to put something on that gift page for me, you have to choose it.”
Delores looked completely shocked. “You want me to choose your wedding gifts?”
“Not exactly. It’s fine if you suggest things, but please make it clear that you are the one who’s suggesting. And I want you to put a line on that page that says something like, Hannah says the best gift you can give her for her wedding is to come and celebrate this wonderful occasion with her. Will you agree to those conditions, Mother?”
“Of course I will, dear! Everybody knows what a . . . generous and caring girl you are and they’ll understand that you don’t want to come right out and ask for anything. Besides, they’ll have my suggestions to guide them.”
What have you done?! Hannah’s mind shouted, but she ignored it. She’d done what she had to do. “Now please tell us what Doc told you, Mother.”
“Of course I will, dear. The interesting part is that Doc also recovered a small piece of hair lodged in Chef Duquesne’s throat.”
“He ate a piece of hair?” Michelle asked, looking thoroughly puzzled. “I don’t see how that’s possible, Mother. That hair couldn’t have been in our cake. Both Hannah and I wore hairnets when we baked it for the competition.”
“Doc doesn’t believe it was in your cake, dear. He said that there may have been several final aspirations immediately before Chef Duquesne expired.” Delores stopped and smiled. “He’d be so proud of me. I said that exactly the way he said it.”
“Great,” Hannah commented, trying her best to sound complimentary rather than sarcastic. Their mother was drawing this out every bit as much as Lisa had drawn out her story. “Did Doc say the hair belonged to Chef Duquesne?”
“He didn’t think so. At least it didn’t match the hair on the rest of his head. Doc took a sample from Chef Duquesne’s head and compared it to the hair he found. He told me that he was no expert, but he was almost positive that the hair in his throat came from another source.”
“Another person?” Andrea sounded fascinated.
“Yes. That’s what he thought.”
Andrea’s eyes widened. “From the killer?”
“Perhaps. But Doc said it could also be from anyone who had used Sally’s cooler in the past.”
“So it doesn’t really prove anything,” Hannah said with a sigh.
“Maybe, and maybe not, but it could prove very helpful to you in your investigation!” Delores put on her I-know-something-you-don’t-know expression again. “I saved the best part for last.”
This time, Hannah couldn’t help it. She groaned. Loudly. And then she quickly apologized. “Sorry. I have a touch of indigestion. It must have been something I had for lunch.”
“Or something you wish Mother had given you to chew on,” Michelle quipped in an undertone.
Hannah ignored her and managed to squelch the urge to burst into laughter. Michelle’s comment was funny, but her mother’s delay tactics were horribly frustrating. “Please tell us the best part, Mother,” she said in a voice that only had the slightest hint of impatience. “All three of us are on pins and needles.”
“Of course you are. This could be a crucial part of your investigation, Hannah.”
Hannah felt her patience come very close to snapping. How much longer was her mother going to make her wait?! “What is it, Mother? Please tell me.”
“Doc got a call from the lab early this morning. Remember when he did that DNA test for you and got the results so rapidly?”
Hannah nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
“Well . . . the owner of the lab, the same man Doc knew in medical school, told his techs to drop everything else and expedite the testing of the samples Doc gave him. His best tech compared the two samples and came to an early conclusion that there was the same very rare genetic marker in both samples.”