Page 13 of Hannah's Truth

“Even if it was random violence, normal routine matters to the survivors.” Hannah shrugged. “Just my two cents.”

“She’s right.”

“Business as usual could force the murderer to get more aggressive,” Bart said. “I don’t want to put the team in jeopardy.”

“Nonsense.” Maria waved that off. “You tell us when we are hired what kind of customers we might meet. You trained each one of us to come to you with concerns and you taught us all how to be safe.”

Beside him, Hannah could see the flush creeping up into Bart’s ears. Maria was only stating the simple truth. The DEA agents who’d introduced her to Bart and his Patriot Plaza truck stop so many months ago had spoken with admiration about his attention to security for his business and his people. He hired carefully. They appreciated his cooperation when it came to impeding illegal drug activity in this area.

Which made her wonder what had changed in the local DEA office and who was pulling the strings. Unless Bart himself suspected someone on his team. It added to the list of questions she couldn’t wait to ask just as soon as they were alone.

“You notice none of that training helped Tim,” he said.

Maria glanced over her shoulder and dropped her voice. “Tim was troubled the past couple of weeks.”

Hannah’s instincts perked up. Or maybe it was a sugar rush. Either way, Maria had their full attention now.

Bart leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Did you tell this to Deputy Wallace?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he did not ask me.”

Hannah found that hard to believe, but then again, she got the feeling Maria could be extremely circumspect when she wanted to be. “You wanted to talk to Bart first.”

Maria nodded, her gaze on her clasped hands.

“Could it be some problem with the new girlfriend that had him distracted or upset?”

Bart shifted in the seat, his thigh rubbing against hers. Hannah knew her hormones were bouncing all over the scale, but the brief contact created a sparkle of heat through her system. An inconvenient result since they’d agreed to keep what happened in Vegas in the one-time only experiment category.

“There was no reason for a man like Tim to make notes about his visits from Mary Lou.”

Hannah didn’t like the speculative look Maria aimed her way and she prayed Bart wouldn’t notice. Now wasn’t the time to bother him with news about the pregnancy. It definitely needed to be discussed privately, when the right time presented itself. Her cowardice on this topic shamed her and she silently vowed to tell him at the next opportunity. There was no telling how the investigation would play out and if the DEA relocated her before she told him, she’d never forgive herself.

She cleared her throat. “Where are the notes?”

“That’s the other reason I didn’t tell Wallace,” Maria admitted, her gaze falling to her hands. “I could not find them this morning.”

“Maybe it was just notes on inventory or recipes,” Bart said.

“Which makes me what? An old fool going senile?”

“That’s not what I said,” Bart replied.

“Sounded that way to me,” Maria said to Hannah in a stage whisper. “These notes. I think they are important. When he was working, he kept the notepad in his shirt pocket. He’d never done that before. He was the first in every morning you know.”

A shiver danced down Hannah’s spine. Someone could be listening to this conversation. They couldn’t worry Maria with that possibility, but she didn’t want to spoon feed the authorities any information that could later be used against Bart.

“I’m well aware of his schedule,” Bart said. “And until we can find his replacement, it will be me in by five every morning.” He turned to Hannah. “Unless you happen to have experience as a short-order cook.”

She shook her head and turned back to Maria. “Do you think he was tracking the trucks that parked over?”

“He sure wasn’t using that notepad for recipes.” She tapped her temple. “All of that was memorized and what wasn’t, he kept in the file book by the inventory board.”

“Okay, okay,” Bart said, reaching out and covering Maria’s hands with his. “Relax. Hannah and I will take a look around. Anything else I need to know?”

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