the injured party, the tearful wronged woman who was still in love with the man she’d thought was her husband, the woman who would do anything to have him back. “But . . . Ross,” she did her best to sound upset, which wasn’t difficult, and heartbroken, which was. Ross was a rat and she knew she was better off without him.
She took a deep breath and managed to put a little quaver in her voice when she continued. “You told me that you needed to give that money to your wife so that she would get a divorce. And then you said you loved me and when the divorce was final, you’d marry me all over again. Did you mean it, Ross? Or were you . . . lying to me?”
“Of course I meant it, Cookie. I’d never lie to you. You have to believe that. But I can’t write a check to my wife.”
“Why not?” Hannah felt Mike’s hand pat her back. He obviously approved of the effort she was making.
“Because she doesn’t have a checking account. No, Cookie. You have to get that money somehow. Go see Doug again and tell him that it won’t work for me to write a check and I need that money now.”
He was beginning to sound desperate again and Hannah knew that she had to be careful. “I . . . I could do that, but it won’t work. The bank doesn’t keep that much cash on hand and Doug has to request the cash. Doug told me that the earliest it could be delivered by armored truck would be right before the bank opened on Monday.”
There was a long silence while Hannah held her breath and then Ross sighed.
“All right. Just be there when the bank opens and you can get it for me.”
“I’ll be at The Cookie Jar on Monday morning,” Hannah said quickly, “and I could do that, but there’s another little problem.”
“What’s that?”
Ross sounded suspicious again and Hannah knew she needed to be very careful. “Doug can’t release the cash to me unless you sign off on the withdrawal slip.”
“Are you sure?”
“That’s what he said. And he also said that it wouldn’t take more than a minute or two because he’d have the slip all ready for you to sign. And once you sign off, you can call me to tell me to go to the bank. Then you can drive out to our condo, I can pick up the money, and we can meet there.”
“Are you sure you can’t convince Doug to give you the money without my signature?”
“Well . . . I can meet with him again, but I really don’t think he’ll go for it. He told me that it was a banking regulation and Doug’s a real stickler for protocol like that.”
“All right.” Ross didn’t sound happy and he sighed again. “We’ll do it Doug’s way.”
“Oh, good!” Hannah hoped she sounded absolutely delighted. “Just call me Monday morning right after you go to the bank. Then I can get the money and meet you at our condo. You can meet me there, can’t you, Ross?”
“Of course I can, darling. It’ll give us a chance to be together again before I take the money to my wife. All I need is the key to that storage unit and the money. That’s very, very important to me, Cookie. And remember . . . I love you even more than life itself.”
Hannah was trying to decide what she could say to Ross’s declaration of love when the line went dead. Ross had disconnected the call. She shut off her phone and turned to Mike. “Did you get it?” she asked, knowing that he’d planned to trace the call.
“Yes, but it won’t do us any good. He was in transit.”
“You mean on the road, driving?”
“Yes, he’s miles away from Lake Eden now.”
“Do you know which way he was going?”
Mike nodded. “South, toward Minneapolis. He was just passing through Anoka when he hung up.”
Hannah gave a relieved sigh. “At least he’s not coming here!”
“No, he’s not . . . at least not now. We’d better plan out what to do about Monday morning, Hannah. I’m going home with you for the night, just in case he decides to come back here.” Mike turned to Lonnie. “We’ll both go home with Hannah. I wouldn’t put it past Ross to come to her condo to stay there until Monday morning.”
Hannah looked at Mike in surprise. “But why would Ross do