Cinnamon Roll Murder Read Free Page A

along as smooth as silk, and the next minute we were fishtailing across three lanes of traffic and crashing sideways into the ditch.”
    “We’d better take a look at the driver to make sure there’s nothing we can do for him,” Michelle said.
    “Sounds good. Come on in.”
    Buddy held out his uninjured arm, and Michelle hopped nimbly into the bus. It took Hannah a bit longer to get inside, but soon the two sisters were standing at the very back of the bus in the space where the band stored their instruments. The locked cabinets, which had been bolted to the floor, were now hanging upside down over their heads, and they were standing on what looked like a shallow trough, but was really the slightly arched ceiling of the bus.
    It was a bit disorienting. The shadows were deep, the interior illuminated only by two strips of emergency LED lights that had been installed on the floor. Those lights were now above their heads, and Hannah could see that close to a dozen people were huddled against the windows on either side.
    “The back door’s unlocked if anybody wants to get out,” Buddy announced, “but it’s warmer in here.”
    “I think we should all stay here,” an older man spoke up. There were several nods from the group huddled around him, and Hannah could see that he was the leader, unofficially or not. “Better hold onto the pup. He’s so little, we could lose him in the snow.”
    Buddy shrugged. “We’re going to have to lose him anyway now that Clay’s dead. He’s the one who stopped to rescue him. And he’s the one who said he’d find him a home.”
    “Maybe we can take him,” a girl with long black hair spoke up. “He’s so cute.”
    Hannah moved a step closer and saw a tiny puppy face with impossibly big ears peeking out from a blanket on the girl’s lap.
    “You know we can’t take him,” the brown-haired guy sitting next to her said. “We’re on the road all the time.”
    “We can just turn him loose once we get to town,” Buddy suggested. “Maybe somebody will feel sorry for him and take him in.”
    “You can’t do that! It’s cold out there, and you know he was almost frozen to death when Clay rescued him. He’s got to have a warm place to sleep and food to eat. He’s so thin I can feel his little ribs right through the blanket. We’ve just got to find somebody to take him in.”
    “I’ll take him,” Hannah said, surprising everyone including herself.
    “Who are you?” the older man asked her.
    “Hannah Swensen. And this is my sister, Michelle. We spotted the bus in the ditch and we came to see if we could help.”
    “Nice of you,” the man said. “I’m Lee Campbell, the band manager.”
    “Karl Reese. Drums.” A tall gangly redhead with hair almost as curly as Hannah’s spoke up. “And this is my girlfriend, Penny.”
    “Glad to meet you,” Penny said. “Thanks for coming to help us out.”
    The girl holding the puppy gave Hannah a shy smile. “I’m so glad you’re taking this little guy. He’s been through a lot, and he’s really a good puppy.”
    “My wife, the patron saint of anything with fur,” the brown-haired man sitting next to her said. “She’s Annie and I’m Tommy Asch. I play sax and clarinet.”
    “Conrad Bergen. Bass,” the guy who looked like the boy next door in so many old movies introduced himself.
    “I’m Eric Campbell,” the guy with long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail gave them a smile. “And he’s Drake Mason,” he introduced the bald, slightly heavyset guy sitting next to him. “We’re brass.”
    “I’m Cammy.” The girl with an extremely low-cut sweater told them. “I travel with the band.”
    The bleached blonde sitting next to her gave both of them an assessing look to see if they might be competition. “And I’m Lynnette. We help the boys set up and … uh … things like that.”
    Hannah was not about to ask what things like that meant. Instead she said, “I understand the driver is