Plum Pudding Murder Read Free Page B

“but let’s get back to Carrie. What does she have to do with my plans for tonight?”
    Delores took a sip of her coffee and sighed. “She canceled at the last minute again. We were supposed to go out to class together and this is the second one she’s missed. I thought that if you didn’t have other plans, you might go with me. I just hate to drive out to the college alone, especially at night in the winter.”
    Hannah was well and truly stuck and she knew it. It wasn’t often her mother asked for help. “Okay, I’ll go with you. What kind of class is it?”
    “It’s a business class called Small Business Practices.”
    “That sounds interesting,” Hannah said, but she meant just the opposite. It was possible she might learn something helpful from attending the session with her mother, but it could be a deadly dull way to spend an evening.
    “The instructor, Miss Whiting, is very good. She has her masters in accounting and she’s a CPA specializing in small business and corporate tax preparation. I’m learning a lot about keeping better books, and the difference between the paperwork I should save and the things I can throw away.”
    Hannah had the fleeting thought that since Lisa was now taking care of the financial end of their business, she should be the one to attend the class with Delores. Lisa would go if Hannah asked her, but that wouldn’t be fair. This was Lisa’s last night with her husband before Herb went ice fishing with Mayor Bascomb. Thinking that way was quite selfless of her and Hannah felt good about it. But she also had an equally important selfish reason for not saddling her partner with the class. Hannah wanted Lisa to get home in time to bake the Pork and Beans Bread so that she could taste it in the morning.
    “What’s the problem with Carrie? Why can’t she go with you?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “She didn’t tell you?” Hannah was shocked. Delores and Carrie had been friends for years before they’d opened their antique business together. In the past, they’d discussed everything, including Delores’s disastrous romance with Winthrop Harrington the Third.
    “She just said something personal had come up and she was sorry, but she couldn’t go to class with me. That’s exactly the same thing she told me last week.”
    “Carrie didn’t say what that something personal was?”
    “No, she didn’t.”
    “And you didn’t ask her?”
    “Really, Hannah!” Delores looked offended. “Carrie said it was personal. Asking her to elaborate would have been terribly impolite.”
    “I know, but did you?”
    “Of course I did! She just repeated that it was personal and she’d tell me when she could. And then she hung up. It didn’t faze me the first time it happened, but now I’m definitely concerned. It isn’t like Carrie to be secretive. I just hope there’s not any trouble.”
    “Trouble?”
    “Yes. She could be ill and working a full day at Granny’s Attic and then attending a night class is just too much of a drain on her health. Or…she could have turned into a closet drinker for some reason or other. There are people who can drink every night for years and no one ever suspects. And then there’s the computer Norman got for her. What if she’s addicted to one of those online poker places and she’s lost all her retirement money?”
    “None of those things sound like Carrie,” Hannah commented.
    “I know, but she’s changed over the past few weeks. We used to talk, but she’s just not open with me anymore.”
    Hannah heard the note of panic in her mother’s voice, mixed with an undertone of pain that her oldest and best friend wouldn’t confide in her. “Do you want me to try to find out what’s going on?” she offered.
    “Would you, dear? I’d be so grateful!” Delores looked very relieved. “You should probably start by talking to Norman. He may know something.”
    “Good idea,” Hannah said. “Maybe I’ll see him after class. What time do we