minute.' She waited until Tracey was well out of earshot, and then she turned to her mother with fire in her eyes. 'How could you, Mother! You know what people are going to think if Tracey calls . . .'
'Delores? I'm early.' The back door opened and Luanne Hanks rushed in. cutting Hannah off in the middle of her planned tirade. She stopped short as she saw Andrea and Hannah, and then her face lit up in a smile. 'Hi, Andrea. Hello, Hannah. How are you two? I haven't seen you in a while.'
'We're fine,' Hannah said, putting on a smile for Luanne's benefit.
Luanne caught the tension in the air and she glanced uneasily between Hannah and Delores. 'Uh . . . if you're busy right now, I can come back later.'
'No, dear.' Delores shook her head. 'I have to check on the tour group. Stay and visit with Andrea and Hannah until I get back.'
Hannah sighed as her mother made good her escape. They would definitely have words later. Then she noticed that Luanne was carrying her Pretty Girl cosmetic case. 'Are the portraits starting early?'
'No, I just came in to chat with your mother.'
'You're not working at the caf' today?' Andrea asked her.
'I'm on vacation. Rose figured there wouldn't be much business, and she told me to take a week off.'
'I hope it's a paid vacation.' Hannah knew that Luanne needed every cent she could earn to support her mother and her two-year-old daughter, Susie.
'It is. Rose is paying me my regular salary and Norman's paying me, too. I'm making double the money for half the hours.'
'That's great, Luanne!' Hannah was relieved. 'That's not the half of it. If the ladies who come in like Pretty Girl makeup, I might get some new customers.'
'That reminds me,' Andrea said. 'I'm completely out of mascara and eyeliner. Do you have any with you?'
Hannah silently blessed her sister as Luanne opened her makeup kit and gathered up the items that Andrea had mentioned. She knew Andrea didn't use Pretty Girl makeup, but she bought it anyway to help Luanne. Hannah had done the same, and she had a guest bathroom medicine cabinet filled with unused makeup to prove it. Adding a few more things to the collection wouldn't break her budget, and Hannah walked over to the table where Luanne had set her makeup case. 'I need another lipstick, Luanne.'
'Where did the last one go?' Luanne asked, giving Hannah a suspicious look. 'I've never seen you wear it.'
Hannah knew that Luanne had a strong aversion to anything she regarded as charity, and she apologized to Moishe in absentia for what she was about to say. 'My cat knocked it off my bathroom counter and it ended up in the toilet. I fished it out to save myself from a plumbing bill, but I didn't want to . . . well. . . you know.'
'I'm really glad you didn't!' Luanne plucked a lipstick from her case. 'I have your color right here, Hannah.'
'Did you do Connie Mac's makeup yesterday?' Hannah asked, selecting two more items and handing Luanne the money for her purchases.
'No. I was all ready to come in, but Norman called and told me that she was having her personal beautician do it before she left the inn. I never even got to see her.'
Hannah bit her tongue to keep from saying, You didn't miss much.
'Hannah?' Delores poked her head in the back room. 'Could you come here for a minute?'
Hannah walked over, even though she felt like refusing. It wouldn't be polite to get into a knock-'em-down, drag-'em-out fight with her mother in front of Luanne. 'What is it, Mother?'
'I thought you should know that I changed Tracey's last speech,' Delores said in a hushed voice. 'You were right. I overstepped.'
Hannah's mouth fell open in shock. Her mother had never apologized to her before. She knew she should let sleeping dogs lie, but her curiosity got the better of her. 'What made you decide to change it, Mother?'
'Carrie says Norman's going through a rebellious stage and she thought it might be pushing him too far. The last thing we want to do is upset the applecart.'
TWIN CHOCOLATE DELIGHHTS
Preheat oven to 350'F, rack in the middle position
1 cup butter (2 sticks ' melted) 2 ' cups white sugar ' cup cocoa unsweetened, for baking) 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork) 3 cups flour (no need to sift) 1 cup chopped nuts (optional ' your choice of nut) 2 cups chocolate chips
Melt butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add the sugar and mix. Then add the cocoa, soda, salt, and vanilla and stir until smooth. Add the beaten eggs and stir thoroughly. Mix in the flour, the chopped nuts (if you want to use them), and then the chocolate chips.
Place rounded teaspoons of dough on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. (They'll flatten out as you bake them.)
Bake at 350'F for 10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to complete cooling.
Mother loves these cookies. If I bake them when she's mad at me, she sweetens right up.
Twin Chocolate Delights cookies should freeze well, but I can't swear to that 'they never lat long enough to try it.
-14- 'Do you want to put your coat in a locker?' Andrea asked as they entered the Tri-County Mall.
'No, we won't be here that long.' Hannah gazed around her at the throngs of people. 'It's only ten-thirty. What are all these people doing out here so early?'
'The mall opens at nine and a lot of people make a day of it. What other place could you go to jog in the morning with the family, have lunch at a restaurant, watch a movie at the multiplex, mail your packages at the post office, buy a new book at the bookstore, and get your hair done while your kids play computer games? Malls are wonderful in the winter.'
'I guess that's true,' Hannah said.
'And in the summer they're just as nice. You can do all the same things in air-conditioned comfort, Without ever having to swat at a single mosquito. If they'd put in a school, for Tracey and let us sleep in a couple of the display bedrooms at the furniture store, I could live out here and be perfectly happy.'
'Not me,' Hannah said. 'There's something about a controlled environment that makes me crazy. It's too much like being in jail.'
Andrea turned to her in surprise. 'Have you ever been there? In jail, I mean?'
'No, but that could change in a hurry if Mike finds out what we're doing.'
Andrea agreed and dropped the subject, leading the way to the escalator. 'Connie Mac's boutique is on the second level, where Greg Canfield's import store used to be.'
The two sisters rode up to the second level in silence, and when they stepped off, Andrea sighed deeply. 'If they haven't heard about Connie Mac's murder, you're going to tell them, not me. You stuck me with telling Alex and I don't want to do that again.'
'Relax,' Hannah reassured her. 'Unless they're living in a plastic bubble out here, they've heard.'
The kitchen boutique was in a prime location in the middle of the mall, only a few feet from the escalator. Giant banners in the window proclaimed, 'Grand Opening Monday,' and Andrea and Hannah walked closer to peer in the windows.
'There's a woman inside stocking the shelves,' Andrea announced, trying the door and turning back to Hannah with a frown, 'but the door's locked.'
'Knock.'
'But they're closed until their grand opening on Monday. It says so right on the sign.'
'Knock anyway.' Andrea raised her hand and knocked softly on the glass door.
'She can't hear that. Knock louder.' Andrea gave a solid knock on the door, and the woman looked up from her work. Andrea knocked again and the woman walked toward the door, pointing up at the sign.
'Now what?' Andrea asked. 'She's not going to let us in.'
'Yes, she will.' Hannah moved up to the door with a friendly smile on her face and motioned for the woman in the smart business suit to come forward. She looked like some sort of corporate executive. Under other circumstances, Hannah would have avoided her like the plague, but she needed information from someone who'd
