Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(79)

“Yes on the onions and fresh tomatoes,” Hannah told her, “but no anchovies.” She motioned toward Andrea. “She doesn’t like anchovies before noon.”

“Can’t say I blame her for that!” the waitress said, grinning at Andrea. And then she looked down at her order pad again. “That’s a medium sausage pizza with pepperoni, extra cheese, mushrooms, onions, ripe olives, and tomatoes. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” Hannah said.

“Can I give you ladies a little tip?”

Hannah began to smile. “Absolutely. And if it’s a good tip, we’ll give you a good tip, too.”

“Believe me, it’s a good tip!” the waitress said. “You ordered a medium sausage pizza with six extra toppings. Each extra topping is fifty cents and that means you’ve got an extra three dollars tacked onto your one-topping pizza, okay?”

Both Andrea and Hannah nodded.

“A medium garbage pizza is only a dollar fifty more than a one-topping pizza. And a garbage pizza has all the toppings you just ordered plus anchovies. Do you follow me so far?”

“I think I’m beginning to,” Hannah said, starting to smile. “What are you telling us?”

“Why don’t you just order a garbage pizza and tell me to hold the anchovies? If you order that way, it’ll save you a dollar fifty.”

“Good tip!” Hannah said.

“It sure is.” Andrea looked delighted. “We’ll be sure to double that and add it on to what we would have given you anyway.”

“I can’t believe we ate the whole thing!” Hannah said, staring down at the empty pizza pan.

“Neither can I. I don’t know what got into us.”

“That would be pizza,” Hannah said, laughing as she glanced around the room. It was filling up for lunch and…

“What is it?” Andrea asked, when Hannah’s laughter stopped abruptly.

“Déjà vu. Again.”

“Very funny,” Andrea said, but when she caught sight of Hannah’s face she began to frown. “What’s wrong, Hannah?”

“Remember the time we came in here for lunch and we spotted Mike with Shawna Lee?”

“I remember. You were really upset.”

“That’s what I meant about déjà vu.”

Andrea looked truly mystified. “What are you talking about, Hannah? Mike can’t be here with Shawna Lee. She’s dead!”

“I know that. It’s not Shawna Lee. It’s somebody else, but it’s like déjà vu because they’re sitting in the same booth and she’s wearing a tight yellow sweater.”

Andrea glanced over at the booth in question. “It’s silk,” she said. “I can tell from here. She’s got clothes sense, whoever she is.”

“Do you recognize her?” Hannah asked.

“No. All I can see is the back of her head. Nice hair, but she could be anyone. We’d better look away, Hannah. We’re staring too much.”

“Why should we look away? They’re sitting with their backs to us. They won’t know we’re staring.”

“You don’t know that for sure. They might.”

“How? Do you think they have eyes in the backs of their heads?”

“Of course not, but maybe one of them is sensitive.”

“Sensitive?”

“Like Grandma Elsa,” Andrea explained. “I had to sit next to her at church, remember?”

“I remember.”

“Well, she used to whisper to me if she thought someone was staring at her, and I’d turn around and look. She was always right. She said she could feel their eyes boring right into the back of her head.”

“And you think Mike and that woman, whoever she is, might be able to feel us staring at them?”

Andrea gave a little shrug. “Maybe.”

“Okay. We won’t stare then. We’ll just get up and go over there to see who it is.”

“But…” Andrea hesitated, and then she shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why? We’re all adults here.”

“Maybe, but your voice is tight. “

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It means you’re all wound up. It’s like that windup frog toy Mother bought for Bethany. You wind it and it puffs up. And when you let it go, it spins all over the floor and croaks.”

“And you think that if I walk over to find out who that woman is, I’ll spin all over the floor and croak?”

Andrea thought it over for a moment, and then she sighed deeply. “Well, maybe not the croaking part.”

That did it. Hannah started to laugh. The mental image was just too much to handle.

“Shh!” Andrea warned her. “If you laugh too much, everybody’s going to look at us.”

Of course that made Hannah laugh harder. And since laughter was contagious, it was too much for Andrea to resist. She began to laugh, too, until both of them were nearly howling with mirth.

“Ronni Ward!” Andrea gasped, clutching Hannah’s arm.

“What?” Hannah asked, still in the throes of laughter.