Cream Puff Murder (Hannah Swensen, #11)(26)

“It’s Hannah,” she said, “I just called to say…he likes it! Moishie likes it!” And then she waited to see if Mike had been watching the oldie but goodie commercials KCOW television had been rerunning.

“Moishie likes…oh!” Mike gave a little laugh. “I get it. It’s a takeoff on Mikey, the little brother who’d eat anything on those cereal commercials. Does that mean Moishe’s eating out of his new Kitty Valet?”

“That’s exactly what it means. I picked up his regular bowl, just as it said to do in the instructions, and tossed in a couple of treats to get him started. Now the treats are history and he’s chowing down on his regular food.”

“It’s nice to get good news for a change.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Rough night. A blue spruce jumped out in front of Wade Hoffman’s car at sixty miles an hour.”

“Wade Hoffman?” Hannah began to frown. “Wasn’t he Ronni Ward’s fiancé?”

“Yeah. Wade’s passenger said he was despondent and he’d been drinking heavily. The passenger tried to get the keys, but Wade insisted on driving.”

“Were they badly hurt?” Hannah hated to ask, especially before she’d had her second cup of coffee.

“Wade got the worst of it. He’ll be in a body cast for six months. His passenger got off lucky with just a broken arm.”

“Who was his…” Hannah stopped in midquestion as she heard a loud beeping noise on the line.

“I’ve got to go, Hannah,” Mike broke in. “I’m expecting a callback from Doc Knight and that’s probably him now.”

The line went dead, and Hannah hung up the phone. She’d been about to ask Mike who’d been riding in the passenger seat, but that could wait until later. Right now she had to get into her awful yellow-and-black exercise outfit and meet Andrea at Heavenly Bodies.



“So how are you feeling now?” Andrea asked, leaning back in the Jacuzzi. They’d finished their workout routine and were relaxing before class began.

“I’m a lot better. The muscles I didn’t know I had aren’t screaming anymore. Now they’re just groaning a little.” Hannah stopped speaking and listened intently for a moment. “I hear something ringing.”

“It’s probably my phone. It’s in my purse in the dressing room.”

“Why is it there, and not here?”

“Because I don’t want to answer it. It’s Mother, and she’s probably just checking to make sure we’re out here exercising.”

“How do you know it’s Mother?”

“Because nobody else would call me this early. It’s hours before I usually get up.”

“It could be Grandma McCann with an emergency.”

“It’s not. She has her own special ring tone, and so does Bill. If it’s not Mother and it’s something important, whoever it is will leave me voice mail.” Andrea glanced up at the clock on the wall. “We’d better dry off and get dressed for class, Hannah. Roger should be coming in any minute.”



But Roger didn’t come in, even though the class was all assembled and waiting for him. Laura Jorgensen was in the front row looking good in a bright green exercise outfit. Hannah had found out yesterday that Laura wanted to lose ten pounds before her wedding to Drew Vavra, Jordan High’s head coach, in June.

Donna Lempke, an unmarried woman in her early thirties, was in the same boat. She’d told Hannah that she had a brand-new swimsuit she’d bought two years ago, but she’d gained weight around the middle, and last summer she’d been afraid to wear it. This summer would be a different story if Roger’s class worked for her.

Cheryl Coombs, who ran the cosmetic counter at Cost-Mart, had another goal in mind. She’d lost weight recently, and now she was attempting to tighten and tone up. Her daughter, Amber, was also in the class. Hannah wasn’t sure if it was a mother-daughter project, or Cheryl just wanted to keep an eye on Amber to make sure she didn’t run off to meet her boyfriend, Richie Maschler, before school started.

Vonnie Blair, Doc Knight’s secretary, was a perfect size five. She wasn’t interested in losing weight or toning up her muscles. Vonnie was interested in Roger, their fitness coach.

Gail Hansen, on the other hand, was a forty-year-old woman with a purpose. Always buxom, even as a young teenager, she was now engaged in a pitched battle to keep certain parts of her anatomy from engaging in a downhill race toward her waist.

Immelda Giese, Father Coultas’s housekeeper, had admitted to Andrea that she was there for the company. Father was so busy he didn’t have much time to talk, and Immelda was a gregarious person. She wore a solid black sweat suit as a concession to her employer’s occupation, and talked to her neighbor, Babs Dubinski, during the entire class.

Babs readily admitted that she was there to lose weight, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She said she needed to keep up with her grandchildren and she couldn’t play softball in the park with them if she didn’t get in shape.

The last two members of the class were Loretta Richardson and Trudi Schuman. They were practically inseparable. They’d been best friends in high school, settled in houses across the street from each other when they were married, and helped to raise each other’s children. Trudi had three boys, and Loretta had three girls, but so far the kids hadn’t gotten together in any meaningful way. They’d opened a store together right across the street from Hal and Rose’s Cafe. It was called Trudi’s Fabrics because Trudi’s husband had put up most of the money. Loretta needed to tone up more than Trudi, but they drove out to class together, showered and dressed for work when it was over, went into town to have breakfast at the cafe, and then opened the shop at nine.