Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(34)

"I know, but it's just a matter of getting used to them, that's all."

"You mean you have to break them in?"

"Not exactly. Clogs are wood. They don't break in. But my feet will adapt."

Hannah wanted to say that feet shouldn't have to adapt to shoes; shoes should adapt to feet. Andrea was crazy if she thought otherwise, but Hannah resisted the urge to tell her so. It wasn't a warm, supporting comment to make to a sister who was beginning to resemble the Goodyear blimp.

"So can you pick me up early, Hannah? I just don't know how much more of this closet cleaning I can handle."

"Sure," Hannah said, not wanting to deny Andrea anything at this stage of her pregnancy. "Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?"

"I can be ready in less time than that. Just hurry, Hannah. He's driving me nuts and I'm afraid I'll say something I'll regret later. I do love him, you know."

"I know."

Hannah hung up to the sound of a toilet flushing. Andrea was obviously pulling out all the stops to convince Bill that she'd had to take the phone in the bathroom.



"There's Mother," Andrea said, nudging Hannah as they walked into the lobby of the Jordan High auditorium. Even though they arrived a half-hour early, the Lake Eden Regency Romance Club was already there in full force.

Hannah glanced in the direction of Andrea's gaze and caught her mother's gesture. "Uh-oh. She wants us to come over."

"We might as well do it," Andrea said with a sigh, taking a step in her mother's direction. "She probably wants to criticize your outfit."

"What's wrong with my outfit?" Hannah looked down at her navy blue dress and shoes.

"Nothing, but Mother'll find something. Do you want me to head her off at the pass?"

"That would be great. Do you think you can?"

"Of course. Just watch."

Hannah watched as Andrea sailed up to their mother and whispered something in her ear. Delores looked surprised for a moment and then she smiled from ear to ear, an unusual expression at a funeral. There was another volley of whispered conversation and then the two parted, and Andrea came back to Hannah's side.

"It's so crowded, I thought I was going to get bowled over before I got back here. Mother says hi. Let's go talk to some other people before she remembers what she wanted to talk to us about in the first place."

Hannah glanced out over the crowd and spotted Beatrice Koester. "There's Beatrice and Ted. I want to ask him about his mother's cupcakes."

"The ones with the secret ingredient?"

"Right. Just stick behind me and I'll run interference." Hannah led the way across the crowded lobby, clearing a path for her sister. Beatrice looked as she always did, neat as a pin in a charcoal gray dress with a white collar. Ted, however, was tugging at the sleeves of his suit and Hannah was sure he'd rather be wearing his coveralls and towing a car on his flatbed.

"I'm glad you're here, Ted," Hannah said, once she'd greeted Beatrice and made sure that Andrea had engaged her in conversation.

"Why's that?" Ted frowned slightly and his heavy eyebrows almost touched.

"I've been trying to figure out that recipe for your mother's cupcakes."

"Beatrice has been working on it at home and I've never had so many bad cupcakes shoved down my throat. I finally had to tell her to knock it off."

"Oh," Hannah said, biting back a smile at the mental image Ted's words had created. Beatrice was a small woman, barely five feet tall, while Ted topped six feet and looked as if could eat a whole cow for breakfast. "I thought it might help if you could describe your mother's cupcakes for me."

"Chocolate. And when you bit in, it wasn't all air. You know what I mean?"

"I think so. They were heavy?"

"I'll say!" Ted gave a little grin, exposing one silver-capped tooth. Hannah remembered Norman saying he'd like to recap it in something that looked like real tooth enamel. "A tin of her cupcakes probably weighed as much as an air filter."

Hannah had the insane urge to laugh, but she asked another question instead. "What else do you remember about them?"

"The frosting. Best fudge frosting I ever ate. My mother was some cook!"

"I'll bet she was," Hannah said, wondering if she'd ever have a child who'd say that about her. "Was there anything really unusual about the cupcakes? Something you haven't mentioned?"

Ted thought for a moment and then he nodded. "Yeah. The paper cups were gold foil and she had them sent from a place in Chicago."

Before Hannah could even think about asking another question, the doors to the auditorium opened and people began filing inside. The Koesters got in line with the other mourners, but Andrea grabbed Hannah's hand and tugged her around to the side door so that they could avoid the crowd.

Someone, undoubtedly Digger Gibson, Lake Eden's funeral director, had arranged for soft organ music to play over the auditorium speaker system. Hannah recognized "Largo." Digger had played the same piece at her father's funeral and it brought back depressing memories. "I hate funerals," she sighed.

"Me, too," Andrea echoed the sentiment and motioned Hannah into the back row of seats on the left side of the auditorium. "You take the second seat and I'll take the aisle. That way we'll have this row to ourselves."