“The Cookie Jar,” Michelle informed the caller. “This is Michelle speaking.” She listened for a few moments, and then she said, “I’ll tell her, Mother. Does Lisa know yet?” There was another moment of silence, and then Michelle laughed. “You might know that the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline would get it first. And he’s on his way here now to tell her?” There was a pause, and then Michelle spoke again. “Okay, Mother. Thanks for telling us. We’ll give Lisa a heads-up.”

“What?” Hannah asked, the moment that Michelle had hung up the phone.

“That was Mother. Mayor Bascomb is on the way over here to tell Lisa that she’s the new Mrs. Claus.”

“How did Mother know that?”

“Luanne’s mother was cleaning Mayor Bascomb’s office this morning, and she heard him mention it on the phone to Rod McRae. She called Luanne from her cell phone to tell her, and Mother just happened to be at Granny’s Attic when Luanne took the call. Mother asked Luanne what Mrs. Hanks wanted, and Luanne told her all about it. Mother figures she knew less than five minutes after Mayor Bascomb ended his call to Rod and hung up the phone.”

“That’s fast, even for the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline. The news on those jungle drums travels fast.”

Michelle’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t tell me you got up in the middle of the night to watch Jungle Drums on the old movie channel!”

Hannah sighed. “I did, but it didn’t start out that way. I watched Scrooge, the nineteen fifty-one film with Alistair Sim. But I still wasn’t sleepy so I stayed up to see what would come on next.”

“And it was Jungle Drums?”

“Yes.”

“And you actually watched it?”

“Yes, but I fell asleep about halfway through.”

“That was probably a blessing. I can’t believe you watched that long!”

“I didn’t want to,” Hannah admitted. “I really wanted to change the channel, but the remote was on the other side of the couch and I didn’t want to disturb Moishe. He was sitting in my lap, purring so loudly that I could barely hear the dialogue.”

“Moishe did you a favor. You should give him a shrimp. What woke you up in the first place?”

“Nothing woke me. I couldn’t get to sleep in the first place. When I went to bed, I started thinking about Phyllis and who might have killed her. I was so busy going through lists of suspects in my head that I couldn’t fall asleep.”

“So you made yourself a cup of hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows, settled down on the couch with Moishe, and flicked on the television.”

“That’s right. I think you know me too well, Michelle.”