“Last night,” Hannah repeated, beginning to understand why Norman was telling her about Earl’s snowplow schedule. “Where did Earl plow? And when?”

“That’s what I love about you Hannah.” Norman slipped his arm around her waist as they walked to his car. “You catch on right away.”

“Maybe. What time?”

“He was going to plow Lisa’s street at nine-thirty-five, but he noticed that Lisa’s car was parked in front of the house. He knows that Lisa and Herb have a two-car garage and they always park there when they come home at night. Since Lisa’s car was out on the street, Earl figured that she planned to go out again.”

“That was smart of him,” Hannah commented.

“I thought so, too. Earl told me that the plow he uses leaves a pretty high bank of snow and he didn’t want to block Lisa in if she needed to get her car out again, so he passed by her street and started plowing a few streets over.”

“Earl’s a really nice guy,” Hannah said, having trouble containing her excitement. “When did he come back with the plow?”

“He thinks it was about ten minutes later because he plowed the streets on either side of her.”

“And when Earl got back there, Lisa’s car was gone?”

“Yes. That helps, doesn’t it, Hannah?”

“Yes! It proves that Lisa went home to feed the dogs. And it takes fifteen minutes to get from Lisa’s house to the Corner Tavern.”

“That means Lisa couldn’t have gotten there until ten minutes before ten. And then there’s only another ten minutes of her time that’s unaccounted for?”

“That’s right. It doesn’t clear Lisa, but it makes her a much more unlikely suspect. Lisa met me inside at around ten. And that means she would have had only ten minutes to kill Phyllis, change to her ankle boots, and hurry into the restaurant to meet me.” Hannah put her arms around Norman again and hugged him as tightly as she could. “Thank you so much! It helps a whole lot.”

“Does it help enough to invite me to your place after the rehearsal is over?”

“Of course it does!” Hannah responded immediately. “You know you’re always welcome.”

“Good. I’ll stop for pizza and meet you and Michelle at the condo. And now, we’d better get these supplies inside before the first act ends and we don’t have time to figure out the machine and make the popcorn.”

* * *

“That went well!” Hannah commented as she drove out of the school parking lot and headed for the highway.”

“And everyone loved the popcorn,” Michelle reported. “There were quite a few people who came straight from work and they were really hungry.”