“Yes. Bonnie said that Herb was a very good influence on Phyllis. Phyllis had never dated such a nice boy before. And then Phyllis’s mother moved to Minneapolis, and Bonnie lost touch with Phyllis.”

Hannah was beginning to see the whole picture. “And Bonnie didn’t know what had happened to Phyllis until Mayor Bascomb hired her and Phyllis moved back here to Lake Eden?”

“Exactly. It just about killed Bonnie when she heard that Phyllis was involved with Mayor Bascomb. She didn’t want to believe it at first. Phyllis was Bonnie’s big success story, and she was doing everything that Bonnie had taught her not to do.”

“Bonnie must have been terribly disappointed in Phyllis.”

“Oh, she was. And Bonnie didn’t know what she could do about it. She was desolate, Hannah, and horribly depressed. I’ve known Bonnie for quite a while now, and I’ve never seen her so upset.”

Hannah felt a chill run through her. “Did Bonnie try to talk to Phyllis, to set her back on the right track again?”

“Bonnie was going to do exactly that, but before she had the chance, the mayor broke it off with Phyllis and reassigned her to Herb’s office. Bonnie was sure that Herb would have a good influence on Phyllis, now that he was married and all, and everyone in town knew that he was in love with his wife.”

Hannah asked the question again, just to be sure. “So Bonnie never talked to Phyllis about her . . . behavior with the mayor?”

“I don’t think so. She would have told me if she had. And then the mayor appointed Phyllis as Mrs. Claus, and that changed everything for Bonnie. I talked to her on the phone right after I heard about it, and Bonnie said she thought that playing Mrs. Claus might be a turning point for Phyllis. She said she hoped that playing a sweet, kind woman on stage would have a real positive effect. Bonnie said that we learn by doing and she hoped that Phyllis would learn from the experience.”

“I . . . see,” Hannah said, scenes from the rehearsal she’d seen flashing through her mind. Phyllis’s inappropriate costume, the way she’d kissed Herb, and the fact that Bonnie had been sitting next to Tory Bascomb and watching the whole thing.

“Poor Bonnie!” Danielle said with a sigh. “My heart goes out to her, especially now that she’s so sick.”

That got Hannah’s attention. “Bonnie’s sick?” she asked.

“Yes. That’s why she cancelled her private lesson today. Bonnie caught a terrible cold and she’s running a fever. She’s blaming it all on the fact that she has holes in her boots and she got her feet wet in the snow. Bonnie’s very frugal and she patched the holes with duct tape, but she admitted that it didn’t work very well and she was avoiding deep snow.”