Had Bonnie killed Phyllis? She’d had the opportunity and her boots were wet, but that proved nothing conclusive. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the wet boots. Bonnie was a pillar of the community, a deeply religious person who was active in her church, and a woman who worked tirelessly for the good of the Lake Eden community. Hannah was almost positive that there was a reasonable explanation for Bonnie’s wet boots. She would ask when she took Bonnie the soup and the candy.

* * *

Hannah opened the front porch door and stepped inside. It was common practice for Lake Edenites to leave their front porches unlocked during the winter so that visitors could step in to get out of the wind or the snow. Hannah walked to the inside door and knocked, but there was no answer. She listened for a moment, but all she heard from inside was the sound of a television game show with buzzers and bells, and the excited voices of the contestants. If Bonnie had fallen asleep watching television, Hannah didn’t want to wake her. Sick people needed their rest. But what if Bonnie hadn’t fallen asleep? What if she’d taken a turn for the worse and she was too ill to get up to answer Hannah’s knock at the door?

Tentatively, Hannah tried the doorknob. It turned and she pushed it open an inch or two. The enthusiastic utterances of the daytime game show host were louder, but she also heard a rhythmic creaking noise that she could not identify.

Hannah glanced at the coatrack as she hung up her winter things in the front hallway. Bonnie’s coat was hanging there, along with a warm scarf, and a knit hat with earflaps and a tassel on the top. It was four degrees below zero today. Hannah had glanced at the indoor-outdoor thermometer that hung outside the kitchen window at The Cookie Jar before she’d left. That was much too cold to go anywhere without a coat, or a scarf, or a hat. Bonnie was home.

Uncertain but determined, Hannah opened the door all the way and stepped inside. She stood there for a moment, not sure what to do next, and then she hung her parka on the coatrack and headed toward the sound of the television set. She called out once, but Bonnie didn’t answer. She’d leave the soup and the candy if she found Bonnie asleep, and call Gil at the school to tell him they were there.

The television was in the den. She remembered that from the last time she’d been invited to one of Bonnie’s home meetings. Hannah hurried down the hallway, stepped into the den, and found Bonnie there. Bonnie was not asleep. She was sitting in a rocking chair with an afghan around her shoulders, and she was rocking back and forth.