“Okay.” Hannah mentally prepared herself for some tough questions like Do you really believe that you saw your father? or Don’t you think that your subconscious was staging all these dreams because of the play the Lake Eden Players were doing, and your mind was working to form inferences from all the information you’d received during the day? “What would you like to know?” she asked him.

“I know that Lisa has a red car. Did Herb restore it and give it to her last Christmas?”

“Yes, he did. He told us that he worked late every night out at Cyril Murphy’s garage to get it ready by Christmas.”

“And that’s why Lisa thought he was going out on her?”

“Yes. And the reason Mike cleared Herb was because Cyril was helping Herb on the night that Phyllis was murdered. But Mike couldn’t tell me that because Herb wanted it to be a secret so that Lisa would have a Christmas surprise.”

Ross smiled. “Was she surprised?”

“And how!” Hannah used one of her favorite Minnesota expressions. “Lisa nearly had a cow when she saw that gorgeous car!”

“How about your present, the one your mother gave you?”

“It was a board from Dad’s old ladder with Dad and Uncle Ed’s names on it.”

“And you pretended to be surprised?”

Hannah smiled. “I did.”

“Is that the same plaque that you have hanging in your hallway?”

“It is. I love that plaque. There’s no way you can know your parents as children, and sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that they were really kids, just like you.”

“A lot happened in Lake Eden last Christmas,” Ross said, and he looked thoughtful. “Maybe you’d better not make those chocolate caramels again . . . just in case, I mean.”

Hannah laughed. “We haven’t made them since, but it’s silly to think they’re bad luck, isn’t it?”

“Rationally, yes. Of course it is. And of course I want you to make them. I missed out last year. But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ve got to promise that you won’t find another body right before Christmas this year.”

“But how can I promise something like that? Mike says I have slaydar. I don’t go looking for murder victims, but I seem to find them more often than other people do.”

“That’s true.” Ross gave a little sigh. “I know it’s silly, Hannah. And I know it could happen whether you promise, or not. But . . . will you promise anyway?”

Hannah smiled at him. “If it’ll make you feel better, I promise,” she said.

Don't miss the next Hannah Swensen Mystery...

A romantic seven-day cruise is the perfect start to bakery owner
Hannah Swensen’s marriage. However, with a murder mystery heating
up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, it seems the newlywed’s homecoming
won’t be as sweet as she anticipated . . .