“Annie!”
“Hey, neighbor. You busy?”
“Never too busy for you, neighbor.” Alice smiled and opened the door wider so Annie could come in. “Just got back from my Princessa jewelry party, and I have one for Divine Décor in a little while, but I was taking a break for a few minutes.”
“Oooh, it feels good in here.” Annie rubbed her hands together, glad to be inside the carriage house’s cozy living room.
“We may have a little more snow tonight. Have a seat. You want coffee? I have some on.”
“That’d be great.”
It took Alice only a minute to return with two steaming cups of coffee and a little plate of peanut butter cookies.
“I made these for the Princessa jewelry party. Might as well finish them off.”
Annie took one. “How did it go?”
“Pretty well, actually. Sales are always up when Christmas is coming. How was the library? Find out anything?”
Annie handed Alice the newspaper report about the death of Susan’s parents and their obituary. “Gwen was right about Mr. and Mrs. Morris, and Susan did sell the house in 1989.”
“You’re a regular Sherlock Holmes as usual. And the husband?”
“I didn’t get a chance to look into the marriage records yet. But I’ll see what I can find out at home. Grace was really helpful in showing me where to look, though. I may have to go back to the library. We’ll see.”
“Isn’t there someone else in Susan’s family you could contact? A niece or an uncle or a cousin or something?”
“I don’t think so.” Annie took a bite of the cookie she had taken. “Delicious as always.”
“Thanks.”
“Anyway, I don’t think Susan had any family. I don’t remember her talking about anybody but her mom and dad.”
“Didn’t she—?”
“Her aunt!” Annie clasped one hand to her forehead. “Of course, the one she stayed with when she lived in New York. It’s so obvious, it never even occurred to me. Her return address has to be on some of those letters Susan sent me back in school.”
“See? That haystack just got a lot more manageable. All you have to do is get back on the Internet and do a reverse lookup on that address, and more than likely it will tell you the name and telephone number of whoever lives there. Easy peasy.”
“Easy for you, maybe. But thanks for the suggestion. I’ll see what I can find out.” Annie beamed at her. “I knew you were my best friend for a reason. I think Susan must have mentioned her aunt’s first name in one of the letters, too, and I’m almost positive her last name was Morris.”
“Just think, you might have Susan’s phone number by tomorrow afternoon.”
“That would be great. I don’t know why, but I really would like to talk to her again and know that she’s OK.”
“Why wouldn’t she be?”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d just feel better if I knew for sure. She always seemed to want so badly for somebody to be her friend. I don’t like to think of her being alone in the world.”
Alice reached over to squeeze her hand. “You were always nice to her. Not like me.”
“You?” Annie shook her head. “OK, maybe the two of you were never best friends, but I don’t remember you being mean to her or anything.”
“Maybe not mean, not really, but I was always jealous.”
“Really?”
“Oh, you know. The two of you spent so much time together, and your grandmother was always having her over. I guess I felt a little left out sometimes. And Susan was tall and graceful, just like I wasn’t.”
Annie smiled. “Neither of us has ever been what you could describe as tall, and both of us had our clumsy days.”
“And I guess I was jealous of her looks too.” Alice stared regretfully into the depths of her coffee cup and then took a drink. “All that blond hair.”
“You could get a wig.”
Alice laughed and half choked. “You would have to say that right when I took a big swallow.”
“Sorry about that.” Annie didn’t quite suppress a giggle. “I was going to tell you not to feel bad, because we’ve grown up some since that time.” She winked. “But maybe not.”
“Just for that, I’m turning you out into the cold.”
“Oh, I forgot.” Annie drained her coffee cup and popped the rest of her cookie into her mouth. “Divine Décor, right? Where is it tonight?”
“Camden. It’s not that far, but I’ve never been to that part of town, and I want to make sure I get there on time.”