The Mandie Collection Read Online Free Page A

eye to look at his mistress, then went back to sleep.
    As her friends sat down, Mandie asked, “What can we do to help find Miss Hope?” She sat on the sofa by Celia.
    “We could go with your grandmother to see the mayor if she will allow us to,” Jonathan suggested.
    “She probably will let us go if we promise not to let Miss Prudence know,” Mandie said.
    “We could ask the people who work in the stores if they have seen Miss Hope,” Celia suggested.
    “Don’t forget that Annie claims she saw Miss Hope by the church that night,” Joe said. “We could find out whether there was anything going on at the church then and if there was someone who might have seen Miss Hope.”
    “Yes,” Mandie agreed. “But what could we do on our own? Y’all must have some ideas. Maybe we could check out the school attic.”
    “But someone has already done that,” Celia said.
    “Yes, but remember, we know that attic better than most people, after all those searches up there for Hilda,” Mandie answered.
    “We could visit all of the stores downtown and ask whether they’ve seen the lady or not,” Jonathan said.
    “Yes, I had thought about that. If we can manage to get away from Grandmother, we might accomplish more without her,” Mandie said, glancing at Celia. “We know a lot of those people from other mysteries we’ve solved here in Asheville. And they might tell us more than they would my grandmother because, as you all know, my grandmother is rather bossy sometimes.” She grinned.
    “So do we go with your grandmother if she asks us, or do we slip away on our own to visit the stores?” Jonathan asked.
    “We’d better go with her if she asks us. We can always go back without her and ask more questions,” Mandie said.
    “And if we are able to get information on our own, what are we going to do with it? Your grandmother will know we went alone,” Joe reminded her.
    “That depends on whether it’s something we can check out or whether we should tell my grandmother,” Mandie decided.
    “Your grandmother said Uncle Ned came ahead of us to let Ben know that we were coming. I wonder if he went home, or is he coming back here?” Celia asked. “Sometimes he can help us out on things like this.”
    “I forgot to ask my grandmother, but I will in the morning,” Mandie promised. “Yes, if he’s on our side he can be a lot of help.”
    “I wonder what really happened to Miss Hope,” Joe said thoughtfully. “Do y’all think she just disappeared on her own, or maybe she was kidnapped or something like that?”
    “I hope she just disappeared on her own. I’d hate to think about Miss Hope being kidnapped,” Mandie said. “Besides, why would anyone kidnap her? Miss Prudence probably has some thoughts of her own about what happened, but she is not telling us the whole story.”
    “But if Miss Prudence wants your grandmother’s help in finding her, wouldn’t she tell your grandmother everything that she knows about it?” Celia asked.
    “Remember, Miss Prudence doesn’t want the law enforcement called in to help, so there may be some secret there she doesn’t want made public,” Jonathan said, frowning as he thought about it.
    Mandie grinned and said, “Knowing my grandmother, she may just go and talk to the law enforcement anyway. She did say she was going to discuss all this with the mayor, remember.”
    Suddenly Annie stuck her head in the half-open door. “Just checking to put the lights out for the night,” she said. “Everybody else done gone to bed.”
    Mandie stood up and said, “Yes, I think we’d better go, too. But Annie, can you remember what Miss Hope was wearing when you saw her by the church that night?”
    “I ain’t positive it was her,” Annie replied. “It was dark, but I am pretty sure it was Miss Hope. I couldn’t tell what kind of clothes she had on—too dark.”
    “If it was so dark, then how can you be sure it was Miss Hope that you saw?” Jonathan asked.
    “I said