Cream Puff Murder (18 page)

“Hannah?” a voice called out from the dim interior of the garage.

Hannah came close to groaning. It was Clara Hollenbeck, one of her neighbors. Clara’s church groups must have run very late. Hannah turned back to Mike to tell him to vamoose, but he had vanished in the space behind the Dumpster, leaving her to deal with her neighbor. There had to be some way of dealing with Clara…but what on earth could it be?

“Were you talking to somebody?” Clara asked, walking up to Hannah’s side.

“Myself. I was talking to myself. I do that when I’m…um…working on a new recipe.”

“Are you sleepwalking, Hannah? It’s cold out here in the garage, and you’re here in your robe and slippers.”

“Sleepwalking? No, Clara. No, I’m not sleepwalking. I’m definitely awake.”

“But what are you doing out here?”

Hannah saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Mike was slipping out from behind the Dumpster in a crouch, and he was heading for the sloping exit. She just hoped that Clara wouldn’t turn around and see him.

“Hannah?” Clara prodded her for an answer.

“I think best when I’m pacing,” Hannah said quickly. “A lot of people are like that. And I have to pace out here because…I don’t want to take the chance I’ll wake Kevin and Sue by pacing the floor above them. Now that Sue’s working part-time, she needs a full night’s sleep.”

“I didn’t know Sue was working!”

“Yes, part-time at Kiddie Korner.”

“That’s wonderful. She needs to get out more. What type of recipe is it?”

“Recipe?”

“The one you’re working on. The one that’s making you pace out here.”

“Oh. It’s a cookie recipe.”

“It’s just fascinating to see your mind at work, Hannah!” Clara was clearly intrigued. “What kind of cookie will it be?”

“Watermelon.” Hannah said the first thing that occurred to her and risked a glance in Mike’s direction. He was halfway up the sloped exit, heading for the bushes at the top that lined the sides of the road.

“That sounds very unusual.” Clara frowned. “To tell you the truth, Hannah, I don’t think a watermelon cookie would be very good.”

Mike was out of sight at last, and Hannah gave Clara a big smile. “You’re absolutely right. Watermelon cookies would be dreadful. Thanks for telling me, Clara. Now I don’t have to lose any more sleep working on the recipe.”

I t was before the crack of dawn, and the sisters were sitting at Hannah’s almost-antique Formica-topped table in the kitchen. Hannah was wearing her exercise outfit, and it seemed slightly looser than it had when she’d first started taking exercise classes. That could be her imagination, but she really hoped it wasn’t. Michelle was in robe and slippers, and Hannah suspected that after she left, her youngest sister might very well go back to bed.

“So what did Mike say that was so important he had to see you in the middle of the night?” Michelle asked.

“Not much. He said he just wanted me to know that nothing happened with Ronni.”

“And you believed him?”

Hannah shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter whether I did or I didn’t. Mike and I don’t have an exclusive arrangement or anything like that.”

“But you’d still be hurt if you thought he’d been romantically involved with Ronni.”

“Well…yes. I wouldn’t have any right to be angry with him, but I would be hurt.”

“That’s exactly the way I feel. I hope both our guys are truthful and they weren’t really involved with her.”

“Me, too.” Hannah zooped down the rest of her coffee and stood up to go. “Are you going anywhere today?”

“You tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to help you investigate, and Mother’s giving me her car for the week. She’s picking me up at nine, and the only commitment I have is to go out to lunch with Carrie and her. I’m perfectly willing to do some legwork for you. Just name it.”

Hannah thought fast. “If it’s ready, please get the phone list from Mother and bring it to me at The Cookie Jar. Andrea and I are staying at Heavenly Bodies for a while after class to nose around, so we won’t be there until ten or eleven. Once we have the list, we can check alibis for any suspects that Mother and Carrie unearthed.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“You can help Lisa bake a batch of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Cookies.”

“What are those?”

“A recipe based on Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake.”

“That’s one of my favorites. Do the cookies taste like the cake?”

“Almost exactly.” Hannah shrugged into her parka and picked up her gloves. “I’ll see you later. Describing those cookies is making me hungry. I’d better get out to Heavenly Bodies before I gain weight just thinking about them.”

Within two minutes of entering the back door of The Cookie Jar, Hannah and Andrea were seated at the work island, sipping mugs of freshly brewed coffee. It was shortly after eleven in the morning, and Michelle had just told them that she didn’t have the list of suspects.

“Mother didn’t give you the list?” Hannah was surprised. Delores was always efficient when it came to anything phone-related.

“She said they still had quite a few callbacks to make, that a lot of people they called weren’t home. There was a play at the community theater, a shower for Dot Larson’s new baby, parents’ night at school, and a bunch of church functions. Some of them ran really late, and Mother didn’t think that they should call past ten at night.”

Hannah knew about one of those church functions. Clara Hollenbeck hadn’t come home until after midnight from her Bible study group.

“Anyway, they’re going to tie up the loose ends today. Mother wants us all to meet her out at the Lake Eden Inn for dinner at seven tonight, her treat. That way we can talk about the case.”

“Who’s us all?” Andrea asked, and Hannah bit down on her tongue to keep from correcting the awkward phrasing.

“You, Hannah, me, Mother, Carrie, and Norman.”

“Okay. You can count me in. Bill’s working late anyway.”

“Hannah?” Michelle turned to her.

“It’s fine with me as long as I have time to run home and feed Moishe before I drive out to the inn.”

“But how about that Kitty Valet Mike gave you?” Andrea asked. “I thought it was for occasions when you couldn’t get home at the regular time…like tonight.”

“It is for occasions like this. It’s just that Moishe’s been eating every scrap of food I put in it, and he’s always hungry when I come home at night.”

“If he’s eating that much, it won’t hurt him to miss a meal,” Andrea pointed out. “Mother’s dinners never run long. You can feed him when you get home.”

“You’re right. I can.” Hannah tried not to think of how disappointed Moishe would be when she didn’t come home at the regular time to fill his Kitty Valet.

“So what did you find out at Heavenly Bodies?” Michelle asked.

“Nothing,” Andrea answered her.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing yet,” Hannah amended it.

“They wouldn’t talk in front of me,” Andrea explained. “I think it’s because I’m the sheriff’s wife. Hannah has to go back out there alone this afternoon.”

“So you’re going to talk to all the fitness club members about Ronni?” Michelle guessed.

“We narrowed it down a little more than that,” Hannah told her. “Roger, our old fitness instructor, was back in class this morning. He can’t do a lot of the exercises because of his broken arm, but everybody understands.”

“We talked to him after class,” Andrea went on with the story, “and when we told him we were investigating Ronni’s murder and we needed to talk to all the women in the classes she taught, he went to the computer and enrolled Hannah in both of her afternoon classes.”

Michelle looked worried. “Are you going to be able to do all that extra exercising?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll try. If I’m really stiff and sore, I can come in late, or quit early, or whatever. The important thing is to catch Ronni’s students after class and find out what they thought of her.”

“Make sure you get the names of anyone who dropped her class or transferred to another one,” Andrea reminded her. “Roger seemed to think there were a couple of those.”

“How about interviewing the security guard?” Michelle asked.

“Tad Newberg. I was planning to talk to him right after I finish the classes, but I could use your help.”

“You’ve got it. What do you want me to do?”

“Meet me out at Heavenly Bodies at five. I checked Tad’s schedule, and that’s when he comes in today.” Hannah glanced over at Andrea. “I could use your help, too.”

Andrea nodded. “We’ll drive out together. Just tell us what you want us to do.”

“I want one of you to help me interview Tad. And I want the other one to take cell phone pictures of the interior of the mall security station, including shots of the monitors. I want to know which rooms at Heavenly Bodies have security cameras.”

“Why take photos when you could just ask?” Michelle wanted to know.

“Because I’m not official, and they’re not supposed to give out that information to just anyone.”

Michelle thought about that for a moment. “I get it. If they told just anyone the exact locations of their security cameras, crooks could avoid them.”

“I’ll take the pictures,” Andrea volunteered. “I just got a new cell phone, and the camera’s really sharp.”

“Okay, then I’ll help with the interview.” Michelle turned to Hannah. “What sorts of questions do you want to ask him?”

“I’m sure someone from the sheriff’s department has interviewed him already, but he’s on duty five nights a week. He may know something about the members who came out on a regular basis for personal coaching from Ronni.”

“Background,” Andrea said.

“Exactly.” Hannah paused to yawn widely. “If we had a cot back here, I’d be tempted to take a nap before I drive back out to the mall to take those last two exercise classes.”

Lisa came into the kitchen carrying one of the glass display jars they used to showcase the day’s cookie selections. “I need more Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Cookies. It’s a good thing we made extra, Michelle. They’re going like hotcakes.”

Hannah sighed, catching a whiff of the heavenly aroma as Lisa began to fill the cookie jar. “Chocolate. It’s everything I shouldn’t have, and everything I crave.”

“Relax,” Andrea reached out to pat her hand. “You can have one as long as it’s only one. You spent double the required time on the cross-country ski machine this morning.”

“I did?”

“Yes. I timed you. If I hadn’t said anything, you probably would have gone on for another ten minutes.”

“But I hate that machine! I guess I must have been so busy thinking about the case and how to proceed, I lost track of time.”

Lisa brought her a cookie and Hannah had all she could do not to stuff it in her mouth all at once. Instead, she made it last a whole two minutes even though it just about killed her.

“Would you like another?” Lisa asked her.

“No! I mean, yes, of course I’d like another. But no, I know I shouldn’t have one.”

“That’s good willpower, Hannah,” Andrea complimented her.

“It’s not willpower, it’s a precaution. Just get those luscious cookies out of my sight before I grab the jar, run out the door, and lock myself in my cookie truck so I can eat every one.”

DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL COOKIES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

Hannah’s 1st Note: This is an adaptation of Friar Rudolf’s recipe for Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake.

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound)

3 cups white (granulated) sugar

4 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup cocoa powder (plain American cocoa—I used Hershey’s)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

5 cups flour (pack it down when you measure it)

2 cups chopped (and drained and rinsed) sauerkraut

Prepare the sauerkraut by rinsing it off with cold water under the faucet, and draining it in a sieve or colander. Rinsing is very important. Make sure you rinse it well. (You will chop it later when it’s thoroughly drained.)

Hannah’s 2 nd Note: This is easier with an electric mixer, but you can do it by hand.

Beat the softened butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs and mix them in thoroughly.

Mix in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Stir (or beat on low speed) until everything is well incorporated.

Add half of the buttermilk (½ cup) and half of the flour (2 ½ cups). Beat until smooth.

Add the remaining half of the buttermilk and the remaining half of the flour. Beat until smooth.

Hannah’s 3 rd Note: If you used an electric mixer, remove the bowl with the cookie dough. You’ll have to add this last ingredient by hand. Even finely chopped sauerkraut tends to wrap itself around the beaters.

Dump the sauerkraut on a cutting board, and chop it finely with a knife. You can also chop it in a food processor, using the steel blade and a pulsing motion. It’s very important to chop it up into tiny little pieces.

Measure one cup of sauerkraut, packing it down in the cup. Pat the sauerkraut dry with paper towels, and add it to the cookie dough. Stir it in thoroughly.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets that you’ve greased or sprayed with Pam (or other nonstick cooking spray), 12 cookies per standard-size sheet.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for 1 minute, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

When the cookies are cool, frost them with Mocha Icing.

Yield: 8 dozen delicious cookies

MOCHA ICING

½ cup softened butter (1 stick, ¼ pound)

1 cup semi-sweet (regular) chocolate chips

4 to 6 teaspoons very strongly brewed coffee

3 to 3½ cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar

Melt the chocolate chips with 4 teaspoons of the coffee in a microwave-safe bowl for 1 minute on HIGH. Stir, and if the mixture is still lumpy, remove the spoon and microwave it again for an additional 20 seconds. If the mixture is still lumpy, repeat again, stirring after each 20-second interval. When you are able to stir the mixture smooth, set the bowl on the counter to cool to room temperature.