Cream Puff Murder (26 page)

“Hi, Hannah. It’s Mike. Where are you?”

“I’m home. Why didn’t you call me here?”

“Because I didn’t know you’d be home this early.”

Hannah was puzzled. “You’re not calling me from home, are you?”

“Of course not. They might check my phone records. I picked up one of those disposable cell phones with the minutes already loaded.”

“Well I’m glad you called. I’m having trouble with this surveillance camera, and I was about to test it out.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“I turned it on when Michelle and I left this morning, and I just watched the tape. It only showed Moishe leaving the kitchen twice all day. And when I got home, the Kitty Valet was empty.”

There was silence for a minute, and then Mike sighed. “Well, that can’t be right. There’s no way he could carry that much food in only two trips. He’s got to be eating it, Hannah.”

“But he’s not. I’m almost positive of that.”

“Okay. Let’s figure this out right now. I want you to put the tape back in the camera and turn it on.”

Hannah reached up to flick the red switch. The moment she did, her phone started to make a high-pitched hum. “I think there’s something wrong with my phone,” she told him. “It sounds like a mosquito.”

“I can’t hear it on this end. It’s probably some sort of interference.”

“Then it must be from the surveillance camera. It started the second I flicked it on. I’m going to turn it off and see if it stops.”

“Good idea. I’ll hold.”

Hannah flicked off the camera, and the mosquito sound disappeared. “It’s the camera. The sound stopped.”

“I’ll try it with my cell phone the next time I come over, and if it happens with mine, I’ll write it in my report to the company. In the meantime, let’s test out that camera. Turn it on again, and crawl into the living room.”

“Crawl?! Why do I have to crawl?”

“Because you’re a lot taller than Moishe. I want to see if the camera’s aimed right.”

Hannah thought about arguing, but it wasn’t worth the effort. She dropped to her knees and crawled through the doorway to the living room. She moved to the side so she wasn’t within camera range, and on the count of ten, she dropped to her knees and crawled back into the kitchen.

“Okay. Done,” she reported when she’d picked up her cell phone again.

“Great. Now do it three more times to make sure. And then turn off the camera, stick the tape in your VCR, and see if it caught the action.”

Crawling through the door and back three more times would kill her. Hannah was quite certain of that. But the surveillance camera picked up movement, and it didn’t really matter what was doing the moving, did it? That theory in mind, Hannah opened her pantry and surveyed the contents. What was capable of rolling and wasn’t any larger than Moishe? Almost immediately, Hannah had the answer. She grabbed three fifty-ounce cans of chicken broth. They were smaller than Moishe, but that was all right. She bought the cans of chicken broth whenever Florence had a sale at the Red Owl, and stockpiled them in her pantry to use in her Holiday Squash Soup.

Getting back down to the floor with the cans wasn’t easy. Hannah resorted to sitting on her haunches since her knees were so sore. Then she picked up one can, positioned it on its side, and rolled it through the doorway.

It was like bowling with soup cans. Hannah laughed out loud as she sent the second can rolling. Once it stopped several feet into the living room, she rolled the third can on its way. A moment later, she’d taken the tape from the camera, slipped it into her VCR, and was watching it on her television screen. In the first shot, she emerged on hands and knees through the doorway, but on the next three shots, the cans of chicken broth took center stage.

“It worked,” she reported, picking up her cell phone again.

“That was fast! I thought it would take you much longer. It’s difficult for people over thirty to crawl. I think we forget how unless we make it a part of our daily fitness routine.”

“I think you’re right,” Hannah said, her tongue firmly in cheek. “This must be one of the benefits from all that exercise I’m getting.”

Most cat owners could tell the difference between an inquiring meow, a grateful meow, and a downright thrilled meow. Moishe’s meow was a combination of all three as Hannah pulled up in the circular driveway at Norman’s country home.

Before Hannah could even reach in the back of the truck to snap on Moishe’s leash, the door opened and Norman came out. He walked straight up to the passenger door and started to open it.

“I don’t have his leash on yet,” Hannah called out.

“That’s okay.” Norman opened the door all the way and held out his arms. Moishe jumped into them, purring all the while. “I’ve got him, Hannah.”

“I thought he only did that with me,” Hannah said. And although she tried not to react, she felt a tiny little stab of jealousy.

“He doesn’t do it for me very often. It happens only when I’ve got Cuddles waiting inside.”

That made her feel better, especially when she reminded herself that Norman had built this house with Cuddles in mind. There was a kitty staircase leading to nowhere in the den, with several marvelous views of the purple grackles that gathered on Norman’s lawn. Both Cuddles and Moishe loved it, and they spent hours chasing each other up and down the carpeted steps, stopping every once in a while to look out at the aviary feast they longed to catch.

“Did you find out where the Big Guy is hiding his food?” Norman asked, scratching Moishe under the chin.

“Not yet. I talked to Mike on the phone, and he told me how to re-aim the camera to get the best results. I’ll have to wait until I get home to see if it worked.”

“I hope it did.” Norman juggled Moishe to a new position in his arms. “I’m with you, Hannah. I don’t think he’s eating more. He seems to be the same weight as always.”

Hannah retrieved her brownies from the cat-safe cooler in the back. “Can I use your stovetop? I didn’t have time to frost my dessert.”

“Of course. It’s as much your stovetop as it is my stovetop.”

Hannah smiled. She loved Norman’s stovetop. She’d chosen it when they’d entered the Dream House contest. It had been fun to design the ideal family home and choose appliances and furniture without even considering price. It had come as a total surprise when their dream house had won the contest. It had also come as a complete surprise when Norman had actually built their dream house and asked her to marry him!

There had been many times since then that she wished she’d said yes. But there had been just as many times she’d been glad she was still single. As Hannah followed Norman into the lovely dream house they’d designed together, she decided this was one of the “yes” times. And she was sure of it when she saw Moishe leap out of Norman’s arms and race off to play with Cuddles.

“So what did you bring for dessert?” Norman asked her.

“Bonnie Brownie Cookie Bars. All I have to do is frost them.”

“I’ve never heard of those before. Are they something new?”

Hannah laughed. “Yes. It’s a new recipe that owes its existence to the fact that I didn’t want to drive to the store.”

“So you substituted?”

“Exactly. That’s how great recipes are born. I was going to make peanut butter brownies, but I didn’t have any salted peanuts. I did have some butterscotch chips, so I made these instead.”

“What sort of pan do you need for the frosting?”

“Just a medium-sized saucepan. I brought all the ingredients with me.” Hannah gestured toward the small soft-sided cooler she’d carried in with her.

Norman got out the saucepan, and then he stepped behind Hannah and massaged her neck for a moment. “You look so tired. I’m going to be glad when we solve this case and you can get some sleep.”

“So am I!” Hannah said, turning to give him a hug. “I don’t think I’ve had more than six hours total since Ronni was killed.”

They stood there for a long moment. Hannah no longer felt like making the frosting. She wanted to cuddle up with Norman, and perhaps it wasn’t very romantic, but she wanted to go to sleep in the warmth of his arms. Or maybe that was romantic, especially in the true sense of the word. She really wasn’t sure, but she knew it would be pure heaven.

The doorbell rang, and Norman pulled away reluctantly. “I’d better get that. If you’re too tired to make the frosting, I’ve got powdered sugar in the pantry. We can just sprinkle some on top and serve your bar cookies that way.”

“Good idea!” Hannah answered gratefully.

“The only thing that’s good about this night is your egg salad,” Hannah said, rubbing her eyes. They’d fast-forwarded through six hours of tapes, and her eyelids felt like they were propped up with toothpicks. “You did write down the recipe, didn’t you, Norman?”

“Yes, but Cuddles helped me a little. She walked over the ink while it was still wet and made little cat tracks.”

Hannah laughed. She’d had similar experiences with Moishe. There was something about the point of a felt-tip pen that was fascinating to those of the feline persuasion. “Can I still read it?”

“Yes. I typed it up on the computer and printed it out for you.”

“Thanks, Norman.” Hannah snuggled a little deeper into the cushions of the couch in the den. Moishe and Cuddles were sleeping, curled up together, in the round kitty bed in front of the large-screen television set. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Almost ten. We’ve been at this for over three hours.”

“And we’ve gone through six hours. That means sixty hours of tape, fast-forwarded, roughly translates to thirty hours. Can you watch any more, Norman?”

“I don’t think so. I gave Doc Bennett six hours, Lisa and Herb took six hours, and Grandma McCann has six hours. If Michelle and Andrea have watched six hours apiece, that means we have twenty-four hours of tapes to go.”

“Is that like twenty-four bottles of beer on the wall?” Hannah asked, remembering the song they used to sing on the pep squad bus when she was in high school and they went to “away” basketball games.

“Yes, except it might be quicker to drink…never mind. It wasn’t a rational thought. Delores and Mom have a VCR down at Granny’s Attic. Maybe they’ll take turns watching tomorrow, and we can subtract another six hours.”

“Maybe, if they’re having a good night tonight.” Hannah stopped talking and frowned.

“What is it?”

“It’s crazy. They’re grown women, but I’m a little worried about them. I called Sally and asked about The Moosehead. There’s a hotel next door, and they’ve got a shuttle to the airport. I was thinking there might be some out-of-town salesmen and executives that stay there.”

“And you’re worried about our mothers?”

Hannah thought about that for a minute. “It’s not like it’s unfounded. Mother was crazy about Winthrop.”

“True.” Norman reached out and gave her a little hug. “Do you want to take a run to The Moosehead and see what’s going on?”

“Hi, guys!” Michelle called out, stepping inside the den. “I’m done with my six hours.”

“Me, too.” Andrea was right behind her. “We don’t have to watch more, do we?”

Norman shook his head. “Not if you’re as bored as we are.”

“I’d rather watch my fingernails grow. It’s a lot more interesting.” Michelle walked over to one of the chairs next to the couch and plopped down. “I conferred with Andrea, and we agree that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, to report.”

Andrea nodded as she took the other chair. “If we’d gotten the tapes from Mike, I’d think this was a runaround. But we didn’t. There’s just nothing but empty exercise rooms on the tapes we watched.”

“Same thing with our tapes,” Hannah said, giving a little shrug. “The most exciting thing we saw was a spider making a web on the water cooler.”

“At least you had a spider,” Michelle said. “Maybe the other tapes are more interesting, but we just can’t watch any more.”

“Hannah was a little concerned about your mother,” Norman told them, ignoring the sharp look that Hannah gave him. “What do you think? Will she be okay in a bar with out-of-state salesmen and business executives?”

“I don’t know.” Andrea gave him a hard look. “Will Carrie be okay with out-of-state salesmen and business executives?”

“I’ll drive,” Norman said.

There was a moment of silence while the three sisters exchanged glances, and then Hannah spoke. “We’ll ride with you,” she said.

“Good,” Norman said, heading for the closet to get their coats. “I printed out directions this morning, just in case. Let’s go see how the mothers are doing.”

BONNIE BROWNIE COOKIE BARS

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

4 one-ounce squares semi-sweet chocolate (or ¾ cup chocolate chips)

¾ cup butter (one and a half sticks)

1½ cups white (granulated) sugar

3 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

½ cup chopped cashews

½ cup chopped butterscotch chips

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

Prepare a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan by lining it with a piece of foil large enough to flap over the sides. Spray the foil-lined pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Microwave the chocolate squares and butter in a microwave-safe mixing bowl on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir. (Since chocolate frequently maintains its shape even when melted, you have to stir to make sure.) If it’s not melted, microwave for an additional 20 seconds and stir again. Repeat if necessary.

Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Feel the bowl. If it’s not so hot it’ll cook the eggs, add them now, stirring thoroughly. Mix in the vanilla extract.

Mix in the flour, and stir just until it’s moistened.

Put the cashews, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips in the bowl of a food processor, and chop them together with the steel blade. (If you don’t have a food processor, you don’t have to buy one for this recipe—just chop everything up as well as you can with a sharp knife.)

Mix in the chopped ingredients, give a final stir by hand, and spread the batter out in your prepared pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.