Devil's Food Cake Murder (7 page)

“I’ll check on that chocolate allergy,” Hannah promised, glancing down at her notes again. “You’re also suspicious that the adult Matthew isn’t who he says he is because you don’t think the seminary would give him all that time off. You want me to call to make sure he actually teaches there and he really is on sabbatical.”

“That’s right. I really don’t think the seminary would give him a four-month sabbatical. My husband taught there before he decided he’d rather accept a calling as a minister. After the first two years, he earned a sabbatical, but it was only for six weeks.”

Hannah jotted that down, and went on. “You told me that another reason you’re suspicious is because Matthew sings too well?”

“Oh my, yes! That really made me think twice. I’ve never met a Lutheran minister that could sing all five verses of Abide With Me without going off-key.”

“How about Matthew the teenager?” Hannah asked. “Did he sing off-key?”

Grandma Knudson thought about that for a moment and then she sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t think I ever heard him sing. I sat up front in church. There was a special pew for the family of the minister. The boys could have been up there with me, but they preferred to sit in the back with their friends.”

“And the fact that Matthew can sing makes you doubt that he’s an ordained minister?”

“Yes. If it turns out that there really is a Matthew Walters who teaches at Concordia and is an ordained minister on a four-month sabbatical, do you think you can find out if the Matthew they know has a good singing voice?”

“I can try,” Hannah said, but it was a tall order. Perhaps Andrea would be better at making the seminary call. Bill always said she could charm the birds out of the trees, and Hannah knew firsthand that her sister could get personal information from practically anyone.

“There’s the davenport, too,” Grandma Knudson said. “I almost forgot about that.”

“The pink one in your sitting room?”

“Yes. Matthew said he remembered it when it was green, but he couldn’t have remembered that. I looked in my papers last night, and when the boys stayed with us, it was red. It wasn’t recovered with green fabric until after they’d left.”

“Yes, but …”

Grandma Knudson held up her hand. “Before you say it, I know he could be remembering it wrong, but when you add it to all the other things, it makes me even more uneasy.”

“I can understand that.”

“Can you really?” Grandma Knudson raised her eyes to Hannah’s. “You don’t think I’m seeing a bear in the woods when it’s only an odd-shaped tree trunk?”

“No. Now that I know what you know about the teenage Matthew, I’m uneasy, too.”

“Then you’ll place the phone calls to set my mind at ease?”

“Of course I will.”

“Oh, good!” Grandma Knudson pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Hannah. “Here’s the number of Concordia Theological Seminary. That’s where Matthew said he teaches. His secretary’s name is Corrine. He mentioned that when we talked about his chocolate allergy, and I wrote it down afterward. The number’s long distance, and I’ll pay you for the call.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m just as curious as you are. I’ll try to call Corrine later today. If I can’t reach her, I’ll call again in the morning.” Hannah reached out to pat Grandma Knudson’s hand. “Try not to worry. I’ll have answers to all of your questions by noon tomorrow.”

Grandma Knudson smiled for the first time since she’d walked into the kitchen. “Thank you, Hannah. I really appreciate it. I know I could have made those calls myself, but I was afraid he’d overhear me. If that man really is Matthew, he’d be hurt that I was suspicious of him. And if he’s not Matthew, he’s up to something and I don’t want him to guess I suspect him.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Hannah said, closing her steno pad and standing up. “I’m going to pack up those muffins, and then I’ll check with Lisa to see if Herb’s here with your ride home.”

CARROT-OATMEAL MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 375, rack in the middle position.

1 and 1/3 cups flour (just scoop it up and level it off with a table knife)

1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned dry oatmeal (I used Quaker Quick—1 Minute)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used half cinnamon and half cardamom)

1/2 cup brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots (pack them down when you measure them)

1/2 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)

1/2 cup milk

1 beaten egg (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)

1/3 cup melted salted butter***

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*** - One-third cup of salted butter is approximately 3/4 of a stick. Just cut a quarter of a stick off the end and melt the big part. It might turn out to be slightly more than 1/3 cup, but that doesn’t seem to hurt a thing in this wonderful recipe.

Grease or spray with Pam (or another nonstick cooking spray) the cups of a 12-cup muffin pan. Set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and oatmeal.

Sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon on top. Mix them in thoroughly.

Stir in the brown sugar. Mix until everything is blended.

Shred the carrots if you haven’t already done so. A fine shred is best. You want them to cook in the time it takes the muffins to bake and turn golden brown and delicious.

Add the shredded carrots and the raisins to your bowl. Mix them in thoroughly.

In a separate small bowl, combine the milk, beaten egg, melted butter, and vanilla. Give it a good stir so that everything is well combined.

Dump the contents of the small bowl into the larger bowl. Gently stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened and no dry “pockets” remain.

Fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. (Of course it’s not really clean—that’s just what they say in the cookbooks. It just means that when you pull the toothpick out, it doesn’t have uncooked batter sticking to it.)

Set the muffin pan on a cold burner or a wire rack for 10 minutes. This cooling process is necessary because if you try to take the muffins out of the muffin cups now, they may break in pieces, and you certainly don’t want that!

When the muffins have cooled for 10 minutes, slide the blade of a knife around each muffin’s edge and gently pry them out. Once the muffins are out of the cups, you can try to cool them completely on a wire rack, but I’m betting that several will disappear before they’re cool.

Yield: 12 truly excellent muffins

Hannah’s Note: Mother really likes these even though there’s no chocolate in the recipe. Believe me, this is high praise!

Hannah glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was a quarter to ten the next morning, and Andrea had been on the phone for forty-five minutes. Although she’d been all ears, Hannah hadn’t learned much by listening to her sister’s end of the conversation. She still didn’t know whether Reverend Matthew was who he claimed to be. Hannah had done some research on chocolate allergies and found that it was possible to “outgrow” them. It all had to do with avoiding chocolate for so long that your body didn’t react when you tried it again. This could have happened with Reverend Matthew, just as he claimed.

The clatter of spoons stirring coffee, the low hum of conversation, and an occasional laugh drifted under the swinging door that led to the coffee shop. The Cookie Jar was busy this morning. Hannah felt a little guilty for taking almost an hour out of their busy workday, but Lisa had agreed that setting Grandma Knudson’s mind at ease was the top priority.

“You too, Corrine,” Andrea said. “You’ve been a big help and I think I have enough background now. Thanks so much for talking to me. And that’s Corrine with two r’s and Ad-dams with two d’s?”

Hannah perked up her ears. It sounded as if the conversation with Matthew’s secretary was about to end.

“Well, thanks again. It’s been a pleasure.”

Hannah got up to dump out Andrea’s cold coffee and replace it with hot brew from a fresh pot. When she got back to the workstation, Andrea was dropping her cell phone back into her purse. “So?” she asked, setting the fresh mug of coffee in front of her sister.

“Matthew’s secretary was very helpful.”

“That’s because you bamboozled her.”

“No, I didn’t. Corrine was just talkative. She’s probably bored since her boss is gone.”

“But you had to pretend to be a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.”

“Okay, so that was a little white lie, but it was for a good cause. You told me that Grandma Knudson was really worried.”

“She is. I couldn’t tell from all the yes or no answers you gave, but does she have anything to worry about?”

Andrea shook her head. “Reverend Matthew Walters is an ordained Missouri Synod Lutheran minister. He’s one of the senior members of the faculty, and he left last week on a four-month sabbatical. Before he drove off, he told Corrine that he planned to stop by a little town in Minnesota, Lake Eden to be exact, to meet the minister, Reverend Robert Knudson, and renew his acquaintance with Grandma Knudson.”

“So that part checks out.”

“Yes, and there’s more. When I asked about Reverend Matthew’s duties at the seminary, she said that he has a minor in music, he’s written several hymns that are under consideration for inclusion in the college hymnal, and he’s the tenor soloist in the seminary choir.”

“That shoots Grandma Knudson’s theory about tone-deaf Lutheran ministers out of the water.”

“It sure does.” Andrea glanced down at the notes she’d scrawled on a paper napkin. “And I found out about the davenport.”

Hannah was amazed. She’d listened to everything Andrea had said, and she knew her sister hadn’t mentioned the davenport. “How did you do that?”

“Corrine volunteered some information that clears it all up. She said Matthew is a …” Andrea glanced at the napkin full of notes, “… protan.”

“Isn’t that a form of color blindness?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

Hannah shrugged. “I must have read it somewhere. What else did she say about it?”

“She said Reverend Matthew sees red as a shade of green. She didn’t find out about it until her first year as his secretary, and he came to the office Christmas party wearing a bright red shirt with a green tie. She told him she thought it was nice he’d gotten into the Christmas party spirit and he didn’t know what she was talking about. He saw the red shirt as a shade of green and thought the tie matched it perfectly.”

“Got it!” Hannah commented, catching on immediately. “The red davenport in Grandma Knudson’s sitting room looked green to him.”

“Exactly.”

“So…nothing’s left. Every suspicion that Grandma Knudson had can be explained away in one way or another. She’s going to be so relieved when I tell her!”

“Yes. I think we should go up there and tell her now.”

Hannah noticed the plural pronoun her sister had used. “You’re going to come with me?” she asked.

“You betcha! I’m hoping that Grandma Knudson’s got some of that Red Devil’s Food Cake left over from yesterday, the one you told me was really scrumptious. And once we give her the good news about Reverend Matthew, she’ll be so happy she’ll invite us to stay for coffee and cake.”

Hannah was smiling as she turned the big stand mixer to the lowest speed and added salt, baking soda, and baking powder to the sugar in the bowl. She was testing the Red Devil’s Food Cake recipe as promised. The mixture of water, butter, chocolate, brown sugar, and espresso powder was cooling in a saucepan, and she’d already prepared her cake pans by greasing and flouring the insides and then adding a layer of parchment paper to the bottom. Grandma Knudson had been delighted to find out that Reverend Matthew really was the teenager who’d stayed with her. And Andrea had been spot on, one of the phrases their mother used in her Regency romances that meant absolutely correct. Grandma Knudson had asked them to stay for cake and coffee, and then she’d asked Hannah to cater the bon voyage party for Claire and Bob right after church on Sunday.

Hannah thought about Grandma Knudson’s request while she added more sugar to the bowl. A tropical cookie would be perfect since Claire and Bob were going to Hawaii. Hannah had a couple of cookies that would work, but she wanted to make something new.

She thought about it as she added cocoa powder and the last of the sugar to the mixing bowl. Then she mixed in two eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract. The chocolate scent was lovely, and she decided that Bob and Claire’s cookies should have both chocolate and coconut, a winning combination in almost anyone’s book.

The mixture in the saucepan had cooled enough so that it wouldn’t cook the eggs. Hannah added half of it to her bowl, along with half of the flour. Once that was mixed in, she added the other half of the chocolate mixture and the rest of the flour. When everything was thoroughly incorporated, she turned off the mixer, removed the beaters and the bowl, and gave the cake batter a final stir by hand.

Coconut cookies with mini chocolate chips would be good. Hannah thought about how she could make them more tropical as she filled the layer cake pans she’d prepared and slipped them into the oven. She was just setting the time for twenty minutes when she had what she thought was a great idea. She’d put something tropical on top of the cookie for a decoration. Now all she had to do was think of something that was tropical and would be delicious on top of a coconut and chocolate cookie.

She’d just dismissed pieces of fruit because they’d be sticky, when her mother opened the back door.

“Do you have a minute, Hannah?” Delores asked.

“Sure do. I just put my cakes in the oven and it’s time for a break. Coffee?”

“I’m all coffeed out, dear. Do you have any juice?”

“Orange, grapefruit, or peach.”

“I’ll have orange if you can spare it. I just dropped by to talk about my launch party.”

“Right,” Hannah said, beginning to panic. She hadn’t planned a thing for her mother’s second book launch party, and it was scheduled for a week from next Sunday.