Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (16 page)

“True. So what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to try to find out who the guy is. We were going to drive past Mother’s house and take down his license number if we saw his car. But then we found Larry’s body and you said you needed to take our statements, so we came straight here.”

“I’ll take a run past your mother’s on my way back to the station,” Mike offered.

“But it’s out of your way.”

“So what? You’re a friend and I like your mother. I wouldn’t want to see anyone take advantage of her.”

Hannah backed away from the door and began to clear the table. Norman would probably be in any second and she didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping. But all the while she was carrying in coffee cups and stashing them in the dishwasher, she was wondering when Mike had been in a curtained booth at the Lake Eden Inn, and who his dinner companion had been.

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.,
rack in the middle position.

Hannah’s Note: This is a lot easier to do with an electric mixer.

Beat the softened butter and the powdered sugar together until they look light and creamy. There’s no need to sift the powdered sugar unless it’s got big lumps. If you do end up sifting it, make sure you pack it down in the cup when you measure it.

Add a half-teaspoon of lemon extract and mix it in.

Peel the banana and break it into chunks. Mix them in until they’re thoroughly mashed and the powdered sugar and butter mixture is smooth again.

Sprinkle in the baking powder and salt, and mix them in thoroughly.

Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition. When the cookie dough is thoroughly mixed, take the bowl from the mixer and set it on the counter.

Mix in the chocolate chips by hand. You’ll want them as evenly distributed as possible.

Line your cookie sheets with foil and spray the foil lightly with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Use a teaspoon to drop cookie dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets, no more than 12 cookies to a sheet.
(I used a 2-teaspoon size cookie scoop to make small cookies. I’ve also used a 2-Tablespoon size cookie scoop to make larger cookies.)

Use a metal spatula or the palm of your impeccably clean hand to flatten the cookies.

Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F. for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they’re golden on top. Remove them from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Then pull the foil off and transfer cookies, foil and all, to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: Makes approximately 3 dozen large or 5 dozen small cookies.

Mary Therese’s Hint: (She wrote it out on the recipe card she sent to Lisa.) Be sure the butter is soft. I leave it out overnight. If you like bananas, you can use 2 medium bananas mashed, but you may have to add a little more flour.

W
hen the alarm went off at four in the morning, Hannah sat up and rubbed her eyes. It had been an uneasy night filled with images of Larry prone on the rug at Elf Headquarters haunting her sleep. She hadn’t really liked him all that much, but he hadn’t deserved to be murdered.

It was time to get up, get dressed, drink all the coffee in the pot to wake up enough to drive, and go to The Cookie Jar to bake a zillion cookies. Once people heard that Larry Jaeger had been murdered and that she’d been there with Norman to discover his body, The Cookie Jar would be packed with curious customers.

Hannah thrust her feet into slippers and headed straight for the kitchen. A cup of coffee would perk her right up and get rid of that not-enough-sleep syndrome that usually plagued her in the morning. This morning it was even more severe than usual, perhaps because she’d stayed up until almost eleven with Norman, trimming her Christmas tree.

She was halfway down the hall when she heard a thumping from the living room. There was also a low rumbling noise that sounded a bit like a growl. At first she was hard-pressed to identify the origin, but as her steps brought her within a few feet of the living room, she heard a series of sounds she’d heard before. It was an ack-ack sound, a bit like the words GI’s in World War II had used to describe anti-aircraft rounds going off in the distance. Except that this sound wasn’t in the distance. It was in her living room. And the ack-ack in question wasn’t coming from military weaponry. It originated deep within her feline’s throat and it was a prelude to a leap, a pounce, and then, at least in Moishe’s mind, the happy crunching of avian bones.

Hannah rounded the corner on the run, just in time to see orange and white fur in motion. Her cat appeared to be leaping straight up near the far corner of the room, and Hannah knew what that meant. It was a death rattle for Great Grandma Elsa’s birds, those lovely red cardinals and snow white doves that were fashioned from…

“Uh-oh!” Hannah groaned. And then, as she caught sight of the carnage that had been wreaked upon her living room rug, she uttered a phrase that would surely have been bleeped on network television. There were white and red feathers everywhere, along with several bird feet that had been fashioned from wire and yarn. Five black beads that had served as bird eyes sat upon her coffee table, and Hannah almost chuckled despite the scene of utter devastation. There were bird’s eyes on her bird’s-eye maple coffee table. That coincidence seemed pretty funny until she remembered that Great-Grandma Elsa had dyed the feathers and handcrafted the cardinals and doves herself. And now her great-great-grandcat, Moishe, had destroyed them.

Hannah turned to look at her feather-seeking missile, but he was no longer in the room. He’d vanished in a puff of cat dander, leaving one white feather floating slowly down to settle on top of the television set.

Cleanup and then coffee? Or coffee and then cleanup? It was no contest for Hannah. She averted her eyes from the avian massacre, turned on her heel, and stepped into the kitchen to get away from it all.

“I heard,” Lisa said as Hannah walked into the kitchen at The Cookie Jar.

“Jake and Kelly?”

Lisa nodded and went to pour Hannah a cup of freshly brewed coffee. She carried it over to the stool Hannah had taken at the stainless steel workstation, and gave a little sigh. “I don’t suppose you got a chance to…”

Before Lisa could finish her question, Hannah reached into her purse, pulled out the envelope, and held it up. “He must have been expecting us, because it was right there on the table next to the door.”

“Thanks,” Lisa said, taking the check and carrying it over to the file she kept for accounts receivable. The concept of accepting a check that had been so close to a murder victim might bother her a bit, but it was clear that it wouldn’t deter her from depositing it.

“What do we have to bake today?” Hannah asked as she sipped her coffee.

“Everything. They’re going to come through the door in droves. But you don’t need to worry. I’ve got a good start on it. How about a little chocolate to get you going?”

“Sounds good to me. What do you have?”

“Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies, German Chocolate Cake Cookies, Desperation Cookies, and a few Frosting Splatters.

“Frosting Splatters?” Hannah picked up on the cookie name she didn’t recognize. “What are those?”

“They’re something my mother used to make when she had leftover frosting. All you do is take out a splatter of soda crackers, tip it salt-side down, and…”

“Hold it.” Hannah held up her hand. “What’s a splatter?”

“That’s what my Mom called four soda crackers in a sheet. They used to come in the box that way, remember?”

“I do, but I’ve never heard them called a
splatter
.”

“I think it was Mom’s word, a combination between
split
because that’s what you do to them before you eat them and
platter
because they’re flat.”

“Makes sense to me.”

“I don’t think they come in splatters anymore. Or if they do, Florence doesn’t have them down at the Red Owl. The only crackers I could get were individual soda crackers in sleeves, but I’m still calling them splatters.”

“I’d like to try a couple of Frosting Splatters.”

Lisa hurried to the counter and came back with three Frosting Splatters. One was a soda cracker topped with German Chocolate Cake Cookie frosting, another was covered with the Mocha Frosting they used on their Cappuccino Cookies, and the third cracker had the frosting from Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies.

“See how the salt cuts the sweetness?” Lisa asked, as Hannah finished the first Frosting Splatter.

“I do. It works perfectly.” Hannah made short work of finishing the other two.

“So you’re all ready for baking?”

“I am.”

“Good. I got talked into something last night and I’m hoping you’ll approve. I said we’d make a dozen Christmas cookies for each family that benefits from Christmas For All.”

“What’s Christmas For All?” Hannah asked.

“It’s a group that provides a family Christmas for kids whose parents can’t afford a celebration. The men dress up like Santa and they deliver food and presents on Christmas Eve.”

“I like that. We should definitely provide cookies.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say when your mother called me last night.”

“My mother called
you
?”

“That’s right. She said you weren’t home from dinner with Norman yet, so she was calling me. That must have been when you were discovering…uh…Larry.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Anyway, your mother and Carrie are involved.”

Hannah frowned. “They don’t have anything to do with the food, do they?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Thank goodness for that!”

“What do you mean?” Lisa asked.

“Mother cooks only when the restaurants are closed, and she alternates between two entrees, Hawaiian Pot Roast and EZ Lasagna.”

“How about Carrie? Doesn’t she cook either?”

“Carrie cooks. She cooked for Norman until he moved out.”

“Was that one of the reasons Norman moved out?”

“I’m fairly certain it was. Carrie thinks it’s her mission in life to influence people’s diets. And she believes in a low-salt, low-fat, no-taste menu that’s laden with powdered food supplements and rich in exotic vegetables that no one in Lake Eden grows in their gardens.”

“Oh. Well then…maybe it’s good that your mother and Carrie just provide the baskets to carry the food.”

“It’s very good.” Hannah got up from her stool and carried her coffee cup over to the sink. “Let’s get started.”

“Okay. Everybody who comes in is going to ask what you saw when you found Larry’s body.”

“You’ll tell them?” Hannah asked, hoping that Lisa would be the storyteller again this time and that she could hide out in the kitchen.

“I will, but you have to describe everything for me. We can do it while we’re baking. If we don’t get busy and bake at least a hundred dozen cookies this morning, we’re going to run out.”

FROSTING SPLATTERS

Lay out the crackers salt side down on a cookie sheet, counter, or platter. Spread the unsalted side with frosting.

Yield: Makes as many crackers as you have frosting to top.

Lisa’s Note: Kids love these and so do adults. A few Frosting Splatters might just keep them from digging into the frosted cake until it’s ready to be served.

T
here was a knock on the back door and Hannah sighed. “That’s got to be Mother. She listens to KCOW radio when she drives to work in the morning and she’s probably dropping by to accuse me of corrupting Norman.”

“By taking him with you to find murder victims?” Lisa guessed.

“Exactly right. You know how she feels about my affliction.”

“Is
that
what she calls it?” Lisa giggled and Hannah was reminded again how young her partner was.

“Among other things. It embarrasses her because none of her friends have daughters who stumble across murder victims.”

“She’s not entirely wrong, you know. You
do
seem to have a knack for it.”

“A
knack
? Now there’s a word she hasn’t used to describe it.” There was another knock at the door, a little louder this time, and Hannah got up from her stool. “I’d better open the door before she freezes out there.”

“Good morning, dear,” Delores said, as Hannah opened the door and ushered her into the kitchen. There was a smile on her face and Hannah knew instantly that she hadn’t heard about Larry Jaeger. “I just dropped by on my way out to the college.”

“It’s good to see you, Mother. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you. I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. Do you have any cookies…” Delores stopped speaking as her gaze landed on the baker’s rack that was filled with freshly-baked cookies. “That was a silly question for me to ask. Of
course
you have cookies!”

“We have Boggles, Raisin Drops, Spicy Dreams, or Orange Julius Cookies,” Lisa told her, naming the cookies on the rack for Delores.

“Orange Julius Cookies? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted those.”

“I
know
you’ve never tasted them,” Hannah said. “The recipe’s from Andrea’s friend, Kathy Bruns, and this is the first time we’ve baked them.”

Lisa placed two of the cookies on a napkin in front of Delores. “I’m going to get things ready in the coffee shop,” she said, heading for the swinging door that separated the two areas. “It was nice to see you, Mrs. Swensen.”

“Lisa’s always so formal and I’ve known her since she was a baby,” Delores said, once Lisa was out of earshot. “What do I have to do to get her to call me Delores…or Mother?”

“You could adopt her.”

“Perhaps that would do it,” Delores said with a laugh. “Very good, dear.”

As Hannah filled her mother’s coffee mug, she thought about her choices. She could wait until Delores heard about Larry’s murder on the radio, or she could take the bull by the horns and blurt it out now. Either way would result in upsetting her mother, but she might be a bit less upset if she heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.

“I guess you haven’t heard about Larry Jaeger,” Hannah said, placing the coffee in front of her mother and jumping into what could be the frigid waters of motherly displeasure with both feet.

“What
about
Larry Jaeger?”

“Someone murdered him last night.” Hannah waited for her mother’s predictable gasp. Once that occurred, she was about to go on when she had a brilliant idea. Although she’d been the one to spot Larry on the floor, Norman had actually discovered that he had no pulse and was dead. “Norman discovered him dead on the floor of his trailer.”

“Norman?!” Delores stared at her daughter open-mouthed. “You said
Norman
found Larry’s dead body?”

“That’s right. We had dinner at the Inn last night and then we dropped by the Crazy Elf to pick up a check for the cookies I delivered yesterday afternoon. It was all arranged ahead of time and Larry left the gate open for us. When he didn’t answer our knocks at Elf Headquarters, we thought he might be somewhere else in the park and we decided to wait for him inside. Norman opened the door to the trailer and he found Larry dead on the floor.”

“Poor Norman!” Delores sighed and shook her head. “It must have been awful for him.”

“He didn’t seem to be terribly upset,” Hannah said, pleased at the way this conversation was going. “I’d like to think that it was because I was with him.”

“It’s probably because he’s a dentist,” Delores contradicted her.

“What does being a
dentist
have to do with it?”

“Think about it, dear. Dentists are used to the sight of blood and other unpleasant things like that. This must have been just another unpleasant episode in a long line of unpleasant episodes for him.” Delores took another sip of her coffee. “Well, I’m glad you told me about it before I heard it from someone else. Does Carrie know?”

“I’m not sure. It was late by the time Mike took our statements. Norman might not have called to tell her last night, but he probably talked to her this morning.”

“No doubt you’re right,” Delores agreed, looking a bit disappointed that she couldn’t break the news to her friend. She took another sip of her coffee and then something shocking must have occurred to her, because Hannah saw her carefully arched brows shoot up toward her perfect coiffure.

“What is it, Mother?”

“I just remembered. I’d better tell Nancy.”

“Nancy?”

“Dr. Love. We’ve gotten to be great friends, dear. I know she’s considerably younger than I am, but we’re involved in a lot of the same things.”

“Like what?” Hannah asked.

“Dorcas Circle, and the Lake Eden Historical Society. She just joined our Regency romance group, and then there’s Christmas For All. That’s where I first met her. It’s an organization for…”

“Lisa told me all about it,” Hannah cut her off before Delores asked her to join.

“Nancy says she considers me the mother she never had.”

Too bad you’re not the mother
I
never had
, Hannah thought, but of course she didn’t say so. She really didn’t mean it. She loved Delores and she respected her as her mother. But it
was
a very funny comeback and it just about killed her not to say it.

“What’s the matter, dear? You look strained.”

“Nothing, Mother.” Hannah put on a smile.

“Well, I really should see Nancy. She might not have heard about it. It won’t take long, I promise.”

Hannah frowned slightly. Why was her mother assuring her that her visit with Dr. Love wouldn’t take long? Luanne opened Granny’s Attic for business every day, and Delores and Carrie could come in as late as they pleased. Her mother’s time was her own. She could stay out at the college for hours chatting as long as she liked.

“Nancy has office hours from eight to ten every morning, so we should be able to catch her.”

“
We
?” Hannah asked, zeroing in on the plural.

“Yes, we.” Delores stopped cold and looked very apologetic. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I’m going to need you to follow me out to the college and then bring me back here. I have to leave my car in the parking lot.”

“Why do you have to do that?”

“For Michelle. I’m just so scattered this morning, I forgot to tell you,” she said, by way of apology. “And there’s one other thing. Michelle can stay with you, can’t she, dear? I’m having some painting done.”

“Michelle’s always welcome to stay with me, but I thought she wouldn’t be home until Christmas Eve.”

“That was the original plan, but it’s changed. She’s coming in late this afternoon and she needs to borrow my car. I’m going to park it in the college lot and she’ll pick it up after rehearsal this evening.”

“Why is Michelle coming to the community college?” Hannah asked, struggling to make sense of the disjointed facts she’d learned.

“Because she has a part in the Christmas Follies. Don’t you remember that nice poetry professor telling us about it?”

“He’s not nice,” Hannah said, and then she wished she could take back the words. Her comment was sure to elicit a query from Delores. “Of course I remember,” she said quickly, hoping to throw her mother off the track. “Do you know if Michelle’s in a play? Or is it something else?”

“It’s something else. She’s going to sing.”

“I didn’t know Michelle could sing!” Hannah relaxed slightly. Her mother was off-topic and that was all to the good. She wasn’t in the mood to discuss her former relationship with Bradford Ramsey, the Lothario of poetry professors.

“I’m just so proud of her!” Delores continued. “I’d assumed that she couldn’t sing. You certainly can’t, and Andrea’s never been able to carry a tune. That’s why I told you to whisper the words to the hymns in church. It was embarrassing when you girls tried to sing out loud. Everybody in the pew in front of us turned around to look.”

Hannah remembered her mother’s admonishment about singing out loud in church. Delores had never told them why it was preferable for them to whisper, but now she knew why.

“Your father couldn’t sing a note,” Delores said, smiling fondly at some private memory. “He sounded like a dying bullfrog.”

“Have you ever heard a dying bullfrog?” Hannah couldn’t resist asking.

“Of course not. I was just hypothesizing, dear. In any event, I’m fairly certain that Michelle inherited her vocal talents from me.”

I hope not!
Hannah thought, remembering the night her mother and Carrie had entered a Karaoke contest. “Is Michelle part of a group?”

“No, she’s doing a song and dance number from a musical that a Macalester graduate wrote. It’s never been performed before.”

“That’s great,” Hannah said, hoping that Michelle’s number would be a huge success. “I can hardly wait to see it.”

“So will you please follow me out to the college, dear? I know you’re busy and I hate to ask, but I tried calling Carrie several times this morning and she’s not answering her phone.”

Maybe she’s still with Mr. Suede Boots
, Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it. There would be plenty of time to tell her mother about Carrie’s romance once they learned the identity of the man she was dating.

“And take some chocolate cookies, will you, dear? Nancy might need the endorphins.”

It only took a moment to scoop up a half-dozen Chocolate Highlander Cookie Bars and stack them in one of The Cookie Jar’s distinctive carryout bags. Then Hannah grabbed her parka, told Lisa she’d be back just as soon as she could, and headed out to her cookie truck to follow her mother.

It was snowing lightly as Hannah turned onto the highway behind her mother’s car. Delores immediately increased her speed, widening the distance between them exponentially, and forcing Hannah to tromp on her accelerator just to keep up. What in the world had gotten into her mother? Delores was usually a careful driver who prided herself on the fact she’d never been in an accident, but that claim could change today. Hannah watched, open-mouthed, as her mother fairly flew down the roadway like a winged rodent emerging from eternal damnation.

There was nothing to do except follow and pick up the pieces if something happened. Hannah pushed her cookie truck to the max and hoped that she wouldn’t get a speeding ticket in her effort to keep her mother in sight.

“Uh-oh!” she groaned, watching helplessly as Delores swerved on a patch of ice. Her father had done most of the driving in bad weather. Did Delores know how to steer out of a skid? Hannah had her answer several heart-pounding seconds later when the heavy sedan Hannah’s father had bought only six months before he died stabilized and resumed a normal course. Hannah managed to avoid that very same patch of ice, and she hoped that her mother’s reaction time was keen this morning. Delores was weaving in and out of traffic, kicking up the light coat of powdered snow that covered the asphalt and sending it airborne to shower against Hannah’s windshield.

There was no way Hannah was going to risk life and limb to keep up with her mother. She slowed to a comfortable pace and made her way to the college, turning in at the parking lot just in time to see her mother exiting her car.

“Wait up!” she called out, pulling into the space next to her mother’s car and jumping out. “Why the big hurry? You took some chances out there on the highway.”

To Delores’s credit, she looked quite contrite. “I know,” she said. “I shouldn’t have driven so fast. It’s just that I was worried about how Nancy would take the news, and I wanted to be the one to tell her.”

Hannah reached in to grab the cookies, locked her truck, and scurried to catch up with her mother. “Why were you so worried about Nancy? Does she know Larry Jaeger?”

“Oh, my yes! You’ve heard her radio program, haven’t you?”

“A few times, yes. I don’t usually listen to talk radio, but she has some good advice to give.”

Delores pulled open the door to Stewart Hall and they stepped inside. She took a moment to take off her gloves and slip them inside her pocket. “You must have heard her mention the Lunatic. She talks about him on almost every show.”

“The Lunatic,” Hannah said with a smile. “The worst husband a girl ever had. He taught Dr. Love everything she knows about what a husband should never do in a marriage.”

“That’s right.”

“She’s really funny when she talks about him.” Hannah recalled several instances when she’d laughed out loud over the stories Dr. Love told on the air. “He’s her ex-husband, isn’t he?”

“He
was
her ex-husband.”

It didn’t take Hannah more than the time it took to take three steps to draw the obvious conclusion. She stopped cold and grabbed her mother’s arm. “Don’t tell me that the Lunatic is…”

“Lunatic Larry Jaeger,” Delores confirmed it. “And that’s why I want to be the first one to tell her.”