Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (19 page)

CHOCOLATE OATMEAL COOKIES

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.,
rack in the middle position.

In a large bowl, mix the softened butter and the sugar until it’s fluffy.

Unwrap the squares of unsweetened chocolate and melt them in the microwave according to package directions. Add them to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.

Feel the bowl. If the mixture is cool enough, add the beaten egg, mixing until it’s thoroughly incorporated.

Mix in the baking powder and the salt.

Add the flour, mixing it in thoroughly.

Mix in the oatmeal and stir until the mixture is completely blended.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased
(or sprayed with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray)
cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-size sheet.
(I used a 2-teaspoon scoop.)

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 13 to 15 minutes or until slightly brown.

Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nancy says that these cookies are better if they are soft so don’t over-bake them. If you store them in a cookie jar and they get too hard, use Grandma Ingrid’s trick of adding an orange peel or slice of apple to the cookie jar to soften them up.

Yield: Makes about 3 dozen chewy, chocolaty cookies.

Nancy’s Note: If you don’t have the squares of unsweetened chocolate in your pantry, you can substitute 3 Tablespoons of cocoa and 1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening for each square of chocolate needed. Just blend in the shortening with the butter and add the cocoa with the flour.

H
annah spotted Lydia Gradin the moment she walked through the door at Lake Eden First Mercantile Bank. Lydia was hard to miss. Her hair was streaked with bright purple and she was wearing shiny purple leather pants and a matching midriff-hugging top that might have looked stunning on one of Jordan’s High’s cheerleaders, but did nothing to enhance the appearance of a much older, much less shapely woman.

As she gave a wave and settled down in a chair in the lobby to wait until Lydia was free, Hannah wondered, not for the first time, why Lydia felt the need to dress like a teenager. There was no doubt she did so intentionally. Delores had mentioned she’d seen Lydia coming out of
Umpteen
, a clothing shop in the mall that specialized exclusively in teenage fashions. Hannah’s mother and Lydia had been classmates multiple decades ago, and that meant Lydia had to be
Umpteen
’s oldest customer. Was this a case of arrested development? An effort to stop the clock at a happier time in her life? Or just wishful thinking?

Lydia finished with her customer and she motioned to Hannah. As Hannah approached the private cubicles the tellers manned for their customers, she noticed that the purple streaks in Lydia’s dark hair actually looked good. Hannah usually avoided making any comment at all about Lydia’s appearance, heeding the words of Thumper in
Bambi
when the young rabbit repeated his father’s advice,
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.
This time, though, Hannah had something nice to say. “Your hair looks good, Lydia,” she said, sitting down in one of the two cushioned chairs in front of Lydia’s desk.

“Thanks, Hannah!” Lydia looked quite surprised. “You don’t mind the purple?”

“I think it goes really well with your natural hair color,” Hannah said, hoping that the rest of Lydia’s hair
was
her natural color.

“I’ll tell my niece. She spends hours picking out my clothes and trying out new hairstyles on me. She wants to be a beautician when she graduates from high school.”

Hannah gave a fleeting thought to Tracey and Bethie, and decided that an aunt’s love should stop short of outlandish. There was no way she’d let either Tracey or Bethie near her with fashion advice or a bottle of purple hair dye.

“What can I do for you, Hannah?” Lydia asked.

“It’s what I can do for you,” Hannah countered, placing the box on the desktop. “They’re Chocolate Raspberry Truffles.”

Lydia gave what could only be described as a little whimper. “Chocolate Raspberry Truffles. What could be more wonderful? This is really sweet of you, Hannah. How did you know that my birthday’s tomorrow?”

Hannah managed to keep the surprise off her face. “There are no secrets in Lake Eden,” she said, smiling sweetly. “Happy early birthday, Lydia. Why don’t you have a truffle now? They’re something new and I’d love to know what you think of them.”

Lydia opened the box and reached in daintily for a truffle. She took a bite, gave another little groan of pleasure and smiled. Then she popped the other half of the truffle into her mouth and closed her eyes in bliss. “Perfect,” she said.

“Oh, good. Do you think we should sell them at The Cookie Jar over Christmas?”

“Definitely. I’ll be first in line. Thank you for the best birthday present ever, Hannah.”

“You’re welcome.”

Lydia wiped her fingers on a tissue from the dispenser on her desk and went into customer service mode. “May I help you with any banking needs today?”

“Actually, yes.” Hannah drew out the check she’d taken back from Lisa’s deposit folder. “Lisa was a little worried about this check, so I said I’d bring it down with me. She thought the account might be closed, or something.”

Lydia glanced at the check, typed in some numbers on her keyboard, and nodded as information came up on her screen. “Lisa is correct to be concerned. This account’s not closed, but I’m glad you brought the check in today because the balance is quite low. Did you want cash, or would you like to deposit it to your business account?”

“We’ll deposit it to The Cookie Jar account.” Hannah waited while Lydia filled out the paperwork and signed where she indicated. “One more thing,” she said.

“Certainly, I’m here to help.” Lydia was all business.

“I believe we have more checks from this same person.” Hannah leaned closer. “They’re in payment for the cookies we provided.”

“I understand. Is there a problem with those checks?”

“I don’t know. I’m hoping you can tell me that. I just glanced at the deposit Lisa planned to make later today, and it seemed to me that the checks from this particular person looked different than the one I just gave you.”

“How were they different?”

“I’ve been trying to remember, but I’m just not sure. They might have been a different color, or a different number, or something like that. All I know is that they didn’t look like the check I just deposited. Could they be drawn on another account?”

Lydia tapped on her keyboard for a few seconds and then she glanced at the screen. “Yes, they could be drawn on another account.”

“Then the person has two accounts here?”

“That is correct.” Lydia reached out for another truffle and this time she popped the whole thing in her mouth. “Wonderful!” she said after she’d savored and swallowed.

“That certainly explains why the checks looked different.” Hannah brought Lydia’s attention back to Larry’s accounts. “Is there any way you can tell me if they’ll bounce if we don’t deposit them today? We’re awfully busy with the Christmas rush and all, but I don’t want anyone to close that second account or put a hold on it, or anything like that.”

“They’d have to go through legal channels to do that and it would take a few days. You’re safe, Hannah. It’s a private account and there’s only one name on the signature card.”

“But what if other people have checks drawn on the same account and they cash them? Could they clean it out before we get a chance to deposit ours?”

Lydia took another truffle and popped it into her mouth as she tapped away on the keyboard. She studied the screen and then she smiled at Hannah. “That’s extremely unlikely, Hannah. The account was opened on November first of this year. Since then there’s a record of frequent deposits, but there have been no withdrawals.”

“So we may have the only checks drawn on that account?”

“That could easily be the case. Would you say the total of the checks you hold is over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”

“No, of course not.” Hannah’s mind reeled at the prospect. There was no way she could even imagine selling enough cookies to earn a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar check.

“Then take your time about depositing those checks. I’d say you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Hannah was back in the kitchen adding what she’d learned to her murder book when Lisa came in. “Your mother’s here,” she announced.

“Great. Would you ask her to come back and have coffee with me? I’ve got something I’d like to discuss with her.”

By the time she’d poured two cups of coffee and set out a few Chocolate Raspberry Truffles for her mother to sample, Delores came in through the swinging door from the coffee shop. “Hello, dear,” she said in a cheery voice.

“Hello, Mother. You look as if you got a little rest.”

“I did. Luanne saw how tired I was and she sent me home to take a nap.”

“And you managed to get some sleep,” Hannah said, noticing that the dark smudges under her mother’s eyes were no longer visible.

“I slept for over two hours, dear. Now that I know why Carrie’s so secretive, I don’t have to worry. I know you and Norman will make sure he’s the right sort of man for her. I
do
wonder who it is, though.”

“So do I,” Hannah confessed.

“Before I forget, here’s something Luanne sent over for you,” Delores set a large envelope on the stainless steel surface of the workstation. “She said to tell you that she made copies of all the papers Courtney gave her because that’s what Miss Whiting taught them to do in accounting class. Luanne thought the papers might be useful in light of Larry’s death.”

“Great. It’s possible they will be. The more information I have about Larry and his business, the better. Thank Luanne for me, will you please?”

“Certainly.”

Hannah pushed the small dish of truffles closer so her mother could take one. “Try one of these truffles, Mother.”

Delores complied and took a dainty bite. One bite was all it took for her to finish the first and reach for a second. “The combination of raspberry and chocolate is divine, dear.”

“I’ll tell Lisa you like them. She goes to a candy exchange every year and Amy Kocias brought these. Lisa liked them so much, she asked for the recipe.”

“I’d like to take two or three with me if that’s all right, dear. Carrie and Luanne are handling Granny’s Attic for the afternoon and I need to go out to the Tri-County Mall for a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping.”

“You do?” Hannah was surprised at that news. Her mother always shopped the January sales for her Christmas presents. Because of her urging, Hannah had tried it once, but she’d placed the presents she’d purchased eleven months early in a nice, safe place and she still hadn’t found them!

“I’m getting an extra present for Michelle. She mentioned that she had to have her boots re-soled and I thought I’d buy her another pair…perhaps something a bit more feminine than the pair she’s wearing now.”

Hannah wisely held her tongue. If she argued with her mother about Michelle’s right to wear the boots she liked, Delores might focus on Hannah’s old moose-hide boots and decide her elder daughter also needed a new, more feminine pair.

“That shouldn’t take me more than an hour,” Delores continued. “And then I’m free for the rest of the afternoon. Is there any way I can help you in your investigation?”

“I’m sure there’s something,” Hannah told her, paging through her steno pad. “How about talking to Dr. Love about a possible alibi again?”

“I’d be glad to do that, but Nancy already told us she was home alone grading term papers.”

“She could still have an alibi. How about phone calls? Did she make or receive any? Did she see anyone walking by on the sidewalk between nine and nine forty-five? Does she remember a noisy truck driving past during that time period? How about a siren she heard on her street? Any of those things could prove she was home and not at the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot.”

“Very good, dear! I’ll ask all those questions and see if we can place her firmly at home and not at the murder scene.”

“That’s exactly right, Mother. Good for you! You caught on to the concept right away.”

Delores looked pleased at Hannah’s praise. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Hannah glanced down at her book again. “There
is
one more thing.”

“Anything, dear. I wouldn’t mind doing some undercover work again. I had so much fun the last time!”

“I think you could call this undercover,” Hannah said, attempting to think of a way to put a covert spin on what she was about to ask her mother to do. “I need you to question Earl Flensburg.”

“Earl? You don’t think he’s a suspect, do you?”

“He’s here on my suspect list.” Hannah tapped her notebook.

“But why?”

“When Mike and I were riding on Santa’s Magic Sleigh the night before Larry was killed, I saw someone who looked just like Earl going into Larry’s trailer with a briefcase. And when Larry talked to us earlier, he said he had a business meeting in a few minutes.”

“Earl? Going to a business meeting with a briefcase?” Delores looked as if she couldn’t believe what Hannah had just told her. “I can’t picture Earl at a business meeting, not unless one of the executives needed a car towed. And the only thing I’ve ever seen Earl carry with him is his lunch. It must have been someone else, dear…someone that merely looked like Earl.”

“Maybe. It’s something we have to check out. I thought because you went to school with Earl, you might be able to coax more information out of him than I could. I want you to be an investigator going undercover as an old friend.”

“Oh! Well…that’s intriguing, dear. I’m sure I could do it. Exactly what do you want to know?”

Hannah ticked off her concerns on her fingers. “I need to know if the man I saw that night was Earl. And if it was, I need to find out if Earl was one of Larry’s investors. If Earl says he wasn’t anywhere near the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot, ask him about any lookalike cousins that live around here.”

“Lookalike cousins,” Delores sounded excited at the prospect of identifying Flensburg progeny that resembled Earl. “That’s an excellent suggestion, dear. Earl’s father was a twin, and if I’m not mistaken, he married Earl’s mother’s sister. If they had children and they’re still in the area, they could resemble Earl.”

“So you’ll ask him?”

“Yes, indeed.” Delores thought for a moment. “I think I’ll ask Earl where he was at the time of the murder.”

“You think Earl killed Larry?” Hannah was shocked. Earl Flensburg was one of her mother’s oldest friends.

“Of course not, but we should alibi him anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“It should be easy for me to find out. Earl never could lie to me. When I asked him if he drew that awful picture of our sixth grade teacher on the blackboard, he admitted that he was the guilty party.”

“Did you tell on him?” Hannah asked, not even noticing that she’d slipped back to grade school vernacular.

“Of course not! I didn’t tell a soul.”

“Because Earl’s friendship was important to you?”

“Yes, but not entirely. To tell the truth, I couldn’t stand our sixth grade teacher either.”