Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (14 page)

“
O
kay, Mother. I’ll come out there right after I feed Moishe,” Hannah said, glancing down at the cat who was rubbing up against her ankles. “Is there anything I should bring? I could stop at The Cookie Jar and pick up something.”

“No, dear. Barbara can’t have solid food yet. Norman said he was going to work on her bridge this afternoon and he told Doc that he’d bring it out to the hospital tomorrow. If her mouth has healed enough, he’ll put it in and then she’ll be able to eat soft food.”

“That’s good news,” Hannah responded even though she wondered if Norman had gone back to the dental clinic to work on Barbara’s bridge after his lunch with Doctor Bev. “I made a double batch of Mom’s Bran Muffins yesterday and it made six dozen. Would you like me to bring some out to you and Doc?”

“I don’t care for bran, dear, but Doc is always looking for good bran recipes for his senior patients. The only bran muffins I’ve ever liked were Great-Grandma Elsa’s.”

“That’s what these are.”

“But you said they were
Mom’s
Bran Muffins.”

“That’s what it says on the recipe, but Grandma Ingrid must have written it down. The recipe was on the back of a gas bill that’s addressed to Grandma and Grandpa Swensen.”

“Oh, my goodness! I hope they paid it!” Delores exclaimed.

“They paid it, Mother. It’s stamped
Paid in Full
.”

“That’s a relief. What time will you be here, dear?” Hannah glanced up at the apple-shaped clock on her kitchen wall and mentally calculated the time it would take her to feed Moishe, change clothes, and drive out to the hospital. “You can tell Doc Knight I’ll be there within the hour. And I’ll bring enough muffins for both of you.”

Once she’d hung up the phone, Hannah gave a little sigh. She’d been home less than thirty minutes when the phone had rung. Of course she’d thought about not answering, but there was something about a ringing phone that was too compelling to deny. She’d picked up the receiver, said hello, and heard the request from her mother. It seemed that Barbara was extremely agitated today and she wanted to see Hannah.

“Hold on, Moishe. I’ll get your food in just a minute,” she told the cat, whose rubs against her ankles had turned into head butts that demanded attention. There was still a little kitty kibble in his bowl from his breakfast, but that wouldn’t satisfy him for long. Moishe knew from past experience that there would be better, more interesting food coming with dinner.

“Salmon or tuna?” Hannah asked him, taking two cans of gourmet cat food out of the cupboard.

“Rrrrroow!”

“Of course,” Hannah said with a smile. “I should have guessed. You had tuna last night so tonight you want salmon. How about a couple of salad shrimp thrown in for good measure?

“Rrrrrrrrow!”

The response was more prolonged this time and Hannah laughed. People claimed that cats didn’t understand human language, but she’d swear in a court of law that Moishe knew at least eight words. His tail flicked at the very end whenever she uttered the words
shrimp
,
chicken
,
bacon
,
tuna
,
salmon
, and the generic
fish
. There were also several non-food-related words that garnered a physical response.
Cuddles
was one. Norman’s cat was his favorite friend and his ears perked up every time he heard her name. The other, most evocative non-food word was
Mother
. When Moishe heard Hannah greet her mother on the phone, he bristled and puffed up like a Halloween cat. Hannah could understand that. They’d gotten off on the wrong foot, or perhaps she should say the wrong
leg,
from the very beginning. The first time Hannah’s mother had met Moishe, she’d tried to treat him like a cute, cuddly lap cat, and Moishe had taken offense at the baby talk and the attempt to pick him up. Such behavior was an assault to his dignity and Moishe had made that perfectly clear.

To Hannah’s relief, the relationship between her mother and her cat was non-violent now. Since those first few meetings with the shredded hose, Moishe and Delores had arrived at an uneasy truce. Whenever Delores arrived at Hannah’s condo, she was armed with treats. Moishe would sit next to her on the couch so that she could feed him his favorite fish-shaped, salmon-flavored treats, and he even permitted a pet or two, or a scratch behind the ears. Hannah wasn’t sure what would happen if her mother arrived without treats, but she wasn’t betting on feline civility without culinary bribery. Every time Delores called to say she was dropping by, Hannah had a treat jar on the chair by the door just in case her mother had forgotten.

Hannah opened the can of kitty gourmet salmon and spooned it into Moishe’s bowl, covering the picture of Garfield on the bottom. She took a bag of salad shrimp from her freezer and shook out five before she returned it to the shelf. A few seconds under running water and they had thawed enough to add to the bowl.

“Go ahead and eat, Moishe,” she said, as if there were any doubt he’d do just that. “I’m going to take a quick shower and change clothes. I have to drive out to the hospital to see Barbara.”

Moishe didn’t bother to look up. His face was buried in his food bowl. His tail flicked twice and Hannah figured that was response enough.

 

Less than twenty minutes later Hannah was in her cookie truck driving out to the hospital. As she zipped along, she considered Doctor Bev’s thinly veiled threat about Norman, and wondered whether Norman would be gullible enough to get involved with his two-time and two-timing fiancée for the third time.

“He knows what she did the last time,” Hannah said aloud as she took the turn that led around the lake to the hospital. “He wouldn’t fall for that again, would he?” Absolute silence greeted her query. Even though her window was all the way down, the cows grazing along the fence that ran past Frederick Miller’s farmland didn’t raise their heads to answer.

“Maybe he would,” Hannah said out loud, answering her own question. She hoped that wasn’t the case, but she wasn’t sure, not after the things Doctor Bev had said that afternoon. Hannah had just rounded the tight curve that was marked by the three white crosses that the Sheriff’s Department Protective League had put up to signify three speed-related fatalities when she noticed several broken branches hanging from the dogwood that lined the roadway. Someone had taken the curve too fast and mowed through the bushes that hid Miller’s Pond from view.

Hannah pulled over to the side of the road. The branches were still hanging from the dogwood and Frederick Miller was known for keeping up his property. If the accident had happened a week, or even several days ago, Frederick would have removed the broken branches. She hadn’t heard about any accident at The Cookie Jar and it would have been a topic of conversation. That meant the accident was recent and she could be the first person on the scene!

Hannah turned off the ignition and hurried out of her truck. She pushed aside the branch, stepped past the dogwood, and gazed down at the pond below. What she saw made her gasp in horror. There was a car in the bottom of Miller’s Pond!

Miller’s Pond was stream-fed and the water was much clearer than a pond without an underwater source. It was deep, at least fifteen feet, and some people might have classified it as a small lake. Even though the car was over ten feet under the water, Hannah was a strong swimmer and she knew she could dive down to it if she had to.

She made a snap decision and scrambled down the steep embankment, slipping and sliding, but luckily, not falling. If someone was still inside the car, she had to try to save them!

As she grew closer, she could see that the car was a convertible, a red convertible. And there, deep in the clear water, she saw a shape behind the wheel.

Hannah didn’t hesitate. She slid down the remainder of the embankment as fast as she could, and when she got to the edge of the pond, she kicked off her shoes. A second later, she was wading into the water.

Miller’s Pond was a favorite swimming hole for the kids from surrounding farms because it was as shallow as a bathtub for at least twenty-five feet before it deepened. This made it ideal for smaller children as a wading pool, but swimmers had to wade out quite far before the water was deep enough to swim. Hannah waded as fast as she could, splashing out with frantic determination. Finally she reached swimming depth and she swam to the center of the pond as fast as she could.

If someone had been clocking her for the Olympics, Hannah might have made the swim team. When she arrived at a point near the submerged car, she dove down into the water, and saw the car clearly for the first time.

The driver was still behind the wheel, her long blond hair waving in the current from the stream that fed Miller’s Pond.

Uh-oh!
Hannah’s mind shouted out a warning as she shot up to the surface for air.
Are you really sure you want to try to rescue her?
Hannah ignored the inference and dove down again. Yes, it was a red convertible. And yes, there was someone with blond hair behind the wheel. Her imagination had not been playing tricks on her. As she swam around to the side of the car she could see that it was a Maserati convertible and the driver was Doctor Bev!

Hannah worked as fast as she could, locating the seat belt and releasing the latch, but Doctor Bev remained in the white leather driver’s seat. Since Hannah couldn’t tell if she was dead or alive, she didn’t waste time feeling for a pulse. She just shot up to the surface for another big gulp of air and dove back down again.

There was only one thing to do and Hannah did it. She put her arms around Doctor Bev and attempted to pull her from the seat. Even though the water lent buoyancy to her efforts, that was not enough. As Hannah got under Doctor Bev and used her weight to lever her up, she realized what the term
dead weight
meant. She just hoped that it wasn’t accurate, as she muscled her rival for Norman’s affections out of the seat and pulled her up to the surface.

With one arm clasped around Doctor Bev’s chest, Hannah managed to swim with her. She knew if she dropped Doctor Bev, her rival would sink like a stone. Once she got to the shallow part of the pond, she managed to grasp Doctor Bev under both arms and drag her all the way to the shore.

Even though the prospect was almost too much to bear, Hannah immediately began resuscitation. She didn’t stop to think. She just followed the procedure she’d learned during the last class she’d taken at the sheriff’s station.

Hannah checked her waterproof watch after what seemed like an eternity. Five minutes had passed with no response. Doctor Bev was not showing any signs of breathing on her own. She started the procedure again, but after ten minutes there was no sign of life. Hannah kept at it rhythmically, fruitlessly, until a full twenty minutes had passed. Then she climbed back up the steep embankment to her truck to retrieve her cell phone.

Luckily, her phone was fully charged and she dialed Mike’s cell phone. “Mike!” she gasped when he answered his phone. “Come out to Miller’s Pond right away. And call for the paramedics. Doctor Bev was in a terrible accident and I think she’s dead!”

“
Y
ou remembered to bring these after all you’ve been through?” Delores looked completely amazed as Hannah handed her the box with Mom’s Bran Muffins.

For a moment Hannah was confused. Her mind seemed to have slowed to idle speed. It took her a minute to process her mother’s words, but then she understood what Delores was saying. “How did you know about it?”

“Doc told me when the call came in for the paramedics.”

“Oh.” Hannah steadied herself on the edge of Doc Knight’s desk. She wanted to sit down, but her clothes were wet and the chairs in front of Doc Knight’s desk were upholstered in fabric, not plastic.

“Put these on, dear,” Delores held out a package. “You have to get out of those wet clothes. You’re shivering.”

Hannah accepted the package her mother handed her. She hadn’t realized that she was cold until her mother had mentioned it. Of course maybe it wasn’t that she was cold. It could be that she was exhausted from the effort of dragging Doctor Bev out of the water. Whatever the reason, she was shivering and now her teeth were beginning to chatter.

“Go right in there and take a hot shower,” Delores ordered, pointing to Doc Knight’s bathroom. “It’ll make you feel much better. There’s shampoo, and towels, and everything you need. And throw your wet clothes in the dryer.”

“Okay,” Hannah said, not bristling at all, even though her mother was telling her what to do.

“While you’re showering, I’ll run down to the kitchen and get you a hot cup of coffee. Are you hungry?”

“No,” Hannah said even though she wasn’t sure she’d eaten recently. For some reason her mind was stalling out and it was difficult to think.

“I’ll be right back, dear,” Delores said, and then she gave Hannah a gentle shove toward the bathroom. “Go ahead.”

Hannah crossed the room even though she wasn’t sure she had the energy to take a shower. She’d stood guard over Doctor Bev’s body until Mike and Lonnie had arrived, and then she’d driven the rest of the way to the hospital. As she’d navigated the twists and turns around Eden Lake, she’d felt horribly alone. She couldn’t seem to shake the specter of sudden, unexpected death. Doctor Bev had been alive such a short while ago, zipping along the lake road in her fancy new convertible, anticipating the move to her new penthouse condo. Hannah could picture her with her blond hair streaming in the breeze, listening to her favorite music and planning out where to put the new furniture she’d chosen with Roger. She wouldn’t have had a clue that only moments later, she’d be at the bottom of Miller’s Pond, strapped in her seat, cold and dead, robbed of the riches she’d lied and schemed to get.

Hannah did her best to shake off the dark thoughts. Perhaps Delores was right and a hot shower would help. She opened the bathroom door and blinked in surprise.

The bathroom was actually a suite that consisted of three separate rooms. The first contained what you’d expect in any bathroom. There was a washbowl with a mirror over it, a medicine cabinet, and a commode. The second, much larger room looked like a well-equipped dressing room, and she thought she knew why. Since Doc Knight spent so much time at the hospital, he needed a place to shower and change into whatever clothing was required for his various duties. He would need easy access to operating scrubs, a white coat for rounds, and street clothes for his consultations with families of patients. There was a mirrored closet along one wall and Hannah suspected it was filled with Doc Knight’s various choices of clothing. The wall opposite the closet held a gleaming stainless steel washer and dryer. The moment Hannah saw them she stripped out of her wet clothing and threw it into the dryer.

As she stepped into the third room, the room that contained a glass-enclosed shower, she noticed that her mother had set out towels for her to use. That little touch, that proof of caring, made her feel cosseted and loved. The feeling grew as she turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray. Delores had known exactly what would make her feel better. It was good to have a mother.

Ten minutes later, feeling so much better she could scarcely believe it, Hannah stepped out of the shower. She retrieved the package her mother had given her with dry clothing and opened it. There were green scrubs with
Lake Eden Memorial Hospital
stenciled across the front, and they looked as if they might fit her. Hannah put on the top, stepped into the drawstring pants, and smiled. Everything fit. There was even a pair of hospital socks, the one-size-fits-all with non-skid patches on the bottom. She toweled off her hair, and dried it with the hair dryer that hung on a hook in the dressing room.

“Good enough,” Hannah said to her reflection in the mirrored closet doors. The green of the scrubs was actually a good color with her red hair. She was about to walk out of the bathroom when there was a knock on the door.

“Are you all right, dear?”

“I’m fine. I’m ready.” Hannah opened the door and stepped out.

“Sit here.” Delores pointed to one of the visitor chairs in front of Doc Knight’s desk. “I brought black coffee and sweet tea. They say that sweet tea is good for shock, but you choose.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. Normally, she didn’t drink tea. This afternoon, for some strange reason, the thought of drinking it was appealing. “I’ll take the tea,” she said.

“You
are
in shock,” Delores informed her. “You don’t like tea.”

“I know. It just sounds good.”

Delores gave a quick nod. “Shock, just as I thought. It’s the only thing that would make you drink tea.”

“I’ll drink it, but I want a black coffee chaser,” Hannah said, feeling a bit better as she sipped the hot beverage. “Of course chocolate would be better, but you don’t have any, do you?”

Delores didn’t say anything. She just went to the file cabinet next to the window and pulled out the top drawer. She took something out and turned it so that Hannah could see what it was.

“Fanny Farmer?”

“Yes. It’s my emergency stash. I think this qualifies as an emergency, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes. It’s definitely an emergency. Are they soft centers?”

“Of course.” Delores set the box between them on the desktop and took off the cover so that Hannah could see what was inside. “You know I like soft centers the best. Doc brought these in for me this morning.”

“Are they for a special occasion?” Hannah asked, her fingers hovering over a dark chocolate piece that she hoped was filled with a maple center.

“Not really. It’s just a thank you.”

“For what?” Hannah reached down and plucked the piece of candy.

“For going out to the mall with him to help him choose two new jackets. Doc has no fashion sense. If it were up to him, he’d still be wearing that awful old tweed blazer. He told me he bought that blazer when his mother was alive and she picked it out for him.”

Hannah remembered the tweed jacket. Her mother was right. It was pretty awful. “So the lack of fashion sense runs in the Knight family?”

“It seems so.” Delores swallowed the last bite of her pineapple cream dipped in milk chocolate. “Doc always tells me how lucky he is to have me.”

Hannah was silent as she reached for what she thought was a coconut cream covered with white chocolate. She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. “Where’s Doc Knight?”

“He’s still out at the scene, dear. He called me a few minutes ago. He said that you looked a bit glassy-eyed when he saw you out there and that you might be in shock.”

“Was it his idea for me to take a hot shower?”

“No, that was mine. The sweet hot tea was his idea.”

“Well, it worked. Between the shower, the tea with the coffee chaser, and the box of Fanny Farmer’s, I feel much better now.”

Delores shoved the box a little closer to Hannah’s side of the desk. “Do you think you feel well enough to go and see Barbara?”

“Not quite yet, but soon.”

“Then how about telling me what happened at the pond?” Delores asked. And then she paused and looked slightly sorry she’d asked. “But only if you feel up to it, of course,” she added.

Hannah took a milk chocolate candy and was pleased to find it had a dark chocolate center. Her mother always asked her to describe the scene of a murder, but this was a car accident. “Okay,” she said, and told her mother everything that had happened, beginning with the last time she’d seen Doctor Bev alive and how she’d barged onto the porch of the Peterson house. She told her mother the whole story, the dive into the water to try to save Doctor Bev when she’d spotted the car, her efforts to bring Doctor Bev to shore and revive her, all the way through to when she’d finally given up and called Mike at the sheriff’s station.

“Oh, my!” Delores exclaimed, giving a ladylike shiver. “This is a terrible thing to say, but since Doctor Bev was so nasty to you, it almost makes me believe in divine retribution.”

Hannah was slightly shocked. She knew that her mother loved her, but when Delores had heard some of the things that Doctor Bev had said to her on the Petersons’ front porch, Delores had jumped in to defend her eldest daughter like a mother lion defending her cub.

“This whole thing must have been awful for you dear, especially since you were the one to find her.” Delores gave a little sigh and reached out to pat Hannah’s hand. “Then again, you usually do.”

“True,” Hannah acknowledged, “and it’s never easy.”

“I know, but this must have been worse. I’m sure you wished that you could get rid of Doctor Bev once and for all. As a matter of fact, I heard you say it right before the last time she left Lake Eden. You probably wished her dead on countless occasions. And then you’re the one to find her.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. She didn’t feel at all guilty. Perhaps her mother was projecting. “I don’t think I ever wished that Doctor Bev was dead. I just wished that she would be gone for good.”

“You’re a better woman than I am,” Delores said with a sigh. “Have another chocolate, dear. You still look a little pale.”

Hannah reached for another piece of candy and realized that there were only three left. She looked up at her mother in total surprise. “Did I eat all those?”

“No. I helped.”

“I’ll buy you another box the next time I go out to the mall,” Hannah promised.

“There’s no need. Doc has several right here in the bottom drawer of his desk. He says it makes me more . . .” She paused and gave a little shrug. “I think he used the word
compliant
.”

“Oh.” Hannah said the most noncommittal thing she could think of. And then she thought,
That’s the same word I used when Norman brought me the split of Dom Perignon
.
Norman said that there wasn’t enough champagne in the world to make me compliant. But are there enough boxes of Fanny Farmer to make my mother compliant?

“Are you ready to visit Barbara now?” Delores asked. “I’ll go with you.”

“I’m ready,” Hannah replied, clamping the cover back on the box so that she wouldn’t have to see the evidence of her transgression. And then she stood up and walked out of Doc Knight’s office with her mother, making a valiant effort not to think about champagne, chocolate, and compliancy.

 

Barbara smiled when they entered the room. She was sitting up in a chair by the bed and she looked much better. She was still hooked to monitoring devices and an IV that beeped at irregular intervals, but at least she was out of bed.

“Is that your . . . daughter?” she asked.

“It’s me, Barbara. I’m Hannah. And you’re right.” She gestured toward Delores. “I’m Delores’s daughter.”

“Hello, Hannah. I didn’t know you were a nurse.”

“Hannah’s not a nurse,” Delores said. “But I can see why you thought she was. Hannah got her clothes wet and so she changed into dry clothes from the hospital before we came to see you.”

“I see. Green is a good color for you, Hannah.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said and then she exchanged looks with Delores. Barbara didn’t seem as confused today and that was good. Perhaps it was time to ask why she’d been summoned. “Mother said you wanted to see me, Barbara.”

“Yes. I was trying to remember the name of your cat and I couldn’t remember. I have trouble with names.”

“My cat’s name is Moishe.”

“Yes. Of course it is. I don’t know why I couldn’t remember. I guess my brain is still swollen. Can your Moishe be a therapy cat?”

“Therapy cat?” Hannah repeated it in the form of a question. She really didn’t understand what Barbara was asking. “Do they have therapy cats?”

“If they don’t, they should,” Barbara replied. “They have therapy dogs. One was here this morning. I don’t remember his name. It was nice to see him, but seeing a cat would be better. I miss my cat. Is somebody taking care of him? I tried, but I can’t remember the last time I fed him. When I left for school on Tuesday, we were going to have a spelling test and I might have forgotten to give him his food.”

“Don’t worry, Barbara,” Delores jumped in quickly, before Barbara could get upset. “Hannah and I will take care of it.”

“Thank you . . . Delores,” Barbara said, and both Hannah and her mother realized that it had been an effort for her to remember Delores’s name. A moment passed, and then another before Hannah broke the silence.

“Is there anything I can do for you, Barbara?” she asked, still wondering why Barbara had wanted to see her when Delores or Doc Knight could have told her Moishe’s name.

“Yes. Bring him to see me.”

“Your cat?” Delores asked her.

“Of course not. He died years ago. My mother and I had a funeral for him and he’s buried under the rhubarb bushes by the faucet in the back yard. I cried. He was a wonderful cat.”

“It’s always hard when a beloved pet dies,” Delores sympathized.

Hannah gave a sigh of relief. Barbara was back on track again. She’d realized that her childhood cat had died years ago without being reminded that it had happened. Perhaps it was only when it came to her dead father and nonexistent brother that her mind played tricks on her.