Devil's Food Cake Murder (20 page)

“I thought you looked different,” Norman said. “Your hair’s beautiful, Alice. Whatever a weave is, it looks good on you.”

Alice laughed. “Thanks! I wouldn’t expect a man to know what it is. Matthew noticed it, though. I know he did. He called me and invited me to to dinner on Monday night. I was excited about going out with him again. I was even going to go down to Claire’s on Monday morning and buy another new dress. But then …” she stopped and blinked several times. “Then I heard the news on KCOW radio and Jake and Kelly said that Matthew was dead.”

“Thanks for driving, Norman.” Hannah said as she slid into the passenger seat. “I’ve got to make some notes.”

Norman glanced over at her as he started the car. “You’re adding Alice to the suspect page?”

“Yes, but just so that I can cross her out. You don’t kill your high school boyfriend when he’s just asked you to go out with him again.”

“I don’t get it.” Norman pulled away from the curb and out into the street.

“What don’t you get?”

“Why you wrote down Alice’s name when you already knew you were going to cross her out.”

“It’s simple. It gives me a record of who I interviewed and why. Alice no longer has a motive, but she did until Matthew asked her to go out for dinner. And that reminds me. Do you have your cell phone handy?”

“Of course. Who do you want to call?”

“Sally. I want to see if Matthew made a reservation for Monday night. If he did, that’ll substantiate Alice’s story.”

“You think she’s lying?”

“No, but if Alice did kill Reverend Matthew, it would be a great cover-up, wouldn’t it?”

RASPBERRY VINEGAR COOKIES

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

1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, 1/2 pound) salted butter, softened

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

1 teaspoon raspberry vinegar***

1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon rum extract****

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup and level it off)

1 cup chopped pecans (measure after chopping)

*** - If you can’t find raspberry vinegar in your store, you can use any fruit flavored vinegar or just plain old white vinegar. The vinegar is there to react with the baking soda, so any kind will do. I would caution against Balsamic. It has a heavy flavor that might not be good in these cookies. Then again, I haven’t tried it. It could be wonderful.

**** - If you don’t want to use rum extract, use any other flavor of extract you like, including vanilla.

Combine the softened butter and the sugar. Mix them until they’re light and fluffy. (You can do this with an electric mixer if you like.)

Add the raspberry vinegar and mix it in.

Add the baking soda and mix that in.

Add the rum extract and mix it in.

Add the cup and a half of all-purpose flour. Mix thoroughly.

Mix in the chopped pecans.

Drop by spoonfuls on a greased (I sprayed mine with Pam) baking sheet, 12 cookie mounds to a sheet. (Lisa and I used a 2-teaspoon scooper down at The Cookie Jar.)

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 18 to 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on top.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Store these cookies in a cookie jar or an air-tight container so that they remain moist and soft.

Hannah’s Note: These cookies remind me of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, except they’re better. If you’d like to experiment with them, try adding mini chocolate chips to a batch, or pressing a chocolate candy into the center of each cookie before you bake it.

Yield: approximately 3 and 1/2 dozen to 4 dozen sweet and buttery cookies, depending on cookie size.

Eden Lake was pretty in the winter. Actually, Eden Lake was pretty at any time of the year. During the spring, the water looked fresh and clear, surrounded by trees sprouting tiny new leaves in vivid green, and wildflowers gracing the banks. There were yellow and purple irises that someone had planted years ago, and white flowers called bloodroot that would stain your hands red if you snapped off the stems to pick them. Violets in pink and yellow nestled at the edges of the wooded hollows, and there were pussy willows with furry gray flowers called catkins. When Hannah was a child, she’d hoped that if she left them in water long enough, they’d turn into little cats. If you were very lucky in the spring and you had sharp eyes, you might catch a glimpse of a rare showy lady’s slipper, the Minnesota state flower, protected by law, and hidden in the damp, dark depths of the woods.

Summer was beautiful, too, bringing blooms to the area surrounding the lake. There were gypsy flowers along the sides of the gravel road that circled the shoreline, their small red blooms on the very ends of their stalks, waving at you with pretty little flags as you drove by. Gray-headed cornflowers vied for attention with their bright yellow blooms around dark gray centers. Field thistle joined them in the sunny areas, their blooms spotting the wild grasses with pink and purple color.

Then there was the lake, itself. The sparkling water was dotted with white and yellow water lilies, and yellow lotus. Norman had shown her one quiet inlet containing a veritable garden of aquatic color that someone had planted there years ago. The surface of the lake created a waving reflection of the trees and sky, and the sunsets were simply spectacular with their vivid oranges, pinks, and reds mirrored in the gently rippling waters.

Fall brought another kind of beauty to Eden Lake. Cattails thrived on the shoreline and in the shallow areas of the lake, standing tall in the autumn breezes. Bulrushes sported brownish flowers on the ends of their stems. Field thistle was still blooming. It would continue until cold weather set in, and heath aster with its white and yellow flowers bloomed on the dry hillsides. The water took on a greenish cast from the algae that multiplied in the last hot months of summer, and long-legged cranes patrolled the banks. Canada geese flew overhead in ragged vees, and the deciduous trees around the lake wore orange, yellow, red, and mahogany-colored leaves.

Then winter came, and everything except the evergreens donned black and white. Trees lifted their bare twisted branches heavenward to catch the rays of feeble winter sun, and the lake was covered with snow. Today the surface of the lake was a sheet of glistening white, unbroken but for the hillocks of snow formed by the wind. The glare was almost blinding, and Hannah looked down at her notebook again to rest her eyes. Hugh Kohler lived in the fourth cabin past the huge oak tree with a yellow Minnesota Breeder’s sign nailed to its trunk. It was a faded blue cabin, and someone had propped up the sagging front porch with cinderblocks.

“There’s the tree Doc told us about,” Hannah pointed to the huge oak with a faded sign on its trunk. “Hugh’s cabin is the fourth one on our right. It’s blue.”

Norman drove carefully, and Hannah was glad. The snow had blown across the gravel road in drifts that almost reached the hubcaps, and this was no place to get stuck! She hadn’t seen any cell phone transponders since they’d left the main road and not many people wintered at the lake. If they got hung up in a snowdrift and Hugh Kohler wasn’t home, they’d have to hike out to the road to get help.

“That’s it,” Hannah said as she spotted a faded blue cabin. “It’s the one with the moose antlers over the door.”

Norman took one look at the driveway and shook his head. “I don’t want to risk pulling in. Unless that’s a really short mailbox, the snow’s a lot deeper in the driveway.”

“That’s okay. I’m wearing my boots. How about you?”

“I’ve got mine in the back seat. They’re on the floor behind my seat. Can you reach them?”

Hannah reached back, retrieved the boots, and Norman pulled them on. Then she got out of the car and walked toward the house. Norman had been right. The snow was a lot deeper in the driveway, and Hannah was glad that they hadn’t attempted to drive up. It took a while to wade through the knee-deep drifts, but they managed to get to the door.

Norman knocked and Hannah pasted a smile on her face. She still wasn’t sure what questions to ask to determine whether Hugh was guilty or innocent, and she just hoped she could come up with something before the door opened.

A split second later, the door opened and Norman and Hannah blinked in shock as they found themselves staring down the twin barrels of a double-barreled shotgun.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Hugh said, “It’s just that it’s pretty isolated out here, and they still haven’t caught that murderer who escaped from Stillwater last week. I was listening to Jake and Kelly on the news this morning, and someone reported that they’d seen him around here.”

“That’s okay. No harm done,” Norman told him.

“I’m kind of helpless, you know? Being in this wheelchair and all. I’ve got the phone, but the lines are down and my truck won’t start.”

“If you need a ride to town, we can take you,” Hannah offered. “What’s wrong with your truck?”

“The battery gave out on Sunday and I’m the only one around for miles. I’m just lucky I made it back here with my supplies before it gave up the ghost.”

“Then you have enough food?” Norman asked.

“Plenty.” Hugh turned to Hannah. “It’s nice of you to offer to give me a ride, but all I really need is for someone to call the garage and ask Cyril to send out one of his mechanics with a new battery.”

“Are you sure?” Hannah asked.

“I’m sure. I can stand up and even walk a little with a walker. It’s just that I’m not supposed to put a strain on my back.”

“That must make it tough to cook for yourself,” Norman commented.

“Not really. I’m all set up here. I eat a lot of sandwiches and I’ve got the microwave on a table I can reach from the wheelchair. Soup and a sandwich is a pretty good meal.”

“Well, I brought you cookies.” Hannah held out the bag of cookies she’d packed for Hugh.

“Hey! That’s nice of you. What brings you all the way out here, anyway?”

“Church work,” Norman said before Hannah could open her mouth. “We heard you were injured, and we wanted to make sure you had everything you needed.”

“Well, you sure came at the right time! Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. You’re not going to pray over me, or try to save me, or anything like that, are you?”

Norman shook his head. “It’s not that kind of church work.”

“We’ve got more visits to make, so we’d better go,” Hannah said, getting to her feet.

“Right. And don’t worry about a thing,” Norman added. “We’ll call Cyril and tell him what you need.”

When the door closed behind them, Hannah gave a huge sigh of relief. She waited until they’d waded several feet from the house, and then she reached out to tap his arm.

“Church work?” she asked with a grin.

“It is church work, in a way,” Norman said.

“Just how do you figure that?”

“We’re trying to solve Reverend Matthew’s murder, and it happened in the church office. If that’s not church work, I don’t know what is.”

“Ill help you bake,” Norman offered when they got back to The Cookie Jar.

“Okay, but do you really want to bake?”

“Yes. Ever since you showed me how easy it was to make popovers, I like to bake. I think I could be good at it if I follow your recipes.”

Hannah smiled. That was a compliment, and it deserved her acknowledgment. “How about starting with brownies?”

“That’s a great place to start! Is it okay if I make your Brownies Plus? They’re delicious.”

“That’s fine with me.” Hannah flipped through her sheet-protected recipe book and turned to Brownies Plus. “I think I have some Symphony bars in the pantry. Everybody loves those in the middle layer.”

Once she’d gotten Norman started with her standard-size bowl and pan, Hannah turned to the next recipe on her list. It was another bar cookie, and she couldn’t think of a single customer who didn’t like it.

“What are you making?” Norman asked her.

“Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars.”

“What are they?”

“Six-layer cookie bars with chocolate cookie crumbs on the bottom, semi-sweet chocolate chips next, miniature marshmallows on top of that, white chocolate chips sprinkled on the marshmallows, chocolate cereal layered on top with some milk chocolate chips over everything.”

“Wow! That’s a chocolate euphoria, all right!”

“You’d better believe it. I tested the recipe last week on Andrea, and she said that after eating only two, she felt like she was walking on air.”

“That’s a good testimonial.”

“Tracey’s is even better. She said her mother was in a good mood all day, even when she brought up the subject of a puppy again.”

“I think I should try one of those.”

“You got it. I’ll just assemble them, pop them in the oven, and we can try them when they’ve baked and cooled. And then I’ll help you with the Brownies Plus if you need it.”

Hannah grabbed the ingredients and several pans, and made short work of assembling the cookie bars. She put them into the oven, set the timer for twenty-five minutes, and turned to see how Norman was coming along.

“Done,” Norman said, gesturing toward his pan of brownies.

“You’re fast,” Hannah complimented him. “You finished at the same time I did.”

“But you made four pans and I only made one.”

“That doesn’t matter. I’ve been doing this at least four times longer than …” Hannah stopped speaking as Marge came into the kitchen with two empty cookie jars. “You need more cookies?”

“Yes. Everyone loves Lisa’s story. A couple of people have been here twice, and new people are coming in the door in droves.”

“What’s a drove, anyway?” Norman asked Hannah.

“Cowboys who went on cattle drives to take livestock to market were known as drovers,” Hannah told him. “I guess that means that the droves were herds of cattle.”

“Makes sense to me.”

Marge filled the cookie jars from the cookies on the baker’s racks and headed back out to the coffee shop. “I don’t want to miss this part,” she said. “It’s my favorite. Lisa’s really good today. Do you want me to stuff a dishtowel in the door so you can hear?”