Devil's Food Cake Murder (4 page)

What Hannah read was a list of jewelry. There were necklaces, brooches, tiaras, bracelets, and rings. But the item at the end of the list, the item that Andrea had been discussing with Bill, was an antique ring worth more than Hannah could fathom.

“While they were sleeping,” Andrea repeated, shivering slightly. “I hate to think of what might have happened if they’d woken up.”

Awakened, not woken up, Hannah’s mind corrected. Andrea always had trouble with that one, but this wasn’t the time to point it out to her.

“No!” Andrea sounded shocked at the next piece of information she learned from her husband. “If they hit the neighbor with their getaway car and he died, is that murder?”

That’s the felony murder rule, Hannah answered the question, but not out loud. Any unlawful homicide that occurs in the commission or attempted commission of a felony is felony murder.

“Felony murder,” Andrea echoed the answer that Hannah hadn’t spoken. “What I don’t get is why she had all that expensive jewelry spread out in her dressing room.”

Several scenarios flashed through Hannah’s mind, but what Andrea confirmed next wasn’t one of them.

“A charity event at the Walker? And she couldn’t decide which gown she wanted to wear so she took all of the jewelry out of the safe?” Andrea frowned slightly. “I guess I can understand that, but why didn’t she lock up what she didn’t wear before they left the house? Or at least lock everything up when she got home?”

Hannah reached out to feel Andrea’s coffee cup. It was stone cold. She picked it up, carried it to the sink to dump it out, and refilled it with fresh hot coffee.

“She thought he put it back in the safe, and he thought she did,” Andrea said with a snort. “That’s a pretty lame excuse, but I know it happens. Remember when I thought you put on the coffee, and you thought I put on the coffee, and when we came downstairs in the morning there wasn’t any? And since we were late, there wasn’t time to make it and we had to leave for work without coffee?”

Hannah shuddered at the thought. No coffee in the morning was about the worst thing she could imagine. There was no way she could get along in the morning without coffee. If she didn’t have a minimum of one cup before she stepped into the shower, she’d probably fall asleep and drown!

“You want me to keep my eye out for the missing jewelry here in Lake Eden?” Andrea said incredulously. “Bill…honey…that’s ridiculous! Why would it wind up here? We don’t have any pawnshops, and even if we did, they wouldn’t buy expensive jewelry like that. And I can practically guarantee that the burglars aren’t going to stand on the corner in front of Hal and Rose’s Cafe and try to sell an antique diamond ring for thousands and thousands of dollars. People don’t have that kind of money.”

There was silence for a moment while Andrea listened. Then she said, “Okay, honey. I love you, too. See you tonight.” She clicked off her phone and dropped it into her purse. She took a sip of coffee, and then she picked up the list she’d made. “Bill wants us to keep an eye out for this stolen jewelry. The ring you heard me talk about is the most expensive piece, but they took a lot more. They’re sending him pictures, and I’ll make copies for you.”

Hannah felt like saying that people didn’t exactly get dressed to the nines to come into her coffee shop, and she was unlikely to see any antique rings worth bundles of money, but she was interested in seeing the pictures. “Maybe you’d better make copies for Mother and Carrie too, especially since that expensive ring is an antique. They can watch out for it at antique auctions.”

“Good idea.” Andrea glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. “I’d better get going. I have to pick up the girls from school.”

Hannah was surprised. Her oldest niece, Tracey, was in the first grade, but Andrea and Bill’s youngest, Bethany, had celebrated her second birthday less than two months ago. “The girls?” she asked, turning to her sister. “Isn’t Bethie too young for Kiddie Korner?”

“Much too young. Janice isn’t taking anybody under three and a half, and they’ve got to be out of diapers. But I wasn’t talking about Bethie. Lucy Dunwright is hosting her cousin’s bridal shower tonight, so Karen’s sleeping over with Tracey. Grandma McCann’s making Karen’s favorite meal, and then they’re going to watch Bambi.”

“Better stock up on the Kleenex,” Hannah warned, remembering how Andrea had cried when Bambi’s mother was killed.

“I will. I didn’t want them to watch it. They’re only six, and it’s a really sad movie. But Grandma McCann says it’s practically a rite of passage.”

A rite of passage for a six-year-old? Hannah thought that was a bit of an overstatement, but as far as she knew, no first-grader had ever been harmed by watching Bambi. “Why don’t you do a double feature?” she suggested. “Show Bambi first and follow it up with Cinderella. All the kids love that, and it has a happy ending.”

“That’s perfect! Then they won’t go to sleep thinking sad thoughts. Thanks, Hannah. You really should think about getting married and having kids of your own. You’d make such a good mother.”

Of course Hannah sent Andrea off with cookies for the kids to munch while they watched the movies. Munchies were a necessity when it came to double features, and children were always hungry for snacks. Once her sister had left with a box of mixed treats including Molasses Crackles for Tracey, Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies for Bethie and Grandma McCann, Triplet Chiplets for Karen, and Lovely Lemon Cookie Bars for Andrea, Hannah cleaned up the kitchen, removed the pans of Butterscotch Bonanza Bars from the oven when her timer sounded, sat down at the workstation with a fresh cup of coffee, and thought about what her sister had said.

Andrea had hit the nail on the head when it came to Hannah’s dilemma. She wanted children, she’d always wanted children, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to get married. And if she did decide to get married, who would it be? She had two choices for a husband. One was Mike Kingston, chief detective at the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department, and the other was Norman Rhodes, the town dentist. The way things stood right now, neither choice was perfect.

Mike wasn’t good husband material, and he was the first to admit it. He had a roving eye, and Hannah knew she’d always wonder if she was his only love. And then there was Norman, who’d been the clear choice two months ago. But things had changed and she was beginning to have doubts about him.

Hannah was well aware of the fact that she could be a single mother, but that wasn’t her cup of tea. She liked the concept of the nuclear family, and she believed that, if at all possible, children should have both a father and a mother. Extended family was even better. She wanted her children to know their grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Last year she’d almost made a choice. Spending the night at Norman’s house, the house they’d designed together for a contest, had been a huge deciding factor. It hadn’t been romance, not that night. She’d been so exhausted by chasing down leads in Ronni Ward’s murder that Norman had made a unilateral decision and informed her that he wouldn’t let her drive home. He’d given her his bedroom, and in the morning, he’d cooked an amazing breakfast for her using her favorite recipe for popovers.

In moments of levity, Hannah admitted that the breakfast might have been the part that tipped the scales in Norman’s favor. No man except the cook at the Corner Tavern had ever made breakfast for her before. And then, just as she was seriously considering accepting Norman’s standing proposal, he’d dropped the bombshell.

The incendiary device had a name, and it had first appeared at one of Delores’s brunches at the Lake Eden Inn. Its name was Doctor Beverly Thorndike, Norman’s former fiancee, and she was a perfect size three with the high cheekbones and gorgeous face of a major starlet. Norman had lobbed the grenade into their midst by introducing her as his new partner, and Hannah’s dream of a happy and secure family life as his wife had exploded like a popped soap bubble.

And now Doctor Bev, as everyone called her, was here in Lake Eden, working with Norman at the Rhodes Dental Clinic and living in an apartment at Lake Eden’s upscale apartment complex, The Oaks. She’d moved here in January, and everyone in town seemed to love her…everyone except Hannah. Even Hannah’s own niece, Tracey, thought Doctor Bev was wonderful.

As far as Hannah was concerned, the jury was still out when it came to Norman’s new partner. She had to admit that Bev was extremely nice. Too nice to Hannah’s way of thinking. This could be an accurate personality assessment on Hannah’s part, but it could also be due to the green-eyed monster that whispered warnings in Hannah’s ear about how often Norman and Bev went out to lunch or dinner together, and how their working relationship might include a lot more than sharing patients, consulting as fellow dental professionals, and filling in for each other when one of them had to be gone. And that was another point that stuck in Hannah’s craw.

Norman seemed to be clueless as far as Hannah’s feelings about Bev were concerned. This was, in itself, a worry since he’d always been perfectly attuned to her emotional state. He’d told Hannah that the only reason he’d asked Beverly to join in at the clinic was to free him up to pursue his painting. That made some kind of sense. Hannah had admired the paintings Norman had done before he’d become a dentist, and she’d encouraged him to paint again. If that was the sole reason he’d asked Bev to join him at the clinic, Hannah could accept it. But as far as she knew, in the five weeks that Bev had been at the clinic, Norman hadn’t taken any time away from his practice or painted anything at all.

“Hannah?” Lisa pushed open the swinging door between the coffee shop and the kitchen. “Bertie just called, and she wants to know if her Butterscotch Bonanza Bars are ready yet.”

“Give me a couple of minutes to cut them and they will be,” Hannah answered, doing her best to shake off her depressed mood as she headed to the counter to cut Bertie’s cookie bars. Chocolate was in order. It was impossible to remain depressed when you were eating chocolate. But chocolate had calories, and she was already more than triple Bev’s dress size. She’d have three semi-sweet chips right out of the bag and that was it.

Four chips later, Hannah felt much better. Through a supreme effort of will, she’d managed to limit herself to only one more than she’d intended to eat, and the yummy chocolate did its medicinal magic almost immediately. She carried Bertie’s order out to Lisa, and then she came back to the kitchen and turned on the laptop Bill and Andrea had given her for Christmas. Norman had a Web site for the Rhodes Dental Clinic, and some famous general, she couldn’t remember who, had advised his troops to know their enemy. She’d check Norman’s Web site and see what she could find out about Beverly Thorndike, D.D.S.

Norman had created a new section in January, the week before Beverly Thorndike, D.D.S., had joined his practice. It was called Meet Doctor Bev.

Hannah read the section with great interest. It was filled with get-to-know-you questions, the type you’d ask on a blind date. Doctor Bev had been born in Minneapolis, gone to high school in Edina, attended college in Michigan, and received her dental degree in Seattle, where Norman had met her. Her favorite movie was Titanic, her music of choice was classical, and her preferred cuisine was Mexican. In her spare time she loved to go dancing, see movies, and read. She had an extensive stamp collection, she liked to play tennis, and her favorite color was beige.

Hannah gave a little laugh, right out loud. She wasn’t sure whether it was due to the lift she’d gotten from the chocolate or the fact she’d read Doctor Bev’s profile on Norman’s Web site. The reason didn’t matter. All she knew was that she felt almost lightheaded with relief. She had absolutely nothing to worry about when it came to Doctor Beverly Thorndike. There was no way Norman could possibly love a woman whose favorite color was beige!

BUTTERSCOTCH BONANZA BARS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, 1/4 pound)

2 cups light brown sugar*** (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

1 and 1/2 cups flour (scoop it up and level it off with a table knife)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

2 cups butterscotch chips (optional)

*** - If all you have in the house is dark brown sugar and the roads are icy, it’s below zero, and you really don’t feel like driving to the store, don’t despair. Measure out one cup of dark brown sugar and mix it with one cup regular white granulated sugar. Now you’ve got light brown sugar, just what’s called for in Leslie’s recipe. And remember that you can always make any type of brown sugar by mixing molasses into white granulated sugar until it’s the right color.

Hannah’s Note: Leslie says the nuts are optional, but she likes these cookie bars better with nuts. So do I, especially with walnuts. Bertie Straub wants hers with a cup of chopped pecans and 2 cups of butterscotch chips. Mother prefers these bars with 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips and no nuts, Carrie likes them with 2 cups of mini chocolate chips and a cup of chopped pecans, and Lisa prefers to make them with 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 1 cup of white chocolate chips, and 1 cup of butterscotch chips.

All this goes to show just how versatile Leslie’s recipe is. Try it first as it’s written with just the nuts. Then try any other versions that you think would be yummy.

Grease and flour a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan, or spray it with nonstick baking spray, the kind with flour added. Set it aside while you mix up the batter.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat on the stovetop, or put it in the bottom of a microwave-safe, medium-sized mixing bowl and heat it for 1 minute in the microwave on HIGH.

Add the light brown sugar to the mixing bowl with the melted butter and stir it in well.

Mix in the baking powder and the salt. Make sure they’re thoroughly incorporated.

Stir in the vanilla extract.

Mix in the beaten eggs.