Peach Cobbler Murder (15 page)

“Right after dessert,” Hannah said, recalling precisely when she’d left. “I noticed because I was paying particular attention to Mother’s table.”

“Why?”

“Because Mother was with Winthrop, and I hoped the wedding wouldn’t give either one of them ideas.”

“Oh.” Lisa gave an understanding nod. “Well, Gloria was there for dinner, because she came in early. Since none of the other Pretty Girl executives are arriving until this afternoon, Sally asked if Gloria could attend the wedding.”

“And you said, That’s fine with us. What’s one more when practically the whole town is coming?”

Lisa laughing. “That’s exactly what I said! And it was fine with us, but we certainly didn’t expect Gloria to give us a gift.”

“You said it was an incredible gift?”

“And how! Gloria gave us a certificate for a champagne brunch for twelve at the Lake Eden Inn, paid in advance and redeemable any time we want to book it.”

“Wow!” Hannah breathed, sounding a lot like Moishe when she opened the broom closet door and he caught a glimpse of the mother lode of kitty crunchies.

“That’s exactly what Herb said when we opened the card. We never expected something that wonderful from someone we just met.” Lisa glanced up at the clock and frowned. “Enough about the wedding. We’ve still got five minutes. Tell me everything that happened last night and make it fast.”

Hannah spent the morning answering question with her stock phrase, Sorry, I can’t talk about it, but the sheriff’s department should be holding a press conference any minute now. Finally, when Lisa asked her for the third time if she wanted a lunch break, Hannah said yes and went home to fulfill the obligation she’d made to Carrie and Norman.

It was ten minutes past noon when Hannah and her loudly protesting feline passenger pulled up in front of the Rhodes family home. “I’m just going to check to make sure Carrie’s here,’ Hannah said, although she doubted Moishe could hear her over his yowls. “I’ll be right back.”

Hannah hurried up the freshly shoveled walkway and rang the front doorbell. It was answered almost immediately, but hot by the person she’d expected.

“Hi, Norman.” Hannah gave him a big smile. “I thought your mother would be here.”

“They got really busy at Granny’s Attic, and she recruited me.”

“Excuse me?”

“They got really busy at Granny’s Attic, and recruited me. I don’t have another appointment until one.”

“Sorry, I still can’t hear you.” Hannah frowned, wondering whether Moishe’s yowling had permanently damaged her eardrums. But then she remember the precautions she’d taken before she’d left the condo. “Hold on a second, Norman. I forgot I was wearing earplugs.”

Hannah removed the small pliable ear protectors Herb had given her the last time she’d gone to see Lisa compete in a Cowboy Shoot. Lisa had come in second after missing only two targets shaped like bank robbers, and nailing every one of the cattle rustler targets.

“That’s better,” Hannah said as she could suddenly hear again. Winter birds were twittering in the trees and traffic whooshed in the distance. “So you’re here instead of your mother because . . . ?”

“They go really busy at Granny’s Attic, and Mother recruited me. A couple of decorators drove up from The Cities and they wanted to know the provenance on everything. Luanne was looking things up on the computer, and the mothers were showing the decorators around the store.”

“Sounds like a golden opportunity,” Hannah said, remembering how her mother and Carrie had worked to attract decorators from Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“So, where’s the rodent eradicator?”

“In the car. I’ll go get him.”

“I’ll carry him,” Norman offered, dashing out to the curb with her. They cold hear yowling as they approached Hannah’s cookie truck, but the yowls ceased and turned to purrs the moment Hannah opened the door and Moishe caught sight of Norman.

“Good heavens!” Hannah exclaimed, staring at Norman in shock. ‘He’s obviously crazy about you.”

“He knows what I’ve got for him.”

“The shrimp?”

“That’s from Mother,” Norman said, lifting the carrier and holding it while Hannah secured the truck. “I’ve got something else I bought for him this morning.”

“What?”

“I’ll show you after the massacre,” Norman promised, leading the way to the front door. He carried Moishe down the hall to the guest bedroom and set the carrier down on the rug in front of the door. “The last time Mother saw the mouse, it was in here.”

“There must be something about guest bedrooms that attracts them. That’s where Mother’s mouse is.”

“Is?”

“Uh-oh,” Hannah breathed, darting a glance at Norman. The less people who knew the better, but surely Norman could be trusted to keep the secret.

“Moishe didn’t catch your mother’s mouse?” Norman guessed.

“No. I mean, yes.” Hannah stopped, realizing that her answer was confusing. “Let me start over. Moishe did not catch Mother’s mouse.”

“But according to my mother, you told your mother that he did.”

Hannah shook her head. “Not exactly. That was an assumption on Mother’s part, and I didn’t bother to correct it. What I told her was that she didn’t have to worry about her mouse any longer. What I didn’t have to worry about her door to the guest room open, and I was hoping that just seeing Moishe scared her mouse away.”

“So Moishe didn’t kill it?”

Hannah pictured her cat in sphinx position, merely watching the mouse. “Are you kidding? He didn’t even get close enough to breathe on it!”

“That’s a relief,” Norman said, reaching out to tickle Moishe’s nose through the grate. “I thought I got over being squeamish in dental school, but I really wasn’t looking forward to watching him hunt.”

DOLL FACE COOKIES

Preheat oven to375 degrees F., rack in the middle position. (THESE COOKIES HAVE NO EGGS)

½ cup melted butter (1 stick) 1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed ½ cup molasses*
1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon leman juice ½ cup milk 2 ½ cups flour (no need to sift)

1 cup (approximately) golden raisins, regular raisins, or currants to decorate

*
Measuring molasses will be easier if you spray your measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray before pouring it in.

Melt butter in a large microwave bowl. When the butter has cooled to room temperature, stir in the brown sugar and molasses. Add the soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix it all up. Mix in the teaspoon of lemon juice.

Add half the flour to your bowl and mix it up. Slowly pour in the milk, a little at a time, and mix as you go. Add the rest of the flour and stir until it’s thoroughly incorporated.

Drop the dough by rounded teaspoon onto UNGREASED cookie sheets, 12 to a standard-size sheet. Put three raisins on top of each cookie, two for the eyes and one for the mouth.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degrees F. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 4 to 5 dozen, depending on cookie size.

Immelda Giese, Father Coultas’s housekeeper, ordered three-dozen Doll Face Cookies for Father’s altar boys. When she came in to pick up the order, one of the cookies looked just like Sister Theresa. (She thought it did, not me!) The last I heard, Immelda was trying to talk Father Coultas into displaying the cookie in a glass case at St. Peter’s.

Once Hannah had hung her parka on a hook and stashed her purse on a convenient stool at the workstation, she headed straight for the swinging door to the coffee shop. Lisa had been holding down the fort for an hour, and she could use a break.

“I’m back,” Hannah said, stating the obvious as she ducked behind the counter to join Lisa. Their shop was crowded, but everyone seemed to be contentedly munching and sipping at the moment.

“Did he do his sphinx act again?” Lisa asked, and when Hannah nodded, she laughed. “Moishe’s really a character.”

“That’s true. And now he’s a quite character.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mentioned how loudly Moishe yowled when he had to ride in the truck, and Norman bought him a harness and a leash. He thought Moishe wouldn’t mind the ride so much if he didn’t have to be cooped up in his crate.”

“And it worked?”

“Like a charm! Norman put on the harness and attached the leash to a hook in the back, so he wouldn’t jump up in the front and distract me. That left Moishe free to roam around in the back, and I didn’t hear a peep out of him all the way back to the condo.”

“That’s wonderful. But I didn’t know they made harnesses and leashes for cats.”

“I don’t think they do, at least not cats. Moishe’s size. Norman bought a small dog harness at CostMart and it had a picture of a miniature schnauzer on the tag. The thing that amazes me most of all is that Moishe let Norman buckle him in.”

“That must have been a struggle.”

“Not at all. Norman held up the harness, told Moishe that he’d look like a lean, mean, killing machine if he wore it, and Moishe just stood there while Norman put it on him.”

“Could Mike have gotten him in the harness?”

Hannah was surprised at the question, but it was intriguing and she thought it over. “I don’t think so, not without excessive force, or maybe a tranquilizing gun. Why?”

“You should marry Norman. Your cat has spoken.”

Hannah gave a snort of laughter and several customers at the counter swiveled to look at her curiously. “Sorry, just a little baking humor,” she said to them, and quickly assumed a properly sober expression. It wouldn’t do to be too jocular when her competition had just been shot out of the water, so to speak.

“I know I shouldn’t give you advice,” Lisa went on, “but Norman’s reliable and Mike’s not. Just think about what happened last night.”

“You’re right. And I have thought about it. I thought about it during the reception while I waited for him to show up. And then I thought about it later, when he told me that he called Shawna Lee a bunch of times to find out if she was all right. He called her, but he didn’t bother to call me to tell me he wasn’t coming. When I first started dating him, he was different. When he said he’d pick me up at seven, he picked me up at seven. And if something happened to delay him, he called to tell me. But since she moved up here from . . . “ Hannah stopped speaking as Lisa made a cutting motion in front of her throat.

“Hi, Mike,” Lisa called out, smiling politely.

Hannah swiveled around and by the time she faced Mike, she’d put on an exact duplicate of the smile Lisa was wearing. How much had he overheard? Enough to guess that she’d been talking about him? And did it really matter since everything she’d said was true?

“I need to ask you some questions, Hannah. Is the kitchen okay.”

“I guess,” Hannah said. When a policeman said to do something, you said “Yes, sir” and did it. At least that was what her first grade teacher, Mrs. Chambers, had taught them. What she hadn’t taught them as what to do when you were dating that policeman, you were ass mad as blazes at him, and you didn’t really want to be alone with him.

When she came around the corner of the counter, Mike put his arm around her shoulders and herded her toward the kitchen door. Hannah swallowed hard and tried not to think about how good it felt to be this close to him. Instead, she reminded herself that he’d stood her up and left her without a date for Lisa and Herb’s wedding and reception.

Mike’s arm slipped down to her waist when they entered the kitchen. By the time they’d crossed the floor to the island workstation, Hannah was a bit breathless, but she’d be darned if she’d let Mike know that. “Coffee?” she asked, proud that her voice didn’t quaver.

“Sure. I really don’t have any questions. I just wanted to talk to you alone.”

“Oh?” Hannah managed to keep her hand steady as she set a steaming mug of coffee in front of the man who had many faults, none of which she could name at the moment.

“I came to apologize. I should have called you out at the reception and told you I didn’t think I could make it. I’m really sorry I messed up.”

Hannah busied herself pouring another cup of coffee, even though she didn’t really want it. It was a way of preventing her from saying That’s okay. I understand. It wasn’t okay to make a date and not keep it. She had to let him know that.

“I really wanted to be there with you,” Mike went on speaking when she didn’t respond, “but there was this problem I had to settle with Shawna Lee. She was under the mistaken impression that I cared for her more than I did.”

I wonder what gave her that impression? Hannah clamped her lips shut so she wouldn’t say anything, but her mind formed the words she wished she could say. Did it have anything to do with the fact your Hummer was parked outside her bakery overnight?

“I guess I felt responsible for her, because I was the reason she moved here. All I did is talk to her on the phone and tell her how nice Lake Eden was and the first thing I knew, she was here applying for a job. Then, when she got it, I wanted to make sure she had a good time in Lake Eden.”

A good time? Did that mean finding her an apartment in your complex, helping her move in, and going over there to do little fix-it jobs for her all the time? Did it include taking her out for pizza when she aid she was hungry, and giving her out for rides everywhere when she said her car wouldn’t start?

“Part of the problem was she never met anybody she connected with. It was really sad. I know she put people off because she was always flirting, but that was just her way. She really didn’t mean anything by it.”

She sure had you buffaloed! Hannah thought, using one of her father’s favorite phrases. There was a moment of silence and Mike seemed to be waiting for a comment, so Hannah said the first innocuous thing that popped into her head. “Would you like a cookie?”

“No thanks. I don’t think Shawna Lee had any friends except me. that’s why I felt responsible for her.”

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Thumper’s line from Bambi flashed through Hannah’s mind, and she didn’t say anything at all Mike was miserable, but she just wasn’t in a supportive mood and there was no faking it with Hannah. He was asking the wrong person for comfort. She’d rather stand out in a blizzard in her underwear than let Mike cry on her shoulder!