Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: Be careful about turning your slow cooker on. Some slow cookers have 3 options for heat. In one of mine, the first option is WARM, the 2nd option is LOW, and the 3rd option is HIGH. I once turned my crockpot to WARM when I really wanted it on LOW, and when I got home from work, my slow cooker meal hadn’t cooked at all and we had to call out for pizza!

  Cook your Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese for 3 and ½ to 4 hours, and then check the temperature of the contents. If the contents are at 160 degrees F. or higher, your meal is ready to eat!

  To Serve: If you wish, set out small bowls of chopped sweet onion, black olive slices, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, and more chopped green chilies. If you invite Mike, make sure to have an extra bottle of Slap Ya Mama hot sauce on the table.

  Yield: At least 8 large bowls of wonderfully hammy and tasty Mac & Cheese.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you don’t invite Mike to dinner, you’ll probably have some Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese left over. To reheat, follow the directions below:

  To Reheat in Individual Bowls: Dish up a bowl of leftovers in a microwave-safe bowl, mix in a portion of crumbled bacon (I used Hormel Real Crumbled Bacon), drizzle a bit of heavy cream (whipping cream) over the top, and microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Stir and if the contents of the bowl are not hot enough, microwave on HIGH for another 20 to 30 seconds.

  To Reheat Multiple Portions: If you have enough leftovers for an 8-inch square pan, pack the leftover Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese in the pan, mix some crumbled bacon in (I used Hormel Real Crumbled Bacon), drizzle a bit of heavy cream (whipping cream) over the top, and top it with a generous sprinkle of Progresso Bread Crumbs Italian Style. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F., and once it comes up to temperature, cover the pan with aluminum foil and place it on a cookie sheet. Heat in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, take off the foil, and heat for another 10 minutes to brown the breadcrumbs on top.

  Hannah’s 4th Note: The reason you add crumbled bacon to the leftovers when you reheat them is because if you have your guests dish up their own from the crockpot, they usually try to get as many ham pieces in their bowl as possible. This sometimes depletes the ham pieces and that’s why you add the crumbled bacon when you reheat it.

  SWEET ORANGE PIE

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

  The Crust:

  Make your favorite graham cracker or cookie crumb crust (or buy one pre-made at the grocery store—I used a shortbread crust).

  The Filling:

  6 eggs

  14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

  Zest of 2 large oranges

  ½ cup sour cream

  ½ cup frozen orange juice concentrate

  ¼ cup white (granulated) sugar

  Crack one whole egg into a medium-size mixing bowl. Separate the remaining 5 eggs, placing the 5 yolks into the mixing bowl with the whole egg. Put the egg whites in a covered bowl in the refrigerator and add them to scrambled eggs in the morning. Alternatively, you can use them to make any of the “Angel” cookie recipes in previous Hannah books.

  Whisk the whole egg and the egg yolks until they’re a uniform color. Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk. Add the orange zest and the sour cream. Stir it all up and set the bowl aside.

  Place the half-cup frozen orange juice concentrate in a bowl. Add the ¼ cup white sugar to the orange juice concentrate. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Now add the sugared orange juice concentrate to the bowl with your egg mixture and whisk it in.

  Pour the filling you just made into the graham cracker or cookie crust.

  Bake the pie at 325 degrees F. for 30 to 35 minutes.

  Remove the pie from the oven, let it cool to room temperature on a wire rack, and then refrigerate it if you wish. This pie can be served at room temperature, or chilled. It will be easier to cut and serve if it’s chilled.

  Hannah’s Note: If you want an easy way to dress up your Sweet Orange Pie, use one of the recipes for Orange Crème Fraîche that follow.

  HANNAH’S WHIPPED ORANGE CRÈME FRAÎCHE

  Hannah’s 1st Note: This will hold for several hours. Make it ahead of time and refrigerate in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.

  Ingredients:

  2 cups heavy whipping cream

  ½ cup white (granulated) sugar

  ½ teaspoon orange zest (that’s grated orange peel but just the orange part—don’t grate any of the white or it will have a bitter taste)

  ½ cup sour cream

  Whip the cream with the white (granulated) sugar until it holds a firm peak.

  To test for firm peaks, simply shut off the mixer, and “dot” the surface of the cream with a rubber spatula and then pull it up. If it forms a peak that doesn’t droop over on itself, you have firm peaks.

  Once you have firm peaks, gently fold in the orange zest and the sour cream. You can do this by hand or by using the slowest speed on the mixer. DO NOT OVERMIX!

  Cover your mixing bowl with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use the Whipped Orange Crème Fraîche.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: To make Hannah’s Whipped Orange Crème Fraîche even easier, Edna Ferguson (Jordan High’s Head Cook and the Queen of Shortcuts), came up with the following recipe:

  EDNA’S SHORTCUT WHIPPED ORANGE CRÈME FRAÎCHE

  Ingredients:

  3 cups Cool Whip (the original kind) thawed in the refrigerator

  ½ teaspoon orange zest

  ½ cup sour cream

  Measure out the 3 cups of thawed Cool Whip and place them in a mixing bowl.

  Sprinkle the half-teaspoon of orange zest over the top of the Cool Whip.

  Measure out the sour cream and add it to the mixing bowl on top of the orange zest.

  Gently fold in the sour cream. You can do this by hand or by using the slowest speed on the mixer. DO NOT OVERMIX!

  Cover your mixing bowl with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use the Shortcut Whipped Orange Crème Fraîche.

  To Serve: Place a generous dollop of Edna’s Shortcut Whipped Orange Crème Fraîche on each piece of pie that you cut and plate.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “So, how far did you get with your suspect list?” Hannah asked, sitting down across from Mike and Lonnie on the new couches.

  “Almost through,” Lonnie answered. “Mike and I did interviews all day. ”Hannah turned to Mike.

  “Did you manage to eliminate anyone?” she asked.

  Mike nodded, looking a bit disgruntled. “Everyone except one. It’ll be too late tonight, so I guess we’ll have to catch that one in the morning.”

  “Which one is left?” Norman asked, exchanging glances with Hannah.

  “Claire Knudson. Reverend Bob was holding his evening prayer service and we didn’t want to disturb them.”

  “That’s good, because you don’t have to bother,” Hannah said quickly. “You can cross all three Knudsons off your list. Andrea and I talked to Grandma Knudson and Claire today, they have alibis, and so does Reverend Bob.”

  “That’s good!” Mike said, looking very relieved. “I wasn’t looking forward to letting them know they were suspects—especially Reverend Bob. It’s pretty hard to suspect your own minister!”

  “Reverend Bob told Claire he was going to the hospital to see sick parishioners, but he actually went out to the Tri-County Mall to get a present for Claire. Tonight’s special. It’s the anniversary of when he proposed to Claire.”

  “He remembered that?” Mike looked completely amazed.

  “Well . . . not really, but he was going through his old date books and he found his notation.”

  “So he decided to surprise Claire with a present?” Norman asked.

  “That’s right. He told Grandma Knudson what he was going to do and swore her to secrecy. She had the receipts and when she told us about it, I made copies.”

  Mike gave a relieved smile. “Good! It looks l
ike the reverend is in the clear. Who else do you have on your suspect list, Hannah?”

  “There’s Andrea. Then there’s the mayor’s nephew, Bruce, the mayor’s brother, and Stephanie Bascomb’s sister.”

  “That’s right,” Lonnie told her. “We went out to see Stephanie’s sister and we interviewed her and the father. He’s house-bound for all practical purposes.”

  “Stephanie told me that she called her sister to complain about the mayor,” Hannah told them. “Did you check the phone records, Mike?”

  “Not yet,” Mike told her. “We requested them from the phone company, but the soonest they could get them to us was tomorrow afternoon.”

  “So you don’t know if Stephanie has an alibi yet?” Norman asked him.

  Mike shook his head. “Not yet. We have the window that Doc gave us for time of death, but it’s doubtful that Stephanie would have been on the phone with her sister for that long.”

  “That’s true,” Hannah admitted. “Do you suspect her of killing her husband?”

  “We have to suspect her. Everyone in Lake Eden knows that she was upset about the affairs that her husband had. And everyone knows that she punished him by making him buy her a new wardrobe and jewelry every time she found out about another woman. It’s logical to assume that she was tired of hearing his assurances that it wouldn’t happen again and decided to end her marriage to him in a very permanent way.”

  “But do you think Stephanie could have bludgeoned her husband to death?”

  “You mean . . . did she have the strength?” Lonnie asked her.

  “That’s exactly what I mean. Is Stephanie strong enough to have caused that amount of damage?”

  Mike smiled. “That’s a very nice way to put it, Hannah. And yes, she certainly is. You may not know it, but Stephanie Bascomb goes to the gym at the mall every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And she has a home gym in their garage that she uses the other days of the week. That’s when she works out with a personal trainer.”

  “So you talked to Stephanie’s personal trainer to assess her strength?” Norman asked.

  Mike nodded. “That’s exactly what we did this afternoon. And he told us that Stephanie definitely had the strength to cause that degree of damage.”

  “Were there any fingerprints on the murder weapon?” Norman asked a second question.

  “That presents a slight problem,” Mike told them. “We don’t have a murder weapon. The only thing we know is that it was a heavy, blunt object. Doc could tell that from the blood splatters at the scene.”

  Hannah shuddered slightly. “Is there anything else in Doc’s report that we don’t know about?” Hannah asked.

  “Not really, except that the mayor’s wrist was bruised and broken.”

  “And that means that the broken wrist and bruises occurred before his death,” Norman said.

  “Exactly right,” Mike agreed. “Unfortunately, we don’t know how long before his death the bruises occurred. It could have been only minutes before he suffered the blows that killed him, or . . .”

  “When Andrea slapped him and he fell backwards in his chair,” Hannah guessed.

  “That’s right,” Mike agreed.

  “There’s a lot we don’t know about this case,” Lonnie said with a sigh. “Doc can’t be sure when the bruises happened or exactly when the mayor’s wrist was broken.”

  “And he can’t tell us that much about the murder weapon,” Mike continued. “Heavy and blunt, that’s about all we know. That and the fact there wasn’t anything at the crime scene that fit that description.”

  “The information about the broken wrist and the bruises on his arm and hand weren’t in Doc’s first report, were they?” Hannah asked him.

  “No, Doc spoke to us personally about that and said he would list them in his updated autopsy report. That should be ready today and”—Mike exchanged glances with Lonnie—“I expect you’ll probably get a copy of that, one way or the other.”

  “Probably,” Hannah agreed, knowing that her mother or Andrea would probably make copies for her. “So who do you and Lonnie have for suspects, Mike?”

  “I suspect I’d like to have some coffee first, Hannah? And do you have any cookies to dunk in it?”

  “I do,” Hannah replied. “I brought Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies. It’s like biscotti.”

  “Perfect,” Mike said.

  After everyone had enjoyed their Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies, they returned to the living room.

  “Okay, Mike,” Hannah said. “Let’s get down to brass tacks. Who’s left on your suspect list?”

  Mike laughed. “You give me one and I’ll give you one. We’ll do that until one of us runs out of suspects. That’s fair, isn’t it?”

  “Fair, but not following sheriff department procedure,” Hannah pointed out.

  “I know,” Mike said. “Let’s put it like this, Hannah. Lonnie and I need you and Norman to help us with this one. You’re going to get leads that we won’t get, and we’ll get leads that you won’t get. I figure if all of us put our heads together, we’ve got a chance of wrapping this up in less time than it would take if we work on it separately.”

  “You’re probably right,” Hannah agreed. “So we’re actually working together again?”

  “Yes, I can justify it this time. It’s not strictly according to the protocol, but I think it’s necessary.”

  Hannah turned to glance at Norman, who looked impressed. Then she turned to Mike with a smile. “What you’re saying is that we’re working as a team on this one?”

  “That’s right. A lot of people had reasons to dislike Mayor Bascomb and motives to wish he were gone. Everyone knew he’d be mayor for the rest of his life, and one of these people could very well have gotten tired of waiting for him to retire and figured that the only way to get rid of him was to take matters into his . . . or her . . . own hands.”

  CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT TOAST COOKIES

  (or Nutella Biscotti)

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

  Ingredients:

  1 and ¼ sticks salted butter (5 ounces, 10 Tablespoons)

  2 and ½ cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  1 Tablespoon (3 teaspoons) baking powder

  ¼ teaspoon salt

  3 large eggs

  1 and ¼ cups white (granulated) sugar

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  ½ cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

  1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts (measure AFTER chopping)

  2 cups (an 11-ounce package will do) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

  Extra Ingredient for Making Biscotti:

  1 cup white chocolate (or vanilla baking) chips OR 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

  Hannah’s 1st Note: If you’ve never bought Nutella before, you’ll probably find it in the peanut butter and jelly aisle of your grocery store.

  To Make the Cookie Dough for Both Types of Cookie:

  Start by preparing your baking pans. You’ll need 3 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment paper.

  Melt the butter. You’ll do this on the stove in a small saucepan, or in a microwave in a microwave-safe bowl.

  Measure out the all-purpose flour and place it in a mixing bowl.

  Sprinkle the baking powder and the salt on top of the flour and mix it in with a fork from your silverware drawer.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you have an electric mixer, use it for this next part. Lisa and I use our industrial stand mixer at The Cookie Jar.

  Crack the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on MEDIUM speed until they are light and fluffy and are a uniform shade of pale yellow.

  With the mixer still running on MEDIUM speed, add the white (granulated) sugar and the vanilla extract. Continue to beat until it is thoroughly combined with the eggs.

  It’s time for the butter. Make sure the butter is not so hot, it could cook the eggs. If it’s cool enough, turn the mixer
to LOW and slowly add the butter to your mixing bowl.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: The reason you turn the mixer on LOW and add the butter slowly is so that it doesn’t splash out all over you . . . and your counter and floor. And yes, I did learn this the hard way!

  Turn off the mixer, measure out the Nutella, and add it to the mixture in the bowl. Turn the mixer back on LOW speed and mix it in with the other ingredients until everything is well blended.

  Turn the mixer down to LOW speed and add the flour mixture in half-cup increments. When one increment is absorbed, mix in the next until the flour mixture has been completely added to your bowl. Don’t overmix! Just mix until everything has been combined.

  Turn off the mixer and remove the bowl. Set it on a folded towel on your kitchen counter.

  Scrape down the sides of your bowl with a rubber spatula and give it another stir by hand with a mixing spoon or a wooden spoon.

  If you haven’t done so already, use your food processor, with the steel blade attached, to chop the hazelnuts into small pieces. Use an on-and-off motion to do this and stop when the pieces are the size of coarse sand.

  Measure out one cup of finely chopped hazelnuts and sprinkle them on top of your mixing bowl.

  Measure out the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and add them to your mixing bowl on top of the chopped hazelnuts and stir them in.

  Divide your cookie dough into three equal parts. (You can eyeball this—you don’t have to weigh it or anything silly like that!)

  Place one part in the center of each baking sheet you’ve prepared.

  With impeccably clean and slightly damp hands, shape each part of the cookie dough into logs about 2 inches wide and 15 inches long. Keep them in the center of each baking sheet.