Christmas Cake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

* * *

  Hannah was just taking the spiral-cut ham out of the oven when Michelle and Lisa came into the kitchen.

  “I was hoping you’d bake a ham one of these nights,” Michelle said. “Do you want me to set the table in the dining room?”

  “That would good,” Hannah told her. “I’m going to cover this ham. It’ll stay warm until Mother gets home. Then all I’ll have to do is heat the rolls and make the creamed spinach.”

  “I’ll help you set the table, Michelle,” Lisa offered. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”

  “How many people are we having for dinner?” Michelle asked Hannah.

  “We have you, Lisa, Mother, Andrea, and me,” Hannah told her. “I invited Grandma Knudson and Annie, but Annie had to hurry back to the Children’s Home and Grandma Knudson said she had to go back to the parsonage to cook because Reverend Bob loves her meatloaf.”

  “How about Bill?” Michelle asked.

  “He’s on night shift out at the sheriff’s station. Andrea said she’d take leftovers home for him to eat when he got off work tonight.”

  “So we’ll be five at the table then?” Lisa asked.

  “That’s right.” Hannah turned to Michelle. “Use the green tablecloth. Mother likes that one. And see if you can find something to use for a centerpiece. This is a mini-celebration, so use the good china and the crystal champagne flutes.”

  “We’re having champagne?” Michelle asked.

  “Two of us are, but set out champagne flutes for all of us. Andrea’s bringing her favorite ginger ale and I have a bottle of sparkling apple juice for you two.”

  “You have some winter border flowers left along the front walkway,” Lisa said. “Would you like us to make a little centerpiece with them?”

  “That would be nice,” Hannah told her. “I’m going to finish up here in the kitchen. Mother called a few minutes ago and said she’d be back here in about twenty minutes.”

  * * *

  “The table looks lovely, girls!” Delores complimented Michelle and Lisa as they all entered the dining room. Then she turned to Hannah. “Do I smell ham, dear?”

  “You do,” Hannah told her, taking the foil off the meat platter and revealing its contents. “Sit down, everyone, and I’ll fill our glasses. Then we can have a toast.”

  “You have Perrier Jouët!” Delores exclaimed, beginning to smile when she recognized the champagne bottle in the silver wine server. “What’s the occasion, Hannah?”

  “Our mother is back with us again and we’re happy,” Hannah spoke for all of them.

  “I’m happy, too,” Delores responded, and then she noticed that there were crystal champagne glasses at all five place settings. “Michelle and Lisa aren’t having champagne, are they?”

  “No, Mother,” Andrea answered quickly. “Hannah has sparkling apple juice for them and I have my favorite ginger ale.”

  “Oh, good! More for me!” Delores said, and everyone at the table began to laugh. They were laughing partially in relief that Delores had finally returned to the person they knew and loved, and partially because the comment she’d made was funny.

  * * *

  That night, Hannah’s sleep was untroubled by worries about Delores and she woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed and well-rested than she had since her dad had died. She took a quick shower, dressed as fast as she could, and hurried down to the kitchen for a quick cup of coffee before she started to make breakfast for all three of them.

  Once they had eaten breakfast and Michelle had left for school, Delores turned to Hannah. “Would you help me do something today, dear? It’s important.”

  “Of course I will,” Hannah responded immediately. “What would you like me to do?”

  “I want to go over to the hotel and see if there’s anything in Essie’s rooms that she might need. If we find anything, I’ll take it to her when I visit her this afternoon.”

  “That’s a good idea, Mother. There may be photos or personal items that she’d like to have with her at the hospital.”

  “That’s what I thought, dear. It’ll make her room at the hospital seem more like home, and perhaps she’ll recuperate faster.” Delores stopped speaking and smiled at Hannah. “I’m going to change to old clothing and you should do that, too. Remember, Essie’s rooms don’t have running water, and I’m sure it must have been difficult for her to keep them clean.”

  It didn’t take long for Hannah to change to jeans and an old sweatshirt. When she came down the stairs, she found her mother waiting for her at the kitchen table. Delores was wearing an old sweater that had belonged to her husband and she had pulled her hair up in a cap that Hannah hadn’t known her mother owned.

  “Ready?” Delores asked.

  “I’m ready,” Hannah said. “Are you driving, or am I?”

  “I’ll drive,” Delores replied, grabbing the car keys and leading the way to the attached garage. “There’s an old duffel bag of your father’s in the trunk. Grab it when we get there, dear. It should hold anything we find that we think Essie might like to keep with her.”

  “I’ll do that, Mother.”

  Delores started the car and drove several blocks in silence. “It’s a good thing there’s no one on the street this early,” Delores said as she pulled the car into a spot near the entrance to the hotel. “I wouldn’t want anyone I knew to see me dressed like this.”

  “It wouldn’t matter,” Hannah said, unable to keep from teasing her normally impeccably dressed mother. “I doubt that anyone would recognize you with that sweater and cap.”

  Delores laughed. “You’re probably right, dear. Let’s go!”

  “If it’s locked, I can run over to the café and see if Rose has a key,” Hannah said as she retrieved her father’s duffel bag from the trunk.

  “It’s all right, dear. I have a key. Essie gave it to me when I said I planned to go up to her rooms to bring her some of her things. She even told me that there were several things she wanted to have with her.”

  “Which things did she want?” Hannah asked, following her mother to the side door of the hotel.

  “The dress she wore at the first Christmas Ball. She said it would make her feel happier just to see it hanging in her closet at the hospital. And there was a beaded handbag that she made a long time ago and she wanted that, too. She even described it to me. It’s made of crystals in a flower design and it has a gold-colored chain.”

  “How big is it?” Hannah asked.

  “Large enough to accommodate a handkerchief, a comb, and a lipstick. She said that the gold-colored chain fits over a lady’s wrist so that she can carry it with her when she’s asked to dance.”

  The door opened when Delores turned the key and Hannah and her mother stepped inside. The old Albion Hotel smelled of dust and decaying wood, and it made Hannah wonder if the steps to the second floor were safe.

  “Don’t worry about the stairs,” Delores said, noticing her daughter’s worried frown. “Essie said they’re perfectly safe if you stay next to the bannister. The weak spots are in the center of the steps.”

  Mother and daughter stayed close to the bannister and climbed the steps to the second floor. At the top of the stairs on their right was a door with a flower painted on it.

  “Essie painted that,” Delores told Hannah. “She told me that it was her favorite flower.”

  “What is it?”

  “A hibiscus. She said that she tried to grow them several times, but they didn’t do well for her.”

  Delores used the key that Essie had given her to unlock the door. “Be careful, dear. There’s no electricity, but Essie told me that there should be plenty of light coming in the windows in the daytime.”

  “What did she do for electricity at night?” Hannah asked.

  “She went to bed early and if she had to get up, she had a flashlight by the side of the bed.”

  “Did anyone know that Essie was living like this?” Hannah asked.

  “I don’t think so. She
wasn’t the type to complain. I know that she didn’t mention it to Rose.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I called her right after I took my shower this morning. Rose said that if she’d known, they would have curtained off a spot in the back so that Essie could have spent her nights at the café where there was food, and electricity, and heat. Poor Essie would have almost frozen to death without the little gas heater and the battery-operated electric blanket that Lars gave her.”

  “Why didn’t Essie ask for help? There are so many people with spare bedrooms who would have offered one to her.”

  “She was too proud, dear. Essie never wanted to ask for help. Some people are like that. They just try to manage on their own until something happens and they just can’t go on any longer.”

  Hannah blinked back tears as her mother opened Essie’s door and led the way in. The two rooms that Essie had were cleaner than Hannah had expected, and they were bright and cheerful with colorful blankets folded neatly on the cushions of chairs and several plants on the windowsills.

  “It’s cold in here,” Hannah commented. “I wonder how those plants survive.”

  Delores walked over to examine one of the plants. “They’re artificial,” she told Hannah. “Essie must have bought them to brighten up her rooms.”

  Hannah noticed the sad expression on her mother’s face and decided to change the subject. “Let’s get started,” she suggested, opening the duffel bag and placing it on one of the chairs. “I’ll take the bedroom and you can start searching for things in here.”

  The bedroom that Hannah had referred to wasn’t really a bedroom at all. It was simply a doorway without a door that had been cut into the wall between two studs. Someone, probably Essie herself, had taped heavy cardboard strips to the sides of the doorway to keep out the draft, and she had painted the cardboard with hibiscus flowers. Essie had done everything she could to make this arrangement cheerful, but Hannah knew that the little bottled gas heater would not have been adequate to heat the space.

  There was a bed with heavy quilts piled on top and a closet that had been part of the second hotel room. Hannah opened the door and saw that the closet was filled with clothes and storage boxes. She started with the clothes and almost immediately, she found a lovely, old-fashioned ball gown. “I found it!” she shouted out to Delores. “I think this is the ball gown that Essie wanted you to bring.”

  Hannah carried the ball gown to the room where her mother was working and spread it out on a chair. “This is the only formal dress, so it must be the right one.”

  Delores walked over to look at it and gave a little sigh. “Essie was heavier then, but if there aren’t any other ball gowns, this must be it.”

  “Do you think it’ll fit her?” Hannah asked.

  “No, but we can always talk to Claire about taking in the seams. I’m sure she’ll be happy to do that for Essie.”

  “That’s a great idea!” Hannah reached out to give her mother a quick hug. “I’m going back to see if I can find the purse that Essie described to you.”

  After looking in at least a dozen boxes, Hannah was beginning to think that she’d never find Essie’s beaded handbag. She’d found several photo albums that she wanted to show to her mother, but not the crystal purse with the flower design. The last box was small and fairly heavy. Those two facts gave Hannah hope that the purse might be tucked inside. She took a deep breath, lifted the lid, folded back the tissue paper, and began to smile when she uncovered a beaded handbag nestled inside.

  “I found it!” she announced, rushing back into the room that her mother was searching. “This is the purse, isn’t it, Mother?”

  Delores hurried over to look. “Yes, I think it is. Did you find anything else?”

  “A couple of photo albums. I’ll bring them in here to see if you want to take them to Essie.” Hannah rushed back into the bedroom and came back with the photo albums.

  Delores paged through the albums and nodded. “I’m sure Essie would like to have these. There are some pictures of her telling stories to a big group of children. Those should bring back happy memories for her.”

  Hannah noticed a small stack of items that Delores had set aside on one of the chairs. “Are you taking those things to Essie?”

  “Yes, I thought she might like that multicolored blanket to put at the foot of her bed. It should make her room seem brighter and less institutional. The three little frog statues would look cute on her windowsill, and I thought we could stop at CostMart to pick up some nice guest towels to put in her bathroom to brighten that up.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Hannah said.

  “Can you think of anything else she might like?” Delores asked.

  “A warm, fluffy robe?”

  “We’ll look for one. It’s always nice to have something soft and fluffy. Take a look at those notebooks on the chair, Hannah. They’re numbered and I opened the first one. I’m not sure exactly what to make of it. And be very careful when you turn the pages. They’re very old. The ink is beginning to fade and the paper is fragile.”

  Hannah walked over, picked up the top notebook, and carefully turned to the first page. Delores was right. The paper was fragile and the ink was faded. Enough sun was coming through the window to read the spidery writing on the first page and when she’d done so, Hannah closed the notebook and carefully put it back on the stack.

  “What do you think they are, dear?” Delores asked.

  “I’m not sure. Do you know if Essie ever lived in New York?”

  “I don’t think she did. She said something about living in Chicago with her parents, but she didn’t mention New York.”

  “Then these can’t be diaries,” Hannah decided. “I think I know what they are, though.”

  “What is that, dear?”

  “I think Essie was writing a book.”

  Delores smiled. “You could very well be right, dear. For years, Essie told stories based on books. Those were children’s books, but perhaps she wanted to try her hand at writing a work of serious fiction.”

  “Do you think we should take the notebooks to Essie?” Hannah asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Delores thought about it for a moment and then she shook her head. “Let’s pack them up and take them to the house, Hannah. That way we can make sure that nothing happens to them. Then we can ask Essie about them and see if she wants us to bring them, especially since we’re not really sure what they are.”

  “All right, Mother.” Hannah began to pack the notebooks carefully in the duffel bag. “Do you mind if I read them?”

  “I don’t mind, but you have to promise to be very careful with them. They represent hours of Essie’s creative work.”

  “Don’t worry, Mother. I was working on my doctorate in English Literature and I’ve read old manuscripts before. As a matter of fact, I think I brought my reading gloves home with me. Leaving the notebooks here will do more damage to them than I will.”

  “All right, dear, but you have to promise me two things.”

  “What are they, Mother?”

  “You have to bake another batch of cookies. Grandma Knudson, Annie, Essie, and I simply gobbled them up with our coffee yesterday, and Essie asked me if I could bring some more cookies today. Will you have time to bake when we get home, dear?”

  “Of course I will,” Hannah agreed quickly. “You said there were two things. What else do you want me to promise?”

  “I want you to promise to read Essie’s book to me when I get back from visiting Essie. You seemed just as fascinated as I was when I read the first page.”

  Chapter Four

  “Is everyone ready?” Hannah asked, picking up the first of Essie’s notebooks.

  “I am,” Delores declared, propping her feet up on a footstool and relaxing in her favorite living room chair.

  “I am, too,” Lisa agreed, leaning forward on the couch.

  “Go ahead, Hannah,” Michelle urged, tucking a couch pillow behind her b
ack.

  Dinner had been fun and Andrea had apologized when she’d left at seven. She’d told them that she wished she could stay, but she had several things to do before Bill got home from work. Once she’d left, Delores, Lisa, Michelle, and Hannah had retired to the living room, where Hannah had stacked Essie’s notebooks.

  “Okay, if you’re ready,” Hannah said, pulling on her reading gloves and opening the notebook. And then she began to read.

  * * *

  She had just finished totaling a column of figures when the phone on her desk rang. She let it ring twice, as her cousin had instructed her to do, and then she answered.

  “Cappella Enterprises. This is Sharon speaking. May I help you?”

  “Rose!”

  “Yes, Tony.” She felt her heart begin to beat wildly in her chest. It was her husband and he’d used his private name for her, the name no one else knew. “Is it time?” she asked him.

  “Yes, I’ll be there in less than five minutes.”

  Her hand was shaking slightly as she hung up the phone and she felt their baby give a protesting kick. Her doctor had told her that babies, even when they were still in the womb, could sense when their mother was upset.

  “It’s all right,” she told the baby, getting up from her desk and walking across the small office. She opened the closet to retrieve her coat and purse, and drew a deep, steadying breath. They’d talked about this day, rehearsed what each of them would do, and she knew exactly what was expected of her as she reached up to get the empty box from the top shelf. “It’s all right,” she repeated, attempting to reassure the baby and herself at the same time. “Daddy’s coming to help us.”

  She’d just finished going through her purse to make sure she had enough money when the door to the office burst open. Her husband rushed in, locking the door quickly behind him.

  “Are you ready?” he asked in a slightly breathless voice. “They’re on the way. You know what to do, don’t you, honey?”

  “Yes,” she said, trying not to look as frightened as she felt as she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and took out a bulky duffel bag. She had hoped this day would never come, but she trusted Tony to know when danger was imminent and it was time to flee.