Cream Puff Murder

by Joanne Fluke

Add the ground oatmeal to your bowl, and mix it in thoroughly. The resulting cookie dough will be quite stiff.

  Roll walnut-sized dough balls with your hands, and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 balls to a standard-size sheet. (If the dough is too sticky to roll, place the bowl in the refrigerator for thirty minutes and try again.) Squish the dough balls down a bit with your impeccably clean palm (or a metal spatula if you’d rather).

  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on top. (Mine took 11 minutes.) Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, and then remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

  Yield: 6 to 7 dozen unusual and tasty cookies, depending on cookie size.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: These cookies freeze well if you stack them on foil (like rolling coins) and roll them, tucking in the ends. Just place the rolls of cookies in a freezer bag, and they’ll keep for three months or so as long as no one finds them and eats them without telling you.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hannah followed the hostess to one of the alcoves Sally and Dick Laughlin, the owners of the Lake Eden Inn, had set aside for private dining. Delores and Carrie hadn’t arrived yet, and Andrea had stopped off to talk to Barbara Donnelly, head secretary at the sheriff’s station, in the hope that she might let something slip about Stella Parks and the results of the official investigation. Michelle was similarly occupied. She’d stopped to talk to one of her former classmates, who had dropped a class that Ronni had taught.

  The alcoves sat against the back wall in the large dining room. They were elevated, and Sally had once explained to Hannah that the fact they were on a two-step podium made people feel more important. Hannah supposed that was true. If you were so inclined, you could peek out from behind the filmy draperies that hid the diners in the alcove from public view, and look down your nose at the patrons below you.

  The hostess whisked aside the draperies, and Hannah stopped short as she saw that one chair was taken. So they weren’t the first ones here!

  “Hi, Hannah,” Norman patted the chair next to him. “I saved you a seat.”

  “Thanks. I can see they’re in short supply.” Hannah smiled as she surveyed the five empty chairs. Then she moved over to take the one next to Norman.

  “I came early so I could go over some notes Mike gave me,” Norman explained, slipping a small notebook into his jacket pocket.

  “More instructions on how to proceed?”

  “Right. He’s going stir-crazy, Hannah. He even gave me a stack of books for you.”

  “Let me guess…Five Easy Steps to Running a Tight Investigation? The Detective’s Guide to Solving Crimes? Collecting Clues and Closing Cases?”

  Norman laughed. “Something like that. I had to promise Mike I’d give them to you and tell you how important he thought they were. I didn’t have to promise that you’d read them.”

  “Good, because I’ll be so busy trying to figure out who killed Ronni that I won’t have time to read them. Is there anything else Mike said to tell me?”

  “Yes, but I’ll wait to tell you when we discuss the case after dinner. The mothers want to be in on the kill this time.”

  “The kill?”

  “Metaphorically speaking, they’ve helped with the hunt before, but they’ve never been in on it when you’ve closed in on the murderer.”

  “Mother was there once. She’s the reason I’m still here.”

  “I pointed that out to her, but she says it doesn’t count, that it was just a happy coincidence.”

  “Happy?! That’s not exactly the way she felt at the time!” Hannah stopped and thought over what Norman had told her. “Okay. I think I understand what the mothers are trying to say. They’re tired of doing phone work, and they’d like to do something more exciting. Does that sound about right to you?”

  “I’m almost sure that’s what they mean.”

  “What sort of exciting homicide case assignment can we give to two post–middle-aged women who love antiques and can’t run very fast?”

  “I’m not sure. All I know is I wouldn’t want to get them into any trouble.”

  “Maybe we could ask them to read the books Mike gave you?”

  Norman laughed. “Nice try, but somehow I don’t think that’s the type of thing they had in mind.”

  “I suppose not.” Hannah sat there for a moment trying to come up with something, and then she shook her head. “I can’t think of a thing. Maybe I’m just too tired.”

  “You need brain food.”

  “That would be fish, right?”

  “That’s what they say. I saw Sally when I came in, and she told me about her new appetizer. It’s tuna sashimi.”

  “Isn’t sashimi like sushi without the rice?”

  “That’s one difference between them. When Sally serves her tuna sashimi appetizer, she arranges very thin strips of tuna over a bed of mixed greens. She sauces everything lightly with soy and ginger, and decorates the plate with rosettes of pickled ginger.”

  “That sounds wonderful. I know I’d like it if I could just get past the raw fish part. Maybe it’s because I’m from Minnesota and my father fished.”

  “Could be. How are you coming along at the gym?”

  “I’ve added a bunch of new suspects to my list.” Hannah gave a little laugh. “Ronni insulted quite a few women in her classes. Of course when it came to the men, she was exactly the opposite.”

  “That figures.”

  “I was just wondering…you joined Heavenly Bodies, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but not because of Ronni. I thought you knew me better than that. I’m a one-woman guy, and I’ve found her. And just because she hasn’t said yes yet doesn’t mean I’m going out looking.”

  “That’s not really what I…well, maybe it was, but I…”

  “I’m flattered you were jealous.” Norman seemed to sense that she was uncomfortable, and he jumped in before she could stutter out any more half-explanations. He reached out for her hand, squeezed it once, and started to say more when footsteps approached and the curtains parted.

  “Well hello, you two!” Delores arrived with Carrie, and Andrea and Michelle were right behind her. “Our waitress will be right here with tonight’s specials. Let’s have a nice meal, and then we can get down to business over dessert and coffee.”

  Dessert. The word rang in Hannah’s mind like a tolling bell. No dessert for her, even though Sally’s dessert cart was laden with some of the most scrumptious concoctions she’d ever tasted. Her flourless chocolate cake was fantastic, her mousse of the night was always mouthwatering, and her lemon torte was nothing short of legendary.

  “What’s the matter, Hannah?” Norman asked.

  “Dessert,” Hannah said in a mournful tone. “I can’t even have fresh fruit.”

  “Why not?”

  “There is no fresh fruit in November. This is Minnesota. The only things that grow in Minnesota in the winter are icicles.”

  Norman laughed, and when Hannah joined in, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a little hug. “I promise you’ll have dessert, Hannah. When the mothers decided to meet out here for dinner, I talked to Sally and we dreamed up a special dessert just for you.”

  Hannah opened her mouth to say she couldn’t possibly eat it, not if it contained over fifty calories. And what dessert didn’t contain over fifty calories? But then she thought about how hurt Norman would be if she refused to eat his carefully planned dessert.

  Life was a balancing act, and this time the scales were really skewed. The dessert was on one side, and Norman was on the other. It was all a matter of priorities. She had to decide which was more important in the giant scheme of things. The fact that she’d have to spend an extra hour at Heavenly Bodies tomorrow, working off the extra calories her special dessert contained, didn’t count for much when you weighed it against Norman’s disappointment if she didn’t eat it.

  The scales tipped in Norman’s favor. And come to think of it, that was a reall
y bad metaphor under her dietary circumstances. All the same, her decision was clear, and Hannah turned to smile at Norman. “That was really thoughtful of you. I can hardly wait to taste it.”

  There wasn’t a whole lot you could do with a boneless, skinless chicken breast if you couldn’t use apricot jam for a glaze. Honey with mustard was also out, and not even barbecue sauce was acceptable. Sally had proven herself a master with salt, pepper, garlic, and tarragon. And although Hannah’s entrée was succulent and roasted to perfection, it was still naked chicken. Hannah had eaten enough naked chicken in the past week to populate at least half of Winnie Henderson’s prize-winning coop.

  The broccoli was good. It would have been even better with cheese sauce, but dieters couldn’t be choosers. Kathy Purvis, a member of Ronni’s Slim and Trim class, had told Hannah that if she shut her eyes and used her imagination, she could make plain baked chicken taste like filet mignon with burgundy mushroom sauce.

  Hannah shut her eyes and tried it. She thought of a succulent filet, so tender she could cut it with a butter knife, so perfectly grilled that the center was still the deep, dark red that she loved. As she chewed the tender beef, the mushrooms would provide a slight resistance to the teeth, and the flavor of good wine paired with the silky, buttery richness of the sauce would form a marriage that would linger long after the morsel was gone.

  It was poetic, but it didn’t work. It was still plain chicken. No amount of imagery could make it what it was not. It looked like chicken, it tasted like chicken, and it was silly to pretend that it wasn’t chicken.

  “How is your chicken, dear?” Delores asked, smiling at Hannah across the table.

  “It’s wonderful, Mother,” Hannah said, not untruthfully. Does a chicken by any other imagining taste the same? Of course it does! Even Shakespeare knew that. But a person can take only so much chicken, and Hannah figured that she was chickened out.

  It seemed to take forever before the plates were removed and the bread basket, an item she’d been ignoring for close to an hour, had gone off on the busboy’s tray. Even the plate of butter had disappeared, and it wasn’t a moment too soon. Hannah had spent the past thirty minutes squelching the urge to stab one of the perfectly square pieces of butter and pop it into her mouth.

  “Coffee all around?” Delores asked, and everyone nodded. It was a silly question to ask a bunch of Minnesotans who couldn’t remember ending a meal with any other beverage.

  When everyone had been served coffee, Delores called for the dessert cart, and Hannah noticed that Norman had a word with their waitress. She was almost certain that meant her special dessert was about to arrive. Of course she’d enjoy it. She’d have to be dead not to enjoy dessert. But enjoyment came at a price, and Hannah knew that guilt and regret would set in immediately after she swallowed the last bite.

  The dessert cart arrived with little fanfare. It didn’t need any bells and whistles. The desserts spoke for themselves on their glass plates and attractive bowls. Three different flavors of crème brûlée, four multilayered cakes, several pies, two choices of puddings, an array of pastries, and various flavors of sorbets and ice creams.

  Hannah waited until her mother, her sisters, and Carrie had made their choices. Then Norman nodded at their waitress, and she lifted the cover on six lovely parfait glasses filled with layers of colors that shimmered and caught the light from the candle at the center of the table. The top of each dessert was decorated with three perfect raspberries, and Hannah wondered where Sally had found them this time of year.

  “For you.” The waitress set one parfait glass in front of Hannah and another in front of Norman. “Sally hopes you’ll enjoy this special parfait. She said to tell you to please drop by the kitchen after dessert to tell her how you liked it.”

  Hannah picked up her spoon to taste the concoction that Norman and Sally had wrought. But she couldn’t resist asking, “How many calories? Do you know?”

  “Yes,” Norman gave her a big smile. “Twenty-five.”

  “Twenty-five?!” Hannah couldn’t believe her ears. Perhaps he’d said something else and she’d heard what she wanted to hear. “Did you say twenty-five as in five less than thirty?”

  “Yes. Sally calls it Guilt-Free Parfait, and it would be less without the raspberries, but she thought they were a nice touch.”

  “They are a nice touch. I’m going to save them for last.”

  With that said, Hannah removed the berries and stared down at the brightly colored parfait. There were three layers. The top was red, the middle was green, and the bottom was yellow. But she couldn’t think of any ingredients that would add up to only twenty-five calories. What was it? Plastic? She dipped her spoon in cautiously and raised a bite of the ruby-colored top layer to her lips.

  “Raspberry,” she said, immediately recognizing the flavor of one of her favorite berries. “It’s raspberry and…something else.”

  “What does the something else taste like?” Norman asked.

  “I’m not sure, but it makes my tongue tingle. I like that. It’s fun. What is it?”

  “Sugar-free raspberry Jell-O and soda water.”

  “So that’s the fizzy part.” Hannah dug down with her spoon to taste the green second layer. “Lime?”

  “Lime with Diet 7 Up. Try the third layer. That’s my favorite.”

  Hannah excavated to the third layer, the sparkling yellow one. “Sugar-free lemon Jell-O,” she guessed after she’d tasted it. “But there’s something else, something tingly and zingy.”

  “It’s diet ginger ale,” Norman told her. “Sally thought the ginger taste would go well with the lemon.”

  “Sally’s right. It does.” Hannah spooned up another bite of her dessert. It was dessert. She felt she was ending her meal with a parfait loaded with yummy calories, but she wasn’t. “Are you sure that this is less than twenty-five calories?”

  Norman nodded. “Sally and I figured it out.”

  “Wonderful!” Hannah said, spooning up another bite. It was amazingly exhilarating to feel indulgent and virtuous at the same time. “Only twenty-five calories,” she repeated, giving Norman a big smile. “In that case, I might just have two!”

  GUILT-FREE PARFAIT

  1 small box sugar-free lemon gelatin***

  1 small box sugar-free lime gelatin

  1 small box sugar-free raspberry gelatin

  1 cup boiling water for each package of Jell-O (3 cups in all)

  1 cup cold diet ginger ale for the bottom layer (Sally used diet Vernor’s)

  1 cup cold diet lemon-lime soda for the middle layer (Sally used diet 7 Up)

  1 cup cold soda water (Sally used Canada Dry Seltzer)

  Hannah’s Note: You can use any flavors of sugar-free gelatin you wish, but it’s prettier if the layers are contrasting colors. You can also use any carbonated diet drinks that you wish in the gelatin layers.

  Sally’s Note: Use canned diet soda whenever possible. It has more fizz than the large bottles. If you can find it, use a small bottle of soda water or seltzer rather than the 2-liter type.

  Norman’s Note: Of course you could make this dessert in a dish using just one flavor of sugar-free gelatin. Making it with three layers gives you three flavors and three colors and makes you feel as if you’re eating something very special.

  Get out six small parfait glasses. You can also use large balloon wineglasses if you don’t have parfait glasses.

  Boil one cup of water for the bottom layer. Pour the boiling water in a small bowl, and add the sugar-free lemon gelatin. Stir it until it’s dissolved. That should take about one minute.

  Let the gelatin cool in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Set your kitchen timer. You don’t want it to harden, just to cool to room temperature.

  Open a can of icy cold diet ginger ale. Measure out one cup and add it to your cooled gelatin. Stir it in gently. Avoid stirring too much—that will break down the bubbles. Pour bottom layers in each of the six glasses you’ve chosen to use.

&nbs
p; Rinse out your bowl. You can use it again for the next layer.

  Refrigerate the glasses until the bottom layer is set. This will take approximately one hour.

  When the bottom layer is set, it’s time to make the middle layer. Boil one cup of water. Pour the boiling water into the small bowl you rinsed, and add the sugar-free lime gelatin. Stir it until it’s dissolved, about one minute.

  Let the gelatin cool in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

  Open a can of icy cold diet lemon-lime soda. Measure out one cup. Add it to your cooled gelatin, and stir it in gently. Stir just enough to blend. You don’t want to lose the bubbles.

  Take your glasses out of the refrigerator and pour in the middle layer. Return them to the refrigerator, to set for one hour.

  Rinse out the bowl you used so that you can use it again for the top layer.

  When the middle layer is set, it’s time to add the top layer. Boil one cup of water. Pour the boiling water into the small bowl you rinsed, and add the sugar-free raspberry gelatin. Stir it until it’s dissolved, about one minute.

  Let the gelatin cool in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

  Open a small bottle of icy cold seltzer or soda water. Measure out one cup and add it to your bowl of gelatin. Stir it in gently. Avoid overstirring—you don’t want to break down the bubbles.

  Take your glasses out of the refrigerator, and pour in the top layer. Return the glasses to the refrigerator. Once the top layers are set, you can cover each glass with a piece of plastic wrap to keep the top fresh.

  Add three raspberries to each parfait glass before serving. You can also use a small strawberry, or a thin slice of peach or pear. The calorie count will be approximately the same.