“Why so thoughtful, dear?” Delores asked, finishing the last of her coffee.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with spending three days and nights in jail.”
“Why would that make you thoughtful?”
“Because there was nothing else to do while I was there. When the lights went off at ten o’clock, I couldn’t read any longer. And no visitors were allowed after ten at night, so the only things I had for entertainment were my own thoughts.”
Delores looked pensive. “That must have been boring, dear,” she said.
“Not at all. I carried on imaginary conversations with people, I speculated on quite a few what-ifs, and I tried to imagine what my life would be like ten years from now.”
“Ten years from now?” When Hannah nodded, Delores began to smile. “I would hope you’d be married with at least two children. And still in love with your husband.”
“I knew you’d say that, Mother,” Hannah said, her mind busily searching for a way to change the subject. There was no way she’d tell her mother about her daydream of being a contestant in a food channel contest, winning the competition, and becoming a famous dessert chef. She’d mentioned her flight of fancy to Michelle, but she certainly didn’t want to discuss it with her mother! “How about you, Mother?” she asked, turning the tables so quickly her mother actually looked a bit off balance.
“Me?” Delores stalled for time.
“Yes, you. Where do you think you’ll be in ten years?”
“I should hope I’d be right here in Lake Eden, happily married to Doc and doing almost the same things I’m doing right now.” There was a slight narrowing of Delores’s brown eyes. “And I would hope that all my grandchildren would be right here around me, and Doc and I would all be enjoying time with them.”
“That’s assuming you’ll be marrying Doc.”
“Of course it is! I’m certainly not going to be marrying anyone else, except Doc!”
“But you might not be marrying him.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Hannah took a deep breath and repeated her great-grandmother’s saying in her mind. In for a penny, in for a pound. She’d opened the subject and now it was time to tell her mother that her continual wavering about the wedding plans had gone on long enough. It wouldn’t be nice, and it wouldn’t be pretty, but Hannah was about to put an end to it. “You’ve changed your mind about everything else that concerns the wedding. For all we know, you might change your mind about marrying Doc, too.”
“I’d never do that!”
“Okay. That’s written in stone then. But think about this, Mother. You might not be marrying at all since you can’t make up your mind about your dress, the bridesmaid dresses, the flowers, and the menu and decorations for the reception. I don’t even think you’ve chosen a wedding invitation yet . . . have you?”
“Well . . . no. No, I haven’t. But I’ve narrowed it down to four and there’s still time as long as I don’t have the invitations hand-addressed by a calligrapher.”
“Yes, you probably missed the ticket on that one.” Hannah prodded a little harder. “I hope you get them in the mail in time for the postal service to deliver them. You know, Mother . . . I’m really beginning to wonder if you want to get married at all. You’re certainly dragging your feet when it comes to making wedding decisions.”
“But . . . but . . .” Delores sputtered, and then she took a deep shaking breath. “Just because I’ve changed my mind a few times doesn’t mean I don’t want to marry Doc. I just want everything perfect, that’s all. It’s very important to me.”
“It’s important to us, too. You raised three daughters and you put us in charge of the wedding,” Hannah reminded her. “And you know, full well, that perfection isn’t our long suit. We’re trying, but you’re knocking down every one of our ideas. And when, and it’s a big when, you finally agree on something, you change your mind again within a week. You said you didn’t care, that we should do it and you’d go along with anything we planned.”
“Well! I didn’t mean I’d go along with absolutely anything you planned.”
“Okay, let’s keep this simple. Are you going to let us do it? Or are you going to fight us every step of the way?”
Delores sighed and put her head in her hands. She stayed that way for a long moment and then she took her hands away. “All right, Hannah,” she said. “You’re right. I’ve been vacillating too long and I haven’t been fair to you girls. Give me three choices on everything and I’ll decide.”
“You promise?”
“Yes, dear. I promise. We’ll have another planning meeting tomorrow morning. I’ll listen to all your suggestions and then I’ll make a choice.”
“For the flowers, the dresses, the music, the decorations, and the menu?”
“Yes. I’ll choose everything tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Mother,” Hannah said. And then, because she thought she might have been too harsh, she got up and came around the work island to give her mother a big hug. “We love you, Mother.”
“I know you do. And I admit I’m being difficult. It’s not for me, Hannah. Doc’s never had a wedding before. I just want this wedding to be one that Doc can remember with pride.”
“It will be, Mother,” Hannah said, walking her mother to the door. “I promise you that Doc will love it and remember it with pride for the rest of his life.”
When Delores went out and she had closed the door behind her, Hannah walked back to the workstation and sat down again. She’d said what she needed to say, and Delores had agreed. On the surface, everything was fine, but Hannah had the awful premonition that nothing she’d said would do any good when morning rolled around and their next planning meeting convened.
BACON, EGG, AND CHEDDAR CHEESE TOAST CUPS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
6 slices bacon (regular sliced, not thick sliced)
4 Tablespoons (2 ounces, ½ stick) salted butter, softened
6 slices soft white bread
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
6 large eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the 6 slices of bacon in a frying pan over medium heat for 6 minutes or until the bacon is firmed up and the edges are slightly brown, but the strips are still pliable. They won’t be completely cooked, but that’s okay. They will finish cooking in the oven. Place the partially-cooked bacon on a plate lined with paper towels to drain it.
Generously coat the inside of 6 muffin cups with half of the softened butter.
Butter one side of the bread with the rest of the butter but stop slightly short of the crusts. Lay the bread out on a sheet of wax paper or a bread board butter side up.
Hannah’s 1st Note: You will be wasting a bit of butter here, but it’s easier than cutting rounds of bread first and trying to butter them after they’re cut.
Using a round cookie cutter that’s three and a half inches (3 and ½ inches) in diameter, cut circles out of each slice of bread.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you don’t have a 3.5 inch cookie cutter, you can use the top rim of a standard size drinking glass to do this.
Place the bread rounds butter side down inside the muffin pans, pressing them down gently being careful not to tear them as they settle into the bottom of the cup. If one does tear, cut a patch from the buttered bread that is left and place it, buttered side down, over the tear.
Curl a piece of bacon around the top of each piece of bread, positioning it between the bread and the muffin tin. This will help to keep the bacon in a ring shape.
Sprinkle shredded cheese in the bottom of each muffin cup, dividing the cheese as equally as you can between the 6 muffin cups.
Crack an egg into a small measuring cup (I use a half-cup measure) with a spout, making sure to keep the yolk intact.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you break a yolk, don’t throw the whole egg away. Just slip it in a small covered container which you will
refrigerate and use for scrambled eggs the next morning, or for that batch of cookies you’ll make in the next day or two.
Pour the egg carefully into the bottom of one of the muffin cups.
Repeat this procedure for all the eggs, cracking them one at a time and pouring them into the remaining muffin cups.
When every muffin cup has bread, bacon, cheese and egg, season with a little salt and pepper.
Bake the filled toast cups for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on how firm you want the yolks. (Naturally, a longer baking time yields a harder yolk.)
Run the blade of a knife around the edge of each muffin cup, remove the Bacon, Egg, and Cheddar Cheese Toast Cups, and serve immediately.
Hannah’s 4th Note: These are a bit tricky the first time you make them. That’s just “beginner nerves”. Once you’ve made them successfully, they’re really quite easy to do and extremely impressive to serve for a brunch.
Yield: 6 servings (or 3 servings if you’re fixing them for Mike and Norman).
Chapter Seventeen
Hannah was just wondering which cookie recipe she should bake next when she remembered what she’d been discussing with Michelle and Rose at breakfast this morning. They’d all agreed that everybody needed a little chocolate and there were no chocolate cookies on the bakers rack. Perhaps she’d try a new cookie, a chocolate cookie. Michelle had given her a new chocolate cookie recipe. It was from her friend, Julia Meister, a dance major she’d worked with in several theater productions. Michelle said she’d baked the cookies that Julia called Triple Chocolate Cookies and they were the deepest, darkest, fudgiest cookies she’d ever tasted. If they were as good as Michelle said they were, they were bound to be a hit in the coffee shop.
Hannah was just taking pans of cookies from the oven when there was a knock at the back door. I hope it’s not Mother coming to tell me she changed her mind about the wedding plans again! she thought as she crossed the kitchen floor and opened the back door.
“Mike!” she said, giving him a big smile. “I’m really glad to see you.”
“Thanks, Hannah,” Mike said, looking pleased. “That’s the warmest greeting I’ve gotten all day. I ran into Bill at the Corner Tavern and he wouldn’t even look at me. He was sitting all by himself and he sure didn’t look happy.”
Hannah snapped her mouth closed and went to get him a cup of coffee. She’d been about to tell him that she’d expected her mother and had been relieved to see him instead, but that might make him feel bad.
“Thanks,” Mike said, accepting the cup of coffee she handed him and reaching for a cookie from the plate she’d set on the work counter. “Do you know if Bill’s made up with Andrea yet?”
“Not that I know of. I do know that she was still mad at him yesterday. It might be a while before she forgives him for arresting me. I know from experience that Andrea can hold a grudge for a long time.”
“What experience was that?”
“Just something that happened when we were kids. I got a red bicycle for Christmas and she got a gold one. She wanted the red.”
“Why didn’t you switch?”
“Because I’m just as stubborn as she is. Red was my favorite color, even back then. I wasn’t about to give up a red bicycle. Besides . . . there was another consideration.”
“What was that?”
“Andrea’s younger and she was a lot smaller than I was. Maybe she could have reached the pedals on mine, but if I’d tried to ride her little bike, I would have banged my knees on the handlebars.”
“That sounds like a valid reason to go with what you were given,” Mike said, and then he handed her the bag he’d carried in with him. “Here,” he said. “I found this at the crime . . . I mean the scene of the accident.”
Hannah opened the bag and peered in. There was a metal pan inside. “What is it?”
“Looks like one of those pans you bake pies in to me. I thought you’d know what it was.”
“Can I take it out of the bag?”
“Sure, but you’d better use a napkin or something.”
“To preserve any fingerprints?”
Mike shook his head. “It was out in the rain. If there were any fingerprints, there won’t be any left now. I just didn’t want you to get your hands dirty, that’s all.”
Hannah grabbed a napkin and lifted the pan out of the bag. “You’re right,” she told him. “It’s a pie tin. There’s still some crust sticking to the bottom and . . .” She stopped and took the plate to the window to examine it in the sunlight. “Yes! There’s a little bit of some kind of berry sticking to the crust. This could have been from the blackberry pie that was stolen from Winnie’s window ledge.”
“If you’re right, Winnie’s pie was stolen by the dead man. There are coincidences in police work, but not all that many. And Doc said the man had a blackberry stain on his shirt. Do you think Winnie might recognize this pan so that we can confirm that the pie came from her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. At least she’ll know if it’s the same size as hers.”
“They’re not all the same size?”
Hannah laughed. “No. Pie plates come in several sizes. And some are deep dish while others aren’t. They’re made of different materials, too. Some are metal, some are glass, and then there’s the disposable kind that are made of aluminum foil. This one doesn’t look expensive, and Winnie bakes a lot of pies. It’s possible that she has a whole set of these in her cupboard at the ranch.”
“Do you have more cookies to bake right now?” Mike asked her.
“No. Why?”
“I was thinking we could run out to Winnie’s and see if that pie pan is hers.”
“Okay. I can go with you.” Hannah was pleased. Mike could have gone by himself, but he’d asked her to come along.
“Do you have to tell anyone where you’re going?”
Hannah listened. Lisa was still talking to the audience and she didn’t want to disturb her. “Not really. I’ll just leave a note so Michelle and Lisa will know where I’ve gone.”
Hannah wrote a note and propped it up on the counter where Lisa and Michelle would be sure to see it there. Then she grabbed the bag with the pie plate and was about to go out the door when she thought of something. “Hold on,” she told Mike. “I need to get something.”
The photo they’d used for the flyers was in a folder on the counter. Hannah grabbed it, folder and all. It wouldn’t hurt to ask Winnie, Connor, and the ranch hands if any of them had seen the dead man hanging around on the morning Winnie’s pie had been stolen.
Once Hannah was settled in the passenger seat of Mike’s Hummer, she leaned back and enjoyed the ride. Winnie’s ranch was out in the country surrounding the town of Lake Eden and it took a full twenty minutes to get there. The farm next to it belonged to Carly’s mother, Loretta, and Hannah peered out the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of Carly’s sister, Jennifer. Someone was out in the yard and Hannah assumed that it was Jennifer since she looked just like an older version of Carly.
“What’s so interesting?” Mike asked, noticing that she was peering out of the window.
For one brief moment, Hannah thought about telling him what Carly had confided last night. Perhaps Mike could help her with her promise to find out if Jennifer was really Carly’s long-lost sister. But she quickly squelched that impulse. Carly had told them her suspicions in confidence. It wouldn’t be right to tell Mike without asking Carly if that was all right with her.
“Hannah?” Mike asked again, and Hannah knew she had to say something. The best way to reply would be to tell him the truth, or at least part of it. “I think I just saw Carly’s sister out in the yard. I’m almost sure that it was her. She looks just like an older version of Carly.”
“Is Carly okay with her sister coming home after all this time?” Mike asked.
“I’m not sure,” Hannah said, not wanting to lie, but shading the truth just a bit. “Michelle said that Carly likes Jennifer a lot.”
“
That’s all to the good then.” Mike made a sharp left and pulled onto the private road that led to Winnie’s ranch house. They bounced along the gravel road for another few minutes and then Mike pulled up and parked in front of the house. “Here we are,” he said. “I just hope she’s home.”
Hannah glanced at her watch. “I’m sure she is. It’s almost noon and she’s probably fixing lunch for Connor and the ranch hands.”
Winnie answered the door herself. She was wearing an apron and she wiped her hands on a towel before she shook Mike’s hand and gave Hannah a hug. “Hi there. What brings you out here all this way?”
“This,” Hannah said, getting right to the heart of the matter by pulling the pie plate out of the bag. “Is this one of yours, Winnie?”
“Looks like it,” Winnie said, taking the pie tin from Hannah’s hand. “If it is, somebody sure doesn’t know how to wash dishes!”
“I found it in the woods close to here,” Mike explained. “And Hannah said you’d had a blackberry pie stolen on Friday morning so we thought it might be yours.”
“Is there any way you can tell for sure?” Hannah asked, hoping for a positive identification.
“Sure is. Follow me to the kitchen. I’ll just give it a soak and then I can tell.” Winnie led the way to the kitchen and dropped the pie pan into the sink, which was already full of soapy water. “Have a seat at the table.”
Blackberry Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery) Page 18