Blackberry Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery)

by Fluke, Joanne

  “But Keith figured out where you were.”

  “Yes. And Lady Die sent him to bring me back. That’s how I got hurt that day in the woods. I told Loretta and Carly that I tripped and fell, but it happened when I was trying to fight Keith off.”

  Hannah turned off the gravel road and onto the highway. “Did you punch Keith in the face?”

  “No. The man did that. He was a really good fighter. I could tell that with the first punch he landed.”

  “Do you know who the man was?” Hannah glanced at Honey, but she quickly focused on the road again. Traffic was heavy and she needed to pay attention to her driving.

  “I don’t know who he was. He just came out of the woods on a horse and pulled Keith away from me. And when they started to fight, I ran away as fast as I could.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “Back to the farmhouse. I was going to pack a bag and run, but Loretta came home. She said she heard that there was a man killed on the road that ran past the farm and she drove right home to make sure I was all right. ”

  Honey gave a little sob and Hannah looked over at her passenger again. Honey’s face was still tear-streaked, but she looked more at peace than she had since Hannah had first met her. Perhaps that was because the truth was out and Hannah had promised to help her deal with the fallout.

  “Are you okay?” Hannah asked her.

  “I’m okay. It’s just that nobody ever cared that much about me before. And I’m worried about Loretta and Carly. What if Lady Die figures out where I went and she comes out to the farm to kill me?”

  “You won’t be there. That’s why you’re going to my place. I called Mike and left a message for him. He’ll probably be waiting for us at my condo. Between Stella and Mike, they’ll figure out a way to keep you safe until it’s time to testify against Lady Die and put her away for good!”

  “But will Loretta and Carly be safe?”

  “I’ll call the shop and tell Loretta to stay with Trudi tonight, just in case. And Carly can stay at my place with Michelle, or go to stay with any of her other friends. If Lady Die does drive out to the farm, the only person she’ll find there is a deputy who’ll arrest her.”

  “Okay then. That’s all good.” Honey breathed a deep sigh of relief as they pulled into Hannah’s parking spot. “Are we here?”

  “We’re here, but I guess Mike’s not, at least not yet. He would have parked in my other spot.”

  Hannah motioned to Honey and both of them got out of the car. Hannah led the way up the stairs, unlocked the door, and caught Moishe in her arms. This elicited a laugh from Honey, the first laugh Hannah had heard from her, and they went inside.

  “I called Norman to come and stay with you so you won’t be alone,” Hannah told her. “He should be here any minute. Just help yourself to anything you want in the refrigerator, and don’t let anyone in.”

  “How about this Norman? I’m supposed to let him in, aren’t I?”

  “You don’t have to let Norman in. He has a key. And he’ll probably bring his cat to play with Moishe. Her name is Cuddles.”

  “That’s a cute name. I like cats,” Honey said quite unnecessarily since she was standing by the back of the couch scratching Moishe under his chin.

  Hannah was just getting ready to leave when there was a knock on the door. “That’ll be Mike,” she said, not bothering to look through the peephole before she opened the door.

  “Wrong,” a female voice said, and Hannah found herself staring into the barrel of a pistol that was pointed at her head. “Back up, lady! Where’s Honey?”

  A million thoughts flashed through Hannah’s mind in the space of a nanosecond, but none of them did much good. She’d miss her mother’s wedding if she died right now, Honey would end up dying too, and Norman and Mike would discover their bodies. Delores would grieve for her, that was certain, and she’d probably wear ugly black outfits for years. Hannah’s mind clicked. Her last thought had been so incongruous, it had given her an idea.

  She made a motion behind her back that she hoped Honey would catch. It was a wave that was intended to tell Honey to run and hide in the safest, most obscure place she could find. And then Hannah deliberately took a step closer to the woman in the doorway.

  “Where ever did you get that incredibly horrible outfit?” Hannah asked in her best authoritarian voice.

  “Wha . . . ?” Lady Die was clearly taken aback, and she did as Hannah hoped she would do. She looked down at the outfit she was wearing.

  “Mistake!” Hannah said, grabbing the barrel of the gun and knocking it away. At the same time she planted her foot in Lady Die’s midsection and kicked her back as hard as she could.

  It worked almost like it had in the movie Hannah had seen with Mike. There was only one exception. She didn’t have a black belt in any martial art. The pistol did fall over the rail to the ground below just like it had in the movie. And Lady Die did stagger back a half-step or two. But she recovered her balance much more quickly than the villain had in the movie. And she came after Hannah with a vengeance.

  As Hannah turned to run, she knew not where, she heard a sound she recognized from the end of the hallway. The exercise machine was on and the treadmill was running! Hannah dashed down the hallway and into her bedroom, making a sharp turn just inside the doorway. She saw an orange and white streak as Moishe jumped off the treadmill and slid under the bed at high speed. At almost the same instant, Hannah scrambled over the mattress and dropped to the rug between the wall and her bed, feeling frantically for the bowl of flour she kept under the bed. She pulled it out and popped up just in time to see Lady Die step squarely on the belt of the treadmill.

  Time slowed to a crawl for Hannah as she watched Lady Die recover her balance once. The woman must be in incredibly good shape, probably enhanced by using Keith’s “girls” as punching bags. Then Lady Die managed to stay on her feet a second time by windmilling her arms and grabbing at the handlebars. Surely she couldn’t maintain her balance for long. Or could she?

  Hannah didn’t want to take the chance. There was too much at stake. She sidestepped around the edge of the bed and planted herself in front of the handlebars. Then she ripped off the lid she kept on the top of the bowl.

  “This is for Sugar,” Hannah exclaimed, throwing the bowl of flour squarely into Lady Die’s face.

  Lady Die let out a sound that was part scream and part growl as she lost her grip on the handlebars and fell, headfirst, on the belt. The belt kept moving, carrying her backward and she crashed into the bedroom wall at the back of the machine. It should have been over, but Lady Die would not give up. She attempted to make her way to the handlebars again by crawling.

  “Hands up!” a male voice yelled, and Hannah’s head swiveled toward her bedroom doorway in time to see Norman sprint forward to pull the plug on the machine. “I said, hands up! I’m a dentist!”

  What happened next made it fairly obvious to Hannah that Lady Die must have suffered some brain damage when she fell and hit her head on the machine. She just sat there wiping the flour from her eyes and laughing.

  “So whatcha gonna do, Mr. Dentist?” she asked. “Pull my teeth?”

  “I don’t pull teeth for free,” Norman replied, raising Lady Die’s pistol and pointing it at her head. “But I do occasional charity work and ridding the world of someone like you falls into that category. You can put your hands up, or you can be my next tax deduction. It’s your choice.”

  “Thanks, Norman. I got her now,” another male voice said.

  Hannah glanced at her bedroom doorway to see Mike standing there, and she watched as he grabbed Lady Die, hauled her to her feet, and cuffed her. “Good job,” he said to Norman.

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you even know how to shoot that pistol?” Mike asked.

  “Not really, but I saw you pull in right before I came through Hannah’s door and I knew all I had to do was create a diversion until you got up here.”

  That was when Hannah
heard a sound behind Mike and she moved to a better vantage point to see Honey standing there with her hands held up to her face.

  “Honey! Where were you?” Hannah asked her.

  “In your laundry room. I hid in your dryer since it’s one of those big ones. Do you know you have wet clothes in there?”

  “Uh-oh! I did a load this morning, and I was going to dry it, but I guess I forgot. Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “You’re safe now, Honey. Lady Die’s in cuffs and you don’t have to cry.”

  “I’m not crying,” Honey said removing her hands from her eyes. “I’m laughing. Your cat was on the treadmill, you threw a bowl of flour in Lady Die’s face, a dentist with a gun he doesn’t even know how to use came in the front door, and there’s a cute little cat out there in the living room looking totally confused. This place is a zoo!”

  Hannah burst into laughter. “I guess it is. Are you really sure you want to stay here in Lake Eden?”

  “Oh, yes!” Honey said, and she sounded very certain. “Sugar told me she left because her hometown was boring, but it’s not boring at all. If everybody else in Lake Eden is as much fun as you guys are, this is the perfect place for me.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Sorry I’m late,” Hannah said, sliding into her place next to Andrea at the big round table in the Lake Eden Inn dining room. “I got tied up.”

  “Literally?” Michelle asked, chuckling slightly at her own joke.

  “Almost literally. I’ll tell you all about it later.” Hannah turned to their host. “It’s nice of you to invite us to dinner, Doc.”

  “I enjoy your company, but that’s not the only reason I invited you to join me here tonight. I waited until you got here to start, but I planned this evening as a dinnervention.”

  “Dinnervention?” Hannah asked, beginning to laugh.

  “That’s right. It’s a combination dinner and intervention. Lori’s causing a problem for all four of you and I have a solution. All I need is your word that you won’t tell anyone about my solution until Lori and I are married.”

  “You have my word,” Hannah said quickly.

  “Mine, too,” Michelle chimed in.

  “And you have mine,” Andrea promised. “We almost went crazy trying to plan this wedding.”

  “Lisa?” Doc turned to the only one of them who hadn’t spoken.

  “I agree, but I’m not too happy about it,” Lisa told him. “When I married Herb we promised we wouldn’t have any secrets from each other, except for Christmas and birthday presents, and little things like that. But this isn’t little and it’s a secret.”

  “You can tell Herb,” Doc assured her. “I’d like you to warn him not to tell anyone else.”

  “I can do that. Herb will never tell. He keeps secrets better than anyone I’ve ever known.”

  “It’s fine then.” Doc looked around at each of them. “If Lori gets even a hint of this, it’s not going to work.”

  Hannah was about to ask what Doc’s solution was when Sally brought an appetizer tray. “Check this out,” she said, setting it in the center of the table. She turned to Doc and asked, “Did you tell them yet?”

  “Not yet. We were just waiting for Hannah to get here. You can bring the drinks, Sally. And once you do that, please sit down and join us. You’re a part of this, too.”

  Sally hurried to the bar and picked up a tray of martini glasses that she carried back to the table. “These are Blackberry Pie Martinis,” she explained as she set a glass in front of each of them and took one for herself. “Dick came up with the recipe.”

  “Thanks, Sally, but I really shouldn’t . . .” Michelle started to say, but Sally put a hand on her shoulder.

  “No worries,” Sally said. “Yours is nonalcoholic. So is mine. I have to cook tonight.”

  “These are incredible,” Lisa said, after she’d taken a sip.

  “Yes, they are,” Hannah agreed with a smile.

  That was everyone’s cue to compliment Dick’s martinis and Sally looked very pleased. “I’ll tell Dick you liked them.”

  “So what’s your solution, Doc?” Hannah asked, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. She hoped it was a good solution. Someone had to take charge of this runaway wedding train, and Doc Knight was the only one who could do it.

  “I’ll tell you in a minute,” Doc said, motioning toward the pretty Lazy Susan that Sally had put in the center of the round table. “What do you think of Sally’s appetizers?”

  “I think I’m happier than I’ve been all day,” Hannah said, helping herself to a toast point with smoked salmon and herb-studded cream cheese. She pointed to the neighboring section on the swiveling tower. “Are those Bill Jessup’s Misdemeanor Mushrooms?”

  “You betcha!” Sally said, grinning from ear to ear as Hannah added two to her appetizer plate. And then Sally proceeded to name the appetizers in each section of the tiered tray.

  “My favorite deviled eggs!” Michelle said, taking one with smoked salmon and another with ham salad. “What could be better than this?”

  “Baked Brie with apple and cinnamon,” Andrea said, helping herself to a big slice.

  “These olives stuffed with bleu cheese are the best,” Lisa offered her opinion.

  “No, the haggis is.”

  “Haggis?!” Hannah gasped, staring at Doc’s side of the Lazy Susan. “Where’s that?”

  “It’s not haggis. It’s Mike’s Busy Day Pate,” Sally told them. “It just looks different because I piped it on a triangle of pumpernickel bread.”

  “We only have ten minutes or so until Mother gets here,” Hannah said, glancing at her watch as they finished their martinis and Sally’s busboy arrived to take away the appetizer tray. “You’d better tell us your solution now, Doc.”

  “It’s simple,” Doc said, smiling at all of them. “I’m going to kidnap Lori and drive her to the airport. We’ll board a plane to Las Vegas, first class of course, and get married at the Little White Wedding Chapel.”

  “By Elvis?” Lisa asked, who had obviously heard of the Little White Wedding Chapel.

  “No, by a minister. They have regular services, too. I called to find out. After the ceremony, you girls will spend the night there and fly back to Lake Eden in the morning to get ready for the reception dinner. Lori and I will stay a second night and then fly back in time for the reception.”

  There was silence for a full minute as they all thought about it. It was an incredible plan. And then Sally spoke. “Does Delores know about this?”

  “Of course not. Lori would never agree. I’m just going to kidnap her from her house and bundle her into a waiting limo that’ll drive us to the airport.”

  “That’s romantic,” Lisa said, blinking back the moisture that had formed in her eyes.

  “That’s not romantic. That’s necessary,” Hannah contradicted Lisa. “Mother’s never going to make up her mind and none of us can take any more of these changes in the wedding plans.”

  “And that’s why I decided to save us all the aggravation,” Doc explained. “Your mother will be so happy by the time the reception rolls around, she’ll love anything you decide to do. Just put up with her in the meantime and know that the final decisions are entirely yours. Can you do that?”

  “We can do that,” Hannah said. “Is there anything we can do to help you arrange things?”

  “All you have to do is pack a suitcase for Lori on the day we leave and bring it out to me at the hospital. Then we’ll be all set.” Doc looked around at their shocked, but delighted faces. “So what do you think of my solution?”

  “It’s brilliant,” Hannah spoke for all of them and there were nods all around the table. “We’ll be grateful forever, Doc. You saved us a lot of grie . . .” She stopped speaking as she glanced at the door to the dining room. “Uh-oh! Here she comes!”

  All eyes swiveled toward Dot Larson, who was leading Delores into the dining room. Sally got up to go back to the kitc
hen, stopping to greet Delores on the way, and Delores gave a little wave around the table as she sat down in the vacant chair next to Doc. Then she zeroed in on Hannah. “Are you all right, Hannah?”

  “I’m fine, Mother. Why?”

  “There was a rumor floating around at the hospital when I left. Mike and Bill brought in a woman in handcuffs, and she had a head injury. Jenny was on, and Mike told her that the woman tried to kill you!”

  “That’s true,” Hannah admitted.

  “Jenny also said that Mike told her Norman held a gun on the woman until he arrived to cuff her.”

  “That’s true, too.”

  “Oh, my!” Delores put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath. “I’m so glad you’re all right! Mike told Jenny and Marlene that you were, but I was still worried. Tell me, dear . . . is it true that Norman didn’t even know how to shoot that gun?”

  “That’s what he said after Mike arrived.”

  “Well, for heaven’s sakes! What was Norman planning to do with it?”

  “He was planning to figure it out before he had to shoot, Mother.”

  Andrea started to laugh. “Did that last sentence of yours have a comma in it, Hannah?”

  For one brief second, Hannah didn’t get it, but when she did, she was delighted. Andrea had made her first joke about grammar. Perhaps all the nights she’d spent helping Andrea with her grade school grammar lessons had borne fruit after all!

  “It has a comma,” Hannah told her. “Norman wasn’t planning to shoot Mother.”

  There was laughter around the table for several minutes and then Sally arrived with a split of champagne. “Delores?” she said, pouring it for Delores and giving her a glass. “I know you’ve already eaten so I brought you a sweet treat to go with your champagne.”

  Delores looked down at the gold box on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yes,” Sally said. “The last time you were here with Doc, you mentioned that you loved chocolate, so I made some fruit truffles for you.”