Clammed Up (A Maine Clambake Mystery)

by Barbara Ross

  Chapter 52

  Three weeks later, I waited on Morrow Island to greet our special guests as they disembarked from the Jacquie II. It was a beautiful evening for a clambake.

  Livvie and Sonny had moved out to the island for the summer. Page could have the same island childhood Livvie and I had, and our mother before us. Sonny took over Etienne’s job as the bake master, which meant he and I had different spheres, different responsibilities, which cut down a lot of arguments. We’d both been reminded recently how critical our health was, physical and mental, and how important family was. It taught us to compromise when the situation called for it. Livvie loved being on the island and tended Gabrielle’s vegetable garden every day.

  Page adopted Le Roi. When she hugged him to her chest, his back legs fell below her knees. He was obviously annoyed, but let her do it, anyway. He was still the king of the island. The human beings came and went, but he remained.

  We reopened the clambake with Quentin Tupper as our “very silent” partner. He continued to resist, protesting that investing in the clambake sounded, “too much like work.” I finally convinced him he didn’t need to be involved at all and buying a third of the business was hugely preferable to having a resort, complete with helicopter pad, across from his property. So far he’d been next to invisible, which was the way he wanted it. I actually would’ve liked having a partner to talk to about the big decisions.

  One of the biggest decisions was what to do about Windsholme. In the end, with the building inspector’s blessing, we erected a chain-link fence around its perimeter and left the mansion as it was. It looked awful, and sometimes I thought we should have sold the property to Tony Poitras and let him build one of his beautiful resorts on the ruins. But then I looked around and saw the happy families at the clambake, most of them people who could never enjoy Morrow Island if it was a high-end resort, and I knew we had done the right thing. In the fall, when the clambake closed for the season, we would decide what to do about the building.

  Marie Halsey brought Tyler out to the island with her almost every day to play with Page. The kids had a little moneymaking enterprise where they sold shells and sea glass to the guests. Sarah’s lawyer thought he could negotiate the charge against her down to something called criminal misadventure. She didn’t kill Ray, though she may have been a party to impairing his judgment to the point where he went out to a little island in a big ocean in the middle of the night. She’d probably only get probation. The plea deal would clear the way for Tyler to inherit Ray’s money with Sarah remaining as his legal guardian.

  A rumor floated around that Sarah had told the cops who’d sold her the Rophynol.

  “Gee, I wonder who that could have been?” Sonny said.

  I knew he meant Chris. I wasn’t naive. Chris worked as a bouncer, owned a cab and a boat. An almost perfect setup for a drug dealer. There had always been rumors about him. But I didn’t think it was him. If Sarah had informed on Chris, why was he still walking around? Not that I’d seen him, but I would’ve heard if he’d been arrested.

  Binder must have believed Etienne’s story and my account of what happened the night Windsholme burned. He persuaded the prosecutor to charge Etienne with misuse of a cadaver for hanging up Ray’s body, the least serious offense available. Etienne would pay a fine, but nothing worse. He was staying with us until it all got straightened out. He came to Morrow Island one last time, to scatter Gabrielle’s ashes off the little beach. Afterwards, he said he’d never set foot on Morrow Island again. My heart broke for him.

  We’d invited everyone we knew in town out to the island for a clambake. It seemed like the best way to show people we were back in business and it was safe to recommend us. I stood on the dock, welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Gus, Fee and Vee Snuggs, Clarice Kemp, Quentin Tupper, and even Bob Ditzy. Bygones needed to be bygones. I’d invited the Chinese maid from the Bellevue and the Russian girl from the Lighthouse Inn. And Lieutenant Binder, Detective Flynn, Jamie, Officer Howland, and anyone who had helped us along the way. I’d seen Jamie around town a few times. We’d each gone out of our way to be polite. Neither of us had said a word about the kiss or the fight.

  When the Jacquie II emptied out and the crowd moved up the lawn, I stood for a moment, hoping.

  Even with Livvie and Sonny living there, my mother still hadn’t come out to the island. I finally understood why she hadn’t returned in the five years since my father died. I thought the island represented her happiest childhood home, and the place where she met my father. She didn’t want to color those memories with her grief. And now, she had the grief of Gabrielle to deal with, as well. It was my hope, and Livvie’s, with Page as a lure, my mother would someday return to the island. But not today.

  I knew my mother wasn’t coming, but someone else was missing.

  I hadn’t run into Chris around town. It didn’t strike me as odd, necessarily. The season was in full swing and I’d always known our lunches together would end then. Besides, as he’d told me on that awful day when he was arrested for something he didn’t do, I’d misunderstood our relationship. One thing I was sure of, though. He’d been the one who cleaned up the playhouse. Everyone else denied it. I shuddered thinking about how two small acts, Chris cleaning the playhouse and me having a couple rooms in Windsholme rewired, had hastened Gabrielle’s descent into madness.

  Finally, Captain George came down the gangplank. He crooked his arm at the elbow and cocked his thumb back toward the cabin. “There’s someone onboard who wants to see you.”

  My mother! She’d come after all. She probably needed my moral support to step onto the island. I scurried onto the boat, calling, “Mom?”

  But it wasn’t my mother. When I entered the Jacquie II ’s cabin, Chris stood in the center of the deck. In spite of everything, my heart soared. But I knew better than to have any expectations. He had plainly told me not to.

  “I know it’s a busy night for you,” he said, “but I wanted to see you. To explain some things.” He paused. “Sarah Halsey and I have been friends a long time.”

  My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “You don’t owe me any explanations,” I managed to say. In fact, he’d already explained. He’d told me I misunderstood.

  “I think I do.” He moved so close I could smell him, that intoxicating scent of a man who’s washed off the sweat, but who smells of hard, physical work. The scent of all the men who were truly important in my life.

  “Sarah was alone when she came here. Pregnant. She worked at the T-shirt store on Main Street before she attended that birthing class where she met Livvie. Before your dad gave her a job. I met her then and started watching out for her.”

  I wanted to protest again that he didn’t need to tell me, mostly because I didn’t want to hear.

  “There was something between Sarah and me after Tyler was born, but it’s been over for years. When I was involved with her, Tyler became important to me. He still is. My relationship with Sarah these days is all about him. Only about Tyler. His dad was a roaring drunk and I do whatever I can to take up some of the slack.”

  Chris took both of my hands and pulled me closer to him. “That’s all it is, Julia. That’s all it ever was. It’s a small town. That’s what I meant when I said people misunderstood. They misunderstood my relationship with Sarah.” He paused and put a hand under my chin. “I think, also, some people misunderstand my relationship with you.”

  He pulled me to him. “You’re the one I’ve wanted, all along.” And then he kissed me, hard.

  Recipes

  Snowden Family Clam Chowder

  The Snowden Family Clambake Company serves traditional New England Clam Chowder by the gallon. This recipe has been adapted for home use by Bill Carito, but will be just as yummy.

  ¼ pound thick-cut bacon, chopped

  1 large onion (approximately ¾ pound), chopped

  2 large potatoes (approximately 1 pound), cubed

  2 bottles clam juice

  ½ Tablespoon cho
pped fresh thyme

  1 pint shucked and minced or chopped clams with their juices reserved (4 cans)

  1½ cups whole milk

  1½ cups half and half

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Using medium heat, cook the bacon in the soup pot until crispy.

  Add the onion and cook 5 minutes.

  Add the potato cubes and cook 2 minutes.

  Add the bottled clam juice, reserved juices from the clams, and thyme leaves, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. While the potatoes are simmering, combine the milk and half and half and gently warm in a saucepan (or microwave) to just past lukewarm.

  Add the milk, half and half, and the clams to the pot when the potatoes are tender. Bring to a gentle simmer (do not boil) and cook an additional 10 minutes.

  Salt and pepper to taste.

  Serve with crackers or crusty bread.

  Snowden Family Blueberry Grunt

  Most Maine families have multiple recipes for blueberry desserts—duffs, grunts, slumps, crunches, crisps, pies, and coffee cakes. Throughout New England and the eastern provinces of Canada, it’s possible to get into a quite lively discussion about which is which. Whatever you call them, these desserts are delicious. Here’s the one the Snowden family serves at the clambake. This recipe was adapted for home use by the late Maine author A. Carmen Clark.

  ½ cup water

  1 quart blueberries

  cup sugar

  Topping

  1½ cups flour

  2 Tablespoons butter

  2 teaspoons baking powder

  ½ teaspoon salt

  ¼ cup sugar

  ½ cup milk

  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

  Grease a deep baking dish or casserole and into this put the berries, sugar, and water.

  Place in the oven for 20 minutes while mixing the dough.

  Blend the butter into the flour. Add other ingredients and mix in with a fork, making the dough.

  Spoon the dough over the hot berries.

  Bake for 20 additional minutes.

  Livvie’s Lobster Mac and Cheese

  Livvie is the real cook in the Snowden family and her lobster mac and cheese is delicious. The sharp taste of the cheese with the sweetness of the lobster meat, and the textures—springy noodles, toothsome lobster, and crunchy panko breadcrumbs—cannot be beat. Livvie uses local cheeses that can only be purchased in Maine, but simple substitutions are supplied.

  1 pound elbow macaroni

  2 Tablespoons butter

  2 Tablespoons flour

  1½ cup milk

  teaspoon grated nutmeg

  ½ pound grated Hahn’s End Eleanor Buttercup cheese (or substitute Fontina or Monterey Jack)

  ½ pound grated Hahn’s End Olde Shiretown cheese (or substitute cheddar)

  1 pound cooked lobster meat (approximately four lobsters)

  ½ cup snipped chives

  Topping

  1 cup panko bread crumbs

  2 Tablespoons butter

  ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

  Grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter.

  Boil water and cook pasta for approximately five minutes until just barely al dente. Drain well and return the pasta to the pan. Set aside.

  Heat the milk to lukewarm (one minute on high power in the microwave).

  Over medium heat, melt the butter in a 2–3 quart saucepan. Whisk in the flour, stirring constantly for two minutes. Remove from the heat and add milk slowly, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.

  Add the nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.

  Return the pan to the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and gently simmer for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens. Pour over the cooked macaroni.

  Add cheeses, lobster, and chives and gently stir together until combined. Turn the mixture into the baking dish.

  Melt the butter and mix with the bread crumbs until fully coated.

  Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

  Spoon over the top of the pasta.

  Bake for 20–25 minutes. The top should be golden.

  Gus’s Clam Hash

  Gus doesn’t let anyone into his restaurant unless he knows them, or someone he does know vouches for them. That means you may never be able to taste Gus’s delicious clam hash. But if you follow this recipe, you’ll get very, very close!

  2 large Maine potatoes

  1 large yellow onion

  2 cans minced clams (Gus uses 1 cup of freshly minced clams, but if you buy a good brand of canned, it will be almost as good.)

  Salt

  Pepper

  2 Tablespoons heavy cream

  2 strips bacon

  1 Tablespoon butter

  Prick the potatoes with a fork and microwave on high for 5 minutes or until they can be easily pierced with a fork.

  Cut onion in eighths, then put in a food processor and pulse 10 times.

  Peel the cooled potatoes and chop them into large cubes.

  Put the cubed potatoes in the food processor with the onions and pulse to combine.

  Add salt and pepper.

  Add the drained clams and cream. Pulse to combine.

  In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy, then remove and set aside.

  Add the butter to the bacon fat in the frying pan.

  Add the hash from the food processor and press down into the frying pan.

  Cook for 5–6 minutes on medium heat until the bottom begins to brown.

  Turn and cook the other side.

  Keep flipping to add more crust as desired.

  Top with crumbled bacon.

  Gabrielle’s Tourtière

  Every French Canadian family has a treasured recipe for these famous meat pies, which are often served on holidays. This is Gabrielle’s recipe. It is Julia’s favorite meal.

  Pie Crust

  3½ cups flour

  2 teaspoon kosher salt

  1½ cups shortening or lard

  1 egg, beaten lightly with a fork

  1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

  ¼ to ½ cup ice water, as needed

  1 Tablespoon milk (to brush over finished pie before baking)

  In a food processor, using the metal blade, pulse the flour and salt to combine.

  Add the shortening and pulse until reaching the consistency of corn meal.

  Add the egg, vinegar, and ¼ cup ice water. Pulse, adding additional ice water, if necessary, until ingredients barely come together in a dough ball.

  Turn out onto a cutting board and pat together evenly into a large oblong.

  Divide into four pieces. You will need two for the tourtière. You can freeze the other two for later use.

  Refrigerate.

  Remove from the fridge ten minutes before using.

  Filling

  2 pounds pork shoulder in 1–2 inch chunks

  1 large onion chopped

  1 teaspoon kosher salt

  2 cups homemade chicken stock, or low-sodium canned stock

  3–4 cups diced potatoes

  1 teaspoon cinnamon

  1½ teaspoon ground cloves

  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

  In a food processor, using the metal blade, pulse pork to a rough chop (10–20 pulses).

  Combine the pork, onion, salt, and stock in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently, stirring often, for 4 hours until all the liquid evaporates.

  Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook 3–5 minutes until just tender.

  Put the cooked potatoes and pork in the food processor. Add spices, and pulse 4–5 times to combine.

  Roll out one crust between two pieces of wax or parchment paper and place it in a 9-inch pie plate, then spoon in the filling.

  Roll out a second crust and top the filling with it.

  Brush the second crust with m
ilk, and make holes with a fork.

  Bake for thirty minutes.

  Livvie’s Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake

  Strawberry rhubarb jam day is a big day in the Snowden house and part of the tradition is Livvie making her Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake for the family to enjoy later that day.

  Cake

  2 cups flour

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 cup sugar

  ¼ pound unsalted butter, room temperature

  2 eggs

  ½ pint sour cream

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  2 ½ to 3 cups strawberries, halved, then sliced

  2 ½ to 3 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces

  Topping

  ½ cup sugar

  cup flour

  2 teaspoons cinnamon

  ½ stick unsalted butter, room temperature

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  Grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter. Measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and stir together.

  In a separate bowl, stir sour cream and vanilla together.

  In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter together for three minutes at medium speed.

  Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition.

  Alternate adding the flour and sour cream mixtures to the sugar, beating after each addition, until smooth.

  Gently fold the fruit into the batter, distributing it evenly. Pour the batter into the baking dish.

  Beat the topping ingredients until they come together in large crumbs. Spoon the topping over batter.

  Bake 45–50 minutes. Test doneness by inserting toothpick in the center until it emerges clean. Cool completely before cutting into squares.