Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)

by Joanne Fluke

  “Not now.” Hannah shook her head. “I want to keep this private.”

  “Private, as in not telling Bill or Mike?”

  “That’s right. I’m already involved in investigating Rhonda’s murder and they’re okay with that. But if they find out that Michelle is the one who had that ten-dollar bill, they’ll have to tell the Feds. Michelle doesn’t need that. They’ll ask her a million useless questions and ruin her vacation.”

  “You’ve got a point. How about if I come over to your condo with my laptop when the party breaks up?”

  “That’d be great.” Hannah looked up as she heard footsteps. Mike and Bill were coming down the stairs.

  Bill was the first on the dock and he walked over to Andrea. “We’ve got to take off, honey. We just got word that the autopsy report’s in and we need to go over some things with Doc. Tracey wants to know if it’s okay if she stays out here overnight. Delores and Carrie promised to play a board game with her.”

  “Tell her it’s fine. She loves to stay overnight with Grandma.”

  “That’ll work out perfectly,” Michelle said. “Tracey can have my bed and then Mother won’t be alone.”

  Hannah turned to her youngest sister in surprise. “Alone? Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got a date.”

  “Don’t let him take you to any isolated spots,” Mike jumped into the conversation. “We still haven’t caught Rhonda’s killer.”

  Michelle laughed. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “Are you sure?” Mike still looked concerned.

  “I’m positive. I’m going out with Lonnie Murphy.”

  Hannah stifled a laugh. That ought to take the wind out of Mike’s sails. Lonnie was the newest hire at the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department and Mike liked him. Lonnie’s older brother, Rick, had been with the department for three years, and Mike had told Hannah that eventually the two Murphy brothers might make a good detective team.

  “You said Tracey could have your bed,” Mike reminded Michelle. “Are you planning to stay out all night?”

  “Of course not, but Lonnie and I went to high school together and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. It could be a late night. I don’t want to wake Mother when I come in, so I was going to ask Hannah if I could stay with her.”

  “Of course,” Hannah agreed quickly, before Mike could think about giving any other dating advice.

  “I don’t like leaving you alone, honey.” Bill sat down and slipped his arm around Andrea’s shoulders.

  “I won’t be alone. I’ll drive over to Hannah’s. When you’re through working, you can get Mike to drop you off there and we’ll go home in my car.”

  “It could be three or four hours. We’re meeting with Doc and then we have to catch up on the paperwork.”

  Andrea reached up to pat Bill’s chest. “Don’t worry about me, honey. If I get tired, I can sack out on Hannah’s couch.”

  Hannah wasn’t sure how she felt as she listened to this tender exchange. On the one hand, it was nice to have someone who was concerned about you. But on the other hand, you couldn’t ever feel truly independent. Marriage was a trade-off. You gave up some things and you gained others. Since Hannah knew she’d balk at the trade-off aspect, it must mean that she wasn’t ready for that walk down the aisle, at least not quite yet.

  Chapter

  Twenty

  H annah reached out for Moishe, who seemed fascinated with Norman’s computer and was sitting on the coffee table, pawing at the keyboard. “Guard your computer, Norman. I’ll carry him in the kitchen and fill his food bowl. Then he might leave you alone.”

  “He’s okay. He’s just curious.” Norman scooped Moishe up and settled him down on his lap.

  “He shouldn’t be that close to your computer,” Andrea advised, waving away some orange and white cat hairs that were floating around in the air. “He’s shedding.”

  “That’s what cats do. It’s not his fault.” Norman scratched Moishe behind the ears with one hand and typed with the other. “I’ll blow out the keyboard with compressed air when I get home.”

  “Are there any more leftover cookies, Hannah?” Andrea picked up an empty bag and crumpled it.

  “No, but I’m baking fresh. Let me go see how they’re coming.”

  Hannah stepped into the kitchen and sniffed the air. The new cookies smelled wonderful, a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and a secret ingredient that Norman and Andrea would never be able to identify. It was so unusual, no one would ever think of it and it would remain a mystery to anyone who tasted the cookies. And that’s what she’d call them, Mystery Cookies.

  As if on cue, the oven timer beeped and Hannah opened the door to take out the sheet of cookies. She’d gone into the kitchen to mix up this batch right after she’d noticed that Norman and Andrea were going through her bags of leftover cookies like starving wolves at a sheep convention. At first she’d planned to make Chocolate Chip Crunches, but she’d been out of chips and cornflakes. Peanut Butter Melts had been out, since the jar of peanut butter was nearly empty. Her Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies would have worked, but they required chilling time and the wolves in the living room might attack if their stomachs weren’t placated. She’d stared at her pantry shelf for a moment to assess her stock of ingredients, and then she’d flipped through her cookbook for the recipe Grandma Ingrid had called Red Spice Cake and adapted it for cookies on the fly.

  Once Hannah had transferred the hot cookies to a rack and slipped another pan in the oven, she put the dozen cool cookies she’d made on a plate and carried them into the living room. “Here. These are ready and I’ve got more on the way.”

  “Thanks, Hannah.” Andrea took a cookie with her left hand and munched while she continued to take notes from Norman’s computer screen. “These are really good. They’re moist and cinnamony and…is that a word?”

  “Is what a word?”

  “Cinnamony.”

  Hannah laughed. “If it’s not, it ought to be.”

  “Mmm…” Andrea reached out for another cookie. “What are these?”

  “Spice cookies. I’m going to call them Mystery Cookies.”

  “That’s a good name.” Norman grabbed a cookie before Andrea could take her third. “What’s the mystery?”

  “There’s a secret ingredient and I don’t think anyone can guess what it is. Except maybe Andrea.”

  “Me?” Andrea looked surprised. “How would I guess? You know I don’t bake.”

  You don’t cook, either , Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it. Andrea had taken enough heat over the years about her lack of culinary skills. “Just think about Grandma Ingrid’s Red Spice Cake and you’ll know.”

  “But that was made with…” Andrea stopped abruptly and began to grin. “I think I get it. Does this mystery ingredient come in a red and white can?”

  “Yes, and don’t tell anybody. I’ll have to tell Lisa because she’ll be helping me mix the dough, but I’ll swear her to secrecy.”

  “I’ll never tell. I promise.” Andrea raised her hand to her chest and gestured. “Cross my heart and hope to die. I wonder where that comes from.”

  “It’s a reference to the crucifixion. It’s like knock on wood . That’s a reference to the wooden cross.”

  “Really?” Norman turned to stare at her. “How do you know that?”

  Hannah shrugged. “I read it somewhere a long time ago. Little things like that stick in my head.”

  “If you had a computer you could find out all sorts of things like that on-line,” Norman told her.

  Hannah sighed. They’d had this discussion before. Norman was trying to pull her kicking and screaming into cyberspace. “Why would I need to find it out if I already know it?”

  “You don’t know it all. It’s fun doing research on the Web and it’s way past time for you to get a computer. As a matter of fact, I think you should have two.”

  “One for each hand?” Hannah quipped.
r />   “No, one for here and one for The Cookie Jar.”

  “But why? I’m doing just fine without a computer.”

  “You could have a master file of your recipes,” Andrea jumped into the fray. “Then you wouldn’t have to make copies and keep them in both places. If you made a change in a recipe at work, you could send it to your computer at home. When you got home, you could print it out and then you’d always have the updated version.”

  “That’s what I do now. I just run down to the drugstore and make a copy and bring it home.”

  “But that’s the whole point.” Andrea was insistent. “You wouldn’t have to run down to the drugstore. You’d be saving money, too. That copier down there is expensive.”

  Hannah laughed. “And two computers aren’t?”

  “Not as expensive as you think,” Norman took over the argument. “They’re practically giving away last year’s models. Since you don’t need it for anything fancy, you wouldn’t need to be state-of-the-art.”

  “You’re ganging up on me,” Hannah accused them. “And here I am, feeding you cookies. That’s not nice.”

  Andrea reached out for her fourth cookie. “You’re right. I wish you had a printer at home, though. Then I wouldn’t have to copy all this stuff off Norman’s screen. It’s like copying off the blackboard at school and I hated doing that. I always got a terrible headache.”

  That’s because you refused to wear your glasses , Hannah thought, but she wasn’t mean-spirited enough to say it.

  “Of course, that’s because I wouldn’t wear my glasses. I thought they made me look ugly,” Andrea went on. “That’s one of the things I like about using computers. If I get close enough, I don’t have to wear them. I think I hear your timer, Hannah.”

  Andrea was right. Hannah got up to take another sheet of cookies from the oven. She stuck in another sheet, set the timer again, and when she came back, she found Andrea and Norman smiling broadly. “You found something?”

  “Bingo!” Andrea said, and held up Hannah’s notebook. “I copied it all down for you. There were two men and they stole over two hundred thousand dollars. One was apprehended that night, but the other one got away with the money. He was caught a week later, trying to cross the Canadian border, but he only had five thousand dollars with him and he refused to say where he’d hidden the rest. Since one of the bank guards was killed in the robbery, both men were charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison.”

  “Which prison?”

  “That’s the one thing the article doesn’t say. I can find out, though. First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll call the prisons and ask if the robbers are there.”

  “I hate to put a damper on your spirits, but I don’t think that’ll work.” Norman shook his head. “Prison officials don’t give out that kind of information on the phone.”

  Hannah laughed. “They don’t, not usually, but you’ve never seen Andrea in action.”

  “That’s right.” Andrea preened a bit. “I’m a real estate agent. We’re trained to get confidential information out of people.”

  The doorbell rang and Hannah glanced at her watch. It was only eleven and Michelle had said she’d be late.

  “Look through the peephole before you open the door,” Andrea advised.

  “I can’t use it at night. The outside light’s in the wrong place and all I can see is a silhouette.”

  “Then leave the chain on,” Norman suggested.

  Hannah thought it was silly, but she did leave the chain on. After all, there was a killer on the loose.

  “It’s me, Hannah,” Michelle said, waving at Hannah through the crack in the door.

  “You’re early. Did something go wrong on your date?”

  “No. Or maybe that’s a yes. Lonnie got called back to the station.”

  “Did they catch Rhonda’s killer?”

  “No, nothing like that. Lonnie’s the youngest deputy and they call him in to do all the grunt work.”

  “That’s too bad,” Hannah said, knowing exactly what Lonnie was going through. The most recent hire in any business had to do all the things the veteran employees didn’t want to do. “Wait just a second. I have to shut the door to take off the chain.”

  When the chain was off and the door was fully open, Michelle stepped inside. She made a maneuver that would have made any running back proud, and neatly blocked Moishe’s headlong rush to the door. “Hi, Moishe. You remember me from last night, don’t you?”

  “He remembers the smoked salmon you brought him for Christmas. Listen to that. He’s purring already.”

  “I don’t have any salmon this trip, but I do have this.” Michelle reached into her purse and brought out a cellophane wrapper with a long string tied around it.

  “He really doesn’t play, Michelle,” Hannah said, as Michelle dropped the wrapper on the rug.

  “He’ll play with this. Just watch.”

  Hannah watched as Michelle began to walk forward, tugging the wrapper behind her. And then the cat Hannah had thought was non-playful began to chase the wrapper. Moishe pounced, Michelle jerked the wrapper away, and then they did it all over again, all the way to the sofa where Andrea and Norman were sitting.

  “I’ll be!” Hannah said, heading for the kitchen to take the last pan of cookies out of the oven. She’d spent a fortune on high-priced kitty toys when Moishe had first moved in with her, and he hadn’t played with any of them. Now it seemed that all she’d needed was a crumpled cellophane wrapper and a piece of ordinary string.

  When Hannah came back with a fresh plate of cookies, Michelle dug right in. She ate two in rapid succession and then she gave Hannah a thumbs-up. “These are great. I waited for you to get back so I could tell you all together. The reason Lonnie had to go back to the station is that Freddy Sawyer got in trouble tonight.”

  “Is Freddy okay?” Hannah asked, imagining the worst. Freddy had told her that Jed was teaching him to fight.

  “He’s fine now, but he got hauled in for drunk and disorderly. Jed promised that it would never happen again and they let him off with a warning.”

  “I didn’t think Freddy drank.” Andrea looked puzzled.

  “He didn’t before his cousin got here,” Hannah said with a sigh. “But now that Jed’s in the picture, he’s teaching Freddy all sorts of things that aren’t good for him.”

  “I got the same impression,” Michelle said. “Lonnie and I sobered Freddy up and then we drove him home to sleep it off. Lonnie had to go back to the station to file the paperwork, so he dropped me off here.”

  “I’m sorry your date didn’t work out,” Norman said. “Lonnie seems like a really nice guy.”

  “You know him?” Michelle looked surprised.

  “He’s been coming in every Saturday morning since he got his dental insurance. It’s part of the county heath package. His teeth were in good shape to start with, but we did a few things to correct his bite.”

  “Right. You never know when you have to bite someone in the line of duty,” Hannah joked, and then she turned to Michelle. “Tell us what happened with Freddy. Was he in a bar fight?”

  “No, nothing like that. He was riding in the back of that pickup truck Jed just bought and mooning people as his cousin passed them on the road.”

  Hannah was shocked. It wasn’t really a serious offense since no one had been hurt, but it would offend a lot of people. “As far as I know, Freddy’s never been in trouble with the law before. And that doesn’t sound like something he’d think of to do, all by himself.”

  “You’re right. According to Lonnie, the girl Freddy was drinking with in the bar admitted that she’d egged him on. She said she thought it was funny.”

  Hannah felt sick. “Freddy’s drinking, getting involved with girls in bars, and mooning people on the road? If this is Jed’s way of teaching him to be a man, I don’t like it one bit!”

  “Neither do I,” Norman said. “Freddy did some work for me when I was remodeling the clinic. He was always a good,
responsible worker and he seemed a little shy to me. This just doesn’t sound like it’s in character for him.”

  “You’re right,” Andrea agreed. “Jed’s the one who’s giving Freddy ideas. And now that Freddy’s mother is dead, there’s no one to really look out for him. I don’t think Mrs. Sawyer approved of Jed. He never came around when she was alive.”

  “I’ll try to talk to Freddy tomorrow,” Norman promised, setting his laptop in its carrying case and zipping it up. “Jed has a lot of influence with him, but that’s because we let him. We’re all too busy with our own lives and we don’t take enough time to really get involved.”

  After Norman had said his good-byes to Andrea and Michelle, Hannah walked him to the door. She followed him out on the landing, closed the door behind them, and gave him a big hug. “You’re a good man, Norman.”

  “Thanks, but I didn’t do that much. Looking up things on-line is simple.”

  “Not that. I was talking about Freddy. It’s really good of you to offer to get involved.”

  “But you’re involved. You always take time to talk to Freddy, even when you’re busy. There’s no reason why I can’t find the time to help him, too.”

  “That’s what I mean. You’re a good man.” Hannah hugged him again.

  Norman’s arms tightened around her and he started to grin. “Is this your idea of a reward for good behavior?”

  “Maybe. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Absolutely nothing. I just think I need a little bigger reward.” Norman tipped her face up and kissed her.

  It was a sweet kiss and Hannah didn’t want it to end. It felt good to be this close to Norman. It was comforting, and warm, and nice, and exciting, too. And while her bones didn’t melt and her legs didn’t tremble in the same way they did when Mike kissed her, she didn’t have that little doubt in the back of her mind about how many other women he’d kissed in exactly this way.

  “Good night, Norman,” Hannah said, when their kiss had ended. “Thank you.”

  “For the kiss?”

  “Yes. And for being you.”

  Norman smiled and started down the stairs, but he stopped halfway and turned to look back at her. “I’m glad I’m me, especially tonight. I really don’t like the idea of you kissing somebody that’s not me.”