by Joanne Fluke
“Okay. Just hold on a second and I’ll get it for you.”
To Hannah’s surprise, Andrea took out her cell phone and punched in some numbers. While she was waiting, she took out her pen and her leather-bound notebook and turned to a blank page.
“I’m connected. Hold on,” she said to Lisa and Hannah, and then she punched in more information on the phone keypad. There was another wait and then Andrea started to write on the paper. When she was finished, she punched another couple of numbers and switched off the phone, dropped it back in her purse, and handed the page to Lisa. “Here you go. I got the phone number, too.”
“How?” Hannah asked, staring at her sister in amazement. “You didn’t say a word.”
“That’s because I wasn’t talking to a person. I didn’t feel like running back out to the car to get my laptop, so I used my cell phone to connect to the state real estate board’s central computer. That’s where all the information is stored.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course. You really ought to keep up with things, Hannah. Technology’s great and you’re still stuck in the Dark Ages!”
“Right,” Hannah said, looking around her and realizing that her sister had a point. All but one table was filled with afternoon coffee drinkers and at least three out of five people were talking on a cell phone. She counted four laptop computers, and only one person was making notes with a pen.
“At least get a computer. Everybody’s got a computer. They make life a lot easier.”
“Maybe,” Hannah said. “I can see where you need one, but I’m still not sure about me. I’ll make you a promise, though.”
“Okay. What?”
“The day that Mother gets a computer, I’ll get one too.”
“Oh, sure. Like that’s going to happen!” Andrea gave a short, little laugh, and then she turned to Lisa. “Go and call Mary now.”
“But it’s time for me to go around with the coffee carafe.”
“I’ll do it for you,” Andrea volunteered. “Go ahead and make the call. And tell Mary hi from me.”
Hannah tried not to show how surprised she was as Andrea got up to don an apron. Her sister had never been this eager to wait on tables before. “You don’t have to, you know. I can…”
“No, I want to,” Andrea insisted, picking up the coffee carafe and bending close so that only Hannah would hear. “I want to find out if that trick you’re always talking about really works.”
For a moment, Hannah was puzzled, but then she figured it out. “You’re talking about the invisible caterer trick? The one where people keep right on talking, even if it’s really private, just as if you’re not right there filling up their coffee cups?”
“Yes. Then I’ll have some really juicy movie gossip to tell Bill when he calls tonight.”
Hannah was amused as Andrea went off to refill coffee cups and gather gossip. She got herself another cup of coffee and sat behind the counter trying to relax. She’d been nervous all day, even though Moishe had been on his best behavior and his scenes had gone off perfectly. It wasn’t her cat she was worried about. It was Mike and Norman. And Ross. She thought about Ross, wondering what effect a romance with him would have on the existing triangle she shared with Mike and Norman. Would one more person turn it into a square? Or perhaps a box? It was certainly true that she’d boxed herself in by dating three men!
That brought up another image and Hannah frowned slightly. She’d seen the legendary French mime, Marcel Marceau, perform his routine of a person inside a glass box. Now that her triangle had changed into a box, was she the person inside, trapped there until she chose the right man for her husband?
Chapter
Thirteen
Lisa emerged from the kitchen less than ten minutes later. She was waving a piece of paper and wearing the broadest smile Hannah had ever seen.
“You got it?” Hannah guessed, already knowing the answer.
“You bet I got it!” Lisa announced sliding into her chair. “These are just perfect, and they’re hardly any work at all. They’re made in cupcake papers and they use store-bought vanilla wafers and cherry pie filling!”
Hannah took the paper and glanced down at the title, Jane’s Mini Cherry Cheesecakes. “Who’s Jane? I thought you got this recipe from Mary Hutchinson.”
“I did, but she got it from her cousin Jane. What do you think of it?”
Hannah read through one of the easiest and cleverest recipes she’d ever seen. Twenty-four muffin tins were lined with cupcake papers and a vanilla wafer was placed in the bottom. The cheesecake batter was mixed, spooned in on top of the vanilla wafer, and then they were baked. When the mini cheesecakes were cool, they were topped off with three cherries from the can of pie filling and chilled for at least four hours before serving. “That’s certainly easy. But are they good?”
“Mary says they’re wonderful and everybody always asks her to bring them to parties. The really neat thing is the cherry pie filling.”
“Why’s that?” Hannah asked, feeling a bit like the straight man in a two-man comedy routine.
“You need three cherries for each little cheesecake and there are exactly seventy-two cherries in a can of pie filling. That means it always comes out even.”
“Really?”
“That’s what Mary says and she’s been making them for a long time. I want to try them now, Hannah. Is that okay?”
“It’s fine, but how about the cherry pie filling? We don’t have any.”
“I already called Florence and she said she’d let me in the back door of the Red Owl. She’s doing inventory.”
Hannah nodded and Lisa was off in a flash, fairly racing for the kitchen door. When her young partner got enthusiastic about something, she didn’t let anything stand in her way. Hannah knew Herb had figured that out early in his relationship with Lisa. When Lisa had made up her mind she wanted to date him, Herb had found himself asking her out. And when Lisa had decided she wanted to marry him, Herb had found himself proposing. Hannah had a feeling their whole marriage would be that way. And she was just as certain that Herb wouldn’t mind one bit.
The front door to The Cookie Jar opened and a handsome young man walked in. He was wearing casual clothes, but they fit him perfectly and Hannah had the feeling that they were expensive. She assumed that he was someone from the movie crew she hadn’t met and gave him a smile of welcome.
“Hi, Hannah!” the man greeted her. And then he read the blank expression on her face and laughed. “You don’t recognize me?”
Hannah’s mind churned as fast as a master butter-maker’s tub gone berserk. It was no use. She had no idea who the young man was. She was about to shake her head and admit it when he pointed to the discrete gold stud in one earlobe.
“P. K.?” Hannah guessed, remembering the night engineer from KCOW Television who’d let them watch outtakes from the Hartland Flour Bakeoff.
“It’s me. When they made me a feature reporter, I ditched the ponytail and the beard.”
“You kept the earring,” Hannah commented.
“Yes, but I had to tone it down a little. The diamond was too flashy for the camera. This one’s brushed gold.”
Hannah got P. K. settled with a couple of cookies and a mug of coffee and then she sat down across the table from him. “So…what brings you here?”
“Burke Anson. KCOW sent me out to interview him for my segment of Night News at Ten. I do the entertainment news.”
“Good for you! But I thought you wanted to direct.”
“I do. And I’ll get there eventually, now that I’m moving up the ladder. Burke said I could catch him here between scenes. He wants to do the interview at The Cookie Jar if that’s all right with you.”
“Here?” Hannah was surprised. “Why not on the set?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he thought it would be too distracting. He said to meet him here and since I’m the one asking and not the other way around, he gets to call the shots.”
&nbs
p; “Right.” Hannah wondered why she didn’t get to call the shots, especially since Burke wanted to use The Cookie Jar for a backdrop without even asking her.
“We’ll only use a small corner of the coffee shop, and I’ll make sure to mention where we are,” P. K. said, practically reading her mind. “It’ll be good advertising for your business. And Dee-Dee will do it, too. You know how she gives teasers before the commercials?”
“You mean when she announces what’s coming up next?”
“Exactly.” P. K. cleared his throat and went into a credible imitation of Dee-Dee Hughes, co-anchor of Night News. Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Burke Anson at The Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, right after these words from our sponsors.”
Hannah laughed. P. K. had mastered Dee-Dee’s voice perfectly. “Do you need me to move tables or anything?”
“No, my cameraman and I can take care of that when Burke gets here. What’s your take on him anyway?”
“Burke?” Hannah asked, stalling for time. She wasn’t about to give P. K. any candid comments he could use on his segment.
“Yeah, Burke. What do you think of him?”
“I really don’t know him that well,” Hannah said diplomatically and also truthfully. “He’s certainly a handsome man.”
“That’s what my girlfriend says.”
“And I heard that he was a good actor.”
“I heard that, too. But I also heard that he’s not exactly buddy-buddy with Dean Lawrence.”
“I haven’t heard anything about that,” Hannah said, also truthfully.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing,” Hannah insisted, shaking her head.
“And you’d tell me if you’d heard?” Hannah shook her head again and P. K. laughed. “I didn’t think so. You’re a reporter’s nightmare, Hannah. You don’t gossip.”
“I try not to,” Hannah said. “I wouldn’t be in business long if I repeated everything I heard.”
As if on cue, Andrea came rushing over with her coffee carafe. “Guess what I just heard! Sophie, she’s the wardrobe mistress, told me that…”
“Tracey’s costumes were just beautiful,” Hannah interrupted what she feared was about to be a juicy tidbit. “I know. She told me this morning. Here’s an old friend you probably won’t recognize, Andrea. It’s…”
Now it was Andrea’s turn to interrupt, “P. K! It’s really good to see you again.”
“How did you recognize him when I didn’t?” Hannah wanted to know.
“The KCOW logo on his company pin. I noticed it that night we watched the outtakes of the Hartland Flour Bakeoff. P. K.’s pin has a purple O and everybody else’s O is blue.”
“You’re right,” P. K. sounded pleased. “They gave us pins for Christmas two years ago and somebody goofed on this one. They wanted to send it back and get another one for me, but I said I wanted it because it was different.”
Hannah stared at the tiny logo pin and shook her head in disbelief. It was so small, she hadn’t even seen it. Andrea had not only seen the pin, she’d also noticed that the color on one of the letters was incorrect. Her sister had amazing powers of observation when it came to clothing and fashion.
“So what are you doing now, P. K.?” Andrea sat down in the chair next to Hannah’s.
“I’m the entertainment reporter on Night News at Ten.”
“I see,” Andrea said, flashing Hannah a grateful look. “I haven’t watched the news for a while. I’ll have to tune in.”
“So how do you like having a movie filmed practically in your backyard?”
Andrea laughed. “It’s not even close to my backyard, but it’s in our mother’s store. They’re using Granny’s Attic for a set.”
“Really?” P. K. pulled out a notebook and made a note. “I heard that they were casting some locals. Did anyone you know get a part?”
“We know everyone who got a part!” Hannah couldn’t resist saying. “This is Lake Eden. It’s not that big.”
P. K. looked a little sheepish. “True. How about the big parts? Do you know the little girl who was cast?”
Andrea looked at Hannah, and Hannah looked right back. There was a breathless moment where Hannah waited for Andrea to say something, and Andrea waited for Hannah to say something. The silence stretched out for several heartbeats and then they both burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“My daughter!” Andrea said.
“My niece,” Hannah replied.
And then both of them started to talk at once, telling P. K. about how he should interview Tracey, and how she was bound to be famous when Crisis in Cherrywood hit the theaters.
“Not at all,” Burke replied, looking straight into the camera as he responded to P. K.’s question about their exhausting shooting schedule and whether it was taking a toll on the quality of the production. “Our director, Mr. Dean Lawrence, won’t let us get by with anything less than our best performance.”
Hannah hid a grin. Burke was flattering the Bad Boy director outrageously. So much for the rumor that Burke and Dean didn’t get along! She listened to P. K.’s next question, something about their full-dress rehearsals, but before she could hear Burke’s answer, Andrea summoned her from the kitchen doorway.
“What’s wrong?” Hannah asked when she saw her sister’s expression. Andrea looked panic-stricken.
“P. K. wants to interview me next. I said yes, but now I wish I hadn’t. What am I going to say?”
“He’ll ask you a question. All you have to do is answer it.”
“But what if I don’t know the answer?”
“You’re panicking for no reason and it’s time to buck up. Come on, Andrea. Don’t forget you’re a real estate agent.”
“You’re right,” Andrea said, and she squared her shoulders. “I’m a real estate professional and what I don’t know, I can make up. They taught us how to do that in real estate college.”
“You mean to call something a gourmet kitchen if it’s got a spice rack on the wall? And to say a house is cozy if it’s small and cramped?”
Andrea’s mouth dropped open and then she started to laugh. She laughed so hard, tears rolled down her cheeks. “You really shouldn’t say that, Hannah. You’re making fun of my chosen profession.”
“Well…maybe I am. Just a little. But I’ll bet you’re not nervous anymore.”
“Of course I’m nervous. I’m so nervous, I could…” Andrea stopped speaking and gave her older sister a wide-eyed look. “You’re right. I’m not nervous anymore! How did you do that?”
“You can’t be nervous and amused at the same time. They’re both powerful emotions and one overrides the other. If your sense of humor kicks in, you lose your case of nerves…at least according to the professor who taught the psychology class I took in college.”
“Fascinating,” Andrea said, giving Hannah a probing look. “What else did he say? Are there any other emotions that cancel each other out?”
“There’s another pair that I remember. He said you can’t be angry and amorous at the same time.”
“Amorous?”
“You know,” Hannah said, and then she made little kissing noises.
“Oh, that amorous,” Andrea said, beginning to grin. “Thanks for telling me, but I think I already knew that. It must have been instinctive.”
“You’re probably right,” Hannah said with a laugh. Her psychology professor had insisted that particular phenomenon was the secret of any happy marriage.
“All the same, maybe I’d better put it to the test,” Andrea said with an impish smile. “Bill can try it out on me, right after he gets home from Miami with Ronni Ward.”
“So what do you think?” Lisa asked, presenting Hannah with the tray of Mini Cherry Cheesecakes. “Will Mr. Lawrence like them?”
“They look fantastic, and I think that’s more important than how they taste.”
“Hannah!” Lisa looked positively shocked. “How can you say such a thing?”
; “I was thinking about Dean Lawrence, not us. We care how things taste more than how they look.”
“Oh, now I understand. And you’re right about him. He’s a very shallow person. Everything is me, me, me.”
“How so?” Hannah asked, agreeing with her young partner completely but wanting Lisa to enumerate her reasons.
“First of all, he just assumes that he’s irresistible to women.”
“You noticed?”
“I couldn’t help but notice. I told you about refilling his coffee and how he kept right on talking and didn’t even say thank you.”
“I remember.”
“Well, that was better than what happened just a couple of minutes ago when I went around with the coffee carafe again.”
“What happened?”
“He made a pass and I won’t go into detail. Let’s just say he doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. I wasn’t expecting it and it startled me so much, I almost poured hot coffee down his collar.”
“Maybe you should have.”
Lisa giggled. “Maybe you’re right. If he ever does it again, I’ll figure out a way to let him know it’s not appreciated. But there’s another thing about him I noticed.”
“What’s that?”
“He believes that appearance is more important than substance. That’s the earmark of a charlatan…or a magician. It’s all an illusion. And it’s all accomplished by misdirected attention. Smoke and mirrors. You know what I mean, right?”
Hannah stared at her partner with new respect. “That sounds right to me. But how do you know that?”
“Herb’s an amateur magician. He says he’s not good enough to take his act public yet, but he’s done a few tricks for me, and I think he’s simply fantastic. He started practicing in high school, but he never showed anyone until he married me.”
It was a new fact about Herb she’d never known, and Hannah added it to the complicated mix that made up her high school classmate. “I had no idea. He really ought to perform at the community center on Halloween.”
“I think so, too. He almost did it last year, but he said he wasn’t quite ready. Maybe this year.”