by Hannah Reed
• She found out Lauren was coming to town when she overheard one of the younger Kerrigans talking on his cell phone in the dental waiting room.
• Based on comments she’d overheard, Ali decided Lauren was coming back to expose her.
• So she started making plans, turned her attention to Carrie Ann, who was battling the bottle. She also bought a yellow wig that looked like Carrie Ann’s hair.
• Then she called up Lauren, pretending she was Carrie Ann and had important information concerning the night Wayne Jay died.
• They planned to meet in The Lost Mile.
• Ali knew about Rita’s gun because she’d been at the bar one night when Terry was talking about it. Guys and their guns! She borrowed it while Rita and Lauren were at the candle-making class, right after she saw Lauren in The Wild Clover.
• Lauren didn’t stand a chance.
• And Hetty Cross was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“She said she was coming back to make things right,” Ali said in a whiny voice as Hunter looked on in disbelief. Apparently, he wasn’t used to full confessions. And Patti and I hadn’t clued him in about the gas. “That could only mean she remembered that I was driving that night.”
“Or it could have meant she was coming back to make amends for what she thought she’d done,” I said. “How could you kill a dying woman?”
“I didn’t know about the cancer.” Ali had a mellow look on her face from the gas. “Not that it would have mattered.”
“Did you try to run me down?” I asked her, starting to feel clearheaded again.
Ali didn’t even hesitate before she answered. “I did. Since everybody was focusing on Johnny Jay, why not implicate him even more.”
“And what about Carrie Ann? What did you do to her?”
“I had slipped roofies in her beer and dumped her at her house. But not before giving her a makeover complete with a dirty face and leaves in her bed. Then I went to The Lost Mile wearing the wig.”
“Insane,” Patti said, scribbling in a notepad.
Right then, Johnny Jay burst in like he was saving the day. After a bunch of blustering and a few verbal shots at me, he hauled off the real killer.
Patti took off to work on her story.
Hunter and I ended up on the street outside the dental office. He still had that same expression of disbelief on his face.
“T. J. said Ali was with her sister,” I said. “Girls’ night out, he told us at the bar.”
“According to her sister, she was.”
“Ah, the bond between sisters.” I knew exactly how strong they could be.
“I’m sure she’ll be reversing her statement soon.”
“She couldn’t have known the whole story.”
Hunter wrapped an arm around my shoulder as we walked down the street. “I owe you a dinner,” he said. “You up for a steak?”
“You bet,” I said, snuggling in.
Thirty-seven
“’Sup? (What’s Up?)” Holly said, the next morning.
“What are you doing here so early?” I’d been rearranging the honey display at the front of the store when she arrived. Carrie Ann was checking out customers and preening in a small hand mirror she kept in her pocket, getting ready for the hot date she’d picked up while hanging around in jail.
“Not one of the inmates either,” she informed me, spiking her short yellow hair.
“Who?” Patti wanted to know.
“None of your business,” Carrie Ann said. “This one I’m keeping under wraps.”
“Around here?” I said. “Fat chance. Besides, we all know it’s Gunnar.”
Carrie Ann smiled, but more to herself than to us. Maybe being in jail had brought them back together. I hoped so. They were meant for each other.
Stanley Peck came in and stayed to chat, talking bees and listening to gossip.
Milly arrived. “Here’s a rough draft of the newsletter,” she said. “Let me know if you find any typos. And you’re going to see it anyway, so I want to tell you I did not figure out how to put honey in the morel mushroom recipe. Some things just don’t go together.”
“I have a few loose ends to wrap up,” Patti said. “Before Joel and I turn in our story.”
“Isn’t it a bit late?” Holly said, since we all knew how quickly today’s news became yesterday’s news.
“Nope, this is a weekly newspaper,” Patti reminded her, then looked down at a notebook. “I still can’t believe what that crazy woman did. What a nutcase.”
“I thought T. J. and Ali had tiffs all the time but always got back together?” Stanley Peck pointed out.
“That time was different,” I said, referring to some of the juicy tidbits I’d heard from customers. “T. J. really liked Lauren and told Ali that. You know how passionate an eighteen-year-old can be.”
Patti, still reading from her notes, said, “So she ran over Wayne Jay a second time to protect her identity and to frame Lauren. But I wonder why she picked Carrie Ann to be the murder suspect this time around.”
“I don’t understand that at all,” Carrie Ann said. “I never did anything to her.”
Patti piped up, “Ali must have thought you were an easy target.”
“I am not.”
“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Patti pointed out. “But Johnny Jay was doing such a good job of convincing everybody he was the killer, Ali put her original plan on hold and even helped out in her own little way.”
“By trying to run me down,” I added. “And make it look like Johnny did it. I feel sorry for T. J. This can’t be easy on him.”
“How’s Norm Cross doing?” Stanley asked.
“He’ll be back home in a day or two.”
Just then I saw Grams’s car pull up outside. Mom got out of the passenger side.
“I’ll be in back,” I said to Holly. “Say I’m on vacation.”
“You have to face the music eventually,” my sister said.
But I wasn’t hanging around to debate the subject with her. I flew into the back storage room and scooped up Dinky.
I made it out the back door and down the block before a squad car pulled over. Johnny Jay stepped out. “Fischer, you owe me a public apology,” he said.
I kept walking, picking up speed, feeling trapped. My mother was hunting me. Johnny Jay was stalking me on the streets.
And . . .
There was Lori Spandle standing in front of my house, with both hands on her hips.
“I’m going to get some kind of official order,” she said, “to make you clean up this place and remove those bees. And just so you know, your ex-husband is going to move back in if I can’t sell this place by the end of the month.”
Over my dead body, I could have said, but Lori might try to oblige me. That man wasn’t welcome in my hometown. Ever. I’d burn the place down first. That idea had possibilities.
Right when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, Hunter showed up and proved they wouldn’t. I jumped in his SUV with Dinky in my arms and gave Ben a warm hello. Then I gave Hunter a hot hello and we blew out of town.
The Wild Clover May Newsletter
Notes from the beeyard:
• The nectar flow has begun! Honeybees love dandelions.
• Watch those pesticides. They hurt good insects, too.
• If you spot a swarm of bees, call Queen Bee Honey. Story and Holly (grin) will remove them for you.
Here are a few simple breakfast honey concoctions:
• Honey cinnamon toast—mix together butter, honey, and cinnamon and spread over hot toast.
• Drizzle honey over a warm piece of coffee cake.
• Cut a grapefruit in half, cut around the pulp, top with honey, and place under the broiler until the honey caramelizes.
Chocolate Honey Cake
Nothing goes together better than chocolate and honey!
1½ cups flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspo
on baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup honey
½ cup buttermilk
Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat egg, butter, honey, and buttermilk until smooth. Then add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Place in buttered pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30–35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Honey Trail Mix Cookies
Take these hiking with you.
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter
⅓ cup honey
2 eggs
¼ cup toasted pecans
¼ cup toasted coconut
½ cup raisins
Mix together the dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together the shortening, butter, and honey. Add in the eggs, followed by the dry ingredients. Finally, mix in the pecans, coconut, and raisins. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets in a 375-degree oven for 8 minutes.
Notes from the garden:
• Try a tea garden this year. Plant chamomile, peppermint, lavender, lemon balm. Make your own tea and serve it with a spoonful of honey.
• Composting is fun and easy. Mix vegetable waste with chopped leaves or straw for the best fertilizer available.
Rhubarb Meringue Torte
Rhubarb is plentiful in Wisconsin during the month of May. Gather an armful and make the best rhubarb torte ever.
CRUST
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
FILLING
4 cups chopped rhubarb
CUSTARD
4 egg yolks
¾ cup milk
1 cup honey
2 tablespoons flour
MERINGUE
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
Mix together the ingredients for the crust and press into bottom of 13x9 pan. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from the oven and add rhubarb. Whisk together the custard ingredients and cook over medium heat until bubbly. Pour over top of the rhubarb. Bake for another 20 minutes and remove from oven. Beat whites on high, adding sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Layer over top of the torte and bake for final 10 minutes.
Morel Mushroom Sauce
6 tablespoons melted butter
¾ cup green onions, minced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
7–10 morels
1 teaspoon thyme
1 cup red wine
⅔ cup dry sherry
3 ½ cups beef broth (or chicken broth if serving with
chicken)
½ pint heavy cream
Caramelize the green onions and garlic in the melted butter. Cook until golden brown (be careful not to burn) then add in the mushrooms, thyme, and red wine. Simmer until the mixture reduces by half. Then add in the broth and reduce again by half. Cool, puree, and add in the cream.
Serve with steak or chicken.
Subscribe to the online edition of
The Wild Clover newsletter
at www.hannahreedbooks.com.
Common Bee-friendly Flowers
Spring
• Dandelion
• White clover
• Lilac
• Lavender
• California poppy
• Scented geranium
• Verbena
Summer
• Cosmos
• Coreopsis
• Purple coneflower
• Sunflower
• Russian sage
• Black-eyed Susan
• Pincushion flower
From the Garden
• Mint
• Pumpkin
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Thyme
About the Author
Hannah Reed lives on a high ridge in southern Wisconsin in a community much like the one she writes about. She is busy writing the next book in the Queen Bee mystery series. Visit Hannah and explore Story’s world at www.hannahreedbooks.com.
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Hannah Reed
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