by Joanne Fluke
“He’s going back tonight?” Hannah glanced at the clock. It was already eleven-thirty.
“You know how it is. If something big happens, the sheriff has to be there. And this is big!”
“What’s big?”
“It’s that bus driver, the one who went off the road with the band and got killed.”
“Clayton Wallace?”
“Yes, that’s his name. Doc Knight just called. He finished the autopsy, and he said that the accident didn’t kill Clayton Wallace, that he was already dead when the bus went off the road.”
Hannah remembered what Buddy had told her, that he thought the driver had suffered some kind of sudden attack and that’s why the bus went off the road. “Was it his heart?” she asked.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“When Michelle and I got to the bus, Buddy Neiman told us that they were traveling along just fine. And then all of a sudden, they were barreling into the ditch. He thought the driver must have had a heart attack or a stroke.”
“Well, he was right. Doc’s running some tests again to make sure, but he told Bill the results of the first blood test.”
“What was it?” Hannah did her best not to sound impatient. Andrea would tell the story in her own way, and she knew from past experience that trying to speed up the process was useless.
“If the first test was accurate, Mr. Wallace overdosed on his heart medicine.”
“Was it an accidental overdose?” Hannah asked, hoping that it had been a simple mistake, but not at all convinced it was, especially after Buddy’s murder. Two people on the same bus were dead and it wasn’t due to the traffic accident.
“There’s no way for Doc to tell whether it was accidental or deliberate. And you know the rules. If there’s the possibility that it could be a homicide, the department has to investigate.”
“So now they have two homicide investigations.”
“That’s right. I know Bill ...” Andrea stopped talking and gave a little gulp. “I have to go. He’s coming down the stairs.”
“What is it?” Michelle asked, when Hannah got off the phone.
“There’s the possibility of another murder.”
“Who?”
“Clayton Wallace, the band bus driver. Doc Knight thinks he was dead before the bus crashed into the ditch.”
“You mean ... somebody on the bus killed him?”
“Maybe. And maybe not. All Doc Knight knows at this point is that Clayton took an overdose of his heart medication.”
“You mean he could have taken extra pills by mistake?”
“It’s possible. Sometimes pills look alike. But it’s also possible that someone could have tampered with his medicine.”
“I wonder what he did when he traveled with the band?” Michelle looked thoughtful. “Did he take his pill bottles with him? Or did he have one of those matrix things marked with the days of the week, and ...”
“Uh-oh!” Hannah gasped as an image of the dead bus driver, still strapped in his seat, flashed across the screen of Hannah’s mind. There was something directly below him on the floor, and she’d reached down to pick it up. Even though the light was dim, she’d noticed that it was square and had little compartments. It sounded a lot like the pill matrix that Michelle had just described.
“What’s the matter?” Michelle asked when Hannah didn’t explain further.
“I think I saw that pill matrix.”
“Where?”
“On the bus, right below the driver. If he had it on his lap, it could have fallen down when the bus overturned.”
“That’s right. You’d better call Mike and tell him to go out to the accident scene. It could be important evidence.”
“I know, especially if the pills have been moved around.”
Michelle waited a moment and then she frowned. “Well? Aren’t you going to call him? He has to get out there right away before they haul the bus away.”
“There’s no reason to call him,” Hannah said with a heavy sigh.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not there anymore. It’s right here. I picked it up without thinking, and I zipped it into my parka pocket.”
HAMBURGER BAKE
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
The Filling:
1 pound lean ground beef
¾ cup chopped onion (you can also use frozen chopped onions)
1 can (10 and ¾ ounces) condensed Cheddar cheese soup (I used Campbell’s)
1 cup frozen vegetables (I used peas and carrot
mix—I’ve also used a corn and chopped bell pep- per mix)
¼ cup whole milk
The Crust:
½ cup butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, ¼ pound)
¾ cup whole milk (in addition to the ¼ cup used in the filling)
1 and ¾ cups all-purpose flour (don’t pack it
down—just scoop it up in a measuring cup and level off the top)
2 and ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
The Topping:
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Spray a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. (You can also grease it generously if you’d rather not use the spray.)
The filling takes the most time, so you’ll start that first by crumbling the raw hamburger into a 10-inch or larger frying pan.
Add the chopped onion to the hamburger in the pan.
Fry the meat and onions over MEDIUM heat on the stovetop until the hamburger is nicely browned.
Drain the hamburger and onions. (You don’t want a lot of hamburger fat in this dish.)
Add the condensed soup, frozen vegetables and the ¼ cup milk to the hamburger and onions. Stir well. (You can do this right in the frying pan.) Cover the frying pan and set the mixture aside.
Put the ½ cup of butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the ¾ cup whole milk and heat it on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir. If the butter isn’t melted, heat it for another 30 seconds and stir. Continue to heat in 30-second increments until the butter has melted. Then take the bowl out of the microwave and set it on the counter to cool slightly.
Hannah’s 1st Note: Michelle and I used a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup to melt the butter with the milk. You could also do this in a saucepan on the stovetop, if you wish.
Measure out the flour and put approximately half of it in a mixing bowl. (You don’t have to be exact—nobody’s going to complain if it’s less or more than half.)
Sprinkle the baking powder and salt over the top of the flour in the bowl. Add the remainder of the flour and stir the bowl with a fork until all of the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Add the butter and milk mixture to the mixing bowl, and mix until the resulting dough is well moistened.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: In case you haven’t guessed it, you’re making baking powder biscuit dough.
Spoon the dough into the bottom of the cake pan you prepared earlier. Spread it out so that the dough forms an even layer in the pan. This will be the bottom layer of your Hamburger Bake.
Spread the hamburger mixture on top of the biscuit dough. Do this as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese over the top of the hamburger layer.
Bake the Hamburger Bake at 400 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and let it cool on a cold burner on the stovetop or on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving. (It’s just too hot to serve straight out of the oven—eager eaters could burn their mouths.)
Hannah’s 3rd Note: This dish is perfect to take to a potluck dinner. All you have to do is prepare a cardboard box big enough to hold your baking dish and line it with a bath towel. When you take the Hamburger Bake out of the oven, place it in the box, and cover it with the towel. It should stay warm for at least 30 minutes.
Yield: This delicious, quick, and easy main dish makes 10 servings if you pair it with a green salad.
Hannah’s 4th Note: If
there’s any Hamburger Bake left after dinner, cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerator it right in the pan. You can simply reheat it in the microwave the next day for lunch.
Hannah’s 5th Note: If you invite Mike to dinner and serve Hamburger Bake, don’t plan on having any leftovers. When Michelle and I made it for him, he ate half a pan all by himself!
Chapter Seven
“That was good,” Mike said, putting down his fork. He took a sip of his coffee and a wistful expression crossed his face. “I don’t suppose you have any cookies left. I saw you passing out rolls and cookies to the accident victims.”
Hannah shook her head. “No cookies, but I do have some Kentucky butter cake.”
“Great! I’ll take a piece of that. What’s Kentucky butter cake?”
“You want it without even knowing what it is?” Michelle sounded surprised.
“Sure. Hannah’s never made anything I didn’t like.” Mike turned to Hannah. “What is it?”
“It’s a white cake with loads of butter. Mother’s friend, Cassandra, sent her the recipe. I made it in two pans, gave one to Mother, and put the other in the freezer for emergencies.”
“So I’m an emergency?” Mike asked with a devilish grin. Hannah was lost for an answer. Mike’s grin always made her heart beat faster. He was indisputably the most handsome man in Lake Eden. The only problem was, he knew it!
“Am I an emergency?” Mike asked again.
You’re an emergency, all right! I can’t decide what to do with you. Sometimes I love you, sometimes you exasperate me, and when I’m not stuck trying to decide how I feel about you, I just want to throw my arms around you, and ... but she wouldn’t think about that. At least not now.
“Well?” Mike’s grin was devilish. He knew he’d thrown her completely off balance.
Hannah’s mind jumped into overdrive, and she settled for the safest course. “I’d say the whole night was an emergency. Michelle and I almost got killed in a car crash, we were a hospital corridor away when Buddy got murdered, and then we found out that the dead bus driver could be a another murder victim. If that’s not a night of emergencies, I don’t know what is!”
Uh-oh! Hannah’s mind sounded a warning, and she clamped her mouth shut. She didn’t want Mike to know that Andrea had eavesdropped on Bill’s conversation with Doc Knight and called to tell them about it. She shot Michelle a glance, silently urging her to change the subject and hoping that sibling nonverbal messaging was working.
“Hannah didn’t tell you, but there’s a little problem with the cake,” Michelle said, causing Mike to turn and focus on her.
“What’s the problem? Isn’t it any good?”
“It’s wonderful, but the name is wrong. You know how patriotic some of the people in Lake Eden are. If Hannah wants to serve it at The Cookie Jar, we can’t call it by another state name.”
“Well ... what does it taste like?”
“Butter. And butter’s really good. Mother’s friend in Kentucky says she bakes it, glazes it with melted butter and sugar, and sprinkles it with powdered sugar.”
“But you don’t do it that way?” Mike asked Hannah.
“No. I decided to frost it with our Great-Grandma Elsa’s Brown Butter Icing.” Hannah turned to Michelle. “Mike’s dying to taste it. I can tell. Why don’t you go to the kitchen and get him a piece?”
“So what was all that about?” Mike asked, the moment that Michelle had disappeared into the kitchen.
“All what?”
“All that about the bus driver and how it could be murder? Who told you that?”
Hannah thought fast. There was no way she was going to finger Andrea. She relied on her sister to give her the scoop when Bill had information about an investigation.
“Hannah? Who told you?”
The man had a lot in common with an elephant. He’d noticed her slip and he hadn’t forgotten it.
“Everybody knows. It’s already on the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline.”
“No!”
“Yes,” Hannah said, stretching the truth a bit. After all, Delores was the founding member. And Andrea was their mother’s daughter.
“But Doc told Bill, and Bill didn’t tell anybody but me. When I called Lonnie in, I didn’t tell him why. I just said to meet me here. That means Doc, Bill, and I are the only ones who knew.”
Hannah thought fast. “Not necessarily. One of the interns could have been there when Doc did the autopsy. Or a nurse could have helped him. I know he records his findings on tape so that Vonnie can type them up, so Vonnie must have known, too. There could be several people at the hospital who knew.”
“Hmm. I didn’t think of that. I guess it doesn’t really matter, not in the long run. The news always gets out one way or the other.”
“Here you go!” Michelle came back with a large piece of cake on a plate and handed it to Mike. She refilled his coffee cup, took a seat, and waited for him to taste it.
“Wow!” Mike said, after his first bite. “This is a really good cake, and I love the frosting.”
“We like it, too,” Michelle said. “Do you have any idea what Hannah should call it?”
Mike took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. “I’m thinking. What’s in this frosting?”
“Browned butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and cream,” Hannah answered him.
“Butter in the cake, and butter in the frosting?”
“And a butter sauce poured on top before you frost it,” Hannah added. That’s what gives it that little crunch on top.”
“There sure is a lot of butter in here,” Mike commented as he took another bite. “Whoa! I got it!” He took a swallow of coffee, and grinned at them. “Butterama Cake,” he said.
“Butterama Cake?” Hannah repeated, and then she began to smile. “I like it. From now on I’m calling this cake Butterama Cake.”
“Okay, Hannah,” Mike said, pulling out his notebook. “Tell me everything you saw and heard from the moment you entered the bus until the moment you left the scene.”
Hannah knew Michelle was answering a similar question for Lonnie. They’d separated into couples so that Mike could take Hannah’s statement in the living room. Michelle had taken Lonnie in the kitchen to feed him some of the Hamburger Bake. She’d heard Michelle put Lonnie’s dishes in the sink and start another pot of coffee. Undoubtedly Lonnie had also begun to take Michelle’s statement.
Mike was looking at her expectantly, and Hannah thought back several hours, replaying the scene in her mind. “The bus was upside down. You probably already know that.” She waited until Mike nodded and then she went on. “Buddy Neiman unlocked the back door from inside and that’s how Michelle and I got in. We asked if anyone was injured and he said that he had the most serious injury. He showed us the splint Lynnette made for him.”
“Lynnette?”
“She’s one of the ...” Hannah stopped and frowned slightly. “I guess you call them groupies. Lynnette and another girl named Cammy travel with the band. She told us they help the band set up, and ... I don’t know what else.”
“I’ll bet I do,” Mike said under his breath, and Hannah pretended not to hear him. “You said Lynnette put a splint on Mr. Neiman’s wrist. Is she a nurse?”
“No, but she used to work in a doctor’s office. Anyway, Michelle asked Buddy if there were any other injuries, and that was when he told us that the driver was dead. We asked how he knew that and he said that Lynnette had gone up to the front of the bus to check on the driver, and when she came back, she said he was dead.”
“Okay. I’ll have to get her prints in case she touched anything on or around Mr. Wallace. Do you know if she felt for a pulse?”
Hannah shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. We talked to her about that. She said she did, but I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because she said it was creepy and she didn’t want to see him again. I don’t think she would have had the nerve to touch him.”
“A
ll right. Describe the scene for me.”
Hannah took a deep breath. “The only light was an LED strip on the ceiling. Of course the ceiling was upside down, and we walked on it like a floor. There were things all over that had fallen from the seats. The bus had a vaulted ceiling, so we were walking in the trough. It was hard to keep our balance, and we took small steps, one foot in front of the other, the way you’d walk on a tightrope. Since there was so much debris that had scattered all over when the bus tipped upside down, we had to be careful not to trip over anything.”
“Okay. I understand. Go on.”
“I didn’t want Michelle to come with me, but she insisted. If I’d known how creepy it was going to be, I would have ordered her to stay put. When we got to the front of the bus, I spotted the driver.” Hannah took another deep breath. “It was a horrible sight.”
Mike reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “I know. We cut him down. I’m sorry you had to see that, Hannah.”
“So am I, but I’m even sorrier that Michelle saw it.”
“Me, too.” Mike put his arm around her and leaned back on the couch. He shut his eyes and gave a big sigh of contentment. “I knew once I got out here, I could relax for a couple of minutes.”
Hannah noticed that there were dark circles under his eyes. For a reason she didn’t fully understand, they made him look even more handsome. Maybe it was the nurturer in her coming out, or at least that was what her former psychology professor would have said. Whatever the reason, she felt a new tenderness toward him. Mike was usually so strong and self-confident that it was difficult to imagine that he could ever really need comfort and tenderness from anyone. Before she quite realized that she was going to do it, she reached out and gently stroked his forehead. “Stay as long as you like,” she said in a soft voice. “I know you’re really tired.”
Mike opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Careful what you offer, Hannah. All I need right now is a twelve-pack and the remote, and I’ll never leave.”