Wedding Cake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  “But you’re going to sign the check, aren’t you?” Michelle asked.

  Hannah burst into laughter. “I would, but I brought cash.”

  That made Michelle laugh, too, and that was when the waitress came bustling back with their bacon. “Here you go,” she said, setting the plate of bacon in the center of the table, and then refilling their coffee cups. “I really hate to disturb you at breakfast, but my mother made me promise that I’d get a photo with you two if you ever came in here for breakfast. And . . . she was kind of hoping for an autograph.”

  Hannah exchanged glances with Michelle, and she smiled her best smile. “If you can catch one of the other waitresses to take the photo, you can be in the picture, too.”

  “Thanks!” The waitress waved at another waitress who was passing close to their table. “Sherry? Can you come here a second?”

  Hannah and Michelle listened as their waitress explained what she needed. Sherry agreed and they all posed together. The photos didn’t take long, even though Sherry requested another photo for herself. Then Hannah and Michelle signed blank order forms for both waitresses and their mothers.

  “Thanks so much,” their waitress said, placing the autograph in her apron pocket. “My mother’s going to love this. And wait until I tell her that you two are so nice, not anything like the contestant with Mayor Bascomb!”

  Hannah and Michelle exchanged meaningful glances, and Michelle responded immediately. “Oh? When was that?”

  “The night after the last competition. The mayor was here with one of the competitors, and she turned me down flat when I asked for an autograph.”

  “Was it the blonde?” Hannah asked.

  “Yes. She was really mad about something, and the mayor was trying to calm her down. It must have worked, because she started smiling when he ordered a bottle of champagne. All they had was one glass, and then they left.”

  Their waitress rushed off after thanking them again. Hannah and Michelle looked at each other and both sisters smiled, bemused, as they reached for their coffee cups at exactly the same time. Then Hannah looked down and her face assumed a more serious, Let’s get down to business expression, as she reached into her saddlebag-size purse and drew out what Michelle and Andrea had referred to as her murder book. “Did you take notes on that footage we saw last night?” she asked.

  “Of course. I’ve got them right here.” Michelle picked up her cell phone and tapped it several times.

  “You put them in a voice mail to yourself?” Hannah guessed.

  “No, I used the note function and typed them in.”

  One by one, the two sisters went through their notes. Hannah had caught some things that Michelle hadn’t noticed, and Michelle had noted several things that Hannah hadn’t spotted.

  “Okay,” Hannah said, flipping to a clean page in her steno notebook. “Now that we’ve got a complete list, let’s talk about what we’ve learned about the contestants and judges that we’ve met.”

  “The other judges didn’t seem to like Chef Duquesne very much,” Michelle said. “I saw La Vonna Brach roll her eyes several times when he said mean things about Brooke’s strawberry mousse with the marshmallow sauce in New York. And Helene Stone leaned as far away from him as she could when he criticized the contestants, here in Lake Eden.”

  Hannah thought about that for a moment, and then her mind offered a possible explanation. “Did it seem to you as if Judge Stone wanted to get out of camera range so that no one would associate her in any way with Chef Duquesne?”

  “Yes. You could be right, Hannah. That could have been what she was trying to do. I was watching and it was subtle. There was nothing overt, not really. It’s possible that it was completely unconscious on her part.”

  “I suppose that could be true,” Hannah agreed. “I noticed something else about her, too. When Chef Duquesne handed her the coffee cup he’d refilled for her, she put her hand around the cup part, even though it must have been hot. I remember thinking that she must have preferred the discomfort over the possibility of touching his fingers on the handle.”

  “You’re right! She did do that, and her reaction was a bit excessive. I wonder if something happened in the hotel in New York.”

  Hannah was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  “Remember when I ran back up to the room to get my copy of the recipe?”

  “Yes. You went right after we ordered coffee and you said not to worry, that you’d be back in a flash.”

  “I was, but I did have to wait a few seconds for the elevator. I know because the elevator was up on the fourteenth floor. The elevator came straight down without stopping until it got to the eighth floor to pick me up. When the doors opened, Chef Duquesne and Helene Stone were inside.”

  “Is that important?”

  “I’m not sure, but it’s interesting because Helene Stone’s room was on the sixth floor.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “She was in line in front of us when we checked out of the hotel. I heard her give her room number.”

  “You’re sure it was the sixth floor?”

  “Positive. She had 626, and we had 826. I remember thinking that she was directly below us, two floors down.”

  “Did Chef Duquesne and Helene Stone do anything on the elevator that gave you the impression they’d been together on his floor?”

  “No. They were both staring directly ahead at the numbers on the display over the doors as the elevator went down to the lobby. Neither one of them said a word.”

  “Did you get the impression that they were upset with each other?”

  “That’s just it. I got absolutely no impression at all. They didn’t say anything and they didn’t do anything. They just stared up at the numbers as the elevator passed the floors until we stopped at the lobby and we all got off.”

  “Do you think they recognized you as part of our team in the competition?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t dressed up or anything. And I wasn’t carrying anything that might have let them know that I was your assistant, like an apron or a tote bag with our logo on it. I was just in my usual jeans and sweatshirt and I could have been anybody staying at the hotel.”

  Hannah flipped the page and jotted it down on a fresh page. “It could mean nothing. Perhaps Helene Stone just went up to his floor to ask him if he wanted to have breakfast with her.”

  “I don’t think so. They didn’t come into the restaurant while we were there.”

  “Okay. Maybe it wasn’t breakfast. They could have had other business to discuss.”

  “That’s possible, I guess. Do you want to hear what else I discovered while I was watching the tapes?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “One of the cameras panned the audience and caught Mayor Bascomb looking very upset. It was when Chef Duquesne said Gloria Berkeley’s cakes were ordinary.”

  “I saw that. Mayor Bascomb looked very perturbed. It made me wonder whether our esteemed city leader had been at it again.”

  Michelle shrugged. “Could be. I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s the type of husband that Stephanie can keep in line for a while, but the monetary pain of appeasing her with a new wardrobe and expensive jewelry fade into oblivion when he meets someone new and exciting.”

  “Nicely put!” Hannah thought about it for a moment. “I wonder if Gloria really is someone new. They hooked up pretty fast, considering that she was only here for two days. He might have known Gloria before she came here to Lake Eden for the competition.”

  “I guess that’s possible. Judging from his past escapades, Gloria’s exactly the type of woman he likes.”

  Hannah chuckled. “You mean a gorgeous blonde?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And this one is also sneaky and underhanded,” Hannah added.

  “Exactly. Now all we have to do is figure out if we’re right.”

  “That’s easy,” Michelle said with a smile. “We’ll ask Mother and Andrea. They might not know how
, but I bet they could find out. Andrea’s got contacts and she’s an expert at getting people to talk. And Mother can dig for dirt better than anyone else we know.”

  “That’s not exactly a compliment,” Hannah told her.

  “Yes it is, but only if you want the whole truth.”

  “What else do you have?” Hannah asked her.

  “Not much. The footage only gave me two new clues, but one of them may be important because of what our waitress said about Gloria and Mayor Bascomb. Do you remember when Rodney mentioned that Chef Duquesne tried to pick Gloria up in the bar of the hotel in New York?”

  “Yes.” Hannah thought about the ramifications of that for a moment. “I think I know where you’re going. You’re wondering if Gloria mentioned it to Mayor Bascomb. And that’s the reason he looked so upset in the footage we saw.”

  “That’s right. We already know that Mayor Bascomb doesn’t like someone else zeroing in on any woman he wants for himself.”

  “Let’s take a break on that note, Michelle, and eat before our breakfast gets any colder,” Hannah said, diving into her omelet. Michelle agreed, and for several minutes, the only sounds heard were small sighs of pure delight.

  “This omelet is really good,” Hannah commented after several bites. “I love the way the cheese melted all the way through and the bacon is nice and crispy.”

  “Mine is great too,” Michelle agreed. “Be careful that you don’t fill up on your omelet, though.”

  “Why? I didn’t order anything else.”

  “I know you didn’t, but you’ve still got a lot more to eat.”

  Hannah was puzzled. “What are you talking about, Michelle?”

  “You just signed two autographs and posed for pictures with the waitresses. And you said that since you weren’t a real celebrity, no one was going to ask you to pose for photos or sign autographs. That means I get to make you eat your words!”

  Hannah laughed. “Can I at least have dessert first? They’ve got really great Chocolate Coffee Cake here.”

  “Okay, if I can have some.” Michelle waved at their waitress. “But once we finish dessert and more coffee, you have to eat every consonant and vowel, and maybe even the punctuation.”

  “Okay, as long as it’s not semicolons. I really don’t like colons and semicolons.”

  “No colons, no semicolons,” Michelle promised.

  “Then it’s a deal,” Hannah agreed. “I just hope my words taste as good as the Chocolate Coffee Cake we’re going to have first.”

  CHOCOLATE COFFEE CAKE

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

  The Cake Batter:

  1 cup salted butter, softened (2 sticks, 8 ounces ½ pound)

  1 and ¾ cups white (granulated) sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  1 and ½ teaspoons baking powder

  6 eggs

  3 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  The Filling:

  2 cups semi-sweet (that’s the regular kind) chocolate chips (I used a 12-ounce by weight bag of Nestle)

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  1 ounce (¼ stick) salted butter

  ½ teaspoon cinnamon

  ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is best)

  The Crumb Topping:

  ½ cup brown sugar (tightly packed)

  cup all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  ¼ cup salted butter, softened (½ stick, 2 ounces, pound)

  Spray the inside of a 9-inch by 13-inch rectangular cake pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. You can also use nonstick baking spray, the kind with flour in it, if you prefer. If you don’t have nonstick baking or cooking spray, you can grease the inside of the cake pan with butter and then flour it, but don’t forget to knock out the excess flour.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: When I make this at home, I use my stand mixer for the cake batter. You can also do it by hand, but it takes some muscle.

  Mix the cup of softened, salted butter with the white sugar until it’s thoroughly blended and is nice and fluffy.

  Add the salt, vanilla extract, and baking powder. Mix them in until they’re thoroughly incorporated.

  Add the eggs one by one, mixing after each addition.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you add the eggs all at once, it’s very difficult to mix them in. If you add them one at a time and mix in each egg after you add it, it’s much easier.

  Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: DO NOT add the flour all at once and then try to mix it in. I did that once and had flour all over my kitchen floor. (And then Moishe came in for a drink of water and tracked flour all over my condo. This is when I learned that most cats don’t like to have their feet washed!)

  Spoon half of the batter in the cake pan and spread it out with a rubber spatula. Leave the rest of the batter in the bowl for later. (You don’t have to measure out exactly half of the dough. Just eyeball it. No one’s ever going to complain if you’re off by a quarter-cup or so.)

  Once half of the cake batter is in the pan, it’s time to make the filling. Use another bowl for this.

  Put half of a 12-ounce (net weight) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. (I usually use a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup.)

  Add the ounce of salted butter and the 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Heat in the microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds. Let the mixture sit in the microwave for 1 minute, and then take it out and try to stir it smooth. If you can do this, you’re done heating the chocolate mixture. If you can’t do this, heat the chocolate mixture in 20-second intervals with one-minute standing times, until you can stir it smooth.

  Set the chocolate mixture on the counter. Stir in the cinnamon and the nutmeg until they’re well-incorporated.

  Drizzle the chocolate mixture over the batter in the cake pan.

  Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips (approximately one cup) over the batter as evenly as you can.

  Hannah’s 4th Note: There is a reason why you don’t melt ALL the chips in the bag. It has to do with texture. The whole chips will soften during baking and the melted chips are almost like a chocolate sauce. This means that after your Chocolate Coffee Cake is baked, you’ll have something that resembles chocolate sauce enhanced with cinnamon and nutmeg in the center with little soft nuggets of pure chocolate in each serving. It’s just yummy!

  Give the remaining cake batter another stir and then drop spoonfuls on top of the chocolate. Spread the batter out carefully with the rubber spatula.

  Hannah’s 5th Note: Don’t worry if the cake batter doesn’t cover the chocolate completely—the batter on top will fill in as it bakes and the crumb topping that you will make next will cover the rest.

  To make the crumb topping, mix the brown sugar and the flour in a small bowl. (I generally use a fork to do this.)

  Add the softened butter and mix until it’s crumbly. (You can also do this in a food processor with chilled butter and the steel blade.)

  Sprinkle the crumb topping over the pan as evenly as possible.

  Bake your Chocolate Coffee Cake at 350 degrees F. for 45 to 60 minutes. To test for doneness, use a cake tester, a thin wooden skewer, or a long toothpick. Insert it one inch from the center of the pan and pull it out again. If it has chocolate on it, that’s perfectly okay, but if it also has sticky unbaked dough clinging to it, your cake needs to bake at least another 5 or perhaps 10 minutes.

  When your cake is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool in the pan on a wire rack.

  Michelle’s Note: I like this coffee cake slightly warm and I’ve discovered that if you cut it in square servings, you can reheat it in the microwave and it tastes like fresh-baked. It’s really great for breakfast with a cup of strong hot coffee.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hannah had just pulled into her parking spot in back of The Cookie Jar when her
cell phone rang. She took it out of her purse to answer it and was surprised to hear Lisa’s voice.

  “Where are you?” Lisa asked.

  “I’m here. I just pulled into my parking spot in back.”

  “Okay. Don’t bother coming in,” Lisa said. “Claire called to say that the wedding dresses she ordered for you came in this morning. She wants you to come over and try them on right away. Your mother and Andrea are already there waiting for you.”

  “My mother is there?”

  “Of course she is. You didn’t really think you could get away with trying on wedding gowns without your mother, did you?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Go ahead then. It has to be done and you might as well get it over with. Take Michelle with you. They want her, too. Claire has to take her measurements for her bridesmaid dress.”

  “Are you busy?” Hannah asked her.

  “We’re packed. Even Stephanie Bascomb is here. In all her glory, of course.”

  “Stephanie got a new outfit?”

  “And how! I heard her tell Becky Summers that she just bought several designer suits from Claire. And she’s wearing a huge emerald ring. I told Herb, and he said that our mayor must have really done it this time! Hurry up, Hannah. They’re waiting for you.”

  Hannah sighed in resignation. She had to do it. There was no other choice. “Okay, Lisa. Michelle’s with me and she can lead the sacrificial lamb to slaughter.”

  “What was all that about?” Michelle asked when Hannah ended the call and slipped her phone back into her purse.

  “Mother and Andrea are waiting for us at Beau Monde. The wedding gowns that Claire ordered came in this morning, and I have to try them on.”