Chocolate Cream Pie Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  3 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

  2 cups white chocolate chips or vanilla baking chips (an 11-ounce bag will do—I used Nestlé)

  ½ cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

  Line a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan with heavy-duty foil. Spray the foil with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Set it aside to wait for its yummy contents.

  Place the flour, powdered sugar, baking soda, salt, white sugar, and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on LOW speed until they are thoroughly combined.

  Place the stick and a half of salted butter in a microwave-safe bowl. (I used a quart Pyrex measuring cup.)

  Break the white chocolate baking squares in pieces and place them on top of the butter.

  Heat on HIGH in the microwave for 1 minute and then stir with a heat-resistant rubber spatula. (If you don’t have one, you really need to buy one. They’re not expensive and they’re dishwasher safe. You’ll use it a lot!)

  If the white chocolate squares are not melted, take the spatula out of the bowl and return the bowl to the microwave. Heat the butter and chocolate mixture for an additional minute.

  Let the bowl sit in the microwave for 1 more minute and then take it out and stir it with the heat-resistant spatula again. If you can stir it smooth, let it sit on the counter to cool for at least 5 minutes. If you can’t stir it smooth, heat it in increments of 30 seconds, letting it sit in the microwave for 1 minute after each increment, until you can stir it smooth.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: You can also do this on the stovetop over LOW heat, but make sure to stir it constantly so it won’t scorch.

  Stir the vanilla extract into the melted butter and white chocolate mixture. Let it continue to cool on the counter.

  Add the eggs to your mixer bowl and beat together at MEDIUM speed until they are thoroughly incorporated.

  Feel the bowl with the white chocolate and butter mixture. If it’s so hot it might scramble the eggs by adding it now, wait a few minutes until it’s cool enough to add.

  Turn the mixer down to LOW speed and slowly pour the white chocolate, butter, and vanilla extract mixture into the mixer bowl. Mix this until it’s combined, but do not over-beat.

  Roughly chop the white chocolate chips into smaller pieces. (I used my food processor with the steel blade in an on-and-off motion.)

  Take the bowl out of the mixer and fold in the pieces of white chocolate chips by hand. (You can use the same heat-resistant spatula that you used earlier.)

  If you choose to use the pecans, stir them in now.

  Scoop the batter into your prepared pan. It will be very thick. Use the same rubber spatula to scrape the bowl and get every wonderful bit of tasty batter into the cake pan.

  Smooth the batter out with your impeccably clean hands and then press it down evenly with the back of a metal spatula. Make sure the batter gets into the corners of the pan.

  Bake your White Chocolate Brownies in your preheated oven at 350 degrees F. for exactly 23 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE! If you do, you’ll end up with dry brownies.

  When you take your brownies out of the oven, set them on a cold stove burner or a wire rack to cool.

  When the White Chocolate Brownies are cool, frost them with White Chocolate Fudge Frosting. (Recipe follows.)

  WHITE CHOCOLATE FUDGE FROSTING

  This recipe is made in the microwave.

  2 Tablespoons (1 ounce, ¼ stick) salted butter

  2 cups white chocolate chips or vanilla baking chips (I used Nestlé)

  1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk—I used Eagle Brand)

  Place the butter in the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl. (I used a quart Pyrex measuring cup.)

  Place the white chocolate chips on top of the butter.

  Pour in the 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

  Heat on HIGH for 1 minute. Then remove from the microwave and stir with a heat-resistant rubber spatula.

  Return the bowl to the microwave and heat for another minute.

  Let the bowl sit in the microwave for 1 minute and then take it out (careful—it may be hot!) and set it on the counter. Attempt to stir it smooth with the heat-resistant spatula.

  If you can stir the mixture smooth, you’re done. If you can’t stir it smooth, return the bowl to the microwave and heat on HIGH in 30-second intervals followed by 1 minute standing time, until you can stir it smooth.

  To frost your White Chocolate Brownies, simply pour the frosting over the top of your brownies, using the heat-resistant rubber spatula to smooth the frosting into the corners.

  Let the frosted brownies cool to room temperature until the frosting is “set”. Then cover with a sheet of foil and store them in a cool place.

  When you’re ready to serve, cut the White Chocolate Brownies into brownie-size pieces. They are rich so serve them with icy cold glasses of milk or cups of strong coffee.

  Lisa’s Note: We always make these brownies and Double Fudge Brownies for Valentine’s Day. We like to decorate these with maraschino cherries cut in half lengthwise. We cut them BEFORE we make the frosting so that we’re ready to push them into the frosting before it “sets”.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Hannah!”

  The call came at five o’clock, just as Hannah, Lisa, and Michelle were preparing to mix up the cookie dough for the following day. “Yes, Ross,” she answered, motioning to Mike, who was sitting at the work station with them.

  “Did you get the money?”

  “No,” Hannah answered quickly. “The bank doesn’t carry that much cash on hand, but Doug said you could write a check to your wife so that she could deposit it and the bank would honor it immediately.”

  “I can’t do that,” Ross said, and his words were clipped. “I can’t believe you could be that stupid, Hannah!” Ross gave a laugh that was both derisive and humorless. “Did you and Doug really believe that I’d fall for something like that?”

  Hannah was so angry, she came very close to losing it and giving Ross a piece of her mind. How dare he call her stupid! She wasn’t the stupid one. He was for thinking that she’d fall for his lies again.

  And then Mike reached out to squeeze her shoulder and she gave a reluctant nod. She knew she had to go along with Doug and Mike’s plan so she repeated one of her great-grandmother Elsa’s favorite sayings to herself. You’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. It took a moment or two, but it worked and that was when she realized that she should react as if she were the injured party, the tearful wronged woman who was still in love with the man she’d thought was her husband, the woman who would do anything to have him back. “But . . . Ross,” she did her best to sound upset, which wasn’t difficult, and heartbroken, which was. Ross was a rat and she knew she was better off without him.

  She took a deep breath and managed to put a little quaver in her voice when she continued. “You told me that you needed to give that money to your wife so that she would get a divorce. And then you said you loved me and when the divorce was final, you’d marry me all over again. Did you mean it, Ross? Or were you . . . lying to me?”

  “Of course I meant it, Cookie. I’d never lie to you. You have to believe that. But I can’t write a check to my wife.”

  “Why not?” Hannah felt Mike’s hand pat her back. He obviously approved of the effort she was making.

  “Because she doesn’t have a checking account. No, Cookie. You have to get that money somehow. Go see Doug again and tell him that it won’t work for me to write a check and I need that money now.”

  He was beginning to sound desperate again and Hannah knew that she had to be careful. “I . . . I could do that, but it won’t work. The bank doesn’t keep that much cash on hand and Doug has to request the cash. Doug told me that the earliest it could be delivered by armored truck would be right before the bank opened on Monday.”

  There was a long silence while Hannah held her breath and then Ross sighed.

/>   “All right. Just be there when the bank opens and you can get it for me.”

  “I’ll be at The Cookie Jar on Monday morning,” Hannah said quickly, “and I could do that, but there’s another little problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  Ross sounded suspicious again and Hannah knew she needed to be very careful. “Doug can’t release the cash to me unless you sign off on the withdrawal slip.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “That’s what he said. And he also said that it wouldn’t take more than a minute or two because he’d have the slip all ready for you to sign. And once you sign off, you can call me to tell me to go to the bank. Then you can drive out to our condo, I can pick up the money, and we can meet there.”

  “Are you sure you can’t convince Doug to give you the money without my signature?”

  “Well . . . I can meet with him again, but I really don’t think he’ll go for it. He told me that it was a banking regulation and Doug’s a real stickler for protocol like that.”

  “All right.” Ross didn’t sound happy and he sighed again. “We’ll do it Doug’s way.”

  “Oh, good!” Hannah hoped she sounded absolutely delighted. “Just call me Monday morning right after you go to the bank. Then I can get the money and meet you at our condo. You can meet me there, can’t you, Ross?”

  “Of course I can, darling. It’ll give us a chance to be together again before I take the money to my wife. All I need is the key to that storage unit and the money. That’s very, very important to me, Cookie. And remember . . . I love you even more than life itself.”

  Hannah was trying to decide what she could say to Ross’s declaration of love when the line went dead. Ross had disconnected the call. She shut off her phone and turned to Mike. “Did you get it?” she asked, knowing that he’d planned to trace the call.

  “Yes, but it won’t do us any good. He was in transit.”

  “You mean on the road, driving?”

  “Yes, he’s miles away from Lake Eden now.”

  “Do you know which way he was going?”

  Mike nodded. “South, toward Minneapolis. He was just passing through Anoka when he hung up.”

  Hannah gave a relieved sigh. “At least he’s not coming here!”

  “No, he’s not . . . at least not now. We’d better plan out what to do about Monday morning, Hannah. I’m going home with you for the night, just in case he decides to come back here.” Mike turned to Lonnie. “We’ll both go home with Hannah. I wouldn’t put it past Ross to come to her condo to stay there until Monday morning.”

  Hannah looked at Mike in surprise. “But why would Ross do that?”

  Mike gave a little smile. “Number one, to intimidate you just in case you changed your mind. Number two, your condo complex is isolated.” Mike ticked off the point on his fingers. “Number three, he’s bound to have a different car by now, and none of the residents will recognize it parked in the visitor’s lot. Number four, he could even have changed his appearance, bleached his hair, dressed in clothing he didn’t normally wear, things like that. And number five, he might think that you got the money from Doug already and you’re keeping it until Monday so that we can set a trap for him.”

  Hannah’s eyes widened in shock and surprise. “But I thought I’d convinced Ross that I still loved him and I wanted to help him get the money so that I could marry him again!”

  “Look, Hannah,” Mike slipped an arm around her shoulders. “For you, that was an Academy Award performance. But don’t forget that Ross knows you pretty well. And he knows that he hurt you deeply and you’re not the type of woman to simply sit there and take it. He may suspect that you’re trying to trap him. And if he does, he may come to the condo to confront you again and scare you into submission. There’s no way we’ll leave you alone tonight and take the chance that Ross might come there to hurt you.”

  Hannah began to feel anxious again. She’d been so sure that she’d convinced Ross, but perhaps Mike was right to be cautious. “All right, Mike. You’re probably wise not to take chances. But . . . what are you going to do if Ross does show up?”

  “He’s threatened to hurt you, but that’s your word against his. It won’t stand up in a court of law. And he doesn’t have a history of physical abuse toward you, does he?”

  “No! Never! That’s why I have trouble believing that he’d actually do anything violent.”

  “We already asked his wife about that. She claims Russ never laid a hand on her all the time they were married.”

  “Russ?” Hannah asked, catching the name that Mike had used.

  “Yes, Russell Burton. That’s the name he used with her.”

  Hannah felt slightly faint. “That’s the name he used on the storage locker in Minneapolis! The supervisor thought that the temporary secretary they used when they transferred over to their new computer system simply misread the name!”

  Mike nodded. “Ross has probably used a couple of different names in different places.”

  Hannah closed her eyes and winced as another possibility occurred to her. “Ross used Russell Burton with her and Ross Barton with me and with Lynne. Do you think that he could have more than one wife?”

  “It’s possible.” Mike gave a little shrug. “Criminals often change their names when they go to new locations. For all we know, Ross’s real name could be John Jones, or something ordinary like that.”

  “But don’t most people keep their initials? Ross had personalized velveteen lounge suits with the initials RB on them. He loved those outfits and he wore them all the time when he was home with me.”

  “There are a lot of names that begin with those initials, Hannah,” Lonnie pointed out. “Ross could have been Robert Barnes, or Ralph Burns. Just look in a big-city phone book and you’ll find a bunch of people with the initials RB.”

  Hannah nodded. “You’re probably right, Lonnie. It’s just that . . . I’ve never encountered anyone who went by multiple names before.”

  “You might have encountered some without knowing it,” Mike told her. “Most con men change their names when they travel from place to place. That makes it more difficult for the authorities to track them.”

  “Yes, I know about things like that, but I never thought that . . .” Hannah stopped and swallowed hard. “I hate to think I got taken in by someone like that. I thought that since I’d known Ross in college and he used the same name then, he was the man I knew from before!”

  Mike looked thoughtful. “I think I’d better give Lynne Larchmont a call. I’d like to find out if Ross, or Russ, or whoever he really is ever threatened her.”

  “Lynne told me that she had bruises from the time he grabbed her,” Hannah told him. “I had dinner with her last night.”

  Mike turned to Lonnie. “You stick with Michelle tonight. I don’t want her going out to Hannah’s condo alone. Stop at the Corner Tavern or Bertanelli’s Pizza and use the department credit card to pick up takeout for dinner.” He turned back to Hannah. “Call Lynne and ask her if she’s free for dinner tonight. If she is, tell her that both of you have a dinner date tonight courtesy of the chief detective from the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department.”

  * * *

  “It’s really good to see you again, Mike.” Lynne smiled across the table at Mike. “And, Hannah . . . two nights in a row! I’m blessed.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to see your husband, Lynne,” Mike told her. “I only met him briefly when you were in town for the movie, but he seemed like a really nice guy.”

  “He is,” Lynne said. “I’m sorry he’s gone on business, but something important came up and he had to take care of it.”

  Right, Hannah thought. And it must have been more important than your marriage or he wouldn’t have left just when you two were trying to work things out.

  “I’m sorry to bring up a subject that might be uncomfortable for you,” Mike faced Lynne across the table, “but I really need to know more about your engagement
to Ross when you were in college.”

  Lynne looked slightly surprised, but she nodded. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

  “What name was he going by then?”

  “Ross Barton. He said his father had shortened his last name. It used to be Bartonovitch, but he didn’t think that was American enough.”

  Mike nodded. “That makes sense, and it was certainly easier to spell when Ross got into school and had to write it on his homework.”

  Lynne laughed. “That’s what Ross told me. He said he was grateful that his father had changed it.”

  Mike pulled his notebook out of his shirt pocket. “I have just a couple of other questions if that’s okay.”

  “It’s okay. What would you like to know?”

  “During your relationship with Ross, was he ever violent toward you personally?”

  It took Lynne a minute to answer. “Yes, I told Hannah about it last night. It’s the reason I called off our engagement. Ross was angry at me over something. Now I don’t even remember what it was. And he hit me. Hard.”

  “How hard?”

  “Hard enough to give me a black eye. And then he grabbed me and shook me so hard, I thought that one of my arms was broken.”