Devil’s Food Cake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  “What do you think?” Delores asked him. “Did Matthew do it?”

  “I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. I asked him point blank when he came to visit Hugh in the hospital after the game. Hugh wouldn’t see him, of course. He still believed Matthew had set him up so that he could have the quarterback spot. Matthew told me that he had nothing to do with it, that he’d seen the hole and avoided it and the log hadn’t been there. He insisted that someone must have come along after he’d left, filled the hole in with leaves, and baited it with the log.”

  “Who do you think did it?” Delores asked, leaning toward Doc.

  “It could have been anyone on the team. Coach Telleson said Hugh had decided he was the greatest thing since the first rhubarb pie, and he had an exaggerated notion of his importance to the team. He seemed to think that without him, they couldn’t win. There were quite a few other players who didn’t like his attitude, especially when he lorded it over them. It could have been any one of them.”

  “Or several of them,” Norman suggested.

  “True. Maybe one of those groups of three boys started talking about what fun it would be to see Hugh fall in a hole.”

  “Perhaps it wasn’t even malicious,” Delores suggested. “They might not have thought it through at all. They just decided to set a trap for him and they never expected him to fall so hard that he would break his leg and be out for the whole season.”

  “For the whole year, and then some,” Doc corrected her. “It was a nasty break.”

  “If it wasn’t some of the other boys, how about his brother Adam?” Hannah made the suggestion. “Was there a lot of sibling rivalry between Hugh and Adam?”

  “It was a lot more than sibling rivalry,” Doc said.

  “What do you mean?” Norman asked.

  “While Hugh was in the hospital, I heard him fight with Adam. It got pretty vicious, verbally of course, since Hugh was in traction. I felt sorry for Adam. It was clear that Hugh had bullied his younger brother for years. Now that Adam was older, he was beginning to fight back, and I figured no good could come of it.”

  “Do you think Adam could have filled in that hole and set the trap for his brother?” Norman followed up.

  Doc shrugged. “It’s possible. If Hugh pushed him to the bitter end, Adam could have done it. On the other hand, I don’t know if he had the guts to do it.”

  “What happened to Adam? He doesn’t live around here, does he?” Hannah asked.

  “Not anymore. Adam earned an academic scholarship to Yale. He went on to another Ivy League school for his master’s and doctorate, and I believe he’s teaching at UCLA. He’s never come back here, and I don’t think he ever will.”

  “Did Hugh go to college?” Hannah was curious.

  “No. He might have if he’d gotten an athletic scholarship, but after he broke his leg, that was out of the question. It took him a year to recover, and no college coach wanted to take a chance on a quarterback with a pin in his leg.”

  “He must have been bitter about that,” Delores ventured.

  “Oh, he was. Or maybe I should say, he is. He’s sure that broken leg ruined his life and now he’s saddled with a bad back on top of it.” Doc Knight paused for a sip of his water. “As soon as he recovered, Hugh went to work for the state on a road repair crew. It’s heavy work and it was hard on him physically, but the pay was good and the benefits were great. He only worked on the roads in the summer. The rest of the time he worked in his uncle’s hardware store in St. Cloud. Two years ago, he was working on the road crew, picking up caution markers from the back of a state truck, when he slipped and took a bad fall.”

  “And that’s when he hurt his back?” Hannah felt sorry for him in spite of the fact that he didn’t sound like a very nice person.

  “That’s right. They did X-rays and performed surgery, but the fix didn’t work. Back surgery’s still risky, especially for a six-foot, two-hundred-thirty-pound guy. I would have warned him against it, but he didn’t ask me. And now he’s living in the family cottage out at Eden Lake, getting state disability.”

  “Is he badly injured?” Norman asked, and Hannah knew exactly what was running through his mind. If Hugh blamed Matthew for the origin of all his troubles, he’d have a motive for murder. Was Hugh capable of walking into the church in the middle of the night and killing Reverend Matthew?

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since he came back here to Lake Eden. He’s holed up out there like a hermit, feeling sorry for himself, no doubt. Hugh’s always been good at self-pity. Not that he doesn’t have his cross to bear. He does.”

  “Do you think he still hated Matthew enough to kill him for something he thought Matthew did all those years ago?” Hannah asked.

  Doc considered that for a long moment and then he nodded. “Oh, yes. In my opinion, Hugh’s not quite right in the head. But I could be wrong. Maybe you two should check him out and see for yourselves.”

  PEAR CRUNCH PIE

  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F., (that’s a very hot oven,) rack in the middle position.

  The Crust:

  one 9-inch deep-dish pie shell, unbaked***

  The Topping:

  1 cup all-purpose flour (Scoop it up in a measuring cup and level it off with a table knife.)

  ½ cup brown sugar (pack it down in the measuring cup)

  ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

  ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is best, but only use 1/8 teaspoon)****

  ½ cup salted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, ¼ pound) cut into small pieces

  ½ cup chopped pecans (measure after chopping)

  *** - If you’re pressed for time, you can buy a frozen one at your grocery store.

  ****- Unlike some herbs and spices, freshly grated nutmeg is stronger than dried.

  The Filling:

  one large (20 and ½ ounces) pear halves in syrup OR juice

  one small (8 and ½ ounces) pear halves in syrup OR juice

  ¼ cup white (granulated) sugar

  2 Tablespoons (1/8 cup) cornstarch

  1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (half that amount if you use freshly grated)

  1/8 teaspoon salt

  1 and ½ cups pear liquid (if you don’t have enough, fill in with water)

  1 Tablespoon salted butter (that’s 1/8 of a stick)

  1 teaspoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed is best)

  You’re going to make the topping first, and that’s easy. In a small bowl (or a food processor with the steel blade) combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  If you’re doing this by hand, use your fingers or 2 knives and cut the butter into the flour until it looks like cornmeal. (If you’re using a food processor, use the steel blade and process with an on-and-off motion until the resulting mixture looks like cornmeal.)

  Mix in the chopped pecans by hand and set aside on the counter.

  Drain the pear halves, but DON’T THROW AWAY THE JUICE. You’ll use it later.

  Dry the pear halves thoroughly on paper towels.

  On a COLD BURNER, combine the sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and salt in a medium-size saucepan. Stir them together until they’re thoroughly combined.

  Mix in the pear liquid, stirring it well.

  Turn the burner on MEDIUM HIGH.

  Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture loses its milky appearance and turns clear. This is a little tricky for anyone who’s not used to working with cornstarch. A good rule of thumb is to heat the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or a heat-resistant spatula until it just barely reaches the boil. Set your timer for 5 minutes and keep stirring the entire time. That guarantees you’ve cooked it long enough.

  When 5 minutes are up, remove the saucepan from the heat and move it to a cold burner. Stir in the butter and the lemon juice, and let the filling sit there cooling while you work with the pear halves.

  Arrange the pear halves, rounded side up, in the bottom of your unbaked pie shell. You don’t have to worry about being too artistic
, because the pears will be covered with the crunch topping.

  When the pear halves are arranged to your satisfaction, place the pan with the pie shell on a drip pan. (I use a cookie sheet with sides.) Pour the hot pear pudding you just made over the top of the pear halves as evenly as you can.

  Give the topping you made earlier a final stir with a fork. Then sprinkle it over the tops of the pear halves as evenly as you can. This will form the sweet “crunch” part of Pear Crunch Pie. Rhanna’s recipe calls for a lot of crunch topping, so heap it on and press it down to form a bumpy, golden brown top crust.

  Bake the Pear Crunch Pie at 425 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the topping turns dark golden brown and looks delicious. (In this case looks are NOT deceiving—it’s yummy!)

  Yield: Rhanna’s recipe says you can get 8 pieces from this 9-inch pie, but those people must not be big dessert eaters. I always have to make two pies when I invite the family for dinner. Counting Bethany (who’s too little to eat Pear Crunch Pie yet) there are only 7 of us!

  Rhanna used to make a slew of these pies for Sally’s Thanksgiving buffet. The Pear Crunch Pies were a great addition to Sally’s wonderful pumpkin pies.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hannah woke up at four in the morning, fifteen minutes before her alarm clock was due to give its series of irritating beeps. She switched it off, clicked on the lamp sitting on her bed table, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Even though the facts did not support it, she felt well rested in both mind and body, and supremely happy. In short, Hannah felt wonderful, much better than she had in months.

  “It was good seeing Norman again, wasn’t it Moishe?” she addressed her feline roommate, who was staring at her with wide, startled eyes. The sight of her astonished cat so amused her, she burst into laughter.

  The hair on Moishe’s back began to stand up as she continued to laugh. He was obviously shocked by her high-spirited alertness at this hour of the morning, and that sent her into another gale of laughter. Normally, she let out a groan of dismay when the alarm woke her. More often than not, she got her slippers on the wrong feet, and she stumbled her way down the hall to the kitchen in dire danger of falling back asleep on the way.

  “Rowww!” Moishe protested and jumped off the bed. She heard him run down the hallway, and then there was a thump as he leaped up onto the top floor of the Kitty Kondo Norman had given him. It was clear that Hannah’s cat wasn’t sure what to make of this new happy person who was inhabiting his mistress’s body, and he’d chosen to hide in the safest place he knew while he attempted to figure it out.

  “Relax. It’s just Norman’s influence,” she called out as she padded down the hallway, her slippers on the correct feet, to the kitchen to pour her first cup of coffee. The mug in hand, she peered around the kitchen doorway. Moishe was still in his Kitty Kondo. He may have thought he was hidden, but his tail was hanging out of the doorway. “It’s okay. I promise not to laugh again until the sun comes up.”

  Three of the four loaves of apricot bread she’d baked last night with Norman were still on the rack on the counter. Hannah debated cutting a slice for her breakfast. She was saving one loaf for her mother. Delores loved Sally’s Apricot Bread. She’d take the other two loaves down to The Cookie Jar with her and see if she could make a dessert with them that Lisa could serve if they ran out of cookies.

  Would they run out of cookies? Hannah thought it was a distinct possibility. Everyone loved to come in, have a cup of coffee and two cookies, and listen to Lisa tell the story of Hannah finding a murder victim. The last time Lisa had performed her “Hannah Finds The Body” story, they had run out of cookies by early afternoon and had closed by two!

  There was no way Hannah wanted to serve plain slices of apricot bread. They could get that out at The Lake Eden Inn in Sally’s bread basket. She had to think of another dessert, one that used cake or bread. Sally’s Apricot Bread was halfway between the two.

  Hannah closed her eyes and thought about it for the space of several seconds. Then her eyes popped open again, and she began to smile. She’d make bread pudding with apricot bread. She’d never heard of anyone doing it before, but there was no reason why it couldn’t work. But there should be a second ingredient, something that went well with apricots. And that second ingredient should be…chocolate! Chocolate and apricots were a natural. Everyone loved them. Cream cheese would be a good addition, too. It would give it a little zing without adding sweetness.

  It didn’t take long for Hannah to write out her recipe. It would have to be tested, of course, and there was no time like the present.

  Less than five minutes later, she’d made the syrup, sliced the apricot bread, and was preparing to assemble her dessert. She poured her syrup, a combination of brown sugar, butter, and apricot pancake syrup in the bottom of her baking pan. Then she spread half the slices of apricot bread with whipped cream cheese and sprinkled them with mini chocolate morsels. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work…was there?

  She was just spreading the last slice of apricot bread with cream cheese when the phone rang. She glanced at the clock, saw that it was four-thirty in the morning and frowned. Who could be calling her this early? Thoughts of critical illness, car accidents, and broken limbs ran through her mind as she reached out to answer it.

  “Hello?” she asked tentatively.

  “Hannah. I figured you’d be up by now. I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “You’re right,” Hannah said with a smile. It was Norman, and she was glad to hear from him. “What are you doing up this early?”

  “I was doing a little research online. I woke up with an idea, and it panned out.”

  “How so?”

  “I’ll tell you when I see you. How about breakfast at the Corner Tavern?”

  Hannah glanced over at the preparations she’d made. Everything would keep, but she hated to stop now before she’d even tested her new recipe. “I’d love breakfast, but I really should get down to The Cookie Jar. I’m testing a new recipe.”

  “Okay. You go test your recipe and I’ll bring you breakfast. How about bacon and cheese scrambles?”

  Hannah’s stomach gave a little growl of hunger before she could even say that it was her favorite breakfast dish. “Sounds good to me!” she said instead.

  “How about Lisa? Will she be in early?”

  “I think so. She usually is.”

  “I’ll get one for her, too. And a big order of hash browns to go with it. Maybe a side or two of bacon, extra crispy, too. Is anybody else likely to be there that early? I can pick up more.”

  Hannah thought about that for a moment. “I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure.”

  “Okay. If anyone else comes in, call me on my cell phone.”

  “Will do.”

  “What time shall I meet you?”

  “Let’s see…I’ll just finish up here, take a quick shower, and you can meet me there in …” Hannah stopped and looked up at her apple-shaped kitchen clock. As she did so, her eyes grazed the top of the refrigerator. Another sock ball! What in the world was going on?

  “You cut out for a minute there,” Norman told her. “What time shall I meet you?”

  Hannah quickly calculated the time it would take her to drive to town, and how many batches of cookies there were to bake from the dough she’d mixed up last night with Lisa. She could be through assembling the bread pudding in ten minutes, done with her shower in another ten, at The Cookie Jar twenty minutes after that, another ten minutes for the oven to come up to temperature, and even allowing for traffic that shouldn’t be present at this hour of the morning, car trouble she hoped would not occur, and other delays that might happen to slow down her departure or her arrival, she could be ready to eat breakfast with Norman by six-thirty.

  “Hannah?”

  “It took me a while to figure it out. How about six-thirty?”

  “I’ll be there. It’s going to be great to see you, Hannah.” Hannah was smiling
as she echoed his sentiment and hung up the phone. Norman had spent hours with her last night, and he still thought that it would be great to see her this morning. What woman could ask for more than that?

  “It smells incredible,” Lisa said, mixing up one of her favorite recipes, Raspberry Vinegar Cookies.

  “It should be okay. They’re all good ingredients, and they go together, I think.”

  “So do I, especially the chocolate and the apricots. Don’t worry, Hannah. It’s bound to be good.”

  “I’m not worried that it won’t be good. I’m worried that it won’t be spectacular.”

  Lisa laughed. “Good will suit me just…is that somebody at the back door?”

  Hannah stopped chopping nuts in the food processor and listened for a minute. Lisa was right. Someone was knocking. But it was much too early for Norman. Unless he just couldn’t wait any longer to see her and he’d rushed right over here and …

  “I’ll get it,” Lisa said when Hannah didn’t move from her spot. She hurried to the door, pulled it open and greeted whoever was standing there. “Hey! What are you doing up this early?”

  “Working. Is she here yet? There’s one more thing I need to ask her.”

  Hannah almost groaned. It was Mike. She wasn’t upset to see him. That wasn’t it at all. But if he had further questions for her, it would put a damper on their breakfast. She told herself that thinking that was no way to greet the man who’d probably been working all night on Reverend Matthew’s murder case. Then she pasted a smile on her face, and gave him a big cheery wave as he came in the door.