Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

½ cup sour cream (you can substitute unflavored yogurt, but it won’t hold as well, and you’ll have to do it at the last minute)

  Whip the cream with the white (granulated) sugar until it holds a firm peak.

  To test for firm peaks, simply shut off the mixer, and “dot” the surface of the cream with a rubber spatula and then pull it up. If it forms a peak that doesn’t droop over on itself, you have firm peaks.

  Once you have firm peaks, gently fold in the sour cream. DO NOT OVERMIX!

  Cover your mixing bowl with plastic wrap, and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use the Whipped Crème Fraîche.

  Hannah’s Whipped Crème Fraîche is also a wonderful accompaniment to a bowl of fruit if you put a generous dollop on the fruit and sprinkle it with a little brown sugar. It is especially good on strawberries, raspberries, and peaches.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I can’t believe those Easter Bunny’s Favorite Pie Squares!” Andrea said the moment they exited Trudi’s Fabric Shop. “They tasted like pumpkin, and all the ladies thought they were pumpkin, but you told me they weren’t pumpkin?”

  “That’s right.” Hannah gave a satisfied smile. “I’m glad all the ladies thought they were. Can you guess what I used in place of pumpkin?”

  Andrea shook her head. “Not really. A pumpkin is a kind of squash, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Then was it another kind of squash, like butternut, or yellow, or something like that?”

  “No, think about the title, Andrea. Easter Bunny’s Favorite Pie Squares. What did Peter Rabbit eat when he came into McGregor’s garden?”

  “I just read that to the girls! Peter Rabbit ate vegetables, like lettuce and cabbage and things like that?” Andrea stopped speaking and a puzzled expression crossed her face. “You didn’t use cabbage, did you, Hannah?”

  Hannah gave a little laugh. “No, it wasn’t cabbage. My secret vegetable was orange, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, it was definitely orange.”

  “What vegetable is orange?”

  “Well, carrots?! Did you use carrots?”

  “You got it! Carrots are exactly what I used. I overcooked them and mashed them up before I added the spices and put them in the pie.”

  Andrea looked highly amused. “Are you going to tell anyone else the secret?”

  “I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”

  “I’ll think about that and let you know,” Andrea said, setting the box she’d carried down on the back seat of Hannah’s truck and getting into her spot on the passenger’s side. “What did Stephanie give you?” she asked the moment Hannah slid into the driver’s seat.

  “A storage box from Richard’s mother’s house. He put it on a shelf in their garage and Stephanie read the note on the side. She thinks it contains Richard’s college papers and things.”

  “Did Richard put the note on the box?”

  “No, Richard’s mother did. I remember Mother telling me once that Mrs. Bascomb labeled everything. It really impressed Mother when she babysat with Richard. Everything was labeled in the freezer and on the shelves in Mrs. Bascomb’s pantry. She used to say that Mrs. Bascomb was so organized that even her toilet paper was labeled!”

  “So Richard’s mother was super organized?”

  “That, or she loved to use a labeling machine. I’m just glad she labeled this box and that Stephanie noticed it on the shelves in her garage.”

  “Did she open the box to see if Richard’s college things were in there?”

  “No, when she spotted it, she put it in the trunk of her car and brought it down here because she knew I wanted information about the mayor’s college years.”

  “And you didn’t open it and dive in?” Andrea asked, sounding astounded by her sister’s restraint.

  “No, I wanted you to be there when we opened it.”

  “Oh, good! Thank you, Hannah!” From the expression on Andrea’s face, Hannah could tell that her sister was clearly delighted. “When are we going to go through the . . .” Andrea stopped speaking as her phone rang, and pulled it out of her pocket to answer it. “It’s Bill,” she said, pressing a button to connect the call.

  Hannah started her cookie truck and turned on the heater while Andrea spoke on the phone.

  “Tonight?” Hannah heard her sister say. “Not until nine?”

  There was a long silence and then Andrea spoke again. “It’s okay, honey. You go ahead and hold down the fort out there. I’ll cancel our reservation with Sally and make it for another night.”

  “Bill’s working late?” Hannah asked, after Andrea had disconnected the call.

  “That’s right. Bill forgot, but he’s got a meeting tonight.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  “What are you and Norman doing for dinner tonight, Hannah?”

  “I’m not sure. Norman said he didn’t want me to have to cook tonight, that he wanted to plan our dinner. Of course I told him I didn’t mind doing it, but he insisted that I leave it up to him.”

  “Well, if you’re not doing anything special, I’ll take you both out to . . .” She stopped speaking and pulled her phone out of her pocket again. “It’s Michelle,” she said, glancing at the display.

  “Go ahead,” Hannah told her, driving down Main Street. “It could be important.”

  “Hi, Michelle,” Andrea answered when she connected the call. “What’s up?”

  Hannah half listened as she drove down the street, turned on Third, and took the alley behind Claire Knudson’s dress shop and her bakery.

  “I can, but Bill can’t. Do you want me to bring something?”

  Hannah pulled up behind The Cookie Jar and parked in her spot.

  “I can do that,” Andrea said to Michelle. “I’ll stop at the liquor store on the way out there.” Andrea stopped speaking and turned to Hannah. “Michelle wants to know if you and Norman will come to dinner at the condo tonight.”

  Hannah took a moment to consider it. “I’ll check with Norman, but I think it’ll be fine. Does Michelle want me to bring something?”

  Andrea repeated Hannah’s question to Michelle and then she turned to Hannah again. “Can you bring some kind of vegetable salad? Lonnie’s going to barbecue hamburgers on the balcony.”

  “In the winter?!”

  “Yes, he said he missed barbecuing, so Michelle bought him one of those little grills and he wants to try it out.”

  “Tell Michelle I can bring a vegetable salad. Sally gave me the recipe and it’s the one she uses on her luncheon buffet. And unless Michelle has something else planned, I’ll bring dessert, too.”

  Andrea repeated what Hannah had said to Michelle, and then she laughed and turned to Hannah again. “Michelle says great! She’ll count on wine and beer from me, and vegetable salad and dessert from you.”

  “What did she say to make you laugh?” Hannah asked.

  “She said that Mike was coming so you’d better bring an extra dessert.”

  Hannah opened her car door and got out.

  “I’ll help you carry things in, Hannah,” Andrea said quickly, opening her door and exiting the cookie truck.

  “I’ve got it,” Hannah told her. “All you have to do is plug in my truck and go make sure there is coffee. I’ll bring everything, I’ll put together my vegetable salad, and then we’ll go through Stephanie’s storage box.”

  “I can help you,” Andrea offered. “Are we baking something for Michelle?”

  “We don’t have to bake,” Hannah told her, leading the way to the back kitchen door. “I made more Peeps Easter Cupcakes than we needed, and we can pack up some of those for dessert at Michelle’s. There are cookies, but they need tasting first. It’s a new recipe that I wrote, and Aunt Nancy tried it out today.”

  “Is it a cookie I haven’t tried yet?” Andrea asked.

  Hannah laughed. “I don’t know how you could have tried it. Nobody baked it before today. Would you like to try it now with a cup of coffee, be
fore we start making the salad?”

  Andrea began to smile. “You’re going to let me help you make the salad?”

  Her sister looked so happy that Hannah smiled, too. And then she decided to take a calculated risk. “I’m not going to let you help. I’m going to let you make it all by yourself. I’ll help if you need it, but I doubt you’ll need any help at all from me.”

  “Oh, boy!”

  Hannah laughed. Her sister sounded like a little kid who’d just been given the bicycle she’d wanted for Christmas. “Let’s try out those cookies and then you can get started on the salad. I’ll be your helper this time. I’ll gather the ingredients and open the cans. How’s that?”

  “That’s . . . wonderful!” Andrea exclaimed. “Thank you, Hannah! You really do trust me . . . don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. You pour our coffee and I’ll get the cookies.” Hannah walked over to the baker’s rack and removed a tray of cookies. She plated enough for the two of them and put the tray back in place.

  “What are they called?” Andrea asked when Hannah carried the plate of cookies to the workstation and set them down.

  “Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Cookies. Try one and see if you like it.”

  Andrea didn’t need any further invitation. She reached for a cookie, brought it up to her mouth, and took a bite. “Mmmm!” she said.

  “Was that a good ‘mmmm’ or a bad ‘mmmmm’?” Hannah asked her.

  “Mmmmm!” Andrea replied.

  “So you like them?”

  “Mmmmm!” Andrea finished her first cookie and reached for a second. “They’re great, Hannah! Do you think it would be overkill if you served them with hot chocolate?”

  Hannah laughed. “I don’t think the word overkill applies when it comes to chocolate. As far as I’m concerned, the more chocolate, the better.”

  “Agreed,” Lisa said, coming into the kitchen in time to hear Hannah’s last comment. She saw the plate of cookies on the workstation and grinned. “You’re probably missing about two dozen of those. Aunt Nancy had us try them and we couldn’t stop.”

  “Would you like to join us for coffee and cookies?” Hannah asked her.

  “Thanks, but not right now. Marge and Dad are coming over for dinner, and I have to run down to the Red Owl to see if Florence has any tri-tip roasts. That’s Dad’s favorite and I’m going to make a dish of Oodles of Noodles to go with it.”

  “No vegetables?” Andrea asked, looking a bit shocked.

  “Yes, but I’ve already got them. I grew some asparagus in the greenhouse, and that’s Marge’s favorite vegetable. I cooked some before I came in to work this morning and made a wheel with the tips facing out. I think I’ll serve it with a couple different kinds of sauce since Aunt Nancy and Heiti are coming, too.”

  Hannah just smiled. Whenever Lisa talked about rushing home after work to prepare a company dinner, she felt as old as the hills. Lisa walked miles in the coffee shop every day, waiting on their customers. She got here early to help with the baking and practically never took a lunch break. “It must be nice to have your boundless energy,” she said to her partner.

  “It’s not boundless. You should see me on Sundays. Sometimes I put on my pajamas and robe after church and just laze around all afternoon.” She reached out to take a cookie and then she looked a bit embarrassed. “I almost forgot why I came in here. Stephanie Bascomb is out there and she wants to know if you’d like to see her.”

  “Yes,” Hannah said immediately. “Just ask her to come back here in about five minutes, Lisa. Tell her we’re going to put together a salad, and then all three of us will have coffee and open the box Stephanie gave me at Trudi’s luncheon.”

  HOT CHOCOLATE AND MARSHMALLOW COOKIES

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

  1 cup white (granulated) sugar

  1 cup brown sugar (pack it down when you measure it)

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

  2 large eggs

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  ½ cup (4 ounces) hot chocolate, cooled to room temperature (I used one envelope of Swiss Miss and only a half-cup of water to make my hot chocolate)

  2 teaspoons cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)

  2 additional teaspoons white (granulated) sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  2 teaspoons baking powder

  3 and ½ cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  2 cups milk chocolate chips (I used Nestlé)

  Approximately 50 to 60 white miniature marshmallows (1 per cookie)

  Prepare your baking pans by spraying 2 cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line them with parchment paper, and spray that with Pam or nonstick cooking spray.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: Mixing up this cookie dough is easier with an electric mixer, but you can do it by hand if you wish.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: When my nieces, Tracey and Bethie, help me bake, I always mix up this dough by hand because I let them give each stage a final stir with my great-grandmother Elsa’s wooden spoon.

  Place the white (granulated) sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.

  Add the brown sugar and beat them together on LOW speed until they are thoroughly combined.

  Add the softened butter and mix it in on MEDIUM speed. Beat it until the mixture is light and fluffy.

  Crack the eggs and add them one at a time, beating after each addition.

  Add the vanilla extract and mix it in.

  Feel the mug you made of hot chocolate. If it is at room temperature, drizzle it in, beating all the while. Mix until the liquid is well incorporated.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: Again, if I’m baking with my nieces, I always make 2 extra cups of hot chocolate so that they can each drink one, while we’re waiting for the other half-cup to cool to room temperature.

  Measure out the 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder and place them in a small bowl.

  Measure out the 2 teaspoons of white (granulated) sugar and mix them in with the cocoa powder. Stir them together until they are combined.

  Add the salt and the baking powder to the small bowl and mix them in. You can do this with a fork from your silverware drawer.

  Once everything in the small bowl is blended together, sprinkle it into your larger mixing bowl and beat everything up together at LOW speed. Mix well.

  Mix in the flour a half-cup at a time, beating after each addition. The reason you add the flour by increments is to keep the flour from spilling out of the bowl as you mix it in.

  Hannah’s 4th Note: This will take a while if you have 2 nieces like Tracey and Bethie measuring out the flour. Bethie doesn’t like to measure, but she does enjoy packing the flour down in the cup. This will necessitate a bit of cleaning up before you can continue mixing your cookie dough.

  If you used an electric mixer, take the bowl out of the mixer and set it on the counter. If you didn’t, the mixing bowl is already there.

  Measure out the milk chocolate chips and add them to your bowl. Stir them in by hand. (A 12-ounce or 11-ounce package of chips will do just fine.)

  Hannah’s 5th Note: I’m not sure we had 2 cups of milk chocolate chips in our Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Cookies because Tracey and I let Bethie measure out the chips. Both of us suspect that she ate at least 2 ounces of chips, perhaps more!

  This cookie dough will end up being quite stiff, very much like chocolate chip cookie dough.

  Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheets, 12 mounds of dough to a standard-size sheet. Use your incredibly clean, moistened fingers to round the dough mounds.

  Press your impeccably clean thumb into the center of each dough mound. Fill the resulting indentation with one white miniature marshmallow. Press it down slightly so that it will stay in place.

  Bake your Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until they look slightly firm around th
e edges. (Mine took 11 minutes.)

  Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes, and then remove them to a wire rack to complete cooling.

  Hannah’s 6th Note: If you used parchment paper on your cookie sheets, let them cool on the cookie sheets for a minute or two and then carry them over to a wire rack, and pull the parchment paper, cookies and all, onto the wire rack.

  Yield: Approximately 4 to 5 dozen rich and tasty cookies, depending on cookie size.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Of course they had to try a different cookie when Stephanie came back to the kitchen. Hannah filled a plate with the Apple Shortbread Bar Cookies she’d made earlier and poured them all a fresh cup of coffee.

  “I really like these, Hannah!” Stephanie told her, reaching for her second.

  “So do I,” Andrea echoed that sentiment and duplicated Stephanie’s action by taking a second cookie for herself.

  “Ready?” Hannah asked Andrea and Stephanie as she carried the box Stephanie had given her to the workstation.

  “I’m ready,” Andrea said immediately. “How about you, Mrs. Bascomb.”

  “It’s Stephanie,” she reminded Andrea. “I’m over at your mother’s penthouse garden so often, I’m practically a member of your family.”

  Andrea smiled. “Old habits are hard to break, but thank you, Mrs. . . . Stephanie.”

  “Would you like to open the box?” Hannah asked, deferring to Stephanie.

  “Go ahead, Hannah. I know you’re chomping at the bit. So is your sister, and if you don’t open it soon, Andrea’s going to jump across and do it for you.”

  Andrea laughed. “You’re right. Hurry up, Hannah.”

  Hannah got scissors and cut the tape on the box. She lifted the lid and began to smile as she saw what was inside. “Look!” she said, holding up a college banner with the words TARA HILLS STATE COLLEGE written in white. Red and white must be their college colors.”

  “I’ve never heard of that college before,” Andrea commented.

  “It’s a small college in central Wisconsin,” Hannah told her.

  “How do you know that?” Andrea asked her.