Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  Shut off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then take the bowl out of the mixer, move it to your kitchen counter, and give the cookie dough a final stir by hand with a mixing spoon.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: I like to use a wooden mixing spoon for hand stirring. It seems to work better than a plastic or metal mixing spoon. I use a medium-size wooden spoon that belonged to my great-grandmother.

  After stirring, the resulting cookie dough should be fluffy, but not stiff like sugar cookie or chocolate chip cookie dough.

  Let the bowl sit on the counter while you prepare your cookie sheets.

  Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. It’s the easiest way to bake these cookies. If you don’t have parchment paper and you really don’t want to go out to get any, spray your cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

  Measure out the white sugar and place it in a shallow bowl.

  Using a teaspoon (not the measuring kind, but one from your silverware drawer), drop a rounded teaspoon of cookie dough into the bowl of white sugar. Use your impeccably clean fingers and a light touch to form the cookie dough into a ball and roll it in the sugar.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: Work with only one dough ball at a time. If you try to form more than one at once, the dough will stick together.

  Lift the dough balls gently and place them on your prepared baking sheet, no more than 12 to a standard-size cookie sheet.

  Cut the maraschino cherries in half lengthwise.

  Press one cherry half, rounded side up, on top of each sugar-coated dough ball.

  Press gently so that they won’t roll off on their way to the oven.

  Bake your Coconut and Cherry-Cranberry Cookies at 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes or until they’re nicely brown on top. They will spread out a bit in the oven.

  Test your cookies for doneness by pressing your finger very lightly on top of a cookie. If your finger does not sink into the cookie dough, your cookies are done.

  Take your cookies out of the oven and slide the cookie-laden parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool.

  If you did not use parchment paper, let the cookie sheet sit on a cold stovetop burner for 2 minutes. Then remove the cookies to a wire rack with a metal spatula.

  Let the cookies cool completely before you attempt to remove them from the wire rack.

  Yield: Approximately 4 to 5 dozen soft and moist cookies, depending on cookie size.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  As Hannah mixed up the cookies, she was deep in thought. Careful! her suspicious mind warned. If you’re too distracted, you might forget to crack the eggs and throw away the shells and just add them to the mixing bowl shells and all.

  Not a chance, her rational mind objected. Hannah knows what she’s doing when it comes to baking. Besides, I’m watching her and I can nudge her a little if she doesn’t follow the recipe.

  It doesn’t say to put only the inside of the eggs in the mixing bowl, her suspicious mind pointed out.

  Of course not, her rational mind countered. Any idiot would know that!

  Hannah didn’t listen to the internal debate. She concentrated on what she knew about Mayor Bascomb’s murder.

  “Mayor Bascomb was murdered between six and eight,” Hannah said aloud, referring to her notes. “If Robert drove straight to Lake Eden from Wisconsin, he could have been there during that time.”

  It’s also possible that he turned around on the freeway the way Mitzi’s husband suggested, her rational mind reminded her. Just because Robert was heading east when Ronnie spotted the camper doesn’t mean he’d already been in Lake Eden killing his brother.

  All that was valid and Hannah knew it without listening to the two warring factions of her mind. But she had to deal with the fact that there had been a vehicle footprint next to Herb’s car on the night of the murder, and that footprint with the fluid leak could have come from Robert’s camper.

  Could have, but might not have, her rational mind reminded her. What reason would Robert have for killing his brother?

  The mayor was spoiling Bruce, the suspicious part of her mind chimed in. It’s possible that Robert was trying to save Bruce from further character damage by the mayor.

  Possible, but it’s not compelling enough for a man to kill his brother, Hannah’s rational mind interjected. Robert didn’t have to leave Bruce with his uncle. Bruce was underage, and Robert could have moved his son back to Wisconsin. Fathers have rights, and the mayor wasn’t Bruce’s father!

  “Whoa!” Hannah said aloud as she remembered the photo of the mayor dancing with the girl who Stephanie had said looked like Julia. What if it was Julia? And what if Julia no longer drank because she’d been drunk that night? The thought was so unsettling that Hannah gasped, dropping her mixing spoon down on the stainless steel surface so hard that it bounced and splattered cookie dough. And what if Julia had been so drunk that she’d ended up spending the night with Richard? Stephanie had said that she felt lucky she hadn’t had children with her husband because the mayor would probably treat his son the same way he treated Bruce. Was it possible that Bruce was Richard Bascomb’s son?!

  Hannah looked around her. The cookies they needed for the day were baked. Norman was tied up with the root canal, and Andrea wasn’t coming in until noon. Hannah knew she should wait to run her theory past someone like Norman or Mike, but there was no way she’d call Norman in the middle of a complicated dental procedure, and Mike would probably laugh at her wild speculations. Stephanie had mentioned that Robert was staying at Bruce’s apartment, and it couldn’t hurt to run over there to return the yearbook to him.

  You know you’re not supposed to confront a possible killer alone! the rational part of Hannah’s mind objected. If Robert killed his brother and he suspects that you’re on to him, you could be in real danger!

  But I think Hannah’s right about Robert, the suspicious part of Hannah’s mind argued. Somebody has to find out if Robert killed Richard.

  True, but that somebody doesn’t have to be Hannah, the rational part of her mind declared! She should wait until Norman or Mike can go with her.

  Hannah stopped listening. She would go and she’d be very careful about asking Robert questions. And just to be safe, she’d text Mike and tell him what she was going to do.

  It only took a moment to text Mike. Then she went into the coffee shop to tell Lisa that she was going to Bruce’s apartment to take Robert some cookies. She packed up two dozen cookies and the yearbook, slipped on her parka and gloves, and went out the back kitchen door. It was entirely possible that she was wrong about her suspicion. She’d been wrong before about a suspect. But it was also possible that she was dead right!

  * * *

  It didn’t take long to get to Bruce’s apartment. It was in the same complex as Mike’s apartment, and Hannah turned into the entrance for The Oaks.

  Hannah drove until she came to the building that Mike lived in. Stephanie had mentioned that Bruce’s apartment was four doors down from Mike’s, and near the back of the building.

  The doors were labeled, and she found the one that had Bruce Bascomb’s name. Shifting the box of cookies to her other hand, she pressed the doorbell and waited.

  “Hannah!” Robert answered the door and recognized her. “What are you doing here?”

  “I brought you some cookies for breakfast,” Hannah told him, “and I’m returning your college yearbook.”

  “My college yearbook?” Robert looked mystified. “How did you get that?”

  “Stephanie showed it to me yesterday. She found it in a box in her garage.”

  “Richard had my college yearbook?”

  “That’s right. The label didn’t specify who the box belonged to, so Richard must have moved it to his place when he cleared out your parents’ house.”

  “That makes sense. He probably thought it was his. Actually, he’s in there. It’s my senior yearbook from Tara Hills. I sent it home to my parents for safekeeping after I bought it.”


  “Were you married to Julia at the time?” Hannah asked, keeping her questions light and general.

  “Yes, Julia and I got married right before I graduated.”

  “I’m sorry about what happened to her,” Hannah told him, noticing the sad expression that crossed his face.

  “So am I. We were happy together. She was a good wife to me, and a wonderful mother to Bruce.”

  “How is Bruce?” Hannah asked, hoping she wouldn’t upset Robert with the question.

  “He’s fine now. He’s home and he’s in the bedroom taking a nap. He told me he didn’t get much sleep in jail.”

  “When did Bruce come home?” Hannah asked him.

  “I picked him up at the jail this morning, right after they received the paperwork from the judge.”

  “Stephanie told me that you were going to ask the judge to release Bruce in your custody so that he could go to a residential treatment program.”

  “That’s right. The judge approved my request and I found a great program for Bruce in Minneapolis. It’s by one of the lakes, and the people who work there seem very nice. They have a great treatment record, too. Not many patients come back a second time.”

  “That’s encouraging,” Hannah said, trying to figure out a way to ask the questions she wanted Robert to answer.

  “Did you just come to bring me the cookies and my yearbook,” Richard asked, “or is there something I can do for you?”

  Hannah had the inclination to jump in with both feet and she tried to resist it. Caution was the order of the day. “Well . . . I did have a couple of questions,” she admitted.

  “Ask away,” Robert said, giving her a smile. “Stephanie told me that you were investigating Richard’s death. That’s right, isn’t it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “She said there were a lot of people who had reasons to want Richard gone. My brother wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, especially after he came into a position of power in Lake Eden.”

  “Very true.” Hannah was silent for a moment, trying to decide how to go forward with her questions. “You’re right about all the people who disliked Mayor Bascomb, but most of the people with motives have been cleared by the detectives, or by me.”

  “So who’s left?” Robert asked her.

  Hannah sighed. She had no choice but to go for broke. “You,” she said, and then she was silent, waiting for his response.

  “Tell me why you think it was me.”

  Hannah didn’t answer. She just picked up the yearbook, turned to the picture of the fraternity party, and passed it to him. “Because Richard had an affair with Julia.”

  It was Robert’s turn to sigh. “You figured it out,” he said. “Do you want to know what happened?”

  “Yes, please,” Hannah said politely, hoping that Mike had gotten her text and would arrive any moment.

  “Julia really wanted to go to that frat party. They were doing a skit, and everyone who’d seen the rehearsal said it was hysterically funny. Richard was a member, and he could have gotten us invited, but I had a final in one of my night classes and I couldn’t go.”

  “So Richard offered to take Julia?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you let him?”

  “Of course. I wasn’t worried about it at the time. Julia wasn’t a party person. All she wanted was to see the skit. I figured that Richard would have her home early, and I could hear all about how funny it was the next day.”

  “Were you living with Julia at the time?” Hannah asked.

  “No, Julia shared an apartment with several other girls who worked at the college. I was in student housing on campus and I had roommates, too. We had been dating for several months, but our relationship hadn’t progressed beyond a good-night kiss.”

  “So you don’t know when Julia got home that night?”

  “I didn’t then. I had no idea anything was wrong until Julia came to me a month or so later and said she had something terrible to tell me.”

  “That she was pregnant?”

  “Yes, and that it was Richard’s baby. Julia didn’t drink, but they had lemonade at the party and she’d been thirsty. She said she’d only had a half a glass and then she began to feel very woozy.”

  “The lemonade was drugged?”

  “I think so. She said the rest of the night was a blur and she couldn’t remember anything. The only thing that she knew was that she woke up in Richard’s bed the next morning.”

  Hannah felt a bit sick to her stomach. “And that night was when she thought she got pregnant?”

  “Yes, and she’d hadn’t been with anyone else. She didn’t want to tell me, but she had to.”

  “That she was pregnant with Richard’s baby?”

  “Yes!”

  “Had she told Richard that?”

  “Yes, Julia was a very honest person, and when she found out, she went to Richard right away. He told her not to worry, that he’d call home and get some extra money from his mother, and Julia could go to get an abortion.”

  “But she didn’t get an abortion.”

  “No, Julia decided to keep her baby and raise her child as a single mother. She told because she felt it was only fair to let me know why she had to break up with me.”

  “What a terrible situation for both of you! What did you say to her?”

  “I told her I loved her, and I asked her to marry me immediately. I said we’d raise the child together and the baby would be my son or my daughter.”

  “And that’s what you did.”

  “Yes, neither one of us realized that Richard would turn out to be a problem. He knew that Bruce was his son, and after Bruce was born, he sent lavish gifts that Bruce wasn’t old enough to appreciate and bulky things that we couldn’t store in our tiny apartment.”

  “Like a Shetland pony?”

  “Yes, Stephanie must have told you about that. Richard also tried to take over Bruce’s life. When Bruce was old enough to start school, Richard wanted us to send him to a private school, rather than the campus lab school. That’s where the education students do their student teaching. They have after-school programs for kids that last until married students can come to pick up their children.”

  “Was Richard willing to pay for a private school that had an after-school program?”

  “No, he wanted us to do it. And Julia and I were having a hard time making both ends meet as it was.”

  “That sounds like a life of continual frustration,” Hannah commented.

  “It was. Richard was always interfering in our lives, but we were happy, and so was Bruce. He loved his school, he loved his friends, and he loved us. It was hard after Julia died, but Bruce and I made it. Then, right after Bruce graduated from high school, Richard interfered in our lives again.”

  “He offered to pay for Bruce’s college, if Bruce went to the community college here in Lake Eden?”

  Robert sighed. “That’s right. I didn’t want to let Bruce go, but Richard said he could pull some strings and get Bruce state residency so it wouldn’t be expensive. And then he offered to pay Bruce’s tuition, books, and apartment rental. How could I refuse?”

  “I understand,” Hannah said quickly. “I would have done the same thing.”

  “I asked Richard if he’d keep an eye on Bruce, make sure that he did his classwork and acted responsible. And Richard promised he would do that.”

  “I’m beginning to see a picture here,” Hannah said, feeling a little sick to her stomach.

  “I didn’t see it, and I wish I had. When I called Richard to check on Bruce, he gave me glowing reports. And Bruce didn’t let me know that he wasn’t adjusting well to college. I didn’t know that anything was wrong until the insurance company for one of the people that Bruce hit called me and said that my son had been charged with drunk driving and he’d been in a three-car accident.”

  “What did you do?” Hannah asked.

  “I called Richard immediately, and he told me that it was no big
deal, that he’d pull some strings and get Bruce off. That was when I realized what was happening. Bruce was acting out, and rather than correcting him, Richard was calling in favors and paying people off to keep Bruce out of trouble. The real wakeup for me came when Bruce called me and told me that he was in jail.”

  “And that was when you decided to drive here and take charge of Bruce?”

  “Yes, I had just passed the state bar and started a job at a law firm close to the campus, but I knew that Bruce was more important. I quit my job and drove here to Lake Eden to help Bruce.”

  “And the first thing you did was go to City Hall to talk to Richard?”

  “That’s right. The lights were on in his office and I knew he was working late, so I parked next to the building and went in the front door. Richard was sitting at his desk, and when I asked him about Bruce, he told me not to worry, that he was going to take care of everything.

  “The way you did all the other times Bruce was pulled over for driving while he was intoxicated? I asked him.

  “He’s a college student, Richard told me. College students go a little wild.

  “That’s when I told my brother that I had come to get Bruce out of jail, move him back to Wisconsin, and enroll him in an alcohol treatment program.”

  “What did Richard say?”

  “He told me my plan was ridiculous, that Bruce just needed to sow a few more wild oats, and then he’d settle right down. That’s when I accused him of ruining my son.”

  “What did your brother say to that?”

  “He said, He’s not your son, he’s mine! And then he told me to get out of his office and to go back where I came from, that he was going to take charge of Bruce now and I should butt out.”

  “What happened next?”

  “That was when Richard pulled a gun out of his desk drawer and pointed it at me. Get out of here or I’ll kill you! he yelled.”

  “But you didn’t leave, did you?” Hannah asked him.

  “No! My son’s future was at stake! I grabbed the barrel of the gun and forced it up at the ceiling. His finger was on the trigger and I saw him start to squeeze it. That’s when I pulled the barrel down and slammed his hand against the desk.”