Christmas Caramel Murder
Page 15
The sound of a gunshot drowned out any further explanation Hannah could give him. Mike drew his gun, motioned to Lonnie, who was standing behind him, and both men raced for the den.
Hannah knew she should go, but she couldn’t, not without finding out what had happened. She drew a deep, shaking breath and turned around to follow Mike and Lonnie to the den. She arrived at the doorway just in time to see the gun on the floor next to the rocker, and Gil cradling his wife’s body in his arms.
“I shot her,” he said to Mike and Lonnie. “She was going to kill Hannah. You have to arrest me. I killed my darling wife.”
Chapter Fourteen
Hannah stared out of the passenger window at scenery she didn’t see. The image of Gil holding Bonnie’s body in his arms was too fresh in her mind.
“Are you all right, Hannah?” Michelle asked, as she pulled the cookie truck into Hannah’s parking space at the condo.
“I don’t know,” Hannah answered truthfully. “It’s like . . . too much for my mind to process. I can’t take it all in. It’s not right, Michelle. It never should have happened this way. Nothing’s right!”
“Mike said that you were in shock and you have to rest. You haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since this whole thing started. You’re overloaded, overtired, and completely stressed. You need to stretch out on your bed and nap with Moishe until Mike gets here.”
“But I should call . . .”
“No one,” Michelle interrupted her. “You should call no one. You’re in no shape to talk right now. You’ve always taken care of me, and now it’s my turn to take care of you.”
“I . . . I’m not sure . . .” Hannah’s voice trailed off. Michelle was right. She was so terribly, terribly tired.
“Come on, Hannah,” Michelle walked around the back of the cookie truck and pulled open Hannah’s door. “Let’s go upstairs and see Moishe. That’ll make you feel better.”
“Not if I have to catch him,” Hannah said, eliciting a laugh from Michelle.
“I’ll catch him,” Michelle promised, leading the way up the covered outside staircase. “And I’ll unlock the door, too. I want you to go in, walk straight to the bedroom, and take a nap. If you do, I guarantee you’ll feel better by the time Mike comes to take your statement.”
“Yes,” Hannah said, and then she gave her sister a hug. “Thank you, Michelle.”
* * *
She could see him at the foot of her bed. Hannah stared at him for a moment and then she sat up. “Dad?”
“Yes, Honey-bear. It’s me. I’m back and I’m here to be the Ghost of Christmas Future.”
“There is no future for Bonnie.”
“I know. That’s unfortunate. But there is a future for you, Hannah. It’s a happy future, and I need to show it to you. And I need to show you something from Lisa’s future, too. Don’t tell her. It’s going to be a Christmas surprise.”
As Hannah watched, the movie screen materialized and images began to appear. The first image was of Lisa’s house as a sporty red car drove up to park in the driveway. It was an older model but beautifully restored with fresh paint and new tires. As she watched, Herb placed a huge red and green bow on top of the car, and Hannah knew that it must be a Christmas present. Then Herb walked to the front door of the house and went inside.
A moment later, Lisa followed Herb outside. She saw the car and blinked and stared, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. And then, when Herb handed Lisa the keys, Lisa threw her arms around him and kissed him.
The scene changed. The whole family was sitting around a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in her mother’s living room. They were exchanging presents on Christmas Day, and Delores handed Hannah a long, flat package in gold paper with little candy canes printed all over it. There was a tag on the front that read, From Dad and Uncle Ed. Hannah took off the ribbon and bow very carefully and handed them to her mother. Delores saved things like that. Then she took off the paper and stared down at the beautifully restored and refinished board inside. Someone had carved two names into the wood in childish block letters. One name was Ed and the other was Lars.
“Your uncle Ed was lucky,” her father’s voice said. “He only had to carve two letters. I had to carve four on the ladder we used to get up into our treehouse. I’m glad you kept our ladder, Honey-bear. And I’m glad your mother remembered what I told her about it.”
Hannah’s mouth dropped open. So that was why Delores had wanted the old ladder that had almost caused Lisa to tumble to the floor. She’d removed the board where Hannah’s Uncle Ed and father had carved their names as boys and restored it as a plaque for Hannah.
The screen went dark and Hannah sighed. She was sorry the glimpse into the future was over. But her father was still here and she concentrated on the form at the foot of her bed. It was beginning to undulate and fade, and she knew that he was about to leave her.
“Dad!” she called out to him. “Will you come back, Dad?”
“I’m always here, Honey-bear. I always will be. And I promise that I’ll always give you a kiss on Christmas morning, just the way I used to do when I woke you up to tell you that Santa had come.”
Hannah opened her mouth to ask another question, but the amorphous form that had been her father changed into wisps of sparkling gold that floated up to the ceiling and then beyond.
“He’s gone,” she said to Moishe. “Dad’s gone, but he promised he’d kiss me on Christmas morning.”
Moishe began to purr and then he licked her hand. And Hannah gave him a scratch behind his ears, something he loved, and that made him purr even louder.
“Hannah?” a voice called her out of her half-awake state. “Mike’s here. I’ll give him some coffee and a couple of the Cherry Shortbread Bar Cookies I made. How do you feel?”
Michelle appeared in the doorway and Hannah smiled at her. “I feel good. You and Mike were right. Sleep was exactly what I needed.”
CHERRY SHORTBREAD BAR COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position
The Crust and Topping Mixture:
3 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
¾ cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar (don’t sift unless it’s got big lumps)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
1 and ½ cups slightly softened butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, ¾ pound)
The Filling:
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling (I used
Comstock)
FIRST STEP: Use a fork to mix flour, powdered sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl.
Mix in the softened butter until the mixture forms little nuggets about the size of coarse gravel.
(You can also do this in a food processor using cold butter cut into chunks, layered with the dry ingredients. Process with the steel blade in an on-and-off motion until it resembles coarse gravel.)
Spray a 9-inch by 13-inch pan (That’s a standard-sized rectangular cake pan) with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.
Spread approximately HALF of the crust and topping mixture (approx. 2 and ½ cups) into the pan you prepared.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, but DON’T TURN OFF THE OVEN! You’ll be using it again in just a few minutes and you won’t have time to preheat it again.
Let the crust cool for 5 minutes.
SECOND STEP: Open the can of cherry pie filling and pour it out into a bowl. Use a knife to cut the cherries into smaller pieces.
Spread the cherry pie filling over the top of the crust you just baked.
Sprinkle the cherry pie filling with the other half of the crust and topping mixture.
Gently press the topping down with a wide, metal spatula.
Bake the bar cookies for another 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden. Remove the pan from the oven, turn off the oven, and place the pan on a cold st
ovetop burner or a wire rack.
Cool the Cherry Shortbread Bar Cookies thoroughly.
When the pan is cool to the touch, cut the bar cookies into brownie-sized bars while they’re right there in the pan.
If you want to be a little fancy, sprinkle your bar cookies with a little extra powdered sugar.
Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate your cut bar cookies until you’re ready to serve them. Then use a small spatula to remove them and put them on a pretty platter.
You can also serve these bar cookies as a dessert if you cut them into larger pieces and warm them in dessert dishes in the microwave.
As a finishing touch, place a dollop of sweetened, whipped cream, OR a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Epilogue
“Hannah?” Ross put down his empty coffee cup.
“Yes, Ross.”
“I have a couple of questions for you.”
“Okay.” Hannah mentally prepared herself for some tough questions like Do you really believe that you saw your father? or Don’t you think that your subconscious was staging all these dreams because of the play the Lake Eden Players were doing, and your mind was working to form inferences from all the information you’d received during the day? “What would you like to know?” she asked him.
“I know that Lisa has a red car. Did Herb restore it and give it to her last Christmas?”
“Yes, he did. He told us that he worked late every night out at Cyril Murphy’s garage to get it ready by Christmas.”
“And that’s why Lisa thought he was going out on her?”
“Yes. And the reason Mike cleared Herb was because Cyril was helping Herb on the night that Phyllis was murdered. But Mike couldn’t tell me that because Herb wanted it to be a secret so that Lisa would have a Christmas surprise.”
Ross smiled. “Was she surprised?”
“And how!” Hannah used one of her favorite Minnesota expressions. “Lisa nearly had a cow when she saw that gorgeous car!”
“How about your present, the one your mother gave you?”
“It was a board from Dad’s old ladder with Dad and Uncle Ed’s names on it.”
“And you pretended to be surprised?”
Hannah smiled. “I did.”
“Is that the same plaque that you have hanging in your hallway?”
“It is. I love that plaque. There’s no way you can know your parents as children, and sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that they were really kids, just like you.”
“A lot happened in Lake Eden last Christmas,” Ross said, and he looked thoughtful. “Maybe you’d better not make those chocolate caramels again . . . just in case, I mean.”
Hannah laughed. “We haven’t made them since, but it’s silly to think they’re bad luck, isn’t it?”
“Rationally, yes. Of course it is. And of course I want you to make them. I missed out last year. But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve got to promise that you won’t find another body right before Christmas this year.”
“But how can I promise something like that? Mike says I have slaydar. I don’t go looking for murder victims, but I seem to find them more often than other people do.”
“That’s true.” Ross gave a little sigh. “I know it’s silly, Hannah. And I know it could happen whether you promise, or not. But . . . will you promise anyway?”
Hannah smiled at him. “If it’ll make you feel better, I promise,” she said.
Don't miss the next Hannah Swensen Mystery...
A romantic seven-day cruise is the perfect start to bakery owner
Hannah Swensen’s marriage. However, with a murder mystery heating
up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, it seems the newlywed’s homecoming
won’t be as sweet as she anticipated . . .
After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah’s eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother’s neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town . . . and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a deadlier scheme at play? As Hannah peels through countless suspects and some new troubles of her own, solving this crime—and living to tell about it—might prove trickier than mixing up the ultimate banana cream pie . . .
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Christmas Caramel Murder Recipe Index
Chocolate Flan with Caramel Whipped Cream 5
Red Velvet Whippersnapper Cookies 25
Grilled Ham and Double Cheese Sandwiches 75
Gingerbread Pancakes 88
Angel Jellies 102
Chocolate Caramels 131
Chocolate-Covered Mint Cookies 143
Christmas Orange Raisin Cake 153
Red Raspberry Muffins 165
Butterscotch Crunch Candy 179
Cashew Candy Rolls 182
Cherry Shortbread Bar Cookies 201
Baking Conversion Chart
These conversions are approximate, but they’ll work just fine for Hannah Swensen’s recipes.
VOLUME:
U.S. Metric
½ teaspoon 2 milliliters
1 teaspoon 5 milliliters
1 Tablespoon 15 milliliters
¼ cup 50 milliliters
⅓ cup 75 milliliters
½ cup 125 milliliters
¾ cup 175 milliliters
1 cup ¼ liter
WEIGHT:
U.S. Metric
1 ounce 28 grams
1 pound 454 grams
OVEN TEMPERATURE:
Degrees Fahrenheit Degrees Centigrade British (Regulo) Gas Mark
325 degrees F. 165 degrees C. 3
350 degrees F. 175 degrees C. 4
375 degrees F. 190 degrees C. 5
Note: Hannah’s rectangular sheet cake pan, 9 inches by 13 inches, is approximately 23 centimeters by 32.5 centimeters.