by Joanne Fluke
Norman gave a little sigh as he picked up the phone, and Hannah knew he’d hoped for a different outcome. He punched in his number, listened for a moment, and then he hung up the phone. “Power’s back on,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’d better go. I’ve got an early appointment tomorrow. Do you want to keep the Sabrina we didn’t watch?”
“I don’t know when I’d watch it. Maybe you can rent it again when both of us have more time.” Hannah stood up too, and gave him a little hug. “Thanks for dinner and the movie.”
“Thank you for the cookies. They’re going to be a big hit at the birthday party.”
“I hope so.” Hannah pulled him down for a good night kiss. And when it ended, she opened the outside door for him. “See you tomorrow, Norman. Lisa’s looking for her mother’s recipe for cream puffs. If she finds it and you drop in around two, you can sample the mini cream puffs we’re making for Mother’s book launch party.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks, Hannah.”
Norman gave a little wave and went down the stairs. Hannah watched him step over the planter that separated the buildings and walk off to the visitors’ parking lot. When she stepped back inside and closed the door behind her, she gave a little sigh and went over to the couch to pet Moishe. If she’d offered to share her bedroom, Norman would have stayed regardless of the status of his electricity. Of course she hadn’t. There was no way anyone was going to place her in the Ronni Ward category. But Norman had left, and now she felt lonely.
“Come on, Moishe. It’s time for bed.” Hannah flicked off the lights and headed to the bedroom. “It’s going to be an even longer day tomorrow.”
Five minutes later, her teeth were brushed, her face was washed, and she was dressed in the oversized sweats she always wore for pajamas when the mercury dipped below freezing. She climbed under the covers and gave a long sigh. Alone again.
She was in the throes of feeling terribly sorry for herself when Moishe jumped up on the other pillow and started to purr. It was such a comforting, soothing sound that it made Hannah smile as she drifted off to sleep.
MINI CHEESEBURGER COOKIES
DO NOT preheat oven—these cookies don’t need to bake.
FOR THE BUNS:
12-ounce box round vanilla wafers (I used Nilla Wafers)
FOR THE HAMBURGER PATTIES:
approximately 3 dozen slightly larger round chocolate-covered cookies (I used 2 packages of Keebler Fudge Shoppe Caramel Filled Cookies—18 cookies to a package)***
FOR THE SHREDDED LETTUCE:
1/2 cup shredded coconut (pack it down when you measure it)
green food coloring
FOR THE CHEESE AND THE KETCHUP:
1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces,
1/4 pound) at room temperature
1/4 cup milk (2 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16-ounce (1 pound) box powdered sugar (approximately 3½ cups)
yellow food coloring
red food coloring
FOR THE TOP OF THE BUN:
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 egg white
Prepare your shredded “lettuce” first. It will need time to air dry. Dump the coconut into a large plastic Ziploc bag. Hold the bag open and add three drops of green food coloring to the coconut. Squeeze out some of the air and seal the bag.
Toss the coconut around inside the bag. Squeeze it, play catch with it, roll it around on the counter, whatever. The object is to evenly color the coconut. Once it’s a uniform color, decide if it’s the color of lettuce. If it’s too light, add a few more drops of green food coloring and repeat the mixing process until you think it’s right.
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and dump out the green-coated coconut. Use a spoon to spread it out as evenly as you can. Let it sit out on the counter to dry, stirring it around every so often.
Once the coconut is dry, it’s time to assemble your cookies.
Line another cookie sheet with wax paper. Lay out 40 vanilla wafers, rounded side up.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or simply in a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the softened butter, milk, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. If you’re using a stand mixer, beat on LOW for 2 minutes. If you’re using a handheld mixer, beat on LOW for 3 minutes. If you’re mixing by hand, use a wooden spoon and beat like crazy for 4 minutes, or until the frosting is smooth, with no lumps.
Divide the frosting into two parts, using your original bowl and another bowl. Add three drops of yellow food coloring to the first bowl and mix it in thoroughly. If it’s not bright yellow, add a few more drops of food coloring, mixing them in until it is. This frosting will be the cheese for the Mini Cheeseburger Cookies. 83
Add three drops of red food coloring to the second bowl and mix it in thoroughly. If it’s not bright red, add a few more drops, mixing them in until it’s the color of ketchup.
With a rubber spatula or a frosting knife, spread the curved side of a vanilla wafer with red frosting. Pile it up around the rims of the wafers so it will form flat beds for the “hamburgers.”
Place a chocolate-covered cookie, faceup, on top of the red frosting on the wafer. Press the chocolate-covered cookie down slightly so it’ll stick to the frosting.
Frost the top of the chocolate-covered cookie with yellow frosting. Use just a bit too much so it’ll drip over the sides of the “hamburger” like melted cheese.
Sprinkle on some green coconut “lettuce.” It’ll look more realistic if you let a few strands stick out on the sides.
Clamp on the second vanilla wafer, rounded side up. Now your Mini Cheeseburger Cookie is complete, except for the sesame seeds on the bun.
Repeat until you run out of “buns” or “hamburgers.”
Whip up the egg white in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the vanilla wafers. Sprinkle on a few sesame seeds, and you’re finished.
Let the cookies dry thoroughly. Once dry, they will keep just fine in a loosely covered container until it’s time to serve them.
Hannah’s Note: There’s a photo of the Mini Cheeseburger Cookies on Jo Fluke’s Web site. The address is: www.MurderSheBaked.com, and the photo is on the “Recipe” page.
Chapter Eight
Morning came much too early for Hannah. She was experiencing the loveliest dream, all about frothy milkshakes in peach, strawberry, blueberry, and lemon, dancing Viennese waltzes with dozens of handsome chocolate-dipped biscotti. It was a wedding, or perhaps it was a book launch party. She really couldn’t tell which. The guests, in formal clothing, were chatting merrily, eagerly waiting their turn to capture their favorite refreshment as it dipped and whirled past. Of course she knew it was a dream. Milkshakes couldn’t dance, with or without chocolate-covered biscotti, but the beauty of dreams was that they were impervious to logic.
“Weird,” Hannah mumbled, opening her eyes. But once she’d glanced at her radio alarm, she realized that it wasn’t as strange as it had seemed at first. Instead of pushing the button for alarm, she’d hit the button for wakeup music, and the local classical music station was playing Strauss.
Hannah reached out to shut off the alarm before electronic beeping rudely interrupted “The Blue Danube Waltz.” At least she tried to reach out to shut it off, but a bolt of pain that had her gasping for breath shot up from her wrist and found a home in her shoulder.
“Must have slept wrong,” Hannah mumbled, turning on her side and attempting to reach out with her other arm. But that arm hurt almost as much as the first one had! Was she having a heart attack? What were the symptoms? Pain…yes, one of the symptoms was pain. She remembered Hank Olson, the bartender at the municipal liquor store, telling them about the symptoms of his heart attack. She definitely had shooting pains going up both arms, but if she recalled Hank’s description correctly, his arm pains had reached all the way to the center of his chest, squeezing and constricting like a steel band.
Not a heart attack, then. Her chest felt fine, not squeezed at all,
and she wasn’t light-headed, sweaty, or nauseated. But something was definitely wrong. Every time she moved, she hurt. Had she contracted some dreadful disease that would render her paralyzed and helpless in her bed?
Michelle would cry when she learned of her terrible malady. Hannah was sure of that. Michelle loved her. And Mother did too…but in her own way. Delores would be a trifle put out that Hannah couldn’t cater her book launch party, but she’d do the right thing. She’d arrive at her eldest daughter’s bedside, appropriately dressed of course, and lay a cool hand on Hannah’s fevered brow. If only I’d ordered a larger dress size, she’d sob into a lace-edged handkerchief. Dear, dear Hannah starved herself until her immune system collapsed to try to please me!
No, Mother, Andrea would contradict her, her voice quavering with emotion. Immune systems don’t go down in a day and a half. She must have picked up some virus at Heavenly Bodies, and that means it’s all my fault. I talked her into going out there with me, and it was just too much for her. You can’t take an overweight person who’s never exercised and expect miracles to…
Hannah wasted no time cutting off Andrea’s imaginary conversation, since it wasn’t at all flattering. A dying woman didn’t need criticism about her weight and lifestyle. She wanted sympathy, appreciation for what she’d accomplished, a few sterling accolades. But something Andrea had said struck a familiar chord, something about never exercising and…
If you’re not in the habit of exercising regularly, some of you may wake up stiff and sore in the morning. Roger, their fitness instructor, had addressed the whole class, but he’d been looking straight at her. If that happens, simply stretch your arms and legs gently until you feel more comfortable.
Hannah sighed and met the gaze of the cat who sat on the pillow next to her head. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought he looked worried. “It’s okay, I’m just stiff and sore. I can get your breakfast, no problem.”
The gaze never wavered, but Moishe moved closer. He inched over until he was near enough to rub his head against Hannah’s face, and his rough tongue shot out to lick her chin.
“I love your kitty kisses,” Hannah said, reveling in the unaccustomed display of affection from her feline roommate. “That’s so sweet. Just let me stretch first, and then I’ll get you something you’ll like.”
She tackled her arms first, raising them slowly and painfully above her head. She brought them down again, very slowly, and gave a sigh of relief. Stretching hurt, but it hadn’t killed her. She stretched her arms again, very slowly, and it didn’t hurt quite so much. Perhaps there was something to this after all!
Her legs were next. She carefully bent, extended, pointed her toes at the ceiling and then relaxed. The first time was agony, but after four stretches per leg, she felt capable of getting out of bed.
The rest was easy, especially since Moishe followed along at her heels, batting at the hem of her robe. In her efforts to stay ahead of him, she must have been stretching out what was supposed to be stretched, because by the time she arrived at the kitchen, she felt almost human again.
Garfield’s face grinned up at her from the bottom of Moishe’s food bowl. He’d eaten it all during the night and she had just turned toward the broom closet to fill it up again, when she remembered that the instructions on the Kitty Valet had said to let your pet empty his old bowl once and then put it away so that he would switch to the new, improved feeder.
“Here you go, Moishe,” Hannah said, picking up the Garfield bowl and hedging her bets by tossing a few fish-shaped salmon-flavored kitty treats into the Kitty Valet bowl. “That’s your new bowl. Try it, you’ll like it.”
Never one to turn down his favorite treat, Moishe approached the bowl with the feed tube and extracted one fishy treat with a well-placed claw. Once that was gone, he extracted another and, as Hannah watched in amazement, he started to chow down on the kitty crunchies in the bowl.
“You like it!” Hannah said, pouring herself a life-giving mug of coffee from the pot that brewed automatically every morning, and then grabbing the phone to punch in the sheriff’s department number. Mike would be pleased when she told him that Moishe was using his gift. When the desk sergeant answered, she asked for Mike’s extension and waited until he picked up.
“It’s Hannah,” she said, “I just called to say…he likes it! Moishie likes it!” And then she waited to see if Mike had been watching the oldie but goodie commercials KCOW television had been rerunning.
“Moishie likes…oh!” Mike gave a little laugh. “I get it. It’s a takeoff on Mikey, the little brother who’d eat anything on those cereal commercials. Does that mean Moishe’s eating out of his new Kitty Valet?”
“That’s exactly what it means. I picked up his regular bowl, just as it said to do in the instructions, and tossed in a couple of treats to get him started. Now the treats are history and he’s chowing down on his regular food.”
“It’s nice to get good news for a change.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Rough night. A blue spruce jumped out in front of Wade Hoffman’s car at sixty miles an hour.”
“Wade Hoffman?” Hannah began to frown. “Wasn’t he Ronni Ward’s fiancé?”
“Yeah. Wade’s passenger said he was despondent and he’d been drinking heavily. The passenger tried to get the keys, but Wade insisted on driving.”
“Were they badly hurt?” Hannah hated to ask, especially before she’d had her second cup of coffee.
“Wade got the worst of it. He’ll be in a body cast for six months. His passenger got off lucky with just a broken arm.”
“Who was his…” Hannah stopped in midquestion as she heard a loud beeping noise on the line.
“I’ve got to go, Hannah,” Mike broke in. “I’m expecting a callback from Doc Knight and that’s probably him now.”
The line went dead, and Hannah hung up the phone. She’d been about to ask Mike who’d been riding in the passenger seat, but that could wait until later. Right now she had to get into her awful yellow-and-black exercise outfit and meet Andrea at Heavenly Bodies.
“So how are you feeling now?” Andrea asked, leaning back in the Jacuzzi. They’d finished their workout routine and were relaxing before class began.
“I’m a lot better. The muscles I didn’t know I had aren’t screaming anymore. Now they’re just groaning a little.” Hannah stopped speaking and listened intently for a moment. “I hear something ringing.”
“It’s probably my phone. It’s in my purse in the dressing room.”
“Why is it there, and not here?”
“Because I don’t want to answer it. It’s Mother, and she’s probably just checking to make sure we’re out here exercising.”
“How do you know it’s Mother?”
“Because nobody else would call me this early. It’s hours before I usually get up.”
“It could be Grandma McCann with an emergency.”
“It’s not. She has her own special ring tone, and so does Bill. If it’s not Mother and it’s something important, whoever it is will leave me voice mail.” Andrea glanced up at the clock on the wall. “We’d better dry off and get dressed for class, Hannah. Roger should be coming in any minute.”
But Roger didn’t come in, even though the class was all assembled and waiting for him. Laura Jorgensen was in the front row looking good in a bright green exercise outfit. Hannah had found out yesterday that Laura wanted to lose ten pounds before her wedding to Drew Vavra, Jordan High’s head coach, in June.
Donna Lempke, an unmarried woman in her early thirties, was in the same boat. She’d told Hannah that she had a brand-new swimsuit she’d bought two years ago, but she’d gained weight around the middle, and last summer she’d been afraid to wear it. This summer would be a different story if Roger’s class worked for her.
Cheryl Coombs, who ran the cosmetic counter at Cost-Mart, had another goal in mind. She’d lost weight recently, and now she was attempting to tighten and tone up.
Her daughter, Amber, was also in the class. Hannah wasn’t sure if it was a mother-daughter project, or Cheryl just wanted to keep an eye on Amber to make sure she didn’t run off to meet her boyfriend, Richie Maschler, before school started.
Vonnie Blair, Doc Knight’s secretary, was a perfect size five. She wasn’t interested in losing weight or toning up her muscles. Vonnie was interested in Roger, their fitness coach.
Gail Hansen, on the other hand, was a forty-year-old woman with a purpose. Always buxom, even as a young teenager, she was now engaged in a pitched battle to keep certain parts of her anatomy from engaging in a downhill race toward her waist.
Immelda Giese, Father Coultas’s housekeeper, had admitted to Andrea that she was there for the company. Father was so busy he didn’t have much time to talk, and Immelda was a gregarious person. She wore a solid black sweat suit as a concession to her employer’s occupation, and talked to her neighbor, Babs Dubinski, during the entire class.
Babs readily admitted that she was there to lose weight, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She said she needed to keep up with her grandchildren and she couldn’t play softball in the park with them if she didn’t get in shape.
The last two members of the class were Loretta Richardson and Trudi Schuman. They were practically inseparable. They’d been best friends in high school, settled in houses across the street from each other when they were married, and helped to raise each other’s children. Trudi had three boys, and Loretta had three girls, but so far the kids hadn’t gotten together in any meaningful way. They’d opened a store together right across the street from Hal and Rose’s Cafe. It was called Trudi’s Fabrics because Trudi’s husband had put up most of the money. Loretta needed to tone up more than Trudi, but they drove out to class together, showered and dressed for work when it was over, went into town to have breakfast at the cafe, and then opened the shop at nine.
