Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  Hannah smiled as she started her engine and pulled back out on the road. She was going to drop in for a nice neighborly visit at the Woodley Mansion. She’d bring Judith Woodley some cookies as a thank-you for the lovely party, and then she’d ask her a few polite questions about Benton. She’d mention that her mother had left her handkerchief in the den when they’d used it as a setting for the photos, and Judith would give her permission to search for it. If Hannah could just get a second look at that folder from Compacts Unlimited, she’d be able to confirm that Benton had rented the car.

  “Good afternoon, Hannah.” Hannah could tell that Judith was surprised to see her, but good breeding didn’t allow her to turn a gift-bearing visitor away. “Del and Benton are still at work, but you’re welcome to come in and take tea with me.”

  “Thank you. I’d love to have tea with you,” Hannah said quickly and she gave a triumphant smile as Judith led the way down the hall. Judith had sounded very reluctant. A truly polite guest would have made some excuse to decline. But Hannah was only masquerading as a guest and she figured that a halfhearted invitation to stay for tea was better than no invitation at all.

  As they passed the den, Hannah glanced in at the table by the couch. The rental car folder was gone. She frowned and decided to skip the bit about her mother’s lost handkerchief. It wouldn’t serve any purpose now.

  “This is my little sitting room,” Judith announced as she paused at an open door. “Please go in and make yourself at home. I have a phone call to return, but my housekeeper will bring in the tea tray, and I’ll be with you in just a few moments.”

  Hannah nodded and kept the smile on her face until Judith had left. There was nothing “little” about Judith’s little sitting room. Hannah’s whole condo could have been plunked down in the center, with plenty of room to spare.

  As she gazed around her, Hannah conceded that it was a lovely room. It was tastefully decorated in silks and satin and it had an incredible view of the garden. While most gardens looked brown and dead this time of year, Judith’s was lush and green. Her gardener had planted rows of small ornamental spruces in an intricate design that zigzagged around the beautiful statuary and nestled up against pretty little wrought-iron benches.

  “Excuse me, ma’am.” A housekeeper in a black silk dress with a white lace collar came into the room. She was carrying a tray containing an antique tea set that Delores would have killed for. Hannah had learned a bit about fine china and porcelain on her forays to estate sales and auctions with her mother and she recognized the pattern. It was a rare and beautifully rendered set that Wedgwood had offered for a limited time in the eighteen hundreds.

  The housekeeper walked over to the antique piecrust table at the far end of the room and arranged the tea set carefully on its polished surface. She also set out a platter of dainty finger sandwiches. “Mrs. Woodley asks that you begin without her, ma’am. Shall I pour?”

  “Yes, please.” Hannah took a seat in one of the two chairs that flanked the table. Both chairs had a lovely view of the garden, but Hannah was much more interested in watching how the housekeeper poured the tea. It was done efficiently and very carefully, golden tea streaming from the spout to fill the lovely china cup without a splash. As the housekeeper blotted the lip of the teapot with an impeccably clean white linen napkin, Hannah couldn’t help wondering whether knowledge of correct tea-pouring etiquette was one of the prerequisites for employment at the Woodley estate.

  “Lemon or sugar, ma’am?”

  “Neither, thank you,” Hannah responded with a smile. “I’m really glad you poured that. I would have been petrified that I’d drop the pot.”

  The housekeeper gave a startled smile, but she immediately regained her composure. “Yes, ma’am. Will there be anything else?”

  “I don’t think so.” Hannah had the urge to do something totally inappropriate. All this formality was getting to her. “Actually I hate tea, but don’t tell Queen Judith that I said that.”

  “No, ma’am. I shan’t.”

  The housekeeper beat a hasty retreat, but Hannah heard the sound of stifled laughter as the door closed behind her. That made her feel good. She doubted that Judith’s domestic staff got many laughs from her guests.

  Once the sound of housekeeper’s footsteps had faded off down the hallway, Hannah lifted the other teacup and took a peek at the mark on the bottom. She was right. It was Wedgwood. She could hardly wait to tell Delores that she’d actually sipped tea from such a rare and expensive cup.

  There was nothing to do but wait for Judith, and Hannah took stock of her surroundings. There was a secretariat of French extraction in a corner. It was probably from the time of Louis XIV, but she wasn’t entirely sure. Somehow she doubted that Judith would ever buy copies, regardless of how cleverly they’d been crafted.

  The wing chairs were antiques from the mid-eighteen hundreds, undoubtedly English and most certainly expensive. Mentally Hannah added up the items of furniture that surrounded her and came up with a staggering amount. No wonder Del Woodley had needed to borrow money. His wife had spent close to a hundred thousand dollars decorating her sitting room!

  All that adding made her hungry and Hannah eyed the platter of sandwiches, little rectangles of bread with the crusts removed. Why did people who wanted to be sophisticated cut the crusts off slices of bread? As far as Hannah was concerned, the crusts were the best part. The filling in the sandwiches was green and since she didn’t think that there was any moldy bologna in the Woodleys’ refrigerator, Hannah assumed that it must be watercress or cucumber. A vegetable sandwich on white bread with the crusts missing wasn’t exactly Hannah’s idea of haute cuisine. She was just wondering if they might taste better than they looked when she heard footsteps approaching. Judith was coming and Hannah pasted a perfectly polite expression on her face. It was showtime.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Hannah dear. I’m terribly sorry to have kept you waiting,” Judith greeted her as she walked over to take the other chair. “I see that Mrs. Lawson has poured your tea.”

  Hannah raised her cup to take a hasty sip. The tea was lukewarm since she’d left it standing for too long, but she managed a smile. “It’s delicious.”

  “I do prefer oolong, but most of my guests are partial to Darjeeling.”

  Hannah wasn’t sure whether the tea she’d just sipped was oolong or Darjeeling, but it didn’t really matter. “I came to compliment you on your party, Judith. It was perfect, as always.”

  “Thank you, dear.”

  Judith poured herself a cup of tea and Hannah noticed that it was steaming as it flowed from the spout of the antique teapot. There were no cracks in Judith’s rare Wedgwood, though the tea set was almost two hundred years old. Delores had mentioned that even hairline cracks diffused the heat and cooled the tea.

  Judith was perfectly silent as she sipped her tea, and Hannah knew she had to say something. Her hostess wasn’t making it easy and Hannah had never been any good at polite small talk. “It was so nice to see Benton again,” Hannah began. “Will he be here for long?”

  “I’m really not sure. We haven’t had time to discuss his plans.”

  Nothing useful there, Hannah thought to herself and decided to try a more direct method. “I was wondering if Benton was satisfied with the car that he rented.”

  Hannah was rewarded for her efforts by a raised, perfectly shaped eyebrow and total silence. Judith was the master of the noncommittal.

  “I’m talking about the car from Compacts Unlimited,” Hannah explained. “I noticed the folder when your husband gave us permission to take pictures in his den.”

  “Oh, that wasn’t Benton’s car,” Judith corrected her. “The party people rented from Compacts Unlimited.”

  Hannah kicked herself mentally for not thinking of that possibility. The maid at the party had told her that Judith had paid for transportation. But just because Benton hadn’t rented the car didn’t mean that he hadn’t used it while it was here
. And it had been here on Wednesday morning.

  “Why are you so interested in rental cars?”

  Judith’s question pulled Hannah back from her thoughts with a jolt. She was getting nowhere, fishing for information, and Judith had given her the perfect opportunity. She might as well come right out and ask.

  “Look, Judith.” Hannah raised her gaze to Judith’s perfectly calm green eyes. “I probably shouldn’t say anything, but a black rental car from Compacts Unlimited was spotted leaving the dairy on the morning that Max Turner was shot. I certainly don’t believe that Benton had anything to do with Max’s murder, but my brother-in-law is in charge of the investigation and he’ll probably be by to ask questions. I just wanted to warn you.”

  “Warn me? Why would you want to warn me?”

  Hannah sighed. “I guess warn was the wrong word. I should have said that I came to alert you. Benton does have an alibi for the time of Max’s murder, doesn’t he?”

  “Of course he does!” Judith’s voice dripped ice. “Benton wasn’t even in town at the time!”

  “That’s what I thought. If Benton still has his airline tickets, don’t let him throw them away. They could prove his innocence.”

  Judith’s eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me that your brother-in-law suspects Benton of murdering Max Turner?”

  “No. This is just between you and me. If you can find Benton’s airline tickets and show them to me, I won’t need to mention it to Bill. You’ve always been nice to me and I’d really like to save your family from the embarrassment of a police visit.”

  “Thank you for your concern, Hannah.” Judith gave her a small, cold smile. “If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll locate those tickets for you. They’re probably in Benton’s suite. Just wait right here and I’ll find them.”

  Hannah gave a big sigh of relief when Judith left the room. That comment she’d made about saving the family from embarrassment had worked. She’d also saved Bill from embarrassment. Judith wasn’t the type to be intimidated by the authorities and she might have sued the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department for harassment if Bill had dragged Benton in to interrogate him.

  The seconds ticked by and Hannah reached for a sandwich. She’d skipped lunch and her stomach was rumbling. The sandwiches weren’t bad, definitely watercress, but they weren’t what she’d call substantial. She could scarf up the whole tray and they still wouldn’t make a decent meal. Hannah was just lifting the top off another—perhaps there were some with chicken or tuna mixed in somewhere—when she heard Judith’s footsteps approaching in the hallway. She replaced the bread just in time and pasted a smile on her face.

  “Here they are.” Judith was carrying a silk shawl over her right arm and her voice was trembling slightly. It certainly wasn’t cold in the room, but perhaps just knowing that Benton was a suspect in a homicide had given her a chill. She sat down in her chair with the shawl on her lap and handed Hannah the tickets with her left hand. “If you’ll open the folder, you’ll see that Benton’s plane didn’t land until twelve-seventeen. I assume that this will clear him as a suspect?”

  Hannah examined the tickets. “Yes, it will. I’m really sorry that I had to bring it up and I hope that I didn’t upset you too much. It was just that the circumstantial evidence against Benton seemed overwhelming.”

  “Overwhelming?” Judith’s eyebrows shot up. “How can that be? A killer requires a motive. What possible motive could Benton have for killing Max Turner?”

  “Actually,” Hannah hesitated, choosing her words carefully, “it concerns the personal loan that your husband had with Max Turner.”

  “What are you talking about, Hannah?”

  Judith looked flustered, not at all like her usual poised self and Hannah wondered if she should backpedal. But Judith had been very forthcoming and she deserved the truth. “I’m sorry I have to tell you, Judith, but Del secured a personal loan from Max Turner. I just learned about it this afternoon. And I know that Del was having some problems making the payments. You can see how this all fits together, can’t you?”

  “Yes, I can.” Judith’s voice was hard and Hannah assumed that she was embarrassed. “You thought that Benton shot Max so that Del wouldn’t have to honor the loan. Is that right?”

  “That’s it. I’m really sorry, Judith, but it did make sense. You’ve got to admit that.”

  Judith dipped her head in a nod. “You’re right, Hannah. It did make sense. Does your brother-in-law know about the loan?”

  “No. There’s no record of it and I can’t see any reason to tell him, now that Benton’s been cleared. And Del has an airtight alibi for the time of Max’s murder. He was meeting with his night supervisors at DelRay and there’s no way he could have been in two places at once. The only other person who would care about the loan is you, and…”

  “Brava, Hannah.” Judith smiled an icy smile and pulled a gun from beneath the folds of her silk shawl. “It’s unfortunate that you put the pieces together, but now that you have, I can’t let you tell your brother-in-law.”

  “You killed Max?” Hannah gulped. She’d never stared into the barrel of a gun before and it wasn’t an experience she’d care to repeat. And if the cold, calculating expression on Judith’s face was any indication, Hannah suspected that she might not get a chance to repeat anything ever again.

  “You were asking too many questions, Hannah. And you were skirting much too close to the truth. I knew it only a matter of time before you arrived at the accurate conclusion and conveyed it to your brother-in-law. I couldn’t let you do that, now could I?”

  Judith was going to kill her. Hannah knew that with heart-sinking certainty. She also knew that she had to keep Judith talking, to buy herself some time until the reinforcements came.

  But there weren’t any reinforcements, Hannah reminded herself. She hadn’t told Bill that she was going to see Judith and he didn’t know anything about Del’s loan with Max. To make matters worse, Bill wasn’t even a detective yet. He’d never figure it out in time!

  “Nervous, dear?”

  Judith’s voice was taunting and Hannah shuddered. The polite socialite had turned into a cold-blooded killer and she was a goner unless she could keep Judith talking. “Of course I’m nervous! When did you get the gun? Or did you have it with you when I walked in the door?”

  “Do you honestly think that I’d carry a gun around in my own home?” Judith laughed lightly.

  Of course you wouldn’t. Even a shoulder holster would ruin the lines of your dress, Hannah thought. And then she wondered how she could think flippant thoughts when Judith was about to kill her. Either she was much braver than she’d ever imagined, or she still expected the cavalry to ride in at the last minute.

  Hannah’s mind spun at top speed, searching for questions that Judith might want to answer. The killers in her favorite movies seemed to like to explain why they’d murdered their victims. All she had to do was keep Judith’s mind off shooting her until she could figure out what to do. “When did you go to get the gun? I’m curious.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. That’s just the way my mind works. You’re going to shoot me anyway. You might as well do me a favor and satisfy my curiosity first.”

  “And why should I do any favors for you?”

  “Because I brought you cookies,” Hannah answered. “They’re some of my best, Pecan Chews. You’re going to love them.”

  Judith laughed. She seemed to think that Hannah’s comment was funny. Maybe it was, but it was difficult for Hannah to see the humor past the gun barrel right now.

  “Come on, Judith,” Hannah tried again. “What harm can it do to tell me? You were smart to get the gun. I just want to know when you realized that you needed it.”

  “I had the gun when I came back with the plane tickets. It was under my shawl.”

  Hannah sighed. She should have noticed that Judith’s silk shawl didn’t complement the dress she was wearing. If she’d been thinking straight, she wou
ld have realized that something was up. “You were planning to shoot me then?”

  “Not then. I brought the gun as a precaution, but I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use it. Unfortunately you forced my hand by mentioning the loan.”

  “Me and my big mouth,” Hannah blurted out. Then she sighed. “If I hadn’t said anything about the loan, you would have let me leave?”

  “Yes. But you did say something, and now it’s too late.”

  Hannah thought of another question as fast as she could. “I know about some of Max’s other loans and how he forced people to sign over their property as collateral. Is that what he did to you?”

  “Yes. DelRay suffered a setback and when Del needed more capital, he signed over my home. He was a fool to do it. I advised him against it, but he wouldn’t listen. Del was never very bright.”

  The gun barrel wavered slightly and Hannah wondered if she should make a grab for it. In one of the detective shows she’d watched, the main character had jammed his finger somewhere or other to keep the gun from firing. But that gun hadn’t looked like the one that Judith held. If she got out of this alive, she was going to find out everything she could about guns and how they operated.

  “You’re very quiet, Hannah.” Judith’s lips twisted up in a parody of a smile. “Aren’t you going to ask me any more questions?”

  Hannah shook off all thoughts that weren’t useful and latched on to another question. It was good that Judith wanted to talk about Max and what she’d done to him. “Why didn’t Del get a loan from the bank? It would have been a lot safer than going to Max.”

  “The bank refused him. They said that he was overextended and they were right. I advised Del to close the doors, but all he could think about was how it would affect his work force. Those people would have found other jobs. And even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered to me!”