Coconut Layer Cake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  Leave the mixer running on LOW speed, and add the rolled oats. Mix them in thoroughly. Turn off the mixer.

  It’s time to add the flour. Measure out 2 cups of all-purpose flour, packing it down in the measuring cup. Place the flour you measure in a small bowl so that you won’t have to keep count when you add it to the cookie dough mixture.

  Turn the mixer on LOW again and add the flour in half-cup increments, beating for at least 30 seconds after each addition.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: You don’t have to obsess about adding precisely half-cup increments of flour. Just eyeball it and be assured that the flour police will not be knocking on your door if you’re a little under half-cup or a little over half-cup.

  When the flour has been thoroughly incorporated, shut off your mixer, scrape down the insides of the bowl, and take the bowl out of the mixer.

  Set the bowl on your counter and use a wooden spoon to give the cookie dough another stir by hand.

  Measure out a cup of white chocolate chips and add them to your mixing bowl. Stir them in with the wooden spoon and once they’re evenly distributed, prepare your cookie sheets for baking.

  Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line the cookie sheets with parchment paper and spray that. I recommend using the parchment paper. These cookies tend to stick to the pan.

  Drop your cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto your cookie sheet, no more than 12 cookies to a single sheet.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: We use a 2-teaspoon disher when we make these cookies at The Cookie Jar.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: You do not need to flatten these cookies. They will spread out all by themselves as they bake.

  Bake your cookies at 375°F. for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. My cookies were done in 12 minutes. Once they start to brown they do so rapidly. I usually set my timer for 10 minutes and watch them carefully for the last couple of minutes.

  Remove your cookies from the oven and let them cool on wire racks or a cold stovetop burner for two minutes, then remove them from the cookie sheets and let them cool completely.

  To decorate, if you wish, sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

  Yield: 5 to 6 dozen delicious cookies that everyone will like.

  Hannah’s 4th Note: I’ve never met anyone who could eat only one of these cookies!

  Chapter Twenty

  Hannah could hear a bell tinkle as she walked into the Superior Storage office with Norman and Mike. Almost immediately, a woman emerged from the back room and hurried to the front counter.

  “Welcome to Superior Storage,” she said, smiling at them. “How can I help you today?”

  “I’d like to rent a small storage unit,” Hannah told her.

  “I’ll be glad to help you with that,” the woman said. “My name is Cheryl and I’m the manager. Do you have photo identification that you can provide for me?”

  “Yes, I do.” Hannah took out her driver’s license and handed it to Cheryl.

  “Perfect, Miss Swensen. If you’ll just wait a moment, I’ll tell you what we have available.”

  Hannah watched while the manager clicked some keys on a computer keyboard, gave a little nod, and looked up. “I have one inside unit in the next building. And I have another outside unit next to the back wall.”

  “I’d like to rent the unit that’s closest to the office,” Hannah told her.

  “That’s a good choice.” The manager smiled at her. “There are cameras inside the buildings and we’re open twenty-four /seven. If you’re nervous about coming here alone at night, you can come into the office and ask the person to keep an eye on you.”

  “And that’s not the case with the outside units?” Mike asked her.

  “No, even though this is a secure facility, that security only extends to the interior of the buildings. It hasn’t happened, but it’s possible that someone could be loitering outside, and the units by the back wall aren’t lighted as well as the others. If you’d chosen the other unit I mentioned, I would have recommended that you bring someone with you if you came here after dark.”

  “That’s wise,” Mike said.

  The manager smiled and began to enter Hannah’s information on the computer. A few moments later, she looked up with a frown. “Are you sure you need a second unit, Miss Swensen? The unit you have doesn’t have very much in it.”

  It was Hannah’s turn to frown. “But . . . I don’t have a storage unit here.”

  “Are you sure? I’m almost certain I saw your name on something in our three hundred building. Of course, I could be wrong, but please let me check.” She clicked a few more keys and looked up with a triumphant smile. “Here it is! Didn’t your fiancé tell you about the unit he rented in your name?”

  Hannah looked at her blankly, and then she shook her head. “No . . . he . . . he didn’t.”

  “Oh, dear! He told us he might have to leave on an urgent business trip and it must have slipped his mind. He came out here before we opened for business, arranged for a unit for you, and paid a year in advance.”

  Hannah was so shocked, she felt slightly dizzy. “No, he . . . he didn’t tell me anything about it.”

  The manager sighed. “Well, I’m very glad you came out here today. You might never have known about it, and there are several things in that unit.”

  Suddenly the full ramifications of this storage unit occurred to Hannah and she opened her saddlebag-size purse. She pulled out her key ring and located the Superior Storage key she’d found in the safe deposit box that Ross had left for her.

  “I think I understand,” she said. “Are you talking about unit 312?”

  The manager glanced down at her computer screen. “Yes, that’s it,” she said. “It’s a medium-size unit, but he only had a few things for us to put in there.”

  “For you to put in there?” Mike asked, and Hannah noticed that he looked almost as surprised as she was.

  “Yes. He came out here while we were still building and the units weren’t ready for occupancy yet. It was too early for us to rent and I asked him if he could wait for a few weeks. He said he couldn’t, that he had to leave any day on business and he wanted to get this taken care of before he left.” The manager turned back to Hannah. “He said that all he wanted to store were several suitcases with papers and a few items that he might need you to come out and get to send to him.”

  “Then you rented to him, even though you didn’t have any available units ready?” Norman asked her.

  “It was all rather complicated. If I’d been here alone, I would have turned him down. After all, we do have rules about our rentals.”

  “But you weren’t here alone?” Mike asked.

  “No, the big boss was here for the day.” She turned to Hannah again. “Your fiancé told us that he’d really appreciate it if we’d keep his suitcases secure until a unit was ready.” The manager gave a little shrug and continued. “The big boss told him that if he rented the unit a year in advance, we would be happy to accommodate him.”

  “Were you comfortable with that?” Norman asked her.

  “Not really, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. When my boss said yes, I had to agree. The boss told me to keep everything in the office until the storage unit he’d rented became functional. And then I should move everything to unit 312 when it was ready.”

  “So that’s what you did?” Hannah recovered enough to ask.

  “Yes. Your fiancé filled out the necessary forms, brought his suitcases into the office, and that was that.”

  “Where did the key and padlock come from?” Mike asked her.

  “When the big boss came to inspect the construction, he brought us some keys and padlocks from a facility that had closed. The building that was almost ready was the three-hundred building and so I gave your fiancé a key for unit 312.”

  “Are the suitcases in unit 312 now?” Mike asked her.

  “Yes.” The manager turned to H
annah. “I’ll take you there and you can see how much room is left for your things. All I need is your signature since your name is the one that’s listed.”

  Hannah took the form the woman pushed across the counter and signed on the dotted line. Her head was reeling from all this new information, but she managed to ask, “Can we go there now?”

  “Certainly. I’ll go with you to make sure your key fits.” The woman came out from behind the counter and led the way out the door.

  “This is nice,” Norman commented as they walked past trees and landscaping. “Usually these places are fairly bare bones, aren’t they?”

  The woman laughed. “You’re right. You should have seen the last place I worked. It was all asphalt, asphalt, and cinder block walls. There wasn’t a tree or a bush in sight, and certainly not rose bushes like they planted at this one.”

  “You must be glad you left there and came here,” Hannah commented.

  “Oh, I am! Since we’re just off-campus, I’m taking a couple of night classes at the community college. You can actually see the countryside here and the people are much friendlier. It’s so much nicer than working in the industrial area of Detroit. When I look out the window here, I can see trees, and flowers, and grass. There, it was nothing but buildings.”

  Hannah was surprised that the manager liked the area so much in the winter. But Detroit had winter, too, and at least there were trees and birds here.

  The manager opened the door to the three-hundred building and led them inside. She took them halfway down a corridor and stopped. “Here we are,” she said, turning to Hannah. “Try your key and see if it fits.”

  Hannah took out her key and tried it in the padlock. It slipped in easily and she turned it. Since everyone was silent, they all heard a click and the padlock snapped open.

  The manager smiled. “All right, then. Just check everything out and let me know if you need any help unloading the items you want to store. If you do, I have two college students on call. They can help with lifting any boxes you have.”

  Once Hannah had thanked the manager and they were alone, she turned to Mike and Norman. “Ready?” she asked. “I don’t know what Ross would have stored, but let’s find out.”

  When both Norman and Mike nodded, Hannah pushed open the storage locker door and stepped inside. “The manager was right,” she told them. “There’s not much here.”

  “Nothing except those three suitcases,” Mike said, spotting the stack in the storage locker. “Have you seen these suitcases before?”

  Hannah shook her head. “I haven’t. Ross must have bought them before he left. But I don’t understand why he rented this locker for a year to store just these three suitcases. There was plenty of room in his closet at the condo.”

  “That’s easy,” Mike told her. “Ross didn’t want you to see the suitcases and ask him what was inside.”

  “But why did he rent the storage for so long?” Norman asked.

  “That’s obvious, too,” Mike answered. “He was planning to come back for the suitcases, but he didn’t want anyone, including Hannah, to know they were here.”

  “And that’s why he asked me for the key,” Hannah said, remembering what Ross had asked when he’d come back to Lake Eden before daybreak and confronted her at The Cookie Jar. “He wanted his money, but he also wanted the key to this storage locker.”

  “That makes sense,” Norman said. “And that means there has to be something valuable inside those suitcases.”

  Hannah’s mind was spinning with unanswered questions. “The only way to find out is to open them,” she said reasonably, taking a step toward the stack of suitcases.

  “Wait!” Mike grabbed her arm and turned to Norman. “Do you have a clean handkerchief?”

  “Sure.” Norman reached into his pocket, pulled out a white handkerchief, and handed it to Mike. “Here you go.”

  “I need to open them, Hannah,” he told her. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Go ahead,” Hannah said immediately. She assumed that Mike was attempting to preserve any fingerprints that might be on the suitcases, just in case there was something illegal inside.

  “Stand back,” Mike said, waving them away from the pile of suitcases. “Better yet, stand right outside the door.”

  Hannah and Norman exchanged glances as they moved toward the storage locker door. Hannah knew Norman had come to the same conclusion that she had. Mike was moving them away from the suitcases, just in case they contained any explosive devices.

  “Okay. I’m going to open the first one,” Mike said, using the handkerchief to push back the fasteners.

  Hannah couldn’t help it. She held her breath as Mike prepared to lift the lid. It was eerily quiet in the corridor, almost as if the walls themselves were anticipating some kind of drastic result. She moved a bit closer to Norman, and he slipped his arm around her shoulders. Despite the comforting embrace, she could feel her legs begin to tremble.

  “Oh, great! Not again!” Mike exclaimed, standing back so that they could see the contents of the first suitcase.

  “Money,” Hannah breathed the word. “More money!”

  “Yes, but this is different,” Mike said, motioning them back inside. “Nothing larger than twenties this time and they’re mixed in with tens and fives.”

  “What do you think that means?” Norman asked him.

  “Escape money. It’s packed and ready to go. And no one will question the denominations. Hundreds would have been too risky to take with him. Someone might have questioned large bills and remembered more about him.”

  “I get it,” Norman said quickly. “You can walk into a motel and pay with twenties. They’re a common denomination. Paying for a room with hundreds might raise some eyebrows, especially if you get change back. Not that many people walk into a cheap hotel or motel and pay with hundreds.”

  “Exactly right,” Mike said. He closed the first suitcase and set it aside on the floor. “Go back outside. It’s time to check the next suitcase.”

  “But the first suitcase was okay when you opened it,” Hannah pointed out.

  “True, but that doesn’t mean the second one will be. Go out to the hallway, guys. I’m not going to open that suitcase with you two standing this close to me.”

  “Okay, if you insist,” Norman agreed.

  “I do. Now get out there and let me do it.”

  Mike sounded very definite and Hannah realized that it was pointless to argue with him. She gave a little nod and followed Norman out the door and into the hallway.

  “He’s just being really careful,” Norman whispered.

  “I know,” Hannah responded in kind. “I guess we should probably be grateful he didn’t call in the bomb squad.”

  “We don’t have a bomb squad,” Mike told them, startling them both. “And I wouldn’t do this if I had any reason to suspect that there was anything explosive inside.”

  Hannah and Norman exchanged startled glances and Mike laughed. “I can hear you when you whisper. It’s pretty empty in here and it’s like a giant echo chamber.”

  “What would you do if you thought there were explosives?” Hannah asked him.

  “I’d put in a call to the Minneapolis Police Department. They’re big enough to have a bomb squad.”

  Norman and Hannah waited until Mike opened the second suitcase and beckoned them back inside.

  Hannah stared down at the contents of the second suitcase. “Clothes?” she asked, looking up at Mike.

  “Yes, all packed and ready to take with him. Do you recognize these things?”

  Hannah shook her head. “I’ve never seen Ross wear shirts like this before,” she said, pointing to several polo shirts in a variety of colors.

  “But they don’t look new,” Norman noted. “And neither do those red and blue tennis shoes.”

  “He probably bought them and took them to the cleaners to wash,” Mike speculated.

  “But . . .” Hannah began to frown. “Ross never wore
polo shirts. And he told me once that he didn’t like colored shoes. He said they were for kids. I never saw him wear anything but white tennis shoes.”

  “Ross packed these things to change his image,” Mike explained. “That’s clever. Most guys who are going on the run buy new clothes, but they don’t generally think to change their style.”

  “Is that a Chicago Bears football jersey?” Hannah asked, moving closer to stare at the shirt.

  “Looks like it,” Mike agreed. “Was that Ross’s favorite football team?”

  “Ross didn’t like football,” Hannah told him. “He said that he’d never been big on sports, and the only thing he ever watched was college basketball.”

  “Looks like he had this all figured out,” Mike said. “And since he changed his image, he was probably planning to use a fake name, too.”

  “Open the third suitcase, Mike,” Hannah urged him. “I want to see what else he was planning to take with him.”

  Hannah and Norman stood outside while Mike opened the last suitcase. He gave a low whistle and they hurried back inside.

  “I’d say he was definitely preparing to run,” Mike commented, pointing to the array of ID cards, business cards, driver’s licenses, and passports that were packed inside.

  “Did he buy all those?” Norman asked, noticing that the driver’s license on top had Ross’s photo. “I know you can buy fake identification if you’re willing to spend some money.”

  Mike picked up the license and glanced down at the name. “Rusty Bergen,” he read aloud. “Ross could have bought this, but he also could have made it himself.” He turned to Hannah. “He was a photography major in college, wasn’t he?”