Death, Guns, and Sticky Buns
Page 26
Like little birds, words fluttered through the air: Oh my! Can't believe it! Poor Tori! What a shock! Tsk-tsk.
“The night Darious was killed, I found a picture in his workroom that led me to suspect the wrong person.” Gloria shifted nervously in her seat.
“I'm not going to say who that person was… there was no connection with the crime. But at the same time I saw the photo, I also noticed a box of sticky buns, from the new Gettysburg bakery Charlotte liked to use. In fact, she'd dropped a box off here after my first near-death experience. The bakery dates its product, and the box had that day's date on it. I assumed that Charlotte dropped by, carrying a box of treats as an excuse for being there, then killed him as he sat on the carousel eating.”
“Oooh, neat-o!”
“Don't be juvenile, Tamsin.” Moonbeam was curled up in a ball on the sofa, with her head in Woody's lap.
“I just could not figure out why she did it. I thought it probably had something to do with the stolen goods we found there.”
“Why did she come after you at the wedding? She couldn't have known you'd figured all this out.” Doctor Nakamura asked.
“I'd already ruined her chance of getting her husband's insurance money. And she was faced with losing half of whatever was left to Lillie and her baby. She knew she was done for, especially after Reba called from the garage to tell her I was asking questions that would eventually point to her.” I glared at Luscious. “You need to tell Henry to hire more trustworthy people.”
“Like you can get anything better for minimum wage,” he muttered, and drained his glass.
“Was she going to kill you?” Tamsin asked.
“I think she planned to. But she realized it would be futile; even if I died, someone else would look at all the clues and figure it out sooner or later. She knew that the lock of her hair in Darious's hand would identify her eventually. And so, she jumped instead.” I didn't mention that my taunts about her husband had most likely been the final straw that led her to jump; I didn't feel very good about that.
The silence that fell upon the group was broken first by Moonbeam's gentle snores, and then by the front doorbell.
“Who could that be?” I wondered.
“Trick-or-treaters,” Luscious said. “It's already past seven.”
I opened the front door and peered into the darkness. There was a large moving van in the circular driveway.
“You Tori Miracle?” a male voice called out.
“Yes. Who are you?” I strained to see who was there.
“Got a delivery for you.”
“Can you bring it around to the back? I don't trust this porch roof.”
“Sorry lady. Truck's too big to go back there.” A burly man in a Grateful Dead T-shirt materialized from the darkness. “Here's the message that goes with it.”
I opened the envelope.
Dear Ms. Miracle, After we bought the carousel firm Mr. Strainge, he told us you refused the reward he offered. We will honor your request to give the money to young Sam Miller, but we also want you to have something as an expression of our gratitude for finding the carousel. We understand the hippocampus is your favorite animal. Sincerely, Rick Langley and Bill Moorehead.
“Oh no!” I exclaimed. “It can't be.”
“Where do you want it, lady?” The man stood on the porch, holding the aqua-blue hippocampus in his arms.
“I don't want it. Please take it back.”
“No can do. Do you want me to leave it here on the porch, or can I come in and set it up for you like I'm supposed to?”
I stepped aside. “Better bring it inside.”
The people from my parlor, with the exception of Moonbeam, gathered around to watch as the beautiful steed was set on a wooden base in the front hall.
I tried to tip the man, but he refused, another sign that I was a million light-years away from New York City.
My guests, no, my friends, left shortly after, Woody carrying Moonbeam over his shoulder as if she were a golden-wrapped package of elderdown. Tamsin kissed me good-bye and left with her father and grandfather. Gloria walked out with them. Luscious swigged down the dregs of the last bottle of champagne and thanked me. I urged him to stay for coffee, but he wouldn't hear of it. “We'll drive him home,” President Godlove said, and he and Helga led the bewildered young officer to their car.
“Trick or treat, give us something good to eat.” The four children standing on the back steps held king-size pillowcases open to make it easy for me to add to the loot. I pretended to be scared, which they seemed to find discomfitting, then sprinkled a few miniature Snickers bars in each bag. They scampered away, and I noticed a parent holding a flashlight standing in the shadows beneath a huge tree. He waved at me and followed them at a close distance.
As I popped a Snickers bar into my mouth, I noticed one of the children had dropped a mask. I picked it up and started to call out to them, but they were already out of sight.
Back in my kitchen, my very quiet kitchen, I laid the mask on the table. It was the kind that always scared me. Clear, colorless plastic. You could see through a mask like this, but the face beneath would look strange, almost alien. The mask would allow no expression to show through.
I poured a glassful of fresh cider for myself, then, noticing the cats were wild-eyed and panic-stricken at having gone at least an hour since their last meal, I poured Tasty Tabby Treats into their bowl before sitting down with my cider and a ginger cookie from the Farmers’ Market.
The mask stared up at me, and it occurred to me that all the people I'd been involved with recently had worn masks. At first I thought I'd seen them as they really were, but beneath the transparent masks there was something else. Perhaps everybody wore a mask, I thought. Maybe even I had been wearing one for years, letting people see me but not really know me.
Charlotte, of course, was the most obvious because she had worn a real mask. The face she hid beneath the elastic was beautiful by anyone's standards, but she had seen herself as hideous. She was loved by her students at the college, volunteered hours of her time working with hearing-impaired students, and acted as an interpreter for the library. No matter what the Charlotte who wore the mask had done, the Charlotte known to the people of Lickin Creek and Gettysburg would be missed.
Her husband, Mack Macmillan, had worn a mask for years. “Mack Macmillan—a man like you.” He'd been elected over and over to represent the good old boys of his district, and he wore the mask of a humble man whenever he was out in public. But at home, he lived in luxury hardly ever seen in Caven County, allowed lobbyists to buy his votes, collected stolen treasures, owned a strip joint, and kept a mistress. Not exactly the image he'd tried to portray all those years.
Who else? Woody Woodruff's mask had come off to reveal a much nicer person than I'd expected to find. He wasn't really a letch or a leech, but a kind person who worked hard and truly seemed to be in love with Moonbeam. I hadn't seen past the mask there.
Then there was Darious. I winced at the thought of him. Beautiful Darious, Apollo in his golden chariot, the artist who sacrificed his morals and finally his life to bring a carousel back to life. How could anyone who appreciated beauty as much as he did have turned out to be so rotten?
Lillie White wore a tough, slutty-looking mask, and while she wasn't exactly the “prostitute with a heart of gold” beloved by so many writers, since she'd knowingly had an affair with a married man, she was a child struggling as best she knew how to support a child, now two. Life might be a little easier for her now, I thought, for the DNA tests would surely prove Mack Macmillan had fathered her baby. Her baby would inherit all that was left of Mack's estate.
Helga Van Brackle had covered her passion for Mack with a prim, schoolmarm mask. Ken Nakamura had hidden his family's tragedy beneath a smiling face. Vesta Pennsinger pretended to be a caring professional, but her gossipy persona was the real Vesta. Thank goodness for that, I thought, or I'd never have realized how Charlotte had fooled her husban
d.
Moonbeam Nakamura was one of the few people I could think of who was just what she appeared to be. A good-natured kook without a mean bone in her body. I wasn't sure about her daughter, the sullen teenager who'd announced before she left that she finally had found a purpose in life. Unfortunately it was go-cart racing. Woody had cringed when he heard it, but I was sure Moonbeam, when she came to, would be grateful that her daughter was showing an interest in something.
Another person who was just what she appeared to be was Cassie. Good old dependable Cassie, who'd kept the paper going despite me. Thank goodness some people are just what they seem.
I'd left Garnet for last. Did I really know him? I wasn't sure. I thought I did, but then when he'd abruptly left me, it occurred to me that maybe I didn't. I was willing to spend more time finding out, though. As soon as he got settled in Costa Rica, and I could take some time off from the paper and finishing my book, I might head down to Central America for a long visit.
Even Lickin Creek wore a mask; on the surface it was a charming, old-fashioned town, but under its placid surface rumors and gossip moved as quickly and as surely as sewage sludge flowed beneath the streets.
My thoughts were interrupted by someone pounding on the back door. I shoved Fred from my lap, grabbed the sack of Snickers bars, threw open the door, and screamed.
Instead of the children I had expected to see, there stood a nun wearing a blue habit and a fluttering cor-nette. The nun's face was hidden by a dime-store skull mask.
Her hand came up to pull off the mask, revealing my friend Maggie Roy, the librarian.
“I didn't mean to scare you,” she said. “I thought it would be funny—me dressing up like the ghost of the Lickin Creek College for Women.”
I breathed deeply three times to slow my pounding heart then said, “It is funny, Maggie. It's just that I've had a bad day. If you've got time, why don't you come in and hear about it?”
“I was hoping you'd ask,” Maggie said. She bent over and picked up a large box, which I hoped didn't contain sticky buns. “I brought a pizza—just in case— and a video. You told me once you love old sci-fi movies, so I got The Day the Earth Stood Still. Have you ever seen it?”
I smiled and stepped aside so she could enter. “Of course I have, dozens of times. It's my favorite. Gort, Klaatu barada nikto.”
She was taken aback for a moment by my quote from the movie, then responded with, “You're welcome. What language is that, anyway?”
Sticky Buns
Dough ingredients:
3½ to 4 cups all-purpose flour ⅓ cup granulated sugar
teaspoon salt
packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk (scalded then cooled to about 120
degrees) ⅓ cup butter, softened 1 egg
Syrup ingredients:
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup dark corn syrup
¾ cup pecan halves, chopped if desired
Filling ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Mix together 2 cups of flour, ⅓ cup granulated sugar, the salt, and the yeast in a large bowl. Add milk, ⅓ cup butter, and the egg. Beat on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl often. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl often. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1½ hours or until it has doubled in size.
Grease rectangular pan, 13✓9✓2 inches.
Heat 1 cup brown sugar and ½ cup butter to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in corn syrup. Cool 5 minutes. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with the pecan halves.
Punch down dough. Roll out into a rectangle, 15✓10 inches, on a lightly floured surface. Spread with 2 tablespoons butter. Mix chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and the cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the dough rectangle. Roll up tightly, beginning at the 15-inch side. Pinch edge of dough into the roll to seal it. Stretch it and shape the roll to make it look even.
Cut roll into fifteen 1-inch slices. Place slightly apart in pan.∗∗∗
Let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Bake as directed.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Invert immediately onto heatproof serving plate or tray. Let pan remain in place for a minute so the caramel can drizzle over the rolls.
Janet Margolies's Easy Sticky Buns
Dough ingredients:
1 package Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix 1 cup hot water egg
tablespoons butter
Syrup ingredients:
½ cup melted butter
cup light brown sugar
tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla ¾ cup pecan halves
3–4 tablespoons light or dark Karo syrup
Filling ingredients:
¼ cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
handful of raisins
½ cup chopped pecans
cinnamon to taste
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Stir hot roll mix in a large bowl and prepare according to package directions by stirring in 1 cup hot water, butter, and egg until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With greased or floured hands, shape dough into a ball. Knead dough for 5 minutes. Cover dough with a large bowl and let rest 5 minutes.
While dough is rising, put all the syrup ingredients (except nuts and corn syrup) into an 11″ by 18″8 baking pan and stir gently over low heat. Dribble corn syrup over all to prevent sugaring. Lay pecan halves on top of the syrup.
Roll out on floured surface into rectangular shape, about ⅛ inch thick. Spread with ¼ cup melted butter, sprinkle with 1 cup brown sugar, shake cinnamon over sugar, and sprinkle with raisins and chopped nuts. Roll as for jelly roll, stretching it out to about 36 inches. Slice into 40 equal slices and place facedown in the prepared pan—5 across and 8 down.
Cover this pan with a towel and let rise about 30 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from pan immediately by flipping it over onto a tray covered with tin foil so the chewy goo is on top of each bun.
Can be frozen and reheated.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VALERIE S. MALMONT is also author of Death Pays the Rose Rent and Death, Lies, and Apple Pies, the first two novels in the Tori Miracle mystery series. She lives in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
∗∗∗ If desired, at this point you can cover the pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours. Then follow the baking directions. This is nice, if you want to surprise your family or guests with hot, fresh sticky buns for breakfast.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Book by this Author
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Copyright Page
books on Archive.