Cinnamon Roll Murder

by Joanne Fluke

“Good morning,” an angel said to her. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “Yes,” Hannah answered in a weak voice, squinting as she made her way to the Formica table that would be an antique in about fifteen year. Of course it wasn’t really an angel. It was her youngest sister Michelle. But Hannah thought Michelle was acting exactly like an angel should act as she set a mug of lifesaving brew directly in front of her.

  One sip and Hannah felt almost human. Two sips and she remembered her name. Three sips and she was capable of doing simple sums in her head. Five sips and she could not do quadratic equations. Of course she’d never been able to do quadratic equations, but she did remember the failing grade she’d gotten in algebra.

  “More?” Michelle asked, wisely speaking in one-word sentences. She’d stayed at her older sister’s condo many times before, and she knew Hannah’s routine in the morning.

  “Yes, thanks,” Hannah said. And then she waited, her head resting on her folded arms, until Michelle had brought the second mug of coffee. She took another sip, and a smile spread over her face. Perhaps this day wouldn’t be such a horrible day after all!

  Michelle had insisted on coming to The Cookie Jar with Hannah to help, and by the time they arrived, it was six in the morning. Hannah pulled up, into her spot, plugged in the heater that kept her oil and transmission fluids at a workable temperature, and waited for Michelle to join her before she inserted her key in the lock.

  Hannah turned the key, but there was no familiar click. The door was already unlocked. “Behind me, Michelle,” she warned. “Somebody opened this door.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going in, but you’re not. Stay out here. Here’s my key ring.” Hannah handed it to Michelle. “If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right, head for the van and get out of here as fast as you can.”

  “No!” Michelle grabbed Hannah’s hand as she reached for the doorknob. “You’re not going in there alone. It could be a robbery in progress. Or who knows what else. You should call Mike and have him check it out first.”

  Hannah shook her head. “I’m probably being overcautious and there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe Lisa came in really early.”

  “Her car’s not in her parking spot.”

  “I know. But there aren’t any other cars either. And there weren’t any tire tracks in the snow when we drove in.”

  “But I still don’t think you should go in alone. Let’s call Lonnie if you don’t want to bother Mike. He’ll come right out here and ...”

  Michelle stopped speaking as they heard the sound of a car engine.

  “There’s a car coming down the alley,” Hannah pointed out quite unnecessarily.

  “I hear it. Maybe it’s a volunteer coming to open Helping Hands early.”

  “That’s possible. Or maybe it’s ... Andrea?” Hannah caught sight of her sister’s Volvo and simply stared. Andrea never got up this early. Ever since Andrea and Bill had hired Grandma McCann to live in to take care of Tracey and Bethie, Andrea had been sleeping late.

  Andrea wheeled her Volvo into the space next to Hannah’s cookie truck, and got out of her car. “Hi Hannah. Hi Michelle.”

  “What are you doing here at this time of the morning?” Hannah asked before Michelle could voice the question.

  “Mother called me and told me to meet her here. They even unlocked the back door for me.”

  “Who unlocked it?” Hannah asked her.

  “Lisa. Mother’s having an early morning meeting with Lisa to tell her everything about finding the body. She wants Lisa to tell the story because she knows it brings in lots of business for you.”

  Just then the back door opened and Delores poked her head out. “What are you doing out here? It’s really cold this morning, and you’re going to freeze to death. Come on in. Lisa and I have fresh coffee and cookies for you.”

  Hannah had expected Delores to visibly show the signs of the traumatic experience she’d suffered the previous evening. But her mother was smiling. Her hair and her makeup were perfect, and she was wearing another of her designer suits.

  Andrea took off her coat and hung it on a hook next to the back door. She was also dressed to perfection in a lovely dark green pantsuit that set off her light blond hair.

  Hannah glanced down at her jeans and rather heavy lavender sweater. Then she turned to look at Michelle, who was wearing corduroy slacks and a dark heavy brown sweater, and she thought she understood why she loved her youngest sister so much.

  “Sit down. Both of you,” Delores ordered.

  Hannah and Michelle took seats at the stainless steel work island in the center of the kitchen. It was obvious that Delores was in charge, even though it was Hannah’s domain.

  “Why are you here so early?” Hannah asked Lisa.

  “Your mother called me last night and asked me to meet her here. I had Dad drop me off, and I came early to start the baking. I’ve got a batch of Short Stack Cookies coming out in a minute or two if you want a fresh cookie.”

  “I do,” Michelle said immediately.

  “I’d like one, too,” Hannah echoed the sentiment.

  “So would I,” Delores said, smiling at Lisa. “I’ve been up for hours and I’m ready for breakfast.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then all three sisters turned to stare at their mother in shock.

  “Cookies for breakfast?!” Michelle was the first to recover enough to ask.

  “You never let us have cookies for breakfast when we were kids,” Andrea complained.

  Hannah gave her mother a searching look. “Don’t tell me we finally managed to convince you that cookies are breakfast food!”

  “Of course not. But some cookies are more acceptable than others. Delores gave all three of them a smug smile. “Lisa told me that Short Stack Cookies taste just like pancakes. And pancakes are perfect for breakfast.”

  Chapter Nine

  After Lisa’s Short Stack cookies were eaten and everyone had declared them delicious, Delores cleared her throat.

  “I have something to discuss with you girls,” she said, looking very serious.

  “I’ll just go out in the coffee shop,” Lisa said, getting to her feet. “It’s almost time to set up the tables.”

  Delores held up her hand. “Don’t leave. This concerns you, too. I just want to make sure that you’re all going to help investigate Buddy Neiman’s murder. I need to know who did it as soon as possible.”

  Hannah was puzzled. “Why is that, Mother? You told me last night that you never met him. Until you found him dead, that is.”

  “And that’s true. But I spoke to Doc at the hospital this morning, and he said they’re all at sixes and sevens.”

  Hannah knew what that phrase meant. She’d read it in one of her mother’s Kathryn Kirkwood Regency romances.

  “Doc actually put it that way?” It was obvious that Andrea had read the books too, or she wouldn’t have asked the question.

  “Yes, he said that. He loves to read my romances. As a matter of fact, he’s going to help me with my next book.”

  “Doc’s going to help you write your Regencies?” Michelle’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “No, but he’s going to do some research on the healing arts in Regency England for me. He wants me to be accurate when it comes to medical things.”

  “Why is the whole hospital at sixes and sevens?” Hannah asked, pulling them back to business.

  “Because it’s a murder scene. Doc says that’s not very good for business.”

  The four women just stared at Delores. None of them knew how to respond.

  “Doc was joking. Hospitals don’t solicit business. They provide a community service. But then he got serious and he said he wished that whoever stabbed Buddy Neiman had used a different murder weapon.”

  “Why?” Andrea asked.

  “The sheriff’s department detectives are still out there interviewing anyone who had access to those scissors. And unfortunately, th
at includes everyone who was at the hospital last night.”

  “But how could just anyone have access?” Andrea asked her. “Aren’t surgical scissors just used in the operating room?”

  “Not necessarily,” Delores explained. “There’s a pair of sterile surgical scissors in every treatment room. And the treatment rooms aren’t locked.”

  Hannah went to the drawer, took out a new stenographer’s notebook, and grabbed a pen. Delores was giving her new information and that meant it was time to write it down in the notebook she called her murder book. She flipped to the first page and turned to her mother. “So it could have been someone on the staff who took them, or even someone who was walking down the hall and saw the opportunity.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Or another patient could have taken them,” Lisa suggested.

  “You’re right, Lisa. Or it could have been someone from a patient’s family. Or ...” Michelle paused, looking worried. “Or anyone who came out to the hospital last night and volunteered to help ... like the Rainbow Ladies, or like us.”

  Hannah turned to her mother. “Do you know if they’re keeping everyone in the hospital until they can question them?”

  “Not everyone, but they took names and addresses. And I heard Mike tell Dick Laughlin that everyone on the band bus had to stay put at the Lake Eden Inn until he said they could leave.”

  “This is probably inappropriate under the circumstances, but do you know if the band is going to play tonight?” Lisa asked. “Dad and Marge planned to drive out there to have dinner and hear them.”

  “How could they play?” Andrea answered her. “ Unless they can find a substitute, they won’t have anyone on keyboards.”

  Michelle looked thoughtful. “You’re right. I wonder if ...”

  Hannah turned to her sister when she stopped speaking. “You wonder what?”

  Michelle gave a little shrug. “I just had an idea, that’s all. It’s nothing. Really.”

  Hannah stared hard at her youngest sister. She was sure that the idea wasn’t nothing. There was definitely something on Michelle’s mind. Hannah was just getting ready to ask her about it again when Delores stood up.

  “I’d better go. I want to run out to the hospital and tell Doc that you’re already working on the murder case. You are, aren’t you?”

  “We are,” Andrea replied, patting her briefcase-sized purse. “I’ve got the crime scene photos right here.”

  “How did you get them so soon?” Delores asked her.

  “Everything’s digital now. They sent them to Bill over the Internet, and he downloaded them to a disk before he came home last night.”

  “And he gave them to you?” Delores was clearly shocked.

  “Not exactly. Let’s just say that I managed to copy the disk and print them out while he was sleeping.”

  “Andrea!”

  Andrea just shrugged as Delores gave her a stern look. “Come on, Mother. It was the only way I could think of to get them. And you do want us to work on the murder case, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I told you that.”

  “Well, having the crime scene photos is bound to help. Would you like to see them?” Andrea offered, pulling a manila envelope out of her purse.

  “No!” Delores said definitively, and then she gave a little shudder. “I was there. That’s quite enough for me! Just let me know if I can do anything to help your investigation. I’m good at undercover work, you know. And I’m at the hospital almost every day.” She turned to Lisa. “I’ll be back here around one to see your new puppy. Little Sammy sounds just darling.”

  “He’s a love.” Lisa smiled a proud smile, almost as if her new puppy was a newborn baby she’d just brought home from the maternity ward.

  “When I come, I’ll bring a copy of the autopsy report,” Delores promised. “I’ve got a key to Doc’s cabinet. I can copy it right at the hospital.”

  “Mother!” Andrea treated her to the same stern look that Delores had given her earlier. “You thought I was wrong for copying Bill’s disk of the crime scene photos without his permission. Now you’re going to do the almost same thing to Doc Knight.”

  “Doc’s not my husband,” Delores pointed out. “That’s different.”

  Hannah exchanged glances with her sisters, and they all began to smile. Since little on, they’d known that what their mother thought was bad behavior for them wasn’t necessarily bad behavior for her.

  “Don’t forget your cookies,” Lisa reminded Delores.

  “I won’t.” Delores hurried to the counter and picked up one of Hannah’s bakery boxes. “Doc and the nurses are going to love these. Thanks so much, Lisa.”

  Hannah waited until Delores left, and then she turned to Lisa. “What kind of cookies did you give her?”

  “Chocolate Chip Crunch. I figured the chocolate would do them some good. It’s got to be a madhouse out there.”

  “Right. Mother said she’d come back at one to see Sammy. Where is he?”

  “Herb’s got the morning off, so he’s taking Sammy to Doctor Bob’s for a complete checkup with blood work and everything. I told him that the paramedics said that Sammy was fine, but he insisted. He said you can’t be too careful with a little guy like Sammy.”

  “Very true,” Hannah said, smiling at her partner. It sounded as if Herb had fallen in love with Sammy, too.

  “Let’s get started,” Lisa said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Hannah glanced over at the bakers’ racks. They were filled almost to overflowing with freshly baked cookies. “But the racks are full. Didn’t you already do all the baking?”

  “I did. Sammy was snuggled up in bed with Herb and Dillon, so I came in to work early. And I baked extra cookies because I knew we’d be jam-packed with customers today.”

  “Because you’re going to tell the story of how Mother found the body?” Andrea asked.

  “I’m definitely going to do that. Your mother told me to make it just as theatrical as I wanted, and she’s going to come in and listen.” Lisa turned to Hannah. “We always get tons of customers when I tell murder stories.”

  “I know,” Hannah said. “But we don’t open the coffee shop until nine, and it’s only seven. What else is there to do before we open?”

  “We have to start working on this murder investigation right away. And after we get everything organized, I want you and Michelle to tell me exactly what it was like when you went up to the front of the bus to see the dead bus driver’s body. Our customers are going to want to hear about that, too.”

  “You’re doing a double feature?” Michelle asked her.

  “You betcha. Now let’s get back to business. You met Buddy last night and so did Michelle. Andrea and I need to know your impressions of him. And then we need to figure out a reason why somebody wanted to kill him.”

  Hannah was greatly relieved when Andrea slipped the crime scene photos back into the envelope. This was definitely a crime of passion. Buddy had been stabbed multiple times with the scissors, and some of the wounds hadn’t bled. This led her to believe that the killer had kept stabbing him even after he was dead. Of course she wasn’t a doctor or a forensic specialist. She’d have to wait for Delores to bring in the autopsy report to make certain she was right. Lisa and Michelle had gone into the coffee shop to open it for business, but not until they’d talked about the direction their investigation would take, and Hannah and Michelle had told Lisa about entering the overturned band bus and seeing the dead driver.

  “I’m going to mix up more cookie dough,” Hannah said, rising from her stool at the stainless steel work island.

  “But don’t you have enough?” Andrea asked her.

  “Maybe for Lisa’s rendition of Delores Finds the Body, but not for Michelle and Hannah Discover the Dead Bus Driver. Two stories will take a while, especially if Lisa embellishes.”

  “And she will.”

  “Naturally. She’ll probably take a break between the two, and custo
mers will order more coffee and cookies.”

  “What kind of cookie are you going to make?”

  “I thought I’d try a new recipe I thought of when I made JoAnn Hecht’s recipe for Nutmeg Snaps. They were so popular, I decided to make more cookies with spices. I’m going to call these Cardamom Cuties.”

  “That’s a nice name for a cookie. I don’t think I’ve ever had cardamom. What does it taste like?”

  “It’s a little like cinnamon but it’s deeper and more intense. And it’s used more widely in European countries than it is here. Do you remember Great Grandma Elsa’s sticky buns?”

  “Maybe. I was pretty little when she was alive. I remember that I liked going out to the farm because she always had cookies and things for us.”

  “That’s a good place to start. Think about her kitchen table with the red and white tablecloth on top.”

  “I remember that. It had little red flowers.”

  “You got it. Now try to remember the afternoon that she gave us warm rolls and fresh-churned butter. Those were her sticky buns. They stuck to our fingers, and you dropped yours on the floor.”

  “I remember! I cried.”

  “And she told you not to cry because she’d just washed the kitchen floor. She picked up your roll, put it back on the plate, and finished eating it.”

  “I remember that whole thing.”

  “Okay. See if you can remember the taste of that roll. It had caramel and pecans on top, and the inside was filled with cardamom and sugar.”

  Andrea shut her eyes. When she opened them, she was smiling. “I remember. Those rolls were delicious. Are the cardamom cookies going to taste like that?”

  “We’ll find out. They’ll be ready to eat around noon.”

  Andrea glanced at the clock. “It’s going to take you over three hours to make the dough?”

  “No, that’ll go fast. But it has to chill for two hours or more in the refrigerator.”

  “Can I help you make it?”

  “Sure, as long as you crack the eggs and take them out of the shell before you add them to the bowl.”