Chocolate Cream Pie Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  “Did you find out if Lynne and Tom are coming?” Michelle asked, greeting Hannah as she came in the back door of The Cookie Jar.

  “No. Their names weren’t on Stephanie’s list, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not coming. I’ll try calling Lynne again tonight to see if I can reach her.”

  “Good. I’d like to see her again.” Michelle hurried toward the oven as the stove timer rang. “I’d better get the cakes out before they get too dry.”

  “What are you baking?”

  “Lisa’s Pink Grapefruit Cake. She told me that it was one of Lois Brown’s recipes and she mixed up the batter before they got busy in the coffee shop. I volunteered to bake her cakes and glaze them for her.”

  “Lisa mentioned she’d made Pink Grapefruit Cake during the blizzard. I wonder where she found pink grapefruit at this time of year. I meant to ask her this morning, but I forgot.”

  “The same thing occurred to me and I asked her.” Michelle removed the cakes from the oven, set them on the baker’s rack, and turned back to Hannah. “Someone sent Lisa and Herb a package of pink grapefruit from Florida a couple of days before the blizzard hit us. Lisa and Herb had pink grapefruit for breakfast twice, but Lisa realized that they wouldn’t be able to eat all of them before they spoiled. Rather than taking that chance, she zested them, juiced them, and froze the zest and the juice.”

  “That makes sense,” Hannah said. “Lisa’s very thrifty. Was she thinking about the recipe she had for the Pink Grapefruit Cake?”

  “Yes, and that’s why she did it. And now we don’t have to worry about finding pink grapefruit for Valentine’s Day. Lisa says she’s got enough ingredients for at least two dozen Pink Grapefruit Cakes and Pink Grapefruit Glaze in her freezer.”

  “Hannah?” Lisa stuck her head in the kitchen. “There’s a phone call for you. It’s Lynne Larchmont.”

  Hannah hurried to the phone and she was smiling as she picked it up. “Lynne! Are you coming here for the film festival?”

  “I’m here already,” Lynne replied, with a laugh that made Hannah smile. “We flew in last night and we’re staying at the Lake Eden Inn. I called to see if you’d like to join me for dinner tonight.”

  “I’d love to!” Hannah answered quickly. “What time? And where are we going?”

  “Seven o’clock right here in Sally’s dining room. Unless, of course, there’s another blizzard. That’s all anyone can talk about around here. Everybody says we’re just lucky that we didn’t fly in a week earlier or we would have been stuck in the middle of it.”

  “The Lake Eden Inn is a great place to be stuck,” Hannah said with a laugh. “Sally’s got huge freezers full of food, and they have their own generator at the inn. When Dick and Sally moved here and opened the inn, Dick told Sally that the weather could be brutal way out there by Eden Lake and they’d better be prepared for anything.”

  * * *

  “Tell Lynne hello for me,” Lisa said as Hannah prepared to leave The Cookie Jar and drive out to the Lake Eden Inn. “And take this cake for Sally. I want her to taste it.”

  “Stay out as late as you like,” Michelle told her, walking Hannah out to her cookie truck. “I’ll feed Moishe when I get home, and Lonnie’s coming over tonight to watch a movie with me.”

  “Lonnie has the night off?”

  “Yes, Mike said that he didn’t need him tonight.”

  “Since I’m going out tonight, I’m surprised Mike didn’t assign him to my bodyguard detail.”

  “He did, but when he told Mike that you were going out to the Lake Eden Inn for dinner with Lynne, Mike said not to worry, that you’d be fine.”

  Hannah was a bit puzzled as she started her truck and drove off. Why had Mike changed his mind about the bodyguards? He’d been worried about her safety this morning, but tonight he’d told Lonnie that she’d be fine all by herself. She didn’t understand, but being without a chaperone was fine with her. Mike must assume, or perhaps he knew, that Ross had left Lake Eden and wouldn’t be back tonight.

  The sky was beginning to darken as Hannah turned onto the road that led around Eden Lake. She switched on her headlights and gave silent thanks to Earl Flensburg for plowing the county road. Since no one else was on the road, it didn’t take long for her to get to the turnoff for the Lake Eden Inn. This narrow road had also been plowed and Hannah suspected that Dick Laughlin had been out with his truck, which was equipped as a snowplow, to clear the road.

  She was about to turn to go to the parking lot when she saw a large sign stuck on top of a snowbank. It read, HANNAH PARK IN DELIVERY SPOT IN BACK. Hannah laughed. It was obvious that Sally and Dick knew that she was meeting Lynne for dinner and they hadn’t wanted her to walk all the way to the restaurant from their parking lot.

  Hannah did as she was told and parked in the delivery spot by the delivery door. Then she picked up the Pink Grapefruit Cake that Lisa had asked her to bring and carried it to the door. She was about to press the buzzer when the door opened.

  “Hi, Hannah,” Sally greeted her. “I saw you stop to read the sign and I figured you’d be at the door about now. Come in. Now that it’s getting dark, it’s turning colder.”

  Hannah gave a little shiver. “You’re right,” she agreed as she followed Sally into the warmth of the hallway. “The wind picked up and it has a real bite to it.”

  “I reserved a curtained booth for you and Lynne, and I’ll join you two for dessert if you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all!” Hannah assured her. “It’s always a pleasure to have dessert and coffee with you. And speaking of dessert . . .” she handed the Pink Grapefruit Cake to Sally. “Lisa sent this for you. It’s a Pink Grapefruit Cake with Pink Grapefruit Glaze and we’re thinking of using it for Valentine catering.”

  “Well, it’s certainly pretty enough,” Sally said, opening the box to peek inside. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a grapefruit cake before. I’ve had lemon cake and orange cake, but never grapefruit. It makes me wonder if you could make a pink grapefruit meringue pie.”

  Hannah thought about that for a moment before she answered. “Why not?” she decided. “The juice is certainly flavorful enough, and it would be a little like Key Lime Pie or Lemon Meringue Pie. I’ll have to get some pink grapefruit juice from Lisa and try it. Someone sent Lisa and Herb a box of pink grapefruit from Florida for their anniversary and Lisa zested the rind, juiced the pink grapefruit, and froze it.”

  Sally smiled. “Lisa’s got a good head on her shoulders. And if this cake tastes as delicious as it smells, she’s also one heck of a good baker!”

  Sally led the way to the curtained booth on the end of the raised platform that contained the row of private booths. She opened the curtain and announced, “Here’s Hannah. I’m going to go get her a hot lemonade to warm her up. It’s getting really cold out there. Would you like one, too, Lynne?”

  “Yes, please,” Lynne answered quickly. “Dick makes the best hot lemonade in the world!”

  “That’s because he puts really good rum in it,” Sally explained. “I’ll be right back, girls, and I’ll send Dot over to get your dinner order.”

  “You look good, Hannah,” Lynne told her as soon as Hannah had taken off her parka and slid into the booth. “After what Sally told me about you and Ross, I expected you to be a pale shadow of your former self.”

  Hannah laughed. “Not quite. It’s difficult to fade into a shadow when you’re as mad as a wet hen.”

  “I’m sorry we didn’t come to the wedding,” Lynne apologized. “We didn’t get your invitation until we got back from Europe and by then it was too late. Did you get my wedding present?”

  “Yes, it’s beautiful. Thank you, Lynne. I’ve never had a beautiful teapot and tea cozy like that before. There’s just one thing . . . would you like it back since I wasn’t really married in the first place?”

  “No! Of course not!” Lynne looked shocked at the suggestion. “You thought you were getting married and that’s all that cou
nts! I wish we’d had a chance to talk before you got engaged to Ross. I would have told you what a louse he is! That man broke my heart, and it sounds like he broke yours, too.”

  Hannah gave a little nod. “It felt that way at first. There were times when I actually had trouble breathing, I was so upset. I just couldn’t believe he’d left me without a word. And when that feeling left, I began to wonder what I’d done wrong to make him want to go away.”

  “I heard that,” Sally said, pulling back the curtain and placing mugs of hot lemonade in front of them. “You did absolutely nothing wrong, Hannah. He deserves all the blame. If you’d told me that you felt that way, I would have come into The Cookie Jar to shake some sense into you!”

  “I believe it,” Hannah said with a little laugh. “It’s okay, Sally. And I feel much better now that I told Ross to get out of my sight and stay out of my life.”

  Sally looked completely shocked. “You saw Ross again?!”

  “Yes, this morning. I got in to work early and he knocked on the back door of The Cookie Jar.”

  “You let him inside?” Lynne asked her.

  Hannah shook her head. “No, I stepped out. He said he needed the money he’d left in the safe deposit box and I told him it wasn’t there anymore, that I’d deposited it in his checking account. I returned all the money he gave me.”

  “You’re a good person, Hannah,” Lynne told her. “I don’t think I would have returned his money. I would have kept it to make up for all the pain and grief he caused.”

  Sally began to frown. “Why did Ross need the money? Do you know?”

  “All I know is what he said. I don’t know if it’s the truth, but he told me he needed to give it to his wife so that she could pay for a divorce.”

  “Good heavens!” Sally looked completely shocked. “That man has colossal nerve! He wanted you to pay for his divorce with the money he gave to you?”

  “Yes. And then he said that he still loved me and he wanted to marry me again just as soon as he was free.”

  Both Lynne and Sally groaned, and Lynne reached out to take Hannah’s arm. “You didn’t fall for that, did you, Hannah?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Did he go to the bank to get the money?” Lynne asked.

  “No. I didn’t know anything about it at the time, but the bank was closed and it won’t reopen until Monday morning. They had a lot of damage from the blizzard and they have cleanup and repair work to do.”

  “Oh boy!” Lynne gave a little gasp. “Ross must have been furious when he found out. Did he come back to confront you?”

  Hannah shook her head. “No. Mike was there by that time and if Ross came back, he didn’t come inside.”

  “He probably saw Mike’s cruiser and decided that flight was the better option,” Sally offered her opinion. “Have you heard from him again, Hannah?”

  “No, and I hope I don’t. He was really nasty and I was actually afraid that he might hurt me.”

  “That’s a possibility,” Lynne told her. “He wasn’t exactly gentle with me when he stormed out of our apartment. I had bruises for weeks from where he grabbed me.”

  Hannah drew a deep breath. “In that case, I’m glad Mike decided to detail some bodyguards for me.”

  Sally looked puzzled. “But you’re here alone tonight,” she pointed out. “Where’s your bodyguard?”

  “Right here,” the voice came from outside the booth.

  Sally reached out to pull back the curtain. “Norman?”

  “Hi, Sally.” Norman turned to Lynne and Hannah. “I’m detailed to Hannah tonight. Do you mind if I sit down?”

  “Not at all!” Lynne said quickly. “Please join us for dinner, Norman. It’s good to see you again.”

  “It’s good to see you, too, but I didn’t mean to intrude. I just wanted Hannah to know that I’m here and I’ll take her back to the condo.”

  “But I drove and I don’t want to leave my cookie truck here.”

  “You won’t have to. Lonnie and Michelle rode out here with me. They’re going to have dinner and then they’re going to drive your truck back to the condo. Lonnie’s going to stay there with Michelle because Mike doesn’t want to take any chances that Ross might show up there.”

  “That makes sense,” Sally said. “From what Hannah’s told us, Ross could be dangerous.”

  “That’s what Mike thinks, too.” Norman turned back to Lynne. “Thank you for the invitation, Lynne, but I’m going to join Michelle and Lonnie for dinner. I’ll come back here to have dessert with you and Hannah if that’s okay.”

  “That’s just fine!” Lynne told him. “Sally’s going to join us for dessert too, and she’s got something new for us to try . . . right, Sally?”

  “Right, and it’s a surprise so I’m not going to tell you what it is.”

  Norman smiled and slid out of the booth. “I’ll be thinking about your dessert all through my dinner, Sally. Can you give us just a little hint about what it is?”

  “It’s a cake,” Sally said, also sliding out of the booth. “And it was inspired by Hannah’s Bundt cakes. Wait for me, Norman. I’ll walk you to Lonnie and Michelle’s table.” She turned back to Lynne and Hannah. “Bye, girls. I’d better leave now because you’ll be hungry soon and I want you to try my new appetizers.”

  “I love your appetizers!” Hannah said quickly. “What are they tonight, Sally?”

  “Rusty’s Cheese and Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms. Rusty was one of Dick’s friends in college, and he used to make these every time they watched football on television.”

  “I love stuffed mushrooms!” Lynne said, taking another sip of her lemonade. “How long do we have to wait, Sally?”

  “No more than fifteen minutes. And in the meantime, I’ll have Dot bring you tonight’s menu. We have quite a few specials. Would you two like wine with dinner?”

  “I would,” Lynne said.

  Hannah smiled. “So would I. I don’t have to worry about drinking, now that I’m going to be riding with Norman.”

  “And I don’t have to worry about drinking because all I have to do is take the elevator upstairs,” Lynne added.

  Sally gave a little wave. “I’ll be back with your appetizers.”

  Once Sally and Norman had left and the curtains were back in place, Hannah turned to Lynne. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to see Tom. He came with you, didn’t he?”

  “He did. But he’s gone . . . again.”

  Uh-oh! Back off! Hannah’s mind warned her. Lynne didn’t sound happy about the fact that her husband wasn’t with her tonight. But Lynne was her friend and this time around, Hannah ignored her mind’s warning. “Is there something wrong, Lynne?”

  Lynne nodded and a tear slipped down her cheek. And even though Lynne was an actress and Hannah knew that her friend could cry on demand, this tear was no act. “What’s wrong? Can you tell me?”

  “I . . . just a minute,” Lynne said, pointing to the curtain, which was being pulled back by a feminine hand.

  “Hi!” Dot, Sally’s receptionist, head waitress, and dining room manager, stuck her head inside. “Are you two ready for menus?”

  “Yes, we are,” Lynne said, smiling the sunniest smile that Hannah had ever seen. Lynne was, indeed, an excellent actress, and Hannah felt almost as if she’d imagined that tear and the quaver of distress in Lynne’s voice.

  “Good to see you again, Mrs. Larchmont,” Dot said, pushing the curtain back and stepping in. “We have several specials tonight and I’ll let you read all about them. And please, if you have any questions, just ring for me and I’ll be glad to answer them.”

  “Oh!” Hannah commented as Dot set a small intercom on the table. “That’s new!”

  “Yes, it is. Sally thought it would be convenient and she was right. Otherwise people in these booths have to wait until the busboy or the waitress comes by to ask questions about the food or request additional service. With this,” Dot tapped the intercom, “you just press the red button and I’ll ans
wer.”

  “Very nice,” Lynne agreed, “but do you find many people abuse the fact that they can contact you?”

  Dot shook her head. “No, not at all. This is Lake Eden. People here are usually very polite and patient. They’re not going to buzz me if they don’t get a second bread basket right away, or if they want a refill on their iced tea.”

  “You’re lucky,” Lynne said with a laugh. “You couldn’t use something like this in Los Angeles. People would call for you if they dropped their napkin and didn’t feel like picking it up themselves.”

  Dot laughed. “I’m glad I don’t work there. Our customers use the intercom mainly for questions about the items on the menu.”

  “Actually, I do have a question, and since you’re here, I don’t have to use the intercom,” Lynne told her.

  “Okay. What is it?”

  “Which white wine would you recommend for us tonight?”

  “That may depend on your entrée. What were you thinking of ordering?”

  “Hannah?” Lynne asked, turning to her.

  “I’ll probably have the Cornish game hens. I love the way they do those out here.”

  “With apricot glaze? Or raspberry glaze?” Dot asked.

  “Apricot, please.”

  “Then white wine would be all right for you tonight?” Lynne asked Hannah.

  “Yes, I’d prefer it. The only time I really want red is when I have an entrée with beef.”

  Lynne smiled. “Good! I prefer white wine with any entrée.” She turned to Dot. “Do you have a white wine that’s a bit dry and fruity?”

  Dot opened the wine list and pointed to a wine. “How about this? Dick says it’s excellent with chicken or pork.”

  “We’ll try it, then,” Lynne decided. “Thank you, Dot.”

  When Dot had left and the privacy curtains were closed again, Hannah turned to Lynne. “Would you like to talk about what’s happening with Tom?”

  Lynne nodded and Hannah could tell that she was close to tearing up again. “It’s just that we don’t talk anymore. Tom doesn’t seem to care what I think or how I feel. We used to be close, but now we’re like strangers who barely know each other. He’s always gone, Hannah. And his business is more important to him than I am. That’s why I wanted to come here early. I was hoping we could work things out.”