“I’ll try,” Hannah promised, heading for the hallway. Mike accused her of having slaydar. He said it was like radar except that instead of using it to locate speeders, she used it to locate murder victims. If she had slaydar, then Mike had foodar and he used it to locate a meal. She had no doubt that he would knock on her door just as she and her sisters were sitting down to eat their Chinese takeout.
“That’ll be Mike,” Hannah said, spooning a bit of Kung Pao shrimp over the small helping of rice on her plate. “Will you girls let him in while I get another plate?”
She took another plate from the cupboard, along with a place setting complete with chopsticks. Then she headed back out to the living room and stopped in the doorway as she saw Norman sitting at the table.
“Hi, Hannah,” Norman said, smiling at her. “I brought Cuddles. She’s already in the bedroom, playing with Moishe. Why did you buy so much food? I told you I was bringing Chinese.”
“You did?”
“Yes. In my note. Mike promised to give it to you.”
“He did.”
“Then you knew?”
Hannah was mortified. “Not exactly. I . . . I really hate to admit this, but . . . I was so upset when I left the courthouse that I forgot it was in my pocket. I’m sorry, Norman.”
“That’s okay. It’s entirely understandable. Now we have only one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I brought takeout and you’ve already got takeout. We have to think of five other people to invite.”
The doorbell rang as if right on cue. Hannah laughed. “We don’t have a problem, Norman. That’ll be Mike.”
“You invited Mike?”
“No, but he said he’d drop by if he had any more questions for me.”
Norman chuckled. “And you figured it would be right when you were sitting down to eat.”
“We all figured that,” Michelle spoke up. “That’s his pattern. Mike always drops by when we’re eating. I think it’s the only time he gets a hot meal.”
“I’ll go let him in,” Andrea offered.
“And I’ll get another place setting.” Michelle got up from her chair. “Chopsticks or a fork?”
“Both. That way he can have his choice.” Hannah sat down next to Norman and took a small helping of chicken chow mein. She loved to take a bite or two of everything to sample it. She had just sprinkled on a few crispy noodles when Mike came up to greet her.
“Sit down and join us, Mike,” Michelle offered, placing the plate, napkin, and utensils on the other side of Norman’s chair.
“Are you sure? It seems I always drop by at mealtime.”
Norman turned to Mike. “We’ve got plenty of food tonight. Andrea and Michelle brought takeout and I brought takeout. We need someone to help us eat it. Dig in, Mike.”
“Thanks. I was busy doing interviews and I didn’t have time for lunch. This looks really good.”
“It is,” Andrea told him. “It’s from the Lan Se Palace.”
“Lan Se means blue in Mandarin Chinese,” Hannah told her. “That’s why they hung those blue mirrors on the outside of the building.”
“I remember when it used to be the Watering Hole,” Andrea said. “It was a rundown wreck inside. Now it looks really nice.”
Hannah began to frown. “Wait a second. When did you go inside? You were still in high school when the Watering Hole shut down.”
“Oh. Yes, yes I was. I was . . . um . . . out with Bill one night and it was . . . raining. And his car got stuck in the mud. He didn’t want to leave me in the car alone at night, so we walked to the Watering Hole to see if some of the guys there could help us push his car out.”
“Right,” Mike said, giving her a knowing grin. “I heard about that night from Bill.”
Andrea looked shocked. “You did?!”
“I like those blue mirrors,” Michelle said, quite obviously trying to change the subject. “How about you, Norman?”
Before Norman could answer, the doorbell rang again. “Will you get that, Andrea?” Hannah asked, trying to save her sister from further embarrassment.
“Check the peephole,” Mike warned as Andrea got ready to open the door.
“Right.” Andrea peeked out and when she turned to face them, her eyebrows were raised in a question. “It’s Howie Levine. Any idea what he wants?”
“No,” Hannah answered, “but let him in and he’ll tell us.”
Andrea opened the door, Howie stepped in, and he began to frown as he saw the full plates at the table. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t know you were just sitting down to eat.”
“Join us,” Hannah told him, getting up from her chair. “I’ll get another plate.”
Howie looked a bit uncertain. “That’s nice of you, Hannah, but are you sure I’m not interrupting?”
“Not at all. We’ve got way too much food.”
“And it’s from the Lan Se Palace,” Andrea told him. “Do you know that Lan Se means blue in Chinese?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. I looked it up for them when they were trying to think of a Chinese name for their restaurant.”
“They’re Chinese and they couldn’t think of a Chinese name?” Andrea was clearly surprised.
“Adam Wang is third generation American. And his wife is second generation. As far as I know, they’ve never been to China and I know for a fact that they don’t speak Mandarin.” Howie gave a little smile. “You’ve never seen the chef, have you?”
Andrea looked thoughtful. “I don’t think so. I’ve never been back to the kitchen.”
“Well, his name is Carlos Fernandez. He used to work at a Chinese restaurant in the Cities. It was the Wangs’ favorite restaurant and when it closed, they jumped at the chance to hire Carlos as their head chef.”
Hannah looked down at her plate. She wasn’t sure why Howie had come and it made her so nervous, she didn’t feel like eating. She decided to take the bull by the horns and ask the important question. “Why did you come to see me, Howie?”
“Later, Hannah. Let’s enjoy the meal.”
“I can’t, not unless I know if the reason you came is good news or bad news.”
“It’s good news.”
Hannah glanced at the plate that had looked so unappetizing a few moments before and did an abrupt turnaround. The Kung Pao shrimp now looked mouthwateringly delicious and so did the chow mein. “Thanks, Howie.” She smiled, picking up a succulent shrimp with her chopsticks.
Chapter Eleven
“Dessert and coffee?” Hannah asked after everyone had eaten. When her question was followed by a chorus of assents, she smiled.
“What’s for dessert?” Mike asked her. “Fortune cookies?”
Hannah gestured toward the white bag on the table. “The fortune cookies and almond cookies are right there, but we also have Salted Cashew and Milk Chocolate Whippersnappers. Andrea baked them this morning.”
“Those whippersnappers sound a lot better than takeout fortune cookies and almond cookies,” Mike said, giving Andrea a smile. “I’ve never met one of your whippersnapper cookies I didn’t like.”
Howie gave a little laugh. “Neither has anyone else. If you’re late getting to The Cookie Jar in the morning, they’re already gone.”
Hannah glanced at Andrea who was smiling widely. It wasn’t often that Hannah’s middle sister was praised for her abilities in the kitchen, but Andrea was learning how to take a basic recipe and embellish it in ways that were tasty and creative. Perhaps her forte was cookie baking. Hannah knew it certainly wasn’t sandwich making! Andrea had never had a flop with whippersnappers the way she had with peanut butter and mint jelly sandwiches on raisin bread.
“Are you cold, Hannah?” Howie asked.
Hannah shook her head. “No . . . just thinking about something.”
“Judge Colfax’s death?” Mike asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“No, it was something totally unrelated,” Hannah told him, realizing that she’
d shuddered at the thought of Andrea’s favorite sandwich.
“Have you heard anything from your mother and Doc?” Howie asked, reaching for another whippersnapper cookie.
“I have,” Michelle pulled out her phone. “She e-mailed this morning from Juneau. She says, Unseasonably warm here. Announcer on the Duck Boat wearing shorts. She said it was only the third time this year.”
“She must have sent it to all three of us.” Andrea turned to Hannah. “Did you get it?”
“Probably. I haven’t turned on the computer today.”
“You need a smartphone,” Howie advised her. “Then you can stay in touch with your messages. I couldn’t do my job without it.”
Norman reached out to touch her arm. “Now I know what to get you for an early Christmas present. I’ll take you out to the mall tomorrow and we’ll get you a new phone with all the bells and whistles.”
They were ganging up on her! That realization made Hannah feel like rebelling stubbornly and insisting that she didn’t need a new phone. But she did need a new phone.
“How about it, Hannah?” Mike urged her. “Are you ready to update and join all the rest of us?”
Hannah gave a little sigh. “Maybe,” she admitted, swallowing her pride. “It would have come in handy today when Howie and I were waiting for Judge Colfax to call us into his chambers. I could have called to let everyone know what was happening.”
“But you didn’t know everything that was happening,” Howie said.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to cheer too loudly.”
Hannah turned to Mike. “You caught the killer?!”
Mike shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Then you don’t know what Howie’s talking about?”
Mike shook his head again, and Hannah turned to Howie. “Okay. You’d better tell us before we all die of the same malady that killed the cat.”
As if on cue, Moishe ran into the living room followed closely by Cuddles. They circled the table once before Hannah could reach out to steady the coffee carafe.
“Feet up!” Norman warned as the cats raced around the table.
“But they’re gone now,” Howie pointed out as the cats left the table area and ran into the kitchen. “I can see them from here. They’re drinking water in the kitchen.”
“We got a break, but they’ll be back any sec . . .” Norman stopped speaking and reached for the container of sweet and sour soup. “Somebody get the chicken chow mein.”
Everyone except Howie knew the drill and acted almost instantaneously. Michelle grabbed the black mushrooms with oyster sauce and the orange beef, Mike stabilized the kung pao shrimp and the shredded pork with hot garlic sauce, Andrea picked up her plate of cookies and the chicken chow mein, and Hannah held on to the coffee carafe with one hand and the beef with black bean sauce with the other.
The lapping of tongues ceased and there was a second’s silence followed by the sound of running feet.
“Here they come!” Norman told Howie. “They’re after the shrimp with lobster sauce.”
The words were no sooner out of Norman’s mouth when the cats were racing around the table again. They circled once and then there was a crash as Moishe ran into the table leg.
“Did he hurt himself?” Howie asked, looking horrified at what he believed to be an accident.
Hannah laughed. “Not a bit. He does it on purpose and he hits the table with his hindquarters. Watch! Here they come again.”
They all watched the cats speed through the living room and jump up on the couch. They ran across the back, paws flying, and then jumped down to circle the table again. Just as Hannah had predicted, Moishe ran into the table leg again.
“You’re right!” Howie said, sounding a bit puzzled. “Why does he do that?”
“They got a piece of Lonnie’s steak one night at Norman’s house,” Hannah explained. “Lonnie didn’t grab his plate in time, and intermittent reinforcement makes an action very difficult to extinguish.”
“In other words they keep hoping it’ll happen again?”
“That’s right. They know they get a piece of shrimp in the kitchen after dinner. And that means they know there’s at least two pieces left. Cats aren’t known for their patience.”
“Everybody can relax now,” Norman informed them, watching as Moishe and Cuddles jumped up to sit on the back of the couch. “Cuddles doesn’t have that crazed look in her eyes any longer.”
Hannah poured more coffee for all of them and then she turned to Howie. “What were you going to tell us before the feline marathon began?”
“That you don’t have to go back to court.”
“I don’t?”
“No. I got a call at my office and all charges against you have been dismissed.”
“Judge Flemming came back?” Hannah guessed.
“No. Judge Colfax dismissed the charges against you this morning. His clerk found the signed papers in his out-box.”
Hannah was astonished. Could it all truly be over? “Judge Colfax dismissed the charges before he even met with us?”
“Apparently he did. The clerk read me the pertinent parts. Judge Colfax determined that there were extenuating circumstances and in this case, you were exempted from following the statutes. He also chastised the prosecutor’s office for wasting the taxpayers’ money by filing the charges in the first place.”
Hannah zeroed in on the last piece of information Howie had given her. “Then Judge Colfax’s nephew is in trouble?”
“Dave seemed to think so. He’s worked for Judge Flemming for years and he’s privy to all the scuttlebutt at the courthouse. He said that Chad Norton was already in hot water with his boss for bringing this case against you in the first place. The fact that he caused Judge Colfax to publicly criticize the district attorney’s office is going to make Chad’s situation even worse.”
Hannah watched as Michelle picked up the carafe of coffee, saw that it was empty, and carried it into the kitchen. She heard the water running and knew that her thoughtful youngest sister was making another pot of coffee. She wished she’d thought to ask Michelle to bring in her stenographer’s notebook so that she could write down Chad Norton’s name on the suspect list she’d started in what she called her Murder Book. If he’d known that Judge Colfax intended to dismiss her case, he could have had a motive to kill his uncle to keep him from signing the papers.
“Norton’s in the race for district attorney and he’s running against his boss,” Howie told Norman. “I talked to Rod Metcalf. He said the Lake Eden Journal just got the declared candidate list and Chad Norton’s name is on it.”
Norman gave a humorless laugh. “If Norton knows what’s good for him, he’ll pull out immediately and try to save his job. There’s no way he can win after people find out about Judge Colfax’s decision.”
“I really don’t think he could have won, anyway,” Andrea said. “Too many people supported Hannah. And every single one of them thought the case against her was ridiculous.”
Howie nodded. “You’re right. It was ridiculous. Everyone thought so. If Judge Flemming had been here, it would never have gotten this far.”
Michelle came back from the kitchen and handed Hannah her stenographer’s notebook. “Here’s your Murder Book. I thought you’d probably want to add Chad Norton to the suspect list.”
“Who’s on your list?” Mike asked Hannah.
“Nobody yet. I’m going to write in Chad Norton right now.”
“Better put yourself down, too. You had a motive.”
Hannah just stared at him for a second or two. “That’s absurd!” she finally said. “I don’t have a motive. Judge Colfax dismissed my case.”
“But did you know that before you went into his chambers?”
Hannah counted to ten. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long enough and the fire was still in her eyes as she turned to face him. “No, I didn’t know that before I went into his chambers.”
“Yes.”
“So, Miss Meddlesome, put yourself on your suspect list.”
“What did you call me?”
“Miss Meddlesome. That’s my new name for you, Hannah. It fits you perfectly since you’re always meddling in my official cases. Don’t you usually add anyone with a motive to your suspect list?”
Hannah took a deep breath and somehow managed to hang on to her temper. “Yes, I usually do.”
“Then it’s just like I said. You’d better add yourself.”
Hannah gave him a long-suffering look. “Think about it, Mike. I can’t investigate myself!”
“Maybe not, but I can. You’re still on my list.”
The tension around the table was palpable and the silence was long and unbroken. Hannah realized that everyone was waiting for her to say something. Somehow she had to turn the uncomfortable moment around so that it could become a nice family dinner again.
“Well,” she said, swallowing her ire. “If I’m on your list, I do hope I’m at the very top.”
Norman chuckled and the tension was broken. Then Mike laughed and reached out to pat her hand. It was all Hannah could do not to pull back, but she didn’t. The dregs of discomfort were still in the room and there was no need for any more tension tonight. Her whole day had been filled with anxiety. She wished that she could be magically transported to California to be with Ross, but since that was impossible, she needed to put aside her urge to tell Mike that if he couldn’t be polite to her, he was no longer welcome in her condo.
She tried. She really did. She told herself that Mike hadn’t been picking on her specifically, that suspecting people, even people like her, was his job and that was what made him such a good detective. That didn’t work so she gave up on Mike and switched her focus to Norman.
Norman hadn’t said a word to support her. He’d just sat there letting Mike go right on giving her a hard time. Norman insisted that he loved her. Shouldn’t a man who loved a woman come to her defense?
This wasn’t the first time that similar situations had occurred. She’d been simmering about it for a while. It had been a slow build and it had almost reached the boiling point tonight. Both Mike and Norman said that they loved her, but neither one was willing to defend her against everyone and everything.
Double Fudge Brownie Murder (Hannah Swensen series Book 18) Page 11
