Double Fudge Brownie Murder (Hannah Swensen series Book 18)

by Fluke, Joanne

  “Why are you laughing?”

  “You have your sweater on backward.”

  “I do?” Hannah rolled her sweater up to her armpits, slipped her arms out of the sleeves, and turned the sweater around on her neck. Once her arms were back in the sleeves, she rolled the sweater back down and went to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I thought it was a little tight around the neck.”

  “See what happens when you dress without your first cup of coffee? It’s a good thing I was here. You would have gone to work with your sweater all wonky.”

  “You’re probably right.” Hannah took her first scalding sip of coffee and smiled. “Ross is probably getting ready for his first day of work right now.”

  “He’s ready. He called twenty minutes ago to see if we were up. I hope you don’t mind, but I invited him over for scones and coffee. I was just coming to wake you up when I heard you in the shower.”

  “Ross is coming here?”

  “That’s right. That’s okay, isn’t it?”

  “That’s not okay, that’s great. I’ll get to see him before work. I look all right, don’t I?”

  “You do, now that your sweater’s on right. Do you want to go and put on some makeup?”

  “Not really, unless . . .” Hannah began to frown. “Do I need makeup?”

  “No. You look fine without it. And it’s breakfast, not a gala evening out.”

  “Good,” Hannah said, finishing her coffee and going back for more. “I’m almost awake and once I have my second cup of coffee, I should be able to text Mother.”

  “So it was Mother who texted you?”

  “Yes. She told me how to reach Margaret George. She’s in Mother’s Regency group, except she doesn’t go by Margaret. She prefers to be called Peggy.”

  “Okay. If she’s a member of the Regency group, she’ll probably like scones. We can take her some if you want to. This recipe made twelve large or eighteen medium scones.”

  “That’s the same yield as my Easy Cheesy Biscuit recipe.”

  Michelle laughed. “Where do you think I got the basic recipe? It’s yours with modifications.”

  “Good for you! There are a limited number of basic recipes. All the others come from modifications of the ingredients that influence the taste, the shape, and the texture. It’s a little like a melody. There are a limited number of musical tones that the human ear can hear. The melody depends on how you arrange them. And that whole subject is a little too involved for a discussion before breakfast. Aren’t those scones of yours almost ready to come out of the oven?”

  “Are you hoping I get this job, Hannah?” Ross asked when Michelle went back to her room to get ready to leave.

  “Yes,” Hannah answered him quickly.

  “And do you want me to move here to Lake Eden?”

  “Oh, yes!” Again, the answer came quickly and from her heart.

  “The dinner was fun last night and I don’t think that either Mike or Norman was too upset at the prospect of me coming back here permanently. Am I wrong?”

  “You’re not wrong.” She hesitated and then blurted out exactly what was on her mind. “They might have been more upset if they’d known about Las Vegas.”

  “They don’t know that I met you in Vegas?”

  “Oh, they know that!” Hannah stopped and tried to think of a way to explain. “It’s just that they don’t know that we became . . . involved when we met in Las Vegas.”

  “You didn’t mention that I love you?”

  Hannah shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “Some people might think you were being evasive just in case things didn’t work out between us.”

  “I know. I thought about that, but that’s not it at all. I just want to break it to them gently so that we can all remain friends. Do you think that’s possible? Or am I deluding myself?”

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “One step forward at a time?”

  “Yes. The first step is this job at KCOW Television. Let’s see how that turns out. If I get it, we’ll take the next step. And if I don’t get it, we’ll figure out where to go from there. Is that all right with you?”

  “Yes.” Hannah smiled as he stood up and pulled her into his arms for a kiss. “That’s absolutely fine with me, Ross.”

  It was ten in the morning when Hannah pulled up in front of Peggy George’s home. It was a condo complex with one-story units that had red brick exteriors and dark green doors that matched the trim around the windows. Judging from the outside, Peggy’s unit appeared to have three bedrooms. Hannah figured that one bedroom was for Peggy, one for her daughter, and one for Peggy’s office where she wrote her Regency romances.

  “Nice place,” Michelle said as Hannah parked in the space set aside for visitors.

  Hannah agreed with her sister’s assessment as they got out of the cookie truck and walked down a winding brick path to Peggy’s unit. Late-blooming flowers lined the paths and the lawns were still green and manicured. Adult trees provided shade for the units and Hannah spotted a children’s playground with slides, a jungle gym, and swings, along with a paved bike path and a tennis court.

  “I hope we’re not too early,” Hannah said, glancing at her watch before she prepared to ring the doorbell.

  “It’s ten-fifteen,” Michelle said. “She should be up, unless she spent all night writing.”

  “There’s only one way to find out.” Hannah pressed the button that rang the doorbell. And then they waited. And waited. And waited for some response from inside.

  “Do you think she’s gone?” Michelle asked.

  “Maybe. I’ll ring the doorbell again and if she doesn’t answer, we’ll go somewhere for coffee and try again later.”

  The second attempt garnered no more response than the first. Hannah turned from the door and was about to step away when she heard a voice.

  “Hello! Are you looking for me?”

  A woman came rushing along the path toward them, her brown, curly hair bouncing as she ran. She was wearing an aqua blue jogging suit and sneakers.

  “It’s her,” Hannah said to Michelle, and then she turned to greet the woman. “Hi, Peggy.”

  “Hannah!” Peggy looked pleased to see her at first and then a doubtful expression flickered across her face. “You found his body.”

  “Yes.”

  “It must have been horrid for you. Are you all right?”

  Hannah nodded, a bit taken aback. It was not the reception she’d expected.

  “It was in the papers,” Peggy said, answering Hannah’s unspoken question. “I called Delores to ask her about it, but she wasn’t home.”

  “She eloped with Doc,” Hannah explained. “Right now they’re on a cruise to Alaska for their honeymoon.”

  “How lovely!” A smile spread across Peggy’s face. “I took my daughter Sara on an Alaskan cruise last year when she got her master’s in biology. She fell in love with the seals on the ice floes. We took hundreds of pictures from our balcony on the ship, especially when we went through Sawyer Bay. We actually got to hear a glacier calving.”

  “What’s that?” Michelle asked her.

  “Calving is when a piece of ice breaks off a glacier and falls down into the water. It makes the loudest sound you’ll ever hear. It was phenomenal!” Peggy stopped speaking and turned to smile at Michelle. “I’m sorry, but I don’t even know your name.”

  “Michelle Swensen,” Michelle responded before Hannah had time to introduce her. “I’m Hannah’s youngest sister. If you came to Mother’s last launch party, I was there serving canapés.”

  “Of course. I thought you looked familiar.” Peggy unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Come in, girls.” She turned to Hannah. “I assume you want to ask me about my connection with Geoffrey. Your mother mentioned that you investigate things like this.”

  They made polite conversation about Delores and Doc’s wedding and Peggy’s cruise to Alaska until Peggy had made coffee and the
y were all sitting in comfortable chairs in the small living room, sipping coffee and eating Michelle’s scones.

  “All right,” Peggy said to Hannah after she’d complimented Michelle on her scones. “I knew you’d be coming so feel free to ask me your questions.”

  “How did you know?” Hannah asked her.

  “Dave called and said he’d told you about me because you were trying to catch the person who’d murdered Geoffrey. Poor Geoffrey. And my heart goes out to Nora. She couldn’t have children and Geoffrey was her whole life. You probably know that he chose not to tell Nora about Sara.”

  “Yes. Why was that?”

  “Geoffrey was afraid it would break Nora’s heart. She’d tried so hard to get pregnant. And she wanted so badly to give him a daughter. He was afraid it would be devastating for her to learn that he had a daughter by his former mistress.”

  “Did you think he was right?”

  “I’m not sure. It could have gone either way, I guess, but I didn’t know Nora’s mental state at all. I’ve never met her and I wasn’t in any position to judge, so I did as Geoffrey wanted. He spent time with Sara and he was good to her. That was all that really mattered to me.”

  “You didn’t resent the fact that he left you and married Nora?” Michelle asked the question that was hovering on the tip of Hannah’s tongue.

  “Oh, I did. At first. But I didn’t really want to marry Geoffrey. It wasn’t him. I just didn’t want to marry at all. I didn’t find out that I was pregnant with Sara until after Geoffrey left.”

  Hannah asked the first question on the list she’d prepared. “Where were you when Judge Colfax was killed?”

  “Right here,” Peggy reached out to pat the couch next to her chair. “And I do mean right here. I had a deadline to meet and I’d spent all night proofing the manuscript. When I finished, I sent off the file to my editor in New York and I was just too tired to get ready for bed. I grabbed a blanket from the closet and fell asleep on the couch.”

  “Did anyone see you here on the couch?”

  “Just Sara, but she left early and that won’t do you any good. Dave said that Geoffrey was killed between nine and nine-thirty and Sara left at seven. She’s an assistant professor at the community college.”

  “Is there anyone else who might know that you were here when Geoffrey was killed? Perhaps someone knocked on the door and you had to get up to answer it? Or you made or received a phone call?”

  “Not that I can think of. The phone didn’t ring and . . .” Peggy stopped speaking and began to smile. “Of course there’s a way to tell I was here. I forgot all about the guard at the gate. Didn’t he stop you to ask who you were visiting and log in your license plate number?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “Well, they do that with the residents, too. They have a checklist and they log you out if you leave. If I’d been logged out, the guard would have told you to come back later, that I wasn’t home.”

  “Perfect,” Hannah said, jotting it down. And then she asked the question she’d been dreading to ask. “How about your daughter, Sara? Where was she at the time of Judge Colfax’s death?”

  “Sara?” Peggy looked as shocked as a person could possibly look. “You think that Sara killed Geoffrey?! Why she couldn’t even go to work on Tuesday because she was crying so hard!”

  “Of course I don’t think Sara killed him,” Hannah said hastily. “It sounds as if they had a very good relationship and I’m so sorry to bring it up, but I simply want to cross her name off my suspect list.”

  “Then you don’t really think . . . ?”

  “Absolutely not!” Hannah interrupted the question. “All I want to do is clear Sara’s name the way I’ve cleared yours.”

  “Oh. That’s fine then.” Peggy drew a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”

  “That’s quite all right. Let’s try to think of a way we can prove that Sara was nowhere near the Winnetka County Courthouse on Monday.”

  “Why that’s easy!” Peggy exclaimed. “Sara teaches a lab in biology from nine to ten on Monday mornings. All you have to do is check with the college to make sure she was in the lab.”

  “I’ll do that,” Hannah promised. “Now I have one final question and I want you to think very hard about it and call me if anything occurs to you after we leave. Will you please do that?”

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “I want you to think about your life with Geoffrey and all the people you met or heard about. Is there anyone you can think of who might have wanted Geoffrey to die?”

  “His ex-wife Sheila?”

  “Not Sheila. I’ve already cleared her.”

  Peggy was silent for long moments and Hannah could tell that she was giving the question some serious thought. Several minutes passed and then Peggy looked up. “No one. I can’t think of anyone at all. But please leave me your number and if I think of someone, I promise I’ll call you and tell you.”

  CINNAMON RAISIN SCONES

  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

  3 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  cup brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  2 teaspoons cream of tartar (important)

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 and ½ teaspoons cinnamon

  ½ teaspoon salt

  ½ cup salted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, ¼ pound)

  2 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

  1 cup vanilla yogurt (8 ounces by weight)

  1 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)

  ½ cup whole milk

  Use a medium-size mixing bowl to combine the flour, brown sugar, cream of tartar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir them all up together. Cut in the salted butter just as you would for piecrust dough.

  Hannah’s Note: If you have a food processor, you can use it for the first step. Cut the half-cup COLD salted butter into 8 chunks. Layer them with the dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. Process with the steel blade in an on and off motion until the mixture has the texture of coarse cornmeal. Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl.

  Stir in the beaten eggs and the vanilla yogurt. Then add the raisins and mix everything up together.

  Add the milk and stir until everything is combined.

  Drop the scones by soup spoonfuls onto two cookie sheets sprayed with Pam or another nonstick baking spray. Alternatively, you can line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide your dough so that there are 9 scones for each cookie sheet.

  If you have two ovens, you will bake one sheet in the upper oven and one in the lower oven. If you have only one oven, it will probably have 4 racks inside. Bake your scones on the two middle racks, switching their positions halfway through the baking time.

  Once the scones are on the cookie sheets, wet your impeccably clean fingers and shape them into more perfect rounds. Then flatten them with your moistened palms. They will rise during baking, but once you flatten them, they won’t be too round on top.

  Bake the scones at 425 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they’re golden brown on top. (Mine took the full 12 minutes.)

  Cool the scones for at least five minutes on the cookie sheet, and then remove them to a wire rack with a metal spatula. (If you used parchment paper, all you have to do is position the cookie sheet next to the wire rack and pull the paper over to the rack.)

  When the scones are cool, you can cut them in half lengthwise and toast them for breakfast.

  Yield: Makes 18 delicious scones.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  It had been a productive morning and Hannah congratulated herself as she baked a batch of Orange Dreamsicle Bar Cookies for her customers. Lisa was in the coffee shop telling the newest installment of the cat burglar story and Aunt Nancy and Marge were helping to take care of the customers. Michelle was in the kitchen
with Hannah, sitting on a stool at the work station, involved in research on her laptop computer.

  “How’s it coming, Michelle?” Hannah asked her as she slipped the pans of bar cookies into the oven.

  “Not so hot. I think we struck out on Judge Colfax’s court cases. I’ve looked at all the ones that received press coverage and there’s nothing that could provide a motive for murder. Initially, there were five cases that might have qualified, but the criminals he sentenced are still behind bars.”

  “No rapists that got off or any three-strike offenders?”

  Michelle shook her head. “He didn’t try any rape cases. The three-strike rule was only in effect for a few of his cases and none of those are candidates.”

  “Did you get time to check with the community college?”

  “Yes. Sara George was there for her lab and she didn’t leave the campus until four that afternoon. Assistant professors have to check in and out with the department secretaries.”

  “I hate to admit it, but I’m stymied. I’m fresh out of suspects, Michelle.”

  “No, you’re not. There’s still the unknown suspect for the unknown reason.”

  “So what am I supposed to do with him? Arrest him for an unknown reason?”

  Michelle laughed. “It’s good to see you still have your sense of humor. If you want my advice, you’ll come up with a new recipe and bake. That always gets you thinking. Let’s go down to Florence’s and walk up and down the aisles. Maybe we’ll get an idea for an ingredient that no one else has ever used in a cookie before.”

  Hannah seized the opportunity. “That sounds like more fun than sitting here tearing out my hair. Just let me ask Aunt Nancy if she’ll take these bar cookies out of the oven when the timer rings, and we’ll go.”