Carrot Cake Murder Part 12

"Five-seven. That's right."

"But what's five-seven?"

"The Animal Channel. For Moishe to watch. I asked around after the slide show last night. I thought you might want to turn it on before you left for work."

"Right. Thanks, Norman. I'll do that. And if you can, come in for cookies this morning. I'm trying out something new."

Hannah had no sooner hung up the phone than it rang again. She a.s.sumed it was Norman, who'd thought of something he'd forgotten to tell her, so she answered, "h.e.l.lo again, Norman."

"It's not Norman. It's Mike."

"Oops. Sorry about that. I just finished talking to Norman on the phone, and I thought he was calling back."

"Norman calls you this early in the morning?" Mike sounded shocked.

"Sometimes. He knows I get up early."

"How does he know that?"

"Because I'm always in the kitchen at The Cookie Jar by six at the latest, and he sees the lights on when he drives by on his way to the dental clinic. Anyway, how did you know I'd be up this early?"

There was a pause, and then Mike laughed. "Okay. Let's start over. Morning, Hannah."

"Morning, Mike. What can I do for you at the crack of dawn?"

"I don't think I'd better try to answer that. I just called to say that Ronni says to try seven-five."

Hannah was puzzled. "Try seven-five for what?"

"For the Animal Channel. Ronni turns it on every day for her dog. She's got a Pekingese."

"Ronni who?"

"Ronni Ward. Her engagement didn't work out, and she's back doing fitness training at the station. She just rented the apartment across the hall from me."

"Oh," Hannah said, wondering if she should start worrying about Mike and Ronni. The last time a woman from the sheriff's department had lived in Mike's complex, they'd been involved. And right after that unpleasant thought had crossed her mind, Hannah wondered if Andrea knew that Ronni was back in town. Even though Bill had sworn up and down that he wasn't the least bit interested in the winner of Lake Eden's bikini contest, Andrea had worried that they were more than employer and employee.

"Andrea knows," Mike answered Hannah's unspoken question. "Bill said he told her last night when he got home."

"Oh," Hannah said again, treading on eggsh.e.l.ls. She wasn't about to tell Mike any sisterly secrets.

"Bill said Andrea thought they were involved when he went to Florida for that convention."

This time Hannah didn't even open her mouth for fear she'd say the wrong thing. Less was more, or silence was golden, or any one of several phrases that seemed to fit the situation.

"Anyway, I thought I'd tell you. Try seventy-five and see if it works. And if it doesn't work, try fifty-seven. Ronni sometimes transposes numbers."

"Good thing she doesn't do countdowns for NASA."

"Very funny, Hannah. Just try both numbers. It might save you money on couch pillows. And that reminds me...are you going to be at the lake this morning?"

"No, I have to work. I'll be at The Cookie Jar."

"Good. I've got a couple of things to do in town, anyway. I'll come in about eleven, and we can compare notes."

"Fine by me," Hannah said. "And thanks for telling me about the Animal Channel. I'm about to leave for work, so I'll try it right now."

Once she'd hung up the phone, Hannah headed for the couch and the remote control that she kept in the drawer of the coffee table. The drawer was fairly cat-safe, but she still pushed it all the way to the back and covered it with an old copy of the TV guide. Moishe had already killed one control, and it had cost her big bucks to replace it.

"Hi, Moishe," she greeted her pet as he jumped up to the seat of the couch and then even higher to perch on the back. "Just for fun, let's see if Ronni Ward got the number for the Animal Channel right."

When channel seventy-five came on the screen, Hannah let out a gasp of pure shock. She didn't know they were allowed to do things like that on television! She resisted the urge to cover her cat's eyes and wasted no time punching in fifty-seven. When a pride of lions replaced the scene that had shocked her on channel seventy-five, she smiled and reached up to give Moishe a scratch. "Okay, this is the Animal Channel. It's number fifty-seven and I'll leave it on for you."

Once she'd stashed the cable control in the drawer and collected her cookie dough, her keys, and her purse, Hannah noticed that one of the lions, probably the adult female, was stalking a zebra. "'Bye, Moishe. Enjoy the show, but don't get any grandiose ideas," she said. And then she headed out into the early morning darkness to drive to The Cookie Jar and bake the day's cookies.

RED VELVET COOKIES.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

2 one-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate cup (1 stick, pound, 4 ounces) b.u.t.ter at room temperature 2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed 1/3 cup white (granulated) sugar teaspoon baking soda teaspoon salt 1 large egg 1 Tablespoon red food coloring cup sour cream 2 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it) 1 cup (a 6-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. (If you don't have parchment paper, you can use foil, but leave little "ears" of foil sticking up on the ends, enough to grab later when you slide the whole thing on a cooling rack.) Unwrap the squares of chocolate and break them apart. Put them in a small microwave-safe bowl. (I used an 8-ounce measuring cup.) Melt them for 90 seconds on HIGH. Stir them until they're smooth and set them aside to cool while you mix up your cookie dough.

Hannah's 1stNote: Mixing this dough is easier with an electric mixer. You can do it by hand, but it takes some muscle.

Combine the b.u.t.ter, brown sugar, and white sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on medium speed until they're smooth. This should take less than a minute.

Add the baking soda and salt, and resume beating on medium again for another minute, or until they're incorporated.

Add the egg and beat on medium until the batter is smooth (an additional minute should do it.) Add the red food coloring and mix for about 30 seconds.

Shut off the mixer and sc.r.a.pe down the bowl. Then add the melted chocolate and mix again for another minute on medium speed.

Shut off the mixer and sc.r.a.pe down the bowl again. At low speed, mix in half of the flour. (That's one cup.) When the flour is incorporated, mix in the sour cream.

Sc.r.a.pe down the bowl again and add the rest of the flour. (That's the second cup.) Beat until the flour is fully incorporated.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and give it a stir with a spoon. Mix in the chocolate chips by hand. (A firm rubber spatula works nicely.) Use a teaspoon to spoon the dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-sized sheet. (If the dough is too sticky for you to work with, chill it for a half-hour or so, and try again.) Bake the cookies at 375 degrees F., for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they rise and become firm. (Mine took exactly 9 minutes.) Slide the parchment from the cookie sheets and onto a wire rack. Let the cookies cool on the rack while the next sheet of cookies is baking. When the next sheet of cookies is ready, pull the cooled cookies onto the counter or table and slide the parchment paper with the hot cookies onto the rack. Keep alternating until all the dough has been baked.

When all the cookies are cool, peel them off the parchment paper and put them on waxed paper for frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting cup softened b.u.t.ter ( stick, 1/8 pound) 4 ounces softened cream cheese (half of an 8-ounce package) teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar (no need to sift unless it's got big lumps) Mix the softened b.u.t.ter with the softened cream cheese and the vanilla until the mixture is smooth.

Hannah's 2ndNote: Do this next step at room temperature. If you heated the cream cheese or the b.u.t.ter to soften it, make sure it's cooled down before you continue.

Add the confectioner's sugar in half-cup increments until the frosting is of proper spreading consistency. (You'll use all, or almost all, of the sugar.) A batch of Red Velvet Cookies yields about 3 dozen, depending on cookie size. They're soft, velvety, and chocolaty, and they'll end up being everyone's favorite.

Hannah's 3rdNote: If you really want to pull out all the stops, brush the tops of your baked cookies with melted raspberry jam, let it dry, and then frost them with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Chapter Thirteen.

"We're done!" Hannah said, carrying two mugs of coffee over to the stainless steel workstation in the kitchen of The Cookie Jar.

Lisa glanced up at the clock with a smile. "I know, and it's only seven."

"You got here at six. You really shouldn't have come in, Lisa," Hannah gently chided her partner. "I told you to take the week of the reunion off."

"I took yesterday off. That's enough. From now on I'm coming in at six to help with the baking."

"But that's a lot of work for you, with the reunion and all."

"It's a lot of work for you, too! You're baking cookies every morning and then coming out to the lake every afternoon to help with the dinner buffet."

"Okay, you win." Hannah held up her hands in surrender. "I appreciate the help. But don't feel you have to come in if you're too tired, okay?"

"Okay, as long as you don't feel you have to come out to the lake to help with dinner."

Hannah laughed. "Do we have a culinary standoff?"

"I think so." Lisa turned and pointed to the pan of bar cookies she'd baked. "The bars are cool enough to cut. Do you want to taste my new invention?"

"Sure. What do you call them?"

"Rocky Road Bar Cookies, because they remind me of rocky road ice cream." Lisa walked over to cut a piece and brought it back to Hannah.

"I see nuts, and marshmallows, and chocolate, and...I don't know what else."

"Go ahead and taste. And give me your honest opinion."

Hannah took a bite and chewed. The bars were delicious. "Yummy!" she p.r.o.nounced. "On a goodness scale of one to ten, these are a twelve."

"Do they remind you of rocky road ice cream?"

"Yes. And they also remind me of S'mores. We used to make those on Girl Scout campouts."

"What's a S'more?"

"A graham cracker with a square of Hershey's milk chocolate on top. You toast a marshmallow over the campfire, plunk it on top of the chocolate square, and cover it with another graham cracker. Then you eat it when it's hot and everything just melts in your mouth."

"That sounds great! I think I missed a lot by not joining the Girl Scouts."

"Why didn't you?" Hannah asked.

"They met after school on Wednesdays, and I had to get right home. Mom was sick, and Dad worked an extra two hours four days a week so he could take Friday off to do all the stuff that was closed on the weekends."

Hannah kicked herself mentally for not realizing that Lisa would have a selfless reason for not joining the Girl Scouts. "You're talking about things like going to the bank?"

"Yes. And driving her to doctor's appointments and other medical stuff. She went in for dialysis on Fridays."

"That must have been hard on you, Lisa."

"Yes, but worth it. Mom had some good times when she was in remission and all my sisters and brothers would come to visit."

Hannah saw Lisa blink several times and knew she was remembering her mother and grieving for her. It was time to introduce a happier subject. "I've got something for you to taste," she announced.

"What's that?"

"Red Velvet Cookies."

Lisa stared at her in something close to shock. "You mean you've got Mom's recipe? The one Dad remembers?"

"No, but I put one together that I hope is like your mom's. My mother thought it would be a nice surprise for your dad's birthday."

"It's great! You're wonderful, Hannah!"

"Don't get too excited. They might not be like your mother's cookies at all. I understand she stopped baking them years ago."

"That's what Iris said when she told me about them."

"Do you remember them?" Hannah asked.

"No. I think she'd already stopped baking them. But I get to taste one anyway, don't I?"

"Of course. I haven't tasted one yet, either."

Mere seconds later, both partners had fresh mugs of coffee and a cookie on a napkin in front of them to taste. Hannah tried hers first and p.r.o.nounced it good, but perhaps not the exact cookie Emily Herman had baked.

"It's better than good, it's superb," Lisa declared. "The chocolate melts in your mouth and the cream cheese in the frosting sends it off the top of that goodness scale you were talking about earlier."

"Thanks, Lisa. When you get out to the lake will you find your sister and ask her what she thinks? Have Marge and Patsy try them, too. If they taste like your mother's, I'll bake another batch before I come out this afternoon. Maybe they'll jog your dad's memory and he can tell us more about the night Gus left town and why there was bad blood between them."

"Do you really think your cookies can cure Dad's Alzheimer's?"

"No, but the chocolate is bound to be good for him."

"That's true." Lisa gave a little laugh. "And even if your cookies don't give us any answers, they'll be a lovely birthday present for him."

After Lisa left, Hannah got the coffee shop ready for customers. This meant filling the sugar and artificial sweetener containers that sat on each table and setting out dishes with coffee creamer. Once the napkin dispensers were filled and the tables were wiped down a final time, Hannah sat down at her favorite table in the back of the coffee shop and waited for Luanne to arrive.

Nothing was moving on the street except Jon Walker's old Irish setter, who was strolling from the drugstore up the block. Jon was nowhere in sight, so Hannah unlocked the front door of the coffee shop and went out to intercept Skippy. But just as she got there, Jon appeared at the end of the block with a leash in hand. A handsome man of Chippewa ancestry, Jon was the town druggist and the owner of Lake Eden Neighborhood Pharmacy.

"Hi, Jon," Hannah greeted him.