Chapter Twenty-Seven
Her cell phone rang just as she exited the condo complex, and Hannah pulled over on the side of the road to answer it. “This is Hannah.”
“Where are you?” It was Andrea’s voice, and she sounded anxious.
“I’m just leaving the complex. I should be there in twenty minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll wait fifteen minutes, and then I’ll pour coffee for you. Frank Hurley’s here, and he’s got something to tell you.”
“What?”
“He won’t tell us, only you. Do you think he’s interested, Hannah?”
“You mean interested in me?”
“Well, maybe not. He’s got to be almost thirty years older than you are. It’s probably because you’re leading our investigation and he wants to talk to the head person.”
“That’s probably right.”
“Lisa says to tell you that there was nothing on their Heavenly Bodies tapes. They watched all six hours. Then she went to bed, and Herb stayed up to watch a tape from the red-light camera at the mall. He says I should tell you he found out something very interesting.”
“What is it?”
“He won’t tell anybody except you and Mike.”
“Mike? What’s he got to do with it?”
“I don’t know. Herb knows he’s off the case, so it can’t have anything to do with Ronni’s murder. And then there’s Mother and Carrie.”
“What about Mother and Carrie?”
“I don’t know that, either. They’re here, but they want to wait until you come in to tell us some big news. Where are you now?”
“What do you mean, where am I? I’m right where I was when I answered the phone.”
“You’re not driving?”
“Of course not. Cell phones are distracting. I never drive and talk on the cell phone at the same time.”
“Right. I forgot about that. Only one more thing. I was supposed to remind you to call Detective Parks and ask her to check on the Macalester stalker.”
“I did that. I left her a voice mail.”
“Okay, then. I’m hanging up now. Hurry in because I’m dying of curiosity and nobody’ll tell me anything unless you’re here.”
Hannah pulled out on the road again and tromped on the gas. She was curious, too. The snowplows had been out, the roadway wasn’t slippery, and her tires hummed along as she drove just slightly over the speed limit. What did Frank Hurley want to tell her? What did Herb want to tell Mike and her? What was Delores and Carrie’s big news?
Her mind was sluicing through the possibilities as she turned in the alley and pulled into her parking spot at the back of The Cookie Jar. She shut off her truck and wasted no time rushing in the kitchen door, tossing her parka on the rack, and pushing through the swinging door to the coffee shop.
Every stool and chair was occupied with customers who all looked up as she came in. It seemed that everyone here wanted something from her. She just hoped she’d be able to provide it.
“Hannah!” Andrea rushed over to greet her. “We’re going to put you at the workstation in the kitchen since so many people want to talk to you in private.”
“Okay,” Hannah said, feeling a bit like Marlon Brando at the wedding in The Godfather. “Are there really that many people?”
“Not that many. Only six or so, unless somebody new comes in. I’ll bring your coffee and usher people in when you’re all set up.”
Hannah went back through the swinging door and sat down on a stool at the workstation. She had several seconds to think about horse heads and sawed-off shotguns, and then Andrea came in.
“Here’s your coffee. Do you want a cookie before we start?”
“Diet,” Hannah said, shaking her head.
“Right. Well, if you’re sure I can’t get you anything else, I’ll bring Frank Hurley back.”
Hannah had time for three sips of her coffee before Frank came through the swinging door. He took the seat across from her at the workstation and gave a little sigh. “I’m really sorry, Hannah. I forgot to tell you something about the night Miss Ward was killed.”
“What’s that, Frank?”
“It happened earlier, on my watch. I just didn’t connect the dots before. There was somebody hanging around the mall entrance to the spa. You know, where the window is. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it, but he just walked back and forth in front of the window, and there wasn’t anything to see inside. The receptionist was gone, and there were no lights in the front. I thought maybe he was waiting for someone to come out so he could sneak in, so I went over and asked him if he was a member. He said no, that he was just browsing. Browsing is a strange word to use at a spa. You browse in a store, you know? I got the impression he wasn’t all there, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean. Can you describe him for me?”
“A male Caucasian in his midthirties, light-brown hair, average build, average height. He was wearing jeans and a dark blue parka with fur around the neck.”
“Do you think he was homeless?”
Frank shook his head. “I didn’t see anything that pointed in that direction. He was clean, his clothes were clean, and he was dressed for the weather. He just sent up red flags for me, you know? I told him to move along, and he went out to the parking lot. I didn’t see him again, and I left at midnight.”
“Is there any way he could have gotten into Heavenly Bodies?”
“That’s what I’m worried about. I should have told Tad about it when he came in at eleven, but I really didn’t think it was important. The guy was gone. That was that.”
“But now you’re giving it a second thought?”
“Yeah. The thing is, people were coming and going for Miss Ward’s birthday party, and that back door was opening and closing a lot. He could have slipped in with one of the guests.”
After Frank had left, Hannah took out her shorthand notebook and added the man in the blue parka to her suspect list. It wasn’t much to go on, but there had to be some reason he’d been hanging around the mall entrance to Heavenly Bodies. Then she closed her notebook and slipped it into her large shoulder bag, the one her mother hated and her fashionable sisters kept trying to replace.
“Ready?” Andrea asked, opening the door partway.
“Ready,” Hannah answered, hoping her coffee would hold out.
She’d gone through five people with tidbits of information for her that had proved to be less than useful. Then Delores and Carrie had come in to tell her that they’d won the karaoke contest at The Moosehead and now had a fifty-dollar credit at the bar. When the door opened and Herb walked in with Mike, Hannah hoped they’d have something interesting to tell her.
“You can go back to baking cookies now, Hannah,” Mike said with a grin that couldn’t have been any wider.
“What do you mean?” Hannah gazed from Mike to Herb and then back again.
“I reviewed the red-light camera photos from the night that Ronni was killed,” Herb explained. “The camera’s mounted by the traffic light at the mall exit, and it catches anybody running the red light to get on the freeway. It shows Mike entering the intersection on yellow at twelve thirty-five.”
“And Ronni was killed between one and two-thirty in the morning,” Hannah said, recalling the time from Doc Knight’s autopsy report.
“That’s right.” Mike gave a little nod. “The only reason the highway patrol didn’t write me up is that I was driving a patrol car.”
“We’re taking the photo out to the sheriff’s department to show Bill,” Herb said.
“And I’ll be back on the case this afternoon.” Mike gave her a little kiss on the top of the head. “You’ve done a good job, Hannah. Write up what you’ve learned so far, will you? I’ll take over now.”
“He actually said that?” Michelle looked outraged.
“He actually did.”
“You’re not going to do it, are you?” Andrea asked, bringing up the rear with Norman as they climbed the steps to Hannah’s condo.
“Do what?” Hannah asked her.
“Write up a report for Mike.”
Hannah turned around as she reached the landing. “Of course I am. But he told me to go back to baking cookies, and reports take time to write. It’ll probably be a week or so before I have the chance to put anything down on paper.”
When she got inside, the first place Hannah headed was the kitchen. She glanced down at the Kitty Valet and let out a whoop of excitement. “Moishe’s out of food again. Now we’ll get to see if the kitty-cam worked.”
Hannah put on the coffee, Norman took the tape out of the kitty-cam, and Michelle and Andrea refilled the food tube on Moishe’s Kitty Valet. In less than five minutes, they were all settled in the living room with fresh mugs of coffee and a box of Lois Brown’s Lemon Cookies that Hannah had brought home from The Cookie Jar, ready to watch the tape from the surveillance camera.
“These are great lemon cookies!” Michelle said, reaching for her second in less than a minute. “There’s a lot of lemon, and that makes them nice and tart.”
“Sometimes I sprinkle them with powdered sugar before I serve them,” Hannah told her. “Does anybody want me to do that?”
There were headshakes all around. It seemed they all liked the tart, lemony flavor.
“Okay, then…let’s get started,” Hannah said, taking a sip of her coffee. “At least we won’t be bored silly. Moishe’s kitty-cam is motion activated. If nothing moves, it doesn’t record.”
“No more hours of closed doors and empty rooms?” Andrea asked her.
“Not unless an ant is crawling across the floor.” Hannah turned to Norman who had the remote control. “Okay Norman. Let’s see what Moishe’s been up to while I’ve been at The Cookie Jar today.”
“It looks like he just took a big mouthful,” Michelle said. She was holding Moishe, and he was purring so loudly they could all hear him. Evidently he didn’t mind being caught in the act as long as he got star billing on Hannah’s television screen.
“But he’s eating it,” Andrea commented, and Hannah thought she sounded slightly disappointed.
The Moishe on the screen swallowed and then moved to the water bowl to take a drink. A moment later, he was back at the food bowl, head buried up to his ears and chewing.
“Maybe he does eat it all!” Andrea said, watching Hannah’s cat eat.
Michelle lifted Moishe up from her lap, held him a moment to judge his weight, and put him back down again. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m almost sure he’s not gaining weight.”
“And he would be if he ate rations for four cats twice a day,” Hannah said, frowning slightly. “Just wait and see what he does when he’s full. That’s probably when he hides the rest of the food.”
Several minutes passed as they all watched Moishe eat. Never had a cat’s dietary habits been so closely observed. At last Moishe pulled back from the food bowl and began to wash his face. This lasted for almost three minutes, and then he ducked his head in his food bowl again.
“The Big Guy’s got a lot of food in his mouth,” Norman observed. “His cheeks are puffed out.”
At first Hannah thought Norman was anthropomorphizing, but Moishe’s cheeks did look fuller. Perhaps that was something a dentist would notice.
“He’s going to the refrigerator!” Andrea sounded shocked. “He doesn’t know how to open the door, does he, Hannah?”
Hannah laughed. “No. He’s a smart cat, but he hasn’t figured that one out yet…at least I don’t think he has.”
Almost in tandem, they all leaned forward as Moishe passed by the front of the refrigerator and ducked into the narrow area between the side of the kitchen appliance and the broom closet. He had to squeeze to get in, but he wiggled his way out of sight in the narrow space.
“That’s where he always loses his duck’s foot,” Hannah said. “And all the times I’ve fished it out for him with the yardstick, he could have gotten it himself!”
“He must be hiding his food back there,” Michelle guessed.
“I hope he doesn’t get stuck!” Andrea exclaimed, and all three of them turned to look at her. “What?” she asked, and a moment later, she gave an embarrassed laugh. “I guess that didn’t happen, since he’s sitting right here on Michelle’s lap.”
A moment later Moishe emerged, and it was Hannah’s turn to gasp.
“What is it?” Andrea asked her.
“He came out headfirst and there’s no room to turn around back there!”
“There must be a hole or something,” Norman suggested.
“Let’s go look,” Hannah said, heading for the kitchen at a trot. She unlocked the door to the broom closet, took out the bag of cat food, and motioned to Norman.
“I see it!” Norman said, leaning in with the flashlight and shining it on the wall near the floor. “There’s the loose board I told you about when I fished out his duck’s foot. The Big Guy’s got a nice little entrance to the broom closet back there. But there’s nothing on the floor. What’s he doing with his food?”
“Putting it back in the bag?” Hannah guessed, looking inside the bag. “It didn’t occur to me before, but I haven’t bought any cat food since Mike gave me the Kitty Valet. This bag should be just about gone by now, but it’s still three-quarters full.”
“You’re right! He’s putting it back in the bag!” Michelle sounded absolutely astonished.
“That’s the only logical conclusion. He eats what he wants and then he puts the rest back where it came from.”
Andrea laughed. “He eats and then he puts away the leftovers. That’s so cute.”
“If you’ve got a hammer and nails I’ll fix that board right now,” Norman offered.
Hannah was about to say yes, when she reconsidered. “Thanks, but I don’t think I want it fixed. Moishe’s playing a game with his new feeder. It keeps him occupied, it’s not hurting anything, and he seems to enjoy it. I’ll just let him do it for a while, at least until he finds something else to intrigue him.”
“I think you’re probably wise,” Norman said.
Andrea nodded. “Me, too.”
“If you keep him from his game, he’s just going to find another one,” Michelle said, “and maybe it’ll be more destructive.”
“One mystery solved,” Hannah said, heading for the coffeepot for a second cup. “Let’s go watch another tape from the mall and see if it’ll shed any light on the second mystery we have to solve.”
LOIS BROWN’S LEMON COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick, 1/4 pound)
3/4 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 egg, beaten (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)
1 Tablespoon lemon zest***
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12/3 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
1/2 cup milk (I used whole milk)
Topping:
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup white (granulated) sugar
Hannah’s 1st Note: These cookies are wonderfully lemony and quite tart. You may want to sprinkle them with powdered sugar before you serve them to those who like them sweeter.
Beat the butter and the sugar together until they’re light and fluffy.
Add the beaten egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix it all up together.
Mix in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
Mix in half of the flour and half of the milk. That’s approximately a cup of flour and a quarter cup of milk. (You don’t have to be exact—just eyeball it.)
Stir everything all up, and then add the remaining flour and the remaining milk. Mix well.
Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Make these cookies small, about the size of a cherry. If you make them too large, they’ll spread out on the cookie sheet and crumble when you remove them.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes. (Mine took 13 minutes.)
Hannah’s 2nd Note: I use parchment paper because then I can just slide it onto a wire rack after the cookies come out of the oven.
While the first pan of cookies is baking, mix up the topping. 299
Heat the lemon juice just a bit in the microwave. (The sugar will dissolve more easily if the juice is warm.) Add the sugar and stir it all up. Place the topping next to your wire cooling rack, along with a pastry brush.
When the cookies come out of the oven, remove them to a wire rack with a piece of foil placed under it or, if you’ve used parchment paper, just pull the paper with the cookies from the cookie sheet and onto the wire rack.
Brush the topping onto the hot cookies. The faster you do this, the quicker the topping will dry into a glaze.
Yield: Approximately 4 dozen cookies, depending on cookie size.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: This recipe can be doubled.