Chapter Thirteen
“Oh, good! It’s Doc Knight,” Hannah told Norman with a smile. She’d been peeking out of the curtain every so often between bites of Sally’s wonderful Brisket and Veggies, waiting for her mother’s dinner companion to appear.
“She’s seen a lot of him lately,” Norman commented.
“She has?”
“Mother told me that she volunteered to organize the Gray Ladies.”
“Who are the Gray Ladies?”
“A group of ladies who go out to the hospital to visit the patients on off-hours. Delores makes out their schedule.”
“Charity work?” Hannah was surprised, and it showed on her face. Delores wasn’t known for doing charity work.
“I guess you could call it charity, but it’s more like community service. The patients in the hospital get lonely, and Doc keeps strict visiting hours. This way they can see the Rainbow Ladies in-between their regular visitors.”
Hannah was confused. “Wait a second. You said they were Gray Ladies.”
“They were, but your mother changed the name.”
“Why did she do that?”
“They used to wear gray smocks. Can you imagine your mother wearing a gray smock?”
“No, I really can’t,” Hannah said quickly. Her mother was fond of colorful clothing and she didn’t consider gray a color.
“Mother said Delores went to Claire’s shop and they ordered brightly colored jackets for all of the volunteers. They’re lightweight and washable, so the Rainbow Ladies wear them over a black top and black pants. Mother just loves hers. It’s turquoise and that’s her favorite color. Your mother brought a color wheel to their first meeting, and everyone chose a favorite color.”
Hannah glanced out through the curtains again. Her mother was deep in conversation with Doc Knight. Perhaps they were discussing the Rainbow Ladies.
Norman waited until she’d taken her last bite of brisket. “Do you have any leads yet?”
“Not yet. I haven’t even started.”
“Did you bring your murder book with you?”
Hannah reached down to pat the leather saddlebag-size purse that her mother and Andrea kept trying to replace. She readily agreed that it was “ratty,” her mother’s word for all the scratches on the leather, but everything she needed to survive was in there…and then some.
“Do you want to brainstorm about it now, before your Mother and Doc join us? Or would you rather just relax?”
“Brainstorm,” Hannah said instantly, reaching into her purse for her shorthand notebook and a pen. “First let me describe the scene of the crime, and then you can help think of possible motives.”
Describing the scene didn’t take long. Hannah had already done it twice in the past six hours, once in response to an official interrogation by Mike, and once at The Cookie Jar for Lisa. Each time she described it, it got a little easier, and she wondered if she was becoming jaded. She hoped not. Violent death was nothing to take lightly!
“And the murder weapon was a gun?” Norman asked when she’d finished.
“Yes, and he fell forward on the desk.”
“Did they find the murder weapon?”
“No. I asked Mike about that. But just as soon as the autopsy is…Doc!”
Norman gave a little laugh. “Yes, Doc. He’ll probably tell us his opinion. Doc’s seen a lot of gunshot wounds as county coroner, and chances are he’ll be right.”
“It’ll give us something to go on until the ballistics lab sends their report. Mike said that would take at least three days, maybe as long as a week.”
Norman was silent as Dot arrived. She cleared their plates and told them that Delores and Doc would be joining them in five minutes or so. Then she left with Norman’s credit card.
“Let’s talk about motives while we’re waiting for them,” Norman suggested. “Why would anyone want to kill a minister?”
“Maybe it had nothing to do with the fact that Reverend Matthew was a minister. Don’t forget that he lived here for a year when he was a senior in high school. Maybe someone with an old grudge seized the opportunity and killed him.”
“Okay. Old grudge. What kind of old grudge?”
“I don’t know. It could be jealousy. Grandma Knudson said that when Matthew was a senior at Jordan High, he was the quarterback and he dated the head cheerleader. She also said that the principal at the time thought Reverend Matthew’s cousin Paul was jealous of the time they spent together.”
Norman thought about that for a moment. “But why would cousin Paul wait all these years to kill Reverend Matthew when the reverend didn’t end up marrying the cheerleader? And if cousin Paul was jealous of the time Reverend Matthew spent with the cheerleader, why didn’t he kill the cheerleader?”
“I don’t know. Those are good points. I guess we’ll have to leave Paul out of it. No one knows where he is anyway. Reverend Matthew hired a private detective to find him when Paul’s mother was dying, but the detective couldn’t find Paul. The trail went cold at the state prison in Iowa right after Paul was released.”
“Hold the phone! Reverend Matthew’s cousin Paul was in prison?”
“That’s right. And he got out early due to prison overcrowding. No one knows exactly what his crime was, only that it was a burglary gone bad, but he got out in five years so it couldn’t be murder.”
“I agree. I think we can write off cousin Paul. Do you know if Reverend Matthew had any enemies when he was here in Lake Eden as a teenager?”
“Grandma Knudson didn’t think so, but she wouldn’t necessarily know. She was busy with her husband and the church, and teenagers, especially ones whose parents are thousands of miles away, don’t usually confide in relative strangers.”
“Right. We need to find a list of Matthew’s classmates and see if any of them are still around. They may remember something.”
“Good idea!” Hannah gave him a big smile and then she jotted it down. Norman had said, We need to find a list of Matthew’s classmates. His use of the plural pronoun meant that Norman wanted to be a part of her investigation. “Marge Beeseman has a shelf full of Jordan High yearbooks down at the library. All we have to do is find the right year.”
“First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll run over to the library to check. Bev can cover for me. Marge may even remember Matthew.”
“It’s possible. She’s lived here all her life. We can ask Lisa’s father, too.”
Norman looked concerned. He knew Lisa’s father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “Do you think Jack will be able to tell us?”
“Maybe, if it’s a good day. And if it isn’t, we’ll come back the next day.”
“This is a strange case,” Norman said, his brows furrowing slightly. “It’s almost as if we’re investigating two murders.”
“One back when Matthew was in high school, and the other in the present?” Hannah guessed.
“Exactly right. Reverend Matthew was killed in the present, but the motive for his murder could be in the past. On the other hand, the motive could be right now in the present. And you know what that means.”
“Double the work?” Hannah guessed.
“That’s right. You’re really going to need me to do leg-work for you this time around.”
“I certainly am,” Hannah said, noticing that Norman looked very pleased with himself. He really did like to help her, and there was no denying that they made a good team.
“Bev can take over for the week,” Norman said, drawing out his cell phone. “I’ll tell her not to overbook. And if she gets in a jam with too many patients, she can always bring in Doc Bennett to help her. That way I can be all yours for the week. Sound good?”
“Sounds great,” Hannah said, wishing he hadn’t added the words, for the week.
“Do you mind if I call her right now?”
“Not at all,” Hannah said, wondering how Doctor Bev would take the news that Norman wouldn’t be in at all this week. Would she be jealous that he was Hannah’s for the week? Or would she console herself with Mike when he came home from work at night?
“Hello, darlings,” Delores greeted them as she slid into the booth with Doc Knight. The next thing she did was to reach out to pat Hannah’s hand. “I heard all about it from Lisa. What a terrible experience for you! Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m all right…at least for now.”
“Of course you are. You’re with Norman.” Delores turned to Norman. “You take care of my little girl now.”
“Little girl?!” Hannah couldn’t stop her incredulous question.
“Sorry, dear, but I do get so worried about you all alone. Andrea’s got Bill, and Michelle’s got those friends of hers living with her at college. But you’ve got no one.”
Norman reached for her other hand, which was resting on the bench seat between them, and gave it a firm squeeze. Hannah knew what that meant. Hannah should remain silent because protesting that she wasn’t lonely would do no good. Her mother would go on in the poor lonely Hannah vein until she’d exhausted the subject.
“Enough, Delores,” Doc Knight said, entering the conversation for the first time. And then, before anybody could say anything else, Dot arrived with their coffee and dessert.
Dot began by filling their cups and spooning on sweetened whipped cream with a little brown sugar sprinkled on the top. Once she’d served coffee to everyone, Delores turned to Hannah. “I wish you could make this for my launch party, dear. Sally’s Cinnamon Supreme Coffee is my very favorite.”
“You’ll like the Pear Crunch Pie, too,” Dot promised cutting four generous pieces and transferring them to dessert plates. “Just try it. It’s one of my favorites.”
Hannah watched as her mother took a dainty bite of the pie. And then she continued to watch as Delores cut off a huge bite and wasted no time slipping it into her mouth. Even though she’d always cautioned her daughters that it wasn’t ladylike to gobble food, Delores was the first to finish both coffee and pie.
“That was marvelous!” she said, smiling at Hannah. “I wish I could have both of them for my launch party.”
“You’re in luck, Mrs. Swensen,” Dot said, reaching into her apron pocket and handing the recipes to Hannah. “Sally said you’d probably want them.”
Hannah bit back a grin. She’d lost count of the number of sweet treats her mother wanted her to make for her book launch party. If Hannah served everything her mother had mentioned, everyone there would go into a sugar coma. And then Mike and Bill would have to arrest her for attempted desserticide!
For long moments the only sounds were the clinking of silverware against cut glass dessert plates. When everyone had finished coffee and dessert, Doc turned to Hannah.
“I suppose you want to know about the autopsy and not wait for Andrea to wheedle it out of me.”
Hannah’s mouth fell open in surprise, but Delores turned to Doc with laughter in her eyes. “Andrea wheedles?”
“Yes, if she can’t get a copy from Vonnie, or take it from Bill’s briefcase when he’s sleeping. You raised some sneaky girls, Lori.”
Lori? Hannah stared at her mother, waiting for the explosion but Delores said nothing. As a matter of fact, she smiled at Doc Knight.
“I tried to set a good example,” she said.
Doc Knight threw back his head and laughed. And then he reached out to put his arm around Delores and give her a squeeze. “That’s my girl.”
His girl? This was too much information for Hannah, who exchanged shocked looks with Norman.
“At least for tonight,” Delores replied, giving him what Hannah could only describe as a come-hither smile.
Immediately, Hannah felt better. Her mother was having fun flirting with Doc Knight. And why shouldn’t she? Hannah had seen her flirt with Joe Dietz and Bud Hauge, to name only a few of the men her mother had dated in the past few months. Hannah was pretty sure they were all just friends. But if they weren’t, she’d simply have to deal with it. If anyone had asked, she would have admitted that it was a bit disconcerting watching her well-over-fifty mother flirt with local men, but Hannah was glad her mother was having a good time.
“What was your estimate of the time Reverend Matthew died?” Norman asked Doc.
“Between twelve and two.”
“But I was there at twelve-thirty and he was already …” Hannah stopped speaking as the light dawned. “You mean early on Sunday morning?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. When you found the body, he’d been dead at least twelve hours, maybe a little longer.”
“But how could you …” Hannah cut off her question as she noticed her mother’s expression. “Never mind. That’s too much information, and we don’t really need to know.”
“Thank you, dear,” Delores said, giving her daughter a grateful glance, and then she turned to Doc. “I have a question for you.”
“Ask away,” Doc said, smiling at her.
“I’d like to know if he got to eat any of that luscious cake Hannah found at the scene…only as a matter of curiosity, of course. And I don’t want to know the details of how you could tell.”
“Yes. He had a bite or two.”
“Did the killer eat cake before he murdered Reverend Matthew?” Hannah sat back, waiting for the answer.
Doc gave a little laugh. “I’m a doctor, not a psychic. There’s no way of telling.”
“I’m glad we had pie and not cake!” Norman said, and everyone laughed.
Hannah gave him an approving glance, and then she asked Doc another question. “Do you think I could get a copy of the autopsy report?”
Doc shook his head. “I can’t do that, Hannah. Besides, you don’t need it. Your sister already got a printout from Vonnie.”
Hannah smiled. Andrea was really on the ball. She’d known that Hannah would investigate Reverend Matthew’s murder, and she was already collecting official reports for her. “Before you came to join us, Norman and I were talking about possible motivations for Reverend Matthew’s murder. We decided it could be something current from his return here as a substitute pastor, or something that happened in the past when he went to Jordan High as a senior.”
“Or something completely unrelated to Matthew Walters at all,” Doc suggested a third possibility.
“But how could that be?” Delores asked him.
“Let’s say that someone broke into the church in the middle of the night, not knowing that he was there in the church office. It could have been a botched burglary, and whoever it was didn’t want to leave a witness.”
Hannah immediately thought of Matthew’s cousin Paul. He’d been convicted due to a burglary gone bad. She looked over at Norman, knowing the same thought was running through his mind, and he gave a little shake of his head to remind her they’d decided that Paul wasn’t a viable suspect.
“What would someone break into a church to steal?” Delores asked.
“The collection money?” Doc suggested.
Hannah thought about that for a moment. “That makes sense. The church was packed on Sunday because we held Reverend Bob and Claire’s bon voyage party right after the service. There would have been more money than usual.”
“You’re good at this, Doc,” Delores complimented him.
“Thanks. I should be good at it after all the practice I’ve had.”
“You’ve solved crimes before?” Norman asked him.
“No, but it’s a lot like diagnosing a patient. You add up all the facts, eliminate the diseases that don’t fit the profile, and test for the ones that do. That’s what I’m trying to teach my interns. Marlene’s getting good at it, but Ben still has a ways to go.” Doc reached out for the coffee carafe to pour more for Delores and then offered it to Hannah and Norman before he filled his own cup. “Lori thought you’d want to know about how Matthew got the quarterback job on the Lake Eden Gulls.”
“Please tell me,” Hannah said, flipping to a fresh page in her shorthand notebook and reaching into her purse for her pen.
SALLY’S CINNAMON SUPREME COFFEE
Hannah’s 1st Note: Sally uses a drip coffeemaker to make this coffee. She has a 30-cup pot, but I’ve reduced the recipe to fit in a household drip coffeemaker.
4 whole cinnamon sticks
3 Tablespoons brown sugar, well packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup freshly ground coffee (Sally uses French Roast beans and grinds her own)
10 cups water
Place the cinnamon sticks and the brown sugar into the glass (or metal) carafe.
If your coffeemaker uses a filter, place it in the brew basket. Then put the freshly ground coffee and the ground cinnamon inside the basket.
Pour in 10 cups of water and turn on the coffeemaker. Let the water drip through completely.
Remove the carafe with the freshly made coffee and stir it to dissolve the brown sugar. Put it back on the heated pad at the bottom of the coffeemaker. It should sit there for at least 5 minutes so the flavors will meld.
This coffee is best topped with sweetened whipped cream. Use one cup of whipping cream, 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar, and ? teaspoon vanilla extract. Whip it up and place it in a pretty bowl so that people can top their coffee with it.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you really truly don’t feel like making sweetened whipped cream, you can buy it in a tub or a canister. Although sweetened whipped cream is always better when it’s homemade, this coffee is so tasty, the ready-made sweetened whipped cream will be fine.
To serve, pour the coffee into a serving carafe, or if you’re making just one pot, use the carafe from the coffeemaker. Transfer the cinnamon sticks to whichever carafe you use. This coffee will just get better and better as it sits.
Pour generous cupfuls and top with sweetened whipped cream. If you like, sprinkle a bit of brown sugar over the top of the sweetened whipped cream for an extra treat.
Yield: Serves 5 because everyone will want a second cup.