Chapter Fourteen
“You remembered to bring these after all you’ve been through?” Delores looked completely amazed as Hannah handed her the box with Mom’s Bran Muffins.
For a moment Hannah was confused. Her mind seemed to have slowed to idle speed. It took her a minute to process her mother’s words, but then she understood what Delores was saying. “How did you know about it?”
“Doc told me when the call came in for the paramedics.”
“Oh.” Hannah steadied herself on the edge of Doc Knight’s desk. She wanted to sit down, but her clothes were wet and the chairs in front of Doc Knight’s desk were upholstered in fabric, not plastic.
“Put these on, dear,” Delores held out a package. “You have to get out of those wet clothes. You’re shivering.”
Hannah accepted the package her mother handed her. She hadn’t realized that she was cold until her mother had mentioned it. Of course maybe it wasn’t that she was cold. It could be that she was exhausted from the effort of dragging Doctor Bev out of the water. Whatever the reason, she was shivering and now her teeth were beginning to chatter.
“Go right in there and take a hot shower,” Delores ordered, pointing to Doc Knight’s bathroom. “It’ll make you feel much better. There’s shampoo, and towels, and everything you need. And throw your wet clothes in the dryer.”
“Okay,” Hannah said, not bristling at all, even though her mother was telling her what to do.
“While you’re showering, I’ll run down to the kitchen and get you a hot cup of coffee. Are you hungry?”
“No,” Hannah said even though she wasn’t sure she’d eaten recently. For some reason her mind was stalling out and it was difficult to think.
“I’ll be right back, dear,” Delores said, and then she gave Hannah a gentle shove toward the bathroom. “Go ahead.”
Hannah crossed the room even though she wasn’t sure she had the energy to take a shower. She’d stood guard over Doctor Bev’s body until Mike and Lonnie had arrived, and then she’d driven the rest of the way to the hospital. As she’d navigated the twists and turns around Eden Lake, she’d felt horribly alone. She couldn’t seem to shake the specter of sudden, unexpected death. Doctor Bev had been alive such a short while ago, zipping along the lake road in her fancy new convertible, anticipating the move to her new penthouse condo. Hannah could picture her with her blond hair streaming in the breeze, listening to her favorite music and planning out where to put the new furniture she’d chosen with Roger. She wouldn’t have had a clue that only moments later, she’d be at the bottom of Miller’s Pond, strapped in her seat, cold and dead, robbed of the riches she’d lied and schemed to get.
Hannah did her best to shake off the dark thoughts. Perhaps Delores was right and a hot shower would help. She opened the bathroom door and blinked in surprise.
The bathroom was actually a suite that consisted of three separate rooms. The first contained what you’d expect in any bathroom. There was a washbowl with a mirror over it, a medicine cabinet, and a commode. The second, much larger room looked like a well-equipped dressing room, and she thought she knew why. Since Doc Knight spent so much time at the hospital, he needed a place to shower and change into whatever clothing was required for his various duties. He would need easy access to operating scrubs, a white coat for rounds, and street clothes for his consultations with families of patients. There was a mirrored closet along one wall and Hannah suspected it was filled with Doc Knight’s various choices of clothing. The wall opposite the closet held a gleaming stainless steel washer and dryer. The moment Hannah saw them she stripped out of her wet clothing and threw it into the dryer.
As she stepped into the third room, the room that contained a glass-enclosed shower, she noticed that her mother had set out towels for her to use. That little touch, that proof of caring, made her feel cosseted and loved. The feeling grew as she turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray. Delores had known exactly what would make her feel better. It was good to have a mother.
Ten minutes later, feeling so much better she could scarcely believe it, Hannah stepped out of the shower. She retrieved the package her mother had given her with dry clothing and opened it. There were green scrubs with Lake Eden Memorial Hospital stenciled across the front, and they looked as if they might fit her. Hannah put on the top, stepped into the drawstring pants, and smiled. Everything fit. There was even a pair of hospital socks, the one-size-fits-all with non-skid patches on the bottom. She toweled off her hair, and dried it with the hair dryer that hung on a hook in the dressing room.
“Good enough,” Hannah said to her reflection in the mirrored closet doors. The green of the scrubs was actually a good color with her red hair. She was about to walk out of the bathroom when there was a knock on the door.
“Are you all right, dear?”
“I’m fine. I’m ready.” Hannah opened the door and stepped out.
“Sit here.” Delores pointed to one of the visitor chairs in front of Doc Knight’s desk. “I brought black coffee and sweet tea. They say that sweet tea is good for shock, but you choose.”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. Normally, she didn’t drink tea. This afternoon, for some strange reason, the thought of drinking it was appealing. “I’ll take the tea,” she said.
“You are in shock,” Delores informed her. “You don’t like tea.”
“I know. It just sounds good.”
Delores gave a quick nod. “Shock, just as I thought. It’s the only thing that would make you drink tea.”
“I’ll drink it, but I want a black coffee chaser,” Hannah said, feeling a bit better as she sipped the hot beverage. “Of course chocolate would be better, but you don’t have any, do you?”
Delores didn’t say anything. She just went to the file cabinet next to the window and pulled out the top drawer. She took something out and turned it so that Hannah could see what it was.
“Fanny Farmer?”
“Yes. It’s my emergency stash. I think this qualifies as an emergency, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes. It’s definitely an emergency. Are they soft centers?”
“Of course.” Delores set the box between them on the desktop and took off the cover so that Hannah could see what was inside. “You know I like soft centers the best. Doc brought these in for me this morning.”
“Are they for a special occasion?” Hannah asked, her fingers hovering over a dark chocolate piece that she hoped was filled with a maple center.
“Not really. It’s just a thank you.”
“For what?” Hannah reached down and plucked the piece of candy.
“For going out to the mall with him to help him choose two new jackets. Doc has no fashion sense. If it were up to him, he’d still be wearing that awful old tweed blazer. He told me he bought that blazer when his mother was alive and she picked it out for him.”
Hannah remembered the tweed jacket. Her mother was right. It was pretty awful. “So the lack of fashion sense runs in the Knight family?”
“It seems so.” Delores swallowed the last bite of her pineapple cream dipped in milk chocolate. “Doc always tells me how lucky he is to have me.”
Hannah was silent as she reached for what she thought was a coconut cream covered with white chocolate. She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. “Where’s Doc Knight?”
“He’s still out at the scene, dear. He called me a few minutes ago. He said that you looked a bit glassy-eyed when he saw you out there and that you might be in shock.”
“Was it his idea for me to take a hot shower?”
“No, that was mine. The sweet hot tea was his idea.”
“Well, it worked. Between the shower, the tea with the coffee chaser, and the box of Fanny Farmer’s, I feel much better now.”
Delores shoved the box a little closer to Hannah’s side of the desk. “Do you think you feel well enough to go and see Barbara?”
“Not quite yet, but soon.”
“Then how about telling me what happened at the pond?” Delores asked. And then she paused and looked slightly sorry she’d asked. “But only if you feel up to it, of course,” she added.
Hannah took a milk chocolate candy and was pleased to find it had a dark chocolate center. Her mother always asked her to describe the scene of a murder, but this was a car accident. “Okay,” she said, and told her mother everything that had happened, beginning with the last time she’d seen Doctor Bev alive and how she’d barged onto the porch of the Peterson house. She told her mother the whole story, the dive into the water to try to save Doctor Bev when she’d spotted the car, her efforts to bring Doctor Bev to shore and revive her, all the way through to when she’d finally given up and called Mike at the sheriff’s station.
“Oh, my!” Delores exclaimed, giving a ladylike shiver. “This is a terrible thing to say, but since Doctor Bev was so nasty to you, it almost makes me believe in divine retribution.”
Hannah was slightly shocked. She knew that her mother loved her, but when Delores had heard some of the things that Doctor Bev had said to her on the Petersons’ front porch, Delores had jumped in to defend her eldest daughter like a mother lion defending her cub.
“This whole thing must have been awful for you dear, especially since you were the one to find her.” Delores gave a little sigh and reached out to pat Hannah’s hand. “Then again, you usually do.”
“True,” Hannah acknowledged, “and it’s never easy.”
“I know, but this must have been worse. I’m sure you wished that you could get rid of Doctor Bev once and for all. As a matter of fact, I heard you say it right before the last time she left Lake Eden. You probably wished her dead on countless occasions. And then you’re the one to find her.”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. She didn’t feel at all guilty. Perhaps her mother was projecting. “I don’t think I ever wished that Doctor Bev was dead. I just wished that she would be gone for good.”
“You’re a better woman than I am,” Delores said with a sigh. “Have another chocolate, dear. You still look a little pale.”
Hannah reached for another piece of candy and realized that there were only three left. She looked up at her mother in total surprise. “Did I eat all those?”
“No. I helped.”
“I’ll buy you another box the next time I go out to the mall,” Hannah promised.
“There’s no need. Doc has several right here in the bottom drawer of his desk. He says it makes me more . . .” She paused and gave a little shrug. “I think he used the word compliant.”
“Oh.” Hannah said the most noncommittal thing she could think of. And then she thought, That’s the same word I used when Norman brought me the split of Dom Perignon. Norman said that there wasn’t enough champagne in the world to make me compliant. But are there enough boxes of Fanny Farmer to make my mother compliant?
“Are you ready to visit Barbara now?” Delores asked. “I’ll go with you.”
“I’m ready,” Hannah replied, clamping the cover back on the box so that she wouldn’t have to see the evidence of her transgression. And then she stood up and walked out of Doc Knight’s office with her mother, making a valiant effort not to think about champagne, chocolate, and compliancy.
Barbara smiled when they entered the room. She was sitting up in a chair by the bed and she looked much better. She was still hooked to monitoring devices and an IV that beeped at irregular intervals, but at least she was out of bed.
“Is that your . . . daughter?” she asked.
“It’s me, Barbara. I’m Hannah. And you’re right.” She gestured toward Delores. “I’m Delores’s daughter.”
“Hello, Hannah. I didn’t know you were a nurse.”
“Hannah’s not a nurse,” Delores said. “But I can see why you thought she was. Hannah got her clothes wet and so she changed into dry clothes from the hospital before we came to see you.”
“I see. Green is a good color for you, Hannah.”
“Thanks,” Hannah said and then she exchanged looks with Delores. Barbara didn’t seem as confused today and that was good. Perhaps it was time to ask why she’d been summoned. “Mother said you wanted to see me, Barbara.”
“Yes. I was trying to remember the name of your cat and I couldn’t remember. I have trouble with names.”
“My cat’s name is Moishe.”
“Yes. Of course it is. I don’t know why I couldn’t remember. I guess my brain is still swollen. Can your Moishe be a therapy cat?”
“Therapy cat?” Hannah repeated it in the form of a question. She really didn’t understand what Barbara was asking. “Do they have therapy cats?”
“If they don’t, they should,” Barbara replied. “They have therapy dogs. One was here this morning. I don’t remember his name. It was nice to see him, but seeing a cat would be better. I miss my cat. Is somebody taking care of him? I tried, but I can’t remember the last time I fed him. When I left for school on Tuesday, we were going to have a spelling test and I might have forgotten to give him his food.”
“Don’t worry, Barbara,” Delores jumped in quickly, before Barbara could get upset. “Hannah and I will take care of it.”
“Thank you . . . Delores,” Barbara said, and both Hannah and her mother realized that it had been an effort for her to remember Delores’s name. A moment passed, and then another before Hannah broke the silence.
“Is there anything I can do for you, Barbara?” she asked, still wondering why Barbara had wanted to see her when Delores or Doc Knight could have told her Moishe’s name.
“Yes. Bring him to see me.”
“Your cat?” Delores asked her.
“Of course not. He died years ago. My mother and I had a funeral for him and he’s buried under the rhubarb bushes by the faucet in the back yard. I cried. He was a wonderful cat.”
“It’s always hard when a beloved pet dies,” Delores sympathized.
Hannah gave a sigh of relief. Barbara was back on track again. She’d realized that her childhood cat had died years ago without being reminded that it had happened. Perhaps it was only when it came to her dead father and nonexistent brother that her mind played tricks on her.
“Will you, Hannah? If Doc says it’s all right?”
“You remembered Doc’s name!” Delores exclaimed, giving Barbara a warm smile. “That’s just wonderful!”
Barbara looked thoroughly mystified for a moment and then she shook her head. “It’s not that wonderful, De . . . Del . . . Delores. I don’t remember Doc’s name.”
“But you called him Doc!”
“Yes. I did. He’s a doctor so I called him Doc.”
“Oh.” Hannah knew Delores was disappointed, but it didn’t show on her face. “You’re right, Barbara. It’s true that many people call doctors Doc. But you remembered my name and I could tell it was an effort.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Barbara looked pleased, and then she turned to Hannah. “I think I can remember your name now. When I see you, I remember that you make cookies with bananas and your name sounds like a banana. The only thing that sounds like a banana is Hannah so your name is Hannah. My nurse taught me how to rhyme with names.”
“It sounds like you have a wonderful nurse,” Hannah said.
“Oh, I do. I just wish I could remember her name. I know it sounds like money, and I called her Honey, but that’s not it. It’s some other kind of money, I think. But what could it be? Nickel?” Barbara started to laugh. “I’m almost sure her name isn’t Pickle!”
Hannah couldn’t help it. She laughed. And the moment she did, so did Delores. And then they all had a good laugh together.
“You’ll remember her name the next time you see her,” Hannah said, almost sure that was true. This was a good visit with Barbara. She really was improving.
“So will you do it, Hannah?” Barbara asked.
Hannah was about to ask what Barbara wanted her to do when the pieces flew into place. “You want me to bring Moishe to the hospital to visit you?”
“Yes. I don’t see why I can’t have a cat visitor. People around here get dog visitors. There was a little one here last night visiting the man next door. They were training him to be a therapy dog.”
Hannah made an instant decision. “If Doc Knight agrees, I’ll bring Moishe here tomorrow,” she promised.
“Oh, good. He’s a nice big cat and I need a big cat.”
“Why is that?” Delores asked her.
“For the monster that comes in my room at night. He looks a little like a big white rat. And I think a really big cat like Moishe could chase that monster away.”
MOM’S BRAN MUFFINS
DO NOT preheat oven yet—this batter bakes better when it’s chilled.
1 cup water
1 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)
2 cups bran flakes (you’ll use 4 cups in all)
1 cup brown sugar (pack it down when you
measure it)
? cup (1 stick, 8 ounces, ? pound) salted butter,
softened
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
? teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 and ? cups all-purpose flour (pack it down when
you measure it)
2 cups buttermilk (I’ve used whipping cream when I
didn’t have buttermilk on hand and it worked
just fine.)
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal (I used Quaker Quick
1-Minute)
2 cups bran flakes (this completes the 4 cup total)
Measure out the cup of water and bring it to a boil. You can do this in the microwave (1 minute on HIGH in a microwave-safe container is hot enough for this recipe), or on the stovetop in a saucepan.
While you’re waiting for the water to boil, measure out a cup of raisins and put them in the bottom of a medium-size mixing bowl.
Measure 2 cups of bran flakes and put them on top of the raisins.
When the water has heated, pour it over the bran flakes and raisins in the bowl and stir it around a bit. Try to keep those raisins in the bottom where they’ll be covered by the hot water. They need to plump up a bit.
Set the mixture aside on the counter to cool while you mix up the muffin batter.
Hannah’s 1st Note: This is so much easier with an electric mixer.
Measure out the cup of brown sugar, packing it down in the cup when you measure it. Place the brown sugar in the bottom of a larger mixing bowl. (This will be your work bowl.)
Add the softened butter. (The butter should be at room temperature unless, of course, you’re working in a drafty kitchen in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter. In that case, you’ll have to soften it a bit more!)
Mix the brown sugar and butter together thoroughly.
Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each addition.
Mix in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.
Feel the sides of the bowl you set aside with the bran flakes and raisin mixture. If it’s not so hot it’ll cook the eggs, add it to your work bowl now. Mix it in thoroughly.
Measure out the flour, packing it down in the cup when you measure it.
Get out the 2 cups of buttermilk (or whipping cream if you used that).
Add about a third of the flour to your bowl and mix it in.
Add about a third of the buttermilk to your bowl and mix that in.
Add half of the flour you have left and mix it in.
Now add about half of the buttermilk you have left and mix that in.
Add the rest of the flour. Mix well.
Add the rest of the buttermilk. Mix well.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: You may have to mix in the final 2 ingredients by hand, especially if your bowl is getting too full for your mixer.
Measure the 2 cups of quick-cooking oatmeal and mix that in.
Measure the final 2 cups of bran flakes and mix them in.
Give the bowl a final stir and cover it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate your batter for at least 2 hours before you bake Mom’s Bran Muffins. (Overnight is fine, too. It’s even preferable. Everyone likes a warm muffin for breakfast.)
When you want to bake, preheat the oven to 375 F. degrees, rack in the middle position.
While your oven is heating to the proper temperature, prepare your muffin pans.
You can either spray your muffin cups with Pam (or another nonstick cooking spray) or line them with cupcake papers. Both methods work just fine.
These muffins don’t rise very much so fill your muffin cups ? (three-quarters) full.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: Lisa and I use a 2-Tablespoon scooper to fill our muffin cups down at The Cookie Jar. It’s neater than trying to spoon muffin batter into the cups.
Bake your muffins at 375 degrees F. for 20 minutes.
Hannah’s 4th Note: You can bake these muffins one pan at a time if you like. As long as you keep the muffin batter tightly covered in the refrigerator, it will be fine for up to 6 weeks (that’s right, SIX whole weeks!)
Cool your muffins in the muffin pan for at least 20 minutes. Just set the whole pan on a wire rack or on a cold stove burner. At the end of that time, you can take them out of the muffin cups and let them cool completely on a wire rack. They’re delicious warm, or cold.
Yield: 3 dozen delectable muffins.
Hannah’s 5th Note: If you’d rather make jumbo muffins, bake those for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.
A Word of Caution: Everyone says that bran muffins are good for digestive health. This appears to be true because if you eat too many of these for breakfast, you’ll be spending a lot of time in the little room with the porcelain fixtures!