Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (3 page)

“Yes, dear. Dark berries are all the rage now. Eating them is supposed to be beneficial to eye health.”

Hannah gave a little shrug. “Is it true?”

“I don’t know, but I like blueberries and blackberries, so there’s no reason not to eat them. If it helps, that’s wonderful. If it doesn’t, what have I lost?”

“That’s a good attitude,” Hannah complimented her mother, “but let’s get back to Carrie. What does she have to do with my plans for tonight?”

Delores took a sip of her coffee and sighed. “She canceled at the last minute again. We were supposed to go out to class together and this is the second one she’s missed. I thought that if you didn’t have other plans, you might go with me. I just hate to drive out to the college alone, especially at night in the winter.”

Hannah was well and truly stuck and she knew it. It wasn’t often her mother asked for help. “Okay, I’ll go with you. What kind of class is it?”

“It’s a business class called
Small Business Practices
.”

“That sounds interesting,” Hannah said, but she meant just the opposite. It was possible she might learn something helpful from attending the session with her mother, but it could be a deadly dull way to spend an evening.

“The instructor, Miss Whiting, is very good. She has her masters in accounting and she’s a CPA specializing in small business and corporate tax preparation. I’m learning a lot about keeping better books, and the difference between the paperwork I should save and the things I can throw away.”

Hannah had the fleeting thought that since Lisa was now taking care of the financial end of their business,
she
should be the one to attend the class with Delores. Lisa would go if Hannah asked her, but that wouldn’t be fair. This was Lisa’s last night with her husband before Herb went ice fishing with Mayor Bascomb. Thinking that way was quite selfless of her and Hannah felt good about it. But she also had an equally important selfish reason for not saddling her partner with the class. Hannah wanted Lisa to get home in time to bake the Pork and Beans Bread so that she could taste it in the morning.

“What’s the problem with Carrie? Why can’t she go with you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“She didn’t tell you?” Hannah was shocked. Delores and Carrie had been friends for years before they’d opened their antique business together. In the past, they’d discussed everything, including Delores’s disastrous romance with Winthrop Harrington the Third.

“She just said something personal had come up and she was sorry, but she couldn’t go to class with me. That’s exactly the same thing she told me last week.”

“Carrie didn’t say what that
something personal
was?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“And you didn’t ask her?”

“Really, Hannah!” Delores looked offended. “Carrie said it was personal. Asking her to elaborate would have been terribly impolite.”

“I know, but did you?”

“Of course I did! She just repeated that it was personal and she’d tell me when she could. And then she hung up. It didn’t faze me the first time it happened, but now I’m definitely concerned. It isn’t like Carrie to be secretive. I just hope there’s not any trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“Yes. She could be ill and working a full day at Granny’s Attic and then attending a night class is just too much of a drain on her health. Or…she could have turned into a closet drinker for some reason or other. There are people who can drink every night for years and no one ever suspects. And then there’s the computer Norman got for her. What if she’s addicted to one of those online poker places and she’s lost all her retirement money?”

“None of those things sound like Carrie,” Hannah commented.

“I know, but she’s changed over the past few weeks. We used to talk, but she’s just not open with me anymore.”

Hannah heard the note of panic in her mother’s voice, mixed with an undertone of pain that her oldest and best friend wouldn’t confide in her. “Do you want me to try to find out what’s going on?” she offered.

“Would you, dear? I’d be so grateful!” Delores looked very relieved. “You should probably start by talking to Norman. He may know something.”

“Good idea,” Hannah said. “Maybe I’ll see him after class. What time do we get out?”

“Seven-thirty. It’s only an hour.”

“I’ll call him and see if he can meet me at my place later. I’ll bribe him with dessert.”

Delores gave a little laugh. “I don’t think you’ll have to bribe him, dear. It seems to me that whenever you want him, Norman comes running. He’s like your father in that respect. When we were dating, all I had to do was pick up the phone and he’d come over any hour of the day or night.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment and realized that her mother was right. Unless Norman had a patient in his dental chair, he always seemed eager to see her.

“If Norman doesn’t know anything, perhaps you could ask a few questions around town.”

“I guess I could do that.”

“Something else, dear…you could keep an eye out for Carrie’s car when you’re driving around town. If it’s parked in some unusual place, it could give us a clue to what’s going on.”

“That’s true.”

“You could even drop in on her at night to see what she’s doing firsthand. I’m sure you could talk Norman into going with you. All you’d have to do is think up some reason to pay her a surprise visit.”

“Norman wouldn’t really need an excuse to drop in on his own mother. I’m sure Carrie would love to see him. And maybe while they were talking, I could look around.”

“That’s an excellent idea. Thank you for your help, dear.” Delores ate her last bite of cookie and drained her coffee mug. Then she stood up and gave Hannah a little pat on the back. “I’ll drive out to your condo and pick you up at six. That gives us plenty of time to get to the college.”

“You don’t want me to drive?”

“No, dear. It’s out of your way. It’ll be better if I pick you up and drop you off at home after class.”

“Whatever you say, Mother,” Hannah replied obediently, watching her mother walk across the room, retrieve her coat, and hurry out the door. When the door closed behind her impeccably dressed, attractive mother, she let out a deep sigh that bordered on exasperation. She’d been maneuvered by an expert. Delores had elicited her help by claiming that she didn’t like to drive to the college at night, yet she’d volunteered to drive a round trip from town to Hannah’s condo, to the college, back to Hannah’s condo, and all the way to town again.

Hannah was half amused and half annoyed as she got up to join Lisa in the kitchen. Delores really was a master manipulator. Not only had she talked her eldest daughter into attending a class that didn’t interest her in the slightest, she’d also coerced Hannah to recruit one of her boyfriends to spy on his own mother!

H
annah was struck by an odd sense of déjà vu as she walked with her mother down the sidewalk leading to Stewart Hall. She’d never attended Lake Eden Community College. It was still in the planning stages when she’d graduated from Jordan High and gone off to another school. But she noticed certain similarities between her hometown community college and the university she’d attended. The student parking lot was filled with what Cyril Murphy, the owner of Murphy’s Garage, Shamrock Limos, and Murphy Motors, called previously owned autos. Most of the students’ cars looked as if they’d been owned multiple times, and it was apparent that a large percentage of those owners had been accident-prone.

“This is for you,” Delores said, handing Hannah a notebook. “I thought you might like to take notes since you’re a small business owner, too.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said, tucking the notebook under her arm and following her mother.

As they crossed the quad that separated the buildings, they joined a steady stream of students hurrying to class clutching notebooks, books, and the occasional laptop computer. Even though the evening had turned cold and her mother had taken the precaution of plugging her sedan into the power strip that ran around the perimeter of the parking lot, most of these students were dashing along with their parkas unzipped and their heads bare. Some were even wearing tennis shoes rather than boots and Hannah remembered the same phenomenon occurring on the campus she’d attended. They were young. They were invincible. They were much too healthy to succumb to winter colds or other illnesses.

Delores slowed near the door to Stewart Hall to let a large group of students pass by. Hannah saw her mother eyeing them critically and as soon as they were gone, she turned to her mother. “What is it?”

“Not one single girl in that group had a hat or gloves. Don’t they know what will happen to their skin and hair if they continue to expose it to this dry winter air? Or is it just that they don’t care?”

“Both,” Hannah took her mother’s arm and escorted her into the warmth of the building. “Where’s our class?”

“It’s on the second floor. Follow me.” Delores led the way to a stairwell and began to hurry up the steps. Hannah followed, but once she’d reached the landing between the first and second floors, she was sadly out of breath. She should have continued her exercise class at Heavenly Bodies Spa, but life had intruded with holiday orders for cookies coming in fast and furiously. She just didn’t have the luxury of setting aside an hour and a half every day. At least that’s what she told herself whenever the subject crossed her mind.

“Hurry, dear.” Delores called out, turning around to look over her shoulder as she reached the door to the second floor. “We don’t want to be late.”

We don’t want to be embarrassed either
, Hannah thought,
and I’ll be completely humiliated if I hurry into class breathing like a steam engine.

“Hannah?” Delores called out.

“Just a second, Mother.” Hannah knew she had to take a few seconds to catch her breath so she bent down to fiddle with the sole of her boot. “I think I stepped on a tack. Just go and wait for me in the hall. I’ll pull it out and be right there.”

It didn’t take long for Hannah’s breathing to return to normal. Perhaps some small benefit from her exercise class had stuck with her. She straightened up, climbed the rest of the stairs, and pushed open the door to the hallway. Her mother was waiting and Hannah had just about reached her when she caught sight of a vaguely familiar figure racing toward them from the other end of the hall.

The man glanced at his watch as he sped forward. It was clear he didn’t notice Delores and Hannah standing there, and he struck Hannah’s arm as he ran past, knocking her notebook from her hand and sending it flying across the hallway. He stopped and turned back, and then he retrieved her notebook and handed it back to her with an apologetic smile. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m late for class, but that’s no excuse. I should have been more careful. Are you all right?”

Hannah stared up at him and her breath caught in her throat. She must be imagining things. It couldn’t be. She opened her mouth to assure him that she was fine, but no words came out.

“Don’t worry. She’s fine,” Delores said, stepping into the breach. And then she turned to Hannah. “Aren’t you, dear?”

It was like pulling teeth, but Hannah managed to croak out one word. “Fine,” she said in a voice that didn’t sound at all like hers.

“As long as you’re okay, I’d better go,” the man said. “My students are probably waiting for me.”

“What do you teach?” Delores asked, picking up the conversational ball since Hannah was perfectly silent.

“Poetry, but I’m part of a team that’s here from Macalester. We’re putting together an intercollegiate event called the Christmas Follies.”

“That sounds wonderful!” Delores exclaimed. “Will the show be open to the public?”

“Yes, and it’s also being televised. It should be quite a production with talent from five different colleges.” The man turned to Hannah. “Excuse me, but you look so familiar. Have we met before?”

As she looked up into the dark blue eyes she’d once described as
marvelous
and
soul-searching
, Hannah wanted to die. She prayed that the floor beneath her feet would disappear, dropping her all the way down to the basement so that she could hide in the darkest corner. It was achingly clear that he didn’t remember. And he should!

“Hannah?” Delores prompted, and even without looking, Hannah knew her mother was regarding her curiously.

“Yes, we’ve met,” Hannah said in a voice that was amazingly steady considering the circumstances. Then she took her mother’s arm and pulled her down the hall, not looking back to see if he had continued on his way.

“Hannah!” Delores chided her in a whisper that seemed far too loud to Hannah. “You were rude to that nice young professor.”

“Yes,” Hannah admitted. There was no arguing with her mother’s assessment.

“I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t, Mother.”

Mother and daughter walked on until Delores stopped at a classroom door. “This is it,” she said, glancing at her watch. “We have one minute before we’re late. Who
was
that man, Hannah?”

“Someone I once thought I knew. Let’s go in, Mother.”

“Not quite yet.” Delores grabbed Hannah’s arm. “Why did you act as if you could hardly wait to get away from him?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“But I do! Was he the man you told me about, the reason you left college?”

Hannah drew a deep breath. A small part of her wanted to confide in her mother, but no good would be served by recounting the story of her failed and foolish romance. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said firmly, opening the door and ushering her mother into the classroom.

Time had never passed so slowly. Some said that at the instant of a man’s death, his whole life passed before his eyes. This was just the opposite. Hannah had never seen the minute hand move so slowly. After watching the clock for what seemed like three hours and was actually four minutes, Hannah took notes just for something to do as Miss Kimberly Whiting, CPA, droned on and on about profit and loss statements, the proper way to invoice, and the essentials of sales tax record-keeping. The information was dispensed fast and heavy with no break for questions until the dot of seven twenty-five when Miss Whiting stopped speaking and picked up the folder she’d placed on the podium.

“It’s time for bad business practices,” she said, and even those class members who’d been dozing sat up straight in their chairs. “Tonight’s example concerns a large screen television dealership.”

Hannah listened as their teacher went on to describe the four-man partnership. Three invested equal amounts of money and the fourth invested his time and expertise by actually running the business. There were handouts showing profit and loss statements, tax returns, copies of bank statements, and payroll rosters. Their assignment was to figure out how the dealership had managed to stay in business for more than five months despite selling television sets for less than cost.

As they filed out of class, Hannah found herself dreading the ride home. Delores was bound to ask more questions about Bradford Ramsey and she’d been perfectly honest when she’d said that she didn’t want to talk about it.

They’d descended the staircase and were walking past the classrooms on the first floor when Hannah spotted someone she thought she knew. “Is that Dr. Love?” she asked her mother.

“Yes, but she’s Dr. Schmidt out here,” Delores said, poking her head in the open door and waving.

“Hello, Delores!” Dr. Love sounded very glad to see them. “And Hannah. I haven’t seen you since your mother’s book launch party. How have you been?”

“Just fine, Dr. Schmidt.”

“Call me Nancy.” Dr. Love gave her a warm smile and then she turned to Delores. “I’ve been meaning to call you. I’m redecorating my office here on campus and I was wondering if you could find me an old-fashioned glass-door bookcase.”

“This is your lucky day!” Delores said with a laugh. “My assistant, Luanne, just came back from an estate sale at the home of a prominent lawyer in St. Paul. She bought a pair of gorgeous bookcases in walnut with leaded glass doors on each shelf.”

“The type of doors that pull up and then slide in?”

“That’s right. Would you like to drop by to see them?”

“I would. They sound perfect. How about tomorrow around noon? I have to run out to the station at ten to do some voice-overs, but I should be through in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll have the coffee pot on for you,” Delores said, turning to go. “Black with two sugars?”

“Perfect.” Dr. Love turned to Hannah. “It was good to see you again, Hannah.”

“Nice to see you, too,” Hannah said, and then she followed her mother down the hall to the exit.

Once they stepped out of the building, the cold hit them so hard it took their breath away. While they were in class, an icy wind had begun to blow from the north. Both Hannah and her mother held their gloved hands over their mouths and noses as they walked directly into the wind and made their way to the parking lot. Most of the students had left immediately after class and Delores’s car was the only one still plugged to the wall. Hannah was about to unplug it when she heard a voice call her name.

“Norman!” Hannah recognized him immediately, despite the bulky parka and fur hat he wore. She smiled at him and hoped her teeth wouldn’t freeze in the bitterly cold wind. “What are
you
doing here?”

“I thought I’d save your mother a trip. This way she can go straight home and she won’t have to swing by your place.”

“That’s sweet of you Norman, but I don’t mind,” Delores jumped into the conversation and Hannah knew she was thinking about her lost opportunity to find out more about Bradford Ramsey.

“Oh, but I have an ulterior motive,” Norman said, unplugging Delores’s car, wrapping the cord around her bumper, and opening the driver’s door for her. “If I drive Hannah home, we’ll get a little more time to talk.”

Delores hesitated for a moment and then she slid in under the wheel. In the war between her curiosity about her daughter’s old romance, and her concern about her best friend, Carrie had won.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, dear,” Delores said as she started her car and flicked on the lights. “I’ll stop by for coffee before I open the shop.”

A minute later, Hannah was in Norman’s warm and toasty car. She unzipped her parka, took off her hat and her gloves, and reveled in the fact that she no longer had to fear frostbite.

“Did you eat?” Norman asked, pulling out onto the highway.

“Not yet. I had time to feed Moishe and that was about it.”

“So Moishe comes first?” Norman’s voice was warm and Hannah could see his smile in the lights of the dashboard. Norman loved her cat and the feeling was mutual.

“Moishe comes first,” she confirmed it. “How about you? Did you eat?”

“No. I thought we’d stop for a bite if you wanted to go out.”

Hannah thought about their favorite places, Bertanelli’s Pizza, the Lake Eden Inn, and The Corner Tavern. It would be nice to go out to dinner, but what she really wanted to do was curl up on the couch with Norman and Moishe, and watch mindless television.

“Bertanelli’s? The Corner Tavern? Sally’s at the Inn?” Norman named the places Hannah had already thought of and dismissed.

“I’d rather go home and make something there,” Hannah said, “if that’s all right with you, that is.”

“That’s fine with me, but I don’t want you to work. You’ve had a full day.”

“It’s okay. I’ve got some meatloaf I can heat up and I’ll pop in a batch of Easy Cheesy Biscuits.”

“Easy Cheesy Biscuits? I don’t think I’ve tasted those.”

“I
know
you haven’t. I just got the recipe last weekend from an old classmate of mine at Jordan High. Prudence left Lake Eden right after school and moved to Niagara Falls.”

“Do you have everything you need to make them? Or shall we run by The Quick Stop?”

“I have everything I need. I planned on baking them tonight anyway. Lisa loves cheese so I thought I’d take her a couple for breakfast.”

The roads were clear and Norman zipped along in his well-maintained car. Hannah felt as if she were living in the lap of luxury as she listened to mellow jazz on the stereo and watched the night stream past her window. All too soon, they turned in at Hannah’s condo complex and Hannah handed him her gate card to raise the wooden lever that let the residents in and out. This time the wooden barrier was intact and Hannah wondered if they’d solved the gate card problem at last. Even though residents were warned of the consequences, they still stuck the magnetic gate cards in their wallets next to other cards with information strips. When the gate cards ceased to work, some irate condo owners crashed right through the wooden arm. Perhaps she was exaggerating slightly, but Hannah believed that the one-by-four designed to keep non-residents out was broken more often than it was not.

“You can park in my extra spot,” Hannah said, and Norman took the ramp to the underground garage. Her condo came with two parking spots, and Norman pulled in next to her cookie truck.