Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (69 page)

After Hannah had hung Norman’s parka in the long, narrow cloakroom and admired her new sweater in front of the ladies’ room mirror, she went back to her post at the foot of the stairs. Her next few minutes were spent greeting several dozen Lake Eden residents and telling them where to deliver
casseroles, bowls, and platters. She was about to dash back to the kitchen to grab a mug of coffee when Mike arrived with Shawna Lee.

“Hi, Hannah!” Shawna Lee walked gracefully down the stairs balancing a platter, something Hannah wouldn’t even have attempted, especially in four-inch high heels. “I really hope I did these right. I followed the recipe exactly.”

“I’m sure they’re just fine,” Hannah said, hoping that her words would be prophetic. She’d given the blond secretary one of the easier recipes, Susan Zilber’s Spinach Rollups. Once the spinach had been cooked and drained, there was no other cooking involved.

“I hope they make the cookbook. The only thing I did different was I cut them on the slant. I think they took better that way.”

Hannah glanced down at the platter Shawna Lee was holding. It was covered with plastic wrap and the rollups looked just fine to her. “They’re very attractive.”

“I know. And they’re good, too. I tasted the end pieces when I cut them off.”

“Cook’s prerogative,” Hannah commented, smiling at Shawna Lee. She could afford to be charitable now that her rival was leaving town. “Just take them in the kitchen and give them to Edna. She’ll see that they get out to the right table when it’s time to serve. And tell her what we should do with your platter after it’s washed.”

“Oh, Mike can take it home for me. He’s got the key and he knows where it goes in the cupboard.”

Hannah saw red, and that made her forget all about being charitable. Only a frequent visitor to Shawna Lee’s kitchen would know where her dishes belonged. Visions of intimate candlelight dinners and early breakfasts danced through Hannah’s mind and made her long for retribution.

“I’m really sorry I can’t stay for the dinner,” Shawna Lee interrupted Hannah’s contemplations of double homicide. “I
just know it’ll be wonderful! But I’ve got a ten o’clock flight and I have to be at the airport two hours early. Mike’s taking me. Isn’t that nice of him?”

“Nice,” Hannah said, putting on a smile that wouldn’t have fooled anyone except perhaps a brand-new acquaintance with a severe visual problem.

“While you’re in the kitchen, why don’t you see if the coffee’s ready?” Mike suggested, giving Shawna Lee a little push in that direction. “I could use a cup before we hit the road.”

“Cream, two sugars, right? Except in the morning, when you don’t take cream.”

“Right.” The moment Shawna Lee had left, Mike turned to Hannah. “I need to talk to you about those brownies.”

Hannah gulped slightly, glad that she had witnesses just in case this turned ugly. “Look, Mike. I’m really sorry about…”

“I haven’t had a chance to taste them yet,” Mike interrupted her, “but I wanted to thank you in advance. That was really nice of you, Hannah. I would have opened them right away and had a few, but it’s been a totally impossible day. I just put them in my drawer so the other guys wouldn’t snitch them and I never got back to my desk.”

Hannah nodded, but she hadn’t really listened to anything Mike had said beyond the first sentence. “So…you haven’t had a chance to taste the brownies?”

“Not yet. They’re still in my center desk drawer. Do I have to refrigerate them or anything? Or will it be all right if I leave them there until tomorrow?”

“They’ll be fine in the drawer. Absolutely.” Hannah gave him what she hoped was an innocent smile, her mind already working on a way to retrieve them before Mike had the chance to take the first bite. “I’m sorry you’re going to miss the buffet.”

Mike slipped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a little hug. “What do you mean? Just keep a chair warm for
me. I’m going to drop Shawna Lee off at the airport and come straight back. Maybe there won’t be much food left by the time I get here, but there’s no way I’m going to miss my first Lake Eden Christmas party with you.”

O
nce Mike and Shawna Lee had left, each carrying a large frosted sugar cookie for the trip to the airport, Hannah went back to her greeting duties. She could hear the wind whistle every time the upstairs door opened to let in another group of hungry arrivals. If there were children in the group, they squealed in excitement as they spotted the miniature Christmas village in the lobby of the community center. The Jordan High shop class had made it as a holiday gift to the city of Lake Eden three years ago, and they kept making improvements and adding structures to the basic design. Last year George Baxter’s students had put in lights that twinkled from the windows. And this year, his senior boys had built three churches with stained glass windows that were exact replicas of the three churches in Lake Eden. Pam Baxter, George’s wife and the home economics teacher at Jordan High, had decided to help with the project. Her girls had made tiny wreaths for the doors and decorated the windows of the stores.

“Hi, Aunt Hannah,” a familiar voice called out.

“Hello, Tracey.” Hannah gave a big smile as her niece came down the stairs. Andrea and Bill’s daughter was dressed in a dark green velvet jumper with a white lace blouse for tonight’s festivities, and with her shining blonde hair tumbling
down in a mass of natural curls, she looked just like a Christmas angel. “Where’s your mother?”

“She’s still talking to Mrs. Beeseman and Mr. Herman in the lobby. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Herb are there, too.”

“You didn’t want to stay and talk?”

Tracey shook her head. “It was boring, all about fur coats, and diamond rings, and some kind of drink.”

“A kind of drink?” Hannah was stymied. What did fur coats and diamonds rings have to do with a kind of drink? Unless…“Do you mean brandy?”

“That’s it! Anyway, Mommy said I could go downstairs and mingle until she got here.”

“Your mother told you to
mingle?”
Hannah wondered if her five-year-old niece knew what the word meant.

“Not like that exactly. She said to go talk to the people I know. But that’s
mingle,
isn’t it?”

“It is,” Hannah assured her, impressed, as always, with her niece’s vocabulary. “Norman’s around here somewhere, and he’s taking pictures. You should go say hello to him.”

“I will. I like Uncle Norman. How about Uncle Mike?”

“He’ll be here later. He’s taking Shawna Lee Quinn to the airport.”

“In his new yellow Hummer?”

“That’s right.”

“Uncle Mike took Daddy and me for a ride. It bounces a lot, but you probably know that since he takes you out on dates. Which one do you like best? Uncle Norman’s? Or Uncle Mike’s?”

“That depends on how far I’m riding,” Hannah said with a grin.

Tracey had just left to find Norman when Andrea came down the stairs. She looked lovely in a deep purple velvet maternity pantsuit, and Hannah was relieved to see that she was holding tightly to the rail.

“Hi, Hannah. What’s up?”

“Nothing. Martin and his new wife haven’t arrived yet.”

“Maybe they’re not coming. That would be good as far as Shirley’s concerned, but I’m dying to get a good look at her. Do you suppose she’ll wear gold spandex and glitter in her hair?”

“I doubt it. She’s probably perfectly nice.”

“With a name like Brandi Wyen?”

Hannah thought about it for a moment and then she smiled. “Point well taken. Is Bill here?”

“Not yet. If he gets held up, I’m supposed to save him a piece of Jell-O Cake. It’s his favorite thing that I bake.”

“It’s the
only
thing that you bake.”

“Well…there’s that, too. See you later, Hannah. I’m going to see if I can round up Tracey. She’s probably in the kitchen trying to talk Edna into letting her help.”

“She’d probably do better than some of the help Edna’s had over the years.” Hannah smiled, watching her sister set out for the kitchen. She was just thinking about how pregnant women resembled sailing ships in a high wind, when she heard voices at the top of the stairs.

Hannah put on the best smile she could muster, but since she’d been meeting and greeting for well over thirty minutes, it was beginning to wear a little thin around the edges. Then she caught sight of the couple coming down the staircase and her smile gathered lumens until it was full wattage.

Hannah greeted the mayor and his wife and then dissolved into a burst of spontaneous laughter, despite her effort to keep a straight face. Mayor Bascomb’s tie was splendiferous. It was the old-fashioned wide type and the background was studded in red sequins. A green felt Christmas tree was tacked to the front, and it actually lit up with tiny colored lights that flashed on and off. “Great tie, Mr. Mayor.”

“Steffie found it out at the mall. Runs on one of those little
disk batteries they use for cameras.” Mayor Bascomb tucked his wife’s arm through his and patted her hand. “She’s the world’s best shopper, aren’t you, honey?”

Stephanie Bascomb gave a very nice smile, but Hannah noticed that it didn’t reach her eyes. She also pulled her hand away from her husband’s, and Hannah concluded that there was trouble in Lake Eden’s first family. The Bascombs would put on the appearance of connubial bliss for the crowd of constituents that had gathered for the party, but it was all for show.

“Lovely dress, Mrs. Bascomb,” Hannah said, admiring the white wool dress with white-on-white embroidered snowflakes forming a border around the hem and the neckline. Tiny snowflake earrings made of small diamonds twinkled at her ears, and Hannah suspected the worst. It was a well-known fact that Stephanie Bascomb bought herself an expensive new outfit every time she thought her husband was cheating on her. And this time she’d bought diamond earrings, too.

“Thank you, Hannah,” Stephanie said, shrugging out of her coat and handing it to her husband. “Hang this up for me, Richard. I want to see if they need any help in the kitchen.”

Hannah just shook her head as the mayor trotted obediently to the cloakroom while his wife headed off to the kitchen. She’d been in the kitchen enough times to imagine the scene that would ensue. Stephanie would offer to help. Edna would say that was so nice of her, but she sure wouldn’t want Mrs. Bascomb to get that beautiful dress mussed. Once these polite proprieties were fulfilled, Stephanie would leave, and the scorecard would be even. The mayor’s wife would get credit for the offer without doing anything, and Edna would get credit for keeping Stephanie out of the kitchen so that the ladies who were there could gossip about whether Mayor Bascomb’s eye was roving again.

A few minutes later, relief arrived in the person of Barbara
Donnelly, who said Edna had sent her to take over as greeter. Hannah was on her way to the table where Norman and Kurt were still in deep discussion about the photographs Kurt wanted for the cookbook when she spotted one of the possible combatants of the night. Shirley Dubinski was sitting at a table with her ex-mother-in-law, Babs. While they hadn’t gotten along that well when Shirley and Martin were married, it appeared that the shock of Martin’s surprise marriage had brought them together. Shirley and Babs looked tighter than thieves.

“Hi, Babs,” Hannah greeted the woman who’d talked Delores into setting her up for a date with Martin. “That’s a lovely pin.”

“Thank you. Shirley gave it to me for Christmas two years ago and I just love it.” Babs reached up to touch the gold wreath pin she wore at the neck of her dark red silk blouse. “I suppose you’ve heard the news?”

“Just this morning.” Hannah let it go at that and turned to Shirley. “You look great tonight, Shirley. That’s a gorgeous suit, and you’ve cut your hair, haven’t you?”

Shirley beamed, happy that Hannah had noticed. “I had it done when I went to Chicago last week. I got a promotion, you know. Del and Benton Woodley decided that DelRay should be represented at all the big trade shows, and that’s my job.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It is. I found out I’m a better salesman than I thought I was. They were so pleased when I came back from Chicago with two new contracts, they decided to give me a clothing allowance. Can you believe
that?
And since Babs agreed to take care of the boys for me while I’m traveling, I don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Are the boys here?” Hannah asked, realizing that Shirley and Martin’s young sons were nowhere in sight.

“No, they’re with my mother. Babs and I thought it was
best, since”—Shirley faltered slightly—“since Martin plans to be here with
her.”

“Oh. That’s probably wise. I mean, the boys might not understand…” Hannah’s voice trailed off as she spotted Martin Dubinski and his new wife entering the banquet room. For a new groom, Martin didn’t look very happy, and Hannah briefly wondered why. But that thought left her mind completely when she caught sight of the woman on Martin’s arm.

“Good heavens!” Hannah joined in the collective gasp that emanated from the throat of almost every person in the room.

Brandi Wyen Dubinski deserved a gasp and then some. She was drop-dead gorgeous. The auburn-haired beauty’s skin was flawless, her eyes were a delightful shade of sea green, her lashes were long, her hair was lustrous, and her figure was so remarkable, there was complete silence in the crowded banquet room. Martin’s new wife was tall, and she was obviously comfortable with her height, because she was wearing silver high-heeled boots that clung to her calves like plastic wrap.

“Wow!” Hannah breathed, blinking hard. The vision was almost too perfect to be true. Brandi was poured into a gleaming silver satin dress with a low neckline, and it was so snug it must have been tailored to hug her every curve. The smile Martin’s new wife gave to the assembled multitude showed incredibly white and even teeth. She was glamour personified, theatrical and stunning. Lake Eden had never set eyes on anyone of her magnitude before.

Hannah sneaked a quick glance at Shirley. Martin’s ex-wife was staring at her replacement with a slack jaw and a glazed look in her eyes. As Hannah watched, Babs nudged Shirley and whispered in her ear. Whatever Babs said, it worked. Shirley closed her mouth, sat up a little straighter,
and pretended she was fascinated by the Christmas tree that sat in the middle of the room, and not in the least bit interested in the new Mrs. Martin Dubinski.

“Uh-oh,” Hannah said, under her breath, wondering what she could do to defuse the situation. The tension grew as Martin spotted his mother and started to bring Brandi over to her table. Then he noticed that Shirley was there and reconsidered. It was an awkward situation, with Martin and Brandi eyeing Babs and Shirley warily; mother and ex-wife seated at the table, and husband and new wife standing only a few feet away.

There was no way Hannah was about to let the tension grow any thicker. She looked around for Andrea, caught her eye, and motioned toward Martin and Brandi. Andrea, the quintessential politician’s wife now that Bill had won the race for Winnetka County sheriff, caught on immediately and headed over to greet Martin and Brandi and show them to a table as far away from Babs and Shirley’s as the architecture of the banquet room would allow.

“Oh, there’s Mother,” Hannah said, spotting Delores as she came down the stairs. “You two enjoy the dinner. I’ve got to go say hello.”

Hannah hurried to the bottom of the stairs and greeted her mother. And then she stared up expectantly. “Where’s Winthrop?”

“Parking the car in the lot. He dropped me off right by the door. He’s just so considerate that way.” Delores Swensen waltzed into the room, looking for all the world like a grand duchess. “Would you take my coat, dear? I see a spot at that table over there that would be just perfect for us. Winthrop’s
gauche,
you know.”

“Gauche?”

“In the true sense of the word.”

“You mean…left-handed?”

“That’s right. He needs to sit at the end of the table on my left. Most people don’t realize what a true handicap that is. Practically everything is designed for right-handed people.”

“No doubt,” Hannah said, accepting what she suspected was a new dress coat from her mother.

“Do free yourself up soon and come over to meet Winthrop, dear. He’s been asking about you. And remember, we added the orange juice concentrate as a modern innovation to dear Lady Hermoine’s Chocolate Sunshine Cake.”

Hannah greeted a few more people, and then she spotted what could only be described as a dapper gentleman coming down the stairs. It had to be Winthrop. Hannah eyed him suspiciously as he walked toward her mother’s table, smiling a greeting.

Delores caught Hannah’s eye and waved. It was an order for a command appearance. Not one to dare resist such a summary summons, Hannah turned on her heel, squelched the urge to salute, and headed straight for her mother’s table.

“You must be Hannah,” her mother’s companion stated, shooting to his feet as Hannah approached them. “So nice to meet you, my dear. Delores told me you were the beauty in the family.”

Hannah resisted the urge to accuse Winthrop of being a bald-faced social liar and gave a polite little laugh. “She must have gotten me mixed up with my sisters. But anyway, we meet at last. Mother’s told me a lot about you.”

“All good, I hope?” Winthrop asked, exuding confidence that his question would be answered in the positive.