Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (11 page)

T
he Coffee and Cream Cookies had been such a huge success, Hannah and Lisa were making them for the third day in a row. Lisa had just finished slipping the last cookie sheet into the industrial oven when the phone in the kitchen rang.

“I’ll get it,” Hannah said, crossing to the phone that hung on the wall. “This is The Cookie Jar, Hannah speaking.”

“Well, Hannah. How nice to talk to you again!” the caller said, causing Hannah to frown deeply. “You know who this is, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes.” Hannah clamped her lips together, waiting for the caller to continue.

“I have an order for you,” the caller said.

“Yes.” Hannah motioned to Lisa. There was no way she was going to take this call. “Excuse me, but my oven timer’s ringing. I’ll put Lisa on to take your order.”

Lisa looked puzzled as she took the phone. “Hello, this is Lisa,” she said. And then, after the caller had identified herself, she gave Hannah a sympathetic glance. “Yes, Doctor Bev. We do bar cookies. What type would you like to order?”

Hannah watched as Lisa wrote the order on the pad they kept by the phone. “Yes, we can bake lemon bars. How many pans would you like? Five by two this afternoon? And Mr. Dalworth will pick them up? Certainly. Is there anything else you’d like to order?”

Lisa rolled her eyes in Hannah’s direction and gave a little shrug. “I see. Yes, I can get a list and read it to you. I would stay away from chocolate though. It’s going to be hot this afternoon. If you’ll hold on a moment, I’ll get the list.”

Lisa hit the hold button on the phone and hurried over to Hannah. “She wants five pans of six different types of bars. That’s thirty pans total, and I didn’t think you’d want to turn it down.”

“You’re right,” Hannah said, even though she wasn’t thrilled about baking for Doctor Bev.

On her way back to the phone, Lisa stopped at the center work island and picked up their book of recipes. She flipped to the bar cookies and picked up the phone again.

“Doctor Bev? I’m back. How about Multiple Choice Bar Cookies with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate?” She listened for a moment and then she jotted it down. “Five pans of those, is that correct?” She listened for another moment and then she said, “We also have Pineapple Right-Side-Up Bar Cookies. They’re very popular in the summer.”

Hannah watched as Lisa added them to her list. Lisa was a great little saleswoman.

“Apple? Oh, yes. We bake Apple Orchard Bar Cookies. Most people love those.” Again, Lisa added a line to her list. “Strawberry? Why, yes. We have Strawberry Shortcake Bar Cookies. They’re excellent and they’ll hold up in the heat.”

Hannah could see the list with its five entries. One to go. As far as she knew, they didn’t have any other non-chocolate bar cookies, unless . . . The moment Hannah thought about it she was moving. She grabbed the list and jotted down an entry. She’d never tried those particular bars before, but they ought to work just fine.

Lisa glanced down at the list. She read what Hannah had written and spoke into the receiver again. “I think the only flavor you’re really missing out on is raspberry. How about our new Berried Treasure Bar Cookies? They have a thin layer of chocolate on top, but we’ll chill them for you.” She listened and then she said, “Raspberry is Roger’s favorite? Wonderful! He’s bound to just love them! They’re my very favorite.”

Hannah hid a grin. Lisa didn’t even know what the bar cookies were, but she was claiming they were her favorite.

“Yes, we’ll have them all ready for Mr. Dalworth by two this afternoon. Is there anything else . . . oh! Why . . . yes. We certainly can bake another dozen Red Velvet Surprise Cupcakes. Thank you so much for your order.”

The moment Lisa hung up the phone, Hannah asked the important question. “Did she say why she needed so many bar cookies?”

“Yes. The dome for the penthouse garden is coming in at two-thirty this afternoon, and Roger’s ordered a tent so that she can serve cold drinks and bar cookies to everyone who wants to watch the giant crane hoist it up and put it in place.”

“But . . . how about the crime scene? Doesn’t the sheriff’s department have it roped off?”

“Not anymore. Herb told me they took down the tape last night.”

“So she’s free and clear to play Lady Bountiful.”

“Right. How about closing early today and going to watch the spectacle?”

“Might as well. We won’t get much business when everybody and their cousin finds out that there’s free dessert only a few blocks away.”

There was a knock at the kitchen door, but before either one of them could go to answer it, Andrea burst in. “Did you hear?”

“Hear what?” Hannah asked her sister.

“They’re delivering the dome for the penthouse garden this afternoon. A gigantic crane is going to lift it up and place it on the roof.”

“We heard,” Lisa answered her. “Hannah and I were just discussing whether we should close early.”

“Close,” Andrea advised. “Bill just called to tell me that they’re passing out flyers telling everybody to come to the hotel, that there’ll be free dessert and drinks.”

Hannah exchanged glances with Lisa. “Well, that didn’t take long, did it?”

“What?” Andrea looked puzzled.

“The flyers. Lisa just got off the phone with Doctor Bev.”

Andrea turned to Lisa. “What did
she
want?”

“Thirty pans of bar cookies at two o’clock this afternoon. Roger’s coming in to pick them up.”

“At least it’s good for your business.”

“That’s true,” Hannah said, “for two reasons. Number one, The Cookie Jar gets paid to bake them. And number two, Doctor Bev can’t claim she made them because everyone in town knows she can’t bake.”

Andrea frowned slightly. “You used to be able to say that same thing about me.”

“But not anymore. Those Apple Cinnamon Whippersnappers of yours are super.”

“And the Chocolate Whippersnappers you made for the Christmas cookie exchange were incredible,” Lisa added. “I brought them home and while I was making dinner, Herb found them. When I went to serve them for dessert, there was one cookie left!”

Andrea laughed, clearly pleased. “The nice thing about whippersnappers is you can make them up out of any cake mix. So far I’ve used chocolate, spice, and lemon. I wonder what I could do with yellow.”

“Pineapple,” Lisa said immediately. “ “Pineapple and coconut. And maybe some kind of nut. Pineapple is Herb’s favorite fruit, and he loves coconut, too. If you could make whippersnappers like that, Herb would eat a whole batch!”

“Well . . . I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work as long as I made sure the pineapple was drained really well. The coconut would help. That’s dry. I think I’ll experiment a little when I go home tonight.”

Hannah began to smile. Andrea was beginning to think like a baker and it was all due to the cake mix whippersnapper recipes. She thought that they were easy, and they were. But Andrea was learning a thing or two about ingredients as she was experimenting.

“As a matter of fact, Barbara loves pineapple,” Andrea continued. “If I can get them to turn out really well, I might take some to her.”

“Check with Doc Knight,” Hannah warned.

“Oh, I will. And that reminds me . . .” Andrea glanced at Lisa. “Lisa knows what’s happening, doesn’t she?”

“Yes. I told her the morning after Norman and Mike came over for dinner.”

“Both of them?” Andrea looked a bit shocked.

“It started out with Norman. I asked him to come over for dinner when I ran into him at the hospital on Sunday. And then Mike called and wanted to come over right before we were about to sit down for dinner. And Norman took the phone and invited Mike.”

Andrea rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Norman’s too nice for his own good.”

“Sometimes . . . yes,” Hannah agreed, wisely deciding not to mention which man had stayed at her condo the latest.

“Mother called me. She managed to find Barbara’s mother’s medical records. Barbara was her first baby and she couldn’t have any more after Barbara was born. She had a hysterectomy.”

“So Barbara
couldn’t
have a brother,” Andrea concluded.

. “Not a full brother, but how about a half-brother?” Lisa asked. “That would count as a brother.”

“You’re a genius!” Hannah said, smiling at her partner. “I never thought of that! Barbara’s brother could be her father’s child.”

“I’ll look into it,” Andrea promised.

“And I’ll ask Dad,” Lisa promised. “He has good days and bad days, but on the good days, he remembers a lot. I can ask Marge, too. She might remember.”

“Good idea,” Hannah said, and then she turned to her sister. “Are you going to see the crane?”

“Yes. Tracey wants to see it and I promised I would. It’s going to be quite a sight, Hannah. How about you? Are you going?”

Hannah made a snap decision. “We’re going right after Roger picks up the bar cookies.”

“Wonderful!” Lisa began to smile. “I’ve never seen a crane that big. I’m going to call Marge and tell her so she can bring Dad. I’ll ask them to come here first. Then they can take care of the coffee shop while we bake the bars and the cupcakes for Roger.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Andrea asked.

“As a matter of fact there is.” Hannah pulled some money out of her pocket. “Will you run down to the Red Owl and tell Florence that we need eight jars of seedless raspberry jam?”

“Sure. I know she’s got raspberry jam. I bought some the other day. But I don’t think it was seedless.”

“That’s okay. We can always melt it and strain it.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Yes. Six double packages of brownie mix.”

Once Andrea had left for the grocery store, Lisa turned to Hannah. “Where’s the recipe for the Berried Treasure Bar Cookies? I’ll start on them as soon as Andrea comes back with the jam.”

“There isn’t one.”

“No recipe?”

“Nope. I’m just going to wing it. I’ll jot down the recipe as I go, and if they turn out, we’ll add it to our book.”

Lisa stared at her in something very close to awe. “You’re going to make up a recipe on the fly?”

“You betcha!”

“But what if the Berried Treasure Bar Cookies don’t turn out?”

Hannah gave a little shrug. “That’s why I asked Andrea to pick up the brownie mix. I’ll just bake six double batches of brownies and glaze the top of the pan with melted raspberry jam. And then I’ll frost the top with chocolate frosting.”

“Brownies from a mix?”

“Think of it as insurance. I’ll use my own brownie recipe unless I run into a time crunch. If that happens, I’ll just use the mix.”

“Do you think that’ll work?”

“Oh, yes. Doctor Bev will never know the difference and we’ll have a good laugh at her expense.”