Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (22 page)

When the dough was ready, Hannah covered it with plastic wrap and stashed it in her walk-in cooler. The dough for the Black and Whites was thoroughly chilled and she grabbed a bowl and carried it over to the work island. She’d just finished rolling enough dough balls for two sheets of cookies when Lisa came in the back door.

Hannah glanced at the clock. It was only seven-thirty and Lisa wasn’t scheduled to come in until eight on Saturdays. “Hi, Lisa. You’re half an hour early.”

“I know. I just thought you might need some help with the customers this morning. We’ll be packed.”

“We will?”

“You bet. They’ll all come in to find out what you know about Max.”

Hannah’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “How did
you
find out so fast?”

“I was listening to Jake and Kelly, and they said that Max was dead. Those two guys are crazy. They were making bad cow jokes and calling it a tribute to Max.”

“Bad cow jokes?” Hannah looked up from her task of rolling the dough balls in powdered sugar.

“You know the type,” Lisa explained as she hung her jacket on the hook by the door. “‘Why did Farmer Brown buy a black cow? Because he wanted to get chocolate milk.’ That was the best of them. The rest were so bad, I don’t even remember them. Do you want me to start the coffee and set the tables up in the shop?”

Hannah nodded and slid the first two cookie sheets into the ovens. She set the timer for twelve minutes and walked back to the work island to start rolling more balls. Lisa was right. If Jake and Kelly had discussed Max Turner on their show, The Cookie Jar would be flooded with customers this morning. And when the news got out that she’d been the one to find Max’s body, it would be standing room only. Hannah sighed as she rolled more dough balls in powdered sugar. If she were ever unlucky enough to find a third body, she’d probably have to buy the building next door and expand.

Do not preheat oven yet—dough must chill before baking.

H
annah had just turned over the baking to Lisa and poured herself a cup of coffee when the phone rang. “That’s got to be Mother. She’s the only one who calls me this time of the morning.”

“Do you want me to get it?” Lisa offered helpfully, even though her hands were covered with powdered sugar.

“No, it’ll only postpone the inevitable.” Hannah lifted the receiver and gave her standard greeting. “The Cookie Jar. Hannah speaking.”

“I’m so glad I caught you, dear. I promised the girls I’d check. Are you booked for the second Thursday in December?”

Hannah stretched out the phone cord and walked over to her calendar, flipping the pages to December. No one booked
this
early, and Hannah knew that her mother was just fishing for information about Max Turner. “I’m free, Mother.”

“Good. I joined a new group.”

“That’s nice.” Hannah gave the appropriate response. She really should be more grateful. Delores had become a joiner since Hannah’s father had died, and her groups always booked Hannah to cater their events. “What’s the name of this group, Mother?”

“The Lake Eden Quilting Society, dear. They meet every other Thursday in the back room at Trudi’s Fabrics.”

Hannah obediently wrote down the information, but she was puzzled. As far as she knew, her mother had never picked up a needle in her life. “You’re
sewing
now, Mother?”

“Good heavens, no! I managed to find them two quilting frames at an auction last month and they awarded me an honorary membership. I just go to be sociable.”

“How many groups does that make now, Mother?”

“Twelve. When your father died, Ruth Pfeffer told me that I should develop outside interests. I’m just taking her advice.”

“You’re taking Ruth’s advice seriously?” Hannah was shocked. Ruth Pfeffer, one of her mother’s neighbors, had volunteered to do grief counseling at the community center after only one two-credit class at the community college. “Ruth’s a dingbat—you said so yourself—and she’s not qualified to counsel anyone. I’m surprised she didn’t suggest suttee!”

Delores laughed. “You’re right, dear. But that’s illegal, even in India.”

“Very good, Mother,” Hannah complimented her. Occasionally Delores’s sense of humor kicked in, and those were the times when Hannah liked her the best. “What kind of cookies would you like?”

“How about those Chocolate-Covered Cherry Delights? Andrea told me that they were fabulous.”

Hannah jotted it down and then she realized what her mother had said. Andrea had tasted those cookies for the first time last night. If she’d mentioned them to Delores, it must have been earlier this morning. “Did you call Andrea this morning, Mother?”

“Yes, dear. We had a lovely chat. As a matter of fact, I just got off the phone with her.”

Hannah’s eyes widened. Her sister was
not
a morning person. “You called Andrea before eight? On a Saturday?”

“Of course I did. I wanted to make sure she was all right. The poor dear sounded dreadful. She told me that her head was still reeling from that awful migraine.”

Hannah started to grin. It wasn’t surprising that Andrea’s head was reeling. She’d polished off four glasses of that “impudent little wine” before Bill had come to drive her home. “I’ve got to run, Mother. It’s late and I have to get ready to open the shop.”

“You don’t open until nine this morning. How about Max Turner? I heard on the radio that he was dead.”

Hannah rolled her eyes at Lisa, who was trying not to look amused at her attempt to end the conversation. “That’s true, Mother.”

“I know it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, but Max made a lot of enemies here in Lake Eden. I don’t think anyone is going to shed tears for him.”

“Really?” Hannah thought she knew exactly what her mother was talking about, but she wanted to hear it from Delores. “Why is that?”

“He wasn’t a nice man, Hannah. I don’t want you to repeat this, but I heard that several families lost their homes because of Max Turner.”

“Really?” Hannah did her best to sound as if this was the first she’d heard of it.

“He was a…” Delores paused, and Hannah knew that she was attempting to think of the proper word. “What’s that term, Hannah? I know it has something to do with a fish.”

“A loan shark?”

“That’s it. You have such a good vocabulary, dear. I think it comes from all that reading you did as a child. I wonder what’ll happen to those loans now?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah replied, making a mental note to ask Bill if he’d found any current loan papers in the stack of files he’d confiscated from Max’s safe. But those files would only serve to
eliminate
suspects. If Max had been killed over a current loan, his killer would have taken the papers.

“I’ve already had four calls this morning about Max,” Delores informed her. “The whole town’s talking, and everybody’s got a story to tell.”

That gave Hannah an idea and she started to smile. Delores belonged to a dozen groups and she heard all the gossip. What if her mother heard about a loan that Max had made, a name that wasn’t on any of the files that Bill had removed from the safe? That person could very well be Max’s killer. “Will you do something for me, Mother?”

“Of course, dear. What is it?”

“Keep your ears open and call me if you hear anyone discussing any business dealings with Max. It’s important. I really need to know.”

“All right, dear. I’m sure there’ll be talk—there always is. But I don’t see why it’s so import—” Delores stopped, and Hannah heard her gasp. “They didn’t go into any details about Max’s death on the radio. Was he
murdered
?”

Hannah groaned. There were times when Delores was much too perceptive to suit her. “I’m not supposed to say anything about that. It could cost Bill his promotion.”

“Then I won’t breathe a word. You can count on me, Hannah. I’d never do anything to hurt Bill’s career. But it’s just going to
kill
me not to tell Carrie!”

“I know, but the news should break any minute. Just keep listening to the radio.”

“How do you know? Did Bill tell you or…” Delores gasped again. “Don’t tell me that you discovered Max’s body!”

“I really can’t talk about it, Mother.”

There was another lengthy pause, and then Delores sighed. “You really have to stop doing this, Hannah. You’re going to scare all the eligible men off if you keep on finding murder victims. The only one who might give you a second glance would be a homicide detective!”

“I suppose you’re right.” Hannah started to grin. Perhaps finding bodies wasn’t so bad, after all. “I really do have to run, Mother. Just remember to call me if you hear anything, okay?”

Hannah hung up and turned to Lisa. “That woman can talk longer than anyone I know.”

“Mothers are like that,” Lisa responded, but she looked very grave. “I couldn’t help hearing your end of the conversation. Was Max murdered?”

“I’m afraid he was.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. He
was
a loan shark. One of our neighbors almost borrowed some money from him, but Dad looked over the papers and told him not to sign. He ended up getting a bank loan instead.”

Hannah was about to ask her the neighbor’s name when she realized that it didn’t really matter. If the neighbor hadn’t signed, he’d have no motive to kill Max.

“Why don’t you sit down, Hannah? You look beat and it’s only eight-thirty. And think seriously about taking the day off. You know I can handle things here.”

“Thanks, Lisa. I’m really tempted.” Hannah sat down on the stool at the end of the work island and thought about a day off. She could go home, brush Moishe, watch a little television, and call in a million times to find out what was happening. It was better to stay here, in the thick of things. “Thanks for offering, but I wouldn’t rest anyway.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind, just let me know. What do you want me to bake when I finish with the Black and Whites?”

“The Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies,” Hannah answered. “They should be chilled by then. There’s only one batch of dough.”

“Do you want me to roll them in white sugar, or mixed?”

“Just white. When they’re cool, pick out a dozen of the best and pack them for shipping. I promised to send a sample box to the Woodleys’ caterer.”

Lisa looked pleased. “New business?”

“Maybe. You haven’t said anything about the party. Did you have a good time?”

“It was fantastic, Hannah. I’ve never been to such a fancy party before. It’s just too bad that we had to leave early.”

“Herb was called out to the accident scene?”

“No, but he thought he should go anyway. I had him drop me off at home before he went out there. I didn’t feel like staying at the party alone. He called me later and he said it was a miracle no one had been killed. Seventeen cars! Can you imagine that?”

“Unfortunately, I can. I’d better go up front, Lisa. It’s almost time to open.”

As she went through the swinging door, Hannah thought about the massive car pileup she’d almost joined on the interstate last year. All it took was one patch of ice, a lapse in judgment, and several drivers following too closely. She’d taken the shoulder to avoid hitting the huge Red Owl grocery truck ahead of her and she’d considered herself fortunate to wind up in a soft snowy ditch.

It was a dark morning and Hannah switched on the lights. She wasn’t looking forward to the dark winter season with sunrise at nine and sunset at four. It was even worse for people like Phil Plotnik, who worked the night shift at DelRay Manufacturing. It was dark when he went to work, dark when he came home from work, and if the sun didn’t shine on the weekends, he missed out completely.

A car pulled up in front of the shop and Hannah recognized Bill’s old clunker. She hurried to unlock the door and scanned Bill’s face in the light flooding out of the windows as he walked up to the door. He was smiling and Hannah was relieved. Bill wasn’t the type to hold a grudge and it was clear that he’d forgiven her for involving his wife in her sleuthing last night.

“Hi, Hannah.” Bill came in and hung up his coat on the strip of hooks near the door. “I found out about that rental car that Andrea’s client saw. The name of the company is Compacts Unlimited.”

Hannah ducked behind the counter to pour Bill a mug of coffee. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“They’re a small outfit. Their main office is in Minneapolis and they’ve got a total of fourteen lots all over the state. I talked to the woman in charge of reservations. She said their office didn’t rent to anybody with a Lake Eden address, but she’s sending me a printout of everyone who’s rented from them in the past two weeks.”

“When?”

“ASAP. She doesn’t know how to gather the data from the other locations, but she said she’d call in their computer expert.”

“So you’ll have it today?”

“That’s doubtful. The computer guy went away for the weekend, but she’s trying to find him.” Bill’s gaze shifted toward the cookies behind the counter. “Are those Chocolate Chip Crunches?”

Hannah nodded and set out two cookies for him. This wasn’t the time to remind him that he should probably watch his weight. “Did you get a chance to look at the files that were in Max’s old safe?”

“Mmm.” Bill swallowed. “Max made a lot of loans to a lot of people. Some of them were old, but I found about ten active ones. That’s ten more suspects I’m going to have to check out.”

Hannah shook her head. “I think that’s a waste of time. If someone shot Max to get his loan papers, he wouldn’t have left them behind.”

“Good point. What do you think I should do with them?”

“Make a list of the names and then lock them up in the evidence room.”

Bill looked confused. “Why should I make a list of the names when none of those people are suspects?”

“So that you can check them against any gossip we hear. If somebody talks about one of Max’s active loans and it’s
not
on your list, it could point to the killer.”

“That’s very clever, Hannah. I’ll do it just as soon as I get to the station. Did you think of anything else that I should do?”

“Not really, but at least we’ve got a theory.”

“Is it the same one you told me about the other night?”

“Absolutely. I was watching
Klute
and that’s what gave me the idea. We’ll know if it’s right just as soon as the ballistics reports come back.”

“That’ll take a while, but I talked to Doc Knight this morning. He’s got a good eye and he told me that it looked like the same type of bullet that killed Ron.”

Hannah laughed. “I could have told him
that
!”

“Me too. Lake Eden’s too small to have more than one murderer. Tell me your theory again, Hannah. I want to see if everything fits.”

Hannah poured a mug of coffee for herself and sat down on the stool behind the counter. “Ron saw Max meeting with the killer at six-fifteen on Wednesday morning. After Ron left, the killer shot Max. The killer was afraid that once Max’s body was found, Ron would put two and two together and identify him. That’s why he tracked Ron down and shot him.”

“But didn’t the woman with the pink lipstick say that they weren’t followed?”

“She did, but that doesn’t rule anything out. Don’t forget that Ron’s route was posted on the wall right outside Betty’s office. The killer could have checked it and caught up with him later.”

“That makes sense.” Bill took another bite of his cookie and chewed thoughtfully. “Then you’re saying that Ron was killed just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

“That’s it. If Ron hadn’t gone into the dairy to pick up that extra box of Cozy Cow pens, he’d be alive today.”

Bill winced. “Talk about bad luck! Are you sure that Max was killed because of a loan he made?”

“I’m not sure of anything, but it makes the most sense. The safe in the old dairy was open, but there’s no way we can tell if anything is missing. I doubt that even Betty knows what was inside.”

“She doesn’t.” Bill looked smug. “I called her this morning to ask. She told me that Max was the only one with the combination and she’d never even seen him open it. They kept all the cash from the dairy in the new safe that’s in her office.”