Cream Puff Murder (25 page)

“That’s true,” Hannah said, thinking about how Ronni had mixed up drinks at her party and then climbed in the Jacuzzi when everyone left. Was the killer someone who’d stayed behind with her? Or was it someone who’d come in after the partygoers had gone?

“You look worried, Hannah,” Norman said, reaching out to pat her shoulder.

“I’m not really worried. I’m just wondering how we can possibly watch all sixty hours on these tapes.”

“Lisa and I can take six hours,” Herb offered. “We’ll start watching right after dinner, and if we fast-forward, we’ll be through by ten.”

“You don’t mind?” Hannah turned to Lisa.

“Not at all.” Lisa shook her head. “Can we take a tape from the weight room? I just love to see guys straining their muscles and lifting weights.”

Herb laughed. “Not a good idea. If there’s a cute guy working out, she’ll want to watch it three or four times. And then we’ll never get any sleep!”

“Herb!” Lisa said sternly, but then she blew it by giggling. “Okay. If my husband doesn’t think I should watch handsome men in the weight room, you can give us the hallway. That ought to be perfectly innocuous.”

The bell on the door tinkled, and Lisa shot to her feet. “Noon rush,” she said, motioning to Michelle.

Lisa said good-bye to Herb while Michelle took her place at the cash register. Then Lisa tied on a serving apron and started to wait tables. The bell was ringing now in a steady cadence.

“My house. Six tonight,” Norman said, getting to his feet. “I’ll take the tapes with me and set up three or four viewing rooms.”

“I can stop somewhere and bring takeout for dinner,” Hannah suggested.

“There’s no need. I’ll make a big bowl of that egg salad you liked. We can have ours on lettuce with sliced tomatoes. Everybody else can have sandwiches.”

“I’ll bring something for dessert.”

“That’s fine. Make it something they can eat while we watch the tapes. We’ll try to get through as many as we can tonight.”

“If we don’t finish, I can always take some home to Grandma McCann,” Andrea offered. “She can watch some during the day while Bethany’s napping and Tracey’s in school.”

“Good idea. I’ll see if I can get Doc Bennett to watch a couple for me tonight. When he came into the clinic this morning, he said there was nothing he wanted to watch on regular television and it was pretty sad to have to judge his bedtime by the number of One Eight-Hundred Dentist commercials he’d seen.”

Hannah chuckled at that. “I’d ask Mother and Carrie, but they’re going out to The Moosehead tonight. Maybe we can ask them tomorrow if they’re in a good mood.”

“Maybe,” Norman said as he closed the briefcase and snapped it shut. “Bring Moishe with you tonight. Cuddles is home now.”

“She got the mouse at your dental clinic?”

“Yes, she did. She’s a good hunter.”

“You found the carcass?”

“I found part of it. She’s a good eater, too.”

Hannah laughed. She knew exactly what Norman meant. Moishe often left her select mouse parts to let her know that he appreciated living with her.

“See you tonight,” Norman said, turning toward the door.

“Norman?” Hannah gave him her most winning smile. “Will you do something just for me?”

“That depends on what it is.”

“This time please write down the recipe for your egg salad. It’s the best I’ve ever tasted.”

NORMAN’S EGG SALAD

4 cups peeled and chopped hard-boiled eggs.
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(That’s about a dozen extra large eggs—measure after chopping)

½ cup crumbled cooked bacon (make your own or use real crumbled bacon from a can—I used Hormel Premium Real Crumbled Bacon)

1 Tablespoon chopped parsley (it’s better if it’s fresh, but you can use dried parsley flakes if you don’t have fresh on hand)

¼ cup grated carrots (for color and a bit of sweetness)

4 ounces cream cheese

¼ cup sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise (I used Best Foods, which is Hellmann’s in some states)

½ teaspoon garlic powder (or ½ teaspoon freshly minced garlic)

½ teaspoon onion powder (or 1 teaspoon freshly minced onion)

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Peel and chop the hard-boiled eggs. Add the crumbled bacon, the parsley, and the grated carrots. Mix well.

Put the cream cheese in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH to soften it. If it can be easily stirred with a fork, add the sour cream and mayonnaise, and mix well. If the cream cheese is still too solid, give it another 10 seconds or so before you add the other ingredients.

Stir in the garlic powder and onion powder.

Add the cream cheese mixture to the bowl with the eggs and stir it all up. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, and chill until ready to serve.

Serve by itself on a lettuce leaf, as filling in a sandwich, or stuffed in Hannah’s Very Best Cream Puffs for a fancy luncheon.

Yield: Makes approximately a dozen superb egg salad sandwiches.

H annah let the springs on the machine she thought of as the Push Me, Pull Me snap back into place with a loud thwack. It was bad for the machine, she knew that, but she simply didn’t have enough energy to return the pedals and the handlebars to the starting position any other way. She was weary, worn out, ready to drop, and dead beat. In other words, she’d had it!

Three hours of exercise classes was too much for any normal human being. Hannah was willing to testify to that. Thank goodness she didn’t have to go back to The Cookie Jar today! She could go straight home, take a shower, feed Moishe, make some sort of dessert, and drive to Norman’s to watch surveillance tapes. Big whoopie.

“Miss Swensen?”

Hannah turned to see an older man with short-cropped gray hair smiling at her. He was wearing a mall security uniform, his bearing was stiffly military, and he looked alert and competent. “Yes?”

“I’m Frank Hurley. Charlotte called and said you might want to talk to me.”

“Hello, Frank,” Hannah greeted him. She should have known that Charlotte would jump the gun. “I’m glad to meet you, but I don’t really have any questions for you. You weren’t working the night of Ronni’s murder, were you?”

“I was working, but my shift ended at midnight. I heard she was killed a lot later than that. Is that right?”

“Yes.” Hannah didn’t see any harm in telling the security guard the facts. “Doc Knight says it was sometime between one and two-thirty in the morning.”

“It was a terrible thing to happen, but I won’t lie and say I’m sorry she’s gone. Miss Ward wasn’t a nice person. She caused a lot of hurt feelings around here. I’m just sorry that Tad was working that night. I know it was hard on the boy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He’s never been at a murder scene before.”

“And you have?” Hannah was curious.

“A couple of times when I worked private security for an after-hours club in the Cities. People get liquored up and do crazy things. Most of the time we could break it up before things got too hot, but there were a couple of altercations that got way out of hand.”

“You sound pretty calm about it.”

“Sure…now. That was over thirty years ago, and I don’t take that kind of work anymore. It’s usually pretty tame duty out here at the mall. That’s one of the reasons I wanted Tad to work here.” Frank took a step closer and lowered his voice. “Please don’t say anything to anybody, but Tad’s my nephew and I got him the job. I told the head guy I knew somebody good who was looking for a mall job, and he took my recommendation and hired Tad. He wouldn’t have done it if he’d known that we were related. There’s some kind of rule against it.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything.”

“Thanks. Tad’s my sister’s youngest, and he’s always been like a son to me. As far as I can see, he’s only got one weakness.”

“What’s that?”

Frank looked a bit embarrassed. “It’s women,” he said. “He picks the wrong ones.”

“Quite a few people I know have that problem,” Hannah said, giving him a commiserating smile.

“Tad needs a nice girl, one with good moral fiber, if you know what I mean.”

“I think I do.”

“I’ve tried to talk some sense into him, but he won’t listen. He just keeps trying to get the wrong girls to go out with him.”

Hannah nodded, remembering that Charlotte had told her Frank liked to lecture people.

“Well, I’d better get back to work,” Frank said, turning to go. “Nice talking to you, Hannah. Just call me if you need me for anything. Charlotte said she gave you my number.”

When Frank left, Hannah dragged her tired body to the dressing room, slipped on her coat, and grabbed her clothes. She’d change at home. Right now all she wanted was to be transported to her condo in an instant by the flick of a magic wand, or the click of ruby slippers.

She’d almost made it to her cookie truck when a voice hailed her. Hannah turned to see Tad Newberg heading her way. He was dressed in a parka that said MALL SECURITY over the breast pocket. A fur-lined hat with the same designation embroidered in green was clamped on his head, and he looked a lot warmer than she felt in her perspiration-soaked workout clothes.

“I noticed you were still here,” Tad said, giving her a smile in greeting.

“I’m just leaving. What are you doing here so early?”

“I’m pulling a double today. One of the day guys called in sick. How are you girls coming along with the investigation?”

Hannah was surprised. When they’d talked to Tad at the security station, none of them had mentioned that they were attempting to solve Ronni’s murder. “Who said we were investigating?” she asked, answering his question with one of her own.

“A couple of the ladies in your classes. They said you and your sisters always get involved when there’s a murder. I was just wondering if you found out anything.”

“Nothing yet,” Hannah said, deciding it couldn’t hurt to share that information. “How about you?”

“Me? It’s not my job to investigate murders.”

“I know that. I just wondered if you’d noticed anything unusual since the night Ronni was killed.”

“Like what?”

“Like somebody who used to come out here every night and hasn’t been seen since Ronni died. The regular detectives would miss that, but you’d notice.”

“You’re right. I would. I don’t think…no, I haven’t noticed anything like that. The only unusual thing that happened since she died was the attempted break-in at Bianco Shoes. They didn’t get anything. The alarm scared them off.”

A cold wind whipped around the corner of Hannah’s truck. She shivered and pulled up the zipper on her parka.

“You’re cold. You’d better get going,” Tad said, opening the door of her truck for her. “It’s supposed to get down to fifteen below tonight, and that’s not counting the wind chill.”

Hannah shivered again and climbed into her icy cold truck. She reached back for a roll of Molasses Crackles and handed them to him. “Thanks, Tad. Here’s a roll of cookies for you. They’re frozen, but they should thaw in about twenty minutes after you get back inside.”

“That’s really nice of you. Thanks, Hannie.”

“Hannie?”

“When I like someone, I give them a nickname. You know, like Susan is Suzie. Hannah’s a tough one.”

She certainly is! Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it.

“I hope you don’t mind the nickname thing.” Tad looked a bit worried. “If you’d rather, I can call you Hannah.”

“No, it’s okay,” Hannah said quickly. She just wanted to cut this conversation short and get on the road. “Good-bye, Tad.”

Hannah started her truck to cut off any further dialogue. She was just too cold to chat. Tad took the hint by giving a little wave and heading for the entrance.

As she drove home, Hannah began to smile. It was a good thing Tad hadn’t known that Louise was her middle name. He might have decided to call her Weezie instead of Hannie, and she didn’t know which nickname she disliked more.

“Again?” Hannah stared down at the empty Kitty Valet. “Good heavens, Moishe!”

“Rowww.” Moishe gave a plaintive meow and brushed up against her ankles.

“Okay. You can have more. Hold on a second and I’ll fill it up.” Hannah unlocked the door to the broom closet and came back with a scoop of dry cat food. She retraced her footsteps four times until the food tube on the Kitty Valet was full. “There it is,” she said, clamping the lid on tightly. “I just wish I knew where you were…the camera!”

The minute she thought of it, Hannah reached up to flick off the red switch on the camera. She pushed the button that extracted the tape and retrieved the carrier that Mike had left on the kitchen counter. Her next stop was the living room. Hannah slipped the tape and carrier into her VCR, set it to rewind, and headed toward her bedroom. She’d get out of her soaked exercise outfit, take a lightning fast shower, put on the warmest clothes she owned, grab a fresh cup of coffee from the pot she’d put on when she’d arrived home, and settle down on the couch with the remote control to see where Moishe was hiding his kitty crunchies.

Fifteen minutes later, Hannah was still in the dark. The surveillance camera must have failed somehow, because there were only two shots of Moishe leaving the kitchen. In the first shot, he’d entered the living room and jumped up to the back of the couch to take a nap. At least Hannah assumed he’d been napping. The camera had clicked off. When it reactivated, it caught Moishe in the act of jumping down from the back of the couch and padding into the kitchen again. The third shot showed Moishe leaving the kitchen and heading off toward the laundry room, presumably to use his litter box. And that was all. The rest of the tape was blank.

Hannah removed the tape from her VCR, popped it out of the carrier, and took it back to the kitchen. She’d return it to the camera and run a little test. She’d turn on the camera and leave the kitchen a prescribed number of times. Then she’d turn off the camera and watch the tape to see whether it had activated correctly.

Hannah had just reinserted the tape when her cell phone rang. Since it was in her purse on the counter within easy reach, she answered it.

“Hello? This is Hannah.”