Joanne Fluke Christmas Bundle: Sugar Cookie Murder, Candy Cane Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, & Gingerbread Cookie Murder (7 page)

“Right,” Hannah said. It was a sweet idea and Bethie would love a globe ball, but it would be hopelessly out of date by the time she could read the names. Proof of that pudding was at the Olympics. Every year new countries were formed, old countries were dissolved, and other countries were renamed. The parade of nations was never the same from one Olympics to the next.

“It was just a thought and I found something else for her,” Andrea said, approaching the gate to the parking lot.

“What?”

“They had these darling crocheted animals. The clerk said they were handmade by someone in Lake Eden, and I bought an elephant for Bethie. Then I noticed a lion and I got that for Tracey. She’s into big jungle cats this year.”

“Were they expensive?”

“Yes, but they were really well made and they’re washable. I don’t think twenty dollars is too much to pay for a hand-crafted stuffed animal, do you?”

“No, especially not if you’re supporting a local cottage industry. That’s important.” Hannah remembered what Larry had told her and turned to look at her sister. “Did you happen to notice the woman who was running the toy shop? Her name is Courtney and she’s Larry Jaeger’s fiancée.”

Andrea thought for a moment. “She was probably the short brunette wearing the red velvet jumper and white lace blouse. She had on a Santa hat and all the rest of the cashiers were high school girls dressed like elves.”

The two sisters walked down the row until they came to Andrea’s car. Norman and Mike had loaded the tree on top and tied it down securely. Hannah turned to look at Norman’s car and she saw that he also had a tree tied to the top. “You got a tree?” she asked him.

“No,
you
got a tree.”

“Me!?” Hannah looked up at the huge Scotch Pine and then she turned back to Norman. “This is really nice of you, Norman. But cats and Christmas trees don’t get along.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

“Well…no, but I’ve heard it doesn’t work out. Cats do things like climb up the branches, bat all the ornaments to the floor, and swallow the tinsel.”

“You won’t know that for sure unless you try it,” Andrea pointed out. “Barbara Donnelly has a cat and she always gets a Christmas tree.”

“That’s right,” Mike said. “Barbara told me that her cat never even notices her tree. I think you should try it. Moishe’s a nice cat. He’s always been a good boy and he probably won’t bother your tree at all.”

Hannah turned to stare at Mike in disbelief. He’d just described the cat who’d run laps in her bathtub at two in the morning as a
nice cat
. This same
good boy
had torn all of the stuffing out of her couch pillows, emptied his litter box on the laundry room floor, chewed a hole in the side of her kitchen broom closet, and dragged her underwear out of the laundry basket to scatter over the living room rug as a display for any company she might bring home with her. Moishe was a funny cat, a great companion, and a well-loved roommate. But not by any stretch of the imagination could he be accurately described as a
nice cat
, or a
good boy
.

“Just try the tree overnight,” Norman suggested in an attempt to overcome her lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll set it up for you and everything. I just hate to think of you without a Christmas tree. It smells good, and it’s pretty, and it’ll make your whole condo feel like Christmas.”

“Well…” Hannah hesitated. She’d really missed having a Christmas tree.

“I tell you what,” Norman went into his closing argument. “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll come and take it away.”

“How can I refuse an offer like that?” Hannah stepped closer to hug him. Buying a Christmas tree for her was a sweet thing to do. “But I want you to have a heart-to-heart talk with Moishe tonight, right after you set it up.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Just tell him that my tree isn’t really a tree.”

“What?”

“I mean…it’s a tree, but it’s not a regular outside tree. It’s an inside tree and it’s a decoration for Christmas.”

“Do you think Moishe can tell the difference?”

“I think so, especially if you give him an example. You might want to explain that his kitty kondo is entertainment for kitties, and the Christmas tree is entertainment for people.” Hannah stopped and shook her head. “On second thought…never mind.”

“But why?” Andrea asked her. “I thought that sounded perfectly reasonable.”

“It did and it is. It’s just that the distinction won’t work on Moishe.”

“Why not?” This time it was Mike who asked the question.

“Because Moishe doesn’t recognize the difference between people things and cat things. He thinks he’s a four-legged person in a fur suit. He has no idea that he’s a cat.”

WHITE CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN DREAMS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.,
rack in the middle position.

This recipe is from Michelle’s roommate, Susan, and it’s a real winner!

You can either spray your cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or line them with parchment paper. Either way will work fine.

Mix the white sugar with the brown sugar. Stir until the mixture is a uniform color.

Add the sticks of softened butter and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the beaten egg and mix it in thoroughly.

Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix them in thoroughly.

Mix in the nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom.
(Susan uses pumpkin pie spice instead of the freshly ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom.)

Measure out one cup of pumpkin and add it to your bowl. Stir it in until the mixture is smooth.

Add the flour in half-cup increments, stirring the batter smooth after each addition.

Add the white chocolate chips. Mix them in and then add the chopped pecans. Stir everything in thoroughly.

Use a teaspoon to scoop out some dough and drop it on your cookie sheet. These cookies will be small, but they spread out when they bake. Place the cookie dough balls 3 to a horizontal row, 4 rows to a cookie sheet.

Bake the White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they’re firm.
(Mine took 13 minutes.)

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let the cookies set up for 2 minutes. Then use a metal spatula to remove the cookies from the cookie sheets and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When all the cookies are baked and cooled, it’s time to frost them. The following is a wonderful brown sugar frosting that will go well with White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams.

Susan’s Frosting:

Combine the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and bring it to a boil on the stove over medium-high heat.

Boil the mixture for 1 minute or until it’s slightly thickened.

Pull the saucepan off the heat and cool the mixture for 10 minutes.

Add the milk
(or half and half)
and beat the mixture until smooth.

Add the powdered sugar by half-cup increments, stirring after each addition. Keep adding the powdered sugar until the mixture reaches spreading consistency.

Frost the cookies. If you’d like to dress them up a bit, place a half pecan on top of each cookie before the frosting hardens.

Hannah’s Note: I just want to point out that since these cookies are made with pumpkin and pumpkin is a variety of squash, the kids may try to convince you that eating several White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams takes the place of a serving of vegetables.

Lisa’s Note: Sometimes I don’t have the time to make this frosting, especially when Dad and Herb are standing right there, waiting for the White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams to come out of the oven. They won’t wait for me to cook frosting, so I just sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar and serve them that way.

Yield: approximately 6 dozen yummy cookies, depending on cookie size.

M
ike was waiting for them when they pulled into the garage and Hannah noted with some amusement that he’d parked in her second spot right next to her cookie truck. It was another example of the rivalry that still existed between the two men. Mike had probably thought that if Norman had to move his car to the guest parking lot once they’d unloaded the tree and carried it upstairs, he probably wouldn’t stay. But what Mike hadn’t known when he’d taken the prime parking place was that Hannah’s neighbors, Marguerite and Clara Hollenbeck, had offered the use of their second spot whenever Hannah needed it.

“You can park behind Marguerite and Clara’s car,” Hannah told Norman.

“Perfect.” Norman pulled into the adjacent spot. “It’ll be easier to unload the tree from here. Your spot is right next to the post.”

As they got out of the car, Hannah turned to look. Norman was right. If he’d parked in her second spot, the one next to her cookie truck that currently held Mike’s cruiser, they would have had to work around one of the big concrete pillars that held up the garage.

“I’ll take it from here,” Mike said, walking over to the driver’s side of Norman’s car.

Norman walked around the back of the car and stood by the passenger door. “I’ll get it on this side,” he said.

Hannah watched as the two men worked in tandem. Norman loosened the rope from his side and threw it over the top of the car to Mike, who untied it and tossed it back. They did this a half-dozen times before the rope was off and her tree was free.

“Your side or mine?” Norman asked.

“Yours. There’s more room over there. We’ll pull it off and stand it up. Then you take the top and I’ll take the base, and we’ll carry it up the stairs.”

“Wait a second,” Norman gestured to Hannah. “There’s a tree stand in the backseat on the floor. Will you get it out and loosen the screws? We’ll put your tree in the stand down here and then we’ll carry it upstairs. You won’t have as many needles on your rug that way.”

“Thanks!” Hannah said, opening the back door to retrieve the tree stand. As her mother and sisters were so fond of telling her, Norman was a real find. Most men wouldn’t have given her living room rug a second thought, but he was always planning ahead to make her life easier.

The tree stand was a challenge as they soon discovered. There were four long screws protruding into the center ring that could be cranked in or out to tighten the base of the tree in the stand. At the present, they were in all the way and it took longer than Hannah thought it would to loosen them. Both Norman and Mike knelt down to help and the three of them turned the cranks until their wrists were sore.

“Is that in far enough?” Hannah asked, pointing to her screw.

Norman looked over at what she’d done and nodded. “It looks good to me. Just let me work on this last screw for a minute and I’ll see how much room we’ve got.”

“When you’re through, we can try to put the tree in.” Mike straightened up and rubbed the small of his back. “I don’t like this tree stand.”

Norman looked up from his crouched position on the garage floor. “Neither do I, but this was the best they had. The problem was, I didn’t know if Hannah had one and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise by asking.”

“It’s a good thing you got it,” Hannah told him. “I have the one down at the shop, but that’s it.”

“You’d think that with cell phones that do practically everything except pack your lunch, somebody could come up with a better design.” Mike looked down at the tree stand. “This one’s been around since I was a kid.”

“There was another kind, but I thought it looked even worse,” Norman told them. “It has a sharp spike on the bottom and you’re supposed to lay the tree on its side and drive the spike into the base with a hammer.”

Mike looked confused. “How are you supposed to do that?” he asked. “If you try to pound in the spike, the tree will just scoot across the floor. And even if you hold it with one hand, you need both hands to pound in the spike.”

“You’re right.” Norman said. “You need one hand to hold the spike at the center of the trunk. And you need the other hand for the hammer.”

“Then it must take two people to use that kind of tree stand,” Hannah suggested.

“I think it would take three people,” Norman corrected her. “Have you ever tried to hold a board steady while someone else hammers a nail into it?”

“I have,” Mike told him. “My brother and I used to put up fencing around my mother’s vegetable garden to keep out the rabbits. Other people used chain link, but our mother wanted a green picket fence with two inches between the pickets. I was the youngest so I used to be on the outside holding the picket while my older brother drove the nail to hold the strip of wood that attached them. Every blow knocked me back, even though I braced myself. And when I tried to anticipate and jump forward to meet the hammer blow, my timing was off and that didn’t work either.”

Once Norman had decided that the center ring was large enough for the tree trunk, Hannah held the stand in place while the men took the tree down from the top of Norman’s car and attempted to insert the trunk into the ring.

“It won’t go down,” Mike stated the obvious. “It’s catching on those branches at the bottom.”

“Then we’ll have to cut them off.” Norman turned to Hannah. “Do you have a pruning saw?”

Hannah shook her head. “I don’t have any gardening tools. All that’s done by the grounds crew and it’s part of my monthly maintenance assessment.”

“You’ve got to have some kind of a saw,” Mike said. “Most homeowners do. We can use anything.”

“Like what?” Hannah asked him.

“Hand saw, crosscut saw, coping saw, keyhole saw, or even a hacksaw,” Norman told her. “We’ll take anything at this point.”

Hannah was at a loss. She knew what all those saws were. She’d worked summers in her father’s hardware store. But she didn’t own any of them. “How about a Ginsu knife?” she asked. “I got it from a TV commercial, and it said it could cut through frozen vegetables. Maybe it would cut through a tree branch?”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Never mind,” he said. “I’ll make a call and get a pair of bolt cutters. That should work on the bottom branches.”

While they waited for Lonnie Murphy to arrive with the bolt cutters, Hannah opened the storage area over her carport and took out the box of her grandmother’s ornaments. She’d never used them, and this was the perfect time. None of her sisters had wanted them. Andrea had ornaments from Bill’s family, Michelle was still living at home and didn’t need them, and Hannah had become the beneficiary by default.

“What’s that?” Mike asked, watching Hannah retrieve the box.

“Christmas ornaments. They belonged to my grandparents.”

“Are they glass?” Norman asked her.

Hannah tried to remember. She recalled delicate blown glass baskets filled with purple glass grapes. There were also glass strawberries with curved stems that made their own hangers, and huge silver and gold balls that had seemed as big as balloons to her as a child. The only ornaments that weren’t glass were the ones that her Great-Grandma Else had made. They were handcrafted birds that perched on the tree branches.

“I think most of them are glass,” she said.

“If you use any of the glass ones, put them on branches near the top,” Norman told her.

“Because of Moishe?”

“Right. I made the mistake of putting a glass ball on a branch near the bottom of my tree. Cuddles thought it was a toy.”

“Did it break?”

“No, but it could have. Now the only things I have hanging from the bottom two branches are plastic ornaments.”

“I thought you said Cuddles didn’t bother your tree,” Hannah reminded him.

“She doesn’t, not anymore. That ball just intrigued her, I guess. It was really shiny and it probably acted as a mirror. And Cuddles loves to bat at her reflection in the mirror.”

Hannah thought about putting the box of ornaments back in her storage area, but she really wanted to see her family’s Christmas keepsakes again. She’d compromise by using the ones that wouldn’t break and hanging only one of each glass ornament on the upper branches where Moishe couldn’t reach them.

“Here comes Lonnie,” Mike said as a police cruiser came down the ramp of the parking lot. He gave a wave and Lonnie pulled up to them.

Lonnie rolled down his window. “You need these?” he asked, handing the bolt cutters out the window to Mike.

“I don’t need them.
You
need them.” Mike stepped back so that Lonnie could get out of the cruiser. “Trim the bottom branches off the Christmas tree so it’ll fit in the tree stand.”

“And this is the police emergency the dispatcher called me about?” Lonnie asked, grinning at his boss.

“Yes, it is. Your supervisor was down on the floor of Hannah’s garage and his knees were getting sore. Your knees are younger. You do it.”

They watched as Lonnie made short work of trimming the lower branches of the tree. Then Mike held it in place while Norman, Lonnie, and Hannah tightened the screws to hold it securely.

“All done,” Lonnie said, getting to his feet.

“Not quite,” Mike told him. “Now you’re going to help us carry it up the stairs to Hannah’s condo. I’ll take the top, you take the bottom, and Norman will take that box of ornaments.”

“And Hannah will take the bag in the trunk,” Norman added, clicking his remote to open it. “I picked up some mini-lights and a few ornaments.”

A few moments later the procession moved up the outside staircase to Hannah’s condo. Mike was in the lead with the tip of the tree, Lonnie followed behind him, Norman was next carrying the big box of Swensen family ornaments, and Hannah brought up the rear with a plastic red and green bag that said CRAZY ELF on both sides in four-inch high block letters.

Mike reached the landing first. He moved back as far as he could so Lonnie could join him and they set the tree down in front of the door. “Can you unlock it, or shall we move the tree back?” he asked Hannah.

“I think I can get it.” Hannah reached between two branches and inserted her key in the lock.

“How about Moishe?” Mike asked. “If he tries to jump out in your arms, he’s going to think the forest has come to visit.”

Hannah laughed. “He’ll be fine as long as it’s not Birnam Wood and his name isn’t Macbeth.”

But Moishe was nowhere to be seen when Hannah opened the door and the men carried in the tree. He must have heard the commotion and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, or in his case, wriggling under or behind something was better than remaining in the open.

“I’ll find him,” Norman said, setting the box of ornaments on the floor and heading straight for the kitchen. “Here he is,” he called out.

Hannah got to the doorway just in time to see her cat jumping down into Norman’s arms from the top of the refrigerator. Norman carried him out to the living room couch, put him down in his favorite spot, and gave him a scratch behind the ears. “Don’t worry,” Norman told him. “It’s just a Christmas tree.”

Moishe looked over at the tree, which was now sitting in the corner of the living room, and laid his ears back flat against his head. Hannah knew what that meant. Her cat did not approve of a tree in his living room. He gave a little growl deep in his throat to confirm it and welcomed the stately Scotch Pine with a malignant stare.

“Coffee?” Hannah asked the assembled group of men. Even though she really didn’t feel like making a pot, it was the proper question for a good Minnesota hostess to ask.

“I could use another cup,” Mike said.

“Me, too,” Norman chimed in quickly.

“Count me in,” Lonnie told her. “I’ll water your tree while you make it. All I need is a plastic pitcher.”

“Wait a second,” Hannah said. “I want to put something under that tree stand in case it leaks.”

Norman look puzzled. “But it shouldn’t leak. It’s brand new.”

“I know, but I don’t want to take the chance. Phil and Sue’s living room is right below mine and they just got new carpeting. I’ll just be a second.”

For once in her life, the large, square, plastic box was right where she remembered. Hannah got it down from the top shelf of the guest room closet and carried it out to the living room. “This yarn box should be about the right size. I’ll get a bag for the yarn and needles.”

“I didn’t know you crocheted,” Norman called after her.

“I don’t.” Hannah came back with the garbage bag and proceeded to dump in the yarn.

“Then you must knit,” Norman tried another alternative.

“I don’t do that either.”

“If you don’t knit or crochet, why do you have a box full of yarn and needles?” Mike asked.

“Because someone left it in the last apartment I rented when I was in college and none of the neighbors had a forwarding address. It was too good to throw away, so I just moved it along with the rest of my things.”

While they were talking, Lonnie had lifted the tree, shoved the empty box under it with his foot, and set the tree stand inside the box. “It’s a perfect fit,” he said. “What are you going to do with all that yarn?”

“Give it to the thrift store, I guess. I know a couple of people who quilt, but I don’t know anyone who knits or crochets.”

“
I
do.” Lonnie began to smile.

“Who?”

“My sister-in-law. Jessica learned how to crochet these really cute stuffed animals for the kids. Larry Jaeger saw one of her lions when they brought the kids out to the Crazy Elf to buy their tree and he told Jessica he’ll take as many as she could turn out. He pays her ten dollars for each one and he sells them in the toy shop.”

Hannah realized that Jessica’s crocheted toys were probably the ones Andrea had bought for Bethie and Tracey. If Andrea had paid twenty dollars each and Larry had bought them for ten dollars apiece from Jessica, the toy shop was making a hundred percent profit.

“Take the yarn with you when you go,” Hannah told Lonnie. “Jessica’s more than welcome to it.”

While Hannah put on the coffee, Lonnie found a pitcher and filled the tree stand with water. Hannah glanced around her kitchen, trying to think of something to serve along with the coffee and her gaze fell on the package of soda crackers sitting on the counter. That was a good base. What else did she have?