Cinnamon Roll Murder

Chapter Fifteen

“Ready?”

When Michelle opened the door, Hannah braced herself for the orange and white, fur-covered bundle that would arrive in her arms with the same impact as a bowling ball. But nothing, absolutely nothing, happened.

“Where is he?” Hannah asked, racing inside to see why Moishe hadn’t greeted her in his usual way, and leaving Michelle to follow her.

“Moishe?” Hannah called out, but there was no answering meow. “Where are you?”

“Hiding,” Michelle said, coming into the living room from the kitchen where she’d been looking for Moishe.

“Hiding? Why?”

“You may not want to know. Let’s just say that you need a new flour canister and new flour to go in it.”

Hannah turned, intending to go into the kitchen to see for herself, but Michelle stopped her.

“Here,” Michelle said, holding out her cell phone. “A picture is worth a thousand words. You’ve had a rough day already, and I thought I’d better prepare you before you saw the actual disaster.”

Hannah stared at the small screen on Michelle’s phone and groaned loudly. It was a disaster, even in miniature, and Hannah groaned again. It was clear that a game of chase had included the kitchen as a venue. Her plastic flour canister was on the floor on its side. The top had popped off and flour was spread all over the floor. To add to the mess, one of the cats had tipped over the water dish, and there was a puddle of flour mixed with water in front of the sink. Moishe’s self-feeder was also on its side, and red and brown kitty crunchies had spilled out all over the mess on the floor.

“At least it’s colorful,” Michelle commented, taking her phone out of Hannah’s hands and turning it off.

“That’s true, but I really didn’t need floor art. Let’s go clean it up before it turns into a permanent sculpture.”

Thirty minutes later, Hannah’s kitchen floor was clean. With both of them working, it hadn’t been the impossible task it had appeared to be at first glance. The cats had emerged from hiding and Hannah thought Moishe looked guilty. That made her feel bad. He’d only been playing, after all, and she’d cuddled him and told him that she wasn’t that mad at him. She’d filled the self-feeder with fresh kitty crunchies and the water bowl with water. Everything was back to normal, except for the cracked canister and the lack of flour.

Hannah had picked up the pieces of the cracked flour canister and dumped them in the garbage. When she got a new one, it would be the unbreakable kind with a lid that screwed on tightly. She knew Moishe was having a good time with Cuddles here, but if they kept on going the way they were, the toll on her breakables could become simply astounding.

“Do you think Cuddles is a bad influence on Moishe?” Michelle asked, tying the top of the garbage bag closed.

“No. It’s just that Norman’s house is all set up for a young, active cat. It’s big, there’s thick carpeting, and not much furniture to get in the way when Cuddles is dashing around playing chase. Moishe and Cuddles never break anything in Norman’s house, because they have enough room to run. My condo is a lot smaller, and it’s packed with things.”

“Well, it’s really too bad that you lost all your flour. Do you have any more?”

“I don’t think so, at least not here. The last time I ran out of flour, I just took the empty canister to work with me and filled it up at The Cookie Jar. It’s silly to buy flour for home, when I’ve got fifty-pound sacks there.”

“Too bad you don’t have any here. I was going to bake cookies for Mike.”

“For Mike? Why were you going to do that?”

“Because he should be knocking on your door in about an hour.”

Hannah stared at her sister in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me Mike called?”

“Because he didn’t call.”

“Then why do you think he’s coming over?”

“Because there’s been a murder, and Mike always drops in at your place to see what we’ve found out.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “You’re right,” she said. “Now I wish I hadn’t thrown away that flour in the bottom of the cracked canister. We can’t bake cookies without flour. And we don’t have any flour, unless ...”

Hannah stopped speaking, and Michelle waited for her to continue. “Unless what?” she finally prompted.

“Check my freezer. There may be some loose flour in a double freezer bag. I think I brought home too much when I was doing my Christmas baking. I seem to remember that rather than taking it back to The Cookie Jar, I froze the leftover flour.”

“Makes sense,” Michelle said, opening Hannah’s freezer. “That’s what I do at our house to keep the weevil eggs from hatching. It’s really gross if you think about it.”

“Not necessarily. You’re getting extra protein.”

“Eeuw!” Michelle made a face.

“If it really bothers you, sift your bag of flour into a bowl before you put it into your canister.”

“And that’ll get rid of the weevil eggs?”

“Some of them.”

“Why would I go to all that trouble to get only some of the weevil eggs out?”

“Because you’re compulsive and it might make you feel better.”

“I’m not that compulsive!” Michelle declared, starting to look for the frozen flour, removing items from Hannah’s freezer and then putting them back again. “Here it is,” she said, holding the bag up triumphantly. “It was in the last place I looked.”

“It always is. That’s an unwritten law. How much flour is there?”

Michelle held the bag aloft so that Hannah could see. “Four or five cups. Maybe a little more. It’s hard to tell without measuring.”

“If you think we’ve got one and a half cups, we’ll make Eleanor Olson’s Oatmeal Cookies. They’re some of Mike’s favorites, especially when I add raisins.”

“I think there’s that much. How about oatmeal? Do you have that?”

“I’ve got it. And I know I’ve got sugar and eggs. Let me get out the recipe and we’ll start mixing up the dough.”

Hannah took her three-ring binder from the spot next to the stand mixer and paged through it. “Here it is. I had one of these cookies almost every Thursday when Mrs. Olson was the head cook at Jordan High. The grade school got the cafeteria from eleven to twelve, and the high school came in from noon to one. I can’t think of anybody who didn’t like her oatmeal cookies.”

“Mrs. Olson wasn’t there when I started school,” Michelle said with a frown. “Then the head cook was Edna Ferguson, and we never got cookies every Thursday like you did.”

Michelle sounded a bit jealous and Hannah couldn’t blame her. It was great to have a school cook who made special treats. “What I liked best about those cookies was that every once in awhile, Mrs. Olson put a surprise inside her cookies.”

“Like what?”

“There would be small bites of sweet things like a square of Hershey’s chocolate, or a little piece of pineapple or apple. One week it was even M&M’s. We really liked those!”

Michelle didn’t say a word. She just walked over to her purse and opened it. And then, as Hannah watched, she drew out several small packages of M&M’s.

“Where did you get those?” Hannah asked.

“From the hospital vending machine last night. I brought back candy for everybody, and these were left over. Do you want to use them in the cookies?”

“Three guesses, and the first two don’t count,” Hannah said, grabbing the bags out of Michelle’s hand.

ELEANOR OLSON’S OATMEAL COOKIES

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

1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound) salted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and ½ cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (I used Quaker Quick 1-Minute)

½ cup chopped nuts (optional) (Eleanor used wal- nuts)

½ cup raisins or another small, fairly soft sweet treat (optional)

Hannah’s 1st Note: The optional fruit or sweet treats are raisins, any dried fruit chopped into pieces, small bites of fruit like pineapple or apple, or small soft candies like M&M’s, Milk Duds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or any other flavored chips. Lisa and I even used Sugar Babies once—they’re chocolate-covered caramel nuggets—and everyone was crazy about them. You can also use larger candies if you push one in the center of each cookie. Here, as in so many recipes, you are only limited by the selection your store has to offer and your own imagination.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: These cookies are very quick and easy to make with an electric mixer. Of course you can also mix them by hand.

Mix the softened butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on HIGH speed until they’re light and fluffy.

Add the beaten eggs and mix them in on MEDIUM speed.

Turn the mixer down to LOW speed and add the vanilla extract, the salt, and the baking soda. Mix well.

Add the flour in half-cup increments, beating on MEDIUM speed after each addition.

With the mixer on LOW speed, add the oatmeal. Then add the optional nuts, and/or the optional fruit or sweet treat.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, take the bowl out of the mixer, and give the cookie dough a final stir by hand. Let it sit, uncovered, on the counter while you prepare your cookie sheets.

Spray your cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line them with parchment paper and spray that lightly with cooking spray.

Get out a tablespoon from your silverware drawer. Wet it under the faucet so that the dough won’t stick to it, and scoop up a rounded Tablespoon of dough. Drop it in mounds on the cookie sheet, 12 mounds to a standard-size sheet.

Bake Eleanor Olson’s Oatmeal Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they’re nice and golden on top. (Mine took 10 minutes.)

Yield: Approximately 3 dozen chewy, satisfying oatmeal cookies.