Cinnamon Roll Murder

Chapter Eighteen

The house they entered was neat and tidy, the sort of home that welcomed visitors in from the cold. The decor wasn’t designer perfect, but it was comfortable and soothing. Judy led them to the kitchen, where a close relative to Hannah’s Formica table and padded chrome chairs sat in a breakfast nook.

“I love this kitchen set,” Hannah said as she pulled out a chair and sat down. “I have one almost like it at home. Mine’s yellow, but I wish it was red, like yours.”

“You should buy my house. I’ll probably have to leave all my furniture.” Judy turned to face her. “I’m going to put it up for sale, but not for couple of months. I want to wait to see if this works.”

“You mean ... the marriage?” Andrea asked, jumping to the obvious conclusion.

“Yes.” Judy carried mugs of coffee to the table and went back for cream and sugar. “I have some Raspberry Drop Sandwich Cookies Diana and I baked last night. Would you like one?”

“I would,” Hannah said. “I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like.”

“This is a good recipe,” Judy said, bringing a plate of cookies to the table. “Raspberry is one of Diana’s favorite fruits.”

Hannah bit into a cookie. It was fabulous. The raspberry taste was intense, and the cookie was soft and utterly delicious. There was a little frosting in the middle. It tasted like tart raspberry, and it went perfectly with the sweetness of the cookie. “They’re wonderful cookies, Judy. Could I have a copy of the recipe?”

“Of course.” Doctor Bev’s mother opened a three-ring binder and took out a sheet of paper. “Here you are,” she said, handing it to Hannah.

As Hannah accepted the printed recipe, she began to feel a bit guilty for deceiving Judy, but Norman’s happiness was at stake. Anything they could learn about Doctor Bev and Diana could be beneficial.

“I put all my recipes on the computer when Diana was a baby. Every time she took a nap, I typed at least one into the file. It’s taken me four years, but it’s very convenient to print out a clean copy every time I cook or bake.”

“That’s something I have to do,” Hannah told her. “I have some on my computer, but there are a lot more to type up.”

“You said you wanted to wait and see if your daughter’s marriage works,” Andrea said, getting them back on subject. “Are you worried about the man your daughter is marrying?”

“Not at all,” Judy said, sounding very definite. “I met him last weekend and he’s just wonderful. He’s generous, and kind, and ... just the nicest person. I ...” she stopped and took another swallow of her coffee. “It’s my daughter I’m worried about. She’s just not cut out for marriage.”

“Oh?” Hannah questioned. She gave Andrea a look that warned her to be silent, and then they both waited for Judy to explain what she’d meant by not cut out for marriage.

Hannah counted the seconds as they ticked by. The hardest thing in the world was to wait for someone to speak. But it was imperative that Judy trust them enough to tell them something, anything, that they could use to stop the marriage between Doctor Bev and Norman. The silence stretched on as the second hand on Judy’s kitchen clock made another full round, and then she sighed loudly.

“This is a hard thing for a mother to say,” Judy began, but then she was silent again. After a moment or two, she took a deep breath and confessed, “I don’t think she loves this man at all. I think she’s only marrying him for financial reasons. Of course she doesn’t tell me that. She says she wants Diana to have a normal family life with a mother and a father.”

“But you don’t believe her?” Andrea asked.

“No. She’d like me to think that she’s turned over a new leaf and she really cares about Diana now. But if she really did care about Diana, she’d spend more time with her and less time with her own friends.”

It was a harsh assessment, and Hannah could tell that it hurt Judy to say so. Part of her wanted to say something to make Judy feel better, but the other part of her wanted to hear even more negative things about Doctor Bev.

“To tell the truth, I don’t think my daughter even likes Diana. She was always more interested in going out and having fun than she was in being a good mother to her. It’s clear that Diana is a burden to her. And she wants to pass that burden on to me and her new husband.”

“And you don’t think this man would be a good father to Diana?” Hannah asked. And then she held her breath waiting for the answer.

“Oh, he’d be a wonderful father! I just don’t think it’s fair, that’s all. It’s clear to me he doesn’t love my daughter, and it’s also clear she doesn’t love him. Getting married for the sake of a child never works.”

“Even if this man is Diana’s biological father?”

“That could be different. Then he might feel a certain responsibility, and he’d put up with my daughter for Diana’s sake. But he’s not.”

“He’s not Diana’s biological father?” Hannah asked.

Judy sighed deeply. “I shouldn’t say that. I don’t really know if he is or he isn’t, but he just doesn’t fit the other things she’s said about the man who fathered her baby. When she came back home pregnant, all she’d say was that she’d made a bad mistake, Diana’s father had refused to marry her, and it was too late to do anything about it. That certainly doesn’t sound like this man. He’s just too ... honorable. If he was Diana’s father and Bev asked him to marry her, he would have married her immediately.”

You’re right, Hannah thought. Norman would have married her. But Doctor Bev didn’t ask him, not then. The way Hannah saw it, there were three possibilities. The first was that Doctor Bev had asked Diana’s father to marry her, but that man she’d asked wasn’t Norman. The second possibility was that Doctor Bev had lied to her mother about asking Diana’s father to marry her. And the third possibility was that Doctor Bev had asked Norman to marry her and Norman was lying about being asked. Hannah rejected the third possibility immediately. Norman didn’t lie.

“This whole thing must be terribly upsetting for you,” Andrea said sympathetically.

“It is.” Judy turned to Hannah. “So you’d rather have a smaller house?”

“That’s right,” Hannah said quickly. It was clear that Judy wanted to change the subject and Hannah was fine with that. They’d gotten much more information from her than they’d expected. It was interesting that Doctor Bev’s own mother didn’t think that Norman was Diana’s father, but that didn’t prove anything. The only way to prove it was by DNA testing, and Andrea still hadn’t gotten a sample. Somehow they had to get Judy to show them through her house so that ... but there was a great opportunity just staring her right in the face!

“I’d much rather live in a house like yours,” Hannah said, smiling at Judy. “It’s so cozy and comfortable. And since I’m a stay-at-home mom, I could keep it up all by myself without hiring a stranger to come in and clean. A house like yours would be perfect for us.” Hannah stopped and looked thoughtful. “And you think you might be selling your house in a few months?”

Judy sighed deeply. “I think I’ll have to sell my house if this marriage actually happens. My daughter plans to keep working, and I don’t want a stranger taking care of Diana. In a way, I’m the only mother she’s ever known. I’ve taken care of her from the very beginning, and my daughter doesn’t spend that much time here. Take tonight for instance. She’s driving here after work to go to a friend’s birthday party, but she won’t have time to stop by. She said the party is going to run late because they’re going out to a club. She said she didn’t want to wake us up by coming home that late, so she’ll just spend the night with her friend and drive back on Sunday.”

Andrea began to frown. “So she’ll be in town, but she won’t see you or her daughter at all?”

“That’s right. She says she’ll see us next week, but it’ll have to be a rush trip because she’s so busy planning the wedding.”

Hannah felt like scowling, but somehow she managed to keep a neutral expression on her face. Doctor Bev didn’t sound like a good mother at all! It was time to change the subject before she said something she shouldn’t. “If you think your house may be up for sale in the next six months or so, I’d love to take a look at it. I really don’t think our family will be happy in the house next door.”

“How about taking a look right now?” Judy drained her coffee cup and stood up. “I’ll show both of you through the house. If you’re interested you can leave a number and I’ll contact you when I’m ready to sell.”

Judy led the way up the front staircase. Hannah made a move to follow, but Andrea pulled her back.

“Good work!” Andrea said softly, very close to Hannah’s ear.

“Thanks.”

Judy’s house was larger than Hannah had thought. There were four bedrooms upstairs, certainly enough for her mythical family. “If the girls double up, I can even have room for an office,” she said.

“There’s a perfect office space downstairs,” Judy told her. “It’s the piano room.”

“Piano room?” Andrea sounded interested.

“That’s what they called it when my husband and I bought this house. It’s just off the living room, and it has French doors that can be closed when your child is practicing, or during a piano lesson . And you can open them when your little protégé is playing a recital for your guests. We use it as a playroom for Diana right now, but I’d planned to rent a piano when she turned six. My daughter once said that Diana’s father was very musical.”

“Really!” Hannah exchanged glances with Andrea. Norman was a lot like her. He couldn’t carry a tune in a suitcase, and he’d never mentioned playing any type of musical instrument. Their suspicions were already aroused concerning Norman’s role in Diana’s paternity. This new piece of information from Judy served to make them even more suspicious.

The master bedroom certainly wasn’t as large as the master suite next door. There was no wine cooler, or built-in refrigerator, but there was a dressing room and an attached private bathroom.

“I’m not using these rooms now that my daughter moved away,” Judy said, opening the door to a fairly large bedroom with flowered wallpaper and ruffled curtains at the windows. “This was her room as a child, and she used it again when she came back home to live with us.”

“It’s a nice room,” Hannah said, following Judy to another bedroom down the hall. She noticed that Andrea was lagging behind and she wasn’t sure why, but she wasn’t about to mention it to Judy.

“This is the guest room,” Judy said, opening the door so that Hannah could see inside. “There’s a connecting bathroom between the two bedrooms.”

“That’s convenient,” Andrea said, joining them so quickly Hannah doubted that Judy had noticed her absence. “Where’s your granddaughter’s room?”

“Right here, next to my bedroom. It was originally the nursery and there’s a connecting door between her bedroom and mine.”

“That must have come in very handy when she was a baby,” Andrea commented.

“Oh, it did. I left it open for the first few years so that I could hear her if she woke up during the night. Now that she’s a big girl, we close it ... unless there a storm, of course. Then we leave it open.”

“I can tell you’re a wonderful grandmother,” Hannah said.

“I hope so. Diana is my life. She’s a sweet girl and I love her so much. You should have seen me the first day I took her to Ready-Set-Learn and left her there. I came home and cried.”

“I did the same thing when my daughter went to preschool,” Andrea admitted. “You want them to grow up with every advantage, but part of you wants to keep them as babies.”

“Exactly!”

Hannah watched as Judy and Andrea shared a smile. She was a bit uncomfortable pretending to feel the same way when a similar occasion hadn’t actually happened to her, so she walked over to look at the vertical blinds in Diana’s room. “Oh, wow!” she exclaimed, pulling them closed to reveal a large picture of Cinderella getting into the pumpkin coach in the lovely dress she would wear to the ball at the palace. “Where did you get these wonderful blinds?”

“There’s a home decorating store at the mall that sells them. Cinderella’s on this window, and the Little Mermaid’s on the other. They’re Diana’s favorite Disney characters, and they were her birthday present when she turned three.”

Hannah looked around at the rest of the room. The wallpaper was printed with colorful hot air balloons in every shape and size imaginable, floating in a cerulean blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. The bed was child-size and had a fluffy pink comforter with a white ruffle around the edges. There were two white bookshelves filled with children’s books, and one Hannah remembered from her own childhood, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, sat on a bed table next to an adult-size rocking chair.

“Are you reading that for a bedtime story?” she asked Judy.

“Yes, for the third time. Diana just loves it. Next week we’re starting the Harry Potter series. It may be a little old for her, but we’ll see. If it is, we’ll save it for later.” Judy motioned to Hannah. “Come downstairs and I’ll show you the piano room. It’s quite large and it would be perfect for an office.”

“I’ll join you in just a second,” Andrea said, following them into the hallway. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to use the bathroom.”

“Certainly.” Judy pointed to the bathroom at the end of the hall. “Do you want us to wait for you?”

Andrea shook her head. “Go on ahead. I’ll find my way, don’t worry.”

When Judy opened the French doors to the piano room, Hannah was immediately impressed. The room was long and narrow, exactly as Judy had described, but it was also filled with light coming in through the double-paned windows that ran the length of the outside wall. There were blinds you could pull to keep out the hot summer sun, but on a winter day like today, the sun felt good as it fell in patterns on the wooden floor.

“You’re right. It’s perfect for an office,” Hannah told her. “But it’s perfect for a playroom, too.”

“Diana loves it. She has Saturday play dates with another girl from preschool. One week they’re here and the next week they’re at her mother’s house. I think both of them would rather be here. There’s more room for them to play, and we always bake cookies in the afternoons.” Judy looked sad for a moment. “That’s one of the reasons I really hate to move. This is the only home that Diana has ever known. It’s not going to be easy for her to adjust to a new house, a new school, and new friends, not to mention a mother that comes home every night, and a new father who suddenly appears in her life.”

“So, did you get it?” Hannah asked the moment Andrea pulled away from the curb.

“Of course I did. I got everything I needed and a lot more besides.”

“A lot more?”

“Yes.” Andrea took the on-ramp and merged onto the highway. “We stayed a lot longer than I thought we would. It’s almost time to go over to Club Nineteen.”

“Okay, but what did you mean when you said you got a lot more than just a DNA sample.”

“There was a comb on the dressing table in the room Doctor Bev used. I bagged it and put it in my purse.”

“Why?”

“It had a couple of hairs in it, and I thought we might need it for her DNA. It can’t hurt ... right?”

“Right. I’m not sure if we need it either, but we might. And you got something to use for Diana’s DNA sample?”

“Somethings.”

Hannah frowned slightly. “What?”

“Somethings. Plural. I got a sample of Diana’s hair from her hairbrush, and a spoon that was next to a bottle of children’s cough syrup. I figured that should do it, but then I spotted a band-aid with blood on it in her wastebasket so I took that, too.”

“So you got hair, saliva, and blood.”

“Yes, and Bill’s detective book said that all three could be used to get samples of DNA. We’ll let Doc Knight choose whichever he wants. Did you get anything?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“A guilty conscience. I really liked Judy and I feel terribly guilty about deceiving her.”

“Well, don’t. We’re the best chance she has to be happy again.”

Hannah looked at her sister in bewilderment. “What do you mean?”

“I mean Judy doesn’t really want to move. She loves that house. When she showed it to us, she was really proud of everything she’d done to it, especially the playroom for Diana and how she’d decorated Diana’s bedroom. She’s a good mother to Diana, a lot better than Doctor Bev is. Remember when she said that Doctor Bev was more interested in socializing with her friends than she was in spending time with her daughter?”

“I remember.”

“I came back in time to hear what she said about reading to Diana every night. That’s what parents do. She’s taken over as Diana’s mother because Doctor Bev doesn’t want to be bothered.”

It was a harsh assessment, but Hannah couldn’t help but agree. “You’re probably right,” she said. “While you were upstairs, Judy told me that she baked cookies with Diana and her friends, and how worried she was about the move and whether Diana could adjust to a new home, a new preschool, making new friends, a mother who came home every night, and a new father.”

“I knew I was right!” Andrea signaled and pulled off the freeway. “Judy doesn’t want to give up her house and move. She wants to stay right where she is and be Diana’s mother. That’s why I said that we were her best chance at happiness. If we succeed in breaking up Doctor Bev and Norman, Judy’s life with Diana will stay exactly the way she wants it.”

RASPBERRY DROP SANDWICH COOKIES

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 and ½ cups white (granulated) sugar

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

3 large eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and ½ cups raspberry pie filling (I used Comstock)

3 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

———————-

¾ cup raspberry cream frosting (frosting recipe fol- lows the cookie recipe)

Hannah’s 1st Note: Make the frosting first.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: Unless you have a very strong stirring arm, use an electric mixer to make this cookie dough.

Place the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.

Place the butter, which must be softened to room temperature, on top of the sugar. (We’re not talking about room temperature in a farm kitchen during a snowstorm—the butter must be easily spreadable.)

Turn the mixer to LOW and mix for one minute. Gradually increase the speed of the mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently and beating for one minute at each level, until you arrive at the highest speed.

Beat at the highest speed for at least 2 minutes or until the resulting mixture is very light and fluffy.

Turn the mixer down to LOW and add the eggs, one at time, mixing after each addition. Then add the salt. When that’s mixed in, add the baking soda and mix until it’s incorporated.

Measure out a cup and a half of raspberry pie filling. Turn the mixer on LOW speed and add the pie filling to your bowl. Shut off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With the mixer running on LOW, add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition. Shut off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Give the mixture a final stir by hand. (The resulting cookie dough should be fluffy, but not at all stiff like sugar cookie or chocolate chip cookie dough.)

Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. It’s the easiest way to bake these cookies. If you don’t have parchment paper and you really don’t want to go out to get any, grease your cookie sheets heavily, or spray them thoroughly with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Using a teaspoon (not the measuring kind, but one from your silverware drawer), drop rounded teaspoons of cookie dough on your baking sheet, 12 to a standard-size sheet.

Bake your Raspberry Drop Cookies at 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes. Take the cookies out of the oven and slide the cookie-laden parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool. (If you used greased cookie sheets, you’re going to have to let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack with a metal spatula.)

Cool the cookies thoroughly. Frost the bottom of one cookie with Raspberry Cream Frosting and then sandwich the bottom of another cookie on top of it. This will make a little cookie sandwich that is rounded on both the top and the bottom.

Yield: approximately 2 to 2 and ½ dozen delicious cookie sandwiches, depending on cookie size.

Raspberry Cream Frosting:

3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar

¼ cup heavy (whipping) cream

3 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam

An additional cup of powdered sugar, if needed.

Measure 3 cups powdered sugar and place them in a small bowl. Do not pack the sugar down in the cup when you measure it, but do level the top off with a table knife.

Whisk the heavy cream into the powdered sugar.

Heat the 3 Tablespoons of seedless raspberry jam in a small microwave-safe bowl for 15 to 20 seconds or until it melts a bit. Mix the warm raspberry jam into the cream and powdered sugar mixture.

If the frosting is too thick, add a little more cream. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside to wait for the cookies to be baked.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: If there’s any frosting left over, frost some graham crackers as a special treat for the kids when they come home from school. You can also frost soda crackers, salt side down, or gingersnaps.

Yield: Approximately 3 cups of frosting.