Fudge Cupcake Murder

Chapter Eighteen

"Thought I heard you come in." Lisa opened the swinging door to the kitchen and stuck her head in.

"It sounds busy up front," Hannah remarked, hearing the sound of a multitude of voices from the coffee shop.

"It's packed. I just wanted to tell you I've got news on the Maschler front."

"You do?" Hannah hung her jacket on the hook by the back door and looked at Lisa inquiringly.

"Come up front when you're ready and I'll tell you. They're all gossiping about Mike anyway and once you answer their questions, they won't pay any attention to us."

"What about Mike? What questions?" Hannah asked in quick succession, freezing in the act of washing her hands.

"Babs Dubinski saw a blonde in Mike's Jeep last night and he was turning off the highway into his apartment complex. She told all the ladies when she came in to have her hair done, and they all came over here."

"Why?" Hannah asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"To find out if you know about it. And if you don't, they want to be the first to tell you."

"Give me strength," Hannah murmured with a sigh. "Just say you told me and now I know about it."

Lisa shook her head. "That's no good. I'll have to give them some kind of scoop, or they'll never leave."

"Okay." Hannah thought for a moment. "Tell them I don't know for sure, but I think the blonde was Mike's temporary secretary, Shawna Lee Quinn. And I have no idea why she was in Mike's Jeep when he drove into his apartment complex."

"That should work. As long as they have her name, they'll go back to the Cut 'n Curl and see what they can dig up about her. I'll come back and give you the all-clear when they leave."

"Thanks, Lisa," Hannah said, keeping her expression carefully neutral until Lisa had gone back into the coffee shop. Then she began to wash her hands again, scrubbing them much harder than necessary. She had to find out what was going on between Mike and Shawna Lee. And if Mike wasn't forthcoming the next time she saw him, she'd just have to run up the street to the Cut 'n Curl and sic Bertie and her customers on him!

Getting the all-clear took a while and Hannah had time to mix up a batch of Molasses Crackles for the next day. She'd just stashed the bowl in the cooler when Lisa poked her head in the door.

"They're gone. You can come up front now."

Hannah wasted no time pushing through the swinging door and stepping into the coffee shop. She'd felt like a coward hiding out in the kitchen. She took one look at the glass serving jars behind the counter and gasped. "What happened to all the cookies?"

"Bertie and her customers had four apiece."

"I guess there's nothing like a little gossip to fire up the appetite." Hannah poured a cup of coffee for herself and sat down next to Lisa on one of the tall stools behind the counter. The coffee shop was almost deserted with the exception of four ladies at a table in the back and they were engrossed in their own conversation. "I'll fill the serving jars after you tell me about Richie Maschler."

"That sounds like a bribe to me," Lisa said, giving Hannah an impish smile.

"It is. You said you talked to Richie?"

"No, I talked to Cheryl Coombs."

Hannah's brows came together in a puzzled frown. "What does Cheryl Coombs have to do with it?"

"Nothing directly, but her daughter Amber is dating Richie."

"I see," Hannah said. "And you asked Cheryl where Amber was last Monday night?"

"Exactly. It turns out that Amber was supposed to be home studying for an algebra test. Cheryl had to work that night and Amber wasn't supposed to leave the house."

"But she did and Cheryl caught her?"

"Red-handed. Cheryl's boss told her to take off work early and when she got home, Amber wasn't there."

"Uh-oh," Hannah said. "What time did Amber get in?"

"Not until a quarter to ten, fifteen minutes before Cheryl was supposed to come home from work."

"And Amber admitted that she was with Richie?"

"She told Cheryl that she was at Richie's house and they watched a kung-fu movie. She tried to argue the case that they weren't really alone, that Nettie was right next door with her sewing room window open, but Cheryl didn't buy it and took away Amber's cell phone."

"That's a punishment?" Hannah was surprised. Having a cell phone seemed more of a punishment than a perk to her. If she carried one, Delores could call her any time of the day or night!

"Losing cell phone privileges is even worse than being grounded," Lisa told her, a smile hovering around the corners of her mouth. "You know how girls love to talk for hours on the phone."

"Not just girls," Hannah said with a sigh, thinking of her mother, who was the queen of long-winded telephone talkers. "Thanks, Lisa. I'll take those serving jars and fill them."

"Okay. I'll hold down the fort out here. What do you want me to do if Mike comes in?"

Hannah's eyebrows shot up. "What makes you think he might come in?"

"The gossip hotline. Somebody's bound to say something to him soon."

Hannah thought about that for a moment. Bertie and her ladies must have called several people by now and Delores would have been high on their list. When Mother heard, she'd call Andrea, and Andrea would call Bill, and Bill would say something to Mike, and… "You're right," Hannah said interrupting her own train of thought. "Mike could come in. If he does, delay him."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

Hannah shrugged. "I don't know. Tell him I'm busy. That'll be true."

"It might be true, but he'll want to know why he can't see you."

"Right." Hannah thought for a moment and then she threw up her hands in defeat. "I don't know what you can tell him. You were class valedictorian. You think of something."

The Cookie Jar was usually crowded the hour before closing with people who stopped by to have a last cookie, and others who wanted to take a dozen home to the family. Hannah manned the counter while Lisa bagged takeout cookies until the rush was over and only three tables were still filled.

"I'll go back to the kitchen and start mixing up tomorrow's cookie dough," Hannah told Lisa.

"I can do it, Hannah. You've got cooking class tonight."

"That won't be a problem. I'll pick up some fast food on the way and eat it in the truck. And all I have to do when I get home is change clothes, feed Moishe, and give him his vitamin supplement."

"Vitamin supplement?" Lisa looked concerned. "Is it a pill? It's really hard to give a cat a pill. They just spit it right out again when you're not looking."

"This is a liquid with a dropper. All I have to do is open his mouth and squirt it in. That should be really easy."

"I hope you're right," Lisa said, and she looked as if she wanted to say more, but the front door opened and Beatrice Koester came in. She placed a cardboard box on the counter and Lisa looked puzzled when she peered inside. "What's all this, Beatrice?"

"It's my homework from Hannah's class. I've got three bottles of dressing, a bag of lettuce pieces, and a stack of paper bowls. I thought you might want to try them out on your customers to see which one they like best."

"Good idea," Hannah said, turning to Lisa. "Why don't you see if our customers are willing to do a taste test. Then we can tally the results and we'll put the most popular one in the Lake Eden cookbook."

"What are they?" Lisa asked, picking up the bottles one by one and shaking them.

"Russian, blue cheese, and French. Ted and I like the French best, but that's just us."

"I really like the bottles," Lisa said. "They're just the right size for salad dressing. Where did you get them?"

"Ted's mother had three shelves of them in her basement. Ted thought I was crazy for packing them up and moving them all back here, but they come in handy for all sorts of things."

"Thanks, Beatrice." Hannah gave her a warm smile. "Are you coming to class tonight?"

"I'll be there. I made more dressing so everyone there can sample it, too."

"Good. I'll try to get there early to make another stab at those cupcakes. Have you thought of anything else about them that I should know?"

"Not really," Beatrice said and she began to frown. "I called a couple of Alma's old friends last night, but they didn't know either. One lady even asked Alma about it when she was so sick. She really wanted that recipe and she tried to convince Alma that it should live on. But Alma told her that the recipe for those cupcakes was her secret and she planned to take it to her grave."

Hannah shivered slightly, wondering how many secrets Sheriff Grant had taken to his grave. It was a good guess that one of those secrets was the cause of his death.

"What's the matter, Hannah?" Beatrice looked concerned. "You look like a goose just walked over your grave."

"Maybe one did," Hannah said, wondering about the origin of the old expression.

"Do you want me to help Lisa with the salad test?" Beatrice asked.

"That would be fine, if you've got the time."

"I do. I don't have to go out to the yard until six-thirty. Ted's working late tonight and I'm going to bring him dinner."

"I thought he closed early on Monday nights," Hannah said, remembering the sign she'd seen the last time she'd passed the salvage yard.

"He does, usually. But he knows I've got class and he figured he might as well work. There's really a lot of money in auto salvage."

"That's good to hear," Hannah said.

"We're doing so well, we bought a new crusher. It's a lot faster than the old one and it's really something to watch a whole car go in and a cube of metal come out."

"I'll bet it is," Hannah said, attempting to think of a polite way to make her escape. Beatrice was unusually talkative today.

"You've really got to see it to believe it. Why don't you drive out and take a look when you've got a little extra time?"

"I'll have to do that," Hannah said, realizing that Beatrice had just provided a way for her to excuse herself and get out to the kitchen. "And speaking of time, I'm running out, especially if I want to get to class early. See you tonight, Beatrice."