Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen, #13)(32)

One glance and the hanger dropped from her nerveless fingers. Fate was cruel. It had played a trick much too heinous to believe. It was the purple dress, the same purple dress she’d worn at the Tri-County Fair and had handed over to the Jordan High students to sell at their rummage sale!

Hannah shut her eyes. Surely she must be dreaming. This simply couldn’t be happening to her. But when she opened her eyes again, the purple dress was still there, pooled in a heap of bilious color at her feet.

There was no benevolence. There was no kindness. There wasn’t even a modicum of mercy. She had to wear the purple dress. There was simply no help for it.

Hannah stood there for a long moment before she picked up the dark lavender horror. And then her mouth opened and she whimpered like a condemned felon awaiting punishment from a cruel magistrate.

“It’s back,” she whimpered, staring down at the dress in total disgust. “I must have done something really awful to deserve this, because … it’s baaack!”





ROSE’S ZUCCHINI COOKIES>


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





1 cup white (granulated) sugar

1 cup brown sugar (pack it tightly in the cup when

you measure it) 1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ? pound)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs (beaten)

1 and ? teaspoons vanilla

1 and ? cups peeled and shredded zucchini (that’s about three 8-inch zucchini)

1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

6-ounce bag chocolate chips (that’s 1 cup)

4 cups all-purpose flour (don’t sift—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

Measure out the white sugar and the brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the softened butter and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture is nice and fluffy.

Mix in the baking soda and make sure it’s evenly distributed.

Beat the two eggs in a glass with a fork and then add them to your bowl. Add the vanilla extract and mix everything thoroughly.

Peel the zucchini. Shred them with a cheese grater (I use an old, four-sided box grater and shred with the second to the largest grating side.) You can also shred the zucchini with the shredding blade in a food processor. Measure out one and a half cups, packing it down in the measuring cup, and then add it to your bowl.

Hannah’s 1st Note: You don’t really have to peel the zucchini, but if you don’t you’ll have little green dots in your cookies. Since green isn’t the most appetizing color for cookies, I always peel mine.

Stir until the shredded zucchini is thoroughly incorporated.

Add the chopped nuts and the chocolate chips. Mix well.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, stirring after each addition. When all the flour has been added and stirred in, the resulting dough will be quite stiff.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Pam (or another nonstick cooking spray) or lined with parchment paper.

This dough is soft. If you find it’s too difficult to work with, chill it for 20 or 30 minutes in the refrigerator and then try again. I used a 2-teaspoon cookie scooper and dipped it in water every three scoops or so.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for two minutes, and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely. Rose says that after these cookies are cool, you can store them in a covered container and they’ll keep very well that way.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: Tracey loves these cookies. She’s trying to convince Andrea that they count as one daily serving of vegetables. Delores (who’s never been fond of vegetables) agrees. Bill and Andrea don’t agree.

Yield: Approximately 8 dozen tasty cookies.





Chapter Ten


“Ready?”’Herb asked coming in the kitchen door at four o’clock in the afternoon

“I’m ready.” Hannah took her purse off the hook by the door and ducked into the coffee shop to tell Lisa and Michelle that she was leaving for an orientation meeting with the producer of the talent show.

“Sorry about this,” Herb said, backing the cruiser out into the alley and heading for Jordan High. “I know you had work to do, but they said that if we didn’t show up, they’d scratch us from the lineup.”

“That’s okay. From what you told me it shouldn’t take long.”

Hannah leaned back and shut her eyes as Herb drove the short blocks to the school. She was tired and she really needed to catch a nap. Unfortunately the commute wasn’t long enough to do more than rest her eyes.

The front two rows of the auditorium were packed with contestants when they got inside. Hannah recognized the Langer Sisters, the Little Falls majorettes with their lighted batons, and Smokey Winslow clutching his banjo. “This looks like more than twenty acts to me,” she said to Herb as they took seats in the unoccupied third row.

“They’re up to twenty-six,” Herb said, glancing at the program he’d taken from the stack in the lobby. “We’re number twelve, right before Perry and Sherri’s dance demonstration.”

Hannah’s breath caught in her throat as a tall, dark-haired man walked onstage and took up a position behind the podium. It was Bradford Ramsey and the very sight of him made her feel slightly queasy.