Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen, #13)(73)

“The bell tower at Notre Dame. I painted it after a trip I took as a student. It’s my last one.”

“But it’s beautiful. I love it. Why did you stop painting?”

“I’m a lot like Kyle. I realized I wasn’t good enough to make a decent living at it, so I went to dental school.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to give up painting. You could paint on the weekends, or at night, or whenever. You don’t have to stop creating!”

“I might take it up again someday … as a hobby. But the fire to succeed as an artist of note is gone.”

“But you shouldn’t just give up. You should …”

“Do you still write poetry?” Norman interrupted her with a question.

“I … I … no. I haven’t written anything since I left college.”

“Point made,” Norman said.

“Point taken,” Hannah replied. “I just wish that …”

“Another time. Don’t you want to hear why Kyle flunked Professor Ramsey’s Intro to Poetry class?”

Hannah nodded, pulling herself out of her self-indulgent dream, where they traveled to wonderfully scenic places so that Norman could paint and she could write. “Tell me,” she said.

“Kyle told me his girlfriend broke up with him right before Christmas. She said she was in love with Professor Ramsey.”

“Oh, no!” Hannah said, feeling sorry for the jilted student.

“They’d both enrolled in his Intro to Poetry class, and Kyle convinced himself that it was just a passing thing and she’d come around as soon as she saw that he still loved her. The first day of class rolled around, and Kyle managed to sit next to her, but she wouldn’t even speak to him. That was the way things went for the first week of class. Kyle kept trying, and she kept refusing to have anything to do with him. He said he had to watch her flirting with Ramsey and that it was really hard to take.”

“I can imagine that! Poor Kyle.”

“And then Professor Ramsey started singling her out for things, keeping her after class, and inviting her to visit his home campus at Macalester. Kyle could tell she was falling completely under his spell, and he just couldn’t stand to watch it any longer.”

“So he started skipping classes, even when there were tests?” Hannah guessed.

“That’s about the size of it. Once he realized that Professor Ramsey was returning his girlfriend’s overtures, he stopped going to class altogether. It was just too painful to watch them interact. He would have dropped the class, but it was too late to drop, so he just took the failing grade.”

“That’s really sad.”

“I know.” Norman gave another little sigh. “He was very stoic about it. And he was also very convincing.”

“Convincing?”

“He convinced me that he still loved his girlfriend and he was hoping to get her back now that Professor Ramsey was dead.”

“Did he tell you the name of his girlfriend?”

“No. I asked, but he didn’t want to say. And I didn’t think I’d better push it or he’d clam up and stop answering my questions.”

Hannah was silent for minute, digesting all that she’d learned. “He’s certainly got a motive, especially if he thinks he can get his girlfriend back now that his rival’s dead. What about Wednesday night? Does he have an alibi?”

“Yes, and it’s a good one. There’s no way Kyle could have killed Professor Ramsey since he was hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime. He flew out to Arizona State University on Wednesday morning to watch his sister graduate, and his parents were with him. They were all having dinner at T. Cooks at the Royal Palms Hotel when Professor Ramsey was killed.”





COTTAGE CHEESE COOKIES


DO NOT preheat oven—This dough needs to chill in the refrigerator overnight.

2 cups softened butter*** (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)

1 and ? cups brown sugar (pack it down in the mea suring cup)

2 cups white (granulated) sugar

4 large beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glasswith a fork)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

? teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons vanilla extract (that’s 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)

2 cups cottage cheese (one-pound container) (I used small curd)

1 cup chopped pecans (you can use walnuts or anyother nut, if you prefer)

1 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)

5 and ? cups all-purpose flour (don’t sift—just scoop it up with the measuring cup and level it off with a knife) approximately 1 cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar for rolling dough balls



***That’s room temperature butter, unless you’re working in an unheated kitchen in Minnesota in the winter.

Hannah’s 1st Note: If you have an electric mixer, use it. This recipe makes about 12 dozen cookies and your arm may get tired. You can also cut the recipe in half if you like.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter with the brown sugar and the white sugar. Beat them together until they’re light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated. If you’re using an electric mixer, you don’t have to whip them up in a glass first. You can just add them one by one, mixing after each egg is added.