Candy Cane Murder (Hannah Swensen #9.5)(10)

“They’re wonderful,” Hannah said, finishing her first cookie and reaching for another. “And you actually made them all by yourself?”

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Joanne Fluke

“Well …” Andrea faltered a bit and then she shook her head. “Not exactly.”

“What does that mean?” Michelle wanted to know.

“I didn’t do it entirely by myself. Grandma McCann showed me how to preheat the oven and put them on the cookie sheets. But that was only for the first couple of times.

After that, I did it by myself.”

Even though they weren’t an overly affectionate family, Hannah couldn’t help it. She reached out to give her sister a hug. “Good for you! Are you going to give me the recipe, or is it a big secret?”

“It’s not a secret, and it’s really easy. They take only four ingredients.”

“You’re kidding!” Hannah was amazed. The cookies had a light but complex lemon flavor. They were soft and a bit chewy inside, and the outside was almost crunchy.

Andrea went on. “I think that’s why Carli sent me the recipe. She remembers the bake sales the cheerleaders used to have to raise money for uniforms.”

Hannah remembered them too. When she discovered that Andrea and her friend, Janie Burkholtz, were buying Twinkies at the Lake Eden Red Owl to sell at the fund-raising bake sales, she started baking homemade cookies for them.

“What are the four ingredients?” Michelle asked.

“A package of lemon cake mix, two cups of Cool Whip, an egg, and powdered sugar.”

Lemon cake mix! Of course! Hannah felt like rapping the side of her head with her knuckles for being so dense. Andrea had told them she hadn’t used zest or lemon juice, but the cookies were still lemony. The flavor had to come from somewhere and making cookies from lemon cake mix should have occurred to her.

“That’s all there is,” Andrea continued. “Just the four ingredients. Any more and I probably couldn’t have done it.”

“Well, you did it very well,” Hannah told her, pouring them all more coffee.

CANDY CANE MURDER

33

“Thanks. I’m going to try chocolate next. Maybe I could even mix in a few of those tiny chocolate chips. That might be good.”

Hannah just stared at her sister. This was a whole new side of Andrea she’d never seen before.

“And then I was thinking of doing white cake mix with some kind of cut-up fruit like cherries or apricots. Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Because that’s how great recipes are developed. You start with something basic and branch out. Sometimes it can be as simple as running out of one ingredient and substituting something else.” Hannah passed the plate of cookies to Michelle. “We’ve got three left, one for each of us. And then we’d better get down to business.”

“You’re going to figure out who killed Wayne?” Andrea asked, taking her cookie and making short work of it.

“I don’t even know if anyone did … yet,” Hannah reminded her. “It was night, he was at the bottom of the berm, and I was at least eight feet above him. I guess it’s possible he slipped and broke his neck.”

“But why was he up there in the first place?” Michelle asked.

“He could have climbed up to enjoy the view,” Andrea suggested. “What was it like up there?”

“It wasn’t what I’d call a scenic vista. The only thing I could see from the top was the snow bank behind it and the cars in the parking lot.”

“Okay.” Michelle gave a quick nod. “Then maybe he had to … you know. And he didn’t want to walk all the way back to the inn.”

“So he climbed up a slippery eight-foot snow bank instead of just ducking behind a handy tree?” Hannah asked her.

“Never mind. It was a dumb idea,” Michelle admitted.

“Wait a second,” Andrea looked thoughtful. “Maybe he didn’t climb up there. Maybe somebody dragged him up there and pushed him down the other side to kill him.”

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Joanne Fluke

“Why go to all that trouble when you could just shoot him, or stab him, or club him to death right there on the path?” Hannah asked the pertinent question.

“Because the killer was afraid somebody might come along and catch him? Or … oh, I don’t know. Let me find out if it was an accident. Bill should know by now.”

“You’re going to call Bill?” Michelle asked as Andrea took her cell phone out of her purse.

“No, I’m calling Sally.”

“Sally at the inn?” Michelle followed up with another question.

“That’s right. She can tell me if Vonnie Blair’s still there at the party.”

“Doc Knight’s secretary,” Hannah said, beginning to get an inkling of what her sister was doing. “And if Vonnie’s still there, it’s probably not murder. Is that right?”

“You got it.”

As Andrea punched in the number, Michelle turned to Hannah. “Maybe you got it, but I didn’t get it.”

“It’s simple. If Doc Knight thinks it’s murder, Bill will ask him to rush the autopsy. Doc knows how important it is and he’ll do it right away. And since Doc has such awful handwriting, he’ll call Vonnie on her cell phone and ask her to come out to the hospital to type up the transcript of the autopsy tonight.”