Candy Cane Murder (Hannah Swensen #9.5)(6)

“I’ve never heard of Whippersnappers before,” she commented, fishing for information. “What kind of cookie are they?”

“I made lemon. Carli said you could make any flavor, and Tracey really likes lemon.”

“Lemon’s good.” Hannah gave a quick smile, but she felt more like groaning. Lemon cookies usually called for lemon zest and she was almost positive Andrea had never heard of it.

“Did you have to go out and buy a zester?”

Michelle asked the question, and Hannah turned to give her a quick nod. She was willing to bet that they were on the same page.

“What’s a zester?”

That answered that question! Hannah gave a little groan before she responded. “A zester is like a grater for lemon peel,” she explained.

“Why would I need that? There’s no lemon peel in Carli’s recipe.”

“No lemon zest, either?” Hannah quizzed her, trying to cover all the bases.

“No. What does lemon zest do?”

“It makes things taste really lemony,” Michelle answered her.

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“Well, I didn’t need any zest, because my Whippersnappers taste nice and lemony without it. Is that a word?”

“Yes. Zest is the yellow part of the lemon peel,” Hannah told her.

“Not that. I was talking about lemony. Is lemony a word?”

“If it’s not, it should be,” Hannah settled that query and moved on toward her objective. “If Michelle and I drop in at Tracey’s party, can we taste your cookies?”

“Sure, but you don’t have to wait until then. Just give me a ride home and we’ll have some. Bethie caught a little cold and I want to check in on her.”

“Good idea,” Hannah said, giving her sister an approving nod. Andrea had been a nervous first-time mom with Tracey, reading every baby care book she could get her hands on, and trying to follow everyone’s advice. Of course that was impossible, but Andrea still felt like a failure as a mother whenever Tracey cried. Finally, in desperation, she’d gone back to work as a real estate agent and hired the best nanny in Lake Eden, “Grandma” McCann, to take care of Tracey.

“Won’t Bill mind if you leave?” Michelle asked her.

“No. He’s already danced with me twice, and that’s all the time he has for me tonight. He’s got fifteen ladies to go.”

“Fifteen ladies?” Hannah asked, glancing at Michelle, who looked every bit as puzzled as she felt.

“I asked Sally for an advance copy of the guest list and Bill and I made up our game plan last night. A sheriff has certain obligations, you know, especially if he wants to serve more than one term. Bill has to play politics and dance with all the important women here.”

“Are you talking about women who are married to important men?” Michelle asked, frowning a bit.

“Not necessarily. Rose McDermott is on Bill’s list. You might not think she’s important, but a lot of local people go into the café. If Rose likes Bill and thinks he’s doing a good 22

Joanne Fluke

job, she’ll mention it and that can influence a lot of people when they go to the polls.”

“You’re right.” Michelle looked thoughtful.

“And then there’s Bertie Straub. She’s not shy about telling her customers down at the Cut ’n Curl who they should vote for.”

Hannah was amused. The next election for county sheriff was over three years away. “So you’re already launching Bill’s campaign?”

“It’s never too early to play politics.” Andrea glanced around the room and spotted her husband, deep in conversation with Mayor Bascomb. “Just let me tell Bill I’m leaving and we can go.”

“Can I go with you?” Michelle asked, when Andrea had left.

“Sure. But I thought Lonnie was bringing you back to my place.”

“He was. But he’s pulling a late shift and it’ll save him a trip.”

“If you go with us, you’re going to have to taste Andrea’s cookies,” Hannah warned.

“I know. But my nose is all stuffed up and I won’t be able to taste much. I’ll just chew and swallow. And then I’ll tell her how delicious they are.”

Hannah wished that she had a similar ailment, hoping she’d be able to lie convincingly. Praising Andrea’s cookies would constitute a lot more than a little white lie, but it would make her sister very happy.

“It smells like Christmas trees out here!” Andrea said, taking a deep breath and expelling it in a cloud of white vapor.

“That’s because we’re walking past a whole grove of blue spruce,” Hannah told her.

They walked in silence for a moment, and then Andrea held out her gloved hand. “It’s snowing again. I just love knowing that every snowflake is different. We learned it in CANDY CANE MURDER

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school. They called it one of nature’s miracles because no two are alike.”

“That’s what they thought back then,” Hannah said. “But then Jon Nelson, a cloud physicist from Kyoto, Japan, found that it’s probably not true for the smaller crystals, the ones that barely develop beyond the prism stage.”

There was another long silence. Hannah was about to tell them more about the physicist from Japan when Michelle almost stumbled over a drift of snow on the walkway.