Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(31)

“You could have taken it to Bud Hauge’s welding shop,” Hannah told her.

“No, I couldn’t have. Bill was a deputy sheriff when we got married, and everybody in town thought he’d bought me a Gucci bag. How would it look for a deputy sheriff’s wife to try to pass off an illegal knockoff of a designer bag as the real thing?”

“It would be bad,” Michelle said.

“Fodder for the gossip hotline,” Hannah added.

“Exactly. And that’s why I tossed it in the trash.”

“Wise move,” Hannah complimented her, and grabbed the bowl with the dressing before Michelle could whisk the daylights out of it.

“Whoa!” Michelle exclaimed, staring at her oldest sister in shock as Hannah added the dressing to the salad. “Why are you doing that now? We’re not going to set out the buffet for another two hours!”

“That’s okay. There’s nothing in this salad to wilt. You can dress it hours ahead of time. It’s even a good idea, since it takes that long for the flavors to meld. All you have to do is toss it, cover it with plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge. Then, when you’re ready to serve, you just sprinkle on the bacon pieces and the salted sunflower seeds, and set it out on the buffet table.” She stopped, took a deep breath, and got back to the subject at hand. “Now, back to Gus’s clothing. Did either of you two fashion experts get a good look at them?”

“I did,” Andrea said, which was nothing less than Hannah had expected.

“I didn’t,” Michelle admitted. “When everybody else was crowding around the car, I was saying goodbye to Lonnie in the church parking lot. He had to work, so I went out to the mall with a couple of my friends, and I wasn’t invited to the Inn for the breakfast buffet. Then last night at the dance, Lonnie and I were sitting with Lonnie’s parents, and Rick and Jessica. I saw Gus and I thought he looked really good, better dressed than anyone else there, but I didn’t really get close enough to catalogue his outfit, if that’s what you mean.”

“Expensive, expensive, expensive,” Andrea categorized, giving a little shrug. “I can’t tell you how much exactly, but I’m sure the two ensembles I saw him wearing cost enough for a down payment on a Lake Eden fixer-upper. I’d bet my real estate license on that!”

Hannah just stared at her sister. That was good enough for her. Andrea valued her real estate license only slightly below her husband and her children. “Then the clothes were real even if the jewelry wasn’t?”

“That’s right.”

“That proves that Gus Klein had some money…or at least he did until he spent it on master tailors, fine material, and shoes even Mayor Bascomb couldn’t afford.”

SALLY’S SUNNY VEGETABLE SALAD

5 cups chopped broccoli florets

5 cups chopped cauliflower florets

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (the sharper the cheddar the better the salad)

? cup golden raisins (Sally says to tell you she’s used sweetened, dried cranberries as a substitute for the raisins)

2/3 cup minced onion (Sally uses chopped green onions)

—————

? cup white (granulated) sugar

1 cup mayonnaise (Hannah uses Hellmann’s—it’s called Best Foods west of the Rockies)

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (I used raspberry vinegar)

—————

6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (or ? cup bacon bits)

? cup shelled, salted, toasted sunflower seeds

Chop the broccoli and cauliflower florets into tiny bite-sized pieces.

Combine the broccoli and cauliflower in a large salad bowl. Add the shredded cheese and mix it up with your fingers.

Mix in the raisins and the minced onion.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, mayonnaise, and red wine vinegar. Mix it with a rubber spatula, or a whisk until it’s smooth.

Pour the dressing you just mixed over the top of the salad. Toss it, or stir it with a spoon or spatula until the vegetables are coated with the dressing.

Sprinkle the bacon bits on top.

Sprinkle the sunflower seeds on top of that.

Hannah’s 1stNote: You can make this salad several hours before serving. It’s even better that way because the flavors blend. Just toss the vegetables and raisins with the dressing, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it until your company arrives. Then all you have to do is sprinkle on the bacon bits, and the sunflower seeds, and serve.

Yield: 12 to 16 servings.

Hannah’s 2ndNote: I made this for a 6-person dinner party once, and I ended up with about half of the salad left in the bowl. I refrigerated it to see what would happen, and it was every bit as good the next day!





Chapter Eleven


Hannah stifled a yawn as she loaded pots and pans into one of the industrial-sized dishwaters at the Thompson cottage kitchen. She had volunteered for the task to free up the other women who wanted to see the slide show that Lisa, Herb, and Norman had compiled from the old family photos that everyone had brought. Hannah had wanted to see the slide show, too, but she knew she was far too tired to keep her eyes open once she was snuggled down on a blanket on the beach, the alternate venue Lisa and Herb had arranged because the pavilion was still roped off as a crime scene. Norman had rented a giant-screen television, the kind they used for huge outdoor events, from a place in Minneapolis, and the men who’d delivered it had helped to run an extension cord from the nearest cottage. Even though she was across the road and up the equivalent of a city block from the festivities, Hannah could hear applause and laughter from the family members gathered on the beach.