Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(39)

Hannah had no sooner hung up the phone than it rang again. She assumed it was Norman, who’d thought of something he’d forgotten to tell her, so she answered, “Hello again, Norman.”

“It’s not Norman. It’s Mike.”

“Oops. Sorry about that. I just finished talking to Norman on the phone, and I thought he was calling back.”

“Norman calls you this early in the morning?” Mike sounded shocked.

“Sometimes. He knows I get up early.”

“How does he know that?”

“Because I’m always in the kitchen at The Cookie Jar by six at the latest, and he sees the lights on when he drives by on his way to the dental clinic. Anyway, how did you know I’d be up this early?”

There was a pause, and then Mike laughed. “Okay. Let’s start over. Morning, Hannah.”

“Morning, Mike. What can I do for you at the crack of dawn?”

“I don’t think I’d better try to answer that. I just called to say that Ronni says to try seven-five.”

Hannah was puzzled. “Try seven-five for what?”

“For the Animal Channel. Ronni turns it on every day for her dog. She’s got a Pekingese.”

“Ronni who?”

“Ronni Ward. Her engagement didn’t work out, and she’s back doing fitness training at the station. She just rented the apartment across the hall from me.”

“Oh,” Hannah said, wondering if she should start worrying about Mike and Ronni. The last time a woman from the sheriff’s department had lived in Mike’s complex, they’d been involved. And right after that unpleasant thought had crossed her mind, Hannah wondered if Andrea knew that Ronni was back in town. Even though Bill had sworn up and down that he wasn’t the least bit interested in the winner of Lake Eden’s bikini contest, Andrea had worried that they were more than employer and employee.

“Andrea knows,” Mike answered Hannah’s unspoken question. “Bill said he told her last night when he got home.”

“Oh,” Hannah said again, treading on eggshells. She wasn’t about to tell Mike any sisterly secrets.

“Bill said Andrea thought they were involved when he went to Florida for that convention.”

This time Hannah didn’t even open her mouth for fear she’d say the wrong thing. Less was more, or silence was golden, or any one of several phrases that seemed to fit the situation.

“Anyway, I thought I’d tell you. Try seventy-five and see if it works. And if it doesn’t work, try fifty-seven. Ronni sometimes transposes numbers.”

“Good thing she doesn’t do countdowns for NASA.”

“Very funny, Hannah. Just try both numbers. It might save you money on couch pillows. And that reminds me…are you going to be at the lake this morning?”

“No, I have to work. I’ll be at The Cookie Jar.”

“Good. I’ve got a couple of things to do in town, anyway. I’ll come in about eleven, and we can compare notes.”

“Fine by me,” Hannah said. “And thanks for telling me about the Animal Channel. I’m about to leave for work, so I’ll try it right now.”

Once she’d hung up the phone, Hannah headed for the couch and the remote control that she kept in the drawer of the coffee table. The drawer was fairly cat-safe, but she still pushed it all the way to the back and covered it with an old copy of the TV guide. Moishe had already killed one control, and it had cost her big bucks to replace it.

“Hi, Moishe,” she greeted her pet as he jumped up to the seat of the couch and then even higher to perch on the back. “Just for fun, let’s see if Ronni Ward got the number for the Animal Channel right.”

When channel seventy-five came on the screen, Hannah let out a gasp of pure shock. She didn’t know they were allowed to do things like that on television! She resisted the urge to cover her cat’s eyes and wasted no time punching in fifty-seven. When a pride of lions replaced the scene that had shocked her on channel seventy-five, she smiled and reached up to give Moishe a scratch. “Okay, this is the Animal Channel. It’s number fifty-seven and I’ll leave it on for you.”

Once she’d stashed the cable control in the drawer and collected her cookie dough, her keys, and her purse, Hannah noticed that one of the lions, probably the adult female, was stalking a zebra. “’Bye, Moishe. Enjoy the show, but don’t get any grandiose ideas,” she said. And then she headed out into the early morning darkness to drive to The Cookie Jar and bake the day’s cookies.

RED VELVET COOKIES

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

2 one-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate

? cup (1 stick, ? pound, 4 ounces) butter at room temperature

2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/3 cup white (granulated) sugar

? teaspoon baking soda

? teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

? cup sour cream

2 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

1 cup (a 6-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. (If you don’t have parchment paper, you can use foil, but leave little “ears” of foil sticking up on the ends, enough to grab later when you slide the whole thing on a cooling rack.)