Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(18)

“The worst I’ve ever seen.” Michelle set Hannah’s coffee mug in front of her and went back to fill hers. Then she sat down in an adjacent chair and sighed. “Just look out the window.”

Hannah turned to look and began to frown. “The snow’s still coming down in sheets. I can’t even see the building next door and it’s only a few feet away.”

“I know. After we have some breakfast, I want to see if KCOW-TV is still on the air. They should have the latest news on the blizzard.”

“I’ll turn it on after we eat.” Hannah opened the refrigerator and looked inside. “What shall we have with the scones? The guys will probably want a bigger breakfast.”

“That depends on what you have in your refrigerator.”

“I have some breakfast sausages and several cartons of eggs. And I think there’s a package of shredded cheddar in there.”

Michelle thought about that for a moment and then she nodded. “I think there’s one on the second shelf, right next to the sliced ham.”

“Great! Then we could cook the sausages and have scrambled eggs with cheese. And if we wanted to, we could cut up the cooked sausages and add them to the eggs when we scramble them. We could even throw in some chopped onions and add those right before we add the cheese.”

Michelle looked a bit concerned. “That sounds good, but we’ll need more than one big frying pan. There are five of us at breakfast and all of the men will be hungry.”

“That’s true, especially Mike. Why don’t we make a baked dish in the oven with all of those ingredients?”

“I like that idea, but what shall we make?”

“I’m not sure, but preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. That’s a standard temperature. If we need a hotter oven, we’ll simply increase the temperature.”

“Will we need both ovens?”

“No, just the top one. We’ll use a nine-and-a-half by eleven inch cake pan. That should hold enough for all five of us.”

Michelle hurried to the oven and set it to preheat. Then she came back to the table. “Do you want to taste the scones now?”

“Yes! Are they cool enough?”

“I think so.” Michelle went over to pick up a scone and when she turned around, she was smiling. “They’re just right.”

“Great!” Hannah began to frown as the doorbell rang. “Wait a minute, Michelle. Someone’s at the door.”

When she got to the door and pulled it open, Hannah gave a welcoming smile. “Marguerite!” she greeted her next-door neighbor. “Come in before you get cold.”

Marguerite stepped into Hannah’s living room and began to smile as the two cats rushed out of the kitchen to greet her. “Hello, Moishe. Hello, dear Cuddles.” Then she looked up at Hannah. “How wonderful! I think Cuddles remembers me!”

“I’m sure she does. Come have a cup of coffee with Michelle and me.”

Once Marguerite had been seated at Hannah’s kitchen table with Cuddles in her lap and a cup of coffee in front of her, they began to discuss the situation with the weather.

“Do you and Clara have enough food to last through the blizzard?” Hannah asked her.

“Oh, yes. We went to the Red Owl right after class on Friday night and shopped for the week.”

“You and Clara are taking a class?” Michelle asked.

“Yes. It’s so much fun! It gets us out in the community with the other senior citizens in the Encore program.”

Hannah was puzzled. “Where is this? And what’s the Encore program?”

“It’s an offering of free classes for senior citizens at the community college. The variety to choose from is amazing. Clara is taking a painting class and she doesn’t appreciate this weather one bit! If it doesn’t clear up soon, she won’t be able to complete her assignment before the next class.”

“She doesn’t usually paint outside, does she?” Michelle drew the obvious conclusion.

“No, she paints inside. But her assignment this week is to go outside at various hours of the day and night to take cell phone photos of an object that casts a shadow. They have to use the same object every time and Clara’s already done the morning and afternoon hours. She was going to start on the evening hours yesterday, but the weather didn’t cooperate.”

“I thought it was a painting class,” Hannah said.

“It is. Clara says it’s to teach the students the difference the time of day and night make. And also the difference in color between the shadows cast by the sun and shadows cast by the moon.”

“And now, with the blizzard, Clara can’t go outside to do it,” Michelle concluded.

“That’s right. The moon’s not casting any shadows that Clara could photograph with all this blowing snow,” Hannah added. “Which object did Clara choose?”

“That big lone pine tree at the edge of the woods. You know the one, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Hannah answered. “It’s a majestic tree and I just wish we could see it from our building.”

“So do I.” Marguerite gave a little sigh. “Then Clara wouldn’t have to go out at night and wade through the snow. I just hope they shovel the path that goes around the complex after this storm stops.”