Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(59)

It didn’t take long for Hannah to dress since she’d chosen her morning outfit before she’d retired for the night. Jeans and a long-sleeved aqua-blue top would be perfect for winter weather, especially if she added the matching cardigan sweater. She could always take the sweater off when she got to work and tie on her signature apron with The Cookie Jar emblazoned on the bib in red.

Once she’d brushed her curly red hair, Hannah turned to look at the cats. They were still sleeping soundly and even though she half-wished for some company in the much-too-early morning, she didn’t have the heart to wake them.

Hannah stopped in the hallway and listened, but there was still no sound from Michelle’s room, so she resumed her trek down the carpeted hallway. When she entered the living room, she peered over at the couch where Norman was sleeping.

He looks like a little boy in his sleep, Hannah thought, smiling slightly. Everyone always said that people looked younger in their sleep, but she’d never really believed it before. Norman’s chest was rising and falling evenly, and there was a slight smile on his face. He was obviously dreaming about something pleasant and Hannah found herself wishing that he was dreaming about her.

She stepped forward, moving silently across the living room carpet, and entered the kitchen, reaching out toward the light switch. And that was when she pulled her hand back. There was no way she was going to turn on the multiple banks of fluorescent fixtures that made the white walls of her kitchen resemble the inside of an operating theater. Norman was still sleeping and he had to go to work at his dental office today. The sudden change in illumination that would flood in from the kitchen could wake him and Hannah didn’t want to do that.

Hannah reached for the light switch on the opposite side of the kitchen doorway. When she’d moved into the condo, she had installed soft lighting under the hanging cabinets that lined three walls of her kitchen. She switched that on and smiled as she realized that she now had plenty of light for her purposes.

As she always did when she couldn’t sleep or she was upset about some situation in her life, Hannah needed clarity. She’d discovered, early on, that one method she could use to accomplish that clarity, to see things with fresh eyes, was to bake. There was something about performing the familiar steps involved in following a recipe that cleared her mind of distractions and gave her new ideas for dealing with problems.

Before coffee? Her rational mind asked her, and Hannah thought about that for a moment. Perhaps she’d wait to bake until she’d fortified herself with caffeine.

The recipe for Chocolate Cream Pie that Sally had given her was on the counter next to the toaster. Hannah paged through it, reading the ingredients and directions as she went. She had all the ingredients she needed to make Sally’s pie. She didn’t even have to turn on the oven because the chocolate pudding part of the pie was made on the stovetop.

She went to the cupboard that contained her baking things to get one of the prepared crusts she kept there. She had graham cracker, shortbread, and chocolate wafer crusts. Sally had used a chocolate wafer crust, but Hannah knew that any of the prepared crusts would do even though Sally made hers from scratch. Hannah didn’t feel like being that much of a purist, and she didn’t mind using a prepared crust if it saved her valuable time.

Once the crust was unwrapped and sitting on the counter, Hannah assembled the ingredients for the pudding that filled the chocolate pudding layer of the pie. In a very short period of time she had set out a package of mini chocolate chips, cocoa powder, white granulated sugar, a quarter of a stick of salted butter, a container of half-and- half, a carton of large eggs, and a box of cornstarch. She checked the recipe to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, carried the recipe to the table to read, after she’d had her first cup of coffee, and hurried to the coffeemaker.

The first thing Hannah did was thank her lucky stars that Delores had given her a new coffeemaker for Christmas. The water in the reservoir heated very rapidly and she slipped in one of the large pods filled with coffee that made a whole pot. Once the carafe was in place, she pressed the button to brew the coffee and the coffeemaker gurgled and began to transfer hot water to the pod. A second or two later, brewed coffee dripped into the carafe. That was when Hannah did something the instructions did not recommend. With a coffee mug in one hand, she grabbed the carafe with the other, pulled it out quickly, and replaced it with her coffee mug. Once the machine had filled her mug, she quickly removed it with one hand and slid the carafe back in place with the other hand. All this had taken a bit of juggling, but once Hannah had taken her first sip of freshly brewed coffee, she was convinced it had been well worth it.

“Ahhhh!” She breathed, feeling euphoric as she carried the full mug to the kitchen table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. There was nothing like a bracing cup of strong coffee first thing in the morning!

“Can you sneak one out for me, too?” a male voice asked, and Hannah turned to see Norman standing in the doorway.

“I’m so sorry, Norman!” Hannah apologized. “I didn’t mean to wake you!”

“You didn’t. I woke up to my favorite morning scent, freshly brewed coffee. Can you sneak out another mug, Hannah?”

“Of course I can,” Hannah replied immediately, taking another coffee mug from the cupboard and beginning to execute a similar procedure for Norman. Once she’d successfully completed the maneuver, she carried his coffee to the table and sat down next to him.