Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(62)

To serve, cut your Chocolate Cream Pie into 8 pieces and remove the pieces with a triangle-shaped spatula. Place each piece on a dessert plate and serve with a carafe of strong, hot coffee or tall glasses of milk.



Yield: This pie will serve 8 people . . . or 7 if you invite Mother. She’ll tell you she couldn’t possibly eat more of something so rich, but you won’t have to twist her arm to get her to agree to a second helping.





Chapter Sixteen


“What are those, Hannah?” Lisa pointed to the pan that Hannah had just moved to the bakers rack to cool.

“Tortilla Snickerdoodle Cookies. Except I’m not sure I should call them cookies when they’re really sweet snacks.”

“If they taste as good as they smell, you can call them anything you want to,” Lisa said.

“They do!” Mike said from his stool at the work station. “Right, Norman?”

“Right!” Norman agreed.

Lisa hurried over to take one triangular-shaped piece from the bakers rack. She bit into it, started to smile, and popped the rest into her mouth. “Good?” she managed to say with her mouth full. “These are great, Hannah. We could sell bags of these to the kids from Jordan High who come in here after school.”

Hannah smiled back. “That’s one of the best things about you, Lisa. You always see a way to promote things and you’re almost always right. Jordan High students would love to munch these on their way home. Norman and I finished a whole bowl last night while we were watching an old movie on television.”

“That’s the sign of a good munchie,” Lisa declared, grabbing another Tortilla Snickerdoodle Cookie from the rack. “Are these hard to make?”

Hannah shook her head. “They’re really easy. All you have to do is cut flour tortillas into pieces, dip them in melted butter and then into cinnamon, sugar, and cardamom, and bake them for ten to twelve minutes in the oven. A kid could make them . . . Tracey!”

Lisa laughed, “ You just thought of that?”

“Yes! And Bethie could help her mix the cinnamon, sugar, and cardamom. As long as Grandma McCann sets the oven temperature, they could do it all by themselves.”

“That would be a great birthday present for Andrea,” Lisa said. “You could teach the kids how to do it and they’d have Tortilla Snickerdoodle Cookies waiting for Andrea when she got home from work.”

The phone on the wall rang and Hannah hurried over to answer it. A moment later, she was frowning. “Sure, Mother. I can come over in a few minutes. What’s going on at Granny’s Attic?”

There was a long pause and then Hannah sighed. “Okay. I’ll do my best to calm Carrie down, but you have to tell me what she’s worried about.”

There was another pause while Hannah listened. “All right, Mother. You can tell me when I get there. I’ll bring some cookies. That might help to . . .”

Hannah stopped speaking and looked shocked as she hung up the phone. “Mother hung up on me! She’s never done that before!”

“Never?” Mike asked.

Hannah shook her head. “Never. Mother’s too polite to hang up on anybody, even a telephone solicitor.”

“Then we’d better go over there right now,” Norman said, standing up and heading for the hooks by the back door, where he’d hung his parka.

“I’ll stay here, just in case Ross shows up,” Mike said. “Something must really be wrong over there. Just call if you need me and I’ll come right over.”

Hannah packed up a plateful of Tortilla Snickerdoodle Cookies, grabbed her parka, and headed across the parking lot with Norman. Granny’s Attic, Delores and Carrie’s antique shop, was only one store away. They went in the back door, wound their way around the antiques that were stored in the back room, and came out by the cash register in the middle of the store.

“Hi, Hannah, Norman,” Luanne Hanks, Delores and Carrie’s bookkeeper and assistant, greeted them.

“Hi, Luanne.” Norman gave her a smile.

“Hello, Luanne,” Hannah responded. “Mother called me and asked me to come right over.”

“They’re upstairs in the break room.” Luanne pointed to the staircase in the middle of the room. “Go right up.”

“Do you know what’s wrong? Mother sounded upset when she called me.”

“No. I just know they’re up there and they haven’t come down. Delores must have made the call from her cell phone.”

“I’ll wait down here with Luanne,” Norman told Hannah, and then he turned to Luanne. “Can I help you do anything while I’m waiting for Hannah?”

Luanne began to smile broadly. “You bet you can! I was about to reposition a couple of antiques that are awkward to move alone. Could you help me?”

“Of course,” Norman answered. “I’ll wait for you here, Hannah.”

“I’ll be down in a bit,” Hannah told him, turning and walking toward the central staircase.

The first six stairs went straight up and Hannah climbed them to the landing. A grandfather clock sat against the back wall on the landing and Hannah admired it as she walked across the floor. The remainder of the staircase was set at a ninety-degree angle to the lower stairs. Hannah made a sharp right and climbed the last few steps.