Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(68)

Norman groaned. “Don’t tell me he was late wrapping his pipes again this year!”

“He was. And, actually, he is. Jessie’s going out there to do what he should have done last October.”

“That’s Jessie,” Norman said. “He’s a nice guy, but he’s always a day late and a dollar short.”

“In this case, it might be a thousand dollars short and four months late!” Earl predicted. “It got pretty cold during the blizzard and the wind that comes across the icy lake is freezing cold. I’ll lay odds that Jessie’s pipes have already burst.”

“No way I’ll bet on that,” Mike told him.

Norman shook his head. “Me neither.”

“These are really good, Hannah,” Earl said when he’d tasted one of her Coconut Snow Cookie Sandwiches.

“Thank you. I’ll let Carrie decide if she wants to serve them plain, or if she wants to make sandwich cookies out of them.”

“We like Nutella,” Earl told her. “What else could you use between the cookies?”

“Peanut, cashew, or almond butter. Or any flavor of jam. Any flavor of frosting would be good, too. The possibilities are almost endless.”

Earl smiled. “Knowing Carrie, she’ll probably want to use crab apple jelly. She made some last year from the crab apple tree in our backyard. Or maybe rhubarb jam. She makes that, too.”

“Mom’s rhubarb jam is great!” Norman complimented his mother. “I miss it.”

“Then you’d better take a trip to our basement,” Earl told him. “Carrie filled a whole shelf with rhubarb jam.”

When Earl got up to leave, his box of Coconut Snow Cookies in his hands, Hannah also rose from her stool. “Are you parked in back, Earl?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to take up your parking spots in front.”

“Then I’ll walk you out,” Hannah told him, motioning to Norman and Mike to stay seated. “I’ll be right back, guys.”

Hannah waited until the back kitchen door had closed behind them before she broached the subject of Carrie’s concern. “Carrie’s a little worried about you, Earl.”

“She is?” Earl looked genuinely surprised. “Why?”

“Carrie’s afraid that you might use one of those firearms you carry on the snowplow if you see Ross.”

Earl looked absolutely shocked. “But she ought to know better! I carry those because I sometimes run into wild animals on the country roads when I’m plowing. I can’t believe that Carrie actually thought that I’d do something like that!”

“Well, she didn’t really think so, but she wanted me to talk to you about it,” Hannah said quickly, doing her best to exonerate Carrie from what could be an argument between husband and wife.

“Why did she think I’d do something that drastic?” Earl asked her, and Hannah could see that he appeared completely puzzled.

“She knows how much you like Norman. And she said you know how much Norman loves me. And she thought . . .”

Earl began to smile. “That I’d defend your honor or something like that?”

“Yes, something like that.”

“Well . . . she’s right in a sense. I would, but not that way! Let’s be honest here, Hannah. I don’t like what Ross did to you one bit! I think it was . . .” Earl paused, and Hannah knew he was trying to think of the correct words to describe how he felt. “I think it was disgraceful and totally unforgivable! And I do believe that Ross should be held accountable for hurting you! A lot of people in town feel the way I do, but I don’t think any of them would actually take any drastic action.”

“You mean they wouldn’t run him out of town on a rail?”

“I didn’t say that. They might, if they knew what that meant. Or they might tar and feather him if they knew how to do it. Don’t get me wrong. If they accused him and he sassed them back, or tried to say that everything that happened was all your fault and not his, they’d probably coldcock him. I know I would and I do know what that means.”

Hannah drew a relieved breath. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Earl. I was afraid that Ross would come back here and some well-meaning, but misguided person would attack him and get into trouble by doing it.”

“It could happen that way,” Earl admitted. “I told Carrie that if I saw him back in Lake Eden, I’d scoop him off the road with my snowplow. That’s probably why she was worried.”

Hannah smiled at him. “Thanks for being so honest with me, Earl. I’ll tell Carrie that she doesn’t have to worry about you anymore.”

*

When Hannah got back inside, she poured herself a hot cup of coffee and joined Mike and Norman at the work station. She didn’t really want the coffee, but it had been cold outside and she needed to warm up. She cupped her hands around the cup, lifted it to her mouth, and took a sip. The hot liquid helped, but she found herself wishing that it were chicken broth instead of coffee. Her stomach had been giving her a bit of trouble lately and she knew she’d been drinking too much coffee. Perhaps she should buy some bouillon cubes the next time she went to the Red Owl Grocery, and drink broth made in the kitchen microwave instead of the endless cups of black coffee she was in the habit of consuming every day.