Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen, #15)(72)

When the pecans are ready, place them in a shallow bowl. This is what you’ll use to coat the outside of your Peaches And Cream Cookies.



Using a teaspoon (not the measuring kind, but one from your silverware drawer), drop a rounded teaspoon of cookie dough into the bowl of finely chopped pecans. Use your fingers and a light touch to form the cookie dough into a ball. Lift the ball gently and place it on your baking sheet. Continue to form dough balls covered with finely chopped pecans, 12 to a standard-size cookie sheet.



Lay your peach slices out on layers of paper towels on the counter. Pat them dry and then cut each one into two pieces, making thinner slices.



Top each Peaches And Cream cookie dough ball with a thin peach slice, cut side up. Press it down gently.



Bake your Peaches And Cream Cookies at 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes. Take them out of the oven and slide the cookie-laden parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool. If you used greased cookie sheets, you’re going to have to let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack with a metal spatula.



Let the cookies cool completely before you attempt to remove them from the wire rack.



Yield: Approximately 4 to 5 dozen soft and moist cookies, depending on cookie size.





Chapter Twenty-Three


“One thing’s for sure,” Norman said grinning at Hannah. “These are the best peach cookies I ever ate.”

“These are the only peach cookies I ever ate. But I agree that they’re wonderful. Michelle is really talented at making up recipes. These are so good, I think I might have to serve them at The Cookie Jar.”

“Not these!” Norman jerked the plate away from her. “These are my cookies. You’ll have to get the recipe from Michelle and bake your own cookies.”

A message flashed on Norman’s computer monitor and he gave a little sigh. They were in his home office, a large room with a sofa, chairs, a spectacular view of the woods, a fireplace, and two walls of floor to ceiling bookcases. “I’m sorry, Hannah. None of the hits I got on Bernard Alan Neiman panned out.”

“That’s okay. It just goes a little further toward proving my fake name theory.”

“But we may never know who Buddy actually was.”

“I know that, but Doc and Mike are working on identifying him too, and they may have gotten some leads we don’t know about. Mike’s running his fingerprints and he’s got deputies checking for anyone who fits Buddy’s description in the missing person’s records.”

“That’s a big job.”

“Yes it is, but Andrea says Bill’s all for it. He even called in some retired deputies to work on it.”

“Is Doc helping the deputies?”

“No, he’s got his own plan. He told Mother that he was going to post Buddy’s picture in something called Hospital News. It’s a magazine like those airline magazines you read when you’re on a plane. Hospitals subscribe to Hospital News and put it in their waiting rooms. Lots of people see it, and one of them might recognize Buddy and know who he really is.”

“Doc really wants to know, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. He says that since Buddy died in his hospital, he feels a certain responsibility. And that responsibility is doubled because Mother was the one who discovered Buddy’s body. Both of them think that Buddy may have family or someone who needs to know what happened to him.”

“They’re probably right. Human beings don’t live in a vacuum.”

Norman’s computer gave a little ding, and Hannah turned to look at the screen. “What does that ding mean?”

“It means I have an e-mail message. It’s probably Andrea with the photo. Time to get busy, Hannah. I’ll download the photo and we’ll see if we can find out more about the woman in Shelby’s photograph.”

Hannah watched with envy as Norman called up his e-mail program and signed in. She really ought to learn to do some of these things. He’d offered to teach her on several occasions, and she simply hadn’t gotten around to taking him up on his offer. Now it was too late if his marriage to Doctor Bev went off as planned. If, she reminded herself. Those two little letters contained a world of possibilities, and she intended to take full advantage of them.

“Here we go, Hannah.” Norman said, gesturing toward his large computer screen. “See that little circle with all the little lines radiating out from it in the center of the screen?”

“I see it.”

“That means the JPEG Andrea sent me is downloading.”

“Oh,” Hannah said, trying to sound as if she knew exactly what JPEG and downloading meant.

It wasn’t the same magic as watching a print come up in the developer, but Hannah decided that it was magic nonetheless as the image on the screen became detailed before her very eyes. She could see a woman and a man standing in the parking lot of Club Nineteen, in the same row that Andrea had parked her Volvo less than twelve hours ago. Was the man Buddy Neiman? She’d be hard-pressed to give a definitive answer. The best she could do was say that it could be Buddy Neiman.

“Let me see if I can make the woman any clearer,” Norman said, pulling down a menu from the top of the screen and clicking on several selections.