Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(13)

“Sally’s right.” Hannah read through the recipe while the waitress poured their coffee, and then she set it on the table so that she could finish her dessert.

Mike reached for the recipe and quickly read through it. “I thought so!” he said.

“You thought what?”

“This calls for coffee liqueur and chocolate liqueur. I hope Sally’s not serving it to minors.”

“Of course she’s not!” Hannah said, frowning at him. “Sally and Dick are very careful about things like that.”

Mike looked slightly embarrassed. “I know that. I guess it’s just a case of once a cop, always a cop. Sometimes I take my work too seriously.”

You said it! Hannah wanted to say, but of course she didn’t. Mike already knew his faults, and he didn’t need her to point them out to him. “Have you ever had an alcohol-related complaint about the Lake Eden Inn?” she asked instead.

“Never. And I’m almost positive that no one coming from here has ever been pulled over for a D.U.I.” Mike tapped the recipe with his finger. “Can you make this?”

“I’m sure I can. It doesn’t look complicated since you layer everything in a trifle bowl.”

“Could you make it for me next Sunday?”

Hannah shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Lisa and I are really busy getting ready for Valentine’s Day, but it only takes fifteen minutes. What’s the occasion?”

“It’s a birthday party.”

Hannah swallowed hard. The last time she’d made something for Mike to take to a birthday party, the birthday girl had wound up dead. But she’d created plenty of other desserts for birthday parties since then, and no one else had experienced an unexpected and unwelcome last birthday. She was just being silly, borrowing trouble, acting paranoid, or all three of the above.

“How about it, Hannah? Will you?”

“Sure, I’ll do it,” Hannah agreed, convincing herself that nothing would happen if she made the trifle for Mike. “Booze? Or no booze?”

“You can make it without booze?”

“Of course. All I have to do is add an equal amount of liquid that’s as sweet and thick as liqueur. I could use coffee mixed with corn syrup for the coffee liqueur, and chocolate syrup for the chocolate liqueur.”

“But would it taste the same?”

“No, but it would still be good. So is it liqueur? Or no liqueur?”

“Liqueur. There isn’t that much in it, and there won’t be any kids. I’ll buy something down at the Municipal and drop it off tomorrow.”

“That’s fine,” Hannah said, hoping that the Lake Eden Municipal Liquor Store had a decent brand of liqueur. And then she asked the question that had been at the forefront of her mind ever since Mike had asked her to make the trifle for someone’s birthday. “Whose birthday is it?”

“It’s Bev’s. You know Doctor Bev, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Hannah said, leaving it at that. Of course she knew Beverly Thorndike. She’d met her the night that Norman had introduced his new partner to the Swensen family. She’d seen her a couple of times after that, but only in passing. Hannah didn’t really know her personally since she hadn’t been into the dental office to visit Norman since Doctor Bev had started working there. She certainly wasn’t interested in becoming a friend of the woman who’d changed her relationship with Norman!

“Norman asked me to organize something since she won’t be going home to her mother’s place until after her birthday,” Mike continued his explanation. “We thought she might be lonely having a birthday here in Lake Eden without some kind of celebration.”

Hannah was glad he hadn’t told her earlier, or she might have refused to make the trifle for Doctor Bev. The diabolical side of her mind told her that this could be the perfect opportunity to get rid of Norman’s new partner for good. That was when the practical side jumped in and pointed out that not only was it illegal to lace a birthday trifle with poison, it would be much too obvious who’d done it. The diabolical side was just suggesting less lethal but still nasty additives when Mike smiled and leaned across the table toward her.

“I’ve got a great idea,” he said, giving her the smile that had fluttered at least half of the female hearts in Lake Eden. “Norman put me in charge of the guest list and I haven’t gotten around to inviting anyone except a couple of people from work.”

Hannah held her breath, waiting for the second shoe to drop. She was almost certain she knew what was coming and she wasn’t wrong.

“How about you, Hannah? Do you want to come?”





DEATH BY CAFFEINE (Mocha Trifle)

You don’t have to preheat your oven at all—this dessert requires no baking.

Hannah’s 1st Note: If you can’t find a sponge cake at your local bakery and you don’t feel like baking one, you may be able to find the little round, indented cups for strawberry shortcake in your grocery store. I did, and mine were called “Dessert Shells,” and one serving was two shells. (They’re NOT pie shells, but squishy like a sponge.) It took 10 little cups to make 6 cups of cubed sponge cake, and the total weight of the cake was 8 ounces.

6 cups sponge cake