Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(52)

“Why so quiet, Hannah?” Alice asked her. “Are you trying to figure out if I killed Matthew?”

“Yes,” Hannah said. Alice had the reputation for saying exactly what was on her mind, and the only way to address such candor was to be just as outspoken herself. “It’s a good motive, Alice.”

“You bet it is! If he’d come back to Lake Eden during that first year, I might have actually done it. But now…? It’s too late, Hannah. Matthew was a different person, and so am I. Do you know I bought a new dress when I couldn’t really afford one just to impress him with how I’d kept my looks? I even had Bertie do a weave to cover up the gray in my hair.”

“I thought you looked different,” Norman said. “Your hair’s beautiful, Alice. Whatever a weave is, it looks good on you.”

Alice laughed. “Thanks! I wouldn’t expect a man to know what it is. Matthew noticed it, though. I know he did. He called me and invited me to to dinner on Monday night. I was excited about going out with him again. I was even going to go down to Claire’s on Monday morning and buy another new dress. But then …” she stopped and blinked several times. “Then I heard the news on KCOW radio and Jake and Kelly said that Matthew was dead.”

“Thanks for driving, Norman.” Hannah said as she slid into the passenger seat. “I’ve got to make some notes.”

Norman glanced over at her as he started the car. “You’re adding Alice to the suspect page?”

“Yes, but just so that I can cross her out. You don’t kill your high school boyfriend when he’s just asked you to go out with him again.”

“I don’t get it.” Norman pulled away from the curb and out into the street.

“What don’t you get?”

“Why you wrote down Alice’s name when you already knew you were going to cross her out.”

“It’s simple. It gives me a record of who I interviewed and why. Alice no longer has a motive, but she did until Matthew asked her to go out for dinner. And that reminds me. Do you have your cell phone handy?”

“Of course. Who do you want to call?”

“Sally. I want to see if Matthew made a reservation for Monday night. If he did, that’ll substantiate Alice’s story.”

“You think she’s lying?”

“No, but if Alice did kill Reverend Matthew, it would be a great cover-up, wouldn’t it?”





RASPBERRY VINEGAR COOKIES

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ? pound) salted butter, softened





1 cup white (granulated) sugar





1 teaspoon raspberry vinegar***





1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon rum extract****





1 and ? cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup and level it off)





1 cup chopped pecans (measure after chopping)





*** - If you can’t find raspberry vinegar in your store, you can use any fruit flavored vinegar or just plain old white vinegar. The vinegar is there to react with the baking soda, so any kind will do. I would caution against Balsamic. It has a heavy flavor that might not be good in these cookies. Then again, I haven’t tried it. It could be wonderful.

**** - If you don’t want to use rum extract, use any other flavor of extract you like, including vanilla.

Combine the softened butter and the sugar. Mix them until they’re light and fluffy. (You can do this with an electric mixer if you like.)

Add the raspberry vinegar and mix it in.

Add the baking soda and mix that in.

Add the rum extract and mix it in.

Add the cup and a half of all-purpose flour. Mix thoroughly.

Mix in the chopped pecans.

Drop by spoonfuls on a greased (I sprayed mine with Pam) baking sheet, 12 cookie mounds to a sheet. (Lisa and I used a 2-teaspoon scooper down at The Cookie Jar.)

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 18 to 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on top.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Store these cookies in a cookie jar or an air-tight container so that they remain moist and soft.

Hannah’s Note: These cookies remind me of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, except they’re better. If you’d like to experiment with them, try adding mini chocolate chips to a batch, or pressing a chocolate candy into the center of each cookie before you bake it.

Yield: approximately 3 and ? dozen to 4 dozen sweet and buttery cookies, depending on cookie size.





Chapter Seventeen

Eden Lake was pretty in the winter. Actually, Eden Lake was pretty at any time of the year. During the spring, the water looked fresh and clear, surrounded by trees sprouting tiny new leaves in vivid green, and wildflowers gracing the banks. There were yellow and purple irises that someone had planted years ago, and white flowers called bloodroot that would stain your hands red if you snapped off the stems to pick them. Violets in pink and yellow nestled at the edges of the wooded hollows, and there were * willows with furry gray flowers called catkins. When Hannah was a child, she’d hoped that if she left them in water long enough, they’d turn into little cats. If you were very lucky in the spring and you had sharp eyes, you might catch a glimpse of a rare showy lady’s slipper, the Minnesota state flower, protected by law, and hidden in the damp, dark depths of the woods.