Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(58)

Interesting, Hannah thought to herself. I’d better check that out with Doc Knight.

Reverend Matthew bent down to place a kiss on the top of Grandma Knudson’s head. “I’ll be back just as soon as I can,” he told her. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go out the front door. I parked my rental car on the street.”

Hannah waited until she heard the front door close behind Reverend Matthew, and then she turned to Grandma Knudson. “Are you really all right?”

“I’m fine, thanks to these,” Grandma Knudson gestured toward the platter of cookie bars. “What do you call them, Hannah?”

“Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars.”

“Well, they live up to their name!” Grandma Knudson reached for another. “I shouldn’t, but I can’t seem to stop eating them. Maybe you should call them Chocolate Addiction Bars.”

“That might send the wrong message to my customers,” Hannah said with a chuckle.

Grandma Knudson smiled, but she quickly sobered. “I still can’t believe Paul had me fooled into thinking he was Matthew.”

“From what Hannah tells me, he didn’t have you fooled,” Norman reminded her. “Hannah said you suspected that Matthew wasn’t Matthew from the very beginning.”

“Yes, but Hannah and Andrea called the seminary and his secretary explained away all of my suspicions.”

Hannah shook her head. “Not all of your suspicions. You suspected that something about the adult Matthew didn’t fit the memories you had of him as a teenager. You knew something was wrong, even if you couldn’t identify exactly what it was, and you were absolutely right about that.”

“That’s true.” Grandma Knudson sat up a little straighter, and Hannah knew they’d given her back her pride in her ability to judge people’s character. “I was beginning to doubt myself, you know.”

“Well you shouldn’t have,” Norman said, “not when you were right all along. The fake Reverend Matthew fooled everyone else, but he couldn’t fool you.”

“The fake Reverend Matthew,” Grandma Knudson repeated, and as they watched, her face turned pale.

“What is it?” Hannah asked her.

“We’ve got a real problem on our hands,” Grandma Knudson stated, and then she stopped and took a deep breath. “Paul was never ordained as a minister. I know that for a fact. And if Matthew identifies the person who impersonated him as his cousin Paul, any holy sacraments he performed are …” Grandma Knudson stopped speaking and frowned. “I don’t know, not for certain, but…oh, this is truly a disaster!”

“What is?” This time Norman asked the question.

“Paul wasn’t a minister. He was a layman. From what Matthew believes, he wasn’t even active in the church. That means that every christening, every act of holy communion, every prayer and blessing he offered, and even every marriage he performed is…is …” Grandma Knudson stopped and shook her head. “It’s as if it never happened! Nothing he did will be recognized by the church!”

“Where did you go, Hannah?” Michelle asked her when Hannah and Norman got back to The Cookie Jar.

“We went to see Grandma Knudson.” Hannah paused. If she told Michelle what had happened, she’d just have to repeat herself when she told Lisa. “Will you ask Marge if she’ll take over in the coffee shop for ten minutes? And then will you ask Lisa to come back here? I’ll need you to come with her.”

“Is there trouble with Reverend Matthew’s murder investigation?” Michelle asked.

“You could say that. Please go get Lisa, Michelle. The sooner I tell you the new developments in this case, the sooner we can start figuring out what to do about it.”

Michelle must have conveyed Hannah’s urgency to Lisa, because they were back in the kitchen almost immediately. Hannah gave them the new facts she’d learned in as few words as possible, winding up her summary of the events at the parsonage with one final statement. “So now we’re waiting to hear from Grandma Knudson. She promised to call us when the real Reverend Matthew gets back to tell us if the murder victim is really Paul.”

The only sound in the kitchen was the low hum of the furnace. Hannah had seen fish out of water, gasping for air, and that was precisely how Lisa and Michelle appeared. Their mouths were open, their eyes were wide, and the only thing they weren’t doing was flopping around on the floor. It took several seconds for them to recover, and Michelle was the first to speak.

“You mean…everything just got turned upside down.”

“That’s it precisely. And there’s the other problem, too.”

“The fact that the person who said he was Reverend Matthew wasn’t really a minister?”

“That’s right,” Norman told her. “Grandma Knudson’s going to ask Reverend Matthew when he gets back from identifying the body, but she’s almost positive that any holy sacraments a fake minister performs aren’t recognized by the church.”

“What a mess!” Lisa said, just shaking her head. “I’m just thinking about how my friend Sarah will feel. She got married last weekend by Reverend Matthew…or at least she thought it was Reverend Matthew. And now she’s not really married at all!”