Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(60)

Should she punish him? Hannah considered it for a split second and quickly discarded that notion. Moishe had been kicked around and abused during his former life on the streets. This was a safe haven for him and there was no way Hannah was going to jeopardize the trust they'd built up in one another. Everyone said that unless you caught your pets in the act, punishment after the fact would only confuse them. And the way that Moishe had trembled, mewed pitifully, and crawled to her on his belly when she'd come home certainly indicated contrition.

Hannah fished out the bottle of vitamin supplement and put it in the cabinet under the sink. She couldn't bear to throw away something that had been that expensive, but she didn't intend to use it again. It was simply too traumatic for both of them. There had to be something else she could do that wouldn't upset either one of them. Tonight she'd feed Moishe his regular kitty crunchies. They'd both been through enough for one day. And tomorrow morning she'd stop by the vet's office and ask Doctor Bob's advice.





Chapter Twenty-Two





"Is that a new cookie recipe?" Lisa asked the next morning, bringing Hannah a fresh cup of coffee from the urn. They'd finished the baking and now they were relaxing at their favorite table in the back until it was time to open.

"It's a new recipe, but it's not for cookies. I stopped by the vet's office this morning and Sue gave me a recipe for making Moishe's senior cat food from scratch."

"Uh-oh," Lisa said with a frown. "My brilliant plan to give Moishe his vitamins wasn't so brilliant after all?"

"It could have been brilliant, I just don't know. I never got the chance to test it out. When I got home last night, Moishe was hiding under the bed and his vitamin bottle was at the bottom of the toilet bowl."

"I guess that tells you what he thinks of food supplements."

"It certainly does," Hannah said with a grin. "Anyway, I decided to try something that both of us could live with. Cooking his food doesn't seem to be that difficult."

"Let me see." Lisa peered over Hannah's shoulder at the typewritten recipe. "You're going to boil liver for him every morning and every evening?"

"It's worth it as long as I don't have to give him those vitamins."

"How about the rest of this stuff? You have to cook that, too." Lisa read the list of additional ingredients and shuddered. "This sounds really horrible, especially for breakfast."

"It's not that bad, Lisa. It's almost like an omelet, if you think about it."

"I don't want to think about it, especially first thing in the morning. What is this last ingredient, calcium carbonate?"

"It's what's in eggshells. Sue said I could just crush the shells really fine and add the powder to Moishe's food. The whole thing'll be like a crunchy liver omelet with a side of rice."

"Yuck. Just thinking about it is making me sick. I don't know what's worse, the liver or the eggshells. Do you think he'll eat it?"

"I think so, especially when I finish seasoning it. I can't bear the thought of making an omelet without salt and pepper and maybe a little dash of garlic powder."

"But animals aren't supposed to have seasoning."

"Says who? I bet that comes from people who never had to taste pet food. If I were a cat or a dog, I'd want my dinner spiced up with a little seasoning. I might even douse it with ketchup if I could figure out how to get the cap off the bottle."



When Lisa came back from lunch, she handed Hannah a bag from the Red Owl. "Here, Hannah. I picked up a sack of candy corn. Where do you want it?"

"In the kitchen, on the counter by the sink."

Hannah made the rounds with the coffee carafe while Lisa took the bag to the kitchen and washed her hands. When she came back out, she was wearing her hair net and one of the pretty serving aprons that a local seamstress had made for them.

"You should see the community center," Lisa said. "The seniors are helping to decorate it for Halloween and it looks really good."

"How's the Haunted Basement coming along?"

"It's almost done. They were just moving in the furniture while I was there. Edna was in the kitchen, filling the bags of treats for the kids, and she had an idea for Alma's cupcakes."

"What's that?" Hannah asked. Edna had been baking for almost half a century and she knew what she was doing.

"She said she thought it had to be some kind of thickened liquid."

"I agree," Hannah said. "Did she have any suggestions?"

"Only one, but she said it couldn't be right."

"What was it?" Hannah wanted to know. Even if Edna's suggestion wouldn't work for the secret ingredient, it might give them some ideas.

"Sweetened condensed milk."

"But that could be it! The recipe could use more sugar and it's just about the right consistency. Why didn't Edna think it would work?"

"Because Alma was known for pinching her pennies."

"You mean sweetened condensed milk would be too expensive for her to use in a recipe?"

"Not exactly. Edna said Alma would use it, but she sure wouldn't throw any away."