Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(65)

Once Hannah had transferred the hot cookies to a rack and slipped another pan in the oven, she put the dozen cool cookies she'd made on a plate and carried them into the living room. "Here. These are ready and I've got more on the way."

"Thanks, Hannah." Andrea took a cookie with her left hand and munched while she continued to take notes from Norman's computer screen. "These are really good. They're moist and cinnamony and ... is that a word?"

"Is what a word?"

"Cinnamony."

Hannah laughed. "If it's not, it ought to be."

"Mmm..." Andrea reached out for another cookie. "What are these?"

"Spice cookies. I'm going to call them Mystery Cookies."

"That's a good name." Norman grabbed a cookie before Andrea could take her third. "What's the mystery?"

"There's a secret ingredient and I don't think anyone can guess what it is. Except maybe Andrea."

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"Me?" Andrea looked surprised. "How would I guess? You know I don't bake."

You don't cook, either, Hannah thought, but she didn't say it. Andrea had taken enough heat over the years about her lack of culinary skills. "Just think about Grandma Ingrid's Red Spice Cake and you'll know."

"But that was made with..." Andrea stopped abruptly and began to grin. "I think I get it. Does this mystery ingredient come in a red and white can?"

"Yes, and don't tell anybody. I'll have to tell Lisa because she'll be helping me mix the dough, but I'll swear her to secrecy."

"I'll never tell. I promise." Andrea raised her hand to her chest and gestured. "Cross my heart and hope to die. I wonder where that comes from."

"It's a reference to the crucifixion. It's like knock on wood. That's a reference to the wooden cross."

"Really?" Norman turned to stare at her. "How do you know that?"

Hannah shrugged. "I read it somewhere a long time ago. Little things like that stick in my head."

"If you had a computer you could find out all sorts of things like that on-line," Norman told her.

Hannah sighed. They'd had this discussion before. Norman was trying to pull her kicking and screaming into cyberspace. "Why would I need to find it out if I already know it?"

"You don't know it all. It's fun doing research on the Web and it's way past time for you to get a computer. As a matter of fact, I think you should have two."

"One for each hand?" Hannah quipped.

"No, one for here and one for The Cookie Jar."

"But why? I'm doing just fine without a computer."

"You could have a master file of your recipes," Andrea jumped into the fray. "Then you wouldn't have to make copies and keep them in both places. If you made a change in a recipe at work, you could send it to your computer at home.

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When you got home, you could print it out and then you'd always have the updated version."

"That's what I do now. I just run down to the drugstore and make a copy and bring it home."

"But that's the whole point." Andrea was insistent. "You wouldn't have to run down to the drugstore. You'd be saving money, too. That copier down there is expensive."

Hannah laughed. "And two computers aren't?"

"Not as expensive as you think," Norman took over the argument. "They're practically giving away last year's models. Since you don't need it for anything fancy, you wouldn't need to be state-of-the-art."

"You're ganging up on me," Hannah accused them. "And here I am, feeding you cookies. That's not nice."

Andrea reached out for her fourth cookie. "You're right. I wish you had a printer at home, though. Then I wouldn't have to copy all this stuff off Norman's screen. It's like copying off the blackboard at school and I hated doing that. I always got a terrible headache."

That's because you refused to wear your glasses, Hannah thought, but she wasn't mean-spirited enough to say it.

"Of course, that's because I wouldn't wear my glasses. I thought they made me look ugly," Andrea went on. "That's one of the things I like about using computers. If I get close enough, I don't have to wear them. I think I hear your timer, Hannah."

Andrea was right. Hannah got up to take another sheet of cookies from the oven. She stuck in another sheet, set the timer again, and when she came back, she found Andrea and Norman smiling broadly. "You found something?"

"Bingo!" Andrea said, and held up Hannah's notebook. "I copied it all down for you. There were two men and they stole over two hundred thousand dollars. One was apprehended that night, but the other one got away with the money. He was caught a week later, trying to cross the Canadian border, but he only had five thousand dollars with him and he

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refused to say where he'd hidden the rest. Since one of the bank guards was killed in the robbery, both men were charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison."

"Which prison?"

"That's the one thing the article doesn't say. I can find out, though. First thing tomorrow morning, I'll call the prisons and ask if the robbers are there."