Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(51)

Yield: Approximately 2 to 3 dozen very pretty and very yummy cookies.

Chapter Seventeen


“Ireally shouldn’t but . . . just one more, Hannah. I really like these pancakes.”

Hannah smiled as she passed the pancake platter. Her mother had already eaten two pancakes and this would be her third. As far back as Hannah could remember, her mother had never eaten more than one and a half.

“I like them too, and I don’t even like oatmeal,” Andrea commented, forking another piece of sausage. “I’d have another, but we want to save some for Mike, don’t we?”

Hannah shook her head. “No. I’ll make a fresh batch when he gets here. They’re best hot off the griddle.” She turned to look at the cats, who were rubbing against her legs. “Sorry, guys. You already shared a whole piece of sausage.”

“And don’t even think about trying that chase ploy again,” Norman warned them. “It worked with Lonnie’s steak, but it won’t work with the sausage. I’m holding the platter and my plate is empty.”

Moishe looked as innocent as a cat could look and Michelle laughed. “Look at Moishe. He’s pretending he doesn’t know what we’re talking about.”

“I almost forgot.” Delores turned to Hannah. “Doc says it’s fine if you bring Moishe out to visit Barbara. He thinks it might do her some good to have visible reminders of her current life beyond the isolation of her hospital room. He said reminders of the present could give her a temporal reference.”

“So Barbara realizes that some of the people she thought were currently in her life are really in the past?” Michelle asked.

“I think that’s what he meant, dear. It does make sense. Andrea and I are going to go over to Barbara’s house tomorrow to get some object that’s relatively new and one that’s from her parents’ era. Once she sees the two objects together she may remember that the house is hers now and she’s living there alone because her parents are dead.”

“That might work as far as her father is concerned, but I don’t think it’ll have any effect on the monster,” Hannah predicted. “Does Doc Knight have any suggestions for that delusion?”

“What monster?” Norman asked, and Hannah realized that he was out of the loop.

“Barbara said a monster comes into her room at night at the hospital. It scares her and she wants Moishe to chase it away.”

“Is she dreaming?” Norman asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t think anyone else does either. Barbara does think she saw a monster though. I could tell that she believed it.”

“You’re right. She did,” Delores confirmed. “Doc told me the monster has him puzzled. Barbara was quite rational all morning, and other than a couple of little slips with us, she was rational during our visit.”

Norman looked thoughtful. “Could there really be a monster?” He gave a little laugh as he saw their incredulous looks.

“I don’t mean a monster like Frankenstein or Beowulf, but something that Barbara construes as a monster. It could be as simple as a shadow on the wall, or a tree branch that rubs against her window.”

“You could be right,” Michelle said. “Things look different at night, especially when you first wake up. I remember thinking that my teddy bear turned into a monster at night when I was little.”

“That’s why you always threw a towel over his face!” Hannah exclaimed.

“That’s right. If he couldn’t see me, he couldn’t eat me.”

“It could be something like that with Barbara,” Delores suggested. “Doc says it’s common for patients on pain pills to have some level of confusion. Barbara could have seen something perfectly ordinary and thought it was a monster.”

Hannah wanted to remind her mother that Barbara had described the monster as a giant white rat and shadows weren’t white, but she bit her tongue and said nothing. No one wanted to think that Barbara’s mind had been badly damaged. They all needed to believe that her condition was temporary and soon she’d return to the happy, productive woman they knew.

Andrea cleared her throat and Hannah looked over at her. There was an expression of anticipation on her face and for a moment Hannah didn’t know what her sister wanted. It hit her then, and she gave a slight nod. Moments later she was clearing the table, putting on the coffee, and getting out the dessert bowls Delores had given her for Christmas several years ago. Andrea had been waiting for the meal to be over so that it would be time for dessert. It wasn’t that she wanted to eat it, at least not necessarily. What Andrea was anticipating was receiving more compliments on her new whippersnapper cookies.

At eight-thirty there was a knock on the door and Hannah went to answer it. This time she looked through the peephole because she knew it had to be Mike and he’d be upset with her if she didn’t take that precaution. Mike stood there in the light and he wasn’t smiling. That made Hannah experience a moment’s anxiety, but she managed to shrug it off. He was probably tired from working so hard. And he was probably hungry.

“It’s Mike,” she said to everyone inside and then she opened the door. “Hi, Mike. Come in.”

“Thanks.” Mike stepped in, but he still wasn’t smiling.

“Are you hungry?” Hannah asked him.