Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(33)

Hannah and Norman walked down the carpeted hallway and peeked in the open door to the master bedroom. It was clear that the cats hadn’t heard them coming because Moishe was still sprawled out on Hannah’s feather pillow and Cuddles was right next to him. Neither cat moved when they approached the bed or even twitched a whisker.

Hannah put her finger to her lips, and Norman gave a nod of agreement. Then both of them backed out of the room. When they got back to the living room, Hannah led the way to one of the soft leather sofas. “If you want to leave Cuddles, that’s fine with me. You can always pick her up tomorrow.”

“You do know she grows much longer during the night, don’t you? And she also gains weight. Some nights, when I try to move her, she weighs three hundred pounds.”

Hannah laughed. “That’s okay. I’m used to that phenomenon. Moishe does the same thing.”

“When you wake up in the morning, do you find yourself curled up into the smallest space possible so that Moishe can have the whole bed?”

“That’s exactly what happens, but my offer still stands. Cuddles can have a sleepover with Moishe.”

“Okay, as long as you know what you’re getting into. You’re leaving early tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m taking Michelle out to Cyril’s garage, and he opens at seven for the people who want to leave their cars before they go to work. Michelle and I want to be there when he opens.”

“What time will you leave here?”

Hannah did some lightning-quick calculating. “We’ll leave here at six-thirty. Lisa said she’d come in early with Aunt Nancy and Marge to start the baking.”

“Then I’ll be here at six. That’ll give me time to have a cup of coffee with you and pick up Cuddles. My first appointment’s not until eight so I’ll have plenty of time to take her home before I go to the clinic.”

“Fine with me,” Hannah said, smiling at him. “Thanks for your support, Norman. I really was a wreck after that interview with Mike.”

“That’s understandable.” Norman stood up, pulled her into his arms, and gave her a hug. “I’ll let myself out. Good night, Hannah.”

“Good night, Norman.”

After Norman had left, Hannah sat there for a moment, thinking. She wasn’t sure just how she should feel if Ross had misled her about his background deliberately. Was that grounds for divorce? And did she really want a divorce? She considered it for a moment, and then she decided that she was borrowing trouble. As Norman had said, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the discrepancies.

Feeling a bit better, Hannah got off the couch and headed for the bedroom. As she passed the door to the guest room, she glanced in and found Michelle already in bed, curled up on her side and sleeping. There was a slight smile on her face and Hannah wondered if her sister was dreaming about the car she would choose in the morning.

Five minutes later, Hannah was ready for bed and she climbed under the covers. A gentle nudge convinced the cats to move to the foot of the bed so she could reclaim her pillow, and before she could even think about how tired she was, she was in the exact same position as her youngest sister, fast asleep.





ULTIMATE FUDGY CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.



4 large eggs

? cup vegetable oil

? cup cold coffee (or water, if you don’t want to use

coffee)

8-ounce (by weight) tub of sour cream (I used

Knudsen)

1 box of Chocolate Fudge Cake mix with or without

pudding in the mix, the kind that makes a 9-inch

by 13-inch cake or a 2-layer cake (I used Duncan

Hines)

5.1-ounce package of instant chocolate pudding mix

(I used Jell-O, the kind that makes 6 half-cup

servings.)

12-ounce (by weight) bag of mini chocolate chips

(11-ounce package will do, too—I used Nestle)





Prepare your cake pan. You’ll need a Bundt pan that has been sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray and then floured. To flour a pan, put some flour in the bottom, hold it over your kitchen wastebasket, and tap the pan to move the flour all over the inside of the pan. Continue this until all the inside surfaces of the pan, including the sides of the crater in the center of the pan, have been covered with a light coating of flour. Shake out excess flour. Alternatively, you can coat the inside of the Bundt pan with Pam Baking Spray, which is a nonstick cooking spray with flour already in it.





Crack the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix them up on LOW speed until they’re a uniform color.





Pour in the half-cup of vegetable oil and mix it in with the eggs on LOW speed.





Add the half-cup of cold coffee and mix it in on LOW speed.





Scoop out the container of sour cream, and add the sour cream to your bowl. Mix that in on LOW speed.





When everything is well-combined, open the box of dry cake mix and sprinkle it on top of the liquid ingredients in the bowl of the mixer. Mix that in on LOW speed.





Add the package of instant chocolate pudding and mix that in, again on LOW speed.