Double Fudge Brownie Murder (9780758280428) Read online

  “No way!” Hannah was very definite. “You did the right thing, Doc. Mother’s having a wonderful time. She’s just a little nervous about the ceremony. And she’s probably thinking about . . .” Hannah paused, not wanting to hurt Doc’s feelings.

  “Your dad,” Doc finished the sentence for her. “Of course she is. I knew she would. It’s only natural. It’s one of the reasons I tried to distract her by telling her about the Alaskan cruise.”

  “It’ll be okay.” Michelle reached out to pat his shoulder. “Mother was really happy about the cruise and she’ll be fine once she’s actually married. This is just pre-wedding jitters and Andrea knows exactly what to do about that.”

  “Champagne?” Doc guessed.

  “Chocolate,” Hannah answered. “I left the cooler with the Maple Fudge Sandwich Cookies with Andrea. If Mother gets too nervous, we’ll just calm her down with lots of delicious endorphins.”

  Doc was silent for a moment and then he cleared his throat. “You know that there’s no real medical . . .”

  “I don’t want to hear it!” Hannah interrupted him. “All I know is that it works on Mother. If she’s stressed, a couple bites of chocolate will snap her right out of it.”

  “Okay. If it works on her, that’s the important thing. And I know she loves chocolate.” Doc glanced down at the menu again. “They have hot fudge sundaes. Maybe I should get a hot fudge sundae to go.”

  “That’s a good idea!” Hannah told him. “Let’s take Andrea a Coney Island Sandwich. That’s tuna and she loves tuna. She won’t eat dessert, so Mother can have the hot fudge sundae all to herself. When we get back, Michelle can take everything up to them.”

  “Michelle and not you?”

  “Not me. I have strict instructions to babysit you.”

  Doc laughed. “Instructions from your mother?”

  “That’s right. One of the last things she said to me before I left was that I had to keep you happy and occupied so that you didn’t get cold feet and hop on the first flight back to Lake Eden.”

  “I wouldn’t do that!”

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t, but Mother was still worried. And the next thing she said was that she’d just curl up and die if she couldn’t marry you tonight.”

  BURGER DOGS

  For grilling these outside, preheat your grill on medium heat.

  For frying, you’ll be cooking at medium heat and using a frying pan or electric grill large enough to hold 4 double hamburger patties.

  1 and ½ pounds lean ground beef

  ½ teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

  Several shakes of hot sauce (make it Slap Ya Mama if Mike is coming)

  1 Tablespoon onion, finely chopped (I used Maui sweet onion)

  2 beef hot dogs (I used Hebrew National)

  2 teaspoons prepared mustard (I used Gulden’s spicy brown)

  2 teaspoons ketchup (I used Heinz)

  1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish

  4 burger buns

  Lettuce, sliced tomato, and sliced pickles for garnishing (optional)

  Mayonnaise or your favorite sauce for spreading on the buns (optional)

  In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, salt, freshly ground pepper, and hot sauce.

  Add the Tablespoon of finely chopped onion and mix with your impeccably clean hands just until combined.

  Tear off a sheet of wax paper (or aluminum foil or parchment paper sprayed with Pam) that’s large enough to hold 8 hamburger patties. Put it on the counter.

  Form 8 round patties about a half-inch thick. As soon as you form them, place them on the sheet of wax paper.

  Cut the hot dogs into chunks and then grind them up finer by putting the chunks in a food processor and processing them with the steel blade in an on-off motion. When the hot dogs are finely ground, place the pieces in a small bowl.

  Add the mustard, ketchup, and sweet pickle relish to the ground hot dogs. Mix them in until they are thoroughly combined.

  Form a spoonful of the hot dog mixture into a ball. This ball should be made up of about a fourth of the mixture. (You’ll need 4 balls in all.)

  When you form the balls, place them in the centers of 4 of the hamburger patties.

  Top each of those patties with another patty and seal the edges by pressing them down with your fingers.

  Grill the Burger Dogs over medium-high heat, flipping them once, halfway through the cooking time.

  If you like your burgers rare, it will take about 3 minutes per side, medium will take about 4 minutes per side, and well done will take about 4 and a half minutes per side.

  If you fry or cook your burgers on an electric grill, preheat your frying pan or grill to medium-high heat and follow the above cooking times.

  While your burgers are cooking, prepare your buns. You can toast them on the grill if you like, or simply slather on a little mayo or a sauce of your choice.

  Once your burgers have cooked to the desired degree of doneness, place them on the bottom half of the bun, garnish them with lettuce, tomato, and/or pickles if you like, slap on the top of the bun and serve to rave reviews.

  Yield: 4 stuffed double-patty burgers.

  CONEY ISLAND SANDWICHES

  Preheat oven to 250 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

  (This is not a mistake. The temperature is 250 degrees F. You need to heat these sandwiches slowly at low heat.)

  ½ pound American cheese, cut into small cubes (I used Velveeta)

  2 five-ounce cans of water-packed tuna, well drained (I used Chicken of the Sea white chunk tuna)

  3 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

  2 teaspoons green bell pepper, finely chopped

  2 teaspoons pimento-stuffed olives, finely chopped

  2 teaspoons onion, finely chopped

  2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish

  ½ cup mayonnaise (I used Best Foods which is Hellman’s if you live east of the Mississippi River)

  6 large hot dog buns (I got the kind with sesame seeds on top—they’re the same shape as hot dog buns, but wider and longer)

  Hannah’s 1st Note: You can chop up the hard-boiled eggs, green bell pepper, pimento-stuffed olives, and onion ahead of time, put it in a sealable baggie and keep it in the refrigerator so it’s ready to go when it’s time to mix and assemble the Coney Island Sandwiches.

  Mix the cubed cheese and tuna together in a large bowl.

  (I use a fork to do this because it’s easier to flake the tuna with a fork.)

  Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs, green peppers, olives, and onion. Mix well.

  Add the pickle relish and mix it in.

  Spread the mayonnaise out on top with a rubber spatula and then use the spatula to mix it in.

  Open the hot dog buns, spread the filling on the bottom halves, and close the buns again.

  Wrap each bun in a piece of aluminum foil.

  Place the foil-wrapped Coney Island Sandwiches, cut side up, in a baking pan.

  Bake the sandwiches at 250 degrees F. for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and they’re warm all the way through.

  Serve these sandwiches warm. Kids love them, especially because they come in their own foil-wrapped packages. Coney Island Sandwiches are also very good to take on picnics if you keep them warm in an insulated bag for the trip to the park or the beach.

  Yield: 6 Coney Island Sandwiches.

  Chapter Four

  “Oh, Hannah! I’m so afraid I did a terrible thing!” Delores, who was sitting next to Hannah in the limo that Doc had ordered for them, reached out to touch her daughter’s arm.

  “You’re having second thoughts about marrying Doc?”

  “Oh, no! Nothing like that! It’s just that I was secretive about something that I probably shouldn’t have . . .”

  “Mother!” Andrea reached out to grab her arm. “That’s enough, Mother. We all agreed that what you did was right. And I’m sure that Hannah will agree.”

  “I might if I knew w
hat it was.”

  “I’m afraid we kept something . . .”

  “Not another word, Mother!” Michelle stepped in to silence Delores. “You did the right thing. Now let it go on and take its course.”

  “What course?” Hannah was feeling like the group of blind men who were trying to figure out what an elephant looked like by grabbing various parts of it. “What are you three talking about?”

  “It’s nothing, Hannah. Just go with the flow,” Andrea ordered.

  “Yes,” Michelle said. “We’re almost at the Little Chapel of the Orchids and then you’ll know.”

  Know what? Hannah’s mind asked, but she bit back the question before she could ask it. They probably wouldn’t tell her anyway. But her curiosity was killing her as she got out of the limo and followed her mother and sisters into the wedding chapel.

  “You must be Delores,” the woman at the counter said as she caught sight of the beige raw silk suit that Delores was wearing. “You look lovely, even prettier than your groom said you were. He’s a very nice man, so polite. And his best man?” She stopped speaking and gave a huge sigh. “If I were twenty years younger, I’d be pulling him into a taxi to take him to my place.”

  “In that case, I’m glad you’re not twenty years younger.” Delores gave a little laugh. “We need him to make this wedding legal. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, you know.”

  “Your groom told me. He said he fell in love the moment he laid eyes on you. But you were already married.” The woman reached under the counter and pulled out a box. “I have your bridesmaid corsages.” She opened the largest white box. “And here’s your wedding bouquet. Isn’t it pretty?”

  Andrea gave a little gasp as the woman pulled out an orchid bouquet. “It’s lovely, Mother!”

  “Yes, it is,” Michelle said with a nod.

  Hannah smiled. “It’s perfect with your suit. I didn’t know orchids came in all those different colors.”

  “It’s a Rainbow Orchid bouquet,” the woman told them. “Very expensive. I’ve only seen one before, and that was when one of our former mayors retired and married his much younger girlfriend. He was trying to impress her, but it didn’t work out the way he thought it would. She said, What are those funny-looking flowers, sweetie? And when he told her they were orchids, she said, Well I hope they smell good ’cause that’s the only thing they’ve got going for them.” She turned to Hannah, Andrea, and Michelle. “Do you girls want me to pin your corsages on for you?”

  “Thanks, but we can take care of that,” Hannah said, eyeing the long corsage pin nervously. There was no way she’d risk being stuck by a stranger with that fake pearl pin.

  “I’ll do yours, Hannah,” Andrea said, and before Hannah could say yea or nay, Andrea’s deft fingers had affixed the white orchid to her gown. “Michelle, you’re next.”

  Michelle stepped up to receive her corsage and then Andrea pinned on her own corsage.

  “The men are waiting for you in the garden gazebo,” the woman at the counter told them. “The photographer’s there and he wants to take a few pre-wedding photos.” She handed the box with the wedding bouquet to Delores. “Here you go, dear. The gazebo’s in the side yard off to your right.”

  Hannah followed her mother and sisters to the door that led to the side yard. She’d been feeling hesitant ever since she’d exited the car. She knew the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach was pure anxiety about whatever it was that Delores, Andrea, and Michelle were keeping from her. There was no doubt in Hannah’s mind that it was a conspiracy and now that she thought about it, Doc was probably in on it, too. The only person who didn’t know was her. It was almost like being “it” in a childhood game, shutting her eyes and counting to a hundred, and then opening them to find that all the children who’d been playing the game with her had vanished.

  The gazebo garden was right next to the building and when Hannah and her sisters emerged, they found themselves surrounded by colorful flowers and lush greenery. The gazebo gleamed white in the rays of the afternoon sun and they could hear voices coming from within. One voice was Doc’s. Hannah was sure of that. That meant the other two voices must belong to the photographer and to Doc’s best man.

  One of the unknown voices was young, still a bit high-pitched. It sounded as if it belonged to someone in his early to mid-twenties. Hannah guessed that it belonged to the photographer. Of course, some people simply had high-pitched voices and it had nothing to do with age or maturity. She realized that, but it was still a good guess.

  The third voice was hauntingly familiar. It reminded Hannah of someone she couldn’t quite place. She stopped to sniff the perfume of a particularly lovely rose, shut her eyes in pleasure, and listened. Yes, the third voice must belong to Doc’s best man. It was definitely a mature voice, one that commanded respect. Hannah hung back a bit and let her sisters walk on toward the gazebo. The haunting quality of the third voice had all of her senses on alert. Was it someone she knew? Had her mother and sisters planned some sort of surprise from the past for her? If that were the case, who could it possibly be?

  Hannah’s mind went through the possibilities. It didn’t take long because there weren’t that many. The only date she’d had in high school was one her father had arranged for her. She’d been very excited when Cliff Schuman had asked her to be his date for the senior prom until she’d learned that her father had promised Cliff a summer job at the hardware store if he’d escort Hannah. It couldn’t be Cliff anyway. The last she’d heard, he was married with three children and living in Chicago.

  No one knew about the two dates she’d had as an undergraduate student in college. She hadn’t told anyone, not even her friends, mostly because both dates had been first dates and there hadn’t been second dates with either man. The only romance, if you could call it that, had been with Bradford Ramsey, an assistant professor in the literature department. She’d thought that Bradford was the only man in the world for her until the devastating night she’d discovered that all of his promises for a future together were lies.

  The only other possibility from her past was one that caused her breathing to quicken and her heart to beat much faster than normal. What if her sisters and Doc had conspired to bring Ross Barton here? But that couldn’t possibly be the case, especially when she’d spoken to Ross on the phone last night. Surely he would have mentioned it if he’d planned to fly to Las Vegas in the morning to be Doc’s best man at the wedding!

  As her great-grandmother Elsa used to say, Don’t shilly-shally around. Shilly-shally was an irregular reduplication of shall I. Hannah had looked it up the first time her great-grandmother had said it. What it meant was that she shouldn’t hesitate to find out if she was simply imagining things and attributing a nonexistent conspiracy to purely innocent people, and that she should march straight to the gazebo and find out the identity of Doc’s best man. Hannah squared her shoulders, took a few quick steps forward so that she could catch up with her mother and sisters, and entered the gazebo only a step or two behind them.

  “Hannah! You look absolutely fantastic!”

  The third voice spoke and Hannah felt her mouth drop open. She clacked it shut so that she wouldn’t look like the fool she felt she’d been. It had been a conspiracy between her sisters, Delores, and Doc! There Ross was, a bit older and somehow more handsome than he’d been the last time she’d seen him. She felt the smile spread across her face as she took in his powerful build that looked just as much at home in a suit as it did in jeans and a chambray shirt, his dark hair that always looked a bit windblown even right after he’d combed it, his brilliant blue eyes that appeared to miss nothing, and the endearing dimple in his left cheek.

  “Ross!” Hannah breathed, and even though she felt more than a little irked at being left out of the secret, she couldn’t help but be absolutely delighted that he was here. “They got me, Ross. I had no clue you’d be Doc’s best man!”

  He laughed and Hannah felt the joy of seeing
him spread through her whole body.

  “Come here and let me hug you. It’s been way too long.” Ross held out his arms and Hannah went into them. There was no way in the world she’d refuse his invitation. She’d secretly wished to hear it during college on more than one sleepless night, knowing that he was right down the hall in the apartment building on Muscrat Lane. Then there was his trip to Lake Eden when he was producing Crisis in Cherry-wood, his independent film. He’d been distracted and stressed most of the time he’d been there, busy with the production, the amateur actors he had directed, and the murder that happened on the set. Of course she’d seen him after that, hurried visits when he had passed through Minneapolis on his way to somewhere else, but regrettably, they really hadn’t had much time together. And deep in the night, when she was alone, Hannah had admitted that she wanted time with Ross to see if the sparks she’d felt so long ago could be coaxed into flames.

  “You’re wearing it!” Ross touched the blue sapphire ring he’d sent her from Australia and Hannah was delighted that he’d noticed. She’d worn it almost constantly since she’d received it. The color of the stone reminded her of his eyes. And then his arms were around her and it was like they’d never been apart. She was keenly aware of the clean scent of his aftershave, the heat of his cheek next to hers, his strong arms around her. Had Ross missed her every bit as much as she’d missed him?