Blackberry Pie Murder (24 page)

Cook the 6 slices of bacon in a frying pan over medium heat for 6 minutes or until the bacon is firmed up and the edges are slightly brown, but the strips are still pliable.

They won’t be completely cooked, but that’s okay. They will finish cooking in the oven. Place the partially-cooked bacon on a plate lined with paper towels to drain it.

Generously coat the inside of 6 muffin cups with half of the softened butter.

Butter one side of the bread with the rest of the butter but stop slightly short of the crusts. Lay the bread out on a sheet of wax paper or a bread board butter side up.

Hannah’s 1st Note: You will be wasting a bit of butter
here, but it’s easier than cutting rounds of bread first and
trying to butter them after they’re cut.

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Using a round cookie cutter that’s three and a half inches

(3 and 1⁄2 inches)
in diameter, cut circles out of each slice of bread.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you don’t have a 3.5 inch cookie
cutter, you can use the top rim of a standard size drinking glass to do this.

Place the bread rounds butter side down inside the muffin pans, pressing them down gently being careful not to tear them as they settle into the bottom of the cup. If one does tear, cut a patch from the buttered bread that is left and place it, buttered side down, over the tear.

Curl a piece of bacon around the top of each piece of bread, positioning it between the bread and the muffin tin.

This will help to keep the bacon in a ring shape.

Sprinkle shredded cheese in the bottom of each muffin cup, dividing the cheese as equally as you can between the 6 muffin cups.

Crack an egg into a small measuring cup
(I use a half-

cup measure)
with a spout, making sure to keep the yolk intact.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you break a yolk, don’t throw the
whole egg away. Just slip it in a small covered container
which you will refrigerate and use for scrambled eggs the

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next morning, or for that batch of cookies you’ll make in
the next day or two.

Pour the egg carefully into the bottom of one of the muffin cups.

Repeat this procedure for all the eggs, cracking them one at a time and pouring them into the remaining muffin cups.

When every muffin cup has bread, bacon, cheese and egg, season with a little salt and pepper.

Bake the filled toast cups for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on how firm you want the yolks.
(Naturally, a longer bak-

ing time yields a harder yolk.)

Run the blade of a knife around the edge of each muffin cup, remove the Bacon, Egg, and Cheddar Cheese Toast Cups, and serve immediately.

Hannah’s 4th Note: These are a bit tricky the first time
you make them. That’s just “beginner nerves”. Once you’ve
made them successfully, they’re really quite easy to do and
extremely impressive to serve for a brunch.

Yield: 6 servings
(or 3 servings if you’re fixing them for

Mike and Norman).

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Chapter

!
Seventeen
#

Hannah was just wondering which cookie recipe she should bake next when she remembered what she’d been discussing with Michelle and Rose at breakfast this morning. They’d all agreed that everybody needed a little chocolate and there were no chocolate cookies on the bakers rack. Perhaps she’d try a new cookie, a chocolate cookie.

Michelle had given her a new chocolate cookie recipe. It was from her friend, Julia Meister, a dance major she’d worked with in several theater productions. Michelle said she’d baked the cookies that Julia called Triple Chocolate Cookies and they were the deepest, darkest, fudgiest cookies she’d ever tasted. If they were as good as Michelle said they were, they were bound to be a hit in the coffee shop.

Hannah was just taking pans of cookies from the oven when there was a knock at the back door.
I hope it’s not
Mother coming to tell me she changed her mind about the
wedding plans again!
she thought as she crossed the kitchen floor and opened the back door.

“Mike!” she said, giving him a big smile. “I’m really glad to see you.”

“Thanks, Hannah,” Mike said, looking pleased. “That’s the warmest greeting I’ve gotten all day. I ran into Bill at the 200

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Corner Tavern and he wouldn’t even look at me. He was sitting all by himself and he sure didn’t look happy.”

Hannah snapped her mouth closed and went to get him a cup of coffee. She’d been about to tell him that she’d expected her mother and had been relieved to see him instead, but that might make him feel bad.

“Thanks,” Mike said, accepting the cup of coffee she handed him and reaching for a cookie from the plate she’d set on the work counter. “Do you know if Bill’s made up with Andrea yet?”

“Not that I know of. I do know that she was still mad at him yesterday. It might be a while before she forgives him for arresting me. I know from experience that Andrea can hold a grudge for a long time.”

“What experience was that?”

“Just something that happened when we were kids. I got a red bicycle for Christmas and she got a gold one. She wanted the red.”

“Why didn’t you switch?”

“Because I’m just as stubborn as she is. Red was my favorite color, even back then. I wasn’t about to give up a red bicycle. Besides . . . there was another consideration.”

“What was that?”

“Andrea’s younger and she was a lot smaller than I was.

Maybe she could have reached the pedals on mine, but if I’d tried to ride her little bike, I would have banged my knees on the handlebars.”

“That sounds like a valid reason to go with what you were given,” Mike said, and then he handed her the bag he’d carried in with him. “Here,” he said. “I found this at the crime . . . I mean the scene of the accident.”

Hannah opened the bag and peered in. There was a metal pan inside. “What is it?”

“Looks like one of those pans you bake pies in to me. I thought you’d know what it was.”

“Can I take it out of the bag?”

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“Sure, but you’d better use a napkin or something.”

“To preserve any fingerprints?”

Mike shook his head. “It was out in the rain. If there were any fingerprints, there won’t be any left now. I just didn’t want you to get your hands dirty, that’s all.”

Hannah grabbed a napkin and lifted the pan out of the bag. “You’re right,” she told him. “It’s a pie tin. There’s still some crust sticking to the bottom and . . .” She stopped and took the plate to the window to examine it in the sunlight.

“Yes! There’s a little bit of some kind of berry sticking to the crust. This could have been from the blackberry pie that was stolen from Winnie’s window ledge.”

“If you’re right, Winnie’s pie was stolen by the dead man.

There are coincidences in police work, but not all that many.

And Doc said the man had a blackberry stain on his shirt. Do you think Winnie might recognize this pan so that we can confirm that the pie came from her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. At least she’ll know if it’s the same size as hers.”

“They’re not all the same size?”

Hannah laughed. “No. Pie plates come in several sizes.

And some are deep dish while others aren’t. They’re made of different materials, too. Some are metal, some are glass, and then there’s the disposable kind that are made of aluminum foil. This one doesn’t look expensive, and Winnie bakes a lot of pies. It’s possible that she has a whole set of these in her cupboard at the ranch.”

“Do you have more cookies to bake right now?” Mike asked her.

“No. Why?”

“I was thinking we could run out to Winnie’s and see if that pie pan is hers.”

“Okay. I can go with you.” Hannah was pleased. Mike could have gone by himself, but he’d asked her to come along.

“Do you have to tell anyone where you’re going?”

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Hannah listened. Lisa was still talking to the audience and she didn’t want to disturb her. “Not really. I’ll just leave a note so Michelle and Lisa will know where I’ve gone.”

Hannah wrote a note and propped it up on the counter where Lisa and Michelle would be sure to see it there. Then she grabbed the bag with the pie plate and was about to go out the door when she thought of something. “Hold on,” she told Mike. “I need to get something.”

The photo they’d used for the flyers was in a folder on the counter. Hannah grabbed it, folder and all. It wouldn’t hurt to ask Winnie, Connor, and the ranch hands if any of them had seen the dead man hanging around on the morning Winnie’s pie had been stolen.

Once Hannah was settled in the passenger seat of Mike’s Hummer, she leaned back and enjoyed the ride. Winnie’s ranch was out in the country surrounding the town of Lake Eden and it took a full twenty minutes to get there. The farm next to it belonged to Carly’s mother, Loretta, and Hannah peered out the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of Carly’s sister, Jennifer. Someone was out in the yard and Hannah assumed that it was Jennifer since she looked just like an older version of Carly.

“What’s so interesting?” Mike asked, noticing that she was peering out of the window.

For one brief moment, Hannah thought about telling him what Carly had confided last night. Perhaps Mike could help her with her promise to find out if Jennifer was really Carly’s long-lost sister. But she quickly squelched that impulse. Carly had told them her suspicions in confidence. It wouldn’t be right to tell Mike without asking Carly if that was all right with her.

“Hannah?” Mike asked again, and Hannah knew she had to say something. The best way to reply would be to tell him the truth, or at least part of it. “I think I just saw Carly’s sister out in the yard. I’m almost sure that it was her. She looks just like an older version of Carly.”

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“Is Carly okay with her sister coming home after all this time?” Mike asked.

“I’m not sure,” Hannah said, not wanting to lie, but shad-ing the truth just a bit. “Michelle said that Carly likes Jennifer a lot.”

“That’s all to the good then.” Mike made a sharp left and pulled onto the private road that led to Winnie’s ranch house.

They bounced along the gravel road for another few minutes and then Mike pulled up and parked in front of the house.

“Here we are,” he said. “I just hope she’s home.”

Hannah glanced at her watch. “I’m sure she is. It’s almost noon and she’s probably fixing lunch for Connor and the ranch hands.”

Winnie answered the door herself. She was wearing an apron and she wiped her hands on a towel before she shook Mike’s hand and gave Hannah a hug. “Hi there. What brings you out here all this way?”

“This,” Hannah said, getting right to the heart of the matter by pulling the pie plate out of the bag. “Is this one of yours, Winnie?”

“Looks like it,” Winnie said, taking the pie tin from Hannah’s hand. “If it is, somebody sure doesn’t know how to wash dishes!”

“I found it in the woods close to here,” Mike explained.

“And Hannah said you’d had a blackberry pie stolen on Friday morning so we thought it might be yours.”

“Is there any way you can tell for sure?” Hannah asked, hoping for a positive identification.

“Sure is. Follow me to the kitchen. I’ll just give it a soak and then I can tell.” Winnie led the way to the kitchen and dropped the pie pan into the sink, which was already full of soapy water. “Have a seat at the table.”

“Something really smells good in here,” Mike said as they sat down at the big, round, oak table.

“Don’t know what that could be unless it’s fried chicken, biscuits, green beans and carrots, and Graham Cracker Cake.

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You two hungry? There’s plenty enough for two more. Connor and the boys will be trooping in here to eat about five minutes from now.”

Mike shook his head. “Thanks, Winnie, but I had a big breakfast less than three hours ago.”

“I didn’t ask you when you ate breakfast. I asked you if you were hungry.”

Mike grinned. “So you did. I’m not hungry, but that fried chicken smells really good. I think I could choke down a leg or two.”

“That’s what I thought. Your mouth started watering the minute you stepped through the door to my kitchen. Coffee while you wait?”

“No, thanks,” Mike said quickly, and Hannah knew he remembered Winnie’s extra-strong, boiled coffee. He’d managed to drink one cup the last time they were here together, but Hannah suspected that it had probably given him indi-gestion.

“How about you, Hannah? You hungry?”

“I was born hungry, Winnie. I can’t eat too much, though.

I’ll have one piece of chicken, one of your biscuits, and a piece of that Graham Cracker Cake. I’ve never had Graham Cracker Cake before.”

“You’ll like it. And you’ll like it even better when I write out the recipe for you. It’s so easy that making it’s like falling off a log.” Winnie walked over to the sink and pulled the pie pan out of the dishwater. “That’s better. Just let me rinse it off and I can tell you if it’s mine or not.”

Mike and Hannah watched while Winnie rinsed the pan and dried it on a dishtowel. Then she carried it to the window and peered at the inside of the pan. “Yup,” she said.

“It’s mine, all right.”

“How can you tell?” Hannah asked her.

“There’s an
S
scratched inside. That’s for Sadie, my mother’s name. She baked a lot of pies just like me, and she BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER

205

gave a lot away. That way, if people gave her back the wrong pie tin, she knew right away that it wasn’t hers.”