Carrot Cake Murder Part 18

Hannah picked up the photos and returned them to the envelope. There was another file in the envelope that she hadn't noticed before. "What's this?" she asked Andrea. "A duplicate set?"

"No. Those are photos they took of the cottage where Gus was staying right before they searched it. It's standard operating procedure. I heard Bill talk about it once."

"It's a good procedure!" Hannah gave a little grin. "I've seen other places they've searched, and they always looked like the aftermath of a tornado."

"Not this time," Mich.e.l.le spoke up.

"Why not?"

"Because they confiscated almost everything after they searched, and took it to the sheriff's station. Lonnie said they were going to go through it with a fine-tooth comb to see if there were any clues."

"There wasn't much more than a suitcase full of clothes and some personal items in the bathroom," Hannah said, thinking back in time to early Monday afternoon when she'd walked through the cottage searching for Gus.

"How about the closet? Did you look in there?" Mich.e.l.le asked.

"The doors were open," Hannah did her best to bring back the mental picture. "I looked at the bed first. The suitcase was on it, and it was open. And then I turned to look at the closet. There was one of those little green frogs. You've both seen the type that lives at the lake. He hopped out of the closet and...it was empty inside. I remember now. There were no clothes on the hangers."

"That's because they were all in the suitcase," Mich.e.l.le said. "Gus probably hadn't gotten around to unpacking yet."

"But why hadn't he? He'd already changed clothes twice." Hannah turned to Andrea. "That's right, isn't it?"

"Twice at the minimum," Andrea said, giving a definitive nod. "I saw him when he drove up at the church. He was wearing an eggsh.e.l.l white linen suit with an Egyptian cotton shirt..."

"You could tell his shirt's country of origin by just looking?" Hannah interrupted her sister's recital.

"Not exactly, but Egyptian cotton is distinctive, and it's always been the hot material. It was a wonderful shade of slate blue. You know the color. It's blue, but it's got a lot of gray in it, too. Very subdued, and it looks great with blond or gray hair. The shirt was open at the neck, and he had on a gold neck chain and..."

"Then he must have changed clothes, because that's not what he was wearing at the dance," Mich.e.l.le interrupted her.

"You're right. The suit he wore at the dance was completely different. And he was wearing a different shirt. Not only that, he wasn't wearing a tie when I saw him at the church, and he wore a designer tie at the dance. It's right there in the crime scene photos."

Hannah was grateful that her sisters had noticed what Gus had been wearing when they saw him in the car at the church. She'd only caught a glimpse of him, and she would have been hard-pressed to describe any item of clothing he'd worn.

"There's one thing that really puzzles me." Andrea turned to Hannah. "It's the suit Gus was wearing the first time we saw him."

"What about it?"

"It was linen. I said that before. And linen wrinkles. He wore it to the brunch. I know that, because Mother mentioned it to me. But he had to have taken it off before he showered and changed for the dance. That was an expensive suit. I'd guess it was over five hundred dollars, maybe a lot more. He was staying at a cottage with a nice big closet. Why didn't he hang it up?"

"Are we sure he didn't?" Mich.e.l.le asked.

"I'm almost positive he didn't." Hannah paged through the photos of the cottage, found the one of the bedroom, and handed it to Mich.e.l.le. "Here's a picture that shows the closet. Check it out for yourself. It's as bare as Mother Hubbard's cupboard."

"Maybe he spilled something on it at the brunch and it needed to be dry cleaned?" Mich.e.l.le suggested a possible explanation.

"Maybe, but there aren't any dry cleaners open on Sunday," Andrea pointed out. "And by the time they opened on Monday morning, he was already dead."

"So what would you do with an expensive suit you wanted dry cleaned?" Hannah asked them.

"Toss it on the floor of the closet so your wife will take it to the cleaners," Andrea said. "That's what Bill always does. I try to get him to stuff it in a laundry bag, but he forgets."

"Since there was nothing on the floor of the closet, maybe he just tossed it back in his suitcase," Mich.e.l.le suggested.

"If he did, it would be right on top." Andrea paged through the photos until she came to the one of the suitcase. "It's not here, so he didn't. And since he was such a nice dresser, he probably wouldn't have thrown it in on top of his clean clothes anyway."

Something niggled at the back of Hannah's mind, and she shut her eyes to concentrate. A second or two later, she had it. "I just remembered something. When I went to the cottage to look for him, his car was parked in the driveway. And I'm almost sure there was a jacket hanging up on the hook in the backseat."

"Was it the jacket to his linen suit?" Andrea asked her.

"I don't know. I really didn't pay much attention. Is the Jaguar still parked in front of the cottage?"

Mich.e.l.le shook her head. "Mike sealed it up and had it towed to the impound lot. It's going to stay there until they find out if Gus had a will, or any other family members back in Atlantic City."

"I wonder if the jacket's still in it," Hannah said. "I'd like to find out if it's the one to the missing linen suit."

"But why would Gus take it off inside the cottage and then carry it out and hang it in his car?" Andrea asked.

"Maybe he planned to take it to the cleaners, but he was killed first?" Mich.e.l.le suggested.

Andrea shook her head. "Then he would have just tossed it in the backseat, or the trunk. He wouldn't have bothered to hang it up."

"Wait!" Hannah began to smile. "I know why he hung it in the car!"

"Why?" both sisters asked her, almost in unison.

"Because that's how you keep linen from getting wrinkled. Mother mentioned that this morning. She always hangs up her linen jacket when she drives the car."

"I get it," Mich.e.l.le said, looking excited. "Gus didn't carry the jacket back out to his car to hang it up. He slipped it off when he left the brunch, and hung it up for the drive back to the lake."

"And forgot to take it with him when he went inside the cottage." Andrea finished the scenario.

"But where are the pants?" Mich.e.l.le reminded her. "We still haven't found them." Then she turned to Hannah. "Do you think the missing pants are a clue?"

Hannah shrugged. "Search me. But it is interesting, and it might mean something. I'm just not sure what."

"n.o.body's using the cottage, so you can go back and go through it again," Andrea told her. "You might find something that the crime team missed."

Hannah gave her a grin. It wasn't the first time she'd found something the crime team hadn't thought was important, but that later turned out to be an important clue. "You say it's vacant?"

"Yes. Lisa thought maybe somebody else would move in, but none of the relatives want to use it."

Hannah was puzzled. "Why not? It's a nice cottage. And it's not a crime scene or anything like that. Why doesn't anybody want to use it?"

"Because Gus stayed there," Andrea explained.

"But he was only there for an hour or so. He didn't even have time to unpack!"

"That's true, but I guess they think it's bad luck." Mich.e.l.le did her best to explain. "A lot of people are really superst.i.tious."

"Maybe so," Hannah said, turning back to her cooking duties. She was glad that no one else was using the cottage. She intended to go back there at the very first opportunity, but her primary purpose wasn't to search for clues Mike's crime team might have missed. It had more to do with the frog. She hoped he'd hidden out somewhere when the crime team had searched the cottage, or hopped out the door to find a new place to inhabit. Maybe it was silly of her to be concerned, but she'd try to get over there later this evening to check.

WANMANSITA Ca.s.sEROLE.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

2 pounds lean hamburger*

2 medium onions, sliced 1 cup diced celery (that's about 3 stalks) 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced 1 large package of crinkle noodles (I used egg noodles that were twisted in the middle.) 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) of diced tomatoes with juice 1 can (5 ounces) sliced water chestnuts (Sally uses chopped) 1 can (4 ounces) mushroom pieces 2 teaspoons c.u.min 2 teaspoons chili powder 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon pepper (freshly ground is best, of course) 2 cups grated cheddar cheese *If you use regular hamburger instead of lean, you'd better buy 2 or 3 pounds, because there's a lot of fat that'll cook off. If you buy extra lean hamburger it probably won't have enough fat and you'll have to add some.

Don't worry about the ounces on the water chest-nuts-anything from 4 ounces to 8 ounces will do.

Start by spraying a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan, or a half-size disposable steam table pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. If you choose to use a disposable pan, set it on a cookie sheet to support the bottom and make it easier to move it from the counter to the oven, and then out again when it's finished.

Pour 6 quarts of water into a big pot and put it on the stove to boil. You'll use this to cook the noodles. (If you start heating the water now, it should be boiling by the time you're ready to cook the noodles. If it boils too early and you're not ready, just turn down the heat a little. If it's not ready when you are, crank up the heat and wait for the boil.) Crumble the hamburger and brown it over medium heat in a large frying pan, stirring it around with a metal spatula and breaking it up into pieces as it fries. This should take about 15 or 20 minutes.

When the hamburger is nice and brown, put a bowl under a colander so that you can save about 1/3 cup of fat to use with the onions. Dump the hamburger into the colander to drain it.

Put the drained hamburger into the prepared baking pan.

Pour the 1/3 cup of hamburger grease back into the frying pan.

Peel the onions and slice them into 1/8 inch thick slices. (When you do this they may fall apart in rings and that's perfectly okay.) Place the onion slices in the frying pan, but don't turn on the heat quite yet.

Dice the celery. Add it to the onion slices in the frying pan.

Cut open the green bell pepper and take out the seeds, the stem, and the tough white membranes. Chop the remaining pepper into bite-sized pieces. Once that's done, add them to the onions and celery in your frying pan.

Cook the aromatic vegetables (that's what they call them on the Food Channel) over medium heat until they're tender when pierced with a fork.

Drain them in the same colander you used for the hamburger, and then mix them up with the hamburger in your baking pan.

Add some salt to your boiling water on the stove. Then dump in the noodles, stir them around, let the water come back to a boil, and then turn down the heat a bit so the pot doesn't boil over. Set your timer for whatever it says on the noodle package directions and cook the noodles, stirring every minute or so to make sure they don't stick together.

Drain the cooked noodles in the same colander you've been using all along, add them to your baking pan, and mix them up with everything else.

Add the diced tomatoes, juice and all, to your baking pan. Wait to stir. You don't want to mush your noodles by stirring too much.

Open and drain the cans of water chestnuts and mushroom pieces in the colander that's still sitting in the sink.

Dump the water chestnuts and mushrooms on top of the tomatoes in your baking pan.

Sprinkle the c.u.min over the top of your ca.s.serole.

Sprinkle the chili powder on top of the c.u.min. (Gary says to tell you that if your chili powder has been sitting around for as long as theirs has, it's a good idea to buy fresh.) Sprinkle on the salt and grind the pepper on top of that.

Now is the time to mix it all up. This might not be easy if the baking pan's too full to stir with a spoon. If that's happened, just wash your hands thoroughly and dive in with your fingers to mix everything up. When you're through, pat the ca.s.serole so it's nice and even on top, and call it a day.

Wash your hands again, and then cover the baking pan with a single thickness of foil.

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 60 minutes, or until you peek under the foil and see that it's hot and bubbling.

Remove the pan from the oven. Remove the foil slowly and carefully to avoid burning yourself with the steam that may roll out. Set the foil on the counter to use again in a few minutes.

Sprinkle the 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese over the top and return the baking pan to the oven. Bake it, uncovered, for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.

Cover the pan again with that foil you saved, and let your ca.s.serole sit on a cold burner or rack to set up for at least 10 minutes, and then serve and enjoy!

Hannah's 1stNote: Sally says to tell you that she made 4 pans of this for a luncheon meeting. There were 25 people and she had one whole pan left over.

Hannah's 2ndNote: Gary says to tell you that they didn't serve seconds, though.

Yield: Judging from the above notes, I'd guess that one pan of Wanmansita Ca.s.serole would serve 8 to 10 people, especially if you served fresh b.u.t.tered rolls and a nice mixed green salad on the side.

Chapter Nineteen.

Norman gave a resigned sigh as he perched rather precariously on the top of Hannah's cookie truck. They were parked next to the chain link fence that surrounded Cyril Murphy's impound lot. Any cars that the city of Lake Eden, the Winnetka County Sheriff's Department, or the Minnesota Highway Patrol impounded were stored here. Hannah and Norman had driven here right after she'd unmolded Andrea's Jell-O, put it on a platter, and returned it to the refrigerator. Mich.e.l.le had promised to remove the Wanmansita Ca.s.seroles from the oven when they'd finished baking, and to carry them to the dinner buffet. That meant Hannah was free to pursue the linen jacket lead they'd uncovered, and Norman had agreed to help her.

Hannah glanced at her watch. They had exactly one hour before dinner would be served, and they had to locate Gus Klein's Jaguar, look to see if the jacket was there, and drive back out to the lake in time to join everyone for Jack Herman's birthday party.

"I still think this is breaking and entering," Norman said as he began to climb up the chain-link fence.

"No, it's not. It might be entering, but there's no breaking involved. Go ahead, Norman. You said you could do it."

"I can. I'm just not sure I want to. Do you know for a fact that Cyril doesn't keep guard dogs inside?"

"I do." Hannah shaded her eyes with her hand as she stared up at Norman. He had reached the top of the chain link and was just about to climb over. "Cyril bought two guard dogs when he opened the impound lot, but he ended up taking them both home for pets."

"Okay. What do you want me to do now?"

"Just drop down on the other side and unlock the gate. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back out to the lake."

Norman gave a brief nod and dropped down. Hannah noticed that he landed lightly on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet, the exact opposite of what would have happened if she'd jumped from that height. She watched him head for the gate at an easy trot, and she was impressed. Norman had never been in bad physical shape, but he appeared to be more agile and fit than he'd ever been before.

"Got it!" Norman called out, opening the gate for her.

"You picked the lock that fast?"

"Not really. It wasn't locked."