Lemon Meringue Pie Murder Part 19

"Do you really need to know all that?" Claire's green eyes narrowed. "Or is it just prurient curiosity on your part?"

"I'm never prurient... or at least not often. I really need to know, Claire. I realize you want to keep your relationship with the reverend private and that's one of the reasons I'm asking. If I can eliminate him from the suspect list, I won't have to mention him to Mike."

Claire thought about that for a moment. "All right. Bob got to my apartment at seven and he didn't leave until after midnight. And he brought me os...o...b..co."

"Good. I can cross him off the list." Hannah gave a relieved sigh. "If you don't mind my asking, why did his grandmother think he was at a church meeting?"

Claire gave a little smile. "Because that's where he was supposed to be. It was Ec.u.menical Council night, but they canceled. Bob found out late that afternoon and we ... well ... we just took advantage of the moment. By the way, he's an incredible dancer."

"Reverend Knudson?"

"Yes. He put himself through college by working part time as a dance instructor. Bob can tango better than anybody I know. He's just wild."

Hannah blinked. She really had trouble imagining the LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER _ 169.

solemn man who stood behind the pulpit at Redeemer Lutheran dancing a wild tango. "You went out dancing?"

"Not out. We shoved back the furniture and danced in my living room. Bob's just wonderful, Hannah. I've never been so happy in my life. He's almost got me persuaded to let him announce our engagement to the congregation and let the chips fall where they may."

Hannah sighed. She wished Claire well, but those would be some pretty big chips.

"I know what you're thinking, but even when I was involved with Richard, I stayed active in the church. I can always be the reformed sinner that Bob redeemed."

Another thought occurred to Hannah that she knew she shouldn't ask, but that had never stopped her before: "Do you really think you could be a small-town minister's wife?"

"I think so. I know I'd like to be Bob's wife. There's only one thing stopping me."

"Your past?"

"No, Bob doesn't care about that. But I don't read music and every other minister's wife in town plays the organ."

Hannah glanced at her watch as she pulled into a s.p.a.ce in front of the Rhodes Dental Clinic. She was twenty minutes early for her lunch date with Norman despite the fact that she'd stopped off to deliver Loretta's Praline Charlottes. She got out of her truck, locked it up, and walked into the waiting room. She could hear voices in the back, coming from one of the examining rooms. Norman was still with a patient. Rather than sit and page through magazines she didn't want to read anyway, Hannah decided to dash up the block to Lake Eden Neighborhood Drugs and talk to Jon Walker about Rhonda's work at the drugstore.

The heat was shimmering up in little waves from the sidewalk as Hannah walked to the drugstore. Main Street was practically deserted and she could understand why. Anyone with half a brain was inside with curtains drawn and fan 170.

blades whirling as fast as they could to move the sluggish air. The heat today was powerful enough to make Hannah wish that the Lake Eden City Council would legislate required siestas.

As Hannah walked, she caught herself stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk. Grandma Ingrid had once told her that if she stepped on a crack, she'd break her mother's back. The old rhyme had evidently sunk deeply into her subconscious. Of course she didn't believe it. She doubted she'd believed it then. But twenty-five years had pa.s.sed since she'd first heard that childish warning and she was still altering her pace to avoid the cracks.

There was a large revolving fan on a stand in the open doorway of the drugstore and Hannah moved around it to step inside. The lighting was dim compared to the brightness of the summer sun. She stopped several feet from the door to let her pupils adjust When her eyes had done their retinal magic and enabled her to make out obstacles again, she realized that she was standing next to the candy counter and quickly moved over to a display of stuffed toys.

"h.e.l.lo, Hannah."

A voice greeted her from the dusky interior. Hannah gave a little wave as she spotted Linda Nelson. "Hi, Linda. I didn't know you were working here."

"I'm Beth Halverson's summer replacement. She got a scholarship to science camp."

Hannah nodded. Beth was the piccolo player who would be sorely missed by everyone who heard the Jordan High marching band. "I need to talk to Jon. Is he around?"

"He's in the pharmacy. Come with me and I'll call him."

Hannah was surprised. The last time she'd come in to talk to Jon, one of the clerks had just slipped behind the counter, opened the door to the pharmacy, and told Jon that Hannah wanted to see him. "Why do you have to call him?"

"New regulations. We're not allowed behind the pharmacy counter and the door is kept locked. If someone wants Mr. Walker, we have to call him on the phone."

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"You had a break-in?" Hannah guessed.

"I don't know. Mr. Walker just told us the new rules when we came in to work Friday morning. He didn't explain why."

Hannah followed Linda to the front of the pharmacy counter and watched as she punched a series of numbers into the phone. It rang in the pharmacy, the door behind the counter opened, and Jon Walker came out. He was a full-blooded Chippewa Indian, born at Red Lake Reservation. When it had been time for Jon to start high school, his family had moved to Lake Eden and Jon had graduated from Jordan High. He'd gone on to college and come back to Lake Eden to buy the drugstore and take over the pharmacy.

"What can I do for you, Hannah?" Jon asked, locking the door behind him.

"I need some information. Can we step inside the pharmacy so we can talk privately?"

Jon shook his head. "Sorry. The pharmacy's off limits to everyone except me. We can go to my office, though."

Hannah followed Jon through the storage area at the back of the store and into the small cubicle he called his office. It was closet-sized, barely large enough to hold his desk and two chairs, but it was private and that suited Hannah's purpose.

"Coffee?" Jon asked, gesturing toward a small coffee-maker. It was clear the carafe hadn't been cleaned in recent memory and it was half-filled with dregs of a brown liquid that looked lethal to Hannah.

"Thanks, but no. What's with all these new rules you have? Did somebody break into the pharmacy?"

"No, nothing like that. I just decided we were getting too lax and it was time to beef up our security."

Hannah gave him a challenging look. "Come on, Jon. n.o.body fixes something that isn't broken. Level with me and tell me what gives."

Jon dropped his eyes and refused to meet hers. "Let's just say we had an unfortunate incident and I had to make certain it couldn't happen again."

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"Unfortunate incident? You sound like a politician, Jon."

"Maybe I do, but I can't tell you any more than that."

Hannah studied Jon carefully. His mouth was set in a straight line and he looked determined not to say more. "Okay. If Rhonda wasn't involved in this incident of yours, I don't have to know what it was."

There was complete silence from Jon, although he looked very nervous, and Hannah put two and two together. "Rhonda was involved."

"Yes. I see where you're going, Hannah. You think this might have something to do with Rhonda's murder. Are you working with the sheriff's department again?"

"I've never worked with the sheriff's department. They've always taken great pains to let me know that they don't want me."

"I guess that's true." Jon gave a small, humorless laugh. "But you are investigating Rhonda's murder, aren't you?"

"Unofficially, yes. And that's why I need to know."

"What I say has to stay with you. You can't tell anyone else."

"You've got it," Hannah said and sat back to wait. Jon had caved and this might be good.

"Rhonda was working late last month, making out her order for the cosmetic department. I'd already left for home and she was the only one here. Around eight o'clock Reggie York pulled up and he hammered on the door. He told Rhonda he'd called in a prescription from work, but traffic was heavy and he'd just gotten back to town."

Hannah knew Reggie was Gus and Irma York's oldest son and they were very proud that he'd landed a job as a pilot for Worldways Airline. The last time Hannah had seen Irma, she'd complained that Reggie's commute to and from the airport in the Twin Cities took longer than most of his flights.

"Rhonda did exactly what I would have done. She let him in. Since she was my manager, she had a master key. She unlocked the door to the pharmacy and found his prescription on the shelf."

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"Rhonda filled his prescription?"

"No, it was filed alphabetically and all ready to go. She rang it up and then she asked Reggie if he was still flying."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Not then. When Reggie said he was, Rhonda said she thought pilots who had glaucoma were grounded."

"How did she know Reggie had glaucoma?"

"Her great-aunt, Mrs. Voelker, had glaucoma. Rhonda used to pick up her medicine and deliver it to her. That's how she recognized the name of the eyedrops Reggie used."

"Let me guess," Hannah said with a sigh. "Rhonda blabbed, somebody reported it to Worldways, and Reggie was grounded?"

"That's exactly what happened. Reggie's glaucoma was mild and it was completely under control, but Worldways has very strict rules about their pilots. Reggie applied for a desk job right after he was diagnosed, but it hadn't come through yet and he could have been fired for concealing his condition."

"So Reggie was angry with Rhonda for blabbing?"

"Angry wasn't the word. Reggie was fit to be tied. He called me at home on Thursday night and threatened to sue me for breach of confidentiality."

Hannah's mouth dropped open. "Reggie's suing you?"

"No, I managed to calm him down. He wasn't really angry with me, but he was furious with Rhonda for gossiping about his disease. He demanded that I change the lock on the pharmacy door and guarantee that no one except a registered pharmacist could get inside. And he also demanded that I fire Rhonda."

"Oh boy," Hannah groaned. "Did you fire her?"

"I had to. I told her on Friday morning when she came in to work. I felt bad about it, especially since it was her last day before her vacation, but I knew that people would take their prescriptions to another pharmacy if they found out about it."

"How did Rhonda take it?"

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"That was the surprising thing. I expected her to beg me to reconsider, or tell me off, but she didn't seem upset at all. She just said she could understand why I had to let her go and she went out the back way smiling."

"That's strange. How about your other employees? Do any of them know about this?" Hannah asked the question even though she thought she already knew the answer.

"I didn't see any point in telling them. I just tightened security the way I promised Reggie I would."

"I've got a tough question for you," Hannah warned him. "Do you think Reggie was mad enough at Rhonda to kill her?"

Jon thought about it for a moment and then he sighed. "I don't like to think so, but I suppose it's possible. Reggie really loved to fly."

"Thanks for being honest with me, Jon. I only have one more question and I don't want you to take it personally. Where were you on Friday night?"

"You think /killed Rhonda?" Jon looked utterly shocked.

"Of course not, but you did have a motive."

"What motive?"

"If things had gone differently, Rhonda could have cost you your business. I've got to put you on my suspect list, but I can cross you off if I know where you were."

"I guess it can't hurt to tell you. I picked Judy up right after I locked up at five, and we drove to Mille Lacs Lake for my mother-in-law's birthday. You can check with Judy. We stayed over that night and drove back early Sat.u.r.day morning so that I could open at nine."

"Thanks, Jon." Hannah slipped her steno pad back into her purse and stood up to leave. She glanced at his coffee-maker as she pa.s.sed it and sighed. "The next time you come in The Cookie Jar, the coffee's on me. You could probably bottle that stuff of yours and sell it for rat poison."

Praline Charlottes Preheat oven to 350 degrees R, with rack in middle position.

11/2 cups melted b.u.t.ter (3 sticks) 1 !/2 cups brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 !/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt (decrease to /6 teaspoon if you use salted pecans) 11/2 cups finely ground pecans (grind them up in your food processor with the steel blade and measure AFTER grinding) 2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork) 3 cups flour (no need to sift) Microwave the b.u.t.ter in your mixing bowl to melt it Add the sugar and vanilla. Stir until blended, and then add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.

Grind the pecans in your food processor. (Remember to measure AFTER grinding.) Add them to the bowl 175.

and mix. Pour in the beaten eggs and stir. Then add the flour and mix until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended.

Let the dough sit for a few minutes to firm up. Then form dough into walnut-sized b.a.l.l.s and arrange them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. (If the dough is too sticky to form into b.a.l.l.s, chill it for a few minutes and try again.) Flatten the b.a.l.l.s with a fork in a crisscross pattern. (If the fork sticks, either spray it with Pom or dip it in flour.) Bake at 350 degrees F. for 8 to 10 minutes or until they're golden brown around the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. When they're cool, prepare the frosting.

Praline Frosting 3/4 cup b.u.t.ter (7/6 sticks) 3!/2 cups powdered sugar (not sifted) 2 teaspoons vanilla (or l'/2 teaspoons vanilla and '/2 teaspoon maple flavoring) l/3 cup cream !/2 cup finely chopped pecans Approx. 6 dozen pecan halves for decoration (optional) Before you start, arrange the cooled cookies on racks or on sheets of waxed paper. Then heat the b.u.t.ter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it turns a medium shade of brown (the color of peanut b.u.t.ter). Remove the pan from the heat, and add the vanilla (and the maple flavoring if you use it). Blend in the powdered sugar, the cream, and the finely chopped pecans. Stir the frosting with a spoon until it's well mixed, but don't let it cool completely.

Frost the cookies and place a pecan half (optional) on top of each cookie for decoration. (It's like spread- 177.

ing b.u.t.ter; you don't have to spread it all the way out to the edges.) If your frosting hardens before you're through, sc.r.a.pe it into a microwave-safe bowl and heat it for 30 seconds to 1 minute on high in the microwave to soften it so that you can spread it again.

Let the finished cookies rest on racks or on waxed paper until the frosting has hardened (at least an hour). Then store the cookies in a cookie jar or other closed container.

Yield: Approximately 8 dozen, depending on cookie size.

Note: These cookies, unfrosted, make a delicious "tea" cookie with a light, delicate flavor. The only changes you have to make are to roll the dough b.a.l.l.s smaller and press them down with the heel of your impeccably clean hand. Bake them for about 8 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden. Andrea says they 're EXCELLENT with hot chocolate.

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Chapter Sixteen.