Christmas Cupcake Murder Read online

  Books by Joanne Fluke

  Hannah Swensen Mysteries

  CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MURDER

  STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE MURDER

  BLUEBERRY MUFFIN MURDER

  LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER

  FUDGE CUPCAKE MURDER

  SUGAR COOKIE MURDER

  PEACH COBBLER MURDER

  CHERRY CHEESECAKE MURDER

  KEY LIME PIE MURDER

  CANDY CANE MURDER

  CARROT CAKE MURDER

  CREAM PUFF MURDER

  PLUM PUDDING MURDER

  APPLE TURNOVER MURDER

  DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE MURDER

  GINGERBREAD COOKIE MURDER

  CINNAMON ROLL MURDER

  RED VELVET CUPCAKE MURDER

  BLACKBERRY PIE MURDER

  DOUBLE FUDGE BROWNIE MURDER

  WEDDING CAKE MURDER

  CHRISTMAS CARAMEL MURDER

  BANANA CREAM PIE MURDER

  RASPBERRY DANISH MURDER

  CHRISTMAS CAKE MURDER

  CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE MURDER

  CHRISTMAS SWEETS

  COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER

  CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE MURDER

  JOANNE FLUKE’S LAKE EDEN COOKBOOK

  Suspense Novels

  VIDEO KILL

  WINTER CHILL

  DEAD GIVEAWAY

  THE OTHER CHILD

  COLD JUDGMENT

  FATAL IDENTITY

  FINAL APPEAL

  VENGEANCE IS MINE

  EYES

  WICKED

  DEADLY MEMORIES

  THE STEPCHILD

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE MURDER

  JOANNE FLUKE

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Also by

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements:

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Baking Conversion Chart

  This book is for Kathy Allen for baking

  fabulous cupcakes!

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2020 by H.L. Swensen, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2020937089

  ISBN: 978-1-4967-2912-5

  First Kensington Hardcover Edition: October 2020

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-2914-9 (e-book)

  ISBN-10: 1-4967-2914-5 (e-book)

  Acknowledgements:

  Many thanks to my extended family for putting up with me

  while I was writing this book.

  Hugs to Trudi Nash and her husband, David, for being

  brave enough to taste a recipe that might, or might not, have

  worked.

  Thank you to my friends and neighbors: Mel & Kurt, Lyn &

  Bill, Gina, Dee Appleton, Jay, Richard Jordan, Laura Levine,

  the real Nancy and Heiti, Dan, Mark & Mandy at Faux Library,

  Daryl and her staff at Groves Accountancy, Gene and

  Ron at SDSA, and my friends at HomeStreet Bank.

  Hugs to my Minnesota friends: Lois & Neal, Bev & Jim, Val,

  Ruthann, Lowell, Dorothy & Sister Sue, and Mary & Jim.

  Big hugs to John Scognamiglio, editor of genius.

  (That’s his genius, not mine!)

  Hugs for Meg Ruley and the staff at the Jane Rotrosen

  Agency for their constant support and sage advice.

  Thanks to all the wonderful folks at Kensington Publishing

  who keep Hannah sleuthing and baking yummy goodies.

  Thanks to Robin in Production, and Larissa in Publicity.

  Both of you go above and beyond.

  Thanks to Hiro Kimura for his incredible cupcakes on the

  cover.

  I really love that reindeer!

  Thank you to Lou Malcangi at Kensington for designing all of

  Hannah’s gorgeous book covers. They’re simply wonderful.

  A special thank you to Julie Gulik from My Food and Family by Kraft-Heinz for

  letting Hannah use the White Chocolate Eggnog Cupcake

  recipe. Baking these cupcakes is the perfect way to taste

  Christmas any time of the year! More of Julie’s Kraft Heinz recipes are at www.MyFoodAndFamily.com.

  Thanks to John at Placed4Success for Hannah’s movie and

  TV placements, his presence on Hannah’s social media platforms,

  and for being my son.

  Thanks to Tami Chase for designing and managing my website

  at wwwJoanneFluke.com and for giving support to Hannah’s

  social media.

  Thank you to Kathy Allen for the final testing of every single

  recipe in this book!

  A big hug to JQ for helping Hannah and me for so many

  years.

  Kudos to Beth, from Up In Stitches, and her phalanx of

  sewing machines for her gorgeous embroidery on our hats,

  visors, aprons, and tote bags.

  Thank you to food stylist, friend, and media guide Lois

  Brown for her expertise with the launch parties at Poisoned

  Pen in Scottsdale, AZ and baking for the TV food segments I

  do at KPNX in Phoenix.

  Thanks also to Destry, the lovely, totally unflappable

  producer and host of Arizona Midday.

  Hugs to Debbie Risinger and everyone else on Team

  Swensen.

  Thank you to Dr. Rahhal, Dr. Umali, Dr. and Cathy Line, Dr.

  Levy (especially for telling me about T.B.I.), Dr. Koslowski,

  and Drs. Ashley and Lee for answering my book-related

  medical and dental questions.

  Hugs to all the Hannah fans who read the books, share their

  family recipes, post on my Facebook page, Joanne Fluke

  Author, and enjoy the photos of Sven, my bear-footed

  dessert chef.

  This story takes place before Hannah Swensen, Lake Eden’s cookie-baking amateur sleuth, solves her first missing person case. It’s also before Hannah’s mother, Delores Swensen, opens an antique store with her best friend, Carrie Rhodes.

  If you think life must be boring in small town Minnesota, read on!

  Chapter One

  Hannah Swensen was just taking a pan of German Chocolate Cupcakes out of her industrial oven at The Cookie Jar, when there was a knock on the back kitchen door. Hannah quickly slid the pan of cupcakes on a shelf in the bakers rack, and hurried to answer the door. A man was standing there and he stepped back a few feet from the door, a man Hannah had never seen before.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re not open yet,” she sai
d.

  “I know that, ma’am. And thank you for answering the door. I saw the closed sign, but I was hoping that someone was here early and they might have some work for me to do. I don’t need money. That’s not it. But I’d be grateful for a couple of cookies to eat for breakfast.”

  As the man spoke, Hannah noticed that he was shivering. His coat didn’t look very warm and it was cold this early in the morning. She felt a rush of compassion for his situation and she opened the door wider and motioned him closer. “Come in and we’ll talk about the work. I’m ready to take a coffee break right now. Would you like to have a cup of coffee with me?”

  “Yes, I certainly would, ma’am!” he said immediately, a smile breaking out on his face. “A cup of coffee would be really good.”

  “Just hang your coat on one of those hooks by the door,” she said, walking quickly to the kitchen coffeepot. She’d finished a cup of coffee only minutes before, but it was obvious that the man needed to come in out of the cold, and drink something warm. She was about to offer him cream and sugar, but one glance at his emaciated form when he hung up his coat prompted her to add two more packets of sugar and a generous amount of cream to his coffee.

  Hannah carried his coffee to one of the stools by the stainless steel work station and pulled out a stool for him. “Would you like one of the cupcakes I just baked?” she asked. “It’s not frosted yet, but it should still be good without frosting.”

  “Yes, thank you, ma’am!” the man said, giving her a grateful smile. And then he smiled even wider as she delivered the cupcake and he saw that it was chocolate. “I love chocolate. My mother used to say that it was God’s gift to mankind.”

  “Your mother was a wise woman,” Hannah said with a smile. “These cupcakes are going to be German chocolate when they’re frosted.”

  “I love German chocolate cake! My mother used to make a German chocolate cake every year for my birthday. It was our family’s official birthday cake and my mother was famous for her cake. She copied the recipe on a card and gave it away every time she baked a birthday cake for someone.”

  Hannah could see that his eyes were wet with unshed tears at the memory. “You’ll have to come back here in an hour or so and I’ll give you a cupcake that’s frosted.”

  “I’ll be back. Thank you, ma’am.” He took a bite of his cupcake and swallowed with obvious relish. “These are really good.”

  “Thank you. Would you like another?”

  “Oh, yes! Yes, I would, and thank you, ma’am!”

  Hannah went back to the baker’s rack and picked up another cupcake. The man was polite and completely non-threatening. Mike Kingston, the chief detective at the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department, would chastise her for opening the door to a stranger, but if he were here and actually met her early-morning visitor, Hannah was sure he would agree with her assessment of the man’s character.

  “Tell me more about your mother’s German chocolate cake,” she said, sitting down on a stool directly across from his. “Did you ever watch her make it?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I surely did. And when I got old enough, I rode to the store with her to get all the things she needed to bake it.”

  “Do you remember what they were?”

  “I do. She bought German chocolate. She never kept it in the pantry because she said it might get old between birthdays and she wanted it fresh. And she bought coconut, pecans, and cake flour. She wanted those fresh, too. And then we went to the fruit section and she bought one orange.”

  “An orange?” Hannah asked curiously. An orange wasn’t called for in any German chocolate cake recipe that she’d ever seen.

  “The orange was for me. After she took off the peel, she cut it into little wheels on a plate. Then she picked out the seeds and gave it to me to eat. She told me that oranges were expensive and orange wheels were part of my birthday present.”

  “Your birthday was in the winter?” Hannah gave an educated guess since the man was well over twenty years old, and fresh produce, especially fruit that had to be trucked in from warmer climates, was expensive in the winter.

  “I don’t . . . yes! Yes, my birthday is in the winter. I can remember that Dad had to drive us to town through the snow to buy what she needed for my birthday cake.” The man looked sad again, and Hannah was almost sorry she’d asked for more information about his birthday. But after a moment, he began to smile again. “I know what I can do for you, ma’am! I can brush the snow off your car, and scrape the ice from your windshield.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Hannah agreed quickly. It was obvious to her that the man wanted to repay her in some way for giving him coffee and the cupcakes. “And while you’re out there, you can unwind the cord from my front bumper and plug in my car. There’s a strip of outlets on the side of the building and I forgot to do it when I came to work this morning.”

  “I’ll go do that right now,” the man said, standing up quickly. “It’s cold out there this morning.”

  “No, don’t go yet,” Hannah told him quickly, motioning him back down to his stool. “Stay here and drink some more of your coffee so you’ll warm up first. Finish your coffee and your second cupcake, and then I’ll show you which car is mine.”

  The man laughed. It was a nice laugh and Hannah was glad to hear it. From his appearance, she suspected that he hadn’t had much to laugh about in recent weeks. “You don’t have to tell me which one is yours, ma’am. There’s only one vehicle in the parking lot and I figure that red Chevy Suburban must be yours.”

  “You figured right,” Hannah told him. “While you’re outside, I’m going to frost those cupcakes. Then you can have a couple of them when you’re done.”

  After the man finished his coffee and cupcake, he went back outside and Hannah not only frosted the cupcakes, she also looked through her lost and found box. She’d been open for two years now and she’d been planning to take the contents of last year’s box to Helping Hands, the thrift store across the alley. If there was anything in the lost and found box that would fit, she’d take it out and give it to him. She also decided to pay him five dollars. It wasn’t much, but she wanted to give him something so he could buy a meal later in the day.

  Twenty minutes later, dressed in the warm sweater and scarf she’d found, the man left, clutching the bag of frosted German Chocolate Cupcakes that she’d given him, along with a promise that he’d stop by the following morning to see if she had any additional work for him.

  After he had gone, Hannah began baking again. She felt good as she mixed up the cupcake batter, put it in the cups, and waited for it to bake. She’d helped someone who truly needed help and, since her instincts had been correct and the man had been polite and grateful for her help, it had been the right thing for her to do.

  There was another knock at the door, the moment after Hannah had slipped a pan of cupcakes on the revolving racks in her industrial oven. This time it was a knock she recognized and she hurried to the door.

  “Hello, Mother,” she called out before she even opened the door. There was only one person in town who knocked three times in quick succession, paused for several seconds, and then repeated the pattern.

  “Good morning, dear,” Delores greeted her. “Do you have time for a quick cup of coffee with me? I really need to discuss something important with you.”

  Hannah’s instincts went on red alert. Her mother usually simply walked in and took a seat on a stool at Hannah’s work station without asking. Whatever Delores had to discuss with her must involve some kind of last-minute favor that would mean extra work for Hannah.

  “Of course, if you’re terribly busy, I can always come back a bit later,” Delores offered, obviously noticing her eldest daughter’s hesitation.

  “No. It’s fine, Mother. Just hang up your coat and take a seat. I’ll get your coffee, put the rest of my cupcakes in the oven, and be right with you.”

  “Thank you, dear.” Delores took off her coat, hung it on one of the hooks near
the back door, and headed for a stool at the stainless steel work station. “Do I smell chocolate?”

  “You do.” Hannah delivered her mother’s coffee and hurried back to her industrial oven to set the timer. “I’m trying out a recipe for German Chocolate Cupcakes that Lisa found in her mother’s recipe box.”

  “They smell divine, dear. I don’t suppose any of them are cool enough to . . . ?”

  “They are,” Hannah said, anticipating the rest of her mother’s question. “I’ll bring you one just as soon as I’m through here.”

  “Oh, good! Thank you, dear. That would be lovely. I was running late this morning and I simply didn’t have time for my yogurt and wheat toast.”

  As she glanced over at her mother, a puzzled expression crossed Hannah’s face. Her always impeccably-dressed mother was wearing a bulky sweater that did nothing to enhance her flawless figure and an old pair of slacks that had seen better days. For a woman who had never appeared in public in an outfit that was less than designer perfect, this fashion lapse was highly unusual.

  “Are you feeling all right this morning?” Hannah asked, setting an almost-cooled cupcake in front of her mother before she poured her own coffee and took a seat.

  “I’m fine, dear.” It was Delores’s turn to look puzzled. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because . . . well . . .” Hannah thought fast and managed to come up with an answer. “Because it’s early and you don’t usually come in this time of the morning.”

  “I see. And of course it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I look as if I bought this outfit at Helping Hands.” Delores named the charity thrift store that was just across the alley from her daughter’s bakery and coffee shop.