Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder: An Entertaining & Delicious Cozy Mystery with Recipes

Book 27: Hannah Swensen Mystery

by Joanne Fluke

Genres: Craft & Hobby Cozy Mysteries; Supernatural suspense

Synopsis

Beloved New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Culinary Mystery Joanne Fluke delivers the twenty-seventh mouthwatering Hannah Swensen Mystery!

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller!

Spring has sprung in Lake Eden, Minnesota, but Hannah Swensen doesn’t have time to stop and smell the roses—not with hot cross buns to make, treats to bake, and a sister to exonerate . . .
 
Hannah’s up to her ears with Easter orders rushing in at The Cookie Jar, plus a festive meal to prepare for a dinner party at her mother’s penthouse. But everything comes crashing to a halt when Hannah receives a panicked call from her sister Andrea—Mayor Richard Bascomb has been murdered . . . and Andrea is the prime suspect.
 
Even with his reputation for being a bully, Mayor Bascomb had been unusually testy in the days leading up to his death, leaving Hannah to wonder if he knew he was in danger. There are plenty of suspects to sift through for sure. And as orders pile up at The Cookie Jar—and children line up for Easter egg hunts—Hannah must spring into investigation mode and identify the real killer . . . before another murder happens!
 
Features Over a Dozen Cookie and Dessert Recipes from The Cookie Jar!

“Another sweet-tempered outing filled with tempting sweets.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Release date: February 23, 2021

Publisher: Kensington Cozies

Print pages: 266

Sample

The chairs in Mayor Bascomb’s outer office were uncomfortable and Hannah Swensen shifted her position. She’d brought the mayor’s secretary, Terry Neilson, some sample cookies from The Cookie Jar, Hannah’s bakery and coffee shop, and Terry was reaching for her third Chocolate Chip Crunch cookie.

“These are great cookies, Hannah!” Terry told her, biting into the crunchy confection. “I’d better stop soon or Mayor Bascomb won’t get any of these.”

“Forget it, Andrea!” Mayor Bascomb’s voice was so loud they could hear it in the outer office. “Nothing you can say will change my mind. And if you keep it up, you’re going to make me even madder! You and I both know that Bill was wrong to make that arrest!”

“Uh-oh!” Terry reacted to the angry words that they could hear even though the mayor’s office door was closed. “He’s been in a horrid mood all week, and now he’s on a real rant. I really hope your sister’s got enough sense to leave before he says something really nasty.”

Hannah sighed and shook her head. “Andrea won’t leave. She’s never walked away from a fight in her life. She’s even more stubborn than Mayor Bascomb, especially when somebody insults her husband. And from what she told me, Bill was caught between a rock and a hard place. He had to arrest the mayor’s nephew. The state trooper was standing right there, and Bill couldn’t just let Bruce go the way he did the last two times.”

Terry looked very apologetic. “I know. Bruce is a real menace on the road when he gets a snootful. I told the mayor that, but he never listens to reason when it comes to his brother’s kid. He still thinks that Bill should have figured out a way to let Bruce go.”

“But didn’t the state trooper test Bruce for alcohol?”

“Yes, and Bruce’s blood alcohol was twice as high as it should have been.”

“I don’t want to hear it, Andrea!” The mayor’s angry voice interrupted their conversation. “My mind’s made up, and your husband is history. He won’t even get a job as a dogcatcher as long as I’m the mayor of Lake Eden!”

Both Hannah and Terry listened, but they couldn’t hear Andrea’s response. This made Hannah proud of her younger sister. So far, Andrea hadn’t yelled back. The fact that they couldn’t hear her meant that Andrea was still using a perfectly reasonable tone of voice, but Hannah knew that couldn’t last forever. Eventually, Andrea would lose control and she’d give the mayor a piece of her mind!

“I’m impressed,” Terry said admiringly. “Andrea’s really keeping her cool.”

“Yes, she is . . . so far. But she’s always been very protective of her family. If Mayor Bascomb keeps this up, she’ll snap.”

“I almost wish she would. Nobody else has the nerve to tell him when he’s being a you-know-what. Did Andrea tell you that Bill came in to talk to the mayor yesterday?”

“Yes, and she said the mayor refused to see Bill. That’s one of the reasons Andrea came over here today. She promised me she’d be calm and reasonable, but she also said that she’d kick down his office door if he refused to see her.”

“Do you think she actually would have done it?”

Hannah laughed. “Oh, yes. Maybe she wouldn’t have succeeded. It looks like a pretty heavy door to me. But I know that Andrea would have given it her best shot. She’s in mother-lion-protecting-her-cub mode.”

“Enough!” Mayor Bascomb’s voice was even louder than it had been before. “I’ve listened to your pathetic whining and sniveling for long enough. You’re every bit as stupid as your husband!”

“Let me tell you something, Mayor Bascomb . . .” Andrea’s voice was louder.

Hannah picked up her purse and Andrea’s parka. “I think that’ll do it,” she said.

“You mean Andrea’s going to . . .”

“You bet,” Hannah interrupted. “I know my sister and she can’t take much more.”

“You’re the one who’s pathetic!” Andrea’s voice was almost as loud as Mayor Bascomb’s had been. “You’re nothing but a bully, and it’s long past time that somebody stood up to you!”

“And you think that you can stand up to me, little lady?”

“I know I can! Bill’s too much of a gentleman to take you on, but not me! Somebody’s got to give you exactly what you deserve, you . . . you pig!”

Hannah jumped up from the chair. “Grab your coat, Terry! When Andrea charges in here, it’s time for us all to get out of Dodge!”

“Right!” Terry grabbed her coat and purse and was pulling on her boots when they heard a sharp, stinging sound that was followed by a loud crash. “She slapped him?”

“That’s what it sounded like to me. I think she slapped him right out of his chair!” Hannah hurried across the room and opened the door to the hallway. “Go out first, Terry. And stand out of the way. Andrea’s so mad, she’s going to explode out the door!”

Terry grabbed the plate of cookies that Hannah had brought, and ran to the door. She had just stepped out into the hallway when Andrea came storming out of Mayor Bascomb’s office. “Whoa!” Terry gasped, sheltering against the wall as Andrea raced past her. “Wait for us, Andrea!”

But Andrea didn’t wait. She practically flew down the staircase and out into the street. By the time Hannah and Terry had managed to catch up with her, she was leaning against the old-fashioned designer lamppost in front of the building, gasping for breath.

“Here, Andrea,” Hannah, who had been holding her sister’s parka, draped it around Andrea’s shoulders. “Deep, calming breaths. It’s okay. You’re out of there now.”

“I . . . I . . . I . . .”

“We heard,” Hannah told her.

“I . . . slapped . . .”

“We know,” Terry said.

“I . . . knocked . . . him . . .”

“You knocked him over in his chair,” Hannah finished the sentence for her. “Put your arms in your sleeves, Andrea. It’s cold out here and you’re overheated.”

“Nasty . . . bully,” Andrea managed to say. “I . . . I should have killed him!”

“A lot of people feel that way,” Terry said.

“But . . . all I did was . . . was slap him!”

“Nobody else has ever done that before,” Terry told her. “They might have felt like it, but they never had the courage to actually do it.”

Once Andrea had calmed down enough to zip up her parka, they walked to their respective cars. “That was a really loud crash,” Terry said as she unlocked her car door and slid into the driver’s seat. “I wonder if you broke his chair.”

“Maybe.” Andrea gave a weak little smile. “I hope I did, but after the things he said about Bill, I should have broken his neck!”

“Are you sure you’re all right, Andrea?” Hannah asked as they parked in their mother’s garage. Her sister’s hands were shaking even though Andrea held them tightly in her lap and her face was very pale.

“I’m okay, but I still wish I’d slapped him harder!”

“It sounded pretty hard to us. Terry and I figured he was seeing stars.”

“Really!” Andrea said. “I guess you must be right because I knocked him right out of his chair.”

“We know that, too,” Hannah said, and she couldn’t help chuckling. “I hope he fell hard.”

Andrea didn’t laugh, but she gave Hannah a ghost of a smile. That made Hannah hope that her sister was calming down and regaining her sense of humor. “Are you still okay enough to help me with dinner?”

“Yes, it might help if you’ve got something easy for me to do, like put cheese on a plate or toss a salad or something like that.”

“How about opening a bottle of champagne?” Hannah asked, knowing full well that her sister prided herself on opening champagne without having the cork explode like a rocket.

“I can do that,” Andrea agreed quickly, but Hannah noticed that her sister’s hands were still shaking.

“I can make some kind of excuse to Mother if you don’t want to go out to the penthouse garden right away.”

Andrea thought about that as she got out of the car and walked to the elevator with Hannah. “I think I’m okay now. Or at least I will be okay when we get up to Mother’s penthouse. Are Moishe and Cuddles there?”

“Not yet.” Hannah glanced at her watch as she pushed the button for the elevator. “Norman’s coming in twenty minutes or so and he’s bringing them both in their cat carriers.”

“Good. I haven’t seen Moishe in a while.” Andrea gave a little sigh. “When do you think you can go back home, Hannah? I miss the dinners we used to have at the condo.”

“I’m not sure,” Hannah admitted truthfully. “Norman and I tried it last week, but Moishe shook so hard when Norman started to carry him up the stairs that both of us were worried he’d have a heart attack or something awful like that.”

“But you’re okay going there?” Andrea stepped into the elevator with Hannah.

“I’m okay if other people are there, but I’m not so sure about staying there alone. It’s just . . .” Hannah stopped and swallowed hard. “It’s just that I keep seeing . . . it’s memories, you know?”

“I understand, Hannah. It was awful for you. You don’t know how many times I wished that I could think of something that I could do to help you.”

Tears gathered in Hannah’s eyes and she blinked them back. And then she reminded herself, as she had so many times before, that it had been an awful time, but now it was over.

“Here we are,” Hannah said, forcing herself to speak cheerfully. “Are you absolutely sure that you don’t want me to make some excuse so that you can go home?”

“I’m positive. I’m still furious at Mayor Bascomb and I’m so mad, I’m afraid I’d scare Tracey and Bethie. I’d rather stay here, Hannah. Bill’s meeting me here for dinner, and Grandma McCann is taking the girls out to the mall for hamburgers in less than an hour and then they’re going to a movie with her.”

“Okay then,” Hannah said as the old-fashioned elevator ground to a halt at the penthouse floor. “Let’s go have a glass of champagne with Mother. Dinner’s in the crockpot and all we have to do is serve the appetizers I fixed earlier.”

Hannah used her key to unlock her mother’s door, and both sisters walked in. As they went through the spacious living room, they heard voices coming from the penthouse’s domed garden.

“Somebody’s here this early?” Andrea asked, stopping short.

“I guess. Maybe Doc’s home from the hospital already. Do you want me to go see who’s here?”

“Yes. You can take out the appetizers when you go and get them started on those. I need another minute or two to calm down. I’m still mad at myself for not telling the mayor what I really think of him!”

Hannah hid a smile. It had sounded to her and Terry as if Andrea had told the mayor exactly that!

“I should have slapped him harder,” Andrea insisted, taking the champagne out of the refrigerator. “I had the perfect chance to really teach him a lesson and I blew it!”

“I think you taught him something, Andrea.”

“I hope so! He had it coming! Nobody’s ever yelled at me like that before!”

Hannah turned to look at her younger sister. Andrea’s eyes were blazing with hate and she looked positively unhinged. “Whoa! Take it easy, Andrea, it’s over now!”

“He really made me mad, Hannah!”

Hannah walked over and put her arm around her sister’s unyielding shoulder. “I know he did. We heard. And you were right to get mad. I probably would have killed him.”

“Maybe I should have, he’s scum of the earth! The way he treats women is a disgrace! He uses them and then he throws them away like . . . like trash! I don’t know how Stephanie puts up with him”

“That’s true, too. Careful opening that champagne, Andrea. The way you feel right now, you’ll pop that cork and put a hole right through the ceiling!”

That did it. Andrea laughed. “No, I won’t. This is Perrier-Jouët and it’s really expensive champagne. I might be tempted with something cheaper, but not this!”

Hannah was smiling as she carried the appetizer trays out to the penthouse garden, but her smile faded in a hurry when she saw who her mother’s guest was. “Hello, Mrs. Bascomb,” she said politely, setting the appetizer trays down on the tables her mother had set out for her guests.

“Call me Stephanie, dear,” the mayor’s wife responded. “I’m over here so often, there’s no need to be formal.”

Oh, boy! The rational part of Hannah’s brain responded. You’d better hurry back in the kitchen and tell Andrea that the mayor’s wife is here! But it was too late. Andrea had just stepped into the garden with the open bottle of champagne.

“Hello, Mother,” Andrea said, setting the silver champagne bucket on the table closest to Delores. “And hello ”—Andrea turned to look at the chair across from Delores—“Mrs. Bascomb?”

“Hello, Andrea,” Stephanie Bascomb greeted her. “Your mother told me that you went to see my husband this afternoon. How did that go?”

“I . . . I . . .” Andrea shot Hannah a panicked look.

“It didn’t go well,” Hannah said quickly, since Andrea seemed incapable of finishing her sentence.

“I was afraid of that. It’s like I was telling your mother . . . Richard has been a bear all week, yelling at poor Terry for nothing at all and coming home to me in a foul mood. Sit down and have a glass of champagne, Andrea. And let me say that what Richard did to your husband was absolutely horrible! I tried to tell him that last night and I swear he came close to taking my head off. One of his little conquests must have put him in a bad mood. I wish I knew who the new one was so I could congratulate her for getting his goat. Now tell me exactly what happened so I can read Richard the riot act later.”

Andrea exchanged startled glances with Hannah. “Well . . . I did my best to stay calm and collected, but I’m afraid I . . .” She stopped and glanced at Hannah again.

Hannah picked up the story. “He shouted at her. Terry and I could hear him even though the door to his office was shut. Andrea was amazing, really she was. She kept her temper for a lot longer than I would have if someone had accused me of being stupid.”

A pained expression crossed Stephanie’s face. “That’s his favorite insult.” She turned to Andrea. “I hope you got up and marched right out of there before he could say another word.”

“Uh . . . not exactly,” Andrea admitted, and then she turned to look at Hannah for help again.

“When the mayor shouted that he’d listened to Andrea’s pathetic sniveling for long enough and she was as stupid as her husband, my sister . . . lost it.”

“I don’t blame you one bit, dear!” Delores slipped her arm around Andrea’s shoulders. “If he’d said something like that to me, I would have been furious.”

Andrea nodded. “I . . . I was furious. I was so furious, I . . . I slapped him!”

“Atta girl!” Stephanie gave a decisive nod. “I would have done exactly the same thing! What happened next?”

“My slap was so hard that he fell over backwards in his chair.”

“Exactly what he deserved!” Stephanie agreed. “Good for you, Andrea. No one else has ever had the nerve to stand up to him before. Richard’s problem has always been that he thinks he’s more important than anyone else. And he’s so full of himself he’s the only man I’ve ever met who can strut while he’s sitting down!”

Hannah burst into laughter and so did Delores. And both of them were pleased when Andrea joined in.

“I’m sorry he gave you such a rough time, Andrea,” Stephanie apologized for her husband. “Richard thinks that if he yells the loudest, he can intimidate everyone else.”

“But he doesn’t intimidate you, does he, Stephanie?” Delores asked her.

“Not anymore. I finally figured out the way to get his goat was to hit him in the pocketbook.” She turned back to Andrea. “Take a sip of champagne and try to put him right out of your mind, dear. Nothing bad is going to happen to your husband. I know that Richard threatened to fire Bill, but he can’t, not legally. Bill won the election fair and square, and none of the other mayors in the county will let Richard get away with railroading him. Just don’t let Bill get mad and quit. That’s exactly what Richard wants.”

“Can I tell Bill that tonight?” Andrea asked her.

“Yes, and you can also tell him that I’ll do my best to talk some sense into Richard when I see him.” She stopped speaking, glanced at her watch, and stood up. “And now, I’d better go. Richard promised to be home on time tonight, and I’m going to be armed and ready for any arguments he gives me.”

“Wait! Mrs. Bascomb . . .” Andrea started to say, but Stephanie interrupted her.

“It’s Stephanie. And don’t worry about a thing, dear. I’ll take care of Richard for you and you’ll never hear another word about how he’s going to fire Bill!”

“I’ll see you out, Stephanie,” Delores said as she stood up. “And I really appreciate you coming here this afternoon.”

Hannah and Andrea exchanged glances after Delores had left the penthouse garden. “Do you think Mother invited her over here on purpose?” Andrea asked.

“That’s what it sounded like to me.”

“Because she was worried that I couldn’t deal with Mayor Bascomb?”

Tread carefully, Hannah’s rational mind warned. You know how fragile your sister is right now.

Hannah gave a little laugh. “It seems to me that you dealt with Mayor Bascomb pretty well on your own! At least it sounded like that from the outer office.”

Andrea smiled. “I certainly wasn’t planning on slapping him, but . . . maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but it felt really good when I did!”

“Stephanie certainly enjoyed hearing about it,” Hannah said.

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes, I was watching her and she looked really impressed.”

Andrea thought about that for a moment. “I think you’re right. And she convinced me that she was on Bill’s side. Do you think she’s really going to try to talk some sense into the m. . .