Cinnamon Roll Murder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

? teaspoon grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

1 and ? cups dry quick oatmeal (I used Quaker Quick 1-Minute)

2 cups bran flake cereal

Place ? cup of raisins in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup or a small bowl that can tolerate boiling water without cracking.

Pour the ? cup boiling water over the raisins in the cup. Stir a bit with a fork so they don’t stick together, and then leave them, uncovered, on the counter to plump up.

Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper that you also spray with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Hannah’s 1st Note: This cookie dough is a lot easier to make if you use an electric mixer.

Place the cup of white sugar in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the half-cup of brown sugar. Mix them together until they’re a uniform color.

Place the softened butter in the mixer bowl and beat it together with the sugars until the mixture is nice and fluffy.

Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add the salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract. Beat until the mixture is smooth and well incorporated.

On LOW speed, add the flour, one-half cup at a time, beating after each addition. Continue to beat until everything is well blended.

Drain the raisins by dumping them in a strainer. Throw away any liquid that remains, then gently pat the raisins dry with a paper towel.

With the mixer running on LOW speed, add the raisins to the cookie dough.

With the mixer remaining on LOW speed, add the dry oatmeal in half-cup increments, mixing after each increment.

Turn the mixer OFF, and let the dough rest while you prepare the bran flakes.

Measure 2 cups of bran flake cereal and place them in a 1-quart freezer bag. Roll the bag up from the bottom, getting out as much air as possible, and then seal it with the bran flakes inside.

Squeeze the bran flakes with your fingers, crushing them inside the bag. Place the bag on the counter and squash the bran flakes with your hands. Once they’re in fairly small pieces, take the bag over to the mixer.

Turn the mixer on LOW speed. Open the bag and add the crushed bran flakes to your cookie dough, mixing until they’re well incorporated.

Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and give the bowl a final stir by hand.

Drop the dough by rounded Tablespoonfuls (use a Tablespoon from your silverware drawer, not one you’d use for measuring ingredients) onto your prepared cookie sheet. There should be 12 cookie dough mounds on every standard-size cookie sheet.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: Lisa and I use a level 2-Tablespoon scooper to form these cookies down at The Cookie Jar.

Bake Doc’s Bran-Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 13 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes. Then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen delicious cookies, depending on cookie size.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: Doc had to warn the Lake Eden Memorial Hospital cooks not to let the patients have more than two cookies. Since they contain bran and bran is an aid to the digestive system, patients who eat a lot of these cookies could be spending a lot of time in the little room with the porcelain fixtures.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I hate pantyhose!”

Michelle looked over at Hannah and laughed. “They’re a necessary evil. And they do keep your legs warm in the winter.”

“So do long woolen socks,” Hannah grumbled, but she was smiling as she got out of her cookie truck in the parking lot of the Lake Eden Inn. They were being treated to Sally’s brunch and that, by itself, was a reason to embrace the whole dress-up-and-wear-pantyhose thing.

“How about a ride, ladies?” Sally’s husband, Dick, asked them as he pulled up behind Hannah’s cookie truck.

“Thanks, Dick. We’ll take it,” Hannah said, glancing down at Michelle’s dress flats. “I forgot to drop her off at the door and she’ll never make it up the hill in those.”

“But you’d make it up the hill,” Michelle said, eyeing Hannah’s moose-hide boots. “We should drop by the mall this afternoon and get you a pair of dress shoes.”

“No way! I never wear anything I can’t run in. And I can’t run in dress shoes. Unless I’m locked in my condo, it’s boots, tennis shoes, and moccasins for me.”

Dick laughed. “Knowing you, you’d probably wear boots or tennis shoes to your own wedding.”

Hannah had an uncomfortable feeling as she got into his tram. The dream she’d had early this morning was still with her, but she knew she had to make light of it in front of Dick. He was a kind man and he’d never knowingly hurt her feelings. “Boots to my own wedding? Really Dick! I’d never do that!”

“Well, that’s a surprise.” Dick looked down at her scuffed, secondhand moose-hide boots and smiled as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

“But tennis shoes to my own wedding? I might do that. They’d be a lot more comfortable than satin shoes. And most wedding gowns are so long, nobody can see the bride’s feet anyway.”

Luckily, Sally was mixing up a pitcher of mimosas at the bar. “Would you like a mimosa?” she asked.

“No thanks. I’m drinking plain orange juice today. Do you have a minute, Sally?”

“Sure.” Sally motioned for one of the waitresses to pick up the pitcher, and then she came out from behind the bar to slide onto the stool next to Hannah’s. “What gives?”

“I’ve got another mystery on my hands. The night you and Dick booked Cinnamon Roll Six at Club Nineteen, Buddy Neiman was seen arguing with a dark-haired woman.”

“And she figures into his murder somehow?”

“I don’t know. She could figure in, and that means I have to find out who she was. Did you or Dick happen to see a dark-haired woman with Buddy that night?”

Sally shut her eyes for a moment, and then she shook her head. “Not that I recall. Can you describe