"Bingo!" Hannah said and gave Lisa a hug. "I'll be back right after I plant the idea for his next installment."
Larry Kruger smiled at Hannah. "It sounds like you really enjoyed my story."
"Oh, yes, very much," Hannah said, resisting the urge to kick him in the shins for all the trouble he'd caused. "I'm a friend of Norman's, and he told me something about his attack mat wasn't in the paper."
"Really?"
"Yes. Norman told me that he tried to take a picture of Ezekiel Jordan's ghost on the night that Connie Mac was murdered."
'No kidding!"
Hannah could practically see the wheels turning in Larry Kruger's brain. She had him hooked and she knew it. "Norman was right next door and he saw a very strange shape lurking around outside. He said it seemed to float. Of course he had no idea that the shape was a ghost. He just thought it was curious and he snapped a whole role of film."
"Did he . . . uh . . . develop the film?"
"Oh, yes. And absolutely nothing was on it. Of course, I wasn't surprised. 'I'm very interested in the occult, and I know that it's impossible to take a picture of a spirit. Their essence can't be captured by any mortal means."
"Uh . . . yes. I've heard that. Thanks for telling me about it."
"You're welcome. I really think people should know more facts about the spirit world. It's just fascinating. I've been toying with the idea of calling KCOW radio to tell them about Norman's experience, but I just hate to give them my name and . . ."
"You don't have to do that," Larry interrupted. "I'll be happy to call them for you. And I'll put it in the papers, too."
"And you won't use my name?"
"Not if you don't want me to," Larry promised. "I'll just say I got the information from a reliable source who knows Norman Rhodes. No one will ever connect you to my story."
Hannah put on her best grateful look. "Thank you, Larry. That'll be just fine with me."
Lisa was practically in hysterics by the time Hannah finished telling her what she'd done. "And he actually believed you?"
"Oh, yes. The story should be on KCOW radio by noon at the latest. Now all I have to do is hope that the killer is listening."
"What are you going to tell Norman?"
Hannah winced. She hadn't thought of that. "I guess I'll I just say that I knew how stubborn he could be and I wanted to save him from doing something idiotic."
"Don't say it like that!" Lisa looked appalled. "You have to be more tactful. Tell Norman that you care about him and you were worried about his safety. And admit that maybe you should have consulted him first, but you felt you had to do something."
"Okay, I can live with that. Now let's get going on these cookies. You mix up another batch of your White Chocolate Supremes and I'll start baking the Pecan Chews."
Lisa left for the pantry to gather up her supplies, and Hannah scooped out dough for the Pecan Chews. She'd just slipped the first two pans into the oven when Sally came into the kitchen.
"Pecan Chews?" Sally walked over to gaze at the dough in Hannah's bowl.
"Give the little lady a stuffed toy. Pull up a stool, Sally. I need to ask you something." Hannah waited until Sally was seated. None of the kitchen staff was close enough to hear, and it was the perfect opportunity to ask her about the ghost sightings. "I read the article in the paper this morning and it said you saw Ezekiel's ghost last night. I thought you didn't believe in ghosts."
"I don't, but your sister was right. Ghosts are good for business. The phone rang off the hook yesterday afternoon, and everyone that called in for reservations wanted to know if I'd actually seen the ghost. I happened to mention all the new business to Francine, and she thought we should actually have a ghost."
Hannah stared at Sally in amazement. "How do you actually have a ghost?"
"Francine offered to float down the hall like a ghost. She's going to put in appearances every couple of nights, just to keep the story going. I didn't want to do it at first. I mean, it's not exactly honest. But Francine pointed out that a lot of big theme hotels have events, and this was just another form of entertainment."
"That's as good a reason as any. How does Francine float down the hall?"
"She worked out a technique. You've got to see it to believe it. Do you want me to call you before she does her next appearance?"
"Absolutely," Hannah said, a plan beginning to hatch in her mind. If Sally gave her enough advance notice, she'd bring her mother and Carrie out to the inn for dinner and make sure they had front-row seats for the ghost sighting. If Francine was convincing enough, it might just scare the matchmaking schemes right out of their minds.
LISA'S WHITE CHOCOLATE SUPREMES
Preheat oven to 350'F, rack in the middle position
1 cup melted butter (2 sticks, one-half pound) ' cup white sugar ' cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 ' teaspoons baking soda ' teaspoon salt 2 beaten eggs 2 ' cups flour (no need to sift) 2 cups (1/2 pound) real white chocolate (or white chocolate chips) 1 ' cups chopped macadamia nuts (measure before chopping)
Melt the butter. Mix in the white sugar and brown sugar. Then mix in the vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs and stir again. Add the flour and mix thoroughly.
If you're using block white chocolate, chop it up into pieces roughly the size of chocolate chips. You can do this in a food processor by cutting the chocolate in chunks and processing it with the steel blade. If you're using white chocolate chips, just measure out 2cups. (You can use vanilla chips, but the cookies won't taste the same.)
Measure out the whole macadamia nuts. Chop them into pieces roughly the size of peas with a knife, or use your food processor and the steel blade.
Add the white chocolate and nuts to your bowl and mix thoroughly.
Drop the dough by teaspoons onto an UNGREASED cookie sheet, 12 cookies to a standard-size sheet. Bake at 350'F for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned.
Let the cookies cool for two minutes, then remove them from the baking sheet and transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Lisa developed this recipe, and it's just like they say in the potato chip commercials ' you can't eat just one.
-20- "So what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Hannah asked Lisa when they'd finished loading the cookies into the back of her truck.
"I'm taking Dad on a tour of the Ezekiel Jordan House and we're making an appointment to have our pictures taken. Then we're going to the park to watch the family snowman contest."
"I'll see you there," Hannah told her. "Tracey's entered, and since Bill is working, I promised Andrea I'd help. Janie's coming along with me to watch."
"Tell Janie she can watch with us. I really like her, and I know Dad would like to see her again. I mentioned her name to him and he actually remembered her from years ago."
"He remembers quite a few things from the past, doesn't he?"
"That's one of the strange things about his memory. Dad can recall things from twenty or thirty years ago, but new things don't seem to register. Every time I take him to the senior center, he gets all excited because he thinks he's going there for the first time."
"At least he's never bored," Hannah said, attempting to put the brightest face on things. She knew Alzheimer's was a terrible disease, and that it was degenerative. The time could come when Jack Herman might not even remember his daughter.
"Don't be sad, Hannah." Lisa reached out to touch her arm. "I know Dad's prognosis, but at least he's happy now."
"He's very lucky he's got you," Hannah said, giving Lisa's hand a comforting pat. "And thanks for offering to entertain Janie while I'm off making a fool of myself."
Five minutes later, Hannah was zipping down the road toward her first venue. She was dropping off cookies at Jordan High, and the parking lot at the school ice rink was already dotted with cars. When she pulled in, she saw a familiar face, or at least part of one. It was Craig Kimball, and he was wearing a blaze orange ski mask.