Back Cream Puff Murder
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. CREAM PUFF MURDER
  3. Books by Joanne Fluke
  4. CREAM PUFF MURDER
  5. Dedication
  6. Acknowledgments:
  7. Contents
  8. Chapter One
  9. Chapter Two
  10. Chapter Three
  11. Chapter Four
  12. Chapter Five
  13. Chapter Six
  14. Chapter Seven
  15. Chapter Eight
  16. Chapter Nine
  17. Chapter Ten
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. Chapter Twenty-Five
  33. Chapter Twenty-Six
  34. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Index of Recipes
  40. Baking Conversion Chart
  41. Copyright

“What type is that?” Andrea asked, and Hannah wondered if her sister and brother-in-law were thinking about adding a sauna to the new basement recreation room they’d been planning to build.

“It can’t be a heat alarm. If it is, it’ll go off every time someone turns on the sauna. It has to be a flame alarm, or a smoke alarm. Smoke’s the best bet because the redwood benches in a sauna smoke before they burn.”

“I see,” Hannah said. “The smoke detector would pick up the problem sooner than the flame detector.”

“Exactly right,” Herb said. “I’m going to recommend a smoke alarm that’s tied directly to the Lake Eden Fire Department. The minute it goes off, they’re alerted. That’s what they have at Heavenly Bodies. The owner has to pay the fire department a monthly fee to monitor it, but it’s worth it. He had to set it up that way to get insurance. There are a lot of ways people can hurt themselves at a gym.”

“That’s true,” Hannah said, thinking about how Ronni had mixed up drinks at her party and then climbed in the Jacuzzi when everyone left. Was the killer someone who’d stayed behind with her? Or was it someone who’d come in after the partygoers had gone?

“You look worried, Hannah,” Norman said, reaching out to pat her shoulder.

“I’m not really worried. I’m just wondering how we can possibly watch all sixty hours on these tapes.”

“Lisa and I can take six hours,” Herb offered. “We’ll start watching right after dinner, and if we fast-forward, we’ll be through by ten.”

“You don’t mind?” Hannah turned to Lisa.

“Not at all.” Lisa shook her head. “Can we take a tape from the weight room? I just love to see guys straining their muscles and lifting weights.”

Herb laughed. “Not a good idea. If there’s a cute guy working out, she’ll want to watch it three or four times. And then we’ll never get any sleep!”

“Herb!” Lisa said sternly, but then she blew it by giggling. “Okay. If my husband doesn’t think I should watch handsome men in the weight room, you can give us the hallway. That ought to be perfectly innocuous.”

The bell on the door tinkled, and Lisa shot to her feet. “Noon rush,” she said, motioning to Michelle.

Lisa said good-bye to Herb while Michelle took her place at the cash register. Then Lisa tied on a serving apron and started to wait tables. The bell was ringing now in a steady cadence.

“My house. Six tonight,” Norman said, getting to his feet. “I’ll take the tapes with me and set up three or four viewing rooms.”

“I can stop somewhere and bring takeout for dinner,” Hannah suggested.