“Not now,” Hannah said, coming to a decision out loud. She just wasn’t going to worry about her feline food lover tonight. She’d refill Moishe’s Kitty Valet, bake the dessert she planned to serve to her company, and settle down on the couch with something to drink until her guests arrived.

By six fifteen, the bar cookies were in the oven and she was sitting on the couch, her feet tucked up under her, sipping a cup of coffee. If she’d been a drinker, it would have been a double Scotch on the rocks. If she hadn’t been on a diet, it would have been hot chocolate. As it was, coffee was the only noncaloric hot beverage she could think of to drink…unless she wanted to count tea. And she didn’t.

Moishe hopped onto the seat of the couch and snuggled up against her legs. Hannah reached out to pet him and sighed in contentment. It was good to be home. It had been a very long day, starting with the gruesome discovery of Ronni’s body in the Jacuzzi and ending with the heavier than usual preparations for tomorrow’s baking.

A cat’s purr was soporific. Hannah had heard that before, and it was true. She yawned widely, closed her eyes, and stroked Moishe’s soft fur. In a moment she was asleep, dreaming of walks in the North Woods with her great-grandmother, the deer they’d seen leaping in the distance, the birds flitting from branch to branch, beeping cheerily. Beeping? Birds didn’t beep!

“The oven!” Hannah exclaimed, getting up so swiftly she dislodged Moishe. She must have fallen asleep, and her oven timer was beeping. She rushed to the kitchen, opened the oven door, and gave a sigh of relief as she pulled her pan of Candy Bar Bar Cookies out of the oven. They weren’t too brown on top. Everything was just fine.

She’d just replaced her oven mitts on the hook next to the stove when the doorbell rang. A glance at the apple-shaped clock on the wall over the kitchen table showed six forty-five. It was a good thing she’d set the table earlier. Company was here, and she’d gotten up from her nap just in time!

CANDY BAR BAR COOKIES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 1/2 pound)

3/4 cup white (granulated) sugar

1 beaten egg (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

21/2 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

5 three-ounce chocolate candy bars (I used Nestle Milk Chocolate)***

1/4 cup white (granulated) sugar

Prepare a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan by lining it with a piece of foil large enough to flap over the sides. Spray the foil-lined pan with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray.