“So, you made it.” The voice came from the shadows behind her and Lexy spun around. Two figures with guns stood in the corner.
“Bring the dress over,” Ramona said.
“I want to see Sprinkles first,” Lexy demanded.
A light flicked on at the far end and Lexy could see Sprinkles snuggled in a dog bed inside a large crate. Sprinkles thumped her tail against the side of the crate.
“She’s fine,” Ramona said. “Now give us what we want.”
Lexy walked slowly over to the corner, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light. She sucked in a breath as the other person stepped out from behind Ramona.
“Eddie?”
“That’s right; me and Eddie and Stu were all in on it together. Bet you and your nosey grandma didn’t figure that one out,” Ramona said. “Now hand over the dress.”
She held the hand without the gun out and Lexy shoved the dress at her.
“What’s so interesting about the dress?” Lexy asked, hoping that Ramona didn’t inspect it too carefully—Vera hadn’t had much time to make it and it was a barely passable copy of Lexy’s gown.
“You didn’t figure that out?” Ramona squinted at the top of the dress, and then held it up toward Lexy. “It’s these stones. They aren’t regular rhinestones—they’re diamonds.”
“Diamonds?”
“That’s right,” Eddie cut in. “We planned the heist at the Telbourne, and paid Philippe to sew the stones into Veronica’s dress.”
“Except we didn’t know they were making an identical dress for you.” Ramona glared at Lexy.
“And somehow the dresses got switched,” Eddie said.
Lexy’s brows creased. “So
that’s
why my dress didn’t fit as good on that last fitting.”
“Right-o!” Ramona said.
“And you were all in on this together?” Lexy asked.
“Umm … yeah, I think we already covered that,” Ramona said.
“But why sew them into a dress?” Lexy asked.
“It was the easiest way to smuggle them out of the country,” Eddie said. “With Stu and Veronica getting married in Paris, it was perfect … Until Stu started trying to get more than his share.”
“And that’s why you killed him,” Lexy said.
Eddie nodded. “And we had to take care of Philippe too. He knew too much. I just wish I didn’t have to kill Veronica. She didn’t know anything about it.”
“Well, you dirty rotten scoundrels,” Lexy said.
“What?” Ramona and Eddie both scrunched their faces at her.
“I said … you dirty rotten scoundrels.” Lexy repeated louder this time as she glanced behind her.
Where was Davies? Hadn’t she said the right code words?
“Okay, now that we have the dress, what do we do with her?” Eddie jerked his head in Lexy’s direction.
Ramona’s laugh turned Lexy’s insides to mush.
“The joke’s on you Eddie,” Ramona said as she pointed her gun at him.
“What the heck?” Eddie pointed his gun at Ramona.
“I took the liberty of relieving your gun of its bullets,” Ramona said.
Lexy saw Eddie’s face turn hard and he squeezed the trigger. Lexy flinched but the gun only made a dull clicking sound. Ramona really
had
removed the bullets.
“I figured that with Stu out of the way, I might as well keep the profits for myself,” Ramona said.
“How are you going to do that?” Eddie asked.
“That’s easy.” Ramona gestured with her gun for Eddie to stand next to Lexy. “It turns out you couldn’t live without Lexy … couldn’t stand to see her marry another man.”
“What?” Lexy asked. “No one is going to believe
that
—we didn’t even know each other until two days ago.”
“Oh, they’ll believe it.” Ramona snickered. “Especially once they get the letter Eddie sent to you saying that if he can’t have you no one can, and begging you to meet him here.”
Lexy remembered the strange letter she’d found in the previous night’s mail and her stomach churned. Had Ramona really gone that far?
“Oh, and if they don’t believe that, wait until they find your panties at Eddie’s house and his necklace at yours.”
Eddie looked down at his chest. “So that’s where my necklace went—you took it!”
Ramona nodded.
“Wait. How’d you get my panties?”
“It was me that broke into your house,” Ramona said proudly.
“You broke into my house to steal my panties?” Lexy stared at Ramona incredulously.
“Actually I broke in to get the dress, the panty stealing was just extra,” Ramona said. “And, of course, I took the opportunity to plant the necklace.”
“Now, all I have to do is make it look like Eddie killed you, then turned the gun on himself.” Ramona shrugged. “Stuff like that happens all the time.
And
since I left the video tapes showing Eddie and Stu stealing that scepter at the Telbourne, the police will be so happy to catch their thieves
and
the killer they won’t even look any further … and I’ll be on my way to Rio with the diamonds.”
“You won’t get away with this you dirty rotten scoundrel!” Lexy yelled the code words that Davies had given her.
Ramona shoved her into a corner and lifted the gun, the barrel pointing right at Lexy.
Lexy squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears just before she heard a deafening bang.
***
“Hold it right there!” Lexy heard Davies yell. She opened one eye in time to see Ramona whirl around just as the Brooke Ridge Falls Police Department swarmed the room.
Before she could even get her other eye open, Davies had Ramona face down on the floor and was slapping handcuffs on her. John Darling was doing the same to Eddie. And Jack was scooping her up into his arms.
“Are you okay?” Lexy melted at the concern in his honey brown eyes.
Lexy nodded then tore herself out of his arms.
“Sprinkles!” She yelled, pointing to the corner the dog was in. Jack followed her over and they released the dog, all three of them falling into a group hug. Lexy scooped up Sprinkles and they walked back over to the group in time to hear Davies finish reading Eddie his rights.
“What took you guys so long to come in?” Lexy asked. “Did I get the code words wrong?”
“No, you got them right.” Davies face flushed and she pulled on a piece of matted hair near her ear. “I got gum in my hair and must have missed hearing the signal at first.”
Lexy raised a brow at Jack who shrugged.
“Well the important thing is that the killers are captured and now we can get married without any worries,” he said draping his arm around Lexy’s shoulders.
“Yeah, and now your new detective knows that I’m not a killer.” Lexy stared at Davies.
“Oh, I knew you weren’t the killer right from the get-go,” Davies said. “I was just having some fun with you. Plus I wanted you and your grandmother to continue investigating—made my job a lot easier. Having you track down those leads was like having another team of detectives.”
“So we helped you solve the case?” Nans asked from the doorway.
“Yes Ms. Baker, you sure did.” Davies walked over to the doorway and gave Nans a hug. Lexy wondered when Nans had gotten so friendly with Davies.
“Umm … that should be
cases
, shouldn’t it?” Lexy said.
“That’s right. You helped catch the people who stole the scepter from the museum
and
the killer of Stu, Philippe and Veronica,” Jack said.
“Which reminds me.” Davies looked at Lexy. “I’m going to need the real wedding dress. That thing has over five million dollars’ worth of diamonds on it.”
Lexy’s stomach clenched. “My wedding dress?”
“Yep.” Davies nodded. “It’s evidence.”
“But I’m getting married tomorrow, and I don’t have anything else to wear!”
Chapter Twenty Three
Lexy stood at the altar facing Jack, her heart flooding with warmth at the loving look in his honey brown eyes. So far, everything had gone off without a hitch even though she’d almost missed her own rehearsal dinner the night before.
This morning, she’d arrived in her pink limo to find the church smothered in flowers and overflowing with guests. She’d had a few last minute jitters, which Cassie helped soothe
and
she’d had to fight back tears when her father walked her down the aisle and handed her over to Jack. But otherwise, everything was perfect.
And here she stood, next to Jack, in her five million dollar wedding gown.
Lexy glanced out at the guests. Her parents and Jack’s parents sat in the front row proudly. Even Detective Davies had shown up and was sitting right up front in the second row. Lexy shot her a quick smile—the detective proved that she
did
have a heart when she let Lexy wear the wedding dress on the condition that she hand it over right after the wedding.
Lexy’s smile faltered as she pictured Davies trying to rip the dress off her as soon as the reception ended. Davies did look cute though, in a tan suit with matching tan suede shoes. Lexy did a double take at the shoes.
Were those Jimmy Choo’s?
Lexy leaned forward, to get a better look at Davies’ shoes.
Was that a bloodstain on one of them? And if it was, how did Davies get her other shoe?
She frowned up at Davies who smiled and gave her a quick wink then brushed the leaf that Lexy mistook for a bloodstain from the tip of her shoe. Apparently, they had the same taste in shoes.
“Ahem … Miss Baker?” The minister’s voice caught her attention.
Lexy straightened and whipped her head back toward the minister. “Oh sorry. What?”
The minister looked back down at his book. “I was saying … Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Did she?
Lexy’s heart fluttered in her chest as she suddenly realized the enormous commitment she was about to make.
She tried to picture them growing old together. What would that life be like? Did she want to spend the rest of her life with Jack?
Lexy looked over at Jack, then at the minister, then at all her guests. When she looked back at Jack again, she knew the answer.
She turned to the minister and said …
“I do!”
Epilogue
“I guess there really is no honor among thieves,” Nans said as she placed her coffee on the café table, pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Guess not.” Lexy shrugged—she was still on a high from their wedding the day before and even the thought of the three murders couldn’t dampen her spirits. Everything had gone perfectly at the reception and Cassie’s cake had been both gorgeous and delicious. She had to admit she’d been a little nervous wearing the five million dollar gown and was glad to finally hand it over to Davies.
Now, sitting at the café tables at
The Cup and Cake
with her best friends and family, everything was perfect.
“I don’t really understand how it all happened.” Vera, in a bright turquoise and lime green outfit sat at the next table munching on a cinnamon roll.
“Stu, Ramona and Eddie planned the heist,” Jack said. “Stu and Eddie arranged it so that they were the security detail at night and Ramona worked in the control room where they stored the videos from the security cameras. She removed the section of video that showed Stu and Eddie taking the scepter and replaced it with a section of tape from earlier but changed the time stamps.”
“So it looked like the scepter was there one minute and then gone the next,” Nans added.
“Then they took the diamonds out of the scepter and Stu paid Philippe to have them sewn into Veronica’s gown,” John added. “Philippe’s business wasn’t doing well and I guess he took the money to try to save it.”
“It was almost perfect, except Millie switched the gowns by mistake during one of the fittings,” Nans said as she nibbled her éclair.
“And Stu got greedy, so Eddie and Ramona decided to cut him out,” Jack added. “That was Ramona that had the fight with Stu that day.”
“Eddie killed Stu and then went to get the gown,” John said. “I think Eddie expected
Chez Philippe
to be empty because the store is usually closed at that time, but when he got there, he found Philippe and Veronica—he shot them and took Veronica’s gown, which was actually the wrong one,” Jack went over to the self-serve coffee station to refill his cup.
“So, it was Eddie that broke into
Chez Philippe
the next night?” Lexy asked.
“Yes, at first we assumed the break-in was to cover up something about the murder, but he was actually looking for the stones. That’s why he ransacked the sewing area.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes. “So the whole time, Ramona was making plans to double-cross Eddie?”
“Yep.” John nodded. “She’d already gotten him to do the killings, so all she had to do was make off with the stones, but when they discovered Eddie took the wrong gown, that screwed up her plan.”
“And she
knew
I had a gown almost identical to Veronica’s because she saw us that day at the fitting,” Lexy said.
“Plus, she also knew you were doing some investigating,” Nans added. “So once she figured out you had the dress with the real diamonds, she broke in to steal it from your house.”
“Except it wasn’t at Lexy’s,” Vera said. “I had it in the RV that we were driving around town in on that day.”
“Right.” Nans spooned some sugar into her coffee. “So, Ramona took the opportunity to plant the necklace she’d stolen from Eddie earlier and steal Lexy’s red lace panties.”
Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm. “Then later she planted the panties at Eddie’s and wrote the fake note that she mailed to my house.”
“We found those panties under Eddie’s bed.” Jack wiggled his eyebrows at Lexy whose cheeks got even warmer.
“And I think Eddie must have been working a plan to double-cross Ramona too,” Nans said. “The few times we talked to him he kept trying to insinuate that Ramona was acting strange—he was trying to point us in her direction.”
“And apparently he didn’t tell Ramona he’d taken the dress … not until after he discovered the stones weren’t diamonds and he needed her help,” John added.