Lexy was sure the voices coming over the intercom on Nans’ end were just as distorted, but her grandmother was expecting her and the door buzzed and clicked open.
Lexy pulled on the heavy glass door and made her way down the hall, the carpet muffling her footsteps. As she navigated the building to Nans’ apartment, she could smell the intoxicating aroma of bacon and home fries. Her stomach grumbled and she hoped that Nans had a little box of pastries to go with her coffee.
She reached Nans door, her heart skipping when the door was jerked open before she even got the chance to knock.
“Good morning, dear.” Nans shoved a mug of thick black brew into her hand and propelled her into the apartment.
Ruth, Ida and Helen were seated at Nans’ mahogany dining room table, their heads turned in Lexy’s direction, their eyes sparkling with excitement. A white bakery box in the middle of the table caught Lexy’s attention and she walked over for a better look.
“Have a seat, dear,” Ida said pulling out the chair next to her. Lexy sat and Ruth slid the pastry box over in front of her. Lexy picked a raspberry scone out of the box and Helen handed her a white embossed paper napkin to put it on.
The four ladies watched patiently as she settled back in her chair, took a bite of the scone and then washed it down with some coffee.
“So, tell us about the murders,” Nans said. The other three women leaned in closer.
Lexy took another sip, closing her eyes as the caffeine started to do its job.
“Nans told you all about the fight at the dress fitting?” Lexy asked Ruth, Ida and Helen who all nodded their heads.
“Well, after that I went home, mad. My dress was ripped but I didn’t want to go back to
Chez Philippe
. I made a few calls but no one could repair it on short notice. So, when Philippe called and begged me to come back saying he would fix the dress for free, I jumped at it.”
Lexy paused long enough to take another bite of the sugary scone.
“And you went there and found the bodies,” Ida prompted.
“Right. At first I thought no one was there, the store in the front was dark. But the door was open so I went in to look for Philippe in the back.”
Ruth picked a gooey cinnamon bun out of the bakery box and put it on her napkin. “Why would you want to meet with this Veronica person?”
“I didn’t,” Lexy said. “He said he would meet with us separately, so I guess he was meeting with her first.”
Nans pursed her lips. “So the killer might have been after either one of them, but not necessarily both of them.”
“Right,” Ida said as she nibbled on a lemon biscotti. “The other person might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“But why would anyone want to kill either of them?” Lexy asked.
“Well, that’s what we need to figure out,” Ruth said as she leaned over to rummage in her gigantic beige patent leather purse. A few seconds later, she came up with an iPad and placed it on the table in front of her. “Now, tell us who you think would have motive to kill them.”
Lexy scrunched her face. “Me? I have no idea who would want to kill them—I don’t even know them.”
“Well you knew Veronica from school. Can you think of any enemies she had then?” Nans asked.
“Yeah, lots of people … including me,” Lexy answered.
“And you did have a knock-down drag-out fight with her that was witnessed by a room full of people the day she was murdered.” Ruth wiggled her eyebrows at Lexy and the other ladies laughed. Lexy didn’t find it so funny—no wonder Davies wanted to pin it on her.
“Well, we know Lexy didn’t do it,” Nans said. “So now we need to figure out who did. And you guys know where the best place to start is.”
“The spouse!” Ida punctuated her words by crunching into the biscotti loudly.
“That’s usually who it is. Probably one of them was having an affair and the spouse found out and killed him … or her.” Helen took a noisy slurp of tea from the bone china cup she held in her hand. “Happens all the time.”
Ruth screwed her face up. “Yeah, but which one of them was having the affair.”
Ida’s face lit up. “Maybe they were having an affair with each other!”
“I don’t think Philippe was married,” Lexy said.
“We’ll need to find that out,” Ruth answered, as she typed into the iPad.
“Lexy, since you were a friend of Veronica, it’s reasonable you would want to give your condolences to her fiancé,” Ruth said.
Lexy’s brow creased. “I don’t know about that … we hated each other.”
“Oh, that was years ago.” Helen waved her hand in the air. “You two are grown women now. Surely you could let bygones be bygones.”
“I don’t think so. We got into a fight just yesterday …” Lexy shoved the last of the scone in her mouth.
“Well the fiancé doesn’t need to know that. Besides it’s really our only excuse to interrogate … I mean
talk
… to him,” Nans said.
“And we need to find out about the murder weapon,” Ida added.
“They were shot. I guess the killer came in the back door and shot them. At least that’s what they said at the crime scene last night,” Lexy said.
“Oh, well that helps. We need to find out what type of bullets they found and then find out if any of the suspects owned that kind of gun. Maybe Jack can help us with the details.” Nans looked at Lexy.
“Well, that's the thing,” Lexy said, “Jack’s off the case.”
The ladies gasped.
“What? Why?” Nans asked in obvious disappointment. Nans and Jack had a close relationship and the ladies often helped him on his cases. In turn, Jack would give them tidbits of information on cases they were trying to solve. Without his ‘inside’ help, the ladies would have to work harder to find the killer.
Lexy sighed. “The chief of detectives said it wouldn’t look good for him to be investigating given my involvement.”
“So exactly
who
is on the case, then?” Ida asked.
Lexy’s stomach sank. “Some new detective. It’s her first case and she seems convinced I did it.”
“All the more reason for us to find the real killer,” Nans said. “Ruth, find out Veronica’s fiancé’s name and where he lives. Lexy, you meet me here at three p.m. on the dot. If we get lucky we could have the evidence we need before supper tonight.”
***
Lexy rushed across the parking lot to her car. Even though Cassie had worked as her assistant at the bakery since she opened it and was more than capable of running the place by herself, Lexy still felt guilty about leaving her there alone. She also had a dozen things to do today and needed to get the day’s baking done early.
Her cell phone chirped in her pocket. She dug it out and glanced at the caller id, freezing in her tracks when she saw who it was. Her mother.
Lexy rolled her eyes as she hit “answer”. She loved her mom, but the woman’s exuberant enthusiasm could be overwhelming at times … and Lexy had already used up most of her patience for the day.
“Hi Mom.” Lexy warbled into the phone, trying to sound more chipper than she felt.
“Lexy!” Vera Baker’s voice blared at high volume causing Lexy to hold the phone out six inches from her ear. “We’re almost home, isn’t that exciting?”
“Yes, Mom. I can’t wait to see you and Dad.” It was true, Lexy’s parents had been traveling the country in an RV for over a year and Lexy
did
miss them.
“Me too. And we can’t wait to meet your young man,” Vera said. “Nans says such wonderful things about him.”
Lexy’s stomach fluttered. Her parents had never met Jack and she had a sudden case of nerves about whether the three of them would like each other.
“Are you sure we can park the RV in your driveway?” Vera asked.
“Yep, I’ll just park my car on the street.” Lexy grimaced, the gigantic RV would take up her whole driveway but she wanted to have her parents close by so she could spend more time with them.
“Okay, then. We should see you by supper time!”
“Great Mom. I can’t wait!” Lexy said into the phone, but her mother had already hung up. She snapped the phone shut, her shoulders tight with stress. Her parents were making a special trip back to Brooke Ridge Falls for her wedding and while she
was
looking forward to their visit, it was going to be tough fitting them in when she also needed to run a bakery, finalize wedding plans and track down a killer.
Lexy shoved the phone in her pocket and sprinted for the car. She was going to have to work fast to check off all the items on the day’s “to-do” list and still be able to meet Nans by three.
Chapter Six
It was three fifteen when Lexy pulled into the parking lot at the
Brooke Ridge Retirement Center.
Nans was already waiting for her just outside the door, her foot tapping impatiently on the pavement. Lexy pulled to a stop in front of her and motioned for her to get in.
“I was wondering if you were going to show,” Nans said.
“Sorry, I got caught up in making lemon bars for the bakery.”
Nans shrugged. “That’s okay. You’re here now so let’s get down to business.”
Lexy put the car in gear and swooped around the parking lot to get back to the entrance. “Which way?”
Nans pulled out her smartphone. “Let me get this navigation app up.”
Lexy rolled down her window while Nans fiddled with the phone. The sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, the air crisp with the smell of fall and the temperature still warm enough to heat the car but not hot enough to require air conditioning. The open windows provided the perfect relief while letting in clean, fresh air.
“There,” Nans said. “Take a left and then go through downtown and take a right on Howard Street.”
Lexy checked the road for traffic then turned left.
“How did you find out where the fiancé lives?” Lexy was often baffled—and even a little disturbed—at how the ladies could dig up personal information.
“I knew Veronica’s last name from the other day at the bridal shop, so Ruth just looked up her engagement announcement and we found the fiancé’s name. Stuart Wiggins. Once we knew that, it was pretty easy to find out where he lives.”
Lexy slid her eyes over to Nans. “And did you find out anything else about him?”
“Just that he’s from Arizona and works as a security guard at the Telbourne Museum.”
“Is that the big museum over in Cutler?” Cutler was a few towns over and a much larger city than Lexy’s town of Brooke Ridge Falls. The museum was one of the largest in the world. Lexy frowned, remembering something about the museum in the news recently.
“Yep, that’s the one. They had a recent theft … some sort of crown jewels or scepter … Howard is just up here on the right.” Nans jabbed her finger at the right side of the windshield while looking down at her Smartphone.
Lexy turned right.
“Now follow this to …” Nans squinted at the phone. “Palomino Lane, then take another left on Edwards. He lives in the townhouses somewhere on that road.”
“Oh, I know just where that is,” Lexy said.
“Great.” Nans slipped the phone into her purse. “So your mom and dad are coming back tonight?”
“Yep. They said they’d be here at suppertime. You’re coming over, right?” Lexy asked. Lexy’s father was Nans’ son, so she assumed her grandmother would want to join them.
“Of course, dear. We can head back once we get the evidence we need from the killer,” Nans said with an air of confidence that Lexy wished she shared.
Lexy pulled up in front of the row of townhouses. They looked like any other townhouses—thin, two story homes stacked up next to each other, each in the same light blue siding with black shutters. Lexy shuddered when she realized one of them might harbor a killer.
Nans pushed her door open and jumped out, her face glowing with excitement. Lexy followed her onto the sidewalk.
“It’s number forty-eight.” Nans pointed to one of the middle townhouses and they started toward it.
“Looks like he didn’t get his mail.” Lexy pointed to the overstuffed mailbox on the side of the door.
“Or his paper,” Nans said as the stood in front of the door looking down at a rolled up newspaper.
Lexy pressed the doorbell and waited.
No one answered.
“Maybe he’s still at work. It is only three thirty,” Lexy offered.
“Nope. He works the night shift.” Nans looked at her watch. “Actually he should be just getting ready to
go
to work.”
“Well, maybe he left early to run errands or something.” Lexy backed down the walk to the one car garage. She went around to the side door. Standing on her tiptoes she cupped her hands around her eyes and looked in through the glass window. No car.
Lexy’s spirits deflated. “Looks like he’s not home.” She came back around to the front only to find that Nans was no longer at Stuart’s door. She was marching over to the next townhouse whose owner had the unfortunate timing to be out watering the plants next to his steps.
“Yoo-hoo.” Nans waved at the elderly man who straightened from his task and contemplated Nans from underneath a bushy creased brow. “Sorry … we were looking for Stuart Wiggins. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?”
The man shrugged. “I don’t know too much about him. Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m his great aunt … just in town for a quick visit. I was hoping I could catch him.” Lexy narrowed her eyes at Nans, feeling a little disturbed at how easily the other woman could spin off a lie.
“Oh. Well, I haven’t seen him since yesterday.” The man pursed his lips and looked up at the sky. “Come to think of it I didn’t actually
see
him, but I heard him yelling.”
“Yelling?” Nans asked.
“Yes. Must have been him and his lady friend having a fight. You know how young couples are.” He winked at Nans.
“What were they yelling about?” Nans asked.
“Oh … well I really don’t like to talk out of school. Thing is, I couldn’t make out everything they were saying. Something about lying I think.” He shrugged. “Then I heard car doors slamming and looked out just in time to see that brunette peel out in a red Toyota Corolla, then saw Stuart come speeding out of his garage after her.”