Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys

by Leighann Dobbs

  Everyone rushed to the window. Below, Lexy could see a late model black Lincoln Continental sitting in the parking lot with the front door open. A police cruiser was parked at an angle to it.

  A tall, round woman with flashy jewelry and a flowing leopard print top over tight black Capri pants stood next to the car gesturing wildly with her arms. Lexy cast an admiring glance at her impossibly high platform shoes.

  “What’s she saying?” Helen asked.

  Nans unlocked the window and pushed it open so they could hear what was going on.

  “This is my father’s car. Look at the window—it’s been smashed! God only knows what’s been taken. I want to know what you are going to do about this!” The woman yelled loudly, standing only inches from the police officer, her hands on her hips.

  “Ma’am, please calm down.” The officer tried to steer the woman away from the car while the rest of the crew looked inside and performed various tasks that Lexy assumed entailed looking for fingerprints and evidence.

  “Hey wait a minute.” Ruth pushed Ida and Nans aside so she could get a better look. “That’s Nunzio’s car!”

  Ida narrowed her eyes, craning to see out the window over Ruth’s head. “And apparently that must be his daughter.”

  “This is wonderful news,” Nans said, rubbing her hands together.

  “It is?” Lexy, Ruth, Ida and Helen all asked at once.

  “Of course,” she replied. “This means that whoever killed Nunzio and searched his condo is still around. They didn’t find what they wanted the first time so they looked in his car. Hopefully, they didn’t find it in there either.”

  “Why do you say that?” Lexy furrowed her brow, her stomach roiled knowing she wasn’t going to like Nans’s answer.

  “Because that means they will keep looking and all we have to do to catch them is figure out where they are going to look next.”

  Chapter Six

  “Nans wants me to cater a memorial service for Nunzio Bartolli at the Retirement Center tomorrow.” Lexy straightened up from filling the pastry case in the front of The Cup and Cake and turned to face Cassie who was just coming out of the doorway to the kitchen with a tray of fresh, steaming turnovers.

  “That sounds like a nice idea. You don’t want to do it?”

  “Well, you know Nans. She’s only doing it so she can pump the relatives for information, to figure out who the killer is.”

  “Cool! She can have them gathered in one place and then blurt out the name of the murderer like Columbo.”

  Lexy narrowed her eyes picturing Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen in beige trench coats with cigars. She noticed Cassie’s eyes light up a second before she heard the bell over the door and quickly turned to see who it was.

  John Darling stood in the doorway. Of course, she could have guessed who it was judging by the look on Cassie’s face. But she never would have guessed he’d have a linebacker with him. At least, that’s what the guy standing beside him looked like.

  He stood about six and a half feet tall and looked almost three feet wide. Lexy could tell from where she stood that he was solid muscle. His expensive looking dark blue suit must have been custom made—she didn’t think you could get tree-trunk sized arms like that on suits off the rack.

  “Hi honey!” Cassie bubbled.

  “Hi.” John smiled at Cassie, and then turned to Lexy. “Hi, Lexy.”

  “Lexy?”

  “What? Oh. Hi.” Lexy’s cheeks burned. She’d been too busy staring at the other guy to pay attention to John’s greeting.

  “This is Braxton Daniels from the F.B.I. He’s in town working on a case with us.” John gestured to the giant beside him, then continued. “This is my wife Cassie, and this is Lexy.”

  “Please call me Brax.” The linebacker stuck out a beefy, but well-manicured hand and Lexy watched hers disappear inside it. She looked up into his face. Square jaw, green eyes, smile like a toothpaste model.

  She murmured a greeting, and her stomach did a flip when his gaze traveled from her eyes, to her mouth and down the rest of her body, then came to rest on her engagement ring. Right … she was engaged. No harm in looking though. Lexy withdrew her hand and did her best to send out “not available” vibes.

  “So, what kind of case are you working on?” Cassie asked.

  “Organized crime. But nothing for you ladies to worry about.” Brax tore his gaze from Lexy and looked at Cassie.

  “Organized crime? Does that have anything to do with Nunzio Bartolli?” Lexy’s radar immediately perked up.

  Brax raised an eyebrow at her. “Why would you say that? Do you know something?”

  “Well, no. It’s just that he was just murdered, and there were rumors about him being connected to organized crime, so …” Lexy let her voice trail off.

  “You made the connection,” Brax filled in for her, turning up the wattage on his smile. “So, I guess there’s more than just a pretty face under that apron.”

  Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm and busied herself by taking the turnovers from Cassie and arranging them in the pastry case.

  “So you think he was rubbed out by gangsters or something?” Cassie asked.

  John and Brax both laughed.

  “Well, it’s something we are looking in to,” John said, then lowered his voice even though no one else was in the bakery to overhear them. “His family isn’t above suspicion, either. We are looking at them very closely. In fact, Jack— ”

  John stopped talking abruptly and Lexy jerked her head in his direction.

  “Jack what?”

  “I really shouldn’t say … it’s part of the case … he’s just keeping the family under surveillance. He’s going to be very busy with that.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Lexy narrowed her eyes at John, her stomach sinking. It was more than just surveillance, she could tell. What was it that John had stopped himself from saying?

  Brax cleared his throat and Lexy looked over at him.

  “John tells me you have the best cinnamon buns in the area. I think I’ll take that one on top,” he said pointing to a gooey cinnamon bun that sat at the very top of the tray.

  “I’ll take one, too,” John said as he walked over toward the self-serve coffee station by the window.

  “How do you take your coffee?” He called back to Brax.

  “Black.” Brax pulled his wallet out of the inside pocket of his jacket and paid for the order. Lexy put the pastries in a white bag which she handed across the counter to him. She noticed he made certain their fingers brushed as she handed off the bag. She pulled her hand back quickly afraid of the tingles that resulted from his touch.

  “We gotta run,” John said, then looked at Cassie. “See you tonight.”

  They walked toward the door. When they got there, Brax turned and looked back at them.

  “Nice meeting you both,” he said, then aimed his gaze at Lexy, “I hope I’ll see you again soon.” Then he followed John out, shutting the door behind him.

  “Wow. Did you get a look at him?” Cassie asked.

  “Yeah. How could I miss him?”

  Cassie sighed, “Boy, if I wasn’t married I’d be wanting to get to know him better.”

  Lexy laughed. She had to admit Braxton Daniels was attractive. If she wasn’t engaged to Jack, she’d have been looking a lot closer herself. But in her rule book, engaged people didn’t look around on the side. Her mind conjured up images of Jack and his blonde ex-girlfriend across the street from the day before. She just hoped he was playing by the same rule book.

  ###

  Lexy had her head and shoulders inside the bakery case, stacking a plate of cannoli that she and Cassie had just finished stuffing with rich ricotta cheese filling, when the door opened and Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen marched into the bakery.

  She smiled out at them from inside the case, finished her stacking, then unfolded herself from the awkward position and stood up.

  “We thought we would come and pick out what we want to serve at the m
emorial. It’s all set for 2 P.M. tomorrow in the Sunset Room at the retirement center.” Nans stared into the case. Her keen eyes scanned the pastries to see what would be most suitable for the occasion.

  “How many do you think will attend?” Lexy asked. She could better gauge how many items to bring once she knew how many people would be there.

  “Oh, I’d say about forty or fifty people, right Ruth?” Nans turned to look at Ruth who nodded solemnly.

  “Then I suggest we do five trays loaded with cookies and bars. I can cut the bars into bite size pieces so people can sample several of them.”

  “That sounds perfect. We’ll take some lemon squares, chocolate brownies, blonde brownies, hermits, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin, and snicker doodles,” Nans said, pointing to indicate each of her choices. “And we’ll have some samples to eat here with our coffees.”

  Lexy cocked an eyebrow at her. “Of everything?”

  Nans giggled. “No, just a couple of the brownies cut up will be fine.” The four women turned and settled themselves into a cafe table by the window while Lexy cut up the brownies which she brought to the table along with four ceramic coffee mugs.

  “… he ever mention any place where he might keep something important?” Lexy heard Nans ask Ruth, as she put the brownies and mugs down in front of them.

  Ruth scrunched up her face. “Not that I can recall. We didn’t talk about stuff like that?”

  “What did you talk about?” Ida giggled and Ruth blushed.

  “Do you all want coffee?” Lexy asked them.

  “Oh, we can get our own. You don’t need to wait on us,” Helen said grabbing a mug and going over to the self-serve station.

  Lexy grabbed a seat pulling it up to the table. She had been lucky to get this storefront in the old mill for her bakery. The floor to ceiling picture window was the perfect place to situate her cafe tables since it had a spectacular view of the waterfall the town was named for. Looking out now, she marveled in the beauty of the water rushing over the falls and the river flanked by shrubs and trees in full bloom. It was no wonder her customers liked to linger at the tables.

  “If you were the killer, where would you look?” Nans addressed the table from her spot in front of the coffee carafe.

  The other four looked thoughtful. Ida picked a tea bag from the basket on the table and got up to put water in her mug.

  Helen looked down at her already steaming coffee and shrugged. “Do you think he could have hidden it in one of the retirement center common areas?”

  Ruth and Nans sat back down with steaming mugs of coffee. The smell of dark roast permeated Lexy’s nostrils and she got up to pour herself a cup.

  Ruth tapped her index finger on her bottom lip thoughtfully. “You know it would be helpful if we knew how big the thing was.”

  Nans nodded. “What could possibly be important enough for someone to murder Nunzio over?”

  “Well, that’s easy,” Ida said bobbing her tea bag up and down in the water. “It’s either got to do with money, or he had something on someone.”

  Lexy leaned against the self-serve station, the mug of coffee warming her hands. She really shouldn’t even be listening to this. She was afraid that if she listened, she would get sucked into investigating with them. Plus the less she knew, the easier it would be to convince Jack that she wasn’t investigating it.

  Nans covered Ruth’s hand with her own. “Think hard. Are you sure Nunzio never mentioned anything he was hiding?”

  Ruth pursed her lips together. “I don’t think so.”

  “Or gave you something to hide for him?” Helen ventured.

  Ruth shook her head. “No. I’d remember that.”

  “Wait,” Ida said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t come right out and say that he was giving you some important thing to hide, especially one that was worth killing over. He might have hidden it at your place when you weren’t looking or given you something that you don’t realize is important.”

  Ruth sipped her coffee while she thought about it. “Really, we weren’t that close. Maybe he had another girlfriend he gave it to. The only thing he ever gave me was this locket.”

  Ruth grabbed a chain that hung from her neck and pulled out a giant heart-shaped locked she’d been wearing under her shirt.

  The other woman looked at it and murmured about how pretty it was, even though Lexy thought it was a bit gaudy herself.

  “What’s inside it?” Ida asked.

  “Inside?” Ruth furrowed her brow. “I never thought to look inside.”

  She wedged her thumbnail in between the two sides and the locket popped open revealing a small key.

  “Oh, how cute … the key to his heart,” Ida said.

  Nans leaned over the table to get a better look. “Cute my patootie,” she said. “That key isn’t a piece of jewelry—it’s a real key and I bet it opens the lock to whatever Nunzio was hiding.”

  Chapter Seven

  “I have to work late tonight … on a case. I’m just going to shoot home and grab some leftovers out of my fridge. Maybe we can grill out tomorrow night?” Jack’s voice crackled from the cell phone Lexy had pressed to her ear as she pulled into her driveway.

  “Sure, that sounds great.”

  “Okay, well I gotta run. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Bye.” Lexy snapped the phone shut. It’s not like she was counting on seeing Jack tonight, he often had to work late when a case was heating up. But the last minute notice left her without plans.

  “Oh well, such is the life of a police detective’s fiancee,” she said to herself as she opened her front door.

  Sprinkles greeted her in a flurry of white fur as she pushed the door open. Lexy bent down to scratch the little poodle shih-tzu mix’s head.

  “Looks like it’s a girl’s night in tonight, Sprinkles.”

  Lexy dropped her purse on the couch and went straight to the kitchen with Sprinkles hot on her heels. She opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white zinfandel, uncorked it and poured it into a crystal wine glass from the cupboard.

  Sprinkles danced around her food bowl, alternating looks between the empty bowl and Lexy.

  “Are you hungry?” Lexy felt her own stomach nag at her. She filled Sprinkle’s bowl from a canister of dry dog food she kept on the counter then opened the fridge to rummage for her own supper.

  “Let’s see … leftover carrot cake, tuna, spaghetti and a slice of week old pizza. What will it be?” She stood back with her wine glass in her hand deciding which appealed to her the most. After a few seconds, she grabbed the carrot cake and a fork and sat at the small kitchen table.

  The carrot cake was sweet and the cream cheese frosting was tangy, which balanced the sweetness perfectly. Lexy figured she was getting at least two of the basic food groups—vegetables from the carrots and dairy from the cream cheese. The wine wasn’t the best compliment to it, but she managed to drain the glass anyway.

  Lexy pushed her chair back from the table, then crossed the kitchen to dump the cake plate in the sink. Sprinkles followed her eyeing the space between the plate and ground with hawk-like attention, just in case a crumb fell. Once the plate was in the sink with no hope of a stray crumb falling, Sprinkles made her way over to the door and scratched at it to go out.

  “You have to go out?” Lexy asked the obvious. She held the door open for the little dog. Sprinkles wasn’t much of an outdoor dog, she usually just went out and did her business then ran back in. So Lexy was surprised when she took off toward the fence that separated her yard from Jack’s.

  “Sprinkles come back!” Lexy slipped out the door after her, running across the grass in her bare feet. Lexy’s heart sank when Sprinkles ignored her and slipped through the missing board in the fence.

  Lexy followed, barely squeezing herself through and popped out into Jack’s back yard. Sprinkles stood at Jack’s door wagging her tail. Lexy ran over to grab her.

  She started to scold the dog, but her heart melted w
hen those adoring brown eyes looked up at her and she reached down to pet her instead. She could hardly get mad at the dog, Sprinkles was used to making the trip between the two houses, and Jack spoiled her rotten. It was no wonder she wanted to visit.

  “He’s not home, silly.” A movement inside Jack’s house caught her eye. Lexy peered through the window in the kitchen door. A white sheer curtain over the window obstructed the view, but Lexy could make out shadowy movements inside the kitchen.

  Didn’t Jack say he wouldn’t be home?

  She pressed her face against the glass to get a better look. Her heart froze in her chest. She could make out two silhouettes … one looked like Jack and the other was a bit more shapely. A woman.

  Just then Sprinkles let out a bark and leaped up against the door. The door swung in causing Lexy to lose her balance. She tumbled into the kitchen face first.

  She stumbled a few steps, and then caught herself. Straightening up, a jolt of electricity pierced her heart when she saw who was standing in front of her. She sucked in a deep breath feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

  Standing in Jack’s kitchen, looking like she was right at home, was the blonde she’d seen Jack with the other day. His ex-girlfriend.

  ###

  Jack bent down to pet Sprinkles while Lexy and the blonde sized each other up. She was pretty up close, Lexy thought grudgingly, baby blue eyes and blonde hair. A little too much makeup, though.

  Lexy’s heart sank as she compared the other woman’s clingy silk tank top and perfectly matched skirt to her flour covered oversized tee-shirt and jeans. The other woman’s outfit was tasteful, but left no doubt that her tall frame carried a body of barbie-doll perfect proportions.

  Lexy felt like a dwarf beside her, her curvy but petite frame seemed even shorter than usual considering she didn’t have any shoes on to add to her height. To top it all off, the other woman was wearing a gorgeous pair of hot pink Steve Weitzman platforms which made her legs look even longer and her stature even taller.