“This is important evidence in the case.” Jack held the book up.
Duh. Lexy stared at him. Did he think she was stupid?
“This book could hold the key to who the killer is.” Jack stated the obvious. “And you could be in a lot of danger if the killer knows you have it. Clearly he or she already suspects you might. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble here to try to find it.” He spread his arms indicating the mess in her kitchen, his anger turning to concern.
His concern diffused her annoyance and Lexy felt a sigh escape her lips. “I know.” She felt her heart beat a little faster. This was serious business, after all someone had knocked her out!
“Did you get a look at who hit you?”
“No.” Lexy’s hand went up to the back of her head. She felt a big lump starting to from. “They hit me from behind.”
Jack stepped closer. Moving behind her, he gently touched her hair, feeling the back of her head. Moving her hair aside he inspected the wounded area. “That’s a nasty lump, you should have it looked at. You might have a concussion. Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
Lexy shook her head. She knew that even if she did have a concussion, there was little they could do about it. An ambulance would just be a waste of time and money.
She saw Jacks eyes soften. He reached for her, tentatively pulling her in for a hug. For a split second, she let herself relax, letting out a soft sigh. Then, remembering the curly haired woman in his window, she felt her body stiffen.
Jack broke the embrace. Clearing his throat he said, “I better get this book to the station so we can decipher it.” He held the book up.
“Right.” Lexy nodded. She felt a whirlwind of emotions. Part of her wanted to rush into Jacks arms and beg him to protect her, but the other part was sending up warning signals about his girlfriend. She straightened her spine, willing herself to be strong and independent. She tried to keep a cool, nonchalant look on her face, even though she was a little spooked that someone had knocked her out and tossed her house.
Jack walked to the edge of the kitchen, peeking into the other rooms. “It looks like they’ve been through your house pretty good. I’m going to station a car outside overnight, just in case they come back. I don’t think they will, but you might want to go somewhere else tonight.”
Lexy looked around. The house was a mess - she had a lot of work to do. She scooped Sprinkles up in her arms. “Thanks, but I think I’ll stay here - I have Sprinkles to protect me.” She buried her face in the little dogs fur. Sprinkles wagged her tail, turning her head to lick Lexy’s face.
“Promise me you’ll take it easy - and call me if anything else happens!” Jack gave her a tender, concerned look that made Lexy’s heart do flip flops.
“I promise.” She held up her hand, the first two fingers up in the air, the rest folded. “Scouts honor.”
Jack gave her one final glance, than disappeared out the back door.
Lexy collapsed into the closest kitchen chair with a sigh. Sprinkles pawed at her legs, blissfully unaware of the goings on.
“You’re probably hungry, huh?”
Picking up the dog bowl, she crossed to the counter and pulled out Sprinkles canister of food. She filled the bowl, then put it on the floor. She expected Sprinkles to dig in as soon as she saw it, but something else had attracted the dog’s attention.
Lexy watched Sprinkles push a shiny metal object across the floor, batting it from one side to the other.
“What’s that, girl?” With the mess the house was in, it could be anything.
Lexy bent down, intercepting the item. She stood up, holding it in front of her face. It was a button. A rather distinctive button, gold in color with a black stone in the middle and greek key scrolling on the outer edge.
Lexy felt her forehead wrinkle as she tried to remember whether she had an outfit with that style button. She didn’t.
She felt her stomach drop, a chill ran up her spine when she realized it could mean only one thing - the button belonged to whoever had knocked her out and ransacked her house.
Chapter Thirteen
Lexy was up at the crack of dawn after another sleepless night. The presence of the police car outside her house gave her some peace of mind, but the real reason for her insomnia was the button.
Finally, she had the clue she had been looking for - the one that would lead her to Kevin’s killer. Now all she had to do was figure out whose it was.
She fed Sprinkles, giving her an extra treat for finding the button, then jumped in the shower. She had a full day ahead of her and couldn’t waste any time. Her first stop would be Nans so she could show the button to the Ladies Detective Club.
Forty-five minutes later she found herself seated at the usual round table in the retirement center telling the ladies about the previous nights events. The button sat in the center of the table, four blueish grey heads bent forward to inspect it.
“It’s a lovely button,” Ruth said.
“I can’t say if it’s a man’s or a woman’s,” Ida added.
“It looks like it would come from an expensive blazer or dress,” Helen said.
“Lexy,” said Nans, “close your eyes and think back to the wake. Do you remember seeing anyone with a jacket that had these buttons?”
Lexy closed her eyes trying to picture Kevin’s wake in her minds eye. Images of people floated through her mind, but she didn’t see the button on any clothing. She probably wouldn’t have noticed something like that anyway.
“Oh, look.” Nans pointed at the big screen television on the other side of the room. “Isn’t that Kevins brother, Jason on tv?”
Lexy turned to look. It was Jason, standing at a podium giving some sort of speech. That wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He was the deputy mayor so he was often seen on tv. Lexy was about to turn away, then something on the tv caught her eye.
She stood, running over to the giant television, her eyes grew wide. She turned to the ladies at the table, feeling her cheeks flush with excitement.
“I think I know who the killer is!” She grabbed her purse, gave Nans a quick hug and rushed towards the door.
As she hit the door at full speed, she heard Nans panicked voice calling after her “Lexy, wait ... don’t do anything dangerous on your own!”
***
“Kevin sent me something in the mail... it’s a notebook.” Lexy whispered into her cell phone.
“Do you have it? What does it say?” The familiar voice on the other end asked.
“It’s in code so I don’t know what it means, looks like some dates and garbled words.”
She heard an audible sigh through the phone. “Can you bring it to me? I’d like to take a look at it.” Lexy heard an edge of anxiety creep into the voice.
“Sure.” She crossed her fingers behind her back. She didn’t actually have the book anymore, but she had a plan to get a confession from the killer and the plan would only work if they met in person.
“OK, meet me at my house in 20 minutes,” the voice on the other end said breathlessly into the phone.
Lexy snapped the phone shut. She rummaged in her glove compartment, pulling out a small tape recorder she kept to record any recipe ideas she might have and she slid it into her purse. A taped confession always worked on tv so she couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work for her. She found a little notebook in the back of her car that would work as a decoy. Finally, she pulled a can of pepper spray from under her seat just in case things got ugly.
Nans warning rang in her head. She should call Jack, but she knew he wouldn’t approve of her plan and she couldn’t wait any longer for the case to be solved so that her bakery could be open again. She was almost out of savings and needed to be earning money in order to pay her bills. Calling Jack would only slow things down.
Her decision made, she turned her cell phone off, then double checked her purse for the tape recorder, notebook and pepper spray. Satisfied everything was in order, she put her car in gear and dro
ve off towards her destination.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack looked at his cell phone wondering if he should call Lexy to check on her. No, better to wait a bit.
He thought about the notebook she had given him last night. He had taken it to the station right away. His people were busy working on deciphering it - it should hold the clues which would point to whoever killed Kevin.
Which made him wonder what role Lexy had played, if any, in the whole thing. At first she was high up on their suspect list. But as the case unraveled, Jack was relieved to see it looked less and less like she had been involved.
Still, there were several things that pointed to her - the poison cupcake tops, her relationship with the deceased, and those stiletto heel marks weren’t in her favor. But an intense investigation and surveillance hadn’t turned anything else up. And, of course, last nights events pretty much cleared her... unless she had very cleverly staged it - but why would she give Jack the book? She had to be innocent, Jack thought, hoping his confidence in her innocence was because of the clues and evidence and not because of his feelings towards her.
Jack felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, if she was innocent, then her life could be in serious danger.
Jack’s cell phone rang in his hand, startling him. He whipped it open, hoping it was Lexy.
“Jack! I hope you can help me... I’m worried about Lexy!”
“Mona?” Jack recognized Nan’s voice.
“Yes, it’s me. I think she may have gone off and done something stupid.” Jack could hear the worry in Mona’s voice.
“Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.” Jack felt his heart clench.
“She was over here this morning. She found a button on her floor last night and assumed it was from whoever knocked her out so she came over to show it to us.” Mona paused taking a deep, shaky breath.
“Go on.” Jack knew there must be more to the story to get Mona so upset.
“Then, we were watching the tv when she suddenly announced she knew who the killer was and ran out!”
“Did she say where she was going? Or who she thought the killer was?”
“No, I tried to stop her but she was determined. I’m worried, I think she may be going to confront the killer herself!” Jack heard Mona’s voice rise in panic.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find her.” Jack said, struggling to keep his voice calm to stop the older woman from worrying. “I’ll call you back as soon as I have her safe... you just sit tight, OK?”
“OK, thank you, Jack.”
Jack snapped the phone shut. Where could she have gone?
He remembered the police car he had assigned to her - were they still following her? He opened his phone punching the speed dial for the station with shaky fingers.
“Hi, this is Jack.. is that car still assigned to Lexy Baker?”
“No, we only had it booked for overnight.” Jack felt his heart plummet. “But we do have some news on the notebook you brought in.”
“Spill it.”
“Moe’s been able to decipher a little of it and all things point to our number one suspect.”
“So, you think our theory was correct. Kevin caught him embezzling then started blackmailing him and was killed because of it?”
“Looks that way. But we still need something more concrete to arrest him.”
Jack’s mind flashed on what Mona had said about Lexy finding a button. “Let me call you back in a minute. I think I might have just what we need.”
Jack looked through his recent calls, finding the one from Mona, he punched the button to call her back.
“Hi Mona, it’s Jack ... you said you were watching something on tv when Lexy announced she knew who the killer was, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Do you remember what you were watching?”
“Of course, it was Kevin’s brother Jason .. you know he’s the deputy mayor, right? Well anyway, he was on tv announcing something.”
Bingo!
“OK, thanks. I’ll call you soon.” Jack assured Mona, then disconnected the call and pressed the button to dial the station again.
“I have the hard evidence - a button from the killers jacket. Can we get a car out there right away?” Jack felt his heart beating faster. Lexy could be confronting the killer right now. Either way he was going there, but he’d feel a lot more confident if he had the whole police department behind him.
“Yep, I’ll put out the call right away. We’ll be ready to roll in about 10 minutes.” Jack felt a sigh of relief escape his lips. He snapped the phone shut and ran for his car.
Chapter Fifteen
Jason ushered Lexy hurriedly into the house, casting a glance outside before shutting the door.
“I knew you would come to me ... you didn’t tell anyone else did you?”
“No, of course not.” Lexy mentally crossed her fingers. She wanted Jason to feel like she was “on his side” so he’d be more apt to talk.
“Do you have the notebook?” Jason’s stared at Lexy - she noticed his eyes were rimmed in red, his face wore a stubble of beard which was uncustomary for the clean cut politician.
Lexy took a few steps back. She reached into her purse, pulling out the book. She could feel her heart pounding with fear that Jason would know it wasn’t the real one. Her eye started to twitch and she hoped the nervous reaction didn’t give her away.
Jason ran his hands through his already unkempt hair, messing it up even more. “I can’t believe Kevin did this to me. You understand why I had to do it, right? I did it for us.”
Us? He must be delusional, Lexy thought. She gave what she hoped looked like an understanding nod of her head.
“I guess we have a lot in common - first Kevin betrays you and then me. But now we can be together, we can go anywhere we want with the money. I know you want to be together as badly as I do.”
Go anywhere together? Lexy felt adrenalin cursing through her veins - her flight reflexes ready to kick into gear. She knew Jason had wanted to be more than friends but she’d never given him any indication she wanted that too.
“The money? You mean from the bridge project?” She probed, trying to get him to come out and say it so she could have it on tape. To her frustration, Jason merely nodded.
She tried another angle of attack. “How did Kevin find out about it?”
“It was my damn assistant, Sheila! She noticed a discrepancy in one of the financial reports that came through my office. She dug further into it and then told Kevin what she had found.” He snorted out a laugh. “Of course, the jerk figured out a way to use the information to make money. I wanted to fire her, but they had me over a barrel. I got her in the end though, It was Shiela who delivered the fatal cupcakes to Kevin!” He gave a full out laugh which ended in a high pitched, hysterical note.
Great, he’s delusional and deranged.
“Jason, why did you use my cupcakes to poison him? Surely you could have found some other food to put it in.”
“Ah... that was the brilliant part of my plan. With the history between the two of you, I knew poisoning him with your cupcakes would throw them off my track while they investigated you. Plus, it was a little insurance policy to make sure you would go away with me.” He eyed her up and down. “Just in case you resisted, I knew you wouldn’t want to stay here and face jail time.”
Lexy could only shake her head at his faulty logic. The man clearly needed dating advice if he thought setting her up for murder was a way to make her want to run away with him.
Jason continued on, unaware that Lexy was edging her way towards the door. “Kevin was so cocky, so sure of himself. Threatening to turn me in. I mean I’m his brother for crying out lout!”
“Turn you in with the information in the book?” Lexy asked, still holding it.
“Yes, of course.” Jasons eyes narrowed to slits. “Wait a minute - let me see what’s in there.”
Lexy tried to pull the book out of his reach, bu
t he was too fast, grabbing it roughly out of her hands. He opened the book. Her heart clenched in terror. Lexy could see his face growing redder as he realized he’d been duped.
‘You bitch!” he screamed. “You tricked me - just like Kevin!”
Lexy’s brain was screaming for her to run but her legs felt like tree trunks rooted to the spot. Jason’s eyes were wild, his face a mask of rage.
“No one crosses me,” he sputtered. “You saw what happened to Kevin when he tried it - he got his and now you’ll get yours too!
Jason lunged for Lexy, wrapping his hands around her throat. Squeezing with all his might. Lexy tried to fend him off, but her air supply was dwindling, stars swam before her eyes. Everything was starting to turn black. She thought of Nans and Sprinkles. What would they do without her?
Jason’s face, only inches from hers, was screwed up in anger as he focused his energy on choking the life out of her. With one last burst of strength, she reached into her purse. Her hand closed on a round cylinder. She brought her hand up in between their faces, pressed the button on the cylinder and sprayed.
Lexy heard Jason scream, then felt him release his hold on her neck. She slumped to the floor gasping for air but finding only the heavy mist of pepper spray which her lungs violently coughed out again.
Hearing a thunderous crash and the sound of splintering wood, she peered through teary eyes towards the direction of the sound just in time to see Jack and several members of the BRPD come barreling through the door with their guns drawn.
Chapter Sixteen
Lexy was sputtering and coughing, her eyes watering from the pepper spray. She felt strong arms wrap around her, pulling her to her feet.
“Lexy, are you OK?” Jack’s face was etched with lines of concern.
“I ... think ... so.” She managed to get the words out between coughs. On the other side of the room, she saw Jason face down on the floor with two detectives trying to wrestle him into handcuffs. His violent yelling and squirming wasn’t making the job easy for them.
Killer Cupcakes (A Lexy Baker Bakery Mystery) Page 6
