Lexy frowned. “No … but it must have been her.”
“Maybe it was just an unhappy coincidence,” Ruth offered.
“Is that what you were arguing about?” Davies asked Lexy.
“Yes. She’s been out to get me since she opened.” Lexy felt her anger rising again. “I mean just look at how she made her bakery the same colors and design as mine … the sign is almost the same and she’s been undercutting my prices! It just had to have been her that broke in! And can you believe she had the nerve to accuse me of trying to ruin her business?”
“The casual observer might see it that way,” Davies pointed out.
“What? Are you saying you think I’m behind all this?” Lexy asked incredulously.
Davies held her hand up to ward off Lexy’s anger. “I said the casual observer. If you think about it logically, you have a solid motive because her business is a threat to yours. So, since she has an alibi for the break-in, I should probably get one from you, too.”
“You seriously don’t think I broke into my own bakery, do you?” Lexy fumed.
“No, but it won’t hurt for you to prove you couldn’t have.” Davies whipped out her cell phone and poised her fingertips over the keypad. “So where were you that night?”
“Well, I’m sure I was home with Jack. No, wait. That was two nights ago? I went out with Cassie after work, then home with Jack.”
“Okay, great. Where did you go with Cassie? A restaurant or bar? Did anyone see you?”
Lexy’s top teeth worried her bottom lip. She was starting to regret the dumpster dive—now she was getting even deeper into the lie and that was never a good thing.
“We went to The Glenview for dinner.” Lexy grimaced at the high pitch of her voice. She’d have to remember to get her story straight with Cassie. Of course, she probably should come clean about where they really were, but that would make her look guilty for sure. “We didn’t see anyone we know there though.”
“Did you pay with a credit card? We could verify it that way.”
“No, we paid in cash.” Lexy absently wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.
Davies sighed. “Okay, well that doesn’t give me much to go on, but at least I can find out when you got home from Jack. If only I could narrow down what time the break-in happened, that would make it so much easier.”
“I can’t believe my shop was broken in to and now I’m the suspect,” Lexy said.
“You’re not a suspect,” Davies answered. “I’m just covering all the angles. You must admit you do seem to have quite the adversarial relationship with Ms. Brewster.”
“Well, she’s not very easy to get along with,” Lexy said.
“Yeah, I know.” Davies slid her gaze across the street. “She got on my bad side too, remember? Honestly, I would be happy to discover it was her, but I have to work with the facts.”
“Right. Sorry. I guess this sewer business has me all worked up.” Lexy gestured toward the torn up sidewalk. “No one can even get to my shop and she’s getting all the business.”
“Hang in there. The sewer work should be all tied up the day after tomorrow. I hear they have a mandate to finish it before the practice parade on Friday night.” Davies made to leave, reached for the doorknob, then turned back. “If you think of anything else that might shed light on the robbery, let me know.”
With a jingle of the bells over the door, the detective disappeared out onto the street.
“Well that sure is strange,” Nans said.
“What? That her alibi checks out?” Lexy asked.
“Yes. Did you ever think maybe it isn’t her doing all this?”
Lexy shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. It has to be her. I found her ring right in the pile of recipes!”
“Lexy’s right,” Ida chimed in. “She has a strong motive. Besides if it’s not her, who else would go to all this trouble … and why?”
Chapter Ten
The next day, Lexy got to the bakery early to work on another variation of the scone recipe. She avoided the morning paper because she didn’t want to see the review from Edgar Royce.
The morning had been productive with Cassie helping her to bake a batch of cupcakes, chocolate cream pies and Snickerdoodles in-between waiting on customers and chatting. They were just now getting around to trying out the scone recipe variation.
“I don’t know how she could have tampered with that scone,” Cassie said as she rolled dough onto the marble counter.
“I know. None of the other scones had hair on them. It’s just so strange.” Lexy broke and separated an egg, expertly pouring the white into a small bowl, then added a dash of cream and started beating it with a fork. “Unless she broke in. The scones were sitting out in the case all night.”
Cassie cut the dough carefully into triangles. “But the bakery was locked up tight as a drum the next morning, right? How would she pick the right piece to sabotage, anyway?”
“I know. Only one piece had the hair on it.” Lexy brushed the egg white mixture over each triangle of dough then sprinkled a cinnamon and sugar mixture on top.
“It’s strange that the contaminated piece ended up being the exact piece you gave Edgar Royce.”
“Very.” An image of Victor’s cat came to mind. Had she been petting the cat before or after she served Edgar? Was it possible the cat hair had been on her sleeve and she had actually been the one to contaminate the piece?
Lexy’s stomach twisted—it couldn’t be. She tried to be so careful about stuff like that. “Maybe someone paid him off to plant it himself?”
Cassie scrunched up her face. “I doubt it. I don’t think someone like him would take a payoff. People like that have to work too hard to build up their reputation.”
“True.” Lexy said as Cassie picked up the pan with the scones and headed to the oven.
“Oh, and one other thing,” Lexy said. “We need to get our stories straight about the night of the break-in. Davies asked where I was. I told her that you and I were at The Glenview. Just in case she asks.”
Cassie cocked an eyebrow at Lexy. “Jeez, now you want me to lie to the police?”
Lexy flushed. “Well, we can’t very well tell her we were hanging around Caraleigh’s dumpster!”
“I know. No problem. I have lots of practice lying to the police.”
Lexy laughed. Cassie had always been a bit on the wild side and never trusted anyone in authority, including the police. In their younger days, she’d been in quite a few scrapes, which had necessitated not being truthful to law enforcement on several occasions. The irony of Cassie being happily married to a police detective now was not lost on Lexy.
The bell on the front door jingled. To Lexy’s delight, the day had brought a slow but steady trickle of customers and she and Cassie had taken turns waiting on them. It was Lexy’s turn now. She peeled off the clear, thin food service gloves she’d worn to apply the cinnamon mixture and tossed them in the trash as she headed to the front of the bakery.
Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen looked up from where they stood in front of the bakery case.
“Morning Lexy,” they said in unison.
“Morning ladies. What can I get you?”
“Do we dare try the scones?” Ida twittered and then blanched at Lexy’s withering look. “Sorry dear, of course we’ll have a scone. Make that two scones each—we’ll take the second one home with us.”
Lexy dished out the scones while the women helped themselves to coffee from the self-serve station. They settled into their favorite table with a large pile of napkins. Lexy watched in amusement as each of them unfolded one large napkin, placed a scone in the middle, then folded the edges around the scone to wrap it in a tight package they then shoved into their giant patent leather purses.
Placing the purses on the backs of their chairs, they dug into the scones on the plates in front of them.
“Lexy, did you remember those newspapers from Jack’s?” Nans asked.
“Yes, I
have them right here.” Lexy picked the stack of yellowed papers from the corner and brought them over to the table.
“Oh, there’s quite a lot of them,” Nans said.
“I think the whole year is here.” Ruth pushed her plate aside and pulled the stack of papers in front of her. She divided the stack into four equal piles, then handed each lady a pile, keeping one for herself.
Each unfolded her paper carefully and set about looking through it in between nibbles of scone and sips of coffee.
“Look at these ads for hats!” Nans angled her paper so everyone could see the black and white drawings of 1940s style women’s hats.
“Imagine having to wear a fancy hat every day,” Ida twittered.
“I know!” Helen said. “Back then people did dress much nicer, though.”
“Yep. Every day clothing back then would be considered formal now. Women in dresses, men in suits. It was the norm back then.” Ruth held up her paper showing an old black and white photograph of downtown Brook Ridge Falls with people dressed in 1940s fashions.
“Hold on girls.” Ida grabbed onto Nans’ arm. “I think I’ve hit the mother lode.”
Lexy and the three other ladies turned questioning looks on her. She slid the paper toward them. “This issue is full of articles on the 1948 robbery!”
“Let me see.” Nans reached over toward the paper. “Are there any photographs of the gangsters?”
“Yeah. Pictures of the perps would sure liven up our display,” Ruth said.
“Yes! Here’s one of Midas Mulcahey.” Ida laid the paper flat on the table, tapping her index finger on the faded picture of a man.
Lexy squinted down at the picture. “That’s pretty faded. You can barely make him out.”
“Wait a minute.” The tone of Nans’ voice made Lexy’s stomach tighten. “Is that what I think it is?”
Ida dug a large magnifying glass out of her purse and placed it over the picture. Four gray heads bent down to look through the glass.
“It is!” Nans said. “Midas Mulcahey had two gold front teeth—just like the skull they dug up from the sewer.”
Chapter Eleven
Lexy stared wide-eyed at Nans. “You think that skull is the gangster Midas Mulcahey?”
“Sure.” Nans nodded. “How many people do you know who have two gold teeth? Says right here those teeth are what gave him the nickname Midas.”
Ida glanced out the window. “I wonder how long he’s been down there.”
“According to what we’ve read in the research, he disappeared right after the bank robbery,” Ruth said. “I just assumed he ran off somewhere to spend the money.”
“Yeah, I bet everyone did.” Lexy followed Ida’s gaze.
“But he was here in town the whole time,” Helen said.
“Do you think he hid the money down in the sewers?” Cassie had come out from the back room just in time to overhear the news about Midas.
“I can’t think of a better place to hide it,” Nans said.
“I bet someone killed him for it! Probably one of the other gangsters.” Ida stabbed her finger toward the article in the paper that named the alleged bank robbers.
“Boots Bennett and someone named The Bomb,” Lexy said. “Seems like it would be hard to track them down with just those nick-names to go on.”
“And don’t forget about the woman … Rose somebody,” Ruth added.
“If we could track them down, we might be able to learn what happened.” Nans pressed her lips together. “One of them is probably the killer.”
“And they probably took off with all the loot,” Helen added.
“We don’t know that for sure.” Ida’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “The money could still be down there.”
“Either way, now there’s even more of a reason for us to go down in the old sewer system,” Nans said.
“That’s right.” Ruth shoved the newspapers aside, bent down and picked up the rolled up sewer plans from where she had put them next to her chair. “We can solve the mystery of the robbery, find out what happened to Midas, and maybe even recover the stolen money!”
“Yes, there might still be a reward to recover it.” Nans lowered her voice to a whisper. “So let’s not tell anyone what we’ve discovered.”
“Not a soul,” Ruth said. The others nodded in agreement and crossed their hearts as they folded up the old newspapers, put them in a tidy pile in the corner and covered them with their coats.
“Teddy Mokewitz told me that, in addition to the manhole covers, some of the old mill buildings had access to the sewer channels.” Helen pushed her glasses up on her nose. “So we should be aware of that while reviewing these plans.”
“Oh, darn. Here comes that Victor guy again.” Ida frowned out the window.
“Probably coming over to see Helen.” Nans giggled.
Helen scowled at Nans.
“Remember, don’t tell him about the newspapers,” Ruth whispered as the door jingled open.
Victor looked around the bakery, his face lighting up as his eyes came to rest on Nans and the ladies at their usual table. “I see my favorite girls are here.”
The ladies, polite as ever, smiled and nodded.
“Hi Victor,” Cassie said. “Here for your morning muffin?”
Victor smiled. “Yes. Do you have any blueberry today?”
“Of course.” Cassie got behind one of the bakery cases and took out a tray loaded with muffins. “Any muffin in particular?”
“No, you pick,” Victor answered from the coffee station where he was pouring a hazelnut coffee into one of the to-go cups. He paid, took the muffin from Cassie and then came over to the table where, much to the obvious dismay of the ladies, he pulled a seat up next to Helen.
“I see you are you still going over those sewer plans,” he said taking a sip from the paper coffee cup.
“Oh, we’re just fooling around,” Nans said. “We really can’t go down in there. It wouldn’t be prudent; especially at our age. Isn’t that right girls?”
Ida, Helen and Ruth nodded.
Victor narrowed his eyes at Nans. “Really? I thought you girls were the adventurous types what with your detective agency and all.”
“We prefer to do our detecting on the computer and on paper.” Nans pointed to the blueprints. “We rarely go out in the field.”
“I see.” Victor turned to Lexy. “Did I see you having another run-in with the other baker?”
Lexy looked across the street. Just the thought of the other baker was enough to make her blood boil. She took a deep breath, willing herself to remain calm. “Yes I did. I think she is trying to sabotage me.”
“Why do you say that?” Victor’s voice rose as he spoke and Lexy thought she heard a hint of something. Alarm? Concern? She wasn’t sure which.
“Edgar Royce, the food critic, was in here yesterday and somehow he got a contaminated scone. I just know she was behind it.”
Victor nodded. “She’s not to be trusted. She’s doing something suspicious over there. Can’t you get your new husband to investigate or shut her down?”
Lexy wished she could. The truth was, Jack didn’t seem to be interested in what the other bakery was doing or why they were doing it. Besides, he was too honest to play favorites.
“If only. But don’t worry. I’m sure the police will figure out what she’s up to.” Lexy wished she felt as confident as she sounded.
“Well I hope so—we don’t need the likes of her messing things up here.” Victor stood. “My offer is still open. If you ladies decide to venture into the sewer, or go on any other type of adventure, I would love to accompany you.”
“Thanks. We’ll keep you in mind.” Nans plastered a smile on her face as Victor turned to leave.
“Phew, I was afraid he was going to stay all afternoon,” Ida said as soon as he was out the door.
“Me too,” Helen added. “I wish he would stop offering to come with us as if we need a man around. We can certainly handle a
little sewer excursion all on our own.”
“Of course we can!” Nans said.
“Right on,” Ida added.
“Men!” This from Ruth who stood to bend over the blueprints.
Lexy admired the old ladies’ spunk, but she had to admit she didn’t share their confidence about going down in the sewer. The odds were slim the money was still down there and it could be dangerous. Jack had said the whole thing could flood or crumble. Any clues to the decades-old robbery were probably long gone, anyway. She hoped they didn’t find another access into the sewer. If they did, she’d have to come up with some way to talk them out of going in.
“You were right yesterday, Mona,” Ruth said to Nans. “There was one section of blueprint missing.”
“I knew it!” Nans’ triumph was short-lived. “But that means we won’t be able to look everywhere. It would be just our luck the entrance we need is on the missing blueprint.”
“Well, then you’re going to owe me something extra in my Christmas stocking.” Ruth’s eyes twinkled as she reached under her chair. “Because I went down to the town hall earlier today and got the missing blueprint.”
“They had it?” Nans asked.
“Well, not the actual print. Meredith ran this one off from a microfiche picture,” Ruth answered. “It’s rather strange. She thinks the last person to look at the hard copy of blueprints stole that page.”
Lexy’s forehead creased. “Why would anyone do that?”
Ruth shrugged. “Beats me.”
Nans straightened in her chair. “Isn’t it obvious? They didn’t want anyone else to see what was on the blueprint.”
“Why not?” Helen paused, holding the scone halfway to her mouth.
“Because they’re onto the bank robbery loot, same as we are.”
Ida gasped. “You mean we have competition?”
“It would seem that way,” Nans replied.
“But who?” Helen asked. “Who else could have possibly figured this out?”
Nans shrugged. “Anyone who saw them pull the skull up and knew about Midas Mulcahey.”
8 Scones, Skulls & Scams Page 6
