Bake, Battle & Roll (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery)

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Aha! So she was out there,” Helen said.

  “Well, she said she was in the freezer. The freezer door is next to the door that leads outside. I didn’t actually see her open either of the doors.” Lexy shrugged.

  “But she could be lying,” Nans pointed out.

  “Sounds like we’ll have to do some digging to see if anyone besides Sylvia would have had motive.” Ida picked up the iPad and powered it on. “Are there any surveillance cameras in the kitchen? Ones we could use to see exactly where Sylvia did go?”

  “I don’t think so. The kitchen is pretty old and low tech. But I can ask Thomas, he might have seen where she went,” Lexy offered.

  “What about the murder weapon?” Ruth asked.

  “It was a standard chef’s knife,” Lexy said. “Thankfully all of mine are accounted for, plus the handle on that knife was different from mine.”

  “Yours are accounted for, but were anyone else’s missing?” Nans wrinkled her brow at Lexy.

  “I don’t know.” Lexy bit her lip trying to picture the kitchen. Most of the chefs had their own personal set of knives, too bad she hadn’t thought to look to see if anyone was missing one.

  “You should check that out tomorrow,” Ruth said. “In the meantime, we’ll see what we can dig up online about Chef Dugasse and ask around about any potential enemies.”

  “What did you think of the detective in charge of the case?” Nans turned to Lexy.

  Lexy made a face. “Not much. He seemed more interested in eating pie than finding the killer … which he seemed convinced might be me.”

  “Well, don’t you worry. We’ll find the real killer in no time, isn’t that right, girls?” Nans turned to Ida, Ruth and Helen who all nodded.

  Lexy stared at the four women, their cheeks flushed with excitement. She had to hand it to them. They were in their 80s and still sharp as a tack. With several successful investigations under their belts, they’d had great success solving murders back home. They’d even given themselves a name—The Ladies Detective Club.

  Lexy felt a momentary pang when she realized this was supposed to be a vacation for them and she was causing them to have to work when they should be relaxing on the beach.

  “I really appreciate you guys doing this, but I don’t want to ruin your vacation,” Lexy said taking her tea cup to the sink.

  The ladies looked at each other and Nans spoke. “Don’t be silly. Vacations are nice and all, but to tell you the truth, we were getting kind of bored.”

  “Yeah, we need to keep our brains active,” Ruth said.

  “Who wants to lay on the beach when we could be tracking down a killer?” Ida rubbed her hands together.

  “That’s right,” Helen said. “Now you run along and let us get to work.”

  Lexy felt her shoulders relax. She smiled at the women. “Thanks, I do feel a lot better knowing you guys are on the case.”

  She was in the middle of hugging them when the chirping of birds erupted from her pocket. She dug out her cell phone and her heart clenched. It was Jack.

  She’d been dreading explaining the morning’s events to him. He took a dim view of her getting mixed up in murder cases, and they’d had more than one fight over her investigating cases with Nans and the Ladies Detective Club. This time she was going to have to put her foot down.

  She was a prime suspect and didn’t want to depend on the bumbling Detective Payne to find the real killer. She hated to do anything that would jeopardize her vacation with Jack … or their engagement … but she was determined to investigate this one with Nans and the ladies, whether Jack wanted her to nor not.

  Chapter Four

  “… and I seem to be the prime suspect.” Lexy studied Jack’s handsome face as she steeled herself for a lecture on the dangers of getting involved in murder investigations.

  She felt her brows knit together as Jack smiled at her. He’d listened patiently while she’d relayed the morning’s events, including the part about how Nans had turned her cottage into a crime investigation center. She’d expected him to be mad, but he was sitting there as calm as could be, changing out the reels on his fishing pole.

  “So, you don’t trust this detective … what’s his name?” Jack asked.

  “Payne. Do you know him?”

  As a homicide detective himself, Jack knew a lot of the other detectives in the state. Lexy was hoping that if Jack knew Payne, he might be able to get some information on the investigation.

  Jack shook his head. “Never heard of him. But if you and Nans are on the case, I’m sure you’ll ferret out the real killer.”

  Lexy stared at him. “You’re not mad?”

  “Why would I be mad?”

  Lexy narrowed her eyes. “Usually you get mad when I get involved in these types of things with Nans.”

  Jack put down his fishing rod and came over to her, putting his hands on her upper arms.

  “Lexy, I’ve come to realize that you’re going to do what you are going to do no matter what I say. I can’t fight it. So, I’ll just have to trust that you won’t do anything dangerous.” He put his thumb on her chin, tilting her face up to look at him. “Right?”

  “Right.” Her heart melted at the look of concern in his eyes. He bent his head, brushing his lips against hers and her stomach flip-flopped. She snaked her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him.

  “Woof!”

  Her dog, Sprinkles, jumped at her leg, stealing her attention from Jack. Lexy reluctantly released Jack and bent down to pet the little dog who was pawing at her calf.

  “Hi Sprinkles. You want to go for a walk?”

  The dog barked, jumped in the air and spun around.

  “I guess that’s a yes.” Jack laughed. “Let’s leash her up and take her out. I have a few hours before evening fishing.”

  Lexy crossed their small cabin and picked Sprinkles’ harness and leash off the hook by the door, then put them on the small white dog which was quite a feat considering that Sprinkles was wiggling and jumping the whole time.

  “Where do you want to go?” Jack asked.

  “Well, if you don’t mind, I wanted to check out the trails behind the dining hall. Payne thinks the killer was someone in the kitchen, but the murderer could have come from one of those trails. There are several that lead right to the dumpster area.”

  “So you’re thinking Dugasse might have had a rendezvous with someone, or he was lured back there?” Jack opened the cottage door for Lexy and Sprinkles tugged her outside.

  “Exactly.” Lexy’s heart soared. Jack seemed eager to help with the case which was a huge win for both the case and their relationship.

  “Okay, let’s take this trail.” Jack indicated a trail next to their cottage that led up the hill and Lexy started toward it.

  Sprinkles led the way, prancing eagerly up the path, stopping every so often to sniff something. Lexy was grateful for the tall pine trees that provided a cool respite from the hot afternoon sun. She breathed in the thick woodsy smell, watching the chipmunks scurry through the leaves. Her flip flops slapped the backs of her heels as they navigated the path.

  She’d walked this path before, but she’d never really paid attention. She looked at the slats of sunlight that filtered through the trees and realized the whole forest was a warren of trails.

  “There’s so many paths, the killer could have taken any of them.”

  “True, but the trick is finding which one is most likely. That’s assuming the killer did use one of the trails to make his getaway.”

  “Well, what do you think? If this was your investigation, what would you do?”

  “The paths are one angle to investigate. But I’d start where I always do—with the family.” Jack glanced at Lexy. “Did Dugasse have a wife?”

  “I’m not sure.” Lexy pursed her lips trying to remember if she’d ever heard of a wife or any other family.

  “Well, if he did, that’s a good place to start. Then find out if he had any enemie
s, look into his finances. That’s all pretty standard, I’m sure Nans has that covered.” Jack smiled down at her.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, stopping with Sprinkles whenever she found something interesting to sniff or wanted to mark her territory. Lexy wondered how the dog seemed to have an endless supply for territory marking.

  Lexy could see a small clearing up ahead. “Isn’t that the dining hall?”

  “Yeah, let’s check it out.”

  Lexy turned in that direction and Sprinkles was only too happy to lead the way, her nose twitching in the air as she smelled the aroma of roasting meat from the kitchen.

  Lexy stopped at the head of the path. She could see the dumpster about twenty feet away, roped off by yellow crime scene tape.

  “So, that’s the scene of the crime,” Jack said it as a statement.

  “Yeah, he was lying right there.” Lexy shivered and Jack put his arm around her.

  “I’m sorry you had to find him like that. It must have been awful for you.”

  Lexy shrugged. “Well, it wasn’t fun, but I guess I must be getting used to finding bodies since it didn’t affect me nearly as much as the others.”

  Jack cocked an eyebrow at her but didn’t say anything.

  Lexy looked around the area where four paths met. “So, Detective … which path is the most likely?”

  “Well, the path we just came on leads out to the street near our cottage. The killer could have run down the path and no one would have noticed.” He pointed to the path across from them. “That one goes parallel to the parking lot, I think.”

  “Yes, and you can see most of it from there, so the killer probably didn’t take that one. Plus you have to go past the kitchen door and someone would have probably noticed him.”

  “That leaves these two paths here.” Jack pointed to two trails that forked off deeper into the woods.

  “I don’t know where those go. Should we take one?”

  “Well, if I was running the investigation, I’d have my people scouring each path for evidence.” Jack frowned at the crime scene tape over by the dumpster. “But it looks like Payne is only searching the dumpster area.”

  Lexy’s brows knit together. It seemed like Payne wasn’t even covering the basics. Another reason to investigate it herself.

  “Do you know if he had his people look at the paths?” Jack asked.

  “I don’t know but I can ask around. Maybe I will suggest it to him.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that will impress him,” Jack said dryly, then started down one of the paths. “Let’s take this one and see where it leads. Keep a close eye on the ground and see if you can pick out anything unusual.”

  “Unusual? Like what?”

  “A button, a scrap of paper, a shoe print. Anything that wouldn’t naturally be there.”

  Lexy followed him down the path. She stared at the ground looking for a clue which was difficult with Sprinkles pulling her this way and that. After a few minutes, they came to a dead end.

  Lexy’s stomach dropped.

  “That’s it? The path just ends?” She looked around for another path, but found only thick woods—too thick to walk through.

  “I guess the killer wouldn’t have taken this one.” Jack shrugged and started back the way they had come.

  “If he did take a path, then it must have been the fourth one,” Lexy said.

  Jack stopped and looked at his watch. “Maybe, but I need to get back and get my fishing gear ready to go fishing this evening. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to walk that path alone this close to dusk. Maybe we could walk it another time?”

  Lexy felt her back go stiff, her shoulders tense. She hated being told what to do, but Jack was right. It probably wasn’t smart to follow the path a killer might have taken alone.

  Jack pulled her over to him. His right hand massaged her neck, melting all the tension she had felt a moment ago.

  “Besides…” His left hand traced the waistband of her shorts. She sucked in a breath, her stomach tingling as he pulled the shorts away from her stomach just an inch and peered down. “I was hoping to get a look at your tan lines before I head out.”

  Chapter Five

  Lexy woke up early the next day. She had to make five batches of brownies and several dozen cannoli and she wanted to get a head start. Plus she wanted to get in early to get a good look at the knife situation.

  She entered by the dining hall front door, then went through the double stainless steel doors that separated the dining room from the kitchen. The doors opened to the end of the kitchen opposite from her baking station. Taking her time walking down the middle, she glanced around at each chef’s station feeling more disappointed the further she went. It looked like all the knives were in place.

  Donning her apron, she gathered, flour, cocoa, eggs, salt, vanilla, sugar and butter and brought them over to the giant mixer on the counter. Unlike her bakery where she usually made small batches, the dining hall was setup to feed large groups of people at once. The kitchen was used for cooking in bulk and she could mix gigantic batches, then pour several pans of brownies and bake them at once.

  Deena came in just as Lexy was measuring the last of the ingredients into the gigantic mixing bowl.

  “Is that for the brownies?” Deena stood on her tiptoes to peer into the bowl.

  “Yep. I came in a little early to get things started.” Lexy turned on the mixer. “But this will work out good because we can put the brownies in the oven and then get straight to work on showing you how to roll the cannoli shells.”

  Lexy felt a smile tug the corners of her mouth when she saw the teen’s eyes light up. She remembered back to when her biggest worry was learning to roll the thin pastry correctly, unlike today when she had to worry about things like being arrested for a murder she didn’t commit.

  Lexy checked the mixer to make sure everything was mixed thoroughly. The smell of chocolate wafted up and her stomach nagged her that she hadn’t eaten breakfast. She shut the mixer off and wrestled the bowl out of the stand.

  “I’ll pour and you can hold the pans.”

  Deena grabbed the side of an oversized brownie pan while Lexy struggled with the heavy bowl, somehow managing to pour the batter in without dropping the whole thing. They repeated the process for four other pans, then Deena ran them to the oven which Lexy had already preheated.

  Lexy turned toward the fridge, intending to get the cannoli dough she had made the day before and bumped right into Thomas.

  “Oh, sorry—I didn’t see you.” She put her hand on his arm to steady herself. “I hope you are doing okay after … you know … yesterday.”

  “Oh yeah. That was disturbing.” The young man stepped back from Lexy, his eyes darting around the kitchen.

  “Yes. Well, chef didn’t have any right to yell at you like that.”

  Thomas' face turned red. “Surely, you don’t think that I … I—”

  “Of course not.” Lexy interrupted him. “I know you didn’t even leave the kitchen. But I was wondering …”

  Thomas raised his brows at her.

  Lexy leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. “Did you see where Sylvia went after she talked to you?”

  Thomas wrinkled his face, sucking in his bottom lip and running his teeth over it. “I don’t remember. I don’t think I was watching her … I was too busy trying to get more eggs made for breakfast.”

  “Oh. Okay, thanks,” Lexy said.

  Thomas nodded and scurried off. Lexy continued on to the fridge. She let out a sigh as she searched for the dough. If Thomas didn’t see where Sylvia went maybe someone else did. But who?

  Deena was waiting at the table when Lexy returned with two balls of dough. She handed one to the teen. They floured the table and their rolling pins, then started rolling the dough.

  “You didn’t happen to notice where Sylvia went yesterday … after that whole incident with Thomas, did you?” Lexy asked.

  Deena stopped rolling,
her brow creased in concentration. “No, I wasn’t looking that way. But I think my friend Jules was over near there. I can ask her if you want.”

  “That would be great.” Lexy felt her heartbeat pick up speed a notch. She remembered being a teen and how they used to gossip about everything going on in the kitchen. The teen network here could be a valuable resource and she had an “in” with Deena. “Actually anything you can find out about that day … or Chef Dugasse would be helpful.”

  “Okay, sure. I’ll ask around.” Deena looked up from rolling the dough and whispered, “On the sly.”

  “Thanks,” Lexy said, giving her dough one final pass with the rolling pin.

  “I like to roll the dough about one eighth inch thick.” Lexy held up the edge of her dough as an example. “That will make the shells nice and crispy.”

  Deena nodded rolling her dough to the same thickness.

  “Okay, good.” Lexy grabbed a round stainless steel cookie cutter from a drawer and handed it to Deena. “Now cut the dough with this … that will make the shells.”

  Deena pressed the cookie cutter into the dough, cut a circle, then placed it down again as close to the previous cut as possible so as to make the most use of the dough they had rolled out. Lexy felt a swell of pride—she’d taught her well.

  Lexy cracked an egg into a little bowl and beat it with a metal whisk, then added a teaspoon of water and beat it some more. She grabbed the cannoli form—a round stainless steel tube that was about one inch across.

  When Deena was done punching out the dough, Lexy picked one of the circles up.

  “Okay, this is easy. You just take the dough and wrap it around the cylinder.” She wrapped the dough so just a tiny piece of the edge overlapped.

  “Then you take the pastry brush, brush some egg wash on the edges and press them lightly together so it doesn’t come unwrapped when you fry it.” She illustrated with the brush then handed the form to Deena.

  “Now you try it,” Lexy said.

  Deena gingerly picked up a form, then a circle of dough. Lexy watched her wrap it, a little off center but still not bad for a first try. She was dipping the brush in the egg wash to help wet the edges when she heard a familiar voice behind her.