“We’re in this together now. I’m not going to abandon you.” Violet’s voice shook and Lexy thought she saw tears in the old curmudgeon’s eyes. “Why, the way you all stuck up for each other in that meeting and refused to let one person be singled out to go to jail makes me proud to be associated with you. I wish I hadn’t moved away all those years ago and had gotten to know you all better.”
“Well, you can still get to know us, dear,” Mary said. “You’re invited to our place any time you want to visit.”
“Which will be in the state penitentiary if we don’t get Binder this evidence he wants,” Ron said dryly.
“And that brings us back to the question.” Floyd put his coffee mug on the table and sat back in his chair. “Just how are we going to do that?”
Nans pressed her lips together. “We need something from back then. Something we can tie to the murder that will point to another person.”
“A scapegoat?” Violet asked.
“Yes,” Nans answered. “But not some innocent, unsuspecting person—a criminal—someone who deserves to get blamed for being an assassin.”
“And someone who is dead with no chance of proving their innocence,” Violet added.
“That sounds great,” Paddy said. “But where are we going to find physical evidence linking to Earl’s murder?”
“Don’t worry,” Nans said, “I think I have an idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The next day, Lexy stood in the front room of The Cup and Cake, eyeing the plate of meringue cookies nervously. She was supposed to be working on perfecting her recipe for the dessert contest, but instead, she was waiting for Nans to pick her up for the trip to the police station.
With a sigh, she poured some hot water into a mug and dunked a chamomile tea pouch into the steaming water. It had been a harrowing morning. Ruth, Ida and Helen had marched in with their noses still out of joint about missing the meeting at the police station the day before. They couldn’t understand why Davies hadn’t invited them.
It had taken Lexy two hours and over a dozen pastries to soothe their ruffled feathers and they’d finally calmed down while Lexy filled them in on the exact details of the meeting.
They’d been shocked to find out the real truth, and even more shocked to hear Lexy say she thought Violet wasn’t all that bad.
“Not that bad?” Ida’s blue eyes looked like a storm at sea. “You just wait and see. I wouldn’t trust her. You’ll find out tomorrow at the dessert contest.”
The three women had bustled out to go to hair appointments, leaving Lexy on her own. She tapped her finger impatiently against her teacup and worried what Violet might do at the dessert contest as she waited for Nans.
A blur of red whipped around the corner and Lexy’s eyes grew wide as Violet Switzer’s Mustang squealed to a stop in front of the bakery. The passenger door opened and Nans gingerly stepped out and opened the bakery door, her gaze scanning the room and then stopping at the stunned Lexy, still rooted in her chair.
“Oh, hi, Lexy.” Nans gestured toward the door. “Are you ready?”
“We’re going with Violet?”
“Yes, dear. Violet helped me out. I think we have just what Binder wants.” Nans winked and held the door open, gesturing for Lexy to get a move on.
“What is it?” Lexy put her teacup in the dirty cup bin and walked toward the door.
“Oh, now, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”
Lexy narrowed her eyes at Nans and then called to Cassie over her shoulder. “Cassie, I’m taking off.”
“Okay. Good luck, Mona!” Cassie’s voice rang out from the back room.
“Thanks!” Nans yelled back as she ushered Lexy outside and into the back seat of the Mustang.
Lexy settled into the soft leather and looked up to see Violet angling the rear-view mirror to look at her. Lexy stared into her piercing, blue eyes. Not twinkling blue like Nans were, though. Violet’s eyes were still and dark, like a shark.
Violet smiled, but the corners of her eyes did’t crinkle. “I just wanted to tell you, I think if you use a little bit more cream of tartar in your meringue cookies, you might have a good chance of winning the contest.”
Then she snapped the mirror back up, cut her eyes to the road, gunned the Mustang out of its parking spot and sped off toward the police station.
Violet had a lead foot and Lexy felt nauseous by the time they arrived. She wasn’t sure if it was Violet’s speed-racer driving, the fact that she’d gotten advice from her on baking, or the anticipation of what might happen if Binder didn’t buy into Nans’ evidence.
Paddy, Mary, Ron, Esther and Floyd were waiting for them in the lobby and Davies brought them to the same room they’d been in the day before. Binder was sitting at the head of the table, eyeing them curiously as they marched in and took their seats.
“So, did you find something for me?” Binder asked.
Nans produced a brown paper shopping bag and handed it to him. “I believe what you need is in here.”
Binder peered inside. His brows knit together. He reached in and pulled something out. Lexy’s stomach tightened when she recognized the red flip-flop that had been in her garage. Binder set it on the table, then pulled out another item—a black wig.
“I don’t get it. How will these help me?” he asked.
Nans looked at the others for encouragement and they nodded at her.
“I told a little lie yesterday,” Nans started.
Binder’s left brow ticked up. “Just one?”
Nans grimaced. “Well, you see, it was very confusing the night Earl died. Everything happened so fast. And it did happen the way we told you except I left one thing out.”
“Go on,” Binder prompted.
“After we dragged Earl into the basement and did some cover up, we all went back to our houses. The sun was coming up and we didn’t want neighbors who were leaving for work early to see us.”
Binder made circling motions with his finger. “… And?” He drew the word out into several syllables.
“Well, I was walking through the McDonalds’ backyard to my house when I heard something behind me. We didn’t have the fence up in those days, so our backyards were one big grassy area. Anyway, I turned to see what the noise was and it was the stranger. He had that red flip-flop and I recognized it as Earl’s. I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted with it, but I knew I didn’t want him to have it. I was afraid he was some kind of blackmailer and would use it against us. So I launched myself at him and wrestled him for it.” Nans face flushed. “I’m embarrassed to admit I was a bit of a dirty fighter back in the day, and I kicked and scratched and I might even have punched him in a place where men don’t like to be punched. Anyway, he let go of the shoe, and in the struggle, his wig came off. Then he ran away and I never saw him again.”
“So you fought with this stranger and then you never told your accomplices?” Binder said pointing to the others.
“No. I didn’t want them to get upset if they knew someone had witnessed what we had done.”
“And you kept the shoe and wig all this time?”
Nans nodded. “I hid them in my garage … well, it’s Lexy’s garage now. I sold my house to her.”
Lexy’s stomach dropped. She hadn’t seen any wig in the garage with the red flip-flop. Had it been there the whole time or had Nans gotten it from someone else?”
Binder poked at the flip-flop with his pencil. “Well, this definitely looks like Earl’s missing flip-flop.”
“Maybe Blow Gun Bennie had it after he cut off Earl’s toe,” Paddy suggested.
“Maybe,” Binder said.
“He was wearing the wig,” Nans pointed at the wig. “It could have DNA evidence that might help you identify who he was.”
“Right, if this person actually was Blow Gun Bennie.” Binder sounded skeptical.
“I can’t imagine who else it could have been,” Nans said. “I mean, who else would be out there with Earl’s fl
ip flop other than the assassin?”
Binder nodded. “You have a point. I’ll get these to the lab for DNA testing.”
“And if it helps you find the assassin’s identity, will we get off on probation?” Mary asked hopefully.
Binder narrowed his eyes. “I’ll do what I can. I’ll put a rush on this. In the meantime, you people can go. But don’t go far … you’re not in the clear by any stretch of the imagination and we still have the little matter of moving a body and tampering with evidence to settle.”
***
After Binder dismissed them, the group went their separate ways. Violet dropped Lexy off at the bakery, where she tried to remain focused on perfecting the meringues recipe for the contest the next day.
Three hours into it, she was staring at her last bowl of meringue batter. She’d fiddled with the amount of vanilla extract and added just a quarter teaspoon more sugar. The addition of the sugar made her nervous, but pretty much everyone had said they needed more. Besides, could there ever be such a thing as a dessert that was too sweet?
She grabbed the piping bag, then her eye fell on the cream of tartar. Violet’s advice echoed in her head. She reluctantly added a pinch, then beat the batter until it was shiny. Finally, she folded in some miniature chocolate chips and chopped pecans, then filled the piping bag and pushed the batter out into perfectly peaked cookies, which she slid gently into the oven.
Setting the timer, she went out front to check the bakery cases and was just moving some fig squares to the top shelf when the door burst open and Nans came through, waving a paper in her hand.
“It’s over!” Nans yelled, her face flushed with excitement. “We helped the Feds solve the case!”
“You did?” Lexy’s brows dipped together. “You mean the evidence you gave Binder really panned out?”
“Yep. And he talked to Judge Hastings, who is going to give us all community service and no jail time. I need a double chocolate frosted brownie to celebrate.”
Relief flooded through Lexy as she picked the largest brownie from the case and handed it to Nans.
“Thanks!” Nans grabbed the brownie and turned to leave.
“Wait a minute.” Lexy was relieved that Nans and her neighbors weren’t going to jail, but even if the Feds were satisfied with the evidence they got, Lexy still had a lot of unanswered questions, not the least of which was how Nans’ trumped up evidence ended in them finding the real assassin. “I don’t understand. How did you manage to get that wig from the assassin? Did you really see him that night?”
Nans stopped and took a step back toward Lexy. She leaned across the bakery case and whispered In Lexy’s ear. “I never said the wig was from the actual assassin. Does it really matter? The DNA was from a deceased party who could be the assassin and the murder was decades ago. As long as an innocent person doesn’t go to jail for it, I think that’s all that matters at this point, don’t you?”
“I guess so,” Lexy said, “But where did you get a wig from a deceased assassin?”
But Nans had already turned and had made it to the door with record speed. “Sorry, I can’t stay … I gotta give the others the good news!”
And with that, she was out the door and hopping into Violet’s red Mustang.
With a shrug, Lexy turned back to the bakery case. Nans was right. After all this time, it didn’t really matter if they caught the assassin. What mattered was that Nans and her neighbors weren’t going to jail and the case was closed.
Now, Lexy could focus on winning the dessert contest. After all, she had more important things to do than find out the identity of the real assassin, didn’t she?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“So, this Binder fellow let you all off with just community service?” Ida’s eyes were wide as she studied Nans who’d just filled Ida, Ruth and Helen in on how she’d handed over the flip-flop and wig to Binder.
“Yep, he said the DNA on the wig led him to a well-known criminal.” Nans looked up at the ceiling. “Marco somebody or other.”
“But where did you get the flip-flop and the wig?” Ruth whispered, glancing around to make sure no one in the Grange Hall was seated near enough to hear.
Which they weren’t because the Grange Hall was abuzz with the activity of the Brook Ridge Falls Dessert contest and no one was paying attention to the four old ladies and Lexy who were at a table in the back. People were more interested in the judges, who sat at a long table in the front of the hall, plates filled with dessert samples in front of them. Contestants swarmed in with their entries that were placed on a table for everyone to see. The smell of sugar, cinnamon and chocolate spiced the air.
Lexy had already dropped her cookies at the table and was now dividing her attention between the judges, who were tasting the entries, and Nans and the ladies.
“I thought you made up the whole thing about the stranger,” Helen was saying.
“I did,” Nans replied in hushed tones. “I really didn’t see any stranger that night, but I did find the flip-flop. It was in the backyard between my house and the McDonalds’. It must have fallen off. I didn’t really know what to do with it, but I figured I couldn’t leave it lying outside so I hid it in the garage. Good thing, too, because it sure came in handy.”
Ruth scrunched up her face. “But there must have been a stranger because someone had to have shot that dart at Earl.”
Nans nodded. “You’re right. Someone else must have been there, but we just didn’t see him. I mean, if you were a hired assassin, you’d probably be pretty good at concealing yourself, right?”
“True.” Ruth scrunched her face in thought. “There’s one thing I was wondering, though. How did this Marco guy get that concentrated poison?”
“You mean aconite?” Helen asked. “Why, that’s easy. You can grow it right in your garden. It comes from the Wolfsbane plant. When harvested in a certain way, it can be very poisonous.”
“Oh.” Ida made a face. “Now that you mention it, I think I saw that on TV. What I don’t understand is who dug up Earl’s yard and what was buried there?”
“You mean the round holes?” Helen asked. “I was thinking about that and it reminded me of my crazy Uncle Louie who used to bury money in mason jars around his yard. He didn’t trust banks.”
“Maybe Earl buried the money from the insurance scams in his yard,” Ruth suggested. “We didn’t find any bank accounts where he deposited that money and he probably wouldn’t have trusted the bank, either.”
“Especially since he was in the witness protection program,” Helen agreed. “They probably monitor that stuff.”
“Maybe this assassin knew and dug the money up,” Ida suggested.
Ruth nodded. “It makes sense the assassin would have known. He was probably watching Earl—stalking him, you know, so he could plan a good time for the kill. The money was untraceable cash. It would have been an added bonus for killing Earl that no one would even know he had.”
“Boy, this assassin must have walked away with a windfall,” Ida exclaimed. “What with the money for killing Earl and the insurance money he dug up in the yard.”
“I’ll say.” Ruth turned to Nans. “And you say it was this Marco guy? Did the Feds check his bank accounts and find he had that insurance money? Some of that was yours, Mona, so maybe you could get it back.”
Nans waved her hand in the air. “Oh, I wouldn’t even try. I’m happy just leaving the past behind me now.”
Ida narrowed her eyes. “But I still don’t understand. Where did you get the wig?”
Nans glanced around uneasily. “Oh, well, I really can’t say about that.”
Lexy eyed her grandmother curiously. “But how did you guys get the wig to have DNA samples from this mobster?”
Nans gave Lexy her most innocent look. “I really don’t know. My source has connections and they wouldn’t tell me much more.”
“And he really was the killer?” Ida asked.
Nans shrugged. “I’m not sure. He’s be
en dead for years and he was a hired killer, but as to whether or not he was Earl’s killer, I don’t know. But what does it matter? That’s old history now.”
“What I don’t understand is why the Feds didn’t think one of you guys was the assassin,” Helen said.
“They checked us all out, and since we’d all lived in town long before Earl came along, and none of us had traveled on the dates of other killings, they knew it wasn’t us,” Nans replied.
“Well, they must not have checked very hard,” Ida said.
Nans looked puzzled. “Why do you say that?”
“There’s one person in your group who didn’t live in town before Earl came along,” Ida replied.
“Really? Who?” Nans asked.
Ida cut her eyes over to the front of the room where Violet Switzer sat, chatting with two other ladies.
Nans followed her gaze. “You mean Violet? She used to live downtown before she moved to our neighborhood. What makes you say she hasn’t lived here?”
“I decided to check her out while I was looking into the case,” Ida said. “Violet and I have a history and I was curious. Anyway, it seems she hasn’t lived in Brook Ridge Falls as long as she says she has.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” Nans narrowed her eyes at Ida. “How is that possible?”
“Seems she faked some records,” Ruth cut in. “If you do a preliminary search, it appears as if she lived in town for decades before Earl was killed, but if you know where to dig, you’ll find she showed up just the same time Earl did.”
“Huh … We’ll, I’ll be.” Nans paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Well anyway, the Feds seemed pretty sure the assassin was this Marco guy and all the rest of us have to do is satisfy our community service requirements and stay out of trouble.”
“You’re lucky you aren’t going to jail for it.”
Leighann Dobbs - Lexy Baker 10 - Mummified Meringues Page 17
