Ramona shoved her into a corner and lifted the gun, the barrel pointing right at Lexy.
Lexy squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears just before she heard a deafening bang.
“Hold it right there!” Lexy heard Davies yell. She opened one eye in time to see Ramona whirl around just as the Brooke Ridge Falls Police Department swarmed the room.
Before she could even get her other eye open, Davies had Ramona face down on the floor and was slapping handcuffs on her. John Darling was doing the same to Eddie. And Jack was scooping her up into his arms.
“Are you okay?” Lexy melted at the concern in his honey brown eyes.
Lexy nodded then tore herself out of his arms.
“Sprinkles!” She yelled, pointing to the corner the dog was in. Jack followed her over and they released the dog, all three of them falling into a group hug. Lexy scooped up Sprinkles and they walked back over to the group in time to hear Davies finish reading Eddie his rights.
“What took you guys so long to come in?” Lexy asked. “Did I get the code words wrong?”
“No, you got them right.” Davies face flushed and she pulled on a piece of matted hair near her ear. “I got gum in my hair and must have missed hearing the signal at first.”
Lexy raised a brow at Jack who shrugged.
“Well the important thing is that the killers are captured and now we can get married without any worries,” he said draping his arm around Lexy’s shoulders.
“Yeah, and now your new detective knows that I’m not a killer.” Lexy stared at Davies.
“Oh, I knew you weren’t the killer right from the get-go,” Davies said. “I was just having some fun with you. Plus I wanted you and your grandmother to continue investigating—made my job a lot easier. Having you track down those leads was like having another team of detectives.”
“So we helped you solve the case?” Nans asked from the doorway.
“Yes Ms. Baker, you sure did.” Davies walked over to the doorway and gave Nans a hug. Lexy wondered when Nans had gotten so friendly with Davies.
“Umm … that should be cases, shouldn’t it?” Lexy said.
“That’s right. You helped catch the people who stole the scepter from the museum and the killer of Stu, Philippe and Veronica,” Jack said.
“Which reminds me.” Davies looked at Lexy. “I’m going to need the real wedding dress. That thing has over five million dollars’ worth of diamonds on it.”
Lexy’s stomach clenched. “My wedding dress?”
“Yep.” Davies nodded. “It’s evidence.”
“But I’m getting married tomorrow, and I don’t have anything else to wear!”
23
Lexy stood at the altar facing Jack, her heart flooding with warmth at the loving look in his honey brown eyes. So far, everything had gone off without a hitch even though she’d almost missed her own rehearsal dinner the night before.
This morning, she’d arrived in her pink limo to find the church smothered in flowers and overflowing with guests. She’d had a few last minute jitters, which Cassie helped soothe and she’d had to fight back tears when her father walked her down the aisle and handed her over to Jack. But otherwise, everything was perfect.
And here she stood, next to Jack, in her five million dollar wedding gown.
Lexy glanced out at the guests. Her parents and Jack’s parents sat in the front row proudly. Even Detective Davies had shown up and was sitting right up front in the second row. Lexy shot her a quick smile—the detective proved that she did have a heart when she let Lexy wear the wedding dress on the condition that she hand it over right after the wedding.
Lexy’s smile faltered as she pictured Davies trying to rip the dress off her as soon as the reception ended. Davies did look cute though, in a tan suit with matching tan suede shoes. Lexy did a double take at the shoes.
Were those Jimmy Choo’s?
Lexy leaned forward, to get a better look at Davies’ shoes.
Was that a bloodstain on one of them? And if it was, how did Davies get her other shoe?
She frowned up at Davies who smiled and gave her a quick wink then brushed the leaf that Lexy mistook for a bloodstain from the tip of her shoe. Apparently, they had the same taste in shoes.
“Ahem … Miss Baker?” The minister’s voice caught her attention.
Lexy straightened and whipped her head back toward the minister. “Oh sorry. What?”
The minister looked back down at his book. “I was saying … Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Did she?
Lexy’s heart fluttered in her chest as she suddenly realized the enormous commitment she was about to make.
She tried to picture them growing old together. What would that life be like? Did she want to spend the rest of her life with Jack?
Lexy looked over at Jack, then at the minister, then at all her guests. When she looked back at Jack again, she knew the answer.
She turned to the minister and said …
“I do!”
Epilogue
“I guess there really is no honor among thieves,” Nans said as she placed her coffee on the café table, pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Guess not.” Lexy shrugged—she was still on a high from their wedding the day before and even the thought of the three murders couldn’t dampen her spirits. Everything had gone perfectly at the reception and Cassie’s cake had been both gorgeous and delicious. She had to admit she’d been a little nervous wearing the five million dollar gown and was glad to finally hand it over to Davies.
Now, sitting at the café tables at The Cup and Cake with her best friends and family, everything was perfect.
“I don’t really understand how it all happened.” Vera, in a bright turquoise and lime green outfit sat at the next table munching on a cinnamon roll.
“Stu, Ramona and Eddie planned the heist,” Jack said. “Stu and Eddie arranged it so that they were the security detail at night and Ramona worked in the control room where they stored the videos from the security cameras. She removed the section of video that showed Stu and Eddie taking the scepter and replaced it with a section of tape from earlier but changed the time stamps.”
“So it looked like the scepter was there one minute and then gone the next,” Nans added.
“Then they took the diamonds out of the scepter and Stu paid Philippe to have them sewn into Veronica’s gown,” John added. “Philippe’s business wasn’t doing well and I guess he took the money to try to save it.”
“It was almost perfect, except Millie switched the gowns by mistake during one of the fittings,” Nans said as she nibbled her éclair.
“And Stu got greedy, so Eddie and Ramona decided to cut him out,” Jack added. “That was Ramona that had the fight with Stu that day.”
“Eddie killed Stu and then went to get the gown,” John said. “I think Eddie expected Chez Philippe to be empty because the store is usually closed at that time, but when he got there, he found Philippe and Veronica—he shot them and took Veronica’s gown, which was actually the wrong one,” Jack went over to the self-serve coffee station to refill his cup.
“So, it was Eddie that broke into Chez Philippe the next night?” Lexy asked.
“Yes, at first we assumed the break-in was to cover up something about the murder, but he was actually looking for the stones. That’s why he ransacked the sewing area.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes. “So the whole time, Ramona was making plans to double-cross Eddie?”
“Yep.” John nodded. “She’d already gotten him to do the killings, so all she had to do was make off with the stones, but when they discovered Eddie took the wrong gown, that screwed up her plan.”
“And she knew I had a gown almost identical to Veronica’s because she saw us that day at the fitting,” Lexy said.
“Plus, she also knew you were doing some investigating,” Nans added. “So once she figured out you had the dress with the real diamonds, she brok
e in to steal it from your house.”
“Except it wasn’t at Lexy’s,” Vera said. “I had it in the RV that we were driving around town in on that day.”
“Right.” Nans spooned some sugar into her coffee. “So, Ramona took the opportunity to plant the necklace she’d stolen from Eddie earlier and steal Lexy’s red lace panties.”
Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm. “Then later she planted the panties at Eddie’s and wrote the fake note that she mailed to my house.”
“We found those panties under Eddie’s bed.” Jack wiggled his eyebrows at Lexy whose cheeks got even warmer.
“And I think Eddie must have been working a plan to double-cross Ramona too,” Nans said. “The few times we talked to him he kept trying to insinuate that Ramona was acting strange—he was trying to point us in her direction.”
“And apparently he didn’t tell Ramona he’d taken the dress … not until after he discovered the stones weren’t diamonds and he needed her help,” John added.
“Well I’m just glad everything worked out, the case got solved, we got married and tomorrow we get to leave on our tropical honeymoon.” Lexy smiled at Jack.
“Well, it’s too bad you won’t be around to see the new bakery go in across the street.” Nans looked at the empty storefront almost directly across from The Cup and Cake.
Lexy froze. “What bakery?”
“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Nans asked. “Someone is putting a bakery in just like The Cup and Cake right across the street. Isn’t that stupid?”
Lexy looked out the window. It did look like someone was getting ready to move in to that empty store. But who would put a bakery right across from another bakery?
Cassie got up and stood right at the window squinting at the store. “It is stupid … and it looks like they are painting it pink … just like we have in here.”
Lexy felt her heart squeeze. Another bakery just like hers? She didn’t think she liked that idea much.
Jack squeezed her hand and caught her attention reminding her that she had more important things going on right now. She squeezed back, and felt a rush of excitement thinking of the two weeks she was going to spend with Jack in a tropical paradise.
She took one more quick look out the window and decided a new bakery across the street wasn’t that important. She had better things to focus on … at least for now.
The End.
***********************
The new bakery across the street turns out to be a big problem for Lexy, especially when someone breaks in and Lexy suspects the new baker of trying to steal her great grandmother’s prize winning scone recipe! But what does this have to do with the grizzly discovery in the sewer system and a decades old murder? Find out in the next book in the Lexy Baker Mystery Series - Scones, Skulls and Scams.
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Also by Leighann Dobbs
Cozy Mysteries
Moorecliff Manor Cat Cozy Mystery Series
* * *
Dead in the Dining Room
Stabbed in the Solarium
Homicide in the Hydrangeas
-------
Mystic Notch
Cat Cozy Mystery Series
* * *
Ghostly Paws
A Spirited Tail
A Mew To A Kill
Paws and Effect
Probable Paws
A Whisker of a Doubt
Wrong Side of the Claw
Claw and Order
-------
Oyster Cove Guesthouse
Cat Cozy Mystery Series
***
A Twist in the Tail
A Whisker in the Dark
A Purrfect Alibi
-------
Kate Diamond Mystery Adventures
***
Hidden Agemda (Book 1)
Ancient Hiss Story (Book 2)
Heist Society (Book 3)
-------
Silver Hollow
Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series
***
A Spell of Trouble (Book 1)
Spell Disaster (Book 2)
Nothing to Croak About (Book 3)
Cry Wolf (Book 4)
Shear Magic (Book 5)
-------
Mooseamuck Island
Cozy Mystery Series
* * *
A Zen For Murder
A Crabby Killer
A Treacherous Treasure
-------
Blackmoore Sisters
Cozy Mystery Series
* * *
Dead Wrong
Dead & Buried
Dead Tide
Buried Secrets
Deadly Intentions
A Grave Mistake
Spell Found
Fatal Fortune
Hidden Secrets
-------
Lexy Baker
Cozy Mystery Series
* * *
Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 1 (Books 1-4)
Or buy the books separately:
Killer Cupcakes
Dying For Danish
Murder, Money and Marzipan
3 Bodies and a Biscotti
Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys
Bake, Battle & Roll
Wedded Blintz
Scones, Skulls & Scams
Ice Cream Murder
Mummified Meringues
Brutal Brulee (Novella)
No Scone Unturned
Cream Puff Killer
Never Say Pie
Ain’t Seen Muffin Yet
-------
Lady Katherine Regency Mysteries
***
An Invitation to Murder (Book 1)
The Baffling Burglaries of Bath (Book 2)
Murder at the Ice Ball (Book 3)
A Murderous Affair (Book 4)
Murder on Charles Street (Book 5)
-------
Julia and Nora Marsh 1920s Cozy Mystery
***
Murder on a Mississippi Steamboat
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Hazel Martin Historical Mystery Series
***
Murder at Lowry House (book 1)
Murder by Misunderstanding (book 2)
-------
Sam Mason Mysteries
(As L. A. Dobbs)
***
Telling Lies (Book 1)
Keeping Secrets (Book 2)
Exposing Truths (Book 3)
Betraying Trust (Book 4)
Killing Dreams (Book 5)
-------
More books in the Rockford Security Series:
Cold As Her Heart
A Game of Kill
No One To Trust
No Time To Run
Don’t Fear The Truth
Hide From The Past
-------
Romantic Comedy
***
Corporate Chaos Series
In Over Her Head (book 1)
Can’t Stand the Heat (book 2)
What Goes Around Comes Around (book 3)
Careful What You Wish For (4)
Dish Best Served Cold (5)
-------
Contemporary Romance
***
Reluctant Romance
-------
Sweet Romance (Written As Annie Dobbs)
Firefly Inn Series
***
Another Chance (Book 1)
Another Wish (Book 2)
-------
Hometown Hearts Series
***
No Getting Over You (Book 1)
A Change of Heart (Book 2)
-------
Sweet Mountain Billionaires
***
Jaded Billionaire (Book 1)
/> A Billion Reasons Not To Fall In Love (Book 2)
***
Sweetrock Sweet and Spicy Cowboy Romance
Some Like It Hot
Too Close For Comfort
____
Regency Romance
* * *
Scandals and Spies Series:
Kissing The Enemy
Deceiving the Duke
Tempting the Rival
Charming the Spy
Pursuing the Traitor
Captivating the Captain
The Unexpected Series:
An Unexpected Proposal
An Unexpected Passion
Dobbs Fancytales:
Dobbs Fancytales Boxed Set Collection
____
Western Historical Romance
***
Goldwater Creek Mail Order Brides:
Faith
American Mail Order Brides Series:
Chevonne: Bride of Oklahoma
___________________
Magical Romance with a Touch of Mystery
***
Something Magical
Curiously Enchanted
A Note From The Author
Thanks so much for reading my cozy mystery “Wedded Blintz”. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review over at Amazon, I really would appreciate it.
Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 2 (Books 5 - 7) (Lexy Baker Cozy Mysteries Boxed Sets) Page 34