Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 1 (Books 1 - 4) (Lexy Baker Cozy Mysteries Boxed Sets)

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Lexy!”

  She opened her eyes, but instead of seeing a beautiful tropical beach, she saw her kitchen from an odd angle. Sprinkles face hovered over hers, her little tongue enthusiastically lapping at her cheek.

  “Wha...?”

  “Lexy, are you OK?” Jack’s voice broke through her confusion. She turned her head to face him, her head pounding, her beach dream evaporating into reality.

  “Yes...I think so. What happened? Why am I on the floor?”

  “I don’t know, I happened to notice you laying here like this from my window.” Jack pointed over to his house where his living room window had a clear view to Lexy’s back door.

  Lexy started to sit up, but it felt like she was glued to the floor. Jack slipped an arm around her to help her. She leaned against him. It felt nice to have someone to take care of her. For a split second, she felt content…until she looked around her kitchen. It had been ransacked!

  “Oh my God! What happened?” She felt her eyes narrow as she looked around the room, then at Jack.

  “That’s what I was going to ask you,” he said, “it looks like someone was looking for something.”

  Lexy looked around, her heart dropping in her chest at what she saw. Drawers pulled out, cabinets opened, stuff thrown on the floor. She must have been out like a light not to have heard the commotion.

  “Do you know what they might have been looking for?” Jack persisted.

  The notebook!

  Lexy pushed herself away from Jack. She jumped up. Fighting off a wave of nausea and dizziness, she hurried to the dog bed. Throwing the cushion on the floor, she jammed her hand inside the hole in the lining. It was still there!

  She pulled her hand out, clutching the book.

  “I assume it was this.” She thrust the book at Jack who had stood and taken a few steps towards her. Reaching out, he took the book from her.

  Jack leafed through the book, his eyes growing wider at each page. “Where did you get this?”

  “It came in the mail—from Kevin.”

  “How long have you had this? Why didn’t you tell me about it?” Jack stared down at her, his eyes dark with anger.

  Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm and she looked away. Her surge of embarrassment at keeping the book was short lived when she remembered she had tried to tell Jack about it, but he never answered her call.

  “I called you about this earlier today. I got it last night, but it might have been in the mailbox a day or two. You never returned my call.” She stared him down, her annoyance hanging in the air between them.

  “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 suspect you might. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble today 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 form. “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 carefully 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 Jack’s 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 Jack’s 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 dog’s 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 in the air, the rest folded. “Scouts honor.”

  Jack gave her one final glance, then 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, putting 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 and 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.

  13

  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 button 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 night’s events. The button sat in the center of the table, four bluish-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 mind’s eye. Images of people floated through her mind, but she did
n’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 Kevin’s 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 and ran over to the giant television, her eyes growing 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 toward 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 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 that everything was in order, she put her car in gear and drove off towards her destination.

  14

  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 that 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, several things pointed to her, including 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 night’s events pretty much cleared her...unless she had very cleverly staged it—but why would she give him the book? She has to be innocent, Jack thought, hoping his confidence in her innocence was because of the clues and evidence and not because of his feelings toward 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 in 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 Perillo. 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 and 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 ten minutes.” Jack felt a sigh of relief escape his lips. He snapped the phone shut and ran for his car.

  15

  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 and 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 coursing 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 Sheila 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.