Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Or what other things someone might be after,” Ida added.

  “Most of the family is staying at the Weston Motel. We should head out there after we finish here,” Ruth said.

  “I agree,” Nans said. “Maybe she can clear up some of the questions we have. Lord knows we could use a break in this case.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lexy stood outside room 357 of the Weston Motel with Ruth, Ida and Helen and watched Nans tap on the door with her fist.

  They heard shuffling noises, a cough and then the sound of the safety chain. The door opened a crack to reveal Gina, her brow furrowed in a question. Then her eyebrows shot up as she recognized them.

  “You’re the ladies from Daddy’s place, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, we are,” Nans said brightly.

  Gina’s brow creased again. “What are you doing here?”

  “We were hoping we could talk to you a bit. About your father.”

  Gina stepped back, opening the door all the way. “Sure.”

  Lexy noticed the suite was spacious and clean. A small kitchenette sat off to the left. A hallway, with what she assumed were the bedrooms, was straight ahead. They stood in a newly updated living room with a couch, two chairs and a television. Gina plopped down in one of the chairs and grabbed a cigarette from her pack, then motioned for them to sit.

  Nans took the other chair, leaving Ida, Ruth, Helen and Lexy to wedge themselves onto the couch.

  “Mind if I smoke?” Gina waved her lighter in front of the cigarette.

  “Not at all,” Nans answered. Lexy would have preferred no smoke, but Nans had a policy of trying to keep the person they were interrogating at ease.

  “This place is nice. And big.” Lexy craned her neck toward an open door on the right. “Does that open to another suite or is it all one?”

  “We have three suites here, enough for the whole family.” Gina made a face. “Well, except my brother.”

  “Oh, you don’t get along?” Nans asked.

  Gina exhaled a long stream of smoke. “He thinks he’s better than the rest of us.”

  “Speaking of brothers, did Nunzio have a brother?” Ruth asked.

  Gina narrowed her eyes. “No, Daddy was an only child. Why?”

  Ruth shrugged. “Someone mentioned a brother. Does someone in your family have a long beard?”

  Gina flicked her cigarette ash into the ashtray and frowned at Ruth. “No. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, just a few things we heard, dear, nothing to worry about.” Nans leaned over and touched Gina’s arm. “We are all so very sorry about your father. Were you all here in the hotel that night?”

  “Yes. We were having a big poker game that night. Even my brother Tony came over from his hotel. Daddy had plans with a friend so he wasn’t here. But maybe if he had been …” Gina’s voice trailed off and Lexy saw her eyes start to mist.

  “Anyway, the game broke up around two. I guess Daddy was already dead by then but, of course we didn’t know it yet.”

  “Has the will turned up?” Nans asked

  Gina stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray. “No. That’s why we are all still hanging around here, actually. We’re waiting for the police to let us into Daddy’s condo so we can look for it … it’s still sealed off for the investigation.”

  Lexy and Ida exchanged an uncomfortable look. Guess we weren’t supposed to be in there, Lexy thought.

  Gina continued on, “If the new will doesn’t show up, we’ll have to go with the last will Daddy gave to his attorney. But I know Daddy didn’t want that.”

  “Oh, really?” Nans prompted.

  Gina nodded. “Daddy was kind of a dinosaur when he made that first will. He didn’t think much about equal rights for women and such. He felt women were inferior. Which is probably why he got divorced so many times and why I never had a good relationship with him when I was younger.” She paused, looking out the window. “But in the past few years, he mellowed a lot. His first will left most of the money to the men in the family … my brothers and the grandsons. But this new one had equal shares for me and Simone. Daddy told me all about it.”

  Lexy saw Nans’s eyebrows go up. Gina and Simone certainly had a vested interest in finding the new will. Could one of them have searched Nunzio’s after the police were there?

  “So you haven’t been looking for the will?” Nans asked.

  “Who me? No. Like I said I’m waiting to get access to his condo. I already checked his safety deposit box and it’s not in there.”

  “But somebody searched his condo. And his car,” Ida said.

  “And killed him,” Ruth added.

  “They might have been looking for the will … or something else,” Helen said.

  “Can you think of anything else your father might have had that someone would have been looking for … or might have even killed for?” Nans asked. “Maybe something related to his organized crime days?”

  Gina wrinkled her brow. “Now that you mention it, Daddy was acting a little strange these past few months.” She took another cigarette out of her pack and tapped the end on the table. “He did mention something might happen to him. But at the time I just thought he was worried due to his age. That’s why he made the new will. Geez, you don’t think he was still in organized crime?”

  Nans shrugged. “Does one ever really retire from it?”

  Gina put her head in her hands. “He said he was all done years ago.” Lexy’s heart constricted when she heard the other woman’s voice choke up at the end.

  Nans reached over and rubbed her arm. “We don’t know what happened dear,” she said soothingly.

  Ida, Ruth and Helen murmured soothing sentiments. Lexy managed to free herself from in between Ruth and Ida on the couch and stand.

  “Mind if I use the bathroom?” she asked.

  “Oh, sure.” Gina pointed to the hallway. “It’s down there, the first door is Barry’s room, then mine, and the third is the bathroom.”

  Lexy thanked her and headed down the hall, looking back over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching. She didn’t really need to use the bathroom, she wanted the time to do a little investigating. She figured if one of Nunzio’s relatives had something to hide, it would be here in the motel. Maybe she’d get lucky and find something incriminating. Like the murder weapon.

  Lexy went straight to the bathroom and made a lot of noise shutting the door. Except instead of staying inside, she crept down the hallway and slipped into Gina’s room.

  The room was neat as a pin. One queen size bed sat against the far wall, the comforter perfectly tucked, pillows plumped. A suitcase stood in the corner. Lexy gave it a quick check but all the compartments were empty. A small bureau under the window held Gina’s clothes. Lexy thumbed through them, her heart pounding, her nerves on high alert for any sound out in the hall. She poked around in the desk, the closet and under the bed. Nothing. Finally, she slipped her hand in between the mattress and box spring, but came up empty.

  Back out in the hall, she strained to listen to the sounds coming from the living room. The drone of conversation indicated that Gina wasn’t going to be getting up any time soon, so she took her chances and snuck into Barry’s room.

  Unlike Gina’s, this one was a mess. Clothes were piled on the floor and one of the twin beds was unmade. Lexy lifted some of the clothes with her foot to see if anything was buried underneath, then gingerly picked up the bedclothes with the tip of her thumb and forefinger.

  Lexy’s stomach sank.

  She wasn’t finding anything and she’d been gone a long time. She crossed quickly to the suitcase which lay open on the other bed, clothes hanging out of it in disarray. She rummaged through it but came up empty. The lid had a zipper compartment and she slowly unzipped it so as to not make any noise.

  She stuck her hand in, her brow furrowing when she felt something rough in texture. Not the soft fabric of clothing like she expected. She pulled on it, leaning closer to the case as she
brought her hand out of the compartment.

  Her heart froze.

  She stared at the object in her hand—a long gray beard.

  Lexy’s heart thudded against her ribs as she shoved the beard back into the suitcase. Barry had been masquerading as Nunzio’s brother.

  She crept out of the room, hurried down the hall, quietly opened the bathroom door, then flushed the toilet and made a lot of noise washing her hands.

  Trying to stay calm, she walked back to the living room.

  Nans looked up at her and she angled her head toward the door, hoping the older woman would get the hint.

  “Well, we’ve taken up too much of your time. We should be going.” Nans stood as did Ida, Ruth and Helen.

  Gina followed them to the door. “Thanks for stopping by.”

  Lexy felt like her chest was going to burst as they walked to her car on the other side of the parking lot. She glanced over her shoulder at the hotel to make sure Gina wasn’t standing in the door listening.

  “You won’t believe what I found in there!”

  “The murder weapon?”

  “The will?”

  “No.” Lexy lowered her voice, “a long, gray beard.”

  “What?” Nans’s eyes went wide. “You mean Gina was pretending to be Nunzio’s brother? I don’t see how she could pull that off.”

  “Not Gina. Barry. At the memorial he told me that he’s an actor. I bet he knows how to disguise himself to look to be Nunzio’s age.”

  “But why?” Ruth asked.

  Lexy, opened the door to her car, pushing the seat forward so Ida, Ruth and Helen could climb in.

  “I know why,” Nans said, sliding into the front passenger seat. “Gina said her father changed the will to leave more money to her and Simone. That means the men, including Barry, will be getting less money.”

  Ida snapped her fingers. “He wants to find the will to destroy it!”

  “But would he kill Nunzio over it?” Helen asked as Lexy settled herself in the driver’s seat.

  “Unlikely,” Ruth said. “I don’t think Nunzio had a lot of money. Not enough to kill over.”

  “Well if Barry is the one that has been searching for something and he didn’t kill him, then who did … and why?” Ida asked.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “It seems like we have two parties looking for different things,” Nans said as she turned on her coffee pot then took five mugs out of the cabinet. “That’s why it’s critical that we try to get Ruth to remember who knocked her out.”

  “If it wasn’t Barry, then it could be our second suspect,” Lexy said, taking a seat at Nans’s dining room table.

  “And since the family members seem to all have an alibi for the night Nunzio was killed, it makes sense that someone else is involved.” Ida grabbed her iPad and started tapping away. “I have an idea. Give me a few minutes and I might have something.”

  “Well, even though Gina said everyone in the family was at the hotel having a poker game that night, can we really trust them to corroborate each other’s alibis?” Lexy grabbed a steaming mug from Nans. “If they were all in on it, they could easily lie for each other.”

  “That’s a possibility too,” Helen said pulling her chair up next to Ruth and taking Ruth’s wrist in her hand.

  Lexy remembered when Helen had done the same to her, twice actually. The first time it was to help her remember the specifics of a crime scene and the other was to help her get rid of an annoying nervous eye twitch. Both times had been successful, except after the second one she’d ended up clucking like a chicken every time she took a sip of coffee.

  Glancing down at her mug suspiciously, Lexy took a sip then looked up to see if anyone was laughing.

  Nans looked up at her. “What is it, dear?”

  “Did you hear a cluck?”

  “No.” Nans smiled.

  “That’s worn off by now, Lexy,” Helen said. “Now let’s focus on getting Ruth to remember who knocked her out.”

  They fell silent as Helen worked her magic on Ruth, getting her to relax and then taking her back to when she returned from the grocery store that night.

  Lexy sipped her coffee as she watched Ruth, her eyes closed, face relaxed, recount the events.

  “I just got back from Market Basket. They had a sale on ice cream so I got two gallons for four dollars plus some other odds and ends. I had two bags which I carried into the building.”

  “What do you see around you as you are coming in?” Helen asked.

  Ruth paused. “Nothing. It’s just starting to get dark. Wait! There’s someone over near the grove of trees in the parking lot, walking this way.”

  “What do you do?”

  “I’m hurrying into the building. I’m a little nervous. I forgot my pepper spray at home. I should hurry to my condo.”

  Lexy’s stomach clenched for Ruth who was clearly getting a little agitated.

  “Ruth, you’re safe with us here at Mona’s. You don’t have to remember any more if you don’t want to.”

  “No. It’s okay.” Ruth appeared calmer. “I’m at the door to my place … digging out my keys. Someone is right behind me. Oh!”

  “Slow down Ruth, tell us what you see. Remember you’re safe.”

  “There’s two of them. But I can’t make them out, just shadows. One is a very big man. Tall and wide like a gorilla. The other is also tall, but skinny—lanky with a long neck like an ostrich.” Ruth hitched in her breath. “The next thing I remember is waking up on the couch.”

  “Okay, Ruth. When I tap your shoulder you will wake up feeling refreshed and happy.” Helen tapped Ruth’s shoulder and her eyes popped open.

  “Did you get anything useful?” Ruth asked.

  “Sort of,” Nans said. “At least we know there are two more people involved and their general description. I don’t think Barry fits either one of those.”

  Lexy wracked her brain comparing Nunzio’s relatives to the descriptions Ruth had given. None of them fit, but something niggled at her in the back of her mind.

  She let herself relax. A gorilla and an ostrich … an image of her bakery came to mind and her breath caught in her throat.

  “I think I know who they are!”

  ###

  “You know who the men that attacked Ruth are?” Nans raised her brows at Lexy.

  “Well, sort of. I mean I don’t know their names or anything but two men who match that description have been coming into The Cup and Cake almost every day,” Lexy said. “They seem to have an affinity for brownies.”

  Nans clapped her hands. “That’s perfect! All we have to do is hang around the bakery and wait for them to come in. Then we follow them and hope they do something suspicious.”

  Lexy felt her stomach churn. Somehow following men that knocked out little old ladies and searched their condos didn’t seem like such a smart idea.

  “We can get some pictures of them and do a photo search on the internet to find out who they are!” Helen said.

  “Photo search?” Lexy wrinkled her brow.

  “Yes, we can use TinEye or any of the other photo search sites and if a picture of them has been posted, it will come up in the search. So any news articles or even family photos will show up.”

  “We need to find out what type of gun killed Nunzio because, once we find out who these guys are, we can search the gun registry database to see if they own that type of gun.” Nans turned to Lexy. “Lexy, do you think you can try to get that information today?”

  Lexy’s heart clenched. “I suppose I could visit Jack at the station, but I can’t guarantee that he will tell me.”

  “Bring him his favorite dessert from the bakery,” Ruth said. “That will butter him up.”

  Lexy looked at her watch. She’d have to hurry if she wanted to get to the bakery, pick up a pie and pretend like she was just bringing it to the station on a whim. Maybe it would be easier just to get Cassie to ask John.

  Ida interrupted her thoughts. “Speakin
g of the internet. I’ve found something very interesting about Nunzio’s finances.”

  “On the internet?” Ruth asked.

  “Kind of.” Ida winked. “Norman’s grandson is a bit of a hacker and … well … he helped me take a peek into Nunzio’s bank account.”

  Nans narrowed her eyes at Ida. “Is that legal?”

  “No, but wait until you hear. It seems that Barry might have had enough incentive to kill Nunzio over the will after all.” Ida paused looking each of them in the eye. “According to his bank account, Nunzio was worth over three million dollars.”

  Ruth gasped. “That’s impossible.”

  Ida shook her head. “It’s true. It’s all here.” She handed the iPad to Ruth whose eyes widened as she looked at the screen.

  “Well I’ll be …” Ruth put the iPad down on the table. “He never let on that he had that much money.”

  “Not only that, but almost all of it was deposited gradually over the past two years.”

  “What? But he was retired. On a fixed income.”

  Ida shrugged. “I know. Makes you wonder what he did to get this sudden influx of money.”

  “It sure does,” Nans said. “And I bet whatever it is was the very thing that got him killed.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lexy sat in the police station parking lot watching the top of her coconut cream pie break out in a sweat. It was no wonder, since the sun beating in through the windshield of her VW bug had turned the car into an oven.

  She lifted her thick, brown hair off her neck, twisting it into a sloppy ponytail on top of her head. She realized she was procrastinating about bringing the pie to Jack, and wondered why. Probably she was afraid he’d refuse to tell her about the murder weapon and she knew that would make her mad. She felt like she and Jack were already skating on thin ice. She didn’t want to rock the boat.

  But, if she didn’t get out of the car soon, she was going to succumb to heat stroke.

  Grabbing the pie, she reached for the car door handle. A movement at the police station door caught her eye.