3 Bodies and a Biscotti (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery)

by Dobbs, Leighann

  “Cassie’s cousin works down there as a nurse’s aid. Maybe I could ask her. I don’t know if she’d remember the exact dates though.”

  “You mean you have an inside person down there, and you didn’t tell us?”

  Lexy felt her heart jump as all four women stared at her. She raised her hands, palms out. “Hey, I just met her this morning.”

  Nans looked at her watch. “Oh dear, where has the time gone? Lexy, you better get down there and see if your friend is on duty. Ruth and Helen, you keep searching for pictures. Ida, find out about this janitor character.”

  Nans grabbed Lexy’s coat and shoved it in Lexy’s hands then pushed her towards the door, turning the knob to open it for her.

  “Jeez, what’s the hur—”

  Lexy’s protest was cut off mid-sentence as the door opened to reveal Jack Perillo standing on the other side.

  ###

  Lexy’s heart jerked in her chest when she saw Jack.

  “What are you doing here?” They both said at the same time.

  Jack looked down at her. “You go first.”

  “I was just visiting Nans,” Lexy said innocently.

  “Me too.”

  Lexy narrowed her eyes. Jack and Nans were good friends, even before she met him. The house Lexy lived in now had been Nans so Jack and Nans were neighbors for many years. Nans and the Ladies Detective Club also helped Jack out on cases occasionally, but she didn’t realize Jack usually just popped over to visit Nans in the middle of the day.

  “Did you get my text?” Lexy’s heart melted at the puppy dog look on Jack’s face.

  “I just got it,” she said, not wanting him to think she had ignored him.

  “Oh, well what about it?”

  Lexy chewed her bottom lip. Maybe she had overreacted a little bit the other night. Jack was standing close to her, he looked good and she was starting to get all tingly. Having dinner with him seemed like a great idea. Not only that, but she really just wanted Jack to get out of the way so she could go talk to Sam.

  “OK.”

  “How about steaks on the grill?” Lexy’s mouth started to water. Jack cooked a mean steak.

  “Sounds good. So, are you here about a new case or something?”

  Jack shifted his feet and cast a glance at Nans. Lexy turned and looked between the two of them. What was going on?

  “You could say that.” She noticed the gleam in Jack’s eye, which made her even more suspicious.

  “Oh, well I want to hear about it.”

  “Sorry sweetie, this one is just for Nans.” Jack stepped to the side unblocking the door. “Were you going somewhere?”

  Lexy felt her stomach clench. She didn’t want to tell Jack where she was going. He’d probably tell her not to get involved which would start the fight all over again. Lexy was tired of fighting.

  “I was just leaving. I have a bakery to run, you know,” Lexy said, feeling her eye start to twitch.

  “OK, see you tonight?” Jack seemed just as anxious for her to leave as she was.

  Lexy backed down the hall. “Yep, see you then.” She turned and made a big show of walking towards the door to the parking lot.

  As soon as she got out of sight, she backtracked toward the hallway that led to the nursing care section.

  Lexy was sauntering between the rooms, trying to look like she belonged when she spied Sam inside what looked like a storage room. She tapped on the partially open door. Sam whirled around knocking over some pill bottles in the process.

  “Sorry, I saw you in here and thought I’d say hi,” Lexy smiled sheepishly.

  “Hi, How are you?” Sam said. Lexy noticed her face was flushed and her hands fluttered nervously at her sides. Did she startle her that much?

  “I’m great. Boy, Cassie’s dress sure was a stunner, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Did you get yours to fit?”

  Lexy felt her cheeks grown warm. “Yes, it looked great … I think those sizes run small,” she added quietly.

  “I was wondering something … about the night Mavis died.” Lexy felt her heart beat pick up speed, her palms got a little clammy as she glanced down the aisle to make sure no one would over hear them.

  Sam straightened her spine and her eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “I was wondering if you noticed whether Nurse Rothschild was working that night?”

  Sam relaxed a bit and leaned back against the counter, chewing on her bottom lip. “Yes, she was. I remember because I was also working. We had a midnight to eleven shift, and that morning we discovered she had passed. Why?”

  Lexy stared at Sam, and then decided to take a chance. “You don’t think she could have something to do with Mavis’s death, do you?”

  Sam’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean?”

  “Mavis was very healthy, so was Bertram Glumm, yet they both died here in the past couple of weeks,” Lexy whispered.

  Sam’s eyes darted around the room and her hands got fidgety again. “I never thought about that. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t know anything about it.”

  “Ah, well it was just a silly thought.” Lexy backed out of the doorway. “I’ll let you get back to work.”

  Sam glanced behind her. “Right. Nice to see you again.”

  “Same here.”

  Lexy backtracked into the hall and went straight to her car, peeking out the window into the parking lot first to make sure Jack wasn’t out there.

  She felt satisfied with the day so far. She’d discovered Nurse Rothschild was working when Mavis died and she’d be eating thick, juicy steaks with Jack for dinner. But as she drove away, a couple of things nagged at the back of her mind. Why was Sam so nervous, and what the heck were Jack and Nans up to?

  Chapter Twelve

  “My, that certainly is an interesting cake,” Ruth said, as she eyed the triple layer dark chocolate confection Lexy balanced on the palm of her right hand while she walked it to the glass table where Ruth, Nans, Helen and Cassie were seated in the front room of her bakery.

  “It’s a trial run for Cassie’s wedding cake.” Lexy put the cake on the table and stood back admiring it. It was a triple-tier cake in miniature. The icing was almost black and as smooth as silk. Embedded around the edges of the cake were edible silver-colored studs and spikes.

  Cassie sat next to Nans, grinning ear to ear. “I love it!”

  “Now, let’s see if it tastes as good as it looks.” Lexy slid a knife into the bottom layer and sliced off five pieces. She put them on plates and handed them around the table.

  “Hey, where’s Ida?” Lexy said, her eyebrows wrinkling together. The ladies always went everywhere together and it was strange to see Nans, Ruth, and Helen without her.

  Nans paused, her cake-laden fork halfway to her mouth. “Her boyfriend has a bad case of gout. She’s back at the center watching over him. He’s in terrible pain.”

  “Ida has a boyfriend?” Cassie’s eyebrows raised up to her hairline.

  Helen nodded. “Us older people have urges too, you know.”

  “Too much information, Helen,” Lexy said, screwing up her face and pushing her cake plate away, amidst laughter from Nans, Ruth and Helen.

  “The cake is delicious,” Nans said, licking frosting from the tines of her fork.

  Lexy beamed with pride as the others murmured their agreement.

  “And the design?” She asked.

  “Fits Cassie perfectly,” Nans answered.

  “It’s exactly what I wanted.” Cassie scraped the frosting from her plate with the side of her fork.

  “When is the wedding, dear?” Ruth asked.

  Lexy felt a pinch of envy in her gut when she saw Cassie’s eyes get all dreamy at the mention of her wedding. Then she immediately felt bad because she was truly happy for her friend. Maybe the pinch was hunger pangs—she hadn’t eaten much lately.

  “Two weeks,” Cassie answered, then turned to Lexy. “Don’t forget the rehearsal is on Thursday.

  Lexy n
odded, then turned her attention to Nans. “Did you and Jack finish talking about your case yesterday?”

  “Yep,” Nans said. A sparkle twinkled in her eye as she pursed her lips together.

  Lexy stared out the front window of the bakery, watching the water rush over the falls. She was dying to know what they were up to and had tried to get the information out of Jack the night before but he’d been extremely tight-lipped.

  “Can I take a piece back for Ida?” Helen asked.

  “Of course! Why don’t I box the whole cake up for you guys? I certainly don’t need the extra calories here.” Lexy jumped up to grab a bakery box from behind the counter.

  “It’s too bad Ida had to miss seeing it whole,” Nans said. “But Norman is in terrible pain. They were talking about giving him oxycontin or morphine to make it more bearable.”

  “That’s pretty strong stuff,” Cassie said.

  “Jack said something about oxycontin last night in relation to the case he is working. I guess it’s one of the prescription drugs that this drug ring specializes in. He’s not sure where they get it from.” Lexy turned to Nans. “Is that the case you two were working on?”

  “Nope.” Nans shook her head.

  Lexy rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

  “You’ll find out in good time, dear.” Nans reached over and patted her hand.

  Before Lexy could press the issue further, Nans’s cell phone blared from her purse.

  “Hello?” She yelled into the phone, causing Lexy and Cassie to jump. The phone was turned up loud and they could all hear Ida on the other end.

  “Mona!” Ida gasped, calling Nans by her given name, “Norman’s gout is getting worse. His knees have swollen up like soccer balls. They’re going to move him to the nursing care section. He can’t walk or even move out of bed … not even to go to the bathroom.”

  “Oh dear, that sounds awful.”

  “I need you guys to come back right away. When they move him over, we’re going to have to stand guard twenty-four-seven so that he doesn’t become the next victim.”

  “Don’t you worry, we’re on it.” Nans snapped the phone shut, then looked at the other women around the table.

  “Well, you heard her … let’s get a move on.”

  ###

  Lexy eyed the remains of Cassie’s practice wedding cake sitting in the middle of Nans’s dining room table.

  “Help yourself, dear.”

  Lexy looked down at her stomach. Her pants were just starting to fit normally and she didn’t want to risk gaining weight back, even though she was so hungry she felt like passing out. “Thanks, but I’m all set.”

  Lexy took a seat furthest from the cake and watched Nans pace the room. According to Nans’s early morning phone call, she had some “big news” but she wouldn’t spill the beans until Ruth and Helen were there.

  Finally, a knock sounded at the door and Nans rushed over to let the two women in.

  “So, what’s so important that you have to call us all here at this hour of the morning?” Ruth hustled into the apartment, a steaming coffee mug already in her hand.

  “You won’t believe what happened last night!” Nans’s face was flushed with excitement, her sharp green eyes twinkled.

  Lexy, Ruth and Helen raised their eyebrows.

  “What?”

  “I was taking my shift, watching Norman last night and at approximately 3:12 AM, I heard some moaning and what sounded like a struggle from the room next door. I turned my hearing aid way up, so I could hear better and I thought I heard someone say No. Then I heard a crash.” She paused, and Ruth gasped. Lexy leaned forward on the edge of her chair.

  “Go on.” Helen said, motioning with her hands.

  “I ran out into the hallway, and just as I reached the door, who do you think was coming out of that room?”

  “Nurse Rothschild!”

  “No. The janitor,” Nans said. “And he was acting sneaky too. When he saw me, he got all nervous and practically ran down the hall.

  Lexy sucked in a breath. “Do you think he tried to kill the person?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” Nans said. “I went into the room to make sure the patient was okay. He was, but he looked like he was in pain, thrashing around and stuff. The sliding tray had crashed down onto the floor.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Thankfully a nurse came in and gave him some morphine and picked up the mess.”

  “Nurse Rothschild?”

  “No, I don’t think she was on duty last night. At least I didn’t see her.”

  Ruth tapped her finger on her top lip. “So … maybe we’ve been wasting our time with the investigation of Rothschild.”

  Nans nodded. “We’d better start looking into that janitor.”

  “I still wish we could get a handle on the motive,” Helen said.

  “And what about the earring I found?” Lexy asked.

  Nans walked over to her computer table, pulled the earring out of a drawer and held it up. The gold setting glimmered in the light, a perfect contrast to the black pearl. “It’s a very distinctive setting, and very feminine. I doubt the janitor would have been wearing it.”

  “Maybe it fell off earlier and has nothing to do with the murder,” Helen said.

  “Or maybe the janitor has an accomplice who wears earrings,” Ruth added.

  Nans pursed her lips. “We’ll have to keep all avenues open. What I heard last night doesn’t necessarily mean the janitor is the killer. But it does mean we need to look at him a little closer. I’m not ruling Rothschild out just yet either and, if we can tie the earring to her, all the better.”

  Nans’s iPad started ringing on the table in front of her and she tilted her head to look at the display. “It’s Ida calling on Facetime, she’s down with Norman,” she said, sliding the bar to answer.

  Ida’s face filled the screen and Lexy felt an icy chill race up her spine at her words.

  “Mona, get down here right away. There’s been another murder … and this one doesn’t look so natural.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “It’s that room over there.” Ida pointed to a room down the hall where there was a bustle of activity. Nans, Ruth and Helen took off toward it with Lexy following slowly behind.

  Nans stopped at the doorway. “We can’t get in,” she whispered. “Helen, see if you can get some pictures with your camera glasses.”

  Lexy followed Helen, standing on her tippy toes and craning her neck to look into the room. Inside, a body lay at an odd angle on the bed. The pillows were tossed on the floor and the sheets were bunched up. Some members of the staff stood around, their faces masks of concern.

  Lexy caught the eye of Cassie’s cousin Sam, who flitted nervously at the end of the bed. She raised her eyebrows and jerked her head to get Sam to come out into the hallway.

  “What’s going on?” Lexy asked.

  Sam took a deep breath. “It looks like Mr. Turco has been killed.” She glanced back into the room. “We’re waiting for the police.”

  Lexy felt her heart lurch. Would Jack be coming here? She didn’t know if it was such a good idea for him to find her here given the current tension between them on the subject of her investigating murders.

  “Why would someone kill him?” Lexy asked.

  Sam started to chew her bottom lip. “No one knows. He was in a lot of pain, maybe someone wanted to put him out of his misery.”

  “Do you have any idea who that might be?”

  Sam glanced up the hallway, moved a step closer to Lexy and lowered her voice. “I’ve been thinking about how you asked about Nurse Rothschild the other day and you’re right. She isn’t a kind and caring nurse. I think it could have been her.”

  Lexy felt her heartbeat speed up. “Do you have any proof?”

  “No … just a feeling.”

  “Move it along, ladies.” One of the nurses came out into the hall, giving Sam a pointed look, then shooi
ng Lexy, Nans, Ruth, and Helen down the hall away from the room. Ida popped her head out of a room at the end of the hallway and beckoned them inside.

  “Did you see anything?” Ida asked in a hushed tone.

  “Too many people in there,” Nans replied. “How’s Norman?”

  Lexy looked at the bed where Norman lay sleeping. He looked tired and worn.

  “He’s doing okay. The pain meds really knock him out so I’m just letting him sleep.”

  Lexy heard a commotion in the hall and felt her stomach drop when she saw Jack accompanied by a crew of police. As if feeling her gaze, he glanced over, his face registering surprise when he recognized her. Lexy gave him a smile and half wave.

  “Jack’s here,” Lexy whispered to the other women.

  “Oh good,” Nans said. “Is he coming over?”

  “Yep.” Lexy felt a pit of doom in her stomach. She started to get a little light-headed and nauseous and her annoying eye twitch started up again. Her legs threatened to collapsed out from under her. She folded herself into a chair and put her head between her legs just as Jack strode into the room.

  “Lexy … are you okay?” His voice was peppered with concern.

  “Uh-huh. I forgot to eat breakfast this morning and got a little light headed is all,” she said from in between her legs.

  Jack squeezed the back of her neck. “Are you still dieting? I told you I was only kidding. You look fine. Perfect.”

  Lexy felt her heart flutter and lifted her head. “Thanks.”

  “So, you guys finally see that something suspicious is going on here,” Nans said.

  “Yeah, looks like the killer botched the job. Maybe someone came by before they were done. Anyway, it definitely looks like this one was murder,” Jack said looking over at the door. “I can’t say about the others though.”