“Gigantic.”
“He proposed in the nursing care ward?”
Ida giggled like a schoolgirl. “Yes, I guess he was planning on doing it and didn’t want to wait just because he was laid up.”
Lexy felt her heart squeeze. Was everyone except her getting engaged? She immediately regretted her jealous thoughts. She was happy for Cassie and Ida, heck, she didn’t even know if she wanted to get married. Her and Jack didn’t always see eye to eye, so maybe it would be a mistake. Still, it would be nice to be asked.
They all got in line to hug and congratulate Ida. Lexy pulled Ida’s hand up to her face to admire the ring. It was very similar to Cassie’s.
Crap!
She’d forgotten that Cassie’s dress rehearsal was tonight. She glanced at her watch, her stomach clenching. She had forty-five minutes to get home, change and then over to the restaurant where Cassie planned to get married. She pushed away from the group.
“I gotta run, I’m late for Cassie’s wedding rehearsal!” She said, grabbing her coat and bolting out the door.
Chapter Seventeen
Lexy rushed into the entrance of the Brook Ridge Falls restaurant. Her hair sat piled on top of her head in an unruly mess, her dress needed adjustment and she sported sneakers on her feet instead of the Manolo Blahnik rhinestone-studded stilettos she planned to wear for the wedding. But at least she’d made it on time … almost.
The restaurant, an old mill, boasted a gigantic picture window with a spectacular up-close view of the waterfall. Cassie, John, and Jack stood in a huddle in front of it.
Jack turned as she approached, his face blanched and he shoved something into his pocket. Her eyes narrowed as she saw him say something to the others and they whirled around to look at her. Why was everyone acting so strange?
Her disturbing thoughts fled and her eyes widened as she got the full view of Cassie in her deep red gown, hair highlighted to match. She had accentuated the outfit with black rhinestone jewelry and a black veil which hung from the back of her head. Stunning.
“You look amazing!” she said, making Cassie blush.
“You look pretty good yourself,” Jack said, his eyes traveling down her body and back up to her eyes. Lexy’s heart flip-flopped in her chest as a smile lit his handsome face.
“Oh, well, I kind of got ready in a hurry.” She shrugged, reaching up to straighten her messy hair.
“Yeah, you usually have much better shoe choices,” Cassie said, causing Lexy’s cheeks to grow warm as everyone looked down at her sneakers.
Thankfully, the minister interrupted their inspection of her footwear. “Are we ready to start?”
Cassie looked around the room. “I think everyone is here, so I guess so. We’re having a lattice archway made with red roses that we’ll stand under.” She walked over to the center of the window. “I’d like to put it here. We’ll stand facing the waterfall and you can stand here facing us.”
Cassie pointed to a spot and the minister obediently stood there. Cassie and John took their places in front of him.
“Wait,” Cassie said. “I need a stand in so I can see how this looks." She grabbed Lexy and put her in the bride’s spot, then shoved John out of the way and replaced him with Jack. “Stay there so I can see how it will look from the guests’ point of view.”
Lexy glanced at Jack out of the corner of her eye. He looked impossibly handsome in his tux. When he turned to look at her, she felt a little weak in the knees. Until she noticed how nervous he looked. Was standing at the alter with her that nerve wracking?
“That’s perfect.” Cassie’s voice pulled her from her thoughts and she turned in time to see her friend walking back to take her place, a devious gleam in her eye. “How did it feel for you two to be standing in front of the minister?” She cocked an eyebrow at Jack who shuffled backwards, his hands held up in the air.
“I wouldn’t want to steal the limelight from you and John,” he said, pushing John back into the groom’s spot.
The minister cut in. “Will someone be walking you down the aisle?”
“My brother,” Cassie motioned for her brother, Brandon, to join them.
“Wow, you look dapper.” Lexy admired Brandon. He owned a fitness studio and his muscular body was evident under the tux.
“You too,” he said, then glanced down at her shoes. “Almost.”
Lexy swatted at him playfully. Cassie and Brandon were close and, since Lexy and Cassie had been best friends for decades, Brandon was like a brother to her.
The minister ushered them all to the back of the room and they were joined by Cassie’s cousins, Sam and Justine, and another cousin Mick. The minister paired off the wedding party and they practiced marching down the aisle.
Lexy couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy when she saw the look on John’s face as he stood at the alter waiting for Cassie to join him. She hoped someday she would have someone waiting up there for her with the same look on his face. Would that somebody be Jack?
Eventually they got it perfect and retired to the bar to celebrate. Lexy ordered a coffee. She sauntered over toward Sam, who sat with her elbows propped on the bar, her hand curled around a bottle of beer. Now was the perfect time to try to get more information about the murders out of her.
“Hi,” Lexy cupped her hands around the coffee mug to warm them. The restaurant was chilly inside and the sleeveless dress didn’t provide much in the way of warmth.
“Hey Lexy, have you heard any more about what happened at the retirement center yesterday?” Sam asked.
“Not too much, what about you?”
“Isn’t that the police detective who was there?” Sam tilted the top of her beer bottle towards Jack.
“Yes, he works with John.”
“Oh, thats right. Sometimes I forget that Cassie is marrying a cop.” Sam swiveled her chair to face Lexy. “She never used to like them. But if the rest of them are as good looking as those two, I can see the attraction.”
Lexy leaned against the bar, ignoring the pang of jealousy she felt when she saw the way Sam looked at Jack.
“I was wondering, what happens after someone dies at the retirement center?” Sam’s perplexed look invited her to elaborate. “Specifically, what’s the procedure. I mean, do you call the police for all of them … or the funeral home?”
“Well the last one, Mr. Turco, was clearly not natural so, of course we called the police for that. But the others, if the doctor on duty deems the death to be of natural causes we just call the next of kin and the funeral home. It’s usually listed in their files.”
“What happens to their belongings?”
Sam pursed her lips. “Why? Are you thinking that’s why they were killed?”
“Maybe.”
“Their clothing and other effects go to the family.”
Lexy chewed her bottom lip, trying to think up the right way to phrase her next question.
“What about their medications?”
Sam’s eyes grew wide, her hand jerked, spilling her beer on the bar.
“Crap!” She jumped away from the bar looking down at the stain on her dress. She glanced up at Lexy, her eyes darting wildly, then ran off in the direction of the ladies room. Lexy grabbed a pile of napkins and mopped up the spill.
A bit of an over-reaction to a beer spill. Lexy stared after Sam, then finished the clean up and took a sip of her coffee.
“Did you say something?”
Jack appeared at her elbow, startling her out of her thoughts. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“No.” Had she said something out loud?
“Oh, it sounded like you made a clucking sound.”
“What?”
“You know, like a chicken.”
Lexy furrowed her brow. This wasn’t the first time she’d been accused of clucking recently and it was starting to get as annoying as the eye tic. Something in the corner of her mind nagged at her, but she was distracted by Sam coming back into the room.
She noticed Jack
looking at Sam too, and felt a bit envious of how Sam’s figure filled her dress out perfectly. Lexy looked down at her own figure and wondered if she still needed to lose a few pounds from her hips.
She looked back at Sam. The other woman looked more put-together in her outfit. A nice pair of heels, glittery earrings, and a necklace that complimented the dress perfectly.
Lexy leaned forward, squinting her eyes to see the necklace better, her heart freezing in her chest. The gold chain glittered with reflection from the chandeliers overhead, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. It was the pendant in the center. A black pearl in a unique setting.
Lexy realized Jack had been chatting away beside her. She clutched at his arm to get him to stop, and whipped her head around to face him.
“I think I know who the killer is.”
###
Lexy pulled Jack aside into the corner of the room and watched his face as she told him her suspicions about the killer.
“That makes sense, but I need some evidence,” Jack said, running his hand through his hair.
“But if we don’t do something fast, someone else might get killed.” Lexy’s thoughts turned to Norman who lay in the nursing care center. If her suspicions were correct, he fit the killer’s profile perfectly, and she feared he may be next.
“I know, Lexy, but my hands are tied.”
Lexy chewed her bottom lip. “What if we caught the killer in the act?”
“That would be pretty hard to do considering we don’t know when they will strike next. We don’t have the man power to stake out the retirement center indefinitely.”
Lexy glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “We could make it irresistible for the killer, then we’d know exactly when they were going to strike and we could be there to catch them in the act.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You mean a setup?”
Lexy nodded. “Would that be dangerous?”
Jack rubbed his chin with his thumb. “Not necessarily. We’ve done that sort of thing before. It’s all carefully monitored so the decoy is never really in any danger.” He narrowed his eyes at Lexy. “Did you have someone in particular in mind?”
Lexy’s stomach lurched. She did have someone in mind, but she didn’t want to put anyone in danger.
“Yes, but we’ll have to see if she agrees, and you’ll have to swear she won’t get hurt.”
Jack put his hand on Lexy’s arm. “Of course I would never put anyone in danger, especially the person you have in mind,” he said, with a wink. “Now, let’s get out of here so I can put the plan into action.
Chapter Eighteen
Nans lay in the small hospital bed, her heart pounding so hard that it seemed like everyone in the retirement center could hear it. She wiped her sweaty palms on the sheets, and tried to feign sleep.
Despite her high level of anxiety, the background noise in the critical care center lulled her senses. She’d lain there for hours and was starting to feel sleepy, despite her fears. Struggling to stay awake, she congratulated herself on being wily enough to tuck the sleeping pill the nurse’s aid had given her under her tongue so she could spit it out after she left.
She wasn’t sure if she’d drifted off, but her body was relaxed on the bed when she heard someone tip-toe softly into the room. Immediately, she went into high alert, every nerve tingling while she tried to remain perfectly still under the sheets.
“Mona?” The voice was just above a whisper.
She didn’t move or answer. She heard the sound of soft-soled shoes creeping closer to the bed.
“Are you awake?” The voice was right next to her ear and it was all Nans could do not to jump at the sound.
Nans’s heart jerked in her chest as she felt a pillow slide out from under her head, then felt it slowly pressed over her face—lightly at first, then with increasing pressure until she couldn’t suck in any more air.
Her mind whirled in panic. Someone was supposed to be here to help her!
She couldn’t stop her body from struggling as it tried in vain to pull in oxygen. The edges of her consciousness started to go gray. She felt her stomach drop as she started to submit to the darkness. Something had gone terribly wrong.
“Hold it right there!”
Nans’s heart leaped with relief as she heard Jack’s voice loud and clear. The pressure on the pillow eased up and she sucked in a lungful of air.
Lexy rushed to her side, and grabbed her hand. She looked up in time to see Jack shoot her a look of concern as he took out his handcuffs.
“Nans, are you all right?” Lexy cried.
Sucking in another breath, she found her voice.
“Of course, I’m all right. No thanks to you people. What the hell took you so long.”
Epilogue
Lexy took her almond biscotti and dunked it in her coffee. Nibbling off a corner, she glanced around the front room of her bakery where they had pulled two of the cafe tables together in order to accommodate the large group celebrating the arrest of the retirement center killer.
To her left, Cassie and Ida were comparing their engagement rings. Lexy tried not to feel envious. She was happy for them, even if her relationship with Jack wasn’t quite working out the way she wanted.
Her eyes darted around the group and came to rest on Jack who was seated as far from her as possible. Her heart faltered when their eyes met and he looked away from her quickly. He’d been acting stranger than strange lately and she found it too stressful. She was going to have to come right out and ask him what was going on.
“I still don’t understand how the murders enabled Sam to get oxycontin to sell on the black market.” Lexy heard Ruth say to Jack.
“Anyone in the nursing care facility who was on pain killers had the prescriptions filled ahead of time. The pills were doled out as needed by the nurses but when someone died, all their pills were disposed of. Once prescribed, you can’t reuse them so the staff would flush them.” Jack said. “Instead of Sam flushing them, she pocketed them and sold them later on.”
“That explains why the people were killed shortly after they were admitted. There would be more drugs in the hopper,” Nans said.
Lexy glanced over at Cassie, whose cheeks were red enough to match her hair. “I feel so bad about this … I didn’t have any idea what she was up to.”
Nans reached over and patted her hand. “Of course you didn’t dear, it’s not your fault.”
“It wasn’t just Sam,” Jack added, “They leaders of the ring would get people in their debt and then try to place them at nursing homes and force them to get the drugs. Thanks to your information, we were able to break up the whole ring, so hopefully our senior citizens will be safe now.”
Lexy thought of the suspicious deaths at Sunny Acres and felt a cold chill, wondering how many other people had died in other nursing homes.
“Lexy, how did you put it all together?” Helen asked, helping herself to a lemon biscotti from one of the plates which were piled full of different flavors of the crunchy concoction.
“Just a lucky break. I happened to notice the necklace she had on at Cassie’s rehearsal matched the earring we found under the bed. Then I remembered she’d acted kind of strange when I saw her dispensing drugs at the retirement home, and when I asked what happened to the medication when people died, she got all nervous.” Lexy shrugged. “Then when I remembered that Cassie said she used to be into drugs, it all kind of came together.”
“Now I realize when Bertram Glumm’s roommate said he saw “Sam” in the room, he was talking about Cassie’s cousin, not Sam, the janitor!” Nans said.
Lexy took a sip of her coffee. She closed her eyes and welcomed the bitter brew, then opened them quickly when she realized everyone was laughing at her.
“What is going on?”
Nans looked at Helen. “Should we tell her?”
Helen nodded. “Remember when I hypnotized you?”
Lexy narrowed her eyes, looking from Helen to Rut
h to Nans to Ida. “Yeeees.”
“Well, I did sort of give you something extra.” The four ladies giggled.
“But don’t worry,” Ruth said. “It will wear off as time goes on.”
Lexy remembered back to the hypnosis session at Sunny Acres and how Helen had given Alma a renewed zest and energy.
“Is it a renewed sense of energy?” Lexy asked.
“Not exactly.” Helen scrunched her face up.
“It’s got something to do with why people seem to keep laughing at me, doesn’t it?”
Nans nodded. “We had a little fun with you, dear, and Helen implanted a suggestion that you cluck like a chicken sometimes when you take a sip of coffee.”
The four older women burst out laughing and were soon joined by everyone at the table—everyone, except Lexy.
“What?” Lexy felt her face growing warm.
“Sorry, dear. We don’t get to have too much fun like that. It will happen less and less as time goes on.” Helen said in between snickers.
Lexy felt her mouth drop open. “So, you’ve all been laughing at me behind my back?”
“Oh come on now, Lexy, the ladies were just having a little fun. No harm was done, right?” Jack said, spreading his arms.
Lexy stared at him. Another time she might have laughed it off, but now, looking at Jack, she felt her anger rising.
“Well, that’s easy for you to say. I think you owe me some explanations too,” she said.
A hush fell on the table.
“Huh?”
“You’ve been acting all secretive. Doing weird things, like not letting me go in your living room, sneaking off with Nans, and whispering with everyone here,” she spread her hands to indicate the people at the table. “If there’s something going on, I think I deserve to know.”
She stood up, slamming her palm on the table while everyone stared at her open-mouthed.
Jack rubbed his face with his hands. He looked worn and tired making Lexy immediately regret her outburst. He stood up. “There is something we need to talk about, but not here.” He crossed over to her, took her by the elbow and dragged her outside.
3 Bodies and a Biscotti (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery) Page 7