8 Scones, Skulls & Scams

by Leighann Dobbs

  Tearing herself away from the window, she walked over to the bakery case. A sugary treat would sure help alleviate the boredom. She’d given Cassie the day off and being at the bakery alone with few customers to wait on left her with only two things to do to fill her time—bake and eat.

  Glancing at her reflection in the chrome display-case door, she pushed at a lock of brown hair that had escaped the ponytail that swung just below her shoulders. Her face was still tanned from lazy days in the sun and it made her green eyes look even lighter than usual. She slid the door open and picked out a chocolate whoopee pie. Leaning on the top of the case she bit into the chocolaty confection, savoring the contrasting flavors of dark chocolate and the sweet creamy middle.

  As she chewed, she contemplated what to do next. The police had the street almost blocked off now and she doubted any customers would be coming by. Maybe today was a good day to close early, go home and make a nice home-cooked meal for Jack. She could even bring his favorite pie—coconut cream.

  Shoving the rest of the whoopee pie into her mouth, she opened the refrigerated display case that held the pies, pulled out a coconut cream, set it in a pie box on top of the case and then rearranged the pie display to fill in the empty space.

  Grabbing a clean cloth, she swiped at the few crumbs left on the cafe tables on her way to the front door where she hesitated for a few seconds, her hand hovering over the lock.

  Lexy never closed the shop early, but felt certain keeping it open today was a waste of time. Even though she hated to miss out on even one customer, the time would be better spent at home unwinding and unpacking after her trip. Her mind made up, she grabbed the sign on the door and quickly turned it over to the “Closed” side.

  Turning away from the door, her eyes drifted across the street and her heart stuttered when she found herself looking right into the beady blue eyes of the blonde at The Brew and Bake. She stood frozen for a split second.

  Should she wave?

  No, the other woman did not look friendly at all.

  Lexy ripped her gaze away and then spun around, turning off the lights and grabbing the pie on her way out the back door. She’d meet the owner of The Brew and Bake some other time—Lexy was sure of it.

  ***

  “So, tell me about the skull they found in the sewer pipes today.” Lexy slid the piece of pie across the kitchen table to Jack and leaned back in her chair as he stabbed his fork into it.

  Jack closed his eyes, swirling the pie around in his mouth and making nummy noises.

  “There’s not much to tell.” He took another forkful of pie and held it up to his mouth. “The skull belongs to a male. It’s been down there for a long time.”

  “How long?”

  “We’re not exactly sure but the medical examiner said probably decades.” Jack broke off a piece of piecrust and held it out for Sprinkles, who twirled around in excitement before inhaling it.

  “Wow. That’s a long time.” Lexy gathered the dinner dishes from the table to load into the dishwasher.

  “We have some people going down tomorrow to see if they can come up with any more bones or figure out what happened, but it’s a long-shot we’ll be able to find out too much and the case isn’t a priority.”

  Lexy spun around to face him. “What do you mean? You’re not going to hold up the sewer project are you?”

  Jack raised a brow at her. “Well, I don’t know. Technically, we shouldn’t disturb anything but, like I said, most of the evidence is probably gone by now. The site is so old. I know there is a lot of pressure to get that project done and the street patched back up before the bicentennial though, so I doubt our investigation would hold up the project too much.”

  “So, if you don’t find anything tomorrow, you just drop it?” Lexy asked incredulously. Surely, they would investigate until they found out how the skull got there, wouldn’t they?

  “Oh, no.” Jack brought his empty pie plate over to the dishwasher. “There are other entrances to the old sewer system and we can still have the sewer commission open up the manholes later on so we can get in that way.”

  “Oh, good. I’m losing business with that street all dug up like that. Not to mention the new bakery.”

  “Surely, you aren’t worried about the competition.” Jack stepped closer, his arm snaking around her back to untie her apron.

  No, not really. Was she?

  “No, but …”

  Jack pulled her close. She leaned into him inhaling his clean, spicy scent.

  “You know you make the best pastries around. I’m sure that other bakery’s stuff isn’t nearly as good.” He tugged on her ponytail, freeing her hair which cascaded down around her shoulders.

  “That’s what Nans and the gang said.” Lexy pressed her lips together. “But I better make sure these scones I have entered in the bake-off are absolutely perfect. I may need to do some test runs. They have to be good enough to beat her entry.”

  “Your great-grandma’s recipe?” Jack tugged on her hand, pulling her toward the door leading to the living room.

  “Yeah. It always wins top prize.” Lexy followed him absently, her mind on the torn up sidewalks, the competing bakery across the street and making sure she baked the winning scones.

  “I’m sure you’ll win with those. They’re delicious.” Jack continued pulling her toward the stairs. “And so are you …”

  “Huh?” She looked up at him then flushed when she recognized the primal look in his eye. “Oh.”

  Jack smiled and Lexy realized they were at the bottom of the stairs … which wasn’t such a bad thing.

  “Well, even if the police don’t have time to investigate the mysterious skull, I know four ladies who do,” Lexy said.

  Jack turned looking at her pointedly. “Four … or five?”

  Lexy grimaced. In the past, Jack hadn’t always approved of her helping Nans and The Ladies Detective Club with their investigations. Lately, though, he’d loosened up a bit. She hoped he wouldn’t get mad at her if she helped out on this one. “Well, it does seem kind of intriguing … I mean a decades-old skeleton in a sewer system—who wouldn’t want to investigate that?”

  Jack laughed. “You and Nans might as well go ahead. Like I said, it’s not a priority for us. We have a backlog of recent murders to investigate.”

  Lexy stopped short. “Murders? You mean the man who belonged to the skull was murdered?”

  “We don’t know for sure, but judging by the hole in the middle of his head I’d have to say murder is a definite possibility.”

  Chapter Four

  “I think she’s up to something.” Cassie glanced out the window toward The Brew and Bake, the magenta tips of her spiky short blonde hair seemed to glow in the sun streaming through the window.

  “Really? Why do you say that?” Lexy looked up from the old cookbook she held in her hands. The yellowed pages were dotted with stains and the binding bulged with various recipes handwritten on paper and index cards or ripped from magazines. One of her most prized possessions, the collection had been in her family since her great-grandmother, with each new generation adding to it.

  “I can’t say for sure, but don’t you think it’s weird someone would open a bakery right across from another bakery?”

  “I suppose so, but maybe she’s just not very smart.”

  Cassie pressed her lips together. “There’s something else.”

  “What?”

  “I’m pretty sure I saw her sneaking around out back near our dumpster the other day.”

  “The dumpster? What would she want out there?”

  Cassie shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe to find out something about the ingredients we use or something?”

  Or find notes for some of my recipes, Lexy thought, looking back down at the cookbook.

  “All the more reason for me to make sure I win the baking contest in the bicentennial,” Lexy said. “Then the whole town will know our bakery is the best.”

  “When is Helen’s a
rticle coming out in the paper?” Cassie asked.

  “Good question. That should help business along. I’ll have to call Nans and find out.”

  “No need to call, you can just ask her yourself.” Cassie jerked her chin toward the door that had just swung open to reveal Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen.

  “Hi ‘ya, girls!” Nans yelled out a greeting on her way to the pastry case.

  Lexy and Cassie greeted the four older women, then grabbed an assortment of pastries from the bakery cases and brought them to the tables.

  “So, when is your article coming out, Helen?” Lexy asked once everyone was seated with a cup of steaming coffee or tea and the array of pastries in front of them.

  Helen broke off a piece of blueberry scone. “It’s supposed to be Wednesday. I don’t think the owner of the other bakery is going to like it much.”

  “Oh?” Cassie raised a pierced brow at Helen.

  “Their goods are not as tasty as Lexy’s. I did an in-depth comparison and simply told the truth in my article. I have several factors I judged them on and Lexy’s came out as far superior.” Helen shrugged then added hastily. “And it’s not just because she’s Nans’ granddaughter, either.”

  Lexy slid her eyes over to The Brew and Bake. She could see a couple of customers milling around inside but it was nothing like the day before, even though her sign still announced a fifty-percent off sale. She watched the door open. A familiar figure shuffled out, cane in one hand and grocery bag in the other.

  Victor Nessbaum. The traitor!

  Lexy watched him amble across the street, dangling his cane from the wrist of the hand that held the bag while he put something in his pocket with the other hand. Lexy wondered why he had gone to the other bakery when the day before she had gotten the feeling he didn’t approve. Maybe the lure of getting fifty-percent off was too great.

  “So, Lexy, were you able to get any information out of Jack about the skull?” Nans’ eager voice pulled her attention from the window.

  “Not too much. He said the police were going into the sewer lines today to look for the rest of the bones and any evidence,” Lexy said. “Oh, and he did say the skull was from a man and they suspect he was murdered.”

  Ida gasped. “I knew it!”

  Ruth rubbed her hands together. “This is very exciting … maybe we can integrate his murder into the display we are making for the bicentennial.”

  “We’ll need to research it first of course,” Nans said.

  “Naturally,” Helen added.

  “Where do we start?” Ida asked.

  “If only we could get into the sewer.” Ruth craned her neck toward the end of the street where that had found the skull.

  “Maybe once the police are done, we can talk to the sewer workers,” Nans said.

  “John said they were going to be done today and then the sewer workers could finish up in a couple of days,” Cassie added. She’d heard about the skull from her husband John, also a homicide detective.

  “Jack said there’s other ways to get into the sewers, too,” Lexy said, then immediately regretted it. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her grandmother crawling around in the sewer.

  Nans’ face lit up. “Really? Did he say where?”

  “Nooo.” Lexy drew the word out.

  “Well, that’s no help,” Ida said. “Maybe we can go to the town hall and look up the blueprints. That’s what they always do on TV.”

  “We need to go down there anyway to do some more research for the historical society display,” Ruth added.

  “Which reminds me …” Nans rummaged inside her purse, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lexy. “… we found this newspaper article showing your great-grandma winning the Brook Ridge Falls Octoberfest with her famous scones, so all those times she bragged about the recipe being a sure-fire contest winner she wasn’t just shining us on!”

  Lexy’s heart warmed as she looked at the paper. She had vague, but fond memories of her great-grandmother who had died when she was eight. The picture showed a younger version of great-grandma, proudly holding a blue ribbon.

  “Boy I wish she were here to help me make the scones for the contest,” Lexy said.

  “Oh, don’t worry dear.” Nans patted her hand. “You’re a wonderful baker. You’ll make the prize-winning scones and you’ll certainly beat out the other bakery.”

  “Of course, and I have great-grandma’s recipe right here.” Lexy fingered a dog-eared yellow piece of paper that stuck out from the edge of the book. “Actually, I think I’ll go back to the kitchen right now and make a practice batch.”

  She stood, clutching the book to her chest. “Cassie, can you watch the front?”

  “Of course.”

  “Thanks.” Lexy started toward the back. She should feel good. After all, she had the recipe that had proven to win dozens of contests for both her great-grandmother and herself. Plus, she knew the baked items at the other place didn’t even taste that good.

  So, why did she feel less than confident?

  Maybe it was because of what Cassie had said about seeing the other owner out at the dumpster. That seemed to indicate she wasn’t just someone who didn’t have the business smarts to not open a bakery across the street from an established one, but that she was actively trying to compete with Lexy.

  But why would she do that?

  Lexy couldn’t come up with a good reason. On her way to the kitchen, Lexy peered out at the dumpster.

  Was there information to be gained by looking through another bakery’s dumpster?

  Lexy had no idea, but she also had no intention of letting the other baker get the upper hand.

  Two could play at the dumpster diving game.

  ***

  The scent of butter and sugar from an afternoon of baking scones hung in the air around Lexy and Cassie as they crouched down in the darkness of the front room of The Cup and Cake.

  “Is she ever going to leave?” Cassie hissed peeking up over the edge of the window to look across the street at The Brew and Bake.

  Lexy shifted her position in an attempt to stop her legs from cramping. It was almost eight o’clock and they’d closed down The Cup and Cake over an hour ago.

  Lexy pulled the black knit hat down across her forehead, then looked up over the edge of the window. Across the street, the blonde bustled around her cafe tables, wiping them down and rearranging the napkin and sugar holders. Lexy’s heart skipped and she quickly ducked back down when the other woman glanced out toward her.

  “I don’t think she can see us. It’s pitch black in here,” Cassie said as if reading Lexy’s mind. “Thank God, she’s turning the sign on the door.”

  Lexy poked her head back up in time to see the blonde turn the sign to “Closed” and grab her coat from a coat rack beside the door before turning off the light and exiting the shop.

  “Let’s go.” Lexy scurried to the back door. The two of them crept outside, then ran across the street like shadows in their identical head-to-toe all-black outfits.

  It had turned cold after sunset. Puddles topped with thin ice crunched under Lexy’s black boots as she slipped along the side of The Brew and Bake and made a beeline for the dumpster.

  “What are we looking for?” Cassie whispered.

  “I don’t know, but if she looked in our dumpster, it’s only fair we look in hers. There must be something one can find out by looking in your competitor’s dumpster, but I guess we won’t know until we find it.”

  Lexy eyed the dumpster. It was one of the smaller ones and she could see over the edge without having to get up on anything; except it was hard to see anything in there in the dark.

  “Did you bring a flashlight?” Lexy asked.

  Cassie answered by snapping on a small light and aiming a thin beam into the dumpster.

  “What is all this … It looks like just a bunch of cardboard boxes.” Lexy heaved herself up on the side, balancing like a seesaw on her hipbones. She reached into the dumpster li
fting one of the boxes to flip it over. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the lettering.

  “These are from the grocery store!” She picked one up and tossed it out to Cassie.

  “That scammer! Do you think she’s buying baked goods at the grocery store and passing them off as hers?” Cassie asked.

  Lexy rummaged through the pile to see if she could find anything else, but the only things in there were more boxes along with something gooey and sticky which made her thankful she was wearing gloves. She slid off the side of the dumpster before answering her friend’s question.

  “Well, it sure seems like she has a lot of grocery store bakery boxes, but why would she open a bakery and then try to pass off grocery store goods?”

  Cassie frowned down at the box in her hand. “I have no idea—”

  “Shhhh.” Lexy heard a click coming from the direction of the back door and cut Cassie off.

  She pulled Cassie behind the dumpster in a crouch. Lexy craned her neck to peer around the end of the dumpster just as a slice of light spilled out from the opening door. She jerked her head back and leaned against the cold metal.

  “…figure out a way to get access across the street,” a man’s voice said.

  More boxes clanged into the dumpster causing the girls to cringe. Lexy’s heart hammered in her chest, her breath came out in short puffs of condensation. Beside her, Cassie rubbed her arms, her nose was red from the cold.

  “That’s going to be hard. But I have an idea. Maybe we can…” The woman’s voice was cut off by the door shutting behind them as they went inside.

  Lexy exchanged a wide-eyed look with Cassie. Across the street? Did they mean her bakery?

  “Let’s get out of here before they come back out.” Cassie ventured a look over the top of the dumpster.

  Lexy nodded and the two girls ran for the side of the building, then across the street to the safety of The Cup and Cake.