Murder, Money & Marzipan (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery)

by Dobbs, Leighann

  Jake stood, his mostly full beer still on the table.

  “It was nice talking to you, Ms. Baker. Don’t forget to call if you find anything else out.”

  “Oh, I won’t,” Lexy said, then left the bar, heading toward the casino. She didn’t go straight to the slot machine she had been aiming for originally though; the conversation with Saunders had given her an idea.

  She headed for Bakery Battles Stadium. If Amanda and Evan Westmore were having an affair, that might give Peter or Evan a motive for killing Amanda.

  The question was, were they having an affair? She didn’t know for sure, but she had an idea where she might be able to find a clue.

  ###

  Skirting the edge of the casino, Lexy took the back hallway toward Bakery Battles Stadium. The dim lighting in the empty stadium area gave the large room a sinister ambiance. Lexy forced herself forward, jabbing her finger into her eye to keep it from twitching.

  She took the middle hallway toward the back where the offices were. Her footsteps echoed hollowly in the empty room.

  Clack. Clack. Clack.

  Scuff.

  What was that?

  Lexy whirled around. Was someone behind her?

  No one was there.

  “Hello?” she called out tentatively. No one answered.

  She gave a little laugh. Silly me, getting all spooked by an empty room.

  Lexy turned back around. She willed herself to keep facing forward as she picked up the pace to the back of the room.

  The offices were makeshift rooms separated by temporary walls. Each had its own door, but there were no locks so every office was accessible. She found Evan Westmore’s and turned the knob.

  The door clicked open. Taking one last backward glance, Lexy slipped into the office, then silently closed the door.

  Dim light from the stadium filtered in through opaque glass slots at the very top of the walls, giving the office a dusk-like feel. Slats of light reflected dust motes suspended in the air.

  Looking around, Lexy realized she had no idea what she was looking for.

  An antique mahogany desk sat in the middle of the room. Pretty ritzy for a temporary office. Behind it, a book-case with neatly stacked books. To the left, a filing cabinet.

  Lexy tried the filing cabinet drawers. Locked. She moved over to the desk. The top was neatly arraigned with a desk pad, onyx pen set, and a gorgeous pair of onyx book ends. Westmore certainly had expensive taste. Lexy wondered how much the event coordinator position paid.

  In the center of the desk, she spotted some blank personalized stationary papers with matching envelopes. Lexy ran her fingertips over the paper. She had an affinity for good-quality paper, and this particular stock was extraordinary.

  She lifted a piece. It was heavy. Handmade with an interesting texture. Probably mulberry paper - only a few places even made this type of paper. She knew it was very expensive.

  Replacing the paper, she took care to line it up exactly as it had been. Sinking into the high-backed desk chair, she heard the soft tufted leather make a puffing sound.

  Starting in the middle drawer, she leafed through the contents. It held the usual stuff - pens, pencils, notes, paper, some personal photos including one of Westmore in a tux standing next to another man in a tux, their arms linked together. Lexy saw the happy smile on the normally dour man’s face and mused at what the occasion might be.

  Muffled sounds filtered into the room, increasing her anxiety. She cast a nervous glance at the door. Getting caught in there would probably result in her being kicked out of the competition. She didn’t want to stay any longer than necessary, so she sped up her search even though her nervous eye twitch was making it difficult to see.

  Hidden under a stack of papers in the bottom right drawer she found what she was looking for. A small black leather date book. Inside were cryptic messages written on various days. Just the thing someone who was having an affair might keep.

  Lexy shoved the book into her back pocket and stood up. Replacing the chair to its exact position she looked around the office to make sure everything looked the way it had when she entered.

  A noise in the hallway outside made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She tiptoed over to the door. Cracking it open, she peered out. The hallway was empty. She slipped out the door, holding the knob as she closed it so it wouldn’t make a sound, then hurried down the hall and out into the main corridor to the casino.

  Chapter Seven

  “You saw her going into Westmore’s office?” Nik raised her eyebrows at Jake.

  “Yep. I followed her into the stadium after hours and she went straight to his office. Seemed like she didn’t want anyone following her either.”

  “Did she see you?”

  Nik saw a flash of Jake’s dimples. “Come on, Nik, you know I know how to follow someone without being seen.”

  Nik turned to the board they had laid out with suspects’ names, pictures and data. “Why, would she be going to Westmore’s office?”

  “I’m not sure. When I saw her in the bar, she was having words with Peter Saunders about the victim and Westmore having an affair.”

  “They were?” Nik turned to look at him.

  “Yeah, Saunders looked like he was going to hit her.”

  “No, I mean Westmore and the victim - they were having an affair?”

  “Oh…Lexy said there were rumors about that, but I haven’t heard anything.”

  Nik wrinkled her brow. Turning back to the board, she drew a line from Evan Westmore to Amanda Saunders with a question mark in between.

  “We better check that out. It still doesn’t answer the question of why Baker would be going there.”

  Jake rubbed his chin. “It looked like she didn’t want anyone to see her there - maybe they were having a secret meeting.”

  Nik picked up a manilla folder from the desk and held it out toward Jake. “This is the folder on Westmore - seems he was into some shady business.”

  She watched Jake thumb through the folder. “I wonder how he got the event coordinator job with a track record like this?”

  Nik shrugged. “Who knows. He’s never done anything even close to murder, but he appears to be quite the swindler.”

  “Do you think Lexy Baker and Evan Westmore are running some kind of scam together? Maybe Saunders got in the way?”

  “It’s possible. What did you tell her before she went to his office?” Nik asked.

  “Just that we were weeding through the surveillance tapes and would soon know who the killer was…do you think she went to warn Westmore?”

  Nik screwed up her face, thinking about it. “We need to find out more about Lexy Baker. Too bad my contact in the police department in her town hasn’t called me back. Baker and her grandmother claim they actually helped bring in the killer from the murders she was messed up in: I wonder if it was to cover their own tracks or if they really are just amateur crime fighters.”

  “There’s another thing she told me that was very interesting.”

  Nik invited him to elaborate by raising her eyebrows.

  “She said Aurea Pearce’s roommate told her that Aurea left the room at 3:25. That would mean she was out of the room at the time of the murder. And that she lied to us about when she left the room.”

  “Aurea Pearce is Lexy’s strongest competitor. She would have a strong motive to get her kicked out of the competition…or arrested.”

  “Yeah, a $100,000 motive. But Pearce also had a motive to get rid of Saunders.”

  “Oh?”

  “With Saunders gone, a new judge will have to be named from the pool of alternate judges. One of those judges happens to be good friends with Aurea Pearce.”

  “We better check that out too. Find out what room Pearce is in and put a rush on looking at the surveillance tapes for that area. See if you can find out when she left and where she went. And keep a close watch on Lexy Baker - whether she’s up to something or not, her amateur investigating co
uld lead you to some interesting clues.”

  ###

  “You two stayed out awfully late last night.” Lexy stood in the middle of their hotel room, looking at Cassie and Nans.

  “I won $500 on a jackpot, so I wanted to keep playing,” Nans said. Her bright green eyes sparkled as she pulled a wad of money out of her purse to show them.

  “I was on a roll at the poker tables. Kind of hard to leave when the cards are going your way. You were fast asleep when I got in,” Cassie said.

  “I got something even better than money last night.” Lexy reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the little black date book.

  “What’s that?” Cassie held out her hand.

  Lexy felt her cheeks grow pink. “I kind of found myself alone in Evan Westmore’s office and it just happened to find its way into my pocket.”

  “You stole it?” Nans asked.

  Lexy nodded.

  “Lexy! If you get caught you’ll probably get kicked out of the competition,” Cassie said in wide-eyed shock.

  “I know, but I ran into Peter Saunders in the bar. He got so mad when I mentioned that Evan Westmore and his wife might have been having an affair, I wanted to see if I could find any evidence to prove it.”

  “Yeah, I heard that rumor. They were seen meeting, and she was dressing all spiffy.” Cassie opened the book. “But this is gibberish - it doesn’t prove anything.”

  Nans put her hand out for the book. “Let me see.”

  Cassie handed it over. Nans looked at it carefully, slowly turning the pages. “It might not look like much to the untrained eye because it’s in some sort of code. I bet Ida can make sense of it though. She used to be a cryptographer.”

  Nans reached for her iPad. A few keystrokes later the device made a ringing noise, then Ida’s face appeared on the screen.

  “Hi!”

  “Hi, Ida, we have something interesting for you today.” Nans held the book up to the camera so Ida could see it on her iPad screen. “This book seems to have entries in code - can you decipher it?”

  Ida squinted on the other end of the screen. “I think so. Can you take pictures of it and email them to me?”

  “Sure.” Nans put the book down and dug in her purse for her cell phone. “Did you find anything out about the Saunders?”

  “Not much. They have a modest house, make a modest income. Have a bit of debt, but who doesn’t these days? The husband is an accountant. There are some recent high credit card charges recently on Amanda’s card - high-end clothing stores and boutiques.”

  Lexy remembered the fancy purses and clothes Saunders had started wearing. Did she buy them to impress Westmore?

  Lexy watched Nans quickly snap off some pictures of the little black book, then send them off to Ida’s phone.

  “Did you find any reports of violence or fighting?” Lexy shouted at the iPad.

  “No, they were a model couple. And you don’t need to shout, dear - I’m not deaf.”

  “I just emailed those pictures to you,” Nans said.

  “Oh, great. Hold on.” Ida disappeared from the screen, then reappeared with her cell phone in hand. Lexy, Cassie, and Nans stared silently at the screen while they watched her page through the photos.

  “Well?” Nans said, finally.

  “It’s definitely some sort of code - it looks like something to do with numbers of some sort. I’ll need some time to decode it properly to be able to tell you more. I’m also working on a police case for Jack, so it might be a day or two.”

  “I was hoping it was some sort of diary or record of his liasons with Amanda Scott-Saunders,” Lexy said.

  “I’m not sure if it is or isn’t.” Ida looked thoughtful. “But one thing I am sure of, Westmore had a secret that was important enough for him to want to record it, but damaging enough that he didn’t want anyone else to know about it.”

  ###

  “We better hurry, I want to put some finishing touches on the wedding cakes before the judging.” Lexy held the door open to their suite and pushed Cassie through.

  The girls sprinted for the elevator, straightening their aprons on the way down.

  When the elevator stopped on the bottom floor, they rushed out, making their way toward the back hall that led to the stadium.

  “I wish we had more free time to enjoy Vegas,” Lexy said glancing in at the casino wistfully. Even at this early hour, it was humming with activity.

  Cassie nodded. “We should have booked a couple of extra days. I feel like we hardly have enough time to get our baking done for the contest with the time we do have.”

  Lexy listened to their shoes make clacking noises on the tile floor. The contest was on a tight schedule. Each day there was a new challenge that they would be judged on, which meant they only had 24 hours to come up with something extraordinary. That didn’t leave much time for fun and games.

  “At least our hard work is paying off,” she said.

  “Yes, its cool that we are in the top tier of the contest. A few bakers have already packed up and gone home.”

  After every challenge, the bottom ten percent of bakers were eliminated and sent home. The competition kept getting smaller and smaller, and tougher and tougher. Luckily Lexy usually ended up placing in the top three of each challenge, which was important since the scores from each challenge were added up at the end to determine the final winner.

  Reaching their kitchen booth, Lexy could see that the other booths were already starting fill up with bakers and their assistants, all busy working out their finishing touches for the wedding cake challenge.

  “You get the cakes out and I’ll grab the spatulas.” Lexy rushed over to the wire rack that held their equipment while Cassie opened the doors of the large fridge.

  “Lexy…You better look at this.”

  Lexy spun around, hearing her friends voice rise in panic.

  “What?” she started over towards the fridge, then stopped short when she saw the cause of Cassie’s panic.

  Inside sat the wedding cake they had labored over for the competition.

  Ruined.

  One of her very own giant butcher’s knives stuck out of the center, the words “Back Off” in red food coloring written all over her beautiful white cake.

  Chapter Eight

  Lexy stared at the cake, her stomach sinking like it was filled with lead. Who could have done this?

  Cassie turned around, wide-eyed. “What should we do?”

  “I wonder if we can fix it,” Lexy said, fighting back tears. Without the cake, she’d be disqualified from this part of the competition, severely limiting her chances of winning.

  She whipped her cell phone out of her pocket, snapping off a few pictures of the cake.

  “Whoever did this either wants me to stop investigating the murder or wants to ruin my chances of winning Bakery Battles…or both.” Lexy glanced over at Aurea Pearce’s kitchen. It was empty.

  “You need to tell the police. Isn’t the cake some sort of evidence?” Cassie asked.

  “Probably, but I took pictures and that’s going to have to be good enough. I’m not losing this competition because someone sabotaged our cake.” Lexy moved over to the fridge, holding the door wider. “Let’s get the cake out onto the table and see what we can do with it.”

  Cassie slid her hand under the cake while Lexy held the door. Lexy noticed something falling to the floor as Cassie moved the cake out.

  Dust?

  No. Glitter.

  Lexy looked at her hands - tiny dots of glitter sparkled in the harsh stadium lighting.

  “Cassie, did you put glitter on the cake?”

  “No, why?”

  “There’s glitter here over by the fridge and on the handle.”

  “That’s strange I don’t think we even have any glitter, do we?”

  Lexy rubbed her hands together, watching the shiny flakes drop to the floor. “No, must have been someone else - a cleaning person maybe?”

  Lexy watched Ca
ssie edge the cake onto the table, her mind already whirling with ideas on how to fix it. But first, she looked up Detective Jake Ryan’s number on her phone and sent him the cake pictures with a text of what she had found. At least they couldn’t say she didn’t tell them about it, and she could always act dumb about touching the cake.

  “Let’s take the knife out, but be careful with the handle - we don’t want to smudge any fingerprints.”

  The girls slipped on the latex gloves they normally wore when preparing food. Cassie gingerly grabbed the end of the knife, sliding it carefully out of the cake. She put it out of the way on the corner of the long table.

  Whipping up some frosting, they set about repairing the cake - patching up the big hole and carefully covering the red words with white frosting.

  “We better speed it up.” Lexy nodded toward the other end of the stadium where the judges were already doing a preliminary judging on the cakes.

  She glanced over at the next booth. Aurea Pearce had arrived. She was setting her cakes out on pedestals, applying some finishing touches.

  Aurea looked over at Lexy and smirked. Lexy wondered if it was an “I ruined your cake” smirk. She craned her neck to see if Aurea had any glitter in her booth.

  Working at breakneck speed, Lexy and Cassie managed to make the cake presentable. They put the two cakes out on presentation platters at the front of their booth just in the nick of time.

  The judges were at Aurea’s booth. Lexy noticed that the judge in Amanda Scott-Saunders’s spot was Grace Harvey and her heart took a nosedive. She wasn’t surprised when Harvey heaped praise on Aurea’s cakes or when Aurea cast another smirk in her direction as the judges moved toward Lexy’s booth.

  Lexy held her breath, watching the judges bend over her cakesand inspect them from every angle.

  “This one looks a little funny,” Grace Harvey said to the other two judges.

  Lexy watched silently as they all bent down and peered at the cake sideways. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Detective Jake Ryan approaching. She hoped he had the good sense to stay back while the judges were there.