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

by Dobbs, Leighann

  “A little off-center, but its not too distracting. Still, you’ll get points off for it. But the roses are beautiful.” Tim Gartner, the head judge, pointed at the roses with his pen.

  “The grooms cake is fantastic.” Joan Lutner, the aesthetics judge, smiled at Lexy.

  Lexy nodded her thanks, then breathed a sigh of relief as they moved on. They would judge all the cakes for appearance, then the best four would be selected for the tasting judgment.

  Jake Ryan moved in to fill the void left by the judges.

  “Where’s the cake?” He held up his phone, pointing to the picture Lexy had sent him earlier.

  Lexy put on her wide-eyed innocent look. Nodding toward the cake on the table, she said, “We had to repair it for the judging…but we saved you the knife.”

  She went over to the table where they had put the knife. Picking it up by the edge with her thumb and forefinger, she held it up for Jake to inspect.

  He whipped out an evidence bag, indicating for Lexy to put the knife in.

  “I wish you hadn’t tampered with the cake. That’s evidence.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Lexy tried batting her eyelashes but only ended up aggravating her eye twitch.

  She saw Jake looking down at the cake, comparing it to the picture on his phone. She was afraid he was going to insist on taking it when the judges returned.

  “Good news,” Tim informed her, “you made fourth place, so go ahead and move your cakes over to the tasting area.

  Lexy turned to Cassie, and the girls high-fived each other. “We did it!” Lexy felt her heart soar. It only became slightly deflated when she heard Tim telling Aurea she had won second place. Hopefully Lexy’s cakes tasted better than Aurea’s which, could give her an overall win.

  Ignoring Jake, she grabbed a wheeled cart and carefully transferred the cakes onto it while Cassie ran over to the rack to grab cake plates, forks, and a cake knife. With the cart loaded, the girls took off for the tasting area, leaving Jake in their wake.

  ###

  Lexy felt her stomach do nervous flip-flops as she took her place in the row of contestants directly across from the judges, who were seated at a long table. Each contestant had sliced bite-size pieces from their cakes, which were resting on identical stainless steel carts in front of them.

  Lexy looked at her cart. Slices of the white bride’s cake oozed raspberry liqueur filling. She had been careful not to cut into the damaged side of the cake so as not to bring attention to the patch job she and Cassie had done to hide the sabotage. The groom’s cake looked equally delicious with its hazelnut toffee filling shining in between the chocolate layers. Lexy took a deep, calming breath and her nose was treated to a variety of sweet smells from the raspberry, caramel, and chocolate.

  Evan Westmore made his way to the podium. Lexy noticed he was wearing an Armani suit. The man had good taste if nothing else. He posed for the cameras that were rolling to record the judging and began to speak.

  “It’s with great sadness that I announce the death of one of our judges, Amanda Scott-Saunders. She was a wonderful judge and a great personal friend.” Lexy studied Westmore as he went on to say a few words about Saunders. How close of a personal friend was she? Lexy wondered.

  “And now, I’d like to announce our new judge—Grace Harvey.” Lexy noticed Aurea looking at her with a “cat that ate the canary” smile.

  Lexy tuned Westmore out as he droned on about Grace Harvey’s qualifications and, then introduced the rest of the judges and contestants. She looked around at all of them wondering if one could be the murderer.

  The judges went through the cakes one by one tasting and critiquing the flavors of each. Lexy got high marks for her flavor combinations, but was it enough to overcome the points off for the damaged cake and take the overall win?

  Westmore collected the scorecards from the judges, did a little bit of math, then cleared his throat to announce the winners.

  “In third place, winning four points for aesthetics and four points for taste, is Bill Salida.” Lexy clapped along with everyone else as the rotund baker went up to collect his ribbon.

  “In second place, winning five points for aesthetics and four points for taste is-” Westmore paused for effect, and Lexy found herself holding her breath. “Aurea Pearce!”

  Lexy looked over at Aurea and found her glaring at Grace Harvey. She noticed Aurea’s face was bright red as she went up, snatched the ribbon out of Westmore’s hand, then stomped off toward the kitchen area.

  Lexy let her breath out. That meant the winner was either her or Corinne.

  Lexy knew the judges had liked the taste of her cakes, but the problems with the damaged white cake worried her. At least she could take solace in the fact that Aurea hadn’t gotten first place.

  Lexy would actually be happy to see the blue ribbon for this judging go to Corinne. She knew she had enough points to pull ahead in the other segments of the contest, and besides she had taken a liking to Corinne and was very sympathetic to her money problems and the fact that she was pursing her dream even though her husband left her broke and with young children to raise.

  Westmore looked down from his podium at Lexy and Corinne like a bird singling out its prey. Lexy thought she saw him give her an angry glare, but maybe it was just the lighting.

  “That means either Lexy or Corinne is the winner of the wedding cake contest.” Westmore stated the obvious. “-and…the…winner…is”

  Lexy and Corinne glanced at each other nervously.

  “Corinne Conners!”

  The room burst out in applause. Lexy found herself clapping the loudest because she was genuinely happy for her friend. She ran over and threw her arms around Corinne, who was wiping away tears.

  She admired the winning cakes up close; they were beautiful. Tall and elegant, the designs meticulously blending contemporary with traditional.

  Lexy felt her heart swell for the young baker…until she noticed something about the cakes that made her feel like she’d been punched in the gut.

  The cakes were covered in glitter - the same type of glitter Lexy had found near the sabotaged cake in her kitchen.

  Chapter Nine

  “Did you see Corrine’s cake? It was loaded with glitter!” Lexy whispered to Cassie as they made their way back to their kitchen.

  Cassie stopped short. “Oh my God. You mean like the glitter we found near our white cake?”

  Lexy nodded. “Do you think Corinne sabotaged the cake? Maybe to knock me out of the competition, or because she’s the murderer and wants me to stop looking into it?”

  Cassie shrugged. “I don’t know, but either way I’d watch myself if I were you.”

  “Yeah, we may have just added another suspect to the list. I’m going to give Nans a call and see what the ladies can dig up on Corinne.”

  Lexy took out her cell phone and punched in Nans’ number, then listened impatiently to it ring several times. “Damn it, she’s probably in the casino and can’t hear the phone. I’ll have to text her.”

  Lexy fumbled with the keyboard typing out a quick text for Nans.

  “Who are you texting?”

  Lexy jumped at the voice, which was awfully close to her ear. She whirled around and her heart sped up when she saw Detective Jake Ryan had snuck up on her and was standing dangerously close. Had he seen the text?

  “I’m just texting my grandmother.” Lexy considered telling Jake about Corinne’s glitter cakes, but something held her back. She wasn’t positive Corinne had anything to do with the cake sabotage and didn’t want to get her in trouble with the police.

  “Did you win?” Jake asked, nodding his head in the direction of the cakes.

  “No, I didn’t win this one,” Lexy said ruefully. “We couldn’t repair the cake fully and lost quite a few points because it wasn’t up to par.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Jake looked genuinely sorry, which made Lexy’s heart do a little hop, skip and jump against her will.

  He ventured on. “
I had them check the knife really quick. There are no prints on it. Do you have any idea who could’ve done this?”

  “No.” Lexy felt the nervous tic in her eye start up. She was glad it was Detective Jake Ryan and not Detective Jack Perillo in front of her. Jack would recognize the eye tic as a sure sign she wasn’t telling the whole truth.

  “I guess maybe someone wants to scare me out of the competition.”

  “Or maybe the murderer doesn’t like you running around asking questions,” Jake offered.

  Lexy’s thoughts went immediately to Peter Saunders. He had been pretty angry with her, and the attack on the cake sure seemed like an expression of anger - maybe the glitter was just a coincidence.

  “That could be,” she said, thinking that if Jack were here, he’d be giving her the same exact reproachful look Jake was.

  Jake nodded. “Well, I think you’d better watch your back, it looks like someone might be out to get you.”

  Lexy felt a chill run up her spine, causing her body to vibrate. It took her a second to realize the vibrations were from her cell phone. She dug it out of her pocket thinking it might be Nans. It was Jack.

  She glanced up at Jake “Sorry, I have to take this.”

  “OK, I’ll talk to you later. Be careful.” Jake turned and she watched him walk to the exit door. Lexy sucked in a deep breath before she answered her phone.

  She was glad Jack couldn’t see her eye twitching nervously at the little white lies - more like omissions - she was about to tell him. If Jack found out about the sabotaged cake, he’d be out here in a flash or, worse, he’d try to make her come home.

  ###

  “What do you mean she covered up the cake?” Nik stared at Jake, the crease between her brows deepening.

  “When I got there, they had already repaired the damage. She said she needed the cake for the wedding cake challenge otherwise she would’ve been disqualified.”

  “So she was more worried about the challenge than the fact that somebody deliberately sabotaged her cake? Does that seem a little odd to you?”

  “Yeah, most people are more concerned about their safety. She didn’t seem upset about the threat at all.”

  Nik pursed her lips. “Do you think she staged it? You know, to throw us off track and deflect the suspicion from her?”

  Jake shrugged. “It’s possible…the knife was from her kitchen, but the perpetrator could have just grabbed the closest knife. I don’t think she did it though. I think someone really wanted to warn her off of something.”

  Nik’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re getting sweet on our little baker?”

  Jake laughed. “No, it’s just a gut instinct.”

  “Detective Stone, take a look at this.”

  Nik heard the voice of Detective Ducat on the other side of the room.

  She turned her head in his direction, her eyes drawn to a large television screen where one of the surveillance tapes from the casino was playing. It showed one of the poker tables. Seated right in the middle was Aurea Pearce.

  Nik moved closer to the screen. “That’s Aurea Pearce.” She looked at the timestamp on the right corner of the screen. “The time indicates she was there at 3:31 am. Is this tape from the morning of the murder?”

  Ducat nodded.

  “How long was she there?”

  “She played until 6 am.”

  Nik turned to Jake. “Well I guess we can scratch one suspect off our list. Aurea Pearce couldn’t possibly be the killer-she was seen on a time stamped tape playing poker when Amanda Scott-Saunders was killed.”

  “I found something else you might be interested in,” Ducat said.

  Nik watched impatiently while Ducat hunted around on the computer for another recording.

  “Here it is.” He punched a few buttons, and the screen showed the entrance to Bakery Battles Stadium. “This is from last night.”

  Nick watched Lexy Baker appear on screen, open the doors to the stadium, then disappear inside. A few seconds later Jake appeared, following her in.

  Ducat fast-forwarded the replay four minutes, and another figure appeared on the screen-Evan Westmore. Nik watched him open the door, cast a furtive glance behind him, and then slip into the stadium.

  “That’s Westmore!” Jake said.

  Nik felt the exciting rush of finding a new clue energize her body.

  “Yeah, and he’s going into the stadium right behind Lexy Baker.” She turned to Jake. “Looks like our theory about them having a secret meeting might just prove to be true.”

  Jake frowned. “Yes, but if that’s true, why didn’t I see him go past me?”

  Nik shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe there is another way to get to his office. If only there were cameras inside the stadium, then we’d know for sure.”

  Jake stared at the screen dubiously. “Or maybe he went in there for something else…”

  Nik went back over to the board filled with suspects and crossed off Aurea Pearce’s name.

  “So we have Evan Westmore, Peter Saunders, and Lexy Baker.” She stared at the board, tapping her finger on her lower lip. “We don’t have anything solid on any of them, but Baker keeps turning up in the middle of everything, which makes me rather suspicious of her.”

  “Yeah, but what is her motive? For Westmore and Saunders we have the affair angle. If Amanda was having an affair with Westmore, either peter or Evan could have killed her in a fit of passion.”

  “Yes, but we have yet to prove there even was an affair.”

  “Right, it seems like we are missing something big-the real motive for the murder,” Jake said.

  “I think it’s time to turn up the heat on our little baker friend. I want you to tell her we’ve eliminated Aurea Pearce and that our suspect list is down to three, including her. If she knows something, or is involved, it might make her nervous and cause her to get careless. Maybe she will slip up somehow, lead us to the truth, and help us close this case.”

  Nik punctuated the last 3 words by ramming the top down onto her whiteboard marker.

  She turned to Jake. “I want you to stick to her like glue. Put a couple of other detectives on her so we can watch her 24/7 - I have a feeling our little baker girl is about to make her move.”

  Chapter Ten

  Lexy looked out the window of their hotel room. It was an exceptionally clear day and their tenth floor room offered a phenomenal view. To the left she could see the giant pyramid of the Luxor hotel, to the right she could see the mountain range. Below, the people moved like ants scurrying back and forth between the various hotels.

  She sighed, wishing she had more time to explore the other hotels and casinos, but the contest schedule was fairly tight and there was this nasty murder business going on. She had little time today for anything other than making pies for the second to last challenge in Bakery Battles. She had to really step up her game to overtake Aurea Pearce.

  The ringing of the iPad interrupted her thoughts, tearing her attention from the majestic view.

  “Hello girls!” Nans greeted Ida, Ruth, and Helen whose faces could be seen clustered around the iPad screen.

  “How are things in Vegas? It’s cold and snowing here,” Ida said.

  “Wonderful.” Nans took the iPad over to the window, holding it up to the glass. “Look at the view we have today!”

  The three ladies on the other end made the appropriate noises of appreciation. Nans left the window and took the iPad back to the table. “Now, tell us what you found out.”

  Cassie, Lexy, and Nans clustered around the tablet. Lexy couldn’t help but picture them being a mostly younger mirror image of the three ladies on the other side.

  Ruth’s face took over the iPad screen. “I made an interesting discovery about your friend Corinne. It seems foreclosure proceedings were recently started on her house.”

  Lexy felt her heart clench for the other woman. She couldn’t imagine how that must feel with three kids and a run-away husband. Then she realized that stav
ing off the foreclosure was a powerful motive for taking drastic measures to win the contest.

  “That is interesting…it could give her a motive to ruin my cake, but I don’t know if it would be something she would kill over.” Lexy bit her lower lip thoughfully.

  Ruth’s face was replaced by Ida’s. “I had a chance to look at the pages from that book.”

  Lexy glanced nervously at the drawer beside her bed where she had stashed it. Somehow she had to get the book back to Evan Westmore’s office.

  “And?”

  “It looks like a series of numbers and dates,” Ida said. “Large numbers like twelve thousand, five thousand, and so on - the dates are fairly recent. At least that’s what it looks like if I’ve done the decoding properly.”

  “Numbers and dates?” Lexy repeated, her eyebrows mashed together in confusion.

  “Yes, dear, that’s what I said.”

  “I was thinking it would be some sort of record of Evan’s rendezvous with Amanda Scott-Saunders. Maybe some notes about when they met and where?”

  Ida worried her bottom lip. “I don’t think so, unless my calculations are way off.”

  Lexy felt her stomach sink. Proof of the affair would help to finger either Westmore or Peter Saunders as the killer. She was hoping there might be an entry for the morning of Amanda Saunders’s death, but no such luck.

  She could hear Ruth vying for the iPad on the other end and watched the dizzying image on the screen as the iPad was passed from Ida to Ruth.

  “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with that theory, Lexy,” Ruth said.

  “Oh, why is that?” Lexy, Nans, and Cassie all exchanged a look.

  “I did some checking on Westmore’s background and I think you can safely rule out the notion of him having an affair with Amanda Scott-Saunders-Evan Westmore is gay.”

  ###

  “I hope Nans is okay doing some surveillance on Corinne. I would’ve done it myself, but I have so much work here.” Lexy spread her arms to indicate their kitchen in Bakery Battles Stadium.