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

by Dobbs, Leighann

  Cassie placed two large bowls on the baking table and pulled a stand mixer out from the corner. “Are you kidding? She lives for this stuff. She’ll be fine. Besides, we need this win to recover from the disastrous wedding cake challenge.”

  “I know, there’s only one challenge left after this and we need all the points we can get to win the contest, since the points from all the challenges are added up to determine the overall winner.” Lexy went over to the refrigerator and started piling her arms high with eggs, butter, and milk.

  She dropped the ingredients onto the counter near Cassie, then went over to her pantry area for flour and sugar. The pantry was next to Aurea Pearce’s kitchen. She couldn’t help but sneak a peek through the wire shelving to see what Aurea was concocting. Much to her surprise, the kitchen was empty.

  Lexy narrowed her eyes in curiosity. “I wonder why Aurea isn’t over there baking? Surely she must have pies to bake for the challenge?”

  Cassie craned her neck to look over into the booth. “That is strange. Maybe she’s just taking a break.”

  “Now that we’ve discovered that Evan Westmore and Amanda Saunders couldn’t have been having an affair, that only leaves us with Aurea and Corinne as suspects. At least that I know of…”

  “Maybe you can get friendly with that cute Detective Ryan and find out if he has any other suspects. Besides you, I mean.”

  Lexi felt her stomach clench as she realized she was still a suspect. She wondered if Nik Stone and Jake Ryan knew Westmore was gay. If they did, they might eliminate Westmore and Peter Saunders from the suspect list, and that didn’t leave too many people. She’d have to work faster to clear herself before their list whittled down to just one suspect - her!

  Lexy cut up some ice-cold butter into tiny chunks and put them in the food processor with flour, salt and sugar. She pulsed the mixture until it looked like small crumbles, then added a tiny bit of ice water, alternating pulsing and adding small amounts of water until the dough started to clump together.

  Thinking back to her investigation of Westmore’s office she remembered the picture of him and the other tuxedo-clad gentleman. With a jolt, she realized the other person must have been his significant other. Lexy kicked herself for not picking up on it at the time.

  “I feel so discouraged now that Peter Saunders and Evan Westmore are out of the running in the suspect race.” Lexy had spent a lot of time thinking about their motives, and now she felt like she was back to square one. “Although, just because Amanda Scott-Saunders wasn’t having an affair didn’t mean Peter Saunders didn’t kill her.”

  “True, they did have at least one fight that he admits to and what was with her new clothes, purses, and shoes? I still say she was up to something.” Cassie poured corn syrup and vanilla into a pan with butter and brown sugar. Placing it on the stove, she turned the knob on the gas burner. Lexy heard the tell tale clicking and the poof of gas indicating the burner was on.

  Turning the dough out of the food processor, Lexy started rolling it out with a marble rolling pin. Their plan was to make two pies for the contest - a bourbon pecan pie and Lexy’s famous coconut cream with a layer of chocolate on the bottom.

  “It is kind of strange about Corinne though. How would killing Saunders help her win the contest?” Cassie said as she poured pecans and bourbon into the cooling mixture.

  Lexi narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s a good question. I don’t think eliminating her as a judge would help Corinne, but then again she did win that last contest.”

  She flipped the dough onto a pie plate and started pinching the edges to even them out along the rim. “Her motivation could be something we don’t know about--like maybe Saunders caught her cheating and was going to expose her?”

  “Maybe, or maybe she didn’t kill Saunders. Maybe she just wanted to mess up your cake so she could win the contest.”

  “Yeah, but why the warning?”

  “Good question.” Lexy looked up and thought she saw a familiar figure duck out of sight. “Hey, is that Jake Ryan?”

  “That cute detective? Where?” Cassie craned her neck to look around.

  “Oover there.” Lexy pointed in the direction where she thought she had seen him, then shrugged. “Must have been my imagination.”

  “Ready?” Cassie asked, holding up the pan.

  Lexy nodded, then slid the pie plate over for Cassie to pour the mixture in. She looked up again in the direction she had thought she had seen Jake Ryan. She was sure it was him but was perplexed as to why he would duck out of sight. Unless he was watching her. And if he was, that couldn’t be a good sign.

  ###

  Nans looked around the casino, a thrill of excitement running through her. At her age, there weren’t many things that made her feel this excited, but covert detective work was one of them. The best part was that no one ever paid much attention to a little old lady, so she was practically invisible. This allowed her to eavesdrop on conversations and follow people virtually undetected.

  Back home, the members of the Ladies Detective Club didn’t go out much. They mostly investigated cases from the comfort of the retirement center where they lived, using their iPads to do the “leg work” for them. Once in a while, however, they took out Ruth’s gigantic late-model Buick to go “in the field” either to follow a suspect or stake out a location. Nans loved doing the field work, and this little task she had taken on for Lexy reminded her of those times.

  She rummaged inside her large purse for the Bakery Battles Stadium V.I.P. Pass Lexy had given her. The pass was for guests of the bakers only. She would need it to get inside the stadium, as the general public was not allowed in when there was no competition being taped.

  Pulling the large blue-and-white paper from her purse, she clutched it in her hands while she navigated the casino, weaving between banks of slot machines and poker tables.

  The clanging of bells and the mechanical spinning of reels was music to her ears and she listened happily while carefully crossing the busy area. A crowd of people cheering on her right caught her attention. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

  Aurea Pearce sat at a poker table, the players and bystanders applauding her as she raked in a huge mound of poker chips.

  Nans shook her head in disbelief. Aurea was a nasty person and possibly even a murderer; it just didn’t seem fair that she should win a big poker pot. Oh, well, I guess it’s true that life isn’t fair.

  She continued on to the visitor’s entrance of the stadium area. Dutifully showing her pass to the guard at the door, she slipped inside, blending in with the other spectators.

  The stadium hummed with activity. Bakers were frantically whipping up pies for the day’s challenge. Nans could feel the level of stress - some of the bakers would be eliminated today, so there was a lot riding on creating perfect pies.

  Nans breathed in the homey smell of baked pie crust as she made a wide circle around the edge of the stadium. She passed Lexy’s booth and caught her eye, giving her a sly wink. The girls were busy at work and she didn’t want to interrupt them. Besides, she had work of her own to do.

  Making her way around the stadium, she concentrated on using a slow, halting walk. Normally a very fast walker, she had developed a slower pace of walking as part of her surveillance technique because it allowed her to eavesdrop more easily. After all, no one thought twice about an old lady who walked slowly.

  She slowed her pace even more in front of Corinne’s booth. She noticed Corinne humming while she baked, seemingly enjoying herself despite her dire personal circumstances.

  Nans stopped, pretending to admire the pies in the next booth, her ear tuned in Corinne’s direction hoping the baker might say something incriminating to her assistant.

  A ring tone burst from Corinne’s pocket. Looking over out of the corner of her eye, Nans saw the baker pull a cell phone out of her apron and put it to her ear.

  She watched Corinne’s face grow white, her demeanor darkening.

  “I
can’t talk here.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Nans had turned up her hearing aid just for the occasion, so she heard it perfectly.

  “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” Nans looked away as Corinne snapped the phone shut. Then she heard the baker mumble something to her assistant before she rushed out of the booth.

  Nans turned in time to see her heading for the hall, then broke out of her slow, halting gait and into a fast walk behind her.

  She followed Corinne at a safe pace, then saw her go into the ladies room. After a few seconds, Nans silently opened the door, shutting it slowly so that it didn’t make any noise.

  The small four-stall bathroom was empty except for Corinne, who was inside one of the stalls. Nans positioned herself at the sink. She could hear Corinne talking on her phone.

  “…I told you I’d get it…I have that paper…her out of the way…”

  Corinne was talking so low that Nans could only pick out snatches of the conversation despite her cranked-up hearing aid. She leaned in a little closer, feeling a chill run up her spine at the baker’s next words.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop the foreclosure.”

  Nans heard the phone snap shut. She straightened up at the sink, pretending to fix her hair. Corinne came out of the stall and Nans held her breath, hoping the baker wouldn’t recognize her. Just as she expected, the other woman barely even glanced her way. Just another old lady in the casino bathroom.

  Nans slipped out of the bathroom shortly after Corinne. Her sleuthing assignment fulfilled, she turned in the direction of the casino. She had a few hours to kill before Lexy would be done in Bakery Battles Stadium, and she could think of no better place to spend it than at the slot machines.

  Chapter Eleven

  “I can’t believe Aurea tried to push off those half-baked pies on the judges!” Cassie snickered.

  Lexy cracked a smile. Not one to laugh at the failures of her competitors she made an exception in this case. “I know. She didn’t even start baking them until 20 minutes before time was up. Not sure what she was thinking there, but I can’t say I’m sorry. Even her good friend Judge Harvey couldn’t save her from that one—at least not without risking her job.”

  “I think the contest might be down to just you and Corinne, now,” Cassie said.

  Lexy felt her heart clench. Two days ago she had felt for Corinne and her situation. She even thought the two of them were becoming good friends. But if Corinne had sabotaged her cake and was involved in the murder, then she wanted nothing to do with her.

  As she and Cassie got closer to her kitchen, she saw a familiar figure standing there. Jake Ryan. Was he following her?

  “Hi,” she said, her eyebrows raised.

  “Hi. I heard you won the pie challenge. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks…did you come all the way here just to congratulate me?”

  Jake smiled, showing off his perfect white teeth and dimples. “Actually, I have some information about one of the suspects you might be interested in.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize you guys shared information about one of your suspects with another one of your suspects.”

  Jake glanced around covertly, then lowered his voice. “Well, I’m not supposed to, but this one could help you with the contest too. What do you say? Come over to the bar with me and I’ll tell you over a drink.”

  Was he flirting?

  Lexy felt tempted by his puppy-dog look and the information he promised, but a quick look at her cart and kitchen revealed a pile of dirty dishes and bowls. “I’d love to but…” she waved her hand to indicate the mess.

  “Oh, you go ahead I’ll clean this up and put everything away.” Cassie said.

  “Are you sure?” Lexy asked.

  “Yeah, no worries. Go.” Cassie made shooing motions with her hands.

  Lexy shrugged. “OK.” She turned to Jake. “Shall we?” She tilted her head in the direction of the casino bar.

  “After you.” Jake stepped to one side to let Lexy walk past.

  They walked side by side down the long, wide hallway. Lexy refrained from asking who the information was about and worked at making idle chitchat.

  They selected a table in the corner of the empty bar and Jake went to retrieve their drinks - a soda for her and beer for him.

  He set her drink in front of her, then took the seat across the table.

  “Well? What’s this big news?” Lexy tilted her and raised her eyebrows.

  Jake took a swig from his beer, then set his arms on the table, leaning in towards Lexy. “We finished looking at the surveillance tapes and we can rule out one of the suspects-Aurea Pearce.”

  Lexy felt her shoulders sag. “Really? Why?” She hoped her disappointment didn’t show on her face-Aurea was one of the few people she didn’t like and Lexy would have preferred that the killer be someone she didn’t like.

  “The casino surveillance tapes show her at the poker tables from 3:31 am to 6 am. That’s the timeframe Saunders was killed, so Aurea couldn’t have done it.” Jake spread his arms, then settled back in his seat.

  Lexy swirled her drink, watching the ice cubes chase each other around the glass. She took a sip. She wondered if Jake knew Westmore was gay. If he did, then he knew Westmore and Peter Saunders weren’t likely suspects anymore-at least not because Amanda could have been having an affair with Westmore. Aurea had been ruled out, so that only left her as the most eligible suspect. Was that why Jake seemed to be following her?

  She decided to test him. “So, that leaves Westmore and Saunders as your prime suspects?” she asked.

  “We have a few others we are looking at too.”

  Lexy felt the tension in her shoulders relax, relieved he didn’t say they had ruled out Westmore and Saunders.

  “Corinne Conners?” She decided to add a new suspect just for some extra insurance.

  Jake raised an eyebrow. “What about her?”

  “When I found the sabotaged cake, there was glitter on the floor and on the handle of the fridge.”

  Jake shrugged. “So?”

  “I don’t use glitter, but Corinne did. Her wedding cakes were loaded with it.”

  Jake sat up straighter. “Why didn’t you mention that before?”

  Lexy felt a flush of heat creep into her cheeks. “I didn’t realize it until today…I was going to mention it to you.”

  Jake’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll have to look into that.”

  “And that’s not all.” Lexy looked down. She felt guilt lay a heavy hand on her heart, like she was tattling on a friend to save herself. Then she realized it was all true, and if Corinne was the killer, the police should know the details.

  She looked up to see Jake staring at her, waiting for her to continue.

  “Corinne has bad money problems. Her house is in foreclosure. I don’t know how killing Saunders could help her with that, but she definitely has a strong motive to want to win the contest. Come to think of it, Aurea Pearce has money problems too.”

  “Yes, we found out she has a gambling problem. But since she couldn’t have killed Saunders, I don’t think that is relevant…unless she was in on it with someone.”

  “People do strange things when it comes to money, Detective.”

  “And you, Lexy…do you have money problems?”

  “I assume you’ve done a check on me just like the others, so you know I don’t.”

  Jake nodded. Behind him Lexy could see a figure gesturing wildly through the frosted-glass wall of the bar. She leaned over to the side to get a better look.

  Jake turned around to see what she was looking at. “Who is that?”

  The frosted glass distorted her view. Narrowing her eyes, she could just make out a short, older woman with blueish-gray hair, carrying a gigantic purse.

  “I’m not sure, but I think it’s my grandmother.”

  ###

  Lexy watched Nans take a dainty sip of the tea Jake Ryan had persuaded the bartender to make for her before
he discreetly made his exit.

  “Jake is such a nice young man. You sure do have a way of attracting the cute detectives. I hope you didn’t forget about Jack, though.” Nans looked at her slyly over the rim of her cup. Jack and Nans had been neighbors and Nans had a big soft spot for him.

  “Of course not…I’ve just been busy.” With all the excitement going on, she had been neglecting Jack. She made a mental note to call him as soon as she and Nans were done.

  “Oh good, dear. You two make a nice couple.”

  Lexy remembered how Nans had been gesturing wildly outside the bar to catch her attention. “You seemed very anxious to see me; did you want to tell me something?”

  Nans leaned in, her eyes gleaming. “My covert surveillance was a big success.”

  “Do tell.”

  “I overheard Corinne talking on the phone. She seemed very upset, like she was being threatened. I heard her say something about some piece of paper that seemed important. She also said she’d do whatever it takes to stop the foreclosure.” Nans sat back in her seat, a gleam of satisfaction in her eye.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Lexy said. “What paper was she talking about?”

  “I have no idea; she just said she had it. It seemed important somehow.”

  “I’m still not sure how this ties in with the murder and my cake sabotage, but I can understand how desperate she must feel.” Lexy felt her heart drop. “It’s too bad. I was really starting to like her…”

  Nans put her hand over Lexy’s. “This doesn’t necessarily mean she is the killer, or that she ruined your cake.”

  Lexy sighed. “But we don’t have many other suspects left.”

  Nans scrunched her forehead and paused. “There’s still Peter Saunders. Usually the husband is the first one I suspect. I wonder if the police have found out any more about him?”

  “I don’t know. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him around.” Lexy glanced over at the bar but there was no sign of Saunders.

  “And there is one other clue that I think we may be overlooking,” Nans said.