Brutal Brûlée (Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Book 11)

by Leighann Dobbs

  “You mean the tiara robbery?”

  “That’s right. The tiara was not stolen by any ghost. It was stolen by Leonard’s killer, who used the secret passages to pull off the crime. That person is someone who knows this house inside and out. Someone who spent a lot of time here. And there’s only one person here who grew up hanging around in this house.”

  Nans looked directly at Gloria.

  “Who, me? I don’t know anything.” She back stepped a little toward the French doors leading to the garden.

  “I think you do. Last night at dinner, you said you spent a lot of time in this house when you were younger. And the clues prove it. Here’s what I think happened.” Nans resumed pacing, ticking off the items on her fingers. “After Leonard made the announcement, everyone went their separate ways. Most people went to bed as Leonard suggested. But you stayed in the conservatory and had Karen bring you a drink, thus providing you with an alibi of sorts.

  “You didn’t stay in the conservatory to drink it, though. You poured the drink out in the plant so when Karen came back later to get the glass, it would look like you had been in here sipping it for quite some time.” Nans pointed to the dead peace lily that Ruth had fretted over earlier.

  “That’s what killed the plant!” Ruth glared at Gloria. “A lovely, innocent plant like that. It’s a darn shame.”

  Nans continued on, ignoring Ruth’s outburst, “Then you slipped outside to the lower garden where there's a secret entrance tunnel through the basement. I discovered it earlier today when Sprinkles had an altercation with Houdini.

  “I couldn’t figure out how the cat could have gotten outside when he had clearly run inside and the door shut behind him minutes before. But when I looked at the stones, I noticed an interesting crack. It was too symmetrical to be the settling of the building and when I looked closer, I could feel air flowing through it. Later on, I went down and verified my suspicions. It was, indeed, an entrance into a secret passageway that runs throughout Wellington Manse.”

  “So? So what if I put my drink in the plant. Maybe I didn’t like the drink anymore. You can’t prove I went outside.” Gloria’s stilettos made sharp little clacks as she shuffled backward toward the door.

  “Oh, but I think I can. You left your shoes in the conservatory because you didn’t want the clack clack clacking of them to make noise in the passageway. People would have heard you behind the walls. Mrs. Pendrake saw your shoes in here. She told us so herself, didn’t you?” Everyone looked at Mrs. Pendrake, who nodded.

  “So I took my shoes off? Big deal. My tootsies hurt. I’ve never even been out to that garden.” Gloria had backed right up against the door, her hand behind her back, feeling for the knob.

  “You’ve never been to the garden? Then how did you get those scratches on your leg?” Nans pointed to the six deep scratches on Gloria’s thigh.

  Gloria looked down. “I told you, the cat scratched me.”

  “I don’t think so. The cat only has four claws but you have six scratches. Those scratches came from the rose bushes right outside the secret passageway, the ones you had to push through to get to the passage.” Nans looked around the room triumphantly. “And there’s one final nail in your coffin.” Nans turned to Mrs. Pendrake. “You did see a person when you were coming back from the Koi pond last night, didn’t you?”

  Mrs. Pendrake nodded, apparently glad the focus had moved from her being the mole to Gloria being the killer. “Yes, that’s right. I saw Gloria and she was coming up from the rose garden.”

  All eyes were on Gloria as she twisted the doorknob behind her, unlatching the door. She pivoted on her sharp, pointed stiletto heel and lurched out the doorway. Too bad she didn’t notice Houdini who had been weaving around her ankles.

  Her stiletto pierced his tail.

  “Meowl!”

  He let out a wail that would raise the dead, causing Gloria to mis-step. Her heel broke off. Her foot slammed to the ground sideways, causing her ankle to roll. She stumbled forward and fell right into the arms of the two policemen who had been waiting for her outside.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I guess Gloria making a run for it is almost as good as a confession,” Ida said to Garrity after the two policemen had carted Gloria away, kicking and screaming.

  “Well, that and the fact that she’s probably wearing one of the gemstones from the tiara right now,” Nans added.

  “She is?” Violet walked beside Nans, who was leading everyone down to the garden so she could show them the secret passage.

  “Oh, yes. When I saw the pamphlet that Mrs. Pendrake had with the tiara, I recognize the shape of the chunky gemstones as being the same as in some of Gloria’s rings,” Nans said.

  “I remember reading that she had sold off her jewelry periodically over the years,” Lexy added.

  “That’s right,” Nans said. “I think she’d been systematically prying the gems out of the tiara and putting them in new pieces of jewelry which she sold off little by little. Inspector Garrity will have an expert inspect them to prove it, of course.”

  “Gloria might never have been caught if Nans didn’t have such a keen eye and Mrs. Pendrake wasn’t such a busybody,” Jack said.

  Lexy glanced behind them. “What happened to Mrs. Pendrake, anyway? She’s not with us.”

  “I suspect she’s busy packing her bags. Being the mole, she didn’t make any friends here and will probably want to leave as quickly as she can,” Nans said.

  “Shouldn’t she be arrested or something?” Danny asked.

  “Technically, she hasn’t broken any laws, so there’s nothing to arrest her for,” Garrity said.

  “I’d really like to thank you for finding the killer.” Danny reached over to shake hands with Nans as they stopped in front of the rose bushes. “For a while there, I thought it was going to jail for something I didn’t do.”

  Nans nodded. “Gloria must have seen you as the perfect scapegoat and tried to frame you by saying she saw you outside Leonard’s door and putting the pills in your room. I think she did it when we were discovering Leonard’s body because we would have all been too busy to notice her. I’m not sure whether there’s a passageway that opens to the room you're in, or if she simply slipped into your room through the door when we weren’t looking.

  “She must have come out of your room, though, because I remember her making a dramatic show of hugging the wall as if she couldn’t make it down the hallway on her own. The wall she was hugging was on the same side of the hallway as your room and Leonard’s, but if she had come out of her own room and was hugging the wall she would been on the opposite side of the hall because that’s where her room was.”

  “And she also tried to plant a seed of suspicion by saying that Leonard suspected you of something,” Ida added.

  “Suspected me of something? What?” Danny asked.

  “She wouldn’t elaborate on that. But I wasn’t fooled by her, anyway,” Nans said, stopping in front of the pink roses. “And here we are.” She pushed her way carefully through the bushes to the side of the mansion.

  Violet followed Nans through the bushes, her gaze set on the large stones. “There’s a secret passage in there?”

  Nans put her palm out on the surface of the building pushing and pressing, feeling her way around. “Yes, there is, but I’m not sure exactly how ... oh, there it is!” Nans pressed and a stone slid aside revealing a dark, five-inch narrow opening.

  “Meow!” Houdini trotted inside as if it were second nature to him.

  Lexy’s brows tugged together as she watched the cat disappear into the darkness. “Wait a minute. I can see how Houdini gets in when you open the door for him but how does he do that on his own?”

  “And not only that, but how does the door close behind him?” Joy asked. “If he really is using these passages, there’d be open doors all over the mansion.”

  “I wondered that too, but watch.” Nans called Houdini and he came trotting back outside. A second lat
er the door shut behind him as if by magic. “These passageways have a special spring-triggered mechanism. It’s quite ingenious. Once someone slips through the doorway it closes on its own a few seconds later. Houdini inadvertently triggers the doors by rubbing against them in the right place. I don’t know how often he uses these passages but he must be quite adept at it by now and it’s fascinating he’s been able to do it without any of us seeing the openings. Not to mention that the openings are very narrow and strategically placed to blend in with the rooms. One might not even notice a secret panel open at all.”

  “I would have been pretty freaked out if all of a sudden a secret passage into my room slid open,” Navy Shirt said.

  “Imagine how Leonard felt when his slid open and Gloria popped into his room,” Joyce added.

  Danny laughed. “Leonard did like women. He probably thought it was a miracle.”

  “Yes. Too bad she poisoned his drink,” Helen added.

  “She must have distracted him, somehow,” Ida wiggled her eyebrows, “and then slipped poison into the hot toddy.”

  “Then she either waited there until he succumbed and positioned him with the empty pill bottle, or came back later,” Garrity added.

  “And she’s the one who stole the tiara twenty-five years ago?” Violet asked.

  “And possibly the one who killed Mr. Wellington. If he figured out she'd used the passageways to steal the tiara, she might’ve had to come back later and do him in. Of course, she probably had an accomplice back then, but we don’t know who that was. We suspect it may have been one of the servants whom she was friendly with.” Garrity pressed his lips together. “We’ll get to the bottom of that, too.”

  Danny stepped over to the wall, pressing and pushing where he’d seen Nans pressing. He hit the right spot and the stone slid open. “This is fantastic! So, let me see if I have this right. Twenty-five years ago, Gloria used these passages to steal the tiara. That started the whole legend of the ghost of Wellington Manse, right?”

  Nans nodded.

  Danny whipped his cell phone out of his pocket and turned to the other members of the production crew. “This is even better than the original documentary! When I call the home office and tell them that we’ve solved the case of the ghost of Wellington Manse and discovered who stole the tiara, I’m certain they’ll want us to continue ... they might even want us to step up the production schedule. I need to check these passages out, though. We’ll be doing some of the filming in there.” He put the phone to his ear and stepped into the passage, the door sliding shut behind him.

  “I hope he knows how to get out of there,” Ida said.

  Joy laughed. “I’m sure he’ll figure it out. This whole thing is so sad. Leonard loved his little secrets but keeping the secret about the passageways and the ghost is what got him killed.”

  “I don’t think he suspected that Gloria stole the tiara,” Nans said. “Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have hired her on. I think he just found out about the secret passages and suspected that was the way the robbery had been pulled off.”

  “Actually, he didn’t even suspect that much,” Gustav, who had been inspecting one of the Rose bushes, said.

  “What do you mean?” Helen asked.

  “The secret he was going to reveal had nothing to do with the tiara or secret passages,” Gustave said.

  Lexy’s brow furrowed. “Really? Then why was he killed?”

  “Oh, I’m sure Gloria thought that was the secret and she killed him like you all said, but that’s not why Leonard hired me as the expert and, as far as I know, he had no idea about the secret passages.”

  “Well, then, why did he hire you?” Ida asked. “I thought you were a historian or ghost expert.”

  “Nope.” Gustav pointed to the pink roses. “I’m a horticulturist—a flower expert. These roses here a very rare species. It seems the original owner of this mansion planted the flowers here over a hundred years ago. They’re usually difficult to grow, but for some reason they flourished in this environment. Probably due to certain minerals in the soil. That was the secret Leonard was going to reveal ... rare and valuable roses.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Violet said. “So, Leonard was killed for nothing?”

  “Well, not exactly nothing,” Nans said. “If he wasn’t killed we would have never investigated and we would not have solved the mystery of the ghost of Wellington Manse.”

  “That’s true,” Violet looked thoughtful. “And now that the mystery has been solved and these intriguing passageways have been uncovered, I think that’s going to be very good for business.”

  They started walking back toward the conservatory. Lexy and Jack trailed behind Nans, Ida, Helen and Violet. Ruth and Gustav lingered back at the roses.

  “You know, I’m looking forward to seeing them film this documentary with this new twist, but after that things are going to seem pretty dull back in Brook Ridge Falls. Don’t you think so, Mona?” Ida asked.

  “Dull? I should say not. After I write my press release about how we solved the case of the ghost of Wellington Manse, our phones will be flooded with requests for us to solve so many interesting cases we won’t have a moment of peace.” Nans picked up the pace as they walked up the hill toward the mansion. “So, you girls better rest up now, because once we get home we’re going to be busy!”

  The end.

  * * *

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  Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 1 (Books 1-4)

  Or buy the books separately:

  Killer Cupcakes (Book 1)

  Dying For Danish (Book 2)

  Murder, Money and Marzipan (Book 3)

  3 Bodies and a Biscotti (Book 4)

  Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys (Book 5)

  Bake, Battle & Roll (Book 6)

  Wedded Blintz (Book 7)

  Scones, Skulls & Scams (Book 8)

  Ice Cream Murder (Book 9)

  Mummified Meringues (Book 10)

  A Note From The Author

  Thanks so much for reading, “Brutal Brûlée”. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review, I really would appreciate it.

  This is book eleven of the USA Today best selling Lexy Baker series. I plan to write many more books with Lexy, Nans and the gang. I have several other series that I write, too - you can find out more about them on my website http://www.leighanndobbs.com.

  This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs), you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at: lee@leighanndobbs.com.

  Oh, and I love to connect with my readers, so please do visit me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/leighanndobbsbooks

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  Crème Brûlée Recipe

  Ingredients:

  2 1/2 cups heavy cream

  6 egg yolks

  1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

  6 tablespoons white sugar

  2 tablespoons brown sugar

  Preparation:

  Preheat oven to 325 degrees (f).

  In a medium saucepan, combine cream and vanilla bean and bring to a boil, stirring constant
ly. Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes.

  Beat egg yolks and 4 tablespoons of white sugar until creamy.

  Add the cream mixture to the egg yolks a little at a time.

  Pour the mixture into ramekins (about 6 8 oz. ramekins) or a small dish. Set the ramekins or dish into a larger baking pan and fill that pan with enough water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

  Bake until custard is just set. It should still be a bit wiggly in the center, about

  Refrigerate until you are ready to serve and for at least 2 hours.

  When you are ready to serve them, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of white sugar with the brown sugar. Remove ramekins from fridge and sprinkle the sugar on top.

  If you are adept in the kitchen like Lexy Baker, you can use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar on top of the custard (you'll probably want to use all white sugar for this). Just aim the torch at the sugar-covered top until the sugar is melted and forms a crust. Be careful not to burn it (or set your kitchen on fire).

  Leighann Dobbs' husband has banned her from using torches in the kitchen, so she simply puts the ramekins under the broiler for about 2 minutes until the sugar melts.

  Magic Bars Recipe

  This is one of my Mom's recipes from the 1970's and I remember it well! So delicious and loaded with calories.

  Ingredients:

  1 stick butter, melted

  1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

  6 oz. chocolate bits

  1 cup nuts (optional)

  1 14 oz. can Eagle sweetened condensed milk