Dying For Danish (A Lexy Baker Bakery Mystery)

by Leighann Dobbs

  Lexy nodded, thinking about all the flies by the dumpster but not sure where Cassie was going with this.

  “Well, while you were busy fighting with Jack, I was talking nicely with John...and I found out something very interesting."

  Lexy raised her eyebrows, indicating for Cassie to elaborate.

  “Apparently one of the sons, Bronson, has a history of violence. John said the police have picked him up a few times for fighting.” Cassie, sat back a proud look on her face.

  “That is interesting.” Lexy tapped her fingernail on her front teeth. “And I bet you won’t find any record of it because the Toliver money can come in handy for making stuff like that go away.”

  Cassie nodded “Yep, John said all those records usually get closed and purged from the public files.”

  “Which makes me wonder...what other kinds of things Toliver money might have made go away.” She glanced nervously back up at the house.

  “Good find, though. Nans and the girls will be proud!” She turned back to Cassie and held out her fist for a knuckle tap. “Speaking of which, I better run home to shower and change. They’re expecting me at the Retirement Center after lunch.”

  Chapter Ten

  Lexy sailed into the Brooke Ridge Retirement Center refreshed from her recent shower and balancing a box of Danish. She put the box on the table. Opening the lid she waved her hand at it indicating for Nans, Ida, Ruth and Helen to help themselves.

  Ruth, Nans and Helen dug in. Lexy pushed the box towards Ida who held her hand up, palm out. "None for me, thanks.”

  Three pairs of eyes turned towards Ida, the Danish pastries paused midway to their mouths.

  "It's that new gentlemen on the 3rd floor, isn't it?" Ruth’s said.

  Lexy was surprised to see Ida's cheeks turned pink. "No, I'm just gaining a little weight is all," she stammered eliciting a giggle from the other women.

  "Ok, let's get down to business." Nans voice boomed over the giggling. She turned to Lexy. "Were you able to find anything out?"

  "Cassie and I went back to the Tolivers and I talked to Blake. Both the sons were home that night but I found out something else. Xavier's ex-girlfriend has appeared back on the scene."

  "Oh, that's right," Nans said, "he was dating that actress, Trixie...what was her last name?" She asked turning to Helen her eyebrows raised in a question.

  Helen punched the button on her iPad bringing it to life on the table in front of her. “Should be easy enough to find out, they were all over the society pages a few years back.” She punched in a few keys then sat back with a satisfied smile. "Yep, here it is - Trixie Masters."

  "Yes, that’s it! We’ll need to do some checking up on her - I wonder where she was when Chastine was killed?"

  “Speaking of which, did either one of the Toliver boys have an alibi?” Ruth asked around a mouthful of cherry Danish.

  “They were both home but, both were alone.” Lexy peered into the box of Danish, choosing one with a gooey apple center. “Blake said he saw Bronson out in the hallway around 2:30 that morning. He also said he thought he heard a woman giggling but he didn't see anyone.”

  "And what about the murder weapon?"

  Lexy felt her stomach clench. "Umm...it turns out the murder weapon is actually one of the knives I brought there...and it seems to be missing."

  "Oh, well maybe we should be investigating you, then.” Ida joked.

  “Very funny,” Lexy said. Picking up her Danish, she took a dainty bite from the edge. “I don't think the police actually know it was my knife yet. I was hoping to find it today when I looked around out by the dumpster.”

  “What did you guys find out?” She asked, taking another bite from the edge of the Danish.

  “Ruth did some research on Chastine. We found an article about her being engaged to some oil tycoon down in Texas, but apparently it didn’t work out and she moved out here.”

  “We couldn't find too much about the Toliver boys. Bronson was discharged from the military and there seems to be some controversy over that. Blake is a bit of a playboy - you probably already knew that,” Nans looked at Lexy over the tops of her glasses as she read from their notes. “Of course, Chastine would have gotten control of a lot of the Toliver money after she married Xavier so both boys would have had a motive to kill her.”

  Lexy considered the information while she ate her way around the edge of her Danish, carefully saving the middle for last. She didn’t think Blake had anything to do with the murder, but Bronson’s military discharge added an interesting element.

  “According to the police, Bronson has been picked up a few times for fighting. I wonder if his military discharge has anything to do with being violent?”

  Lexy saw Helen’s brows wrinkle together. “We didn’t find any police record for Bronson.”

  “Yeah, apparently all the records were sealed, or whatever they do to them to get them out of public view. That’s what money can do for you, I guess.”

  “Speaking of money...the ex-girlfriend, Trixie must have been upset about getting dumped - I wonder if getting back with Xavier, and his money, would be motive enough for murder?” Ida asked.

  Lexy savored the last few bites of the outside edge of her Danish while she watched Helen’s fingers tap quickly on the iPad. Helen gave a final, exaggerated tap then nodded with approval spinning the tablet around so everyone could see the screen. “It looks like Trixie does have some priors.” Helen said, pointing her finger at the screen.

  Priors? Lexy smiled to herself. The police jargon seemed odd coming from a 70-ish year old woman, but then again so did the fact that she was using an iPad to investigate murder suspects.

  Lexy craned her neck over the table to get a better look at the information displayed on the tablet’s screen. It reminded her of the police blotter listing. "That looks official, how did you find it?"

  Helen shrugged sheepishly. “I’m not supposed to tell, but your friend Jack gave us special access to the police database, seeing as we help them so much and all."

  Jack had given them special access? Great. He’d probably been spending more time with the Ladies Detective Club lately than he had with her. Her stomach flip flopped at the thought of him. She remembered the message he had left, apologizing for being so busy lately. She made a mental note to call him back as soon as she was done. After all, he had made the first move and she should at least give him another chance.

  Nan’s voice brought her attention back to the iPad. "These all look like minor things - fights with other women and complaints. But if the stakes were high, including millions of dollars, maybe Trixie would see her way to something more fatal than just a cat fight.”

  "But she wasn't in the house that night so she might have had a motive but not the opportunity." Ruth chimed in.

  "Well, actually she might have. Blake told me the back door to the kitchen was open, so it looks like anyone could have come in the house through that door, murdered Chastine, and slipped out again.” Lexy popped the gooey apple covered center of the Danish in her mouth.

  "Well, there are so many suspects, this is going to be an interesting one to unravel." Nans said, her eyes bright with the challenge. “We do have our feelers out about that pin you said was missing from Chastine’s blouse. If someone pawns it, we’ll know.”

  "I bet we’ll learn a lot at the wake," Ida said excitedly. "On TV that’s where they find out the best information." The other ladies nodded their agreement.

  Lexy let out a sigh. She hated going to wakes, but when her ex had been murdered earlier in the summer, the ladies had insisted she go to his. They had been right. She had learned quite a bit at the wake. "Blake said it is scheduled for tomorrow at 3:00."

  "Great! You can pick us up here at 2:30 - we’ll all go together!” Nans said excitedly with Ruth, Ida and Helen nodding in agreement.

  Lexy’s mind conjured up an image of the four ladies skulking around the wake in tan London Fog raincoats taking notes on their iPads. Sh
e could hardly wait.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lexy sat in her car in the retirement center parking lot thinking about the messages Jack had left on her phone. The mid-fall sun beat through her windshield raising the temperature in the car to summer like levels. The Danish she had polished off inside, suddenly felt like a lead weight in her stomach.

  She stared at the cell phone in her hand. She wanted to call Jack but the thought of talking to him sent her stomach in a tailspin. She did want to clear the air and work things out with him, but she had to admit she had an ulterior motive for calling. She wanted to know if they found the murder weapon in the dumpster. She realized she should probably come clean about the missing knife, she didn’t want it to reflect badly on her if Jack found out she had withheld that little tidbit of information. She took a deep breath, then pressed the call button.

  "Perillo." She heard Jack's voice bark his customary greeting.

  "Hi Jack…it's Lexy," She said tentatively, not sure what, exactly, to expect.

  "Oh, Lexy. I was hoping you would call." Lexy's heart did a flip-flop upon hearing the tenderness in his voice when he said her name.

  "Look, I want to apologize. I guess I've been neglecting you. I didn’t mean to...it's just that I've been so busy on this other case I am on. I tend to get wrapped up in my work." Jack sounded nervous which made Lexy’s heart melt, washing away the past two weeks of anger and hurt feelings. She realized how silly she had been to think he had lost interest in her. He just got busy with work. How insecure could she be?

  "Well, I was feeling a bit neglected,” she laughed, “I didn't know if you were trying to give me the brush off."

  "No, its nothing like that. You know how I feel about you." She did? Come to think of it, Jack had never said how he felt about her, but he did act like he cared. And he sure sounded like it on the phone right now. Lexy decided to let go of her insecurities and accept that things were good with them.

  Having that out of the way, she turned to more pressing issues. "Were you looking for something in the dumpster, today?" She asked, trying to slip the words in as if they were just conversational.

  "Were you?"

  "I asked first."

  Jack's deep laugh warmed her from the other side of the phone. "Okay, I give. We were looking for the murder weapon - it still hasn't shown up. Now it's your turn, what we you looking for?"

  Lexy crossed her fingers. "I was looking for some of our supplies which seem to have disappeared from the house." She hoped her voice didn't reveal the little white lie, but she didn't want Jack to know she was looking for the murder weapon because she knew he would be mad at her for “meddling”.

  "Oh really? Like one of your knives maybe?"

  Damn, he already knows the murder weapon was my knife.

  "Well, now that you mention it, I am missing some knives," she said innocently.

  "Lexy, I wasn't born yesterday. I know you were looking for the murder weapon in there and I know it was one of your knives. What I don’t know is why you would be trying to find it yourself instead of leaving it up to the police."

  Lexy didn't have a good answer, other than the police were being to slow in finding the murderer. She chose to remain silent.

  She heard the rustle of papers from Jack's end, then he said, "I have to run, but maybe we can talk about this later .. say over dinner Thursday night?"

  "Ok." Lexy didn't know if she should be happy at the prospect of having dinner with Jack or nervous because he wanted to talk more about the murder weapon.

  " Good. I'll pick you up around seven - oh, and Lexy?"

  "Yes…"

  "I really mean it about staying out of the case. There is a killer on the loose and you could be in danger. I don't want anything to happen to you. Will you promise me that you'll stop your investigation?"

  "What?… you're breaking up I can’t hear you…" Lexy grabbed an empty candy bar wrapper which was laying on the console and made crinkling noises with it near the phone. "I'll see you Thursday night,” she said into the phone, then snapped it shut.

  ***

  Jack held the phone away from his ear looking at it with amusement. He knew Lexy had manufactured the cell phone disturbance to avoid the question. He had to admit he thought it was kind of cute...and funny. He thought lots of things that Lexy did were cute and funny - thats what he liked about her. Really liked.

  Thinking about her made his heart do a summersault - he hoped she would take his warning seriously. According to what the investigation was revealing, they could be dealing with a very dangerous and unstable person. He didn’t want Lexy to put herself into danger by continuing to investigate on her own.

  Jack leaned back in his chair. He was surprised at the way his stomach knotted up when he thought about harm coming to Lexy. She’d become very important to him over these past few months. He had real feelings for her, feelings he didn’t think he would ever have again after his breakup with Caitlin.

  The breakup with his former fiancee had been hard on him, mostly because Jack blamed himself for always putting his job first and neglecting her. The same thing he had been doing the past two weeks with Lexy. A deep feeling of dread washed over him at the thought of losing Lexy. He couldn’t let that happen. He would have to make a conscious effort to pay more attention to her. Hopefully it wasn’t already too late.

  “It looks like our suspicions were right about the Toliver boys.” Jack jerked his head up, startled by his partner, John Darling, who had suddenly appeared beside his desk.

  "They're both flat broke and living off Daddy's money," John continued, handing a stack of papers to Jack. "Not only that but I'm digging up some really creepy stuff from their high school days. You remember the murder of that young girl back about twenty years ago?” Jack nodded. “Well it seems like either Blake or Bronson or maybe both of them may have been mixed up in it.”

  Jack rubbed his face with his hands. He didn't like the idea of a dangerous murderer on the loose in his town but he didn't have anything concrete on either of the boys to bring them in and hold them on. He wasn’t sure that one of them actually was the murderer and there was a long list of other suspects to eliminate first.

  “We have to think about who had the opportunity. It had to have been someone in the house, or someone who had access. We know the front door was open that morning and the back door was too - but who opened them and why?” Jack asked.

  John spread his hands. “There’s a lot of questions waiting to be answered. Why did Chastine leave Texas so abruptly? Why can’t we find anything about her assistant, Candice? Who left the doors open?”

  Jack looked up at him. “The biggest question I have is...why was Chastine down in the kitchen all dressed up in fancy clothes at two thirty in the morning when she should have been in bed sleeping? That would seem to indicate she was meeting someone. I think if we find out who that someone was, we may have our killer.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Lexy breathed a sigh of relief that Nans and the girls weren’t wearing trench coats like she had imagined. They were quite tastefully dressed complete with fresh hair-do’s and toting their gigantic purses. Lexy wondered if their iPads inside them.

  Lexy jumped out of the car, pushing up the front seats so the ladies could have access to the back. She eyed the tiny space in her VW beetle uncertainly. Could three elderly ladies contort themselves into this space?

  “This is pretty cramped, are you guys going to be able to get in here?” She voiced her concern.

  "Oh don't be silly," Ruth waived her hand, "we do yoga, this is a piece of cake." To prove the point Ruth, Ida and Helen all piled into the back seat with the ease of gymnasts.

  Nans took the passenger seat and Lexy hopped back into the driver seat, putting the car in gear and heading off towards the funeral parlor.

  She pulled up in front of McGreevy’s, dropping the ladies off at the door, marveling at how easily they extracted themselves from the back seat.

 
; Lexy drove around back to the parking area. Getting out of the car, she inspected her black skirt for any spots of flour, twisting around to look at the back. She'd been so busy at the bakery, she barely had time to do a quick change and fluff up her hair before driving over to pick the ladies up. Once she was satisfied that her skirt was flour-free, she straightened her peach colored silk blouse and strode off towards the front.

  The ladies were waiting for her on the steps. Ida looked her up and down, stopping at her black suede Stuart Weitzman four inch pumps. The contrasting silver metallic pointed toe added a touch of glam to the understated shoe.

  “I used to be able to wear heels like that," Ida said wistfully. Then she leaned in towards Lexy and whispered, "you shouldn't wear them too often though, dear, or you'll end up with bunions like mine."

  Lexy looked down at Ida’s feet. They were clad in low-slung sandals. The open toe style, which Lexy thought was a little late for this time of year, afforded a perfect view of Ida’s big toe which was contorted over to the side, bunching up her other toes. It looked painful. Lexy shuddered looking back down at her own feet. Maybe she should rethink her choice of footwear from now on.

  The ladies hurried up to the oak doors which were opened, as if by magic, by two somber looking gentlemen in dark suits.

  Lexy followed them inside. The funeral home was exactly as she remembered it from Kevin's wake. It was elegantly decorated and exuded the faint scent of flowers. The hushed tones of low voices and hymnal music filled her ears.

  They had the casket setup in the room to the right. Nans and the others made a beeline in that direction. Lexy almost had to jog to keep up. She got in line behind them, dutifully waiting her turn to file past the body on her way to pay her respects to the family.

  On the other side, Xavier, Blake and Bronson were standing in a receiving line. Lexy was surprised to see a blonde woman hovering around Xavier alternating between handing him tissues and shoving a small glass of water in his hand. Lexy poked Nans in the ribs. “Who’s that?” she whispered indicating the blonde.