She'd barely made it into the entrance of the building when she ran into Jack. He did not look happy. Had something happened to Nans? But she'd sounded fine on the phone. Ruth, maybe? Her mind racing and her heart in her throat, she didn't resist as he led her to a quiet corner in the lobby.
"Is Ruth okay?" she asked once they were alone. "Nans called in a panic, and I got here as fast as I could, but I had to borrow Cassie's car and—"
"She's fine, honey." Jack rubbed her arms until she calmed down a bit. "We're just finishing up. From the looks of things now, it's a simple case of breaking and entering."
"Breaking and entering?" Once her pulse slowed and her breath grew more even, Lexy hazarded a look into her husband's eyes. She'd promised to stay at the bakery all day, and now here she was, blatantly violating their agreement. "I had to come. When Nans called me, so upset, I had to make sure everything was all right. Are you mad I'm here?"
"No," Jack said then sighed. "I would've called you if anything truly bad happened. You know that, right?"
"Yes, I know." Lexy dug the toe of her blue-striped Keds into the carpet. "I guess when the call came in, I just went into autopilot, fearing she might be in danger. With a killer loose and all, I didn't want to take any chances."
"I'm all for eliminating risk. Especially where you're concerned." He smiled then grew serious. "But this is all the more reason for you to stay put from now on. This is too much of a coincidence considering what happened with Ruth's car. The killer could be getting careless. It's too dangerous for you to be showing up at every crime scene in Brook Ridge Falls."
She nodded, and they shared a quick kiss before Nans rushed over. "Jack, do you think what happened today at Ruth's condo had anything to do with the homicide at the storage unit?" Nans asked, her tone low as she eyed the nearby residents.
"I can't discuss an active case, Mona." Jack shoved his hands into his pockets and gave Lexy's grandmother his best stern-cop look. "You know that."
"Is there a lot of damage to Ruth's place?" Lexy looked from Jack to Nans.
"I need to get back to the station," Jack said, backing away from them and avoiding her question. "I'm sure your grandmother can fill you in. See you later, honey. And remember our agreement."
She waved to her husband and then turned back to Nans. "So what happened?"
"Someone tossed Ruth's condo. That's what happened," Nans said, scowling. "Ruth's angry, and I don't blame her. This makes the second time someone's done that to her, and she's sick of it."
Lexy bit back the fact that perhaps if Ruth made better choices when it came to her male companions, she might not have to deal with less-than-scrupulous folks. If only she'd fall for that sweet old Mr. Conti. He seemed like a fine, upstanding man.
Ida wandered over and joined in the conversation. "Well, at least the last time, the thieves put away her groceries."
Helen walked up to the group as well, sniffing with disdain. "That's because those burglars were gentlemen. These riff-raff had no manners whatsoever."
Ruth finished giving her statement to one of the officers and came over at last, looking both flustered and furious.
"Are you all right?" Lexy asked her. "Maybe you should sit down for a bit."
"Yes, I'm fine. Thank goodness. And no, I don't want to sit. I want to find the people responsible for this and make them pay."
Hoping to steer the group toward safer water, Lexy changed subjects entirely. "I met a friend of yours this morning, Ruth. Herman Conti. He seemed very nice and worried about you too. He'll be glad to hear you're all right."
"Herman?" Nans, Ida, and Helen said in unison, giving Ruth a suspicious stare.
"Well, you all know he's been coming around my place more lately. As a matter of fact, I also ran into him early this morning, and he wanted to know if I was going to be around for brunch. Of course, I told him I had other plans. I'm not interested in him that way. He's been sweet on me for years, but when I was with Nunzio, he steered clear. Nunzio had warned me to stay away from him too. He was always so very jealous, you know." Ruth blushed, babbling. "Anyway, I'm not going to hook up with Herman or anything. It's just nice to have the attention again, now that Nunzio is gone. Besides, Vincenzio's has a two-for-one early-bird special, so it makes sense to go with someone."
"Hmm." Nans still sounded skeptical but miraculously let the matter drop. Instead, she turned to Lexy. "Spill what you know about the victim from Jack, dear."
Lexy told them what she'd learned about Sherman Wilson and his recent stay in prison. "Jack thinks that it would take another criminal to murder him in cold blood like that."
"Can't say I disagree." Nans began pacing, her gaze narrowed with deep concentration. "Right. Well, I'm going to make an educated guess that there was only one killer in that storage hangar."
"Why's that?" Ida asked.
"It's far too tight in there for more than one person to act with any certainty."
"Makes sense," Helen said. "Also makes sense that if whoever broke into the unit and killed Wilson didn't find what they were looking for, they came here to Ruth's to search for the list. That connects those two dots."
"Again I ask, why in the world would anyone think I had Nunzio's list?" Ruth frowned, clasping her hands in front of her. "If he'd hidden it at my place, I'd have found it during my spring cleaning. I turned the whole apartment upside down. Besides, we spent most of our time at his place, anyway. If the thieves are going to search anywhere, it should be Nunzio's old home."
"But the police searched there with a fine-tooth comb, and besides, someone else lives there now, and it's been renovated," Helen said. "Nothing to be found there."
"What are we going to do next?" Ida asked the rest of the group. "The killer's still out there. What if he comes after Ruth?"
"We won't let that happen," Lexy said, her tone adamant. "The police are working on it, and Jack's putting in overtime to get this case solved. He thinks we should let them handle it and keep ourselves safe."
"Nonsense," Nans said. "If this person is coming after my family and friends, the only way we're going to stay safe is to catch this criminal ourselves. With all their rules and regulations, the police aren't able to act as quickly as we can. And bless Jack's heart, but he'd get a lot further along on his cases if he'd learn to take my advice instead of ignoring it."
"But, Nans—" Lexy started.
"I agree," Helen said. "We've taken matters into our own hands before, and things have always worked out in the end. I'd say we need to start by locating this missing list of Nunzio's." She lowered her voice as several residents of the center walked by, heading to water aerobics. "Maybe it really is hidden in that car somewhere. The guy that ended up dead underneath it probably had some kind of a tip."
"Not to mention the killer," Nans added. "Don't forget, two people were in that storage unit. I don't think that was coincidence. They must have had a reason to be sniffing around Ruth's car."
"Right. Once we have the list, then we can double-check the names and figure out who's still alive and not in prison. One of them must be the killer," Helen said.
"Great plan, except we can't just waltz back into the crime scene, Columbo," Ida said. "The police still have the storage unit cordoned off and guarded, and the Olds is still being searched by the techs."
"True," Helen said. "And I'd much prefer if you called me Miss Marple. Trench-coat beige has never been my color."
Ida rolled her eyes.
"Ladies, I really don't think this is such a good idea," Lexy said, trying to protect the ladies while still keeping her agreement with Jack. "Why don't you all come back with me to the bakery, and we can—"
"Maybe I can call Stan, the storage facility owner, again and see if he can get us in after closing time," Ruth offered, ignoring Lexy completely. "He seemed amenable enough to me when I talked to him last time."
"Perfect." Nans nodded. "And ask him if he saw anyone suspicious sneaking around your unit within the last couple of
days. If we can get a description, that might help us narrow down our roster of suspects. C'mon, ladies. While Ruth's doing that, we can use the white board in my condo to lay out what we know so far and plan out our strategy."
Lexy sighed, lingering behind as the ladies took off for the elevators. Part of her wanted to run alongside them and catch another criminal. The other part of her feared that if she broke her promise to Jack again, it might be one step too far. What they had was so precious and sweet and wonderful. Did she really want to risk losing all that?
Then again, Nans had been there for her when no one else had. Nans was her rock. She couldn't just let her and her friends hunt down a killer alone. They'd come after Ruth twice now. What if next time they actually reached her? Lexy shuddered from the horrible thought.
Nans stopped and called back, "Are you coming, dear? We need you."
Lexy hesitated for a second, then, her mind made up, she sprinted to catch up with Nans.
Chapter Seven
Once inside Nans' condo, the ladies burst into action. Helen dragged the old stainless steel percolator out from one of the kitchen cabinets and got coffee going. The pot heated quickly, and soon, the smell of dark roast hung in the air, and the pop, pop, pop of the percolator made background noise.
Nans and Ruth pulled an oversized whiteboard on wheels out from the spare room, into the dining room.
Ida rummaged through Nans' fridge, bent at the waist to inspect the contents of the shelves up close. "Hey, Mona, don't you have any leftover pastries?" She shot a look at Lexy over her shoulder as if beaming disapproval that Lexy hadn't thought to bring them a fresh batch when she rushed over.
"In the cheese drawer," Nans said without looking away from the whiteboard, where she was making columns for suspects and clues. The dry-erase marker squeaked along as she drew the lines, and Lexy caught a whiff of stale alcohol from the marker.
"We don't have much to go on," Ida said as she set an etched-glass platter filled with cookies on Nans' mahogany table. She took a seat, a cookie on a dessert plate in front of her, and dug in.
"We know someone was after something in Ruth's car," Nans said.
"And that the victim just got out of jail, so there's a criminal element involved," Helen added.
"And that we need to get to Stan's and see if he has any clues." Ruth pulled her phone out. "I'll call him."
Stan said they could swing by in twenty minutes, and all faces turned toward Lexy. A twinge of guilt pierced her stomach. She'd already spent too much time away from the bakery, and she'd promised Jack she'd mind her own business.
"Sorry, I have to return Cassie's car before she reports it stolen," Lexy said. "Not to mention I have a business to run."
"But what about going to Stan's?" Nans asked, following her out of the dining room and toward the door. "Can't you give us a ride?"
"I'm sorry," Lexy said, bending to kiss her grandmother's cheek. "I can't."
"Oh. Well, wait a minute then." She rushed back into the dining room and returned moments later with her phone in hand. Nans squinted over the tops of her glasses at the screen as she fumbled with typing in a text.
"Who are you messaging?" Lexy asked.
"Our new favorite Uber driver, Myra Stoddard." Nans moved her face closer to the phone. "Darn. I have to start over."
"Let me see that." Ida grabbed the phone. "I'm a wiz at texting. Comes from being a cryptologist in my younger days. I can even do it without looking." As if to prove her point, she closed her eyes, thumbed in the text, then turned the phone around to show them the perfectly worded text. "See."
So much for thinking the ladies could be slowed down. When they had something to investigate, nothing stopped them. Lexy sighed. "I'm really sorry I can't take you ladies to snoop, but I had to borrow Cassie's car to get here, and we're swamped at the bakery, so I really should get back soon, and I promised Jack I wouldn't—"
"Nonsense, dear," Nans said, glancing up at her. "It's no problem whatsoever. I… just… need… to… finish…" She tapped the screen a few more times then smiled. "Done. I sent a message off to Myra about giving us a ride to Stan's place. Now we just have to wait and see when she can pick us up." Her phone buzzed with an incoming response almost immediately. "Well, that didn't take long at all." She turned to call into the dining room, "Myra said she'd be happy to take us, ladies. We just need to walk down to her and Joe's place." Then she turned back to Lexy. "She's always looking to give people rides."
Apparently, with this new Uber thing, the ladies didn't need her anymore. Lexy should have been glad. Nans and her friends often depended on Lexy to drive them, but now they were more independent. But instead of feeling glad, Lexy felt empty. Even though she usually ended up in trouble, she liked being a part of Nans and the ladies' investigations.
Helen unplugged the percolator, the ladies collected their giant patent-leather purses, and they all exited Nans' condo and headed back down to the lobby.
"When did you start texting, Nans?" Lexy asked her grandmother.
"Since I got this new smart phone. I like it so far, but I'm not very good at the messaging part yet. That darned keypad is just so small. Makes it hard to see what I'm typing."
Lexy walked with them out of the building and into the parking lot.
"Myra and Joe live in a detached. Nice place," Ruth said as she veered to the west side of the parking lot where the detached condos were.
"My car is near that side. I'll walk with you."
As they neared the corner, Lexy stopped, grabbing Nans' arm to gain her attention. The other ladies halted as well. Up ahead, two men were arguing on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to one of the condos. "Who are they?"
"That one is Joe Stoddard," Ruth said. "That's their place."
"What about the other?" Nans asked. "I don't recognize him."
They ducked behind a row of shrubbery and strained to catch snippets of the men's conversation.
"—stealing my coins!" the angry guy said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Joe Stoddard said, his tone confused.
"No switching them!" the angry man yelled at Joe. "No!"
Lexy glanced over to see Nans and the others all watching the argument as well through the leaves on the bushes. They all exchanged quizzical looks then snuck around the corner to hide behind a couple of brick pillars, the better to eavesdrop unseen from.
"These aren't the cufflinks I ordered," the angry man continued, taking a step closer to Joe and shoving his shirtsleeve into his face. "You switched the coins on me."
"I didn't. I swear," Joe said, moving back, his expression startled and his tone frazzled. "No switches."
"Why are you lying to me, Joe? The coins I gave you were valuable."
"I don't know anything about coin values. I just like to make jewelry out of them. That's it." Joe's face was flushed, and he seemed to be favoring his left side. The one where he'd had his hernia surgery, Lexy supposed. "Look, I'm sorry the cuff links didn't turn out as you'd expected. I had surgery a few weeks ago, and I'm on pain meds. Maybe they caused me to mess something up."
"That's no excuse!" the angry man snarled. "You're nothing but a liar and a cheat, using your operation as a cover for swindling people."
"I haven't swindled anyone, honest." Joe held up his hands in surrender. "All I can do is check my inventory and see if there was some kind of mix-up, okay? My wife handles inputting all that stuff into the computer, so I'll have her look this afternoon."
"Aw, poor Joe," Helen whispered from beside Lexy. "I think he's telling the truth. And he looks scared."
"There you ladies are," Myra said, coming toward them from the other side of the lot. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Are you ready to go?"
They walked toward Myra, meeting her halfway.
"Thanks for taking them where they need to go," Lexy yelled, remembering Myra was hard of hearing. Maybe a bit too loudly, though, judging by the way Myra jumped back. "I need to get back to
work. Ladies, stop by when you're done and fill me in on what you discover."
"Will do," Nans said, waving as Lexy headed across the street to her car. "See you soon, dear."
Lexy watched them walk away, doing her best to ignore the niggle inside of her that wanted to go with them. She had a business to run and an agreement with her husband to keep. Now wasn't the time to go running off on a wild goose chase to the storage facility, no matter how intriguing it might sound.
Chapter Eight
A few hours later, the lunch rush was over, and Lexy was helping Cassie clean up the tables outside when Myra's silver station wagon pulled up at the curb. The ladies climbed out, chattering like hens as they passed Lexy on their way inside to buy their daily treats.
The wind was picking up slightly, so Lexy quickly finished collecting the trash then headed inside to put the bag of refuse with the rest in the back dumpster. She joined the ladies at their table near the window after washing her hands.
"Oh, these brownies are truly divine, dear," Nans said, patting the empty seat beside her. "Sit, sit, and let us tell you what we found at Stan's."
"Personally, I prefer the pistachio biscotti," Helen said, flicking her napkin out then laying it across her lap. "Quite tasty."
"Don't forget about these confetti cupcakes." Ida wiped a glob of vanilla frosting off her cheek. "So good."
"And what do you have, Ruth?" Lexy asked, peering across the round table at the other woman's plate.
"Today I'm trying one of those cute little peach tartlets."
"Wonderful." Lexy sipped her bottled water then rested her chin in her hand. "So were you able to get a good look at the car?"
Cream Puff Killer: Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Book 13 Page 4