“Don’t look.” The person murmuring tried to pull her head back to his chest. Lexy looked up. Concerned ice blue eyes looked back at her.
“Who are you?” she asked, pushing herself away reluctantly. Her eye started to twitch a bit at the corner. She put her finger up to it, mashing her lower lid in an effort to get the twitching to stop.
“Blake Toliver...and you are?” He held out his hand. Lexy reciprocated, her small hand disappearing inside his large one. The handshake was warm and firm. It felt rather pleasant despite the gruesome circumstances.
“I’m Lexy Baker. I own the Cup and Cake Bakery. I was delivering pastries for the brunch when I found...” She nodded in the direction of the body, letting her voice trail off. Ripping her glance away from the dead woman, she turned her attention back to Blake. She knew from what she had heard around town that Xavier Toliver had two sons. Blake was one of them, but she’d thought he would be older considering his father was well into his seventies.
Apparently, Xavier had waited until later in life to become a father. The outcome wasn’t half-bad. Blake looked to be a few years older than Lexy. He was tall, about six feet, and broad shouldered. Black curly hair framed a handsome face providing a perfectly delicious contrast to his ice-blue eyes. Lexy might have felt all tingly and hot if there hadn’t been a body laying five feet away...and if she wasn’t already involved with someone...sort of.
She spun around at the sound of heavy boots coming up behind her. In front of her stood another tall, dark and handsome man. The other son. But where Blake was all charm and smiles, this one seemed dark and moody with black close-cut hair and dark brown stormy eyes.
Lexy held out her hand to make friends. “I’m Lexy Baker...”
“I heard you introduce yourself to my brother.” He interrupted her and ignored her hand which Lexy let dangle foolishly in the air until the onset of another eye twitch caused her to grind it into her eye again.
“This is my brother, Bronson,” Blake interjected. “I apologize for his bad manners. He can be such a caveman sometimes.”
Bronson ignored the remark. “I called 911—the police should be here any minute.” Sirens wailed in the distance as if to verify the statement.
“Shall we go in the other room? It’s a bit unpleasant in here. We probably shouldn’t be milling about the crime scene anyway.” Blake put his hand on the small of Lexy’s back, propelling her down the hall. Lexy cast a look back over her shoulder marveling at how easy it was to get used to looking at a dead body. Just minutes ago, she was a screaming mess and now she could look over there with barely a tummy twinge.
Blake steered her inside a lavishly decorated room. He nodded toward a blue velvet antique tufted wingback chair motioning for her to sit while he moved behind a wet bar.
He grabbed a couple of ice cubes with silver tongs and dropped them into a short glass, the cubes made clinking sounds as they hit the bottom. Choosing a crystal decanter from the sideboard, he pulled off the top and filled a couple of fingers worth of smoky amber liquid from the decanter into the glass, which he held up toward Lexy.
“Drink?”
Lexy shook her head. Kind of early in the morning for drinks, isn’t it?
Blake looked over at Bronson who leaned against the doorframe, not quite in the room but not quite out of it either.
“Too early for you, Bronnie?”
Bronson just stared back.
Lexy couldn’t help but notice a strange dynamic between the brothers, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable. Their behavior toward each other wasn’t the only thing that set her on edge. The thing that she found most odd was that it appeared that neither of the brothers seemed too surprised or upset that a murder had just happened right in their own kitchen.
2
Blake was only a couple of sips into his drink when the wail of sirens reached annoyingly loud decibels, then suddenly cut off, announcing the arrival of the Brook Ridge Police Department.
The others went into the hall to greet them. Lexy stayed back hidden in the room, biding her time before she had to face him. Maybe he wouldn’t be the one to investigate this.
For a moment she felt hope, or was it disappointment? She wasn’t sure which, and didn’t have much time to explore her feelings before a familiar voice came booming through the house. Detective Jack Perillo.
Lexy had met Jack earlier in the summer when her ex-boyfriend had been poisoned with cupcake tops from her bakery. Jack had been the lead investigator in the murder. Lexy had been a suspect and her bakery had been closed down. In order to clear herself, she had been forced to do some investigating of her own, causing their paths to cross under a variety of circumstances.
The two had a strong attraction to each other from the start. After the case was over, they had started dating. Everything was going great—they had become very close over the past several months. Lexy was even entertaining thoughts of Jack being ‘the one’ until a couple of weeks ago when Jack mysteriously stopped calling and answering her calls. All she had gotten in the past week and a half were a couple of unromantic text messages. It didn’t help matters that Jack was her neighbor—she had a clear view of his house from her kitchen window allowing her to see his comings and goings whenever she chose.
Lexy had become so angry with the non-responsive detective she had shut her kitchen blinds refusing to open them. She didn’t care what Detective Jack Perillo was doing or with whom he was doing it!
The last person Lexy wanted to see was Jack, but it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice now. Fortifying herself with a deep breath, she marched into the hallway, hoping she didn’t react like a silly female and get all emotional. Having a fight with your sometimes boyfriend at the scene of a murder hardly seemed like proper etiquette.
Lexy turned the corner into the foyer. She stood in the entryway, her petite five-foot one-inch frame dwarfed by the much larger detectives and Toliver boys.
Against her will, her eyes immediately sought out Jack. He looked over at her, his warm honey-brown eyes registering surprise, a smile forming at the corners of his lips. Lexy’s stomach flip-flopped, her mind whirled with a dizzying array of emotions which had nothing to do with discovering a dead body less than an hour ago—excitement, nervousness, lust and, most strongly—anger.
“Lexy!” Jack seemed genuinely happy to see her, which added another emotion to her repertoire—confusion.
Jack looked across the foyer at Lexy. Her simple tee shirt and jeans showed off her curvy petite figure. His heart swelled at the sight of her shoulder length mink-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail made her bright green eyes seem even bigger than usual. Jack pulled his thoughts back to the matter at hand before things other than his heart started to swell.
“What are you doing here?” What was she doing here? Jack looked around at the Toliver boys—tall, rich and handsome. He felt an uncustomary pang of jealousy stab him in the chest. Then he realized he was being ridiculous. He was sure she wasn’t there socially, because after all, they were dating pretty seriously. Jack didn’t think Lexy was the type to have another boyfriend on the side.
Suddenly Jack realized he had been so wrapped up in his latest case that he hadn’t talked to Lexy in several days...maybe even weeks.
“I was delivering pastries here this morning.”
Jack felt a surge of relief.
“She discovered the body.” Blake offered.
“Speaking of which,” one of the detectives piped in, “can you show us where it is?”
Blake led the group to the kitchen. The team immediately sprang into action. In a matter of minutes, the kitchen resembled a scene from CSI.
After inspecting the body, Jack turned his attention to the Toliver brothers who were standing off to the side next to Lexy.
“Are you the sons of the deceased?”
Blake snorted out a laugh. “Hardly,” he pointed over at the body. “Chastine Johnson was going to be our new step mommy. Our dad was marrying h
er next week.”
Jack felt his eyebrows rise. Neither one of them looked too upset the marriage would never happen.
“So, you’re the Toliver sons, then? Blake and Bronson, is it?”
Blake nodded. “I’m Blake,” then pointed to his brother, “and this is Bronson.”
“Do you both live here?”
“Yes,” Blake answered for both of them.
“And you were home this morning?”
They both nodded.
“Who was present when the body was discovered?”
Lexy raised her hand. “Just me.”
Jack signaled to his longhaired, lanky partner, John Darling, who was bending over the body pointing out something to one of the technicians.
John looked over at them, his eyebrows arching when he noticed Lexy. “Hey Lexy, what are you doing here?”
“She discovered Ms. Johnson.” Jack explained. “Maybe you could get a statement from Blake and Bronson Toliver. I’ll take Lexy’s.”
John nodded, turning his attention to the Toliver brothers.
Jack pulled Lexy over into a private corner. “Are you OK? It must have been awful for you finding her like that.” He reached out for her, pulling her into a soothing hug.
It was like hugging a stiff board. Jack realized he had been a bit selfish lately. Wrapped up in his latest case he hadn’t made any time for Lexy, thinking that she would just automatically understand. A pang of regret ripped through him. He pulled her even closer, hoping he hadn’t ruined things with her by being so dedicated to his job.
Lexy felt a rush of emotions. The morning had been stressful. It felt good to have Jack’s strong arms around her. She let herself relax into his embrace for a few seconds. She thought she heard him whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Then Lexy remembered why she was mad at him. She pushed herself away, wriggling out of his arms. The past two weeks she had felt hurt and anger at Jack’s lack of attention. She didn’t need him coming to the rescue now.
She looked up at him, her heart clenching at the look of confusion in his eyes. “I’m fine,” she managed to say.
Lexy watched him take a well-worn notebook and pencil out of his pocket. “I’ll have to ask you a few questions...”
“Of course.”
“What time did you arrive here?”
Lexy bit the inside of her lip, trying to think back through the timeframe of the morning. She had left the bakery at around ten minutes after eight, making the trip to the mansion in fifteen minutes easy.
“Around eight twenty-five,” she answered.
“Who was here?”
“It was the strangest thing, no one was here. I knocked on the door and it swung open on its own. I had a big tray of Danish, so I brought them in.”
Lexy didn’t like the way Jack’s brow furrowed. Surely, he wasn’t doubting her story. She noticed with annoyance that her eye was starting to twitch again. She made an effort not to poke at it with her finger.
“And you didn’t think it was odd no one was around? You just walked right in?”
“Yes, I did think it was odd, but I just figured they were all getting ready for the party. They knew I was coming so I just thought they left the door open so I could find my own way in without disturbing them.”
Jack nodded, scratching something in his notebook.
“So you were delivering food for some party—how do you know these people?”
“Nans knows Xavier Toliver from her younger days. She helped me get the catering job for their whole wedding shindig.” Lexy said, wondering what Nans, her grandmother, was going to think of all of this.
“Speaking of Xavier Toliver...where is he?” Jack asked, looking around the room.
Lexy’s brows knit together. “I haven’t seen him yet this morning.”
Jack turned to walk back to the other room, motioning for her to stay put. Naturally, she did no such thing. Something about the body had been nagging at her, and she wanted to go back to take a peek.
Lexy slipped around the edges of the kitchen stopping near where Chastine lay on the floor. She felt a twinge looking at her, but she couldn’t say she was sad that Chastine was dead. The woman had been quite beautiful, but had a nasty disposition that made it impossible to like her. A sparky blonde of about forty-five, she was, of course, much younger than Xavier was. Rumor had it she was only marrying him for his money and Lexy didn’t doubt it was true.
The woman had expensive taste and it would take all of Toliver’s millions to keep her in style. The few times Lexy had seen her, she’d been dressed in designer outfits and wearing expensive jewelry. Lexy had admired one pin in particular. The pin! That’s what had been nagging at her. Chastine always wore an expensive pin—a daisy with a very unusual canary-yellow cushion-cut diamond in the center, but Lexy hadn’t noticed the pin on the body this morning.
Lexy shuffled closer to the body. Slowly she bent over to look at the lapels of the fuchsia silk shirt. She felt her breath catch in her throat—the right lapel had a tear in it, as if someone had ripped the pin right off her.
“Lexy?” Jack’s voice interrupted her from across the room. She straightened abruptly wobbling on her high heels, almost toppling onto the body.
She looked over at him, eyebrows raised.
“We’re not quite done here.” He said, motioning for her to join him.
Lexy picked her way over to him. He was standing with John and Blake. Blake was explaining that his father normally slept in so he wouldn’t be around this time of morning. He had sent Bronson upstairs to wake him. Suddenly the air split with an anguished wail.
“Looks like Bronson has given Dad the news.” Blake said raising his glass to his lips and swigging down the rest of his drink.
3
“What took so long? The rest of the pastries have been ready for an hour!” Cassie, Lexy’s assistant and best friend, stood in the doorway to the kitchen, hands on hips, her pink hair ruffled up into an angry spike.
Lexy blew out a breath, “You won’t believe what happened!”
Cassie lifted her eyebrows in response. “What?”
“Chastine Johnson’s been murdered!” Lexy blurted out. She watched Cassie’s face run through a gamut of emotions - surprise, confusion then disbelief.
“No, that can’t be...what will we do with all these pastries?” She spread her arms in the direction of the kitchen, which was loaded to the brim with baked goods - cinnamon buns, éclairs, banana and pumpkin breads, brownies and Lexy’s signature pastry—cupcake tops loaded with creamy frosting.
Lexy stopped short. She hadn’t considered that. What would they do with all the pastry? What would happen to her big catering job now that there would be no wedding?
Feeling lightheaded, Lexy plopped down in one of the tall kitchen chairs. She took a deep breath. The familiar scent of flour, sugar and cinnamon acted as a soothing balm and kicked her brain into gear.
“I hadn’t thought about that.” She tapped her front teeth with long, red nails. “With Chastine dead, there won’t be any wedding...and I spent the money from the job on the new kitchen equipment.”
The girls looked around the bakery kitchen. Brand new appliances gleamed in every corner—commercial ovens, mixers, and a walk in refrigerator had just been installed to replace the old used ones they had been making-do with.
Lexy had opened her bakery, The Cup and Cake, barely a year ago on a shoestring budget. A loan from her parents who had sold their home to travel the country in an RV had helped her buy what she needed, but she had had to stretch each dollar and had only been able to afford older, used equipment. That equipment didn’t work up to par and broke down quite a bit, which made it harder to get the work done. The new equipment would be more efficient and allow her to be more productive, which would make the bakery more profitable.
Her business had been growing nicely, but she wouldn’t have been able to afford all new kitchen equipment if it wasn’t for the Toliver’s big catering job. If
she lost all that money, she would have a hard time paying the equipment bill, which would be coming any day now.
Lexy felt her stomach drop. Her business could be at risk if she didn’t collect at least part of the payment—for several parties she’d already catered for Xavier—including this morning’s scheduled brunch. He had promised her the partial payment today, but considering the circumstances, she doubted that would happen.
“We need to get whatever money we can from this job or we could be in big trouble.” She said, feeling tears threaten.
“Jeez, Lexy, I’m not sure how you can do that...I mean you can’t just breeze in on the day the guys’ fiancée gets murdered and present him with a bill.”
“Yeah, that would be rude,” Lexy agreed. “I couldn’t do it, but I know someone who could. Can you hold down the fort here for a little while?”
Cassie nodded.
“Great—I’ll be back in a bit,” Lexy said, stuffing a raspberry scone into her mouth as she slid off her chair, grabbed her purse and ran out the back door.
Lexy whipped her yellow VW beetle into the first parking spot she found at the Brook Ridge Retirement Community. Her grandmother, or Nans as Lexy called her, had recently moved to the upscale community for retirees to be closer to friends and not have to worry about driving. She had given the old Craftsman style bungalow she lived in for most of her life to Lexy.
Lexy had called ahead to make sure Nans was around. With all her senior activities, the woman could be impossible to get in touch with, but today Lexy had lucked out—Nans was waiting for her inside.
Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 1 (Books 1 - 4) (Lexy Baker Cozy Mysteries Boxed Sets) Page 8