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

by Leighann Dobbs

  "Texas." Dinty filled in. "Chastine was engaged to our good friend Bob, and … well… she did a numbah on him. Po’ man's not been the same since she left him—almost catatonic. Won't talk to no one. Not even his own dau’hter. We felt like we owed it ta him ta come up and see for ourselves—maybe he can git some closure and start ta heal."

  “Cripes what did she do to him?” Lexy asked.

  Dinty spread his hands and shrugged his wide shoulders. “Lied, cheated and broke his li’l ole heart.”

  Lexy felt sympathy for the man. She looked over into the other room where Chastine lay. Clearly, these people must have hated her to make the trip all the way up here—but did they hate her enough to kill her?

  Lexy spent the next half-hour rambling around the funeral parlor listening covertly to peoples conversations. She talked with a few people she knew from town, but no one had any light to shed on the murder. She was starting to feel conspicuous when Nans found her and announced it was time to go.

  They were making their way down the large front steps when Lexy heard a familiar voice behind her.

  “There's my favorite girl!” She whirled around to see Jack, her heart swelling. She beamed a wide smile at him, but, instead of rushing over to Lexy, Jack made a beeline straight for Nans. She felt her smile dim just a bit. Encircling the older woman in a hug, Jack winked pointedly at Lexy.

  “Mona, how have you been?” Jack asked.

  “Wonderful! How about you?” Mona stood on her tiptoes, giving Jack a peck on the cheek.

  Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm, embarrassed at her momentary misplaced jealousy. Jack lived in the house behind Lexy—the house Nans had lived in for decades. During the last few years, Nans and Jack had become rather close with Jack doing odd jobs around the house to help her out. Lexy knew Jack admired the spunky old lady and he got a kick out of the Ladies Detective Club. He often tried to help them out by feeding them clues and giving them tips. Nans thought of Jack almost like a grandson. It was no surprise that she was his “favorite girl”.

  Jack let go of Nans. Moving over next to Lexy, he put his arm around her. “What are you ladies doing here?” He asked, his eyes narrowing at Lexy.

  “Nans and the girls wanted to pay their respects to Xavier. They’ve been friends since childhood. I just gave her a ride.” Lexy looked at him sideways from under her lashes, her face a mask of innocence.

  Jack gave her a look indicating his skepticism.

  “Well, I hope you guys don't get too involved in this case,” He said to Nans and the other women. “The killer could be very dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to my favorite girls.” He glanced over at Lexy, his face as hard as stone.

  “I’d better be getting inside. Lexy, I'll see you tomorrow?”

  Lexy nodded enthusiastically feeling a warm tingle start low in her stomach at the thought of seeing Jack for dinner.

  Jack nodded, then turned and walked up the steps to the front doors.

  “Such a nice young man,” Ruth said.

  “And handsome too,” Ida added as she watched him walk away.

  The women started walking back toward Lexy's car. “So, did anyone find out anything good?” Lexy asked.

  “I happened to run into Mavis Fencer. She said Chastine had a lover.” Ruth’s eyes were wide, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Interesting…" Lexy chewed her bottom lip, “…maybe the lover was upset that she was getting married and killed her—or maybe Xavier found out and killed her in a fit of passion!”

  “I heard a few younger people talking about Bronson’s temper. Apparently, he can be violent when he gets mad. Maybe Chastine made him mad that morning and he did her in,” Helen said and then turning to Lexy asked, “did you find anything out?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did.” She told them about the Texans, omitting the part about her knocking over the tree.

  “Do you think they could have done it?” Helen asked.

  “They said they were only here for the wake—to get closure for their friend.”

  “I think we should find out how long they have been here. If what they say is true, then they can’t have been here more than a day. Maybe you can check the local hotels to see when they checked in,” She said to Ruth and then looking at the group she added, “if they were here before she died, then their story is a bit fishy.”

  “They could have come here from Texas to kill her. Anyone could have, to avenge this Bob person.” Lexy thought for a moment. “Actually, they said Bob had a daughter. She might have hated Chastine enough to want to kill her after what she did to her father.”

  “We need to check into this daughter and find out who she is and, more importantly, where she was when Chastine was murdered,” Nans said. “Also, we need to find out who Chastine’s secret lover was.”

  Lexy ushered the women into the car and got behind the wheel. She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. They were no closer to solving the murder than they had been that morning. Quite the opposite in fact; they had come to the wake hoping to narrow things down and had ended up with even more suspects than when they started!

  13

  Lexy sat at the counter in the back of the bakery sorting through the mountain of mail that had accumulated over the past few days. When she got to an envelope with red edges, she felt her heart freeze. It was from the appliance vendor. She ripped it open, letting the envelope drift to the floor.

  Payment was due in seven days!

  Lexy looked around the kitchen. She couldn't risk having that payment held up by the Toliver murder any longer. She needed to get down to business and catch Chastine’s killer. The only problem was that she still had no idea who might have done it.

  She reached into a drawer, pulling out a pen and paper. Mentally running through the list of suspects, she tried to figure out who would be most likely. The people from Texas were a long shot, although if Bob's daughter could be found and she was here at the time of the murder, she would be a likely candidate.

  She wrote Bob's daughter down on the paper with an asterisk next to it. Then below it wrote Dinty Carter with a dash next to his name.

  Lexy had her doubts about Xavier discovering Chastine had a lover and killing her over it— he had seemed genuinely upset about her death. She wrote his name down on the paper and lightly crossed it out.

  Chastine’s lover was another suspect. Lexy wondered if she actually did have one or if it was just a rumor. It seemed foolish for the woman to jeopardize her upcoming marriage by cheating on Xavier, but Lexy added ‘Chastine’s lover’ to the list just in case.

  Trixie could have done it. She certainly was taking advantage of Chastine’s death to rekindle her relationship with Xavier. The incentive of marrying into all that money could easily justify murder in some people’s eyes. Lexy wrote Trixie’s name down on the list under Xavier's name and put an asterisk next to it.

  Finally, her thoughts turned to Bronson and Blake. Either one of them could have done it. They had means, motive and opportunity so she added their names at the bottom.

  She studied the list. Seven suspects. They all had a motive. She figured she could narrow down the list by crossing off the ones who had an alibi for the time of the murder.

  Of course, she had no idea who two of the suspects even were, which could make it a little difficult. Maybe she should focus on the ones she did know. The question was which one to focus on first.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the trilling of her phone. It was Nans.

  "Hi, Nans," Lexy chirped into the phone.

  "Morning!" The older woman bubbled. "We have some information about some of the suspects. I wanted to let you know right away.”

  Lexy felt her heart grow lighter—she was already making progress!

  "Ruth checked with the local hotels. Dinty Carter and his posse from Texas arrived only yesterday. She also found out they flew in on a private jet—apparently, Dinty has some money. But since the jet only flew in yesterday, they
couldn't have murdered Chastine."

  "Great!" Lexy gingerly crossed Dinty Carter's name off the list.

  "And there's more," Nans continued. "Trixie couldn't have murdered her either because she was seen at an after party by hundreds of people. Her picture was even in the paper."

  "An after party?"

  "Yes, Trixie is an actress in the theater downtown—she plays a small role in their rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which just opened this weekend. It's common for them to have a party after the play, which tends to go on until all hours of the night. Ida knows the director and some of the other people in the play - she checked with them—Trixie was there, fully enjoying herself at two-thirty in the morning."

  Lexy felt overjoyed—two down and only five to go! She crossed Trixie's name off the list.

  "Thanks a bunch Nans. This really narrows down my suspect list. Now I've only got to whittle it down to just one person—the killer."

  "We did find out one other thing which might help you with that. Helen sent a description of the brooch you said Chastine usually wears—the one you think was ripped from her blouse —out to the local pawnshops and we got a bite. AtoZ Pawn over on Chestnut Street said a man brought a brooch in which sounded similar to what you described. It didn't have a big stone in it though; all the stones had been removed. The man wanted to sell it for the melt value of the gold.

  "Did he describe what the man looked like?” Lexy felt her heartbeat speed up.

  "Helen tried to pump him for information but all he could remember was that the man was tall, dark and seemed like he was in a bad mood. He also said the man was in a hurry, which made him a little suspicious so he didn't take brooch."

  Tall, dark and in a bad mood? That sounded a lot like Bronson. Suddenly Lexy knew exactly who to start focusing on first.

  Lexy raced out to the front of the store. "Cassie!"

  Cassie, who was half-way inside the display case and straightening out a tower of éclairs turned, looking at Lexy over her shoulder with raised eyebrows.

  "Want to go for a ride?" She asked, keys dangling from her fingers.

  Cassie straightened up. "What? Why?"

  "Come on, it's the slow part of the day. Haley can watch the bakery for the rest of the afternoon and then lock up—we have a murderer to catch."

  Lexy saw Cassie’s brows scrunch together, her sideways glare begged for an explanation.

  "I've narrowed down the suspect list to a few people. I was hoping we could do some covert surveillance on them to see what turns up."

  Cassie shrugged. "That doesn't seem like something we should be getting ourselves into, does it?"

  Lexy felt confused. Since when did Cassie not want to do something dangerous—and possibly stupid—that might get them into trouble with the police?

  She walked over to Cassie, putting the back of her hand on her friends’ forehead in an exaggerated manner. “Are you feeling okay? It'll be an adventure—you're always up for an adventure."

  Cassie laughed. "Yeah, I guess so; I don't know what came over me. Let me just finish up this case and I'll grab my jacket."

  "Great, we have to swing by my house to pick up Sprinkles first. I'll explain more in the car."

  Twenty minutes later the girls were loaded into the car with Sprinkles balancing contentedly on the console between them. Lexy absently patted the dog’s silky fur while she told Cassie what she had learned from Nans.

  "But, what do you think you will find out from following Bronson?"

  "I'm just hoping we'll get lucky. Maybe today will be the day he tries to dispose of the murder weapon. It still hasn't been found, you know." She glanced sideways at her friend. "I got the bill for the kitchen equipment today. It’s due in seven days. I'm kind of in a hurry to help get this case closed up."

  Lexy felt Cassie put her hand reassuringly on her arm. "Don't worry Lexy, even if you don't get the payment we’ll work something out. You will eventually get paid for this job."

  "I know, but I don't want to be delinquent on that bill—it could cause a whole lot of problems for us."

  The girls fell silent as they got closer to the Toliver mansion. Lexy let off the gas, driving past the house slowly. The Toliver mansion sat next to a nature preserve with walking trails. Lexy pulled her car into the small parking lot for the preserve. She grabbed a pair of binoculars from the backseat.

  "It’s such a beautiful Indian summer day, I was thinking we could go for a walk in the woods—you know, under the guise of walking the dog and doing some bird watching with these binoculars. No one needs to know the birds we are watching are the ones in the Toliver house."

  Lexy snapped on Sprinkles’ dog leash. Jumping out of the car, she left the door open for the little dog to follow. Cassie was already out. Removing her jacket, she tossed it in the back seat.

  “It’s so warm out, almost like summer!” She stretched, turning her face up to the sun.

  Sprinkles tugged at the leash, eager to explore. The girls followed her lead, heading down the path.

  They walked in silence, enjoying the sounds of the birds, the earthy smell of the woods and the sounds of dry leaves crunching under their feet. They stopped to let Sprinkles explore and sniff along the way. Every so often, they got out the binoculars and trained them on the Toliver house.

  The path was close to the Toliver property. Now that the leaves had mostly fallen from the trees, Lexy didn’t need binoculars to see into the yard, but she used them to look at the house itself and the various out buildings to try to pick out anything unusual.

  After twenty minutes, Lexy sighed with frustration. “There’s nothing going on...we should head back.”

  The path had wound around to the back of the house. They turned to head back toward the car. About halfway back, Lexy noticed the path cut in, right near the edge of the Toliver property where they were building the new cabana. Lexy paused, looking at the construction site through the trees. She was so close she didn’t need binoculars to see they were setting up forms to pour cement.

  She felt Sprinkles tugging on the leash. Looking down, she noticed it was wrapped around various sticks and vines, leaving the dog only about a foot of leeway. Lexy squatted down. “How did you do that, girl?” She was always amazed at how the dog could get her leash tangled in an impossible mess. This time was no different—somehow Sprinkles had woven the leash in and around a cluster of thick vines. Lexy swore under her breath as she tried to unknot the mess.

  “Hey, there’s a truck idling out front with someone in the passenger seat!” Cassie, who had continued up the path, was now rounding the corner, which provided a view of the front of the house.

  Lexy worked harder at the leash.

  “It’s Bronson—he’s getting in the truck!” Cassie started jogging for the car.

  Lexy felt panic rise up in her chest. They had to follow him! Giving up on the leash, she unhooked Sprinkles’ harness, scooped the dog up in her arms and ran for the car.

  14

  Lexy peeled out of the parking lot, leaving a cloud of dirt in her wake. Bronson had a good head start, but the road didn’t have many intersections so Lexy figured she could catch up to him if she drove fast enough.

  “I wonder where he is going...and who is with him?” Cassie rolled down the window, the crisp air circling through the car.

  “That’s him up ahead!”

  They had come to a long straightaway, the taillights of a big black pickup truck signaling to take a right turn were barely visible about a half mile ahead. Lexy stepped on the gas, praying the police had already met their speeding ticket quota for the month.

  She lucked out and the light was green when she got to the intersection. She turned right and saw Bronson’s truck about three cars ahead.

  They followed him straight down the road, taking a left when he did but being careful to stay a few cars behind. Lexy was surprised when he pulled into the upscale condo unit on the edge of town.

  “I wonder what he woul
d want here?”

  “Don’t follow directly behind him, it’s too obvious,” Cassie said. “Go down this side road. We can keep an eye on where his truck is going by watching between the buildings.

  They didn’t have to go far. Bronson stopped about a half mile in. Lexy did the same. She held her breath as she watched his passenger door open.

  “That’s Candice!” She said excitedly.

  The girls watched through Cassie’s open window as Candice produced a set of keys from her purse then disappeared from view, presumably making her way to the front door of one of the condos.

  “She must live here,” Lexy said, staring at the back of the condo unit which Candice had just entered. She noticed a big black cat skulking around in the grass between the two buildings. Unfortunately, Sprinkles must have noticed it too. In a blur of white fur, the little dog launched herself out of Cassie’s open window, charging full speed after the cat. Lexy jumped out of the car in pursuit.

  “Sprinkles come back!” Lexy felt a jolt of panic when she saw the dog disappear around a corner. She tried to run even faster but her stilettos sinking into the soft ground slowed her down and it took a few seconds before she made it around the corner. Her heart sank—the dog was nowhere to be seen!

  Then she heard Sprinkles give a playful bark. She turned toward the sound and saw her dog inside one of the condos. The sliding glass door was open and Sprinkles must have run in. A woman sat on the couch, her head bent down as she petted the dog.

  Lexy stepped partway into the condo. “Sprinkles…you almost…gave me a…heart attack,” She gasped between words. Sprinkles saw her and ran over. Lexy bent down, scooping the dog up into her arms, her cheeks growing warm with embarrassment for the dog’s behavior.

  “I’m so sorry...” She started to say, then her breath caught in her throat as the woman looked up and she saw who it was. Candice.