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

by Leighann Dobbs

  She glanced up at Jake “Sorry, I have to take this.”

  “OK, I’ll talk to you later. Be careful.” Jake turned and she watched him walk to the exit door. Lexy sucked in a deep breath before she answered her phone.

  She was glad Jack couldn’t see her eye twitching nervously at the little white lies - more like omissions - she was about to tell him. If Jack found out about the sabotaged cake, he’d be out here in a flash or, worse, he’d try to make her come home.

  “What do you mean she covered up the cake?” Nik stared at Jake, the crease between her brows deepening.

  “When I got there, they had already repaired the damage. She said she needed the cake for the wedding cake challenge otherwise she would’ve been disqualified.”

  “So she was more worried about the challenge than the fact that somebody deliberately sabotaged her cake? Does that seem a little odd to you?”

  “Yeah, most people are more concerned about their safety. She didn’t seem upset about the threat at all.”

  Nik pursed her lips. “Do you think she staged it? You know, to throw us off track and deflect the suspicion from her?”

  Jake shrugged. “It’s possible…the knife was from her kitchen, but the perpetrator could have just grabbed the closest knife. I don’t think she did it though. I think someone really wanted to warn her off of something.”

  Nik’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re getting sweet on our little baker?”

  Jake laughed. “No, it’s just a gut instinct.”

  “Detective Stone, take a look at this.”

  Nik heard the voice of Detective Ducat on the other side of the room.

  She turned her head in his direction, her eyes drawn to a large television screen where one of the surveillance tapes from the casino was playing. It showed one of the poker tables. Seated right in the middle was Aurea Pearce.

  Nik moved closer to the screen. “That’s Aurea Pearce.” She looked at the timestamp on the right corner of the screen. “The time indicates she was there at 3:31 am. Is this tape from the morning of the murder?”

  Ducat nodded.

  “How long was she there?”

  “She played until 6 am.”

  Nik turned to Jake. “Well I guess we can scratch one suspect off our list. Aurea Pearce couldn’t possibly be the killer-she was seen on a time stamped tape playing poker when Amanda Scott-Saunders was killed.”

  “I found something else you might be interested in,” Ducat said.

  Nik watched impatiently while Ducat hunted around on the computer for another recording.

  “Here it is.” He punched a few buttons, and the screen showed the entrance to Bakery Battles Stadium. “This is from last night.”

  Nick watched Lexy Baker appear on screen, open the doors to the stadium, then disappear inside. A few seconds later Jake appeared, following her in.

  Ducat fast-forwarded the replay four minutes, and another figure appeared on the screen-Evan Westmore. Nik watched him open the door, cast a furtive glance behind him, and then slip into the stadium.

  “That’s Westmore!” Jake said.

  Nik felt the exciting rush of finding a new clue energize her body.

  “Yeah, and he’s going into the stadium right behind Lexy Baker.” She turned to Jake. “Looks like our theory about them having a secret meeting might just prove to be true.”

  Jake frowned. “Yes, but if that’s true, why didn’t I see him go past me?”

  Nik shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe there is another way to get to his office. If only there were cameras inside the stadium, then we’d know for sure.”

  Jake stared at the screen dubiously. “Or maybe he went in there for something else…”

  Nik went back over to the board filled with suspects and crossed off Aurea Pearce’s name.

  “So we have Evan Westmore, Peter Saunders, and Lexy Baker.” She stared at the board, tapping her finger on her lower lip. “We don’t have anything solid on any of them, but Baker keeps turning up in the middle of everything, which makes me rather suspicious of her.”

  “Yeah, but what is her motive? For Westmore and Saunders we have the affair angle. If Amanda was having an affair with Westmore, either Peter or Evan could have killed her in a fit of passion.”

  “Yes, but we have yet to prove there even was an affair.”

  “Right, it seems like we are missing something big-the real motive for the murder,” Jake said.

  “I think it’s time to turn up the heat on our little baker friend. I want you to tell her we’ve eliminated Aurea Pearce and that our suspect list is down to three, including her. If she knows something, or is involved, it might make her nervous and cause her to get careless. Maybe she will slip up somehow, lead us to the truth, and help us close this case.”

  Nik punctuated the last 3 words by ramming the top down onto her whiteboard marker.

  She turned to Jake. “I want you to stick to her like glue. Put a couple of other detectives on her so we can watch her 24/7 - I have a feeling our little baker girl is about to make her move.”

  10

  Lexy looked out the window of their hotel room. It was an exceptionally clear day and their tenth floor room offered a phenomenal view. To the left she could see the giant pyramid of the Luxor hotel, to the right she could see the mountain range. Below, the people moved like ants scurrying back and forth between the various hotels.

  She sighed, wishing she had more time to explore the other hotels and casinos, but the contest schedule was fairly tight and there was this nasty murder business going on. She had little time today for anything other than making pies for the second to last challenge in Bakery Battles. She had to really step up her game to overtake Aurea Pearce.

  The ringing of the iPad interrupted her thoughts, tearing her attention from the majestic view.

  “Hello girls!” Nans greeted Ida, Ruth, and Helen whose faces could be seen clustered around the iPad screen.

  “How are things in Vegas? It’s cold and snowing here,” Ida said.

  “Wonderful.” Nans took the iPad over to the window, holding it up to the glass. “Look at the view we have today!”

  The three ladies on the other end made the appropriate noises of appreciation. Nans left the window and took the iPad back to the table. “Now, tell us what you found out.”

  Cassie, Lexy, and Nans clustered around the tablet. Lexy couldn’t help but picture them being a mostly younger mirror image of the three ladies on the other side.

  Ruth’s face took over the iPad screen. “I made an interesting discovery about your friend Corinne. It seems foreclosure proceedings were recently started on her house.”

  Lexy felt her heart clench for the other woman. She couldn’t imagine how that must feel with three kids and a run-away husband. Then she realized that staving off the foreclosure was a powerful motive for taking drastic measures to win the contest.

  “That is interesting…it could give her a motive to ruin my cake, but I don’t know if it would be something she would kill over.” Lexy bit her lower lip thoughtfully.

  Ruth’s face was replaced by Ida’s. “I had a chance to look at the pages from that book.”

  Lexy glanced nervously at the drawer beside her bed where she had stashed it. Somehow she had to get the book back to Evan Westmore’s office.

  “And?”

  “It looks like a series of numbers and dates,” Ida said. “Large numbers like twelve thousand, five thousand, and so on - the dates are fairly recent. At least that’s what it looks like if I’ve done the decoding properly.”

  “Numbers and dates?” Lexy repeated, her eyebrows mashed together in confusion.

  “Yes, dear, that’s what I said.”

  “I was thinking it would be some sort of record of Evan’s rendezvous with Amanda Scott-Saunders. Maybe some notes about when they met and where?”

  Ida worried her bottom lip. “I don’t think so, unless my calculations are way off.”

  Lexy felt her s
tomach sink. Proof of the affair would help to finger either Westmore or Peter Saunders as the killer. She was hoping there might be an entry for the morning of Amanda Saunders’s death, but no such luck.

  She could hear Ruth vying for the iPad on the other end and watched the dizzying image on the screen as the iPad was passed from Ida to Ruth.

  “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with that theory, Lexy,” Ruth said.

  “Oh, why is that?” Lexy, Nans, and Cassie all exchanged a look.

  “I did some checking on Westmore’s background and I think you can safely rule out the notion of him having an affair with Amanda Scott-Saunders. Evan Westmore is gay.”

  “I hope Nans is okay doing some surveillance on Corinne. I would’ve done it myself, but I have so much work here.” Lexy spread her arms to indicate their kitchen in Bakery Battles Stadium.

  Cassie placed two large bowls on the baking table and pulled a stand mixer out from the corner. “Are you kidding? She lives for this stuff. She’ll be fine. Besides, we need this win to recover from the disastrous wedding cake challenge.”

  “I know, there’s only one challenge left after this and we need all the points we can get to win the contest, since the points from all the challenges are added up to determine the overall winner.” Lexy went over to the refrigerator and started piling her arms high with eggs, butter, and milk.

  She dropped the ingredients onto the counter near Cassie, then went over to her pantry area for flour and sugar. The pantry was next to Aurea Pearce’s kitchen. She couldn’t help but sneak a peek through the wire shelving to see what Aurea was concocting. Much to her surprise, the kitchen was empty.

  Lexy narrowed her eyes in curiosity. “I wonder why Aurea isn’t over there baking? Surely she must have pies to bake for the challenge?”

  Cassie craned her neck to look over into the booth. “That is strange. Maybe she’s just taking a break.”

  “Now that we’ve discovered that Evan Westmore and Amanda Saunders couldn’t have been having an affair, that only leaves us with Aurea and Corinne as suspects. At least that I know of…”

  “Maybe you can get friendly with that cute Detective Ryan and find out if he has any other suspects. Besides you, I mean.”

  Lexi felt her stomach clench as she realized she was still a suspect. She wondered if Nik Stone and Jake Ryan knew Westmore was gay. If they did, they might eliminate Westmore and Peter Saunders from the suspect list, and that didn’t leave too many people. She’d have to work faster to clear herself before their list whittled down to just one suspect - her!

  Lexy cut up some ice-cold butter into tiny chunks and put them in the food processor with flour, salt and sugar. She pulsed the mixture until it looked like small crumbles, then added a tiny bit of ice water, alternating pulsing and adding small amounts of water until the dough started to clump together.

  Thinking back to her investigation of Westmore’s office she remembered the picture of him and the other tuxedo-clad gentleman. With a jolt, she realized the other person must have been his significant other. Lexy kicked herself for not picking up on it at the time.

  “I feel so discouraged now that Peter Saunders and Evan Westmore are out of the running in the suspect race.” Lexy had spent a lot of time thinking about their motives, and now she felt like she was back to square one. “Although, just because Amanda Scott-Saunders wasn’t having an affair didn’t mean Peter Saunders didn’t kill her.”

  “True, they did have at least one fight that he admits to and what was with her new clothes, purses, and shoes? I still say she was up to something.” Cassie poured corn syrup and vanilla into a pan with butter and brown sugar. Placing it on the stove, she turned the knob on the gas burner. Lexy heard the tell tale clicking and the poof of gas indicating the burner was on.

  Turning the dough out of the food processor, Lexy started rolling it out with a marble rolling pin. Their plan was to make two pies for the contest - a bourbon pecan pie and Lexy’s famous coconut cream with a layer of chocolate on the bottom.

  “It is kind of strange about Corinne though. How would killing Saunders help her win the contest?” Cassie said as she poured pecans and bourbon into the cooling mixture.

  Lexi narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s a good question. I don’t think eliminating her as a judge would help Corinne, but then again she did win that last contest.”

  She flipped the dough onto a pie plate and started pinching the edges to even them out along the rim. “Her motivation could be something we don’t know about--like maybe Saunders caught her cheating and was going to expose her?”

  “Maybe, or maybe she didn’t kill Saunders. Maybe she just wanted to mess up your cake so she could win the contest.”

  “Yeah, but why the warning?”

  “Good question.” Lexy looked up and thought she saw a familiar figure duck out of sight. “Hey, is that Jake Ryan?”

  “That cute detective? Where?” Cassie craned her neck to look around.

  “Over there.” Lexy pointed in the direction where she thought she had seen him, then shrugged. “Must have been my imagination.”

  “Ready?” Cassie asked, holding up the pan.

  Lexy nodded, then slid the pie plate over for Cassie to pour the mixture in. She looked up again in the direction she had thought she had seen Jake Ryan. She was sure it was him but was perplexed as to why he would duck out of sight. Unless he was watching her. And if he was, that couldn’t be a good sign.

  Nans looked around the casino, a thrill of excitement running through her. At her age, there weren’t many things that made her feel this excited, but covert detective work was one of them. The best part was that no one ever paid much attention to a little old lady, so she was practically invisible. This allowed her to eavesdrop on conversations and follow people virtually undetected.

  Back home, the members of the Ladies Detective Club didn’t go out much. They mostly investigated cases from the comfort of the retirement center where they lived, using their iPads to do the “leg work” for them. Once in a while, however, they took out Ruth’s gigantic late-model Buick to go “in the field” either to follow a suspect or stake out a location. Nans loved doing the field work, and this little task she had taken on for Lexy reminded her of those times.

  She rummaged inside her large purse for the Bakery Battles Stadium V.I.P. Pass Lexy had given her. The pass was for guests of the bakers only. She would need it to get inside the stadium, as the general public was not allowed in when there was no competition being taped.

  Pulling the large blue-and-white paper from her purse, she clutched it in her hands while she navigated the casino, weaving between banks of slot machines and poker tables.

  The clanging of bells and the mechanical spinning of reels was music to her ears and she listened happily while carefully crossing the busy area. A crowd of people cheering on her right caught her attention. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

  Aurea Pearce sat at a poker table, the players and bystanders applauding her as she raked in a huge mound of poker chips.

  Nans shook her head in disbelief. Aurea was a nasty person and possibly even a murderer; it just didn’t seem fair that she should win a big poker pot. Oh, well, I guess it’s true that life isn’t fair.

  She continued on to the visitor’s entrance of the stadium area. Dutifully showing her pass to the guard at the door, she slipped inside, blending in with the other spectators.

  The stadium hummed with activity. Bakers were frantically whipping up pies for the day’s challenge. Nans could feel the level of stress - some of the bakers would be eliminated today, so there was a lot riding on creating perfect pies.

  Nans breathed in the homey smell of baked pie crust as she made a wide circle around the edge of the stadium. She passed Lexy’s booth and caught her eye, giving her a sly wink. The girls were busy at work and she didn’t want to interrupt them. Besides, she had work of her own to do.

  Making her way around the stadium, she conce
ntrated on using a slow, halting walk. Normally a very fast walker, she had developed a slower pace of walking as part of her surveillance technique because it allowed her to eavesdrop more easily. After all, no one thought twice about an old lady who walked slowly.

  She slowed her pace even more in front of Corinne’s booth. She noticed Corinne humming while she baked, seemingly enjoying herself despite her dire personal circumstances.

  Nans stopped, pretending to admire the pies in the next booth, her ear tuned in Corinne’s direction hoping the baker might say something incriminating to her assistant.

  A ring tone burst from Corinne’s pocket. Looking over out of the corner of her eye, Nans saw the baker pull a cell phone out of her apron and put it to her ear.

  She watched Corinne’s face grow white, her demeanor darkening.

  “I can’t talk here.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Nans had turned up her hearing aid just for the occasion, so she heard it perfectly.

  “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” Nans looked away as Corinne snapped the phone shut. Then she heard the baker mumble something to her assistant before she rushed out of the booth.

  Nans turned in time to see her heading for the hall, then broke out of her slow, halting gait and into a fast walk behind her.

  She followed Corinne at a safe pace, then saw her go into the ladies room. After a few seconds, Nans silently opened the door, shutting it slowly so that it didn’t make any noise.

  The small four-stall bathroom was empty except for Corinne, who was inside one of the stalls. Nans positioned herself at the sink. She could hear Corinne talking on her phone.

  “…I told you I’d get it…I have that paper…her out of the way…”

  Corinne was talking so low that Nans could only pick out snatches of the conversation despite her cranked-up hearing aid. She leaned in a little closer, feeling a chill run up her spine at the baker’s next words.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop the foreclosure.”