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

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Wow. When did you make that?” Cassie stared at the sculpture wide-eyed.

  “Last night. I’ve been experimenting with sugar sculpture for a few months and I figure this would be a great time to put my skills to the test. I think if we top the cupcakes with these, that’s sure to gain us a few points.”

  Cassie nodded. “You’ll get extra for creativity and skill level.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping.” Lexy bent down, carefully putting the sculpture back in its place next to the others. “I want to keep them hidden in here. We’ll put them on at the very last minute, so no one else will know what we are up to.”

  “That’s gonna be awesome.” Cassie held up her closed fist for a knuckle tap.

  Walking back to the table, Lexy picked up the list. “OK, I’ll do the-”

  Her cell phone made buzzing noises in her pocket, interrupting her.

  Lexy dug it out and looked at the screen. Damn, it’s Jack. She realized she had forgotten to call him yesterday.

  “It’s Jack…I’ll have to take it.” Feelings of guilt washed over her as she mustered up her most cheerful voice.

  “Jack! How are you?”

  “Hi Lexy…good. Well, I’ve been better actually.” Lexy’s heart sank as she recognized a serious tone in his voice.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I just got off the phone with Nikki Stone. Do you want to tell me what’s really going on out there?”

  Lexy’s stomach dropped. What had Stone told him?

  “It’s just what I told you before, Jack.” She tried to make her voice light, but it came out in a nervous croak.

  “Stone seems to think you are somehow involved in the murder. Are you and Nans doing your usual amateur investigating?”

  “No…I mean, not really.” Her half-baked answer was met with silence on the other end.

  “Well we did look into a few things, but only because the police keep asking me questions,” she offered.

  “Lexy, we’ve talked about this before. You need to stop meddling and stay out of the way of the police.”

  Lexy’s back stiffened at his words. Meddling? She hated it when he referred to her investigative work as meddling. She and Nans had actually been helpful in many of his investigations, providing clues that the police hadn’t yet discovered. She was about to remind him of that when his exasperated voice continued on.

  “It’s just that I’m not out there to bail you out if you get into trouble. Remember, Nikki Stone and her team don’t know you like I do and there’s a murderer on the loose there. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Lexy felt her heart flip-flop at the tender way he said the last sentence.

  “I know, it’s just that the police don’t seem to be able to get people to talk to them and…well…I do kind of want to clear myself as a suspect.”

  Jack sighed on the other end. “Do you need me to come out there?”

  Lexy thought about it. It would be nice to have him by her side, but the contest would be over tonight, and tomorrow she’d be flying home. There was no time for him to come out now.

  “No, I’ll be back tomorrow night anyway - hopefully this will all be over by then.” Trying to turn the subject away from herself, she asked, “How is Sprinkles?”

  “She’s great…keeps trying to go over into your yard though.” Jack’s house was behind Lexy’s; their backyards abutted each other. Sprinkles was staying at his house while she was gone but apparently wanted to go back to her own yard.

  “Aww…that’s cute. I hope she doesn’t think I’m at home and ignoring her.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, she’s getting plenty spoiled at my place. Might not even want to go back to your place when you get back.” Jack’s voice belied his fondness for the little dog.

  “And you…how are you?” Lexy asked.

  “Well, I’m not getting spoiled and I’m pretty sure I am going to want to go to your place when you get home,” Jack said teasingly.

  Lexy laughed into the phone. “How is work going?”

  “Good. I just wrapped up a case that Ida helped me on.”

  Lexy remembered Ida saying she was working with Jack. “She must have loved that, what was the case about?”

  Lexy wasn’t that interested in the case, she had too much going on, but she was glad the topic had moved away from her and the Bakery Battles murder.

  “You know the textile plant on the corner of Main Street?”

  “Yes.” Lexy pictured the old brick mill building in the center of town that was now used to manufacture all kinds of cloth and textiles.

  “One of the accountants was found dead - pushed down the old freight elevator shaft. The killer tried to make it look like an accident.”

  Lexy felt a chill run up her spine, picturing a body at the bottom of the creepy old elevator shaft. “Uh-huh.”

  “Our investigation revealed he had been pushed,” Jack said with obvious pride. “It turns out the general manager had been skimming money off the top for years. The victim found out and was killed for it.”

  “How did Ida help you with that?” Lexy wondered.

  “The killer was keeping a second set of books in the form of cryptic text messages he sent to himself on his cell phone. Ida helped us figure out what the text messages meant.”

  “A second set of books?” Lexy’s eyebrows furrowed together.

  “Yeah, sometimes when people are skimming money, they keep two sets of books. One that has the fake transactions to make it look like everything is on the up and up, and one with the real stuff.”

  Lexy’s mind flashed to Evan Westmore’s little black book. Ida had said it contained dates and numbers. Large numbers.

  “You mean like with different dates and numbers?” she asked.

  “Yes, exactly,” Jack answered. “But enough about me, how are you doing in the competition?”

  Lexy hardly heard the question; her mind was reeling with possibilities. Had Evan Westmore been keeping two sets of books? That still didn’t make him a murderer, but it sure did make him guilty of something. Maybe Westmore and Corinne were in on it together?

  Suddenly Lexy had a whole new perspective on the situation…and a new plan of action was starting to form.

  She realized Jack was still waiting for her answer.

  “Good. I could actually pull off a win if I can really wow them in this next challenge. Speaking of which, I have to go get these cupcakes ready or I won’t be winning anything at all.”

  “OK. Well, good luck. Call me tonight and let me know,” Jack said.

  “Will do.”

  She hung up the phone feeling a little guilty that she had given him the brush-off. While it was true that she did need to tend to the cupcakes, she also had something else in mind.

  The conversation about two sets of books had given her an idea. With the cops taking care of questioning Corinne, she needed to get to Westmore’s office again - and this time, she had a better idea of where to look.

  13

  Lexy shoved the phone back in her pocket and turned to Cassie. “I think we might have an interesting turn in the murder case.”

  Cassie looked up, her body straightening, head cocked to one side. “From Jack?”

  “Indirectly. Something he said.”

  Cassie had stopped in the middle of icing a batch of cupcakes. She stared at Lexy with furrowed brows, her frosting-coated spatula high in the air.

  Lexy stepped closer to Cassie, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I need to take another look in Westmore’s office. In a few hours, he’ll be doing the filming for the lead-in to the cupcake judging challenge. That will be the perfect time.”

  “Lexy, that sounds dangerous…”

  “I’ll be careful. I just need a few minutes and I think I know exactly where to look.”

  “But what are you looking for?” Cassie asked.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Lexy saw Jake Ryan approaching their booth.

  “I’ll tell y
ou later,” she said, angling her head in his direction.

  They both watched Jake saunter toward them, his charming smile lighting his face.

  “Ladies, how goes the cupcake baking?” He craned his head to look at the cupcakes Cassie was frosting.

  “Good. We’re presenting two cupcake recipes that are really popular in our bakery back home. I think we are going to do really well.”

  “I think you lost one of your competitors.” He nodded toward Aurea Pearce’s empty booth. “She packed up her bags and left in the middle of the night.”

  “She did?” Lexy looked sideways into Aurea’s booth with narrowed eyes. “Why would she do that?”

  “Rumor has it she owed a lot of money to people who are pretty insistent on getting it back on time. I think she might have been afraid they would catch up with her.”

  “Oh, well she fell pretty far behind in the last challenge, so she wasn’t much competition anyway.”

  “Right, Corinne is your big competition now, I hear. We’re pulling her in for questioning momentarily.”

  Lexy felt her heart clench. Jake was looking at her as if he thought she had mentioned the other baker on purpose, to increase her odds of winning.

  “What about Peter Saunders?” Lexy still harbored hope that Corinne was innocent and that someone else had murdered the judge.

  “He’s been cleared. Records show he was in his room when his wife was murdered,” Jake said. He turned his attention back to the cupcakes Cassie was working on. Tilting his head, he walked closer bending down for a better look.

  “These cupcake papers - they’re very nice. I haven’t seen these before.”

  Lexy felt her heart swell with pride. “Those are specialty papers I ordered for the contest. I wanted to make my cupcakes stand out.”

  “It’s funny you mention specialty paper. Amanda Scott-Saunders had a piece of specialty paper clutched in her hand when she was murdered. It looked as if the murderer had ripped it out after she was killed.”

  Lexy gasped, her eyes growing wide. She remembered Nans saying how Corinne had mentioned something about a paper. Maybe Corinne really was the murderer, but if she was, where did Westmore fit in? Could they have been in on it together? Or maybe he wasn’t even involved at all.

  “Is something wrong?” Jake was looking at her intently.

  “N-no,” she stammered. Should she tell him about the conversation Nans had overheard?

  Jake turned his attention back to her cupcakes. “Can I have one of these cupcake papers?”

  Lexy’s mouth fell open. “Surely you don’t think…”

  Jake smiled, touching her arm lightly. “Of course not…well, it is one more clue that points in your direction,” he teased.

  Lexy felt her cheeks grow red as a flush of anger swept her body. She jerked her arm away. Stomping over to her supply rack, she grabbed a paper cupcake holder and thrust it out toward him.

  “Here, take it.”

  “Lexy, don’t be mad. I can compare a sample and rule you out.” The puppy-dog look on Jake’s face as he reached for the cupcake paper did nothing to soften her anger.

  “I understand,” she said sharply. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have to finish baking these cupcakes…that is, if I’m not under arrest.”

  “Of course not. Thanks.” He held up the paper, then turned and walked away.

  She glared at his retreating back for a few seconds before returning to her work.

  “Sheesh, I don’t know what to make of him,” Cassie said.

  “Me neither. He acts friendly, but I get the impression he is watching me-waiting for me to trip up.”

  “That was interesting, what he said about the paper.”

  “It sure was. I kept thinking about how Nans heard Corinne say she had the paper. Nans seemed to think that paper was very important.”

  “Maybe Corinne murdered Saunders to get the paper--whatever it is.” Cassie offered.

  Lexy nodded. She was thinking the same exact thing. But if that were true, where did that leave Westmore?

  Lexy shifted into high gear. “We better speed up the cooking. I want to be done in plenty of time to get to Westmore’s office. I have a feeling the answers to some of our questions are in his locked filing cabinet.”

  Nik hurried down the plain tiled hallway of the police station towards Interrogation Room 3. Jake fell in beside her, rushing to keep up.

  “Did you let a hint drop to Lexy about the paper?” Nik asked.

  Jake nodded. “I could tell by her reaction that it hit a nerve. She tried to pretend like it didn’t, but she knows something. Funny thing is, she was using some specialty cupcake papers for her contest entry.”

  Nik stopped, turning to Jake. “Do you think it’s the same paper?”

  “Her papers were colored and the one in the victims hand was off-white. I took a sample and handed it off to the lab for a comparison.”

  “Good. Keep Styles and McManus on her. I want to know where she goes and what she does.” Nik continued on toward the interrogation room. Peeking through the window in the doorway she could see Corinne Conners sitting at the table, her white-knuckled hands clasped tightly in front of her.

  Nik opened the door, sweeping into the room with Jake in tow.

  “Ms. Conners.” She nodded at Corinne.

  Corinne looked up, her wide eyes darting between Nik and Jake.

  “I don’t understand why I’m here.”

  Nik heard Corinne’s voice tremble and wondered if it was because she really was uncertain as to why she was there or whether she was afraid they had discovered she was the murderer.

  “We have some questions regarding an incident in Bakery Battles Stadium that we think may be related to the murder of Amanda Scott-Saunders.” Nik’s eyes narrowed as she watched Corinne’s reaction.

  “What’s that got to do with me? I wasn’t involved in any incident,” Corinne said blinking rapidly.

  Nik opened a manila folder, producing an enlarged copy of the picture of the sabotaged cake Lexy had sent to Jake. She slid it across the table to Corinne. “Recognize this?”

  Corinne’s brow furrowed. “No.”

  “Someone did this to Lexy Baker’s wedding cake for the wedding challenge competition. Someone clearly wanted to either cause her to lose the contest or back off from looking into the murder.”

  Corinne gasped. “You think I did that?”

  “You won the challenge, didn’t you?”

  “I won that contest fair and square! I would never ruin someone else’s cake to win a challenge.” Corinne’s eyes were blazing, her chin high in the air.

  Nik leaned across the table. “Well, then maybe you can explain why we found glitter around the sabotaged cake - the same glitter that was on the cake you won the contest with.”

  Corinne’s face crumbled. Covering her face with her hands, she burst into tears.

  “I..only…wanted…to look…at it.” She wrenched out the words between sobs.

  “So you were there.” Nik sat back in her chair.

  “Yes, but I only wanted to look at her cake to see what I was up against. I didn’t do that to it.” Corinne jabbed her finger at the picture of the cake.

  Nik cocked an eyebrow at Jake. Could she be telling the truth?

  “So the cake looked fine when you saw it?”

  Corinne sniffed, wiping her eyes. “Yes. I only wanted to sneak a peak at the competition. I know it was wrong, but I swear I didn’t ruin Lexy’s cake!”

  “What time were you in the kitchen?”

  Corinne bit the inside of her cheek. “I’m not sure…I think it was around seven.”

  “Did you see anyone else?”

  “Yes!” Corinne brightened. “As I was leaving, I saw Evan Westmore coming down the aisle. When he saw me, he kind of hesitated, but then I gave him a little wave and turned off onto a side aisle.”

  Nik exchanged a look with Jake.

  Corinne’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t think Westmore w
ould have done it, do you?”

  “Well, he didn’t have a cake in the competition, so if he did, I can only think of one reason why he would have,” Jake said.

  Nik looked at Jake nodding her head towards the door.

  “Excuse us for a minute, Ms. Conners.”

  Corinne nodded, watching the two detectives exit the room.

  Nik leaned her shoulder against the door and looked back in at Corinne. “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

  Jake rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. We did see Westmore going in there that night on the video, so she is telling the truth about that part.”

  A noise at the end of the hall caught their attention. Nik and Jake turned to see the short, stocky Detective Morse standing with a sheet of paper in his hand.

  “Detective Stone. I have the lab report back on the paper. And the report on the paper you sent in too Detective Ryan.”

  Nik raised her eyebrows. “Was the cupcake paper a match?”

  “No. Similar stock but not a match.”

  “So that rules out the paper being one of Lexy Bakers cupcake liners, but it doesn’t necessarily rule Baker out as the murderer,” Jake said.

  “Were you able to find out where the paper was purchased?” Nik asked.

  “Yep, and also who purchased it.”

  Nik and Jake exchanged an excited look. “Who?” they said in unison.

  “It was purchased online from a custom paper supply in New York about a week ago-by Evan Westmore,” Morse said.

  “Westmore,” Nik said biting her cheek. “Wait a minute…I think I might have an idea of what’s going on now.”

  She started down the hall, then, turning back, she barked, “Morse - you let Corinne Conners go. Ryan, follow me. We have a few things to check out about Evan Westmore and the Bakery Battles competition.”

  14

  Lexy fidgeted with the spatula, keeping one eye on the clock. It was almost time for the taping to begin, which meant she would have only a few minutes to get into Westmore’s office.

  “You’re sure you’ll be able to finish this stuff up?” she asked Cassie for what seemed like the twentieth time.