Brownies, Bodies And Bad Guys Part 1

Brownies, Bodies and Bad Guys.

Leighann Dobbs.

Chapter One.

Lexy sat at one of the cafe tables next to the picture window in her bakery, The Cup and Cake, admiring how the princess cut center stone of her engagement ring sparkled in the midmorning sunlight. She sighed with contentment, holding her hand up and turning the ring this way and that as she marveled at the rainbow of colors that emerged when it caught the light at different angles.

Her thoughts drifted to her fiance, Jack Perillo. Tall, hunky and handsome, her heart still skipped a beat when he walked in the room even though they'd been dating for over a year. Lexy had met Jack, a police detective in their small town, when she'd been accused of poisoning her ex-boyfriend. She'd been proven innocent, of course, and she and Jack had been seeing each other ever since. And now they were getting married.

Movement on the other side of the street caught her attention, pulling her away from her thoughts. Her eyes widened in surprisea"it was Jack! What was he doing here?

Lexy felt a zing in her stomach. Jack wasn't alone. Lexy's eyes narrowed as she craned her neck to get a better look. He was with a woman. A tall, leggy blonde who was clinging to him like tissue paper clings to panty hose.

Lexy stood up pressing closer to the window, her joy in the ring all but forgotten. Her heart constricted when she saw how the leggy blonde was pawing at Jack, giggling up into his face. Who the h.e.l.l was she? They looked very familiar with each other. Clearly Jack knew her a and it seemed he knew her well.

Jack and the blonde started to walk down the street, out of view. Lexy pushed herself away from the window, stumbling over a chair in her haste to get to the doorway. She spun around, righting the chair, then turned, sprinting toward the door.

She reached out for the handle, jerking back in surprise as the door came racing toward her, almost smacking her in the face.

Standing in the doorway was her grandmother, Mona Baker, or Nans as Lexy called her. But instead of her usual cheery appearance, Nans looked distraught. Lexy could see lines of anxiety creasing her face and her normally sparkly green eyes were dark with worry.

Lexy's stomach sank. "Nans, what's the matter?"

"Lexy, come quick," Nans said, putting her hand on Lexy's elbow and dragging her out the door. "Ruth's been arrested!"

"Arrested? For what?" Lexy asked, as Nans propelled her down the street toward her car.

"Nunzio Bartolli was found dead. They think Ruth might have something to do with it!"

Lexy wrinkled her brow. Ruth was one of Nans's best friends. They both lived at the retirement center in town and along with two of their other friends, Ida and Helen, they amused themselves by playing amateur detective solving various crimes and mysteries. The older women were full of s.p.u.n.k and could be a handful, but Lexy had a hard time believing any of them would be involved in a murder. They thrived on solving murders, not committing them.

"What? How would Ruth even know him?" Lexy opened the door to her VW beetle and slipped into the driver's seat as Nans buckled up in the pa.s.senger seat.

"Nunzio was a resident at the Brook Ridge Retirement Center."

Lexy raised her brows. "He was? I heard he had ties to organized crime."

"Well, I don't know about that. He seemed like a nice man." Nans shrugged, then waved her hand. "Now let's get a move on!"

Lexy pulled out into the street, glancing over at the area where she had seen Jack. She slowed down as she drove by, craning her neck to look down the side street where she thought they had gone, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"Can you speed it up? Ruth needs us." Nans fidgeted in the pa.s.senger seat.

"Right. Sorry." Lexy felt a pang of guilt. Of course, helping Ruth was more important than finding out what Jack was up to. It was probably nothing but her overactive imagination anyway. Lexy decided to push the leggy blonde from her mind and focus on Ruth.

"So what happened?"

"I'm not really sure. Ida said the police knocked on Ruth's door early this morning and took her in," Nans said, then turned sharply in her seat. "We should call Jack and see if he can help her. Why didn't I think of that before?"

Lexy's stomach clenched at the sound of her fiance's name. She wasn't sure if she wanted to call Jack right now, especially with the image of him and the blonde fresh in her mind. Should she confront him or let it slide?

If it was innocent, which it probably was, she'd just make a fool out of herself by confronting him. It was probably a good idea to let some time pa.s.s before she talked to him. Lexy was afraid her impulsive nature might cause her to blurt something out she might regret later.

"Hopefully, he'll be at the station. I should call Ca.s.sie back at the bakery though, and tell her I've gone out for a while. She'll probably be wondering where I disappeared to." Lexy picked up her cell phone just as she pulled into the parking lot at the police station.

Nans jumped out of the car before she even had it in park. "I'll see you in there."

Lexy watched in amus.e.m.e.nt as the sprightly older woman sprinted into the station, her giant purse dangling from her arm. She felt sorry for any officer that might try to prevent her grandmother from seeing Ruth.

She made a quick call to Ca.s.sie, letting her know where she was and that she'd fill her in later. Then she made her way into the lobby behind Nans.

Nans was talking to Jack's partner, police detective John Darling, who nodded at Lexy as she joined them.

"Ruth isn't arrested!" Nans smiled at Lexy.

Lexy raised an eyebrow at John.

"We just had her in for questioning," John explained.

"Why?"

John rubbed his chin with his hand. "We found her fingerprints and some of her personal effects in Nunzio Bartolli's condo."

Nans gasped. "What? How would those get in there?"

John winked, pus.h.i.+ng himself away from the wall he was leaning against. "You'll have to ask Ruth that."

Lexy stared after him as he walked over to the reception desk, his long curly hair hung in a ponytail down his back which swung to the side as he leaned his tall frame over the counter to look at something on the computer. "Actually, she's free to go now. I'll bring her out here if you guys want."

"Please do," Nans said, then turned to Lexy. "Isn't that wonderful? I was so worried."

Lexy nodded as she watched John disappear through the door that led to the offices inside the station. John and her a.s.sistant Ca.s.sie had been married this past spring and she'd gotten to know him fairly well. She wondered if she should ask him if he knew anything about the blonde she had seen Jack with but didn't want to seem like she was prying into Jack's business.

Lexy shook her head. She needed to stop thinking about the blonde. She trusted Jack. They were getting married, for crying out loud, and she didn't want to be one of those wives who kept her husband on a short leash. The best thing for her to do was to forget all about it.

The door opened and Ruth came out. Nans rushed over giving her a hug. Lexy felt her shoulders relax, relieved that Ruth wasn't in trouble.

"Oh, thanks for coming," Ruth said to Nans and Lexy.

"No problem," Lexy said. "Shall we go? I can drive you guys back to the retirement center, if you want."

"That would be wonderful," Nans said as the three of them made their way to the door. Lexy held it open for the two older women, then followed them out into the summer suns.h.i.+ne.

Ruth breathed in a deep breath of fresh air. "It's good to be outside. For a while there I was a little worried I might be spending my golden years in a cell."

"Why would you think that? Surely you had nothing to do with Nunzio's murder?" Nans raised her eyebrows at Ruth as they walked to Lexy's car.

"Of course I didn't! But they did have some evidence that pointed to me," Ruth said, as she folded herself into Lexy's back seat.

"That's what John said." Lexy slipped into the driver's seat angling the rear view mirror so she could look at Ruth. "What was that all about?"

Lexy saw Ruth's cheeks turn slightly red.

Nans turned in her seat so she could look at Ruth, too. "John said they found your fingerprints and personal effects in Nunzio's condo. How is that possible?"

Ruth turned an even darker shade of red and looked down at her lap, pretending to adjust her seatbelt. "I was in his condo."

"What?" Nans and Lexy said at the same time.

Ruth looked up. Her eyes met Lexy's in the mirror then slid over to look at Nans. "I was seeing Nunzio. Actually, I went there quite regularly. So, naturally, my fingerprints were all over his condo. I was there last night and I must have left a pair of earrings there that the police were somehow able to trace to me."

Nans gasped. "You were there last night? The night he was murdered?"

Ruth nodded. "Yes, I was. But don't worry. I a.s.sure you Nunzio was very much alive when I left."

Chapter Two.

"Why would someone want to kill Nunzio?" Helen slid the cut crystal creamer and sugar bowl over toward Ruth.

Lexy sat at Nans's dining room table, across from Ruth, sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Ida and Helen had been waiting for them in the Lobby when Lexy brought Nans and Ruth back. Now the five of them sat in Nans's condo discussing the morning's events.

"I have no idea," Ruth answered. Lexy's heart clenched when she noticed the other woman's eyes misting over.

Nans must have noticed, too, because she grabbed a box of tissues from the living room and placed them on the table in front of Ruth. "You must be very upset, to have lost your a friend. I had no idea you and Nunzio were so close."

Ruth grabbed a tissue and blew her nose, then shrugged. "Well, you know how it is at our age. We realize none of us are going to be around for a long time. But to be murdered like that a" She shuddered, looking up at Ida and Helen. "What happened to him?"

"He was shot. Apparently they used a silencer so no one heard; although most of the people around here are hard of hearing anyway. He was asleep in bed so he probably didn't feel a thing." Ida put a hand gently on Ruth's shoulder.

"One thing is strange, though," Helen said. "His condo was ransacked, as if the killer was looking for something."

Lexy saw Nans's eyebrows shoot up. "Ransacked? I wonder what they could have been after a and if they found it."

Lexy started to hear warning bells go off inside her head. She could tell when Nans got a bug in her ear about investigating a murder, and it appeared this was shaping up to be one of those times.

"Nans, you're not thinking about looking into this yourself, are you?"

Nans shrugged, but Lexy recognized the bright sparkle in her eye.

"I don't think you should go messing around with this. I heard he had ties to organized crime. This could be related, and that would be very dangerous."

Unfortunately, Lexy's words of warning seemed to pique Nans's interest even more.

"That's right, it could a I wonder if the mob had him rubbed out?" Nans grabbed her giant old lady purse and started rummaging around inside it. After a few seconds she pulled out an iPad, placing it on the table in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Ruth asked.

"Just looking up some stuff on mob activity."

"You can find that stuff online?" Lexy looked at Nans with wide eyes.

"If you know what to look for." Nans winked at Lexy.

"Well, the man was eighty-five years old," Ida said. "I highly doubt he was active anymore, if he was ever in organized crime in the first place."

"Was he?" Nans raised her eyebrows at Ruth.

Ruth waved her hands. "Oh, I don't know. He didn't tell me everything he did, you know."

"Well, can you think of anyone else who would kill him and then toss his condo?" Nans asked, looking back down at the iPad screen.

"Not really. Everyone seemed to like him. It's such a shame. His whole family is in town for a big family reunion to celebrate his eighty-fifth birthday this week."

Nans jerked her head in Ruth's direction. "His whole family? Did everyone get along with him? Did he have a will?"

Ruth looked taken aback. "I don't really know. I wasn't privy to that sort of information," She said primly.

Nans looked up at the ceiling and Lexy could practically see the wheels spinning in her head. Lexy knew she was making a mental list of suspects as well as a list of possible motives. Now would be a good time for her to leave before she got roped into helping with an investigation.

Lexy went over to the sink and washed out her cup. "I need to get back to The Cup and Cake. I left poor Ca.s.sie to man the fort alone all morning," she said, making a big show of looking at her watch.

"Oh, wait dear. I was just going to make a list of possible motives a don't you want to help?" Nans asked.

Lexy squinted at the four older women. "Do you guys really want to get involved in something like this? I mean, if there really is an organized crime connection, then this is nothing to screw around with."

"Lexy might be right," Helen said. "We could end up at the bottom of Brook Ridge falls wearing cement shoes."

Ida looked down at her feet. "Cement shoes? That really wouldn't go with my outfit," she said, causing the four older women to collapse in a fit of laughter.

"Come Lexy, now you sound like Jack. You're not going to turn into a stick in the mud now that you're getting married to him, are you?" asked Nans.

Lexy bristled at the comment. "No a I just don't want you to put yourselves in danger. Can't you investigate something less dangerous, like who put bubble bath in the fountain downtown?"