Dying for Danish (11 page)

“What do you think?” John asked.

“For all we know, she made up the whole story
with
Bronson to frame Blake. We need to bring him in and see if he changes his story or we can catch him in a lie.”

“What about Bronson?”

“We don’t have much to hold him on...let’s try to keep him as long as we can. He could be mixed up in this and I’d hate to see him get away. We’ll hold him until his lawyer starts screaming. In the mean time, let’s get the paperwork started to bring in Blake.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Isn’t it a wonderful day, Sprinkles?” Lexy stretched her arms up to the sun. Grabbing the end of Sprinkles leash, she headed down the path.

The sun’s rays filtered through the tree trunks causing slices of light to permeate the woods. Like the day before, the friendly chirping of birds and the crunching of footsteps on dry leaves was all that could be heard.

“Now where is your other leash?” Lexy asked out loud, keeping a close eye on the area to the left of the path. “Oh, there it is!”

She let go of Sprinkle’s leash. Bending down, she worked the knots with her fingers, trying carefully not to break a nail. Glancing up she noticed the path was only about 50 feet away from the Toliver property where they were building the new cabana. She felt an icy shiver walk up her spine thinking of the murder which had happened there not even a week ago. She felt grateful Bronson was in custody so she wouldn’t have to worry about running into him.

Finally working the leash free, she looked around for Sprinkles. Realizing with a start the dog had wandered off, she scanned the woods, then saw her, over by the property line, making her way towards the Toliver’s yard.

Lexy started off towards her. She was about to call out to the little dog when a sudden movement in the Toliver’s yard caught her eye. It was Blake.
What is he doing over there? 
He was over by the area where the fresh cement had just been poured. He was balancing on the edge of a form, looking down in.

Sprinkles saw Blake too and gave an excited yip, taking off at a trot towards him. The fence dividing that part of of the yard from the nature preserve had been taken down for the construction allowing the dog to bound onto the Toliver’s property. The little dog was such a socialite, she’d run over to any stranger to get attention.
I hope Blake likes dogs.

Instead of happily greeting the dog like most people did, Blake jerked his head up at the noise. His eyes scanned the woods and met Lexy’s. Lexy’s stomach churned when she saw the look of malice in his eyes. That was not the flirty, fun Blake she knew.

Then a sharp beam of sunlight glinting off something in his hand caught her eye. Lexy felt her heart turn to ice when she realized what it was - her seven inch serrated knife- the one that had killed Chastine.

***

“What are you doing?” Lexy heard the words come out of her mouth before she could think better of saying them.

“You!” He pointed at her with the knife. “Nosy bitch...are you spying on me?”

“No...” Lexy shook her head.
Should she try to play nice? 
It was too late to pretend she didn’t see the knife. Lexy’s head swam, adrenalin coursed through her body . Her first instinct was to turn and run, but Sprinkles was over near Blake. She needed to grab the dog and get the hell out of there.

“Sprinkles, come!” Her voice came out an octave higher than usual, giving away the panic she felt in her chest.

A second later, she realized she shouldn’t have called to the dog. Blake turned, looking at Sprinkles, then jumped to the patio and scooped the dog up, holding the knife at her throat.

“You wouldn’t want me to hurt your dog, would you?”

Lexy shook her head, icy fingers squeezed her heart.

“Then come over here.”

Lexy felt frozen in place, her instincts were screaming at her to run, but she couldn’t let him hurt Sprinkles. She forced her legs to move.

He kept talking as she got closer. “You know, Lexy, I really liked you. It’s too bad you had to keep sticking your nose into this. Coming over and poking around. Combing the dumpster.”

Lexy’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Yes, that was me watching you from the house. I know you were looking for this,” he raised the knife up, “but I had it hidden well.”

Lexy had picked her way over to him. She was standing about five feet away.

“Closer!” He pressed the knife into Sprinkles. The dog gave a yelp which made Lexy’s stomach clench.

“Please don’t hurt her!” Lexy moved closer to him.

“I won’t hurt her if you do what I say.” He grabbed her arm roughly, shoving her through the door to the cabana.

He kicked the door shut then spun her around. “I’m going to regret having to do this,” he said, tracing the tip of the knife from the top of her throat all the way down her chest stopping just where her bra started. “Everything would have been ok, if you had just minded our own business. We might have even had some fun together.” He released her arm and she stumbled backwards.

“You killed Chastine?”

Blake snorted. “Yep. When they brought Candice and Bronson in today, I had the perfect plan to frame them, but now you’ve put a kink in the plan. Regrettably, I will have to straighten out that kink.” He lifted the knife again.

“But why?” Lexy hoped if she kept him talking it would buy her some time to think of a way to get free.

Blake walked over to the corner. Bending down, he came up with a length of thick rope in one hand while still holding Sprinkles in the other.

He turned and walked towards Lexy. “You wanna know why?  I guess I can tell you since you won’t be around to tell anyone else.”  He hefted the rope in one hand, then put Sprinkles down, still holding the end of her leash. The little dog tugged at the end to try to get to Lexy. Lexy winced as Blake roughly jerked her back.

“Chastine and I were lovers...before she took up with Dad. Once she found out how much money he had, she went after him like a greyhound after a rabbit. The only problem was, she still wanted me on the side. Normally, I don’t care how many other guys a woman has...but when the other guy is your own father, well,
that’s
too disgusting even for me.”  He made a face.

Lexy nodded to encourage him to continue, Sprinkles strained at the leash, the frayed section getting even thinner.

“I wanted to break it off. She wouldn’t let me - threatened to take away all the money once she was married to dad. That night she had requested a
rendezvous,”
he said the word with a look of distaste on his face. “I left the front door open for her and we met in the kitchen. We argued. Things got out of hand. Before I knew it, I was standing over her body holding a bloody knife.”

Blake shrugged. “And now I guess I’m going to have to use that knife again,” he said, taking a step towards Lexy.

Sprinkles strained even harder. The leash snapped. The dog broke free, running to Lexy’s side.

“Run, Sprinkles!”  She commanded. Blake lunged at her, grabbing her by the hair, jerking her head backwards.

Sprinkles didn’t run, she leaped for Blake’s ankles, sinking her teeth in and barking loudly.

Blake tried to throw the dog off. Kicking out his feet, he lost his balance. His grip on Lexy’s hair loosened. She spun around raising her knee hard. She felt it connect with soft flesh, heard a grunt and saw Blake collapse in a ball on the floor.

Lexy grabbed the barking dog and ran for the door.

“Come back - bitch!”  She heard Blake’s heavy footsteps behind her.

Picking up speed, she wrenched the door open, catapulting herself forward, trying to put as much distance between her and Blake as possible.

Her stiletto heel caught on a hole in the flooring, her heart stopped as she was jerked off balance. She felt herself falling. She clutched Sprinkles even closer bracing for the hard impact of the ground.

Instead, she felt strong arms circle her waist, pulling her upright. She tensed, ready to fight Blake off with everything she had, then looked up...right into the eyes of Jack Perillo.

***

A blur of activity was going on behind her. People were shouting and running. She turned in time to see John Darling leap onto Blake and bring him crashing to the ground. The knife skittered across the driveway. Someone bent to retrieve it.

“That’s the knife that murdered Chastine!”  Lexy pointed at it.

“Bag that knife for evidence,” Jack yelled, then, putting his finger under Lexy’s chin he turned her head back to face him.

“Lexy, what the
hell
are you doing here?”

Lexy winced at the anger in his voice. She took a step back from Jack, cuddling Sprinkles closer, stroking the dogs fur. 

“I didn’t actually come
here
,” she said. “I was walking Sprinkles on the walking trails over there when I saw Blake with the knife. I think he was trying to get rid of it in the new cement.”  She pointed towards the cement forms in front of the cabana.

“Anyway, Blake knew I saw him. He forced me into the cabana. He confessed - he’s the one who murdered Chastine!”  She said, feeling a little sheepish since she was the one who had insisted it was Candice.

“He confessed?  Well that saves us a lot of time. Candice said she had stumbled onto the murder scene and he was blackmailing her to keep quiet.”

“Blackmailing her?”

“Yes, it turns out Candice was the daughter of Chastine’s former fiancee - I guess she had quite a grudge against her. Blake found that out and threatened to reveal her secret and frame her for the murder. That’s why he still had the knife.”

“And Bronson?” 

“According to Candice he had no idea about any of this.”

“How did you know we were back here?” Lexy asked.

“We pulled up in front with a warrant to bring Blake in. When we heard Sprinkles barking back here, we figured something was going on.” Jack reached down to ruffle the fur behind Sprinkles ears.

“Well I guess you might have saved me twice today, girl.” Lexy kissed the top of the dogs head, then placed her gently on the ground. “Sprinkles bit Blake’s leg when he grabbed me - it was because if her I was able to get away. Thank God you came when you did, or he might have caught up to me.”  Lexy felt a shiver run up her spine.

Jack looked down at the little dog. “Sprinkles is going to get a big treat tonight,” he said, then he looked back at Lexy, his eyes turning serious. “I’m just glad Blake didn’t hurt you...this is why I didn’t want you investigating any of this. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.”

Lexy felt her heart melt. “I know, I’m sorry. I only wanted to help find the killer so I could get paid.”

 Jack put his hands on Lexy’s shoulders. Bending down, he brushed his lips against her forehead, then pulled her in for a hug. “I guess I’m going to have to spend a lot more time with you from now on in order to keep you out of trouble.”

Lexy smiled up at him. “I’ll be looking forward to that, Detective Perillo.”

Epilogue

“To murder!”  Jack raised his cut crystal wine glass for a toast, the light from the chandeliers overhead reflecting off the glass in brilliant sparks of light.

“Murder?” John asked from across the table, “that’s a funny thing to toast to.”

“Well, if it wasn’t for murder, we all might not be sitting here together tonight.”

It was true, Lexy thought, looking around the table. Chastine’s murder had brought her and Jack back together and the investigation had caused  John and Cassie to keep bumping into each other in a way that never would have happened otherwise.

“Here, here.” She said, raising her glass. The four wine glasses met in the middle of the table. Wine sloshed as they clinked together, the sound drowned out only by the laughter of the people holding the glasses.

Lexy felt the contented, warm glow of happiness which comes when things are going just right. She looked around the table. The fine linen, fancy china and glittering silver were nice to look at, but nothing compared to her four best friends who she shared the table with.

Jack was to her left, John Darling to her right and Cassie across from her. Behind Cassie, she could see the lights from the restaurant sparkle on the water of the falls. She looked down at her plate of prime rib, garlic mashed and green beans and felt truly blessed.

“Did you guys hear?  It looks like there is going to be a wedding after all!” Lexy said excitedly.

Across the table she saw Cassie’s eyes grow wide, darting from Lexy’s face to her left hand.

Lexy laughed, “Not me, silly. Xavier Toliver!  He’s going to marry Trixie and, the best part is, he’s hired us to do the catering, so we’ll get all the money we need for the kitchen equipment after all!”

“That’s wonderful!” Cassie said, then turning to Jack she asked, “What’s going to happen to Candice, now?”

“She’ll probably get off with just a slap. She wasn’t actually involved in the murder and Bronson has hired the best lawyers to represent her.”

“Well, I’m just glad we caught the real killer
and
he’ll be spending a lot of time in jail. It turns out he was always the bad boy - not Bronson like everyone thought. In fact, Bronson took the fall for a lot of the things Blake did.” John said.

“I’m glad Bronson and Candice ended up together. She’s kind of nice once you get to know her. I hear she moved into the Toliver mansion. There may be a second wedding in the works.” Lexy winked at Cassie “I hope we get the catering job for that one too.”

“
I’m
glad the whole thing is solved and you girls won’t have to put yourselves in danger by investigating any more murders.” Jack slid a sideways glance at Lexy.

Lexy smiled at him above a forkful of potatoes. She thought about the investigation. Sure, it
was
a bit dangerous, but she liked putting together the clues and it was fun working with Nans and the Ladies Detective Club. In fact, the ladies had asked her to help them out with a few other mysteries they had on their plate. She was considering it, this investigation stuff was kind of a fun hobby.