Dying for Danish (2 page)

Suddenly Jack realized he had been so wrapped up in his latest case that he hadn’t talked to Lexy in several days...maybe even weeks.

“I was delivering pastries here this morning.”

Jack felt a surge of relief.

“She discovered the body.”  Blake offered.

“Speaking of which,” one of the detectives piped in, “Can you show us where it is?”

Blake led the group to the kitchen. The team immediately sprang into action. In a matter of minutes, the kitchen resembled a scene from CSI.

After inspecting the body, Jack turned his attention to the Toliver brothers who were standing off to the side next to Lexy.

“Are you the sons of the deceased?”

Blake snorted out a laugh. “Hardly,” he pointed over at the body. “Chastine Johnson was going to be our new step mommy - our dad was marrying her next week.”

Jack felt his eyebrows rise. Neither one of them looked too upset the marriage would never happen.

“So, you’re the Toliver sons then?  Blake and Bronson, is it?”

Blake nodded. “I’m Blake,” then pointed to his brother, “and this is Bronson.”

“Do you both live here?”

“Yes.” Blake answered for both of them.

“And you were home this morning?”

They both nodded.

“Who was present when the body was discovered?”

Lexy raised her hand. “Just me.”

Jack signaled to his long haired, lanky partner, John Darling, who was bending over the body pointing out something to one of the technicians.

John looked over at them, his eyebrows arching when he noticed Lexy. “Hey Lexy, what are you doing here?”

“She discovered Ms. Johnson.” Jack explained. “Maybe you could get a statement from Blake and Bronson Toliver. I’ll take Lexy’s.”

John nodded, turning his attention on the Toliver brothers.

Jack pulled Lexy over into a private corner. “Are you OK?  It must have been awful for you finding her like that.”  He reached out for her, pulling her into a soothing hug.

It was like hugging a stiff board. Jack realized he had been a bit selfish lately - wrapped up in his latest case he hadn’t made any time for Lexy, thinking that she would just automatically understand. A pang of regret ripped through him. He pulled her even closer, hoping he hadn’t ruined things with her by being so dedicated to his job.

***

Lexy felt a rush of emotions. The morning had been stressful. It felt good to have Jack's strong arms around her. She let herself relax into his embrace for a few seconds. She thought she heard him whisper “I’m sorry.”

Then, Lexy remembered why she was mad at him. She pushed herself away, wriggling out of his arms. The past two weeks she had felt hurt and anger at Jack’s lack of attention. She didn’t need him coming to the rescue now.

She looked up at him, her heart clenching at the look of confusion in his eyes. “I’m fine,” she managed to say.

Lexy watched him take a well worn notebook and pencil out of his pocket. “I’ll have to ask you a few questions...”

“Of course.”

“What time did you arrive here?”

Lexy bit the inside of her lip, trying to think back through the timeframe of the morning. She had left the bakery at around 8:10, making the trip to the mansion in fifteen minutes easy.

“Around 8:25,” she answered.

“Who was here?”

“It was the strangest thing, no one was here. I knocked on the door and it swung open on its own. I had a big tray of Danish, so I brought them in.”

Lexy didn’t like the way Jack’s brow furrowed.
Surely, he wasn’t doubting her story?
She noticed with annoyance that her eye was starting to twitch again. She made a concerted effort not to poke at it with her finger.

“And you didn’t think it was odd no one was around?  You just walked right in?”

“Yes, I did think it was odd but I just figured they were all getting ready for the party. They knew I was coming so I just thought they left the door open so I could find my own way in without disturbing them.”

Jack nodded, scratching something in his notebook.

“So you were delivering food for some party - how do you know these people?”

“Nans knows Xavier Toliver from her younger days. She helped me get the catering job for their whole wedding shindig.”  Lexy said, wondering what Nans, her grandmother, was going to think of all this.

“Speaking of Xavier Toliver...where is he?” Jack asked, looking around the room.

Lexy’s brows knit together. “I haven’t seen him yet this morning.”

Jack turned to walk back to the other room, motioning for her to stay put. Naturally she did no such thing. Something about the body had been nagging at her, and she wanted to go back to take a peek.

Lexy slipped around the edges of the kitchen stopping near where Chastine lay on the floor. She felt a twinge looking at her, but she couldn’t say she was sad Chastine was dead. The woman had been quite beautiful but had a nasty disposition that made it impossible to like her. A sparky blonde of about 45 she was, of course, much younger than Xavier. Rumor had it she was only marrying him for his money and Lexy didn’t doubt it was true.

The woman had expensive taste and it would take all of Tolivers millions to keep her in style. The few times Lexy had seen her, she’d been dressed in designer outfits wearing expensive jewelry. There was one pin Lexy had admired in particular.
The pin! 
That’s what had been nagging at her. Chastine always wore an expensive pin- a daisy with a very unusual canary yellow cushion cut diamond in the center, but Lexy hadn’t noticed the pin on the body this morning.

Lexy shuffled closer to the body. Slowly she bent over to look at the lapels of the fuchsia silk shirt. She felt her breath catch in her throat - the right lapel had a tear in it, as if someone had ripped the pin right off her.

“Lexy?” Jack’s voice interrupted her from across the room. She straightened abruptly wobbling on her high heels, almost toppling onto the body.

She looked over at him, eyebrows raised.

“We’re not quite done here.”  He said, motioning for her to join him.

Lexy picked her way over to him. He was standing with John and Blake. Blake was explaining that his father normally slept in so he wouldn’t be around this time of morning. He had sent Bronson upstairs to wake him. Suddenly the air was split with an anguished wail.

“Looks like Bronson has given Dad the news.”  Blake said raising his glass to his lips and swigging down the rest of his drink.

Chapter Three

“What took so long?  The rest of the pastries have been ready for an hour!” Cassie, Lexy’s assistant and best friend, stood in the doorway to the kitchen, hands on hips, her pink hair ruffled up into an angry spike.

Lexy blew out a breath, “You won’t believe what happened!”

Cassie lifted her eyebrows in response. “What?”

“Chastine Toliver’s been murdered!”  Lexy blurted out. She watched Cassie’s face run through a gamut of emotions - surprise, confusion then disbelief.

“No, that can’t be....what will we do with all these pastries?” She spread her arms in the direction of the kitchen which was loaded to the brim with baked goods - cinnamon buns, eclairs, banana and pumpkin breads, brownies and Lexy’s signature pastry -cupcake tops loaded with creamy frosting.

Lexy stopped short. She hadn’t considered that. What
would
they do with all the pastry?  What would happen to her big catering job now that there would be no wedding.

Feeling light headed, Lexy plopped down in one of the tall kitchen chairs. She took a deep breath. The familiar scent of flour, sugar and cinnamon acted as a soothing balm and kicked her brain into gear.

“I hadn’t thought about that.”  She tapped her front teeth with long, red nails. “With Chastine dead, there won’t be any wedding...
and
I spent the money from the job on the new kitchen equipment.”

The girls looked around the bakery kitchen. Brand new appliances gleamed in every corner - commercial ovens, mixers and a walk in refrigerator had just been installed to replace the old, used ones they had been making-do with.

Lexy had opened her bakery,
The Cup and Cake
, barely a year ago on a shoe string budget. A loan from her parents who had sold their home to travel the country in an RV had helped her buy what she needed, but she had to stretch each dollar and had only been able to afford older, used equipment. That equipment didn’t work up to par and broke down quite a bit which made it harder to get the work done. New equipment would be more efficient and allow her to be more productive, which would make the bakery more profitable.

 Her business had been growing nicely, but she wouldn’t have been able to afford all new kitchen equipment if it wasn’t for the Toliver’s big catering job. If she lost all that money, she would have a hard time paying the equipment bill which would be coming any day now.

Lexy felt her stomach drop. Her business could be at risk if she didn’t collect at least part of the payment - for several parties she’d already catered for him - including this mornings. Xavier had promised her the partial payment today, but considering the circumstances she doubted
that
would happen.

“We need to get whatever money we can from this job or we could be in big trouble.” She said, feeling tears threaten.

“Jeez, Lexy, I’m not sure how you can do that...I mean you can’t just breeze in on the day the guys fiancee gets murdered and present him with a bill.”

“Yeah, that would be rude,” Lexy agreed. “I couldn’t do it, but I know someone who could. Can you hold down the fort here for a little while?”

Cassie nodded.

“Great - I’ll be back in a bit.”  Lexy said, stuffing a raspberry scone into her mouth as she slid off  her chair, grabbed her purse and ran out the back door.

***

Lexy whipped her yellow VW beetle into the first parking spot she found at the Brook Ridge Retirement Community. Her grandmother, or Nans as Lexy called her, had recently moved to the upscale community for retirees to be closer to friends and not have to worry about driving. She had given the old craftsman style bungalow she lived in for most of her life to Lexy.

Lexy had called ahead to make sure Nans was around - with all her senior activities the woman could be impossible to get in touch with, but today Lexy had lucked out - Nans was waiting for her inside.

Breezing in through the large glass doors to the comfortably furnished lobby of the retirement center, her eyes scanned the room. They found Nans at a round table with her three closest friends. The four of them could usually be found at that same table, talking, having coffee and, as Lexy had discovered earlier in the summer, solving murders with the help of their iPads.

Lexy rushed over, swallowing Nans in a big hug. “Morning ladies,” she addressed the group. Ida, Ruth and Helen murmured greetings. They looked ready for anything in their polyester print shirts and fresh blueish gray perms.

“I can see something is bothering you,” Nans stated, her intelligent green eyes studying Lexy’s face.

Lexy took a deep breath. “I was delivering food to the Toliver’s this morning for a brunch and I discovered Chastine Toliver’s body in the kitchen.”

The ladies gasped, then leaned forward. “Murdered?” Ida asked with a gleam in her eye.

Lexy nodded.

“How?” Ruth chimed in.

“Well, I’m no expert on bodies, but it looked like she’d been stabbed in the chest.”

The four women exchanged excited glances. Lexy was afraid this might happen. At the beginning of the summer when her ex, Kevin, had been poisoned, Lexy had turned to Nans for comfort and discovered the four ladies had an odd hobby. They solved  murders. They even had a name for themselves -
The Ladies Detective Club
.

They didn’t go out roaming the streets in trench coats - well, not usually. They preferred to stay in the retirement center gathering clues from the internet which they accessed through their iPads. They had been instrumental in helping her find Kevin’s killer but she didn’t need help solving a murder right now, she only wanted to collect the money for the catering jobs she’d done for Xavier Toliver.

“Tell us everything you know about it.” Nans demanded.

“Nans, I didn’t come here to try to solve the murder, I just wanted to ask you a teensy, tiny favor.”  Lexy held her hand up, her index finger and thumb a tiny space apart.

“Oh, anything for you dear,” Nans said. “I’ll do whatever you want...right after you tell us everything you know about the murder.”

With a sigh, Lexy pulled out a chair, flopping into it. The four ladies leaned in towards her. Lexy told them about how the door had swung open when she knocked, how she had let herself in and discovered the body in the kitchen.

“No one was there?” Helen asked, the wrinkles on her forehead doubling.

“What was she wearing?” Ida asked.

“Did you see the murder weapon?” Ruth added.

Lexy bit her lower lip trying to remember. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see the murder weapon...I don’t know if they found it.”

The women nodded knowingly.

“That’s the first thing you should look for.” Helen said.

Lexy held up her hands. “No, no...I’m not trying to find the killer on this one, ladies.”

Trying to ignore the looks of disappointment on their faces, she went on, “I do have one little problem though.”

Nans cocked her head to one side, “Go on, dear.”

“As you know, the Toliver’s hired me to cater all the events leading up to and including the wedding.  Obviously there will be no wedding now, but I desperately need to collect at least the money for what I have done so far. I was supposed to get paid half now and the rest after the wedding, but with the murder now I’m not sure how to collect my money.”  She looked at Nans, “That’s the favor I wanted, I was hoping you could go over there with me...you know...to give your condolences to Xavier and maybe give him a hint about the payment.”

“Of course, Xavier and I have been great friends since grade school so I
should
go over and give my condolences. He must be crushed...you know, he really did care for her. We can go right now, if you want.”