Dying for Danish (6 page)

"I was looking for some of my catering equipment," she mumbled. Looking down, she swatted at her clothing to try to remove some of the encrusted debris.

She heard Jack sigh. "Lexy, I hope you aren’t meddling in this case.”

Meddling?
What did he think - she had nothing better to do? If he had been doing his job faster, she wouldn't be forced to figure out who the murderer was in order to get the payment in the first place! The anger Lexy had felt earlier threatened to explode. She struggled to remain calm. Her eyes darted to the left. She considered side-stepping away from him but he put his hands against the dumpster on either side of her, trapping her in between them.

“And why haven't you answered my calls?”

Calls?
Had he called more than just the one time today? Lexy realized she hadn't checked her messages in a couple of days.

She saw Jack’s eyes soften, he reached over, pushing a lock of hair behind her ears. “By the way...you look nice today.” Lexy felt her heart clench, the words caught her off-guard, chiseling away at her anger.

Then suddenly, he was leaning in to kiss her. She stood there frozen.
Did she want him to kiss her?
His lips softly brushed against hers causing Lexy to feel delicious tingles in all the right places. She was just about to return the kiss when she remembered how he had been ignoring her the past few weeks. Then her thoughts drifted to his earlier comment about meddling and hard, cold anger chased away those warm and fuzzy tingles.

She pushed on his chest with her hands, shoving him away from her.

"I hope you don't think you can just breeze in here and kiss me after ignoring me for two weeks." She blurted out the words, stabbing her index finger at his chest to punctuate them.

Jack took a step backwards, a look of surprise on his face. Then, before he could say anything, she turned on her heel and stomped off.

 Rounding the corner of the fence, Lexy glanced up at the house and saw a curtain flutter back.
Was someone watching her?

Not looking where she was going, she plowed full force into the back of Cassie, pushing her into John Darling almost causing the three of them to fall down in a tangled pile.

“What the heck-?” Lexy noticed John had caught Cassie in his arms to keep her from knocking him down. Neither one of them looked too upset about it. In fact, it seemed like Cassie took a bit longer extracting herself than necessary.

“Sorry.” Lexy looked at Cassie, then nodded her head towards the car. “Let’s go.” She picked up her box, storming off towards the front of the house.

Lexy put the box in the trunk, then slipped into the driver’s seat. She looked at herself in the rear view mirror - her hair was messed up, she had dirt on her face and her eye was twitching like a metronome.

She pulled her phone from her pocket. Jack
had
called yesterday. She dialed her inbox. Her heart flip-flopped when she heard the apologetic message he had left the day before. He really did care. She glanced over in the direction of the dumpster.
Should she go back to talk to him?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Cassie’s appearance from the side of the house. She watched Cassie slide her box into the trunk, then open the passenger door plopping herself into the seat.

"What took you so long?" Lexy asked.

Cassie turned, looking Lexy straight in the face. “Did you ever hear the saying - you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?”

Lexy nodded, thinking about all the flies by the dumpster but not sure where Cassie was going with this.

“Well, while you were busy fighting with Jack, I was talking nicely with John...and I found out something very interesting."

Lexy raised her eyebrows, indicating for Cassie to elaborate.

“Apparently one of the sons, Bronson, has a history of violence. John said the police have picked him up a few times for fighting.” Cassie, sat back a proud look on her face.

“That
is
interesting.” Lexy tapped her fingernail on her front teeth. “And I bet you won’t find any record of it because the Toliver money can come in handy for making stuff like that go away.” 

Cassie nodded “Yep, John said all those records usually get closed and purged from the public files.”

“Which makes me wonder...what other kinds of things Toliver money might have made
go away
.” She glanced nervously back up at the house.

“Good find, though. Nans and the girls will be proud!” She turned back to Cassie and held out her fist for a knuckle tap. “Speaking of which, I better run home to shower and change. They’re expecting me at the Retirement Center after lunch.”
 

Chapter Ten

Lexy sailed into the Brooke Ridge Retirement Center refreshed from her recent shower and balancing a box of Danish. She put the box on the table. Opening the lid she waved her hand at it indicating for Nans, Ida, Ruth and Helen to help themselves.

Ruth, Nans and Helen dug in. Lexy pushed the box towards Ida who held her hand up, palm out. "None for me, thanks.”

Three pairs of eyes turned towards Ida, the Danish pastries paused midway to their mouths.

"It's that new gentlemen on the 3rd floor, isn't it?"  Ruth’s said.

Lexy was surprised to see Ida's cheeks turned pink. "No, I'm just gaining a little weight is all," she stammered eliciting a giggle from the other women.

"Ok, let's get down to business." Nans voice boomed over the giggling. She turned to Lexy. "Were you able to find anything out?"

"Cassie and I went back to the Tolivers and I talked to Blake. Both the sons were home that night but I found out something else. Xavier's ex-girlfriend has appeared back on the scene."

"Oh, that's right," Nans said, "he was dating that actress, Trixie...what was her last name?" She asked turning to Helen her eyebrows raised in a question.

Helen punched the button on her iPad bringing it to life on the table in front of her. “Should be easy enough to find out, they were all over the society pages a few years back.” She punched in a few keys then sat back with a satisfied smile. "Yep, here it is - Trixie Masters."

"Yes, that’s it!  We’ll need to do some checking up on her - I wonder where
she
was when Chastine was killed?"

“Speaking of which, did either one of the Toliver boys have an alibi?” Ruth asked around a mouthful of cherry Danish.

“They were both home but, both were alone.” Lexy peered into the box of Danish, choosing one with a gooey apple center. “Blake said he saw Bronson out in the hallway around 2:30 that morning. He also said he thought he heard a woman giggling but he didn't see anyone.”

"And what about the murder weapon?"

Lexy felt her stomach clench. "Umm...it turns out the murder weapon is actually one of the knives I brought there...and it seems to be missing."

"Oh, well maybe we should be investigating you, then.” Ida joked.

“Very funny,” Lexy said. Picking up her Danish, she took a dainty bite from the edge. “I don't think the police actually know it was my knife yet. I was hoping to find it today when I looked around out by the dumpster.”

“What did
you
guys find out?” She asked, taking another bite from the edge of the Danish.

“Ruth did some research on Chastine. We found an article about her being engaged to some oil tycoon down in Texas, but apparently it didn’t work out and she moved out here.”

“We couldn't find too much about the Toliver boys. Bronson was discharged from the military and there seems to be some controversy over that. Blake is a bit of a playboy   - you probably already knew that,” Nans looked at Lexy over the tops of her glasses as she read from their notes. “Of course, Chastine would have gotten control of a lot of the Toliver money after she married Xavier so both boys would have had a motive to kill her.”

Lexy considered the information while she ate her way around the edge of her Danish, carefully saving the middle for last. She didn’t think Blake had anything to do with the murder, but Bronson’s military discharge added an interesting element.

“According to the police, Bronson has been picked up a few times for fighting. I wonder if his military discharge has anything to do with being violent?”

Lexy saw Helen’s brows wrinkle together. “We didn’t find any police record for Bronson.”

“Yeah, apparently all the records were sealed, or whatever they do to them to get them out of public view. That’s what money can do for you, I guess.”

“Speaking of money...the ex-girlfriend, Trixie must have been upset about getting dumped - I wonder if getting back with Xavier, and his money, would be motive enough for murder?” Ida asked.

Lexy savored the last few bites of the outside edge of her Danish while she watched Helen’s fingers tap quickly on the iPad. Helen gave a final, exaggerated tap then nodded with approval spinning the tablet around so everyone could see the screen. “It looks like Trixie does have some priors.” Helen said, pointing her finger at the screen.

Priors?
Lexy smiled to herself. The police jargon seemed odd coming from a 70-ish year old woman, but then again so did the fact that she was using an iPad to investigate murder suspects.

Lexy craned her neck over the table to get a better look at the information displayed on the tablet’s screen. It reminded her of the police blotter listing. "That looks official, how did you find it?"

Helen shrugged sheepishly. “I’m not supposed to tell, but your friend Jack gave us special access to the police database, seeing as we help them so much and all."

Jack had given them special access?
 Great. He’d probably been spending more time with the Ladies Detective Club lately than he had with her. Her stomach flip flopped at the thought of him. She remembered the message he had left, apologizing for being so busy lately. She made a mental note to call him back as soon as she was done. After all, he had made the first move and she should at least give him another chance.

Nan’s voice brought her attention back to the iPad. "These all look like minor things - fights with other women and complaints. But if the stakes were high, including millions of dollars, maybe Trixie would see her way to something more fatal than just a cat fight.”

"But she wasn't in the house that night so she might have had a motive but not the opportunity." Ruth chimed in.

"Well, actually she might have. Blake told me the back door to the kitchen was open, so it looks like anyone could have come in the house through that door, murdered Chastine, and slipped out again.” Lexy popped the gooey apple covered center of the Danish in her mouth.

"Well, there are so many suspects, this is going to be an interesting one to unravel." Nans said, her eyes bright with the challenge. “We do have our feelers out about that pin you said was missing from Chastine’s blouse. If someone pawns it, we’ll know.”

"I bet we’ll learn a lot at the wake,"  Ida said excitedly. "On TV that’s where they find out the best information."  The other ladies nodded their agreement.

Lexy let out a sigh. She hated going to wakes, but when her ex had been murdered earlier in the summer, the ladies had insisted she go to his. They had been right. She
had
learned quite a bit at the wake. "Blake said it is scheduled for tomorrow at 3:00."

"Great! You can pick us up here at 2:30 - we’ll all go together!” Nans said excitedly with Ruth, Ida and Helen nodding in agreement.

Lexy’s mind conjured up an image of the four ladies skulking around the wake in tan London Fog raincoats taking notes on their iPads. She could hardly wait.

Chapter Eleven

Lexy sat in her car in the retirement center parking lot thinking about the messages Jack had left on her phone. The mid-fall sun beat through her windshield raising the temperature in the car to summer like levels. The Danish she had polished off inside, suddenly felt like a lead weight in her stomach.

She stared at the cell phone in her hand. She
wanted
to call Jack but the thought of talking to him sent her stomach in a tailspin. She did want to clear the air and work things out with him, but she had to admit she had an ulterior motive for calling. She wanted to know if they found the murder weapon in the dumpster. She realized she should probably come clean about the missing knife, she didn’t want it to reflect badly on her if Jack found out she had withheld that little tidbit of information. She took a deep breath, then pressed the call button.

"Perillo." She heard Jack's voice bark his customary greeting.

"Hi Jack…it's Lexy,"  She said tentatively, not sure what, exactly, to expect.

"Oh, Lexy. I was hoping you would call." Lexy's heart did a flip-flop upon hearing the tenderness in his voice when he said her name.

"Look, I want to apologize. I guess I've been neglecting you. I didn’t mean to...it's just that I've been so busy on this other case I am on. I tend to get wrapped up in my work."  Jack sounded nervous which made Lexy’s heart melt, washing away the  past two weeks of anger and hurt feelings. She realized how silly she had been to think he had lost interest in her. He just got busy with work. How insecure could she be?

"Well, I
was
feeling a bit neglected,” she laughed, “I didn't know if you were trying to give me the brush off."

"No, its nothing like that. You know how I feel about you."
She did?
  Come to think of it, Jack had never
said
how he felt about her, but he did act like he cared. And he sure sounded like it on the phone right now. Lexy decided to let go of her insecurities and accept that things were good with them.

Having that out of the way, she turned to more pressing issues. "Were you looking for something in the dumpster, today?" She asked, trying to slip the words in as if they were just conversational.

"Were you?"

"I asked first."

Jack's deep laugh warmed her from the other side of the phone. "Okay, I give. We were looking for the murder weapon  - it still hasn't shown up. Now it's your turn, what we you looking for?"