Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys Read online

  Gooey chocolate covered her taste buds as she bit into the confection. The brownie was so fudgy that she didn’t even have to chew it. She closed her eyes and swirled it around in her mouth, enjoying the rich, dark chocolate taste as well as the instant sugar rush.

  It was mid-afternoon and Lexy realized she probably should eat a proper lunch, but she was having an early dinner with Jack and didn’t want to fill up. The brownie was just about perfect, she thought, as she shoved the rest of it into her mouth.

  Thinking about dinner with Jack reminded her about the blonde she had seen him with earlier. She had tried not to think about it all day, but it kept nagging at her.

  Lexy eyed Cassie tentatively. Cassie was married to Jack’s partner, who was also his best friend. If there was a reasonable explanation for the blonde, Cassie probably knew about it. More than likely it was something so innocent that Cassie didn’t even think to mention it. Lexy was just about to ask when the bell over the door chimed, signaling the arrival of a customer.

  Looking over at the door, Lexy saw Brant Millet from the bookstore approaching the pastry case. Brant was tall with a long neck and gangly arms and legs. He reminded Lexy of a giraffe. She suppressed a giggle, picturing a spotted giraffe face on top of his long neck. He studied the case, his chin resting in between his thumb and forefinger.

  “What can I get you today, Brant?” Lexy asked.

  Brant squinted into the case then pointed at the lemon squares. “I’ll take two.”

  Lexy boxed the squares up and handed Brant the box while Cassie rang up the purchase.

  Lexy was considering how to phrase her question about the blonde to Cassie when the bell announced another customer. Another regular, this time a woman Lexy knew only as Susan, who came in three or four times a week. She slunk over to the case, her sleek black hair cascading over her shoulders as she leaned over to examine the pastry. She too, reminded Lexy of an animal … a black jaguar.

  Susan picked out a variety of cupcakes which Lexy boxed up, then rang up the purchase.

  Lexy was still thinking about the blonde in the back of her mind, but before she could ask Cassie, the door opened again and two men Lexy had never seen came in looking out of place in dark suits. One was gigantic, tall and wide … he reminded Lexy of a gorilla. The other very thin, with a long neck and small head, made Lexy think of an ostrich. They ordered a dozen brownies which Cassie boxed up and gave to Lexy to ring up.

  The next two hours were filled with a steady stream of customers who cleaned out most of Lexy’s inventory while the two girls took turns serving them and ringing up their purchases.

  Finally, the rush was over. Lexy glanced up at the clock … she had just enough time to close up the shop, rush home and get ready for her dinner date with Jack.

  Lexy went over to the door and flipped the sign to the “Closed” position while Cassie started cleaning off the cafe tables. Now was the perfect time to ask about the blonde.

  “Hey, Cass … I was wondering if you knew anything about a blonde woman that Jack might know.” Lexy feigned disinterest, pretending she was engrossed in cleaning the top of the pastry case, while her heart thumped in her chest waiting for Cassie’s answer.

  “Uhh … you don’t know?”

  Lexy looked up, narrowing her eyes at Cassie. “Know what?”

  Cassie stood there staring at Lexy, the wide-eyed, nervous look on her face made Lexy’s heart drop.

  “Cassie, what is it?” Lexy felt a jolt of panic. What could be so bad that Cassie didn’t want to tell her?

  “That woman you saw with Jack? She’s his ex-girlfriend.”

  Chapter Four

  “Should I wear the black dress, or the lavender top and black pants?” Lexy stood in front of the mirror, holding the two outfits on hangers in front of her.

  Sprinkles, her white poodle and Shih-tzu mix sat on the bed watching her intently.

  Lexy choose the lavender top and slipped it over her head, then wriggled into the tight black jeans. Turning back to the mirror, she angled herself left and right to inspect the outfit from all angles. The top hung just below the waist, accentuating her slim hips, small shoulders, and generous breasts. The pants were just tight enough to show off her assets, but not so tight that she couldn’t breathe. She had to admit, she looked pretty darn good.

  Staring at her face, she inspected her makeup for smudges. The small amount of dark brown eyeliner and mascara accentuated her green eyes and the teeny bit of blush highlighted her high cheekbones. A swipe of raspberry lip gloss and she was good to go.

  “Not too bad, huh, Sprinkles,” she said to the dog.

  “Woof.” Sprinkles wagged her tail.

  “I just hope it’s enough to make him forget that blonde.” She turned back to the mirror, eyeing her brown hair that fell just below the shoulders. Her gaze traveled down her body to her legs which appeared short and stubby compared to the other woman’s.

  “I know just the thing!”

  Lexy opened the door to her walk in closet and headed straight for the shoe rack. She had a weakness for designer shoes and had amassed quite a collection over the years. Her closet was outfitted with special shoe boxes arranged by color. She went to the black section picking out a pair of 6” high Jimmy Choo strappy black suede stilettos. They were sexy and elegant at the same time. She didn’t wear them often—they had cost her almost nine hundred dollars—but were worth wearing tonight if it helped her compete with the blonde ex-girlfriend with mile long legs.

  Lexy did a mental head shake. She wasn’t in competition with anyone. She was way better than some blonde ex-girlfriend. That’s why she was Jack’s fiancee and the other woman was his ex.

  But, it made Lexy wonder, why hadn’t Jack mentioned the other woman to her? Maybe he hadn’t had a chance, or maybe it just wasn’t a big deal to Jack and he didn’t even think it was worth mentioning … or maybe he was hiding something from Lexy.

  Lexy pushed the thought out of her head. That was ridiculous. She trusted Jack. Her imagination was just making a big deal out of nothing.

  She grabbed her purse and ran downstairs, Sprinkles hot on her heels. In the kitchen, she peeked out the window at Jack’s house which was on the street behind hers. Their backyards abutted each other and she could see his driveway was empty. He was probably on the way over to pick her up.

  Lexy threw Sprinkles a treat and dashed out the front door. She was sure Jack would fill her in on the blonde at dinner, but even if he didn’t she was determined not to act all clingy and mistrusting. The last thing she wanted was for Jack to know that she was jealous of one of his old girlfriends—if Jack didn’t mention the woman at dinner, then neither would she.

  ###

  Lexy took the top of the bun off her burger, piled onion rings on top of the patty, smothered it in ketchup and dropped the bun back on top. Lifting it she opened her mouth as wide as she could to accommodate the giant sandwich.

  Ketchup squirted out the side and dripped down her hands. She wiped it off as she chewed, savoring the delicious combination of sweet onion rings, salty ketchup and charbroiled meat.

  Across from her, Jack was creating his own mess by digging into a plate of ribs. He smiled up at Lexy and she felt her stomach flip. Jack had a great smile. Lexy tried not to think about him bestowing that same smile on his blonde ex.

  “I guess you must have heard about Ruth,” Lexy said taking a sip of her beer.

  “Yeah, who knew she had such an active social life?” Jack looked up from his ribs and winked at Lexy, causing her to blush.

  “I heard Nunzio was involved in organized crime. Is that true?”

  “I don’t know. The way he was killed and the way his place was ransacked didn’t look very professional to me. He might have been involved with organized crime once, but I don’t think his death had anything to do with it.”

  Jack, put his ribs down and used his tongue to pick rib meat out of his teeth. Lexy watched him thinking he was probably the only m
an alive who could look sexy doing that.

  “So, do you have any suspects? I mean, why would someone kill him like that? I don’t like the idea of Nans living in a place where people get shot in their sleep.”

  Jack shrugged. “Right now we’re looking into the family. That’s usually the best place to start.”

  “Really? Why would someone in his family want to kill him? And what would they be looking for in his condo?”

  Jack put down his utensils, his honey brown eyes drilling into Lexy’s. “I hope you and Mona aren’t thinking about investigating this one.”

  Lexy felt a tingle of annoyance. Jack had an aversion to her investigating murders. She knew it was only because he wanted her to be safe, but it still got her hackles up when he tried to tell her what to do.

  Lexy looked down at her burger, removing the top of the bun and cutting into it with a knife and fork. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of getting into that. I don’t have the time. I even tried to talk Nans out of it, but you know how she is.”

  Lexy balanced a bit of bun, onion ring, pickle, and cheese covered burger on her fork and carefully lifted it to her mouth. She’d learned through many dinners here, at The Burger Barn, that the giant burgers were much easier to eat with a fork, then trying to shove them in your mouth … even though she still tried the shove-in-your-mouth method every time.

  “Yes, I know how your grandmother is—stubborn! Seems to run in the family,” Jack teased.

  Lexy bristled at the comment even though she knew Jack was teasing. So what if they were stubborn?

  Nans and the Ladies Detective Club, as the four of them called themselves, had worked on many cases with the police department and had played a critical role in solving several of them. Jack should be thankful for Nans’s stubbornness.

  She sighed, swirling a piece of onion ring in a puddle of ketchup. She was overreacting. Jack and Nans were old friends, he was practically like a grandson to her and she knew he was very fond of the older woman. This whole thing with the ex-girlfriend must have her out of sorts. Speaking of which … Lexy was starting to wonder why Jack hadn’t mentioned anything about her.

  “So … anything else new going on?” Lexy asked.

  Jack narrowed his eyes at her. “New? No, what do you mean?”

  “Nothing,” Lexy pasted an innocent look on her face, “Just asking if there’s anything new.”

  Jack looked at her sideways. “Lexy, is there something wrong?”

  “No.” Lexy played with the food on her plate while Jack dug into his ribs as if nothing was amiss. She noticed her engagement ring glinting off the lighting. Was the ring less sparkly now?

  She took a deep breath. She was acting just the way she had promised herself she wouldn’t act. And she was being ridiculous. She looked around the room. The old barn had a rustic decor, with antique signs and farm memorabilia. A family restaurant, it had comfortable seating and lighting that wasn’t too dim or too bright. She and Jack’s first date had been here and they’d had many fun dinners here since. She didn’t want to ruin that by acting stupid.

  She pushed her plate away just as Jack finished cleaning his off. He looked up at her, and for a moment her stomach clenched when she saw concern in his eyes. He was probably wondering why she was acting so strange.

  Lexy smiled at him. “Wanna split dessert?”

  Jack smiled back, signaling the waitress. “Absolutely.”

  The Burger Barn had super-sized pieces of cake, and it was a tradition for them to split one at every meal. Jack ordered the double chocolate and asked for two plates and forks.

  They sipped coffees and ate the dessert, fighting and laughing over who would get the edge pieces with the most frosting. Just like old times; as if there was no ex-girlfriend waiting in the wings.

  When they were done, Jack paid the bill and drove her home. He walked her to the door. Lexy felt unusually awkward as they stood in front of it. She wanted to invite him in, but the image of the blonde draped over him made her hesitate.

  Lexy pretended to search in her purse for her keys as she felt the tension grow in the air between them. Jack put his hand on her arm and turned her toward him. Placing his thumb under her chin, he tilted her head up, forcing her to look into his deep golden-brown eyes.

  “Are you sure nothing is wrong?” Jack’s furrowed brow and concerned eyes made Lexy feel guilty for suspecting something was going on between him and his ex.

  Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled. “No. Sorry. It was just a stressful day with Ruth getting pulled in to the police station and all.”

  Jack nodded. The concerned look in his eye turned to something else as his finger gently traced a line down her neck, past the hollow in her throat and down her cleavage, causing Lexy’s heartbeat to kick into overdrive and tingles to race up her spine.

  “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  Lexy thought about it. The look in Jack’s eye wasn’t that of a man who was cheating. If he was, Lexy figured he’d probably want to high tail it out of there, but the glint in his eye told her he intended to stay … for a long time.

  Lexy raised her eyebrow, a smile tugging at her lips. She made a big show of looking at her watch.

  “Well, I would, but I do have to get to bed early. I’m bringing day old pastries over to Nans’s tomorrow at the crack of dawn,” she teased.

  Jack’s lips formed a smile of their own. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down at her.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll personally see to it that you get to bed very, very early.”

  Chapter Five

  Lexy put the pastry box that held an assortment of day old pastries from her bakery on Nans’s dining room table and opened the lid. Nans, Ida, Ruth and Helen peered into the box.

  “Oh, what a lovely assortment,” Ida said, choosing a pecan roll.

  “You brought my favorite! Pistachio biscotti.” Helen gingerly removed one of the crunchy biscuits from the box and put it on her napkin.

  “You know I love eclairs. How can I resist?” Ruth bit into the chocolaty confection with gusto.

  “Really, Lexy, this is too much,” Nans said, picking a cheese Danish out of the box. “All this fatty food will harden our arteries.”

  Lexy noticed the threat of hardened arteries didn’t stop any of them from taking a bite of their pastry as she picked a cream cheese brownie out of the box for herself.

  “I’ve found some exciting information on Nunzio.” Nans pushed her Danish aside and pulled the iPad she had sitting on the table in front of her. She tapped a few keys then turned the screen to face the rest of them.

  “Look at these newspaper articles. He was arrested quite a few times on various charges but they never stuck. Of course, that was decades ago. But still, I think it proves there could be an organized crime angle to the case.”

  “All the more reason to stay away from it,” Lexy mumbled around a mouthful of brownie.

  “Oh. No, dear. That’s what makes it exciting!” Nans’s eyes sparkled, “Right girls?”

  Ruth, Ida and Helen all nodded.

  Lexy rolled her eyes. Apparently Nans wasn’t going to back off on this one, no matter how dangerous it might be.

  “But why would the Mob take him out now? He hasn’t been active in that business in a long time,” Ruth said.

  “Yeah, you’d think they would have had him rubbed out long ago if he was a threat, not wait until he was in his last years,” Helen added, with an apologetic look toward Ruth.

  “Well, that’s just one of my theories,” Nans said. “The other one, of course, is his family.”

  “Right, one should always look to the family first,” Ida said. “That’s what they do on TV and in the movies.”

  “Why would his family want to kill him?” Lexy furrowed her brow at Nans.

  “Money? Hatred? Revenge?” Nans offered. “You know, all the usual reasons.”

  “Was there any tension in the family?” Helen asked Ruth. “Did an
yone hate him?”

  “I don’t think so. He never mentioned it. Although he did say some of his relatives didn’t live up to his expectations. And he was very disappointed in a few of them.” Ruth’s brow creased. “Seems to me there were a couple that were always looking for money.”

  “Aha! That could be a reason for killing him and searching his condo!” Ida said.

  “I suppose, but that seems rather drastic—especially during a big family reunion week,” Ruth said.

  “We need to talk to the family. Feel them out. Try to figure out if anyone would have killed him,” Helen said.

  “Maybe we should have a little memorial here for Nunzio and invite them!” Nans’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together.

  “That’s a great idea!” Ida said. “Lexy could cater it.”

  Lexy’s stomach felt queasy. “Oh no,” she said holding up her hands, “I don’t want anything to do with this.”

  “Lexy we wouldn’t dream of having anyone but you cater it,” Nans said. “Think of how good it will be for business.”

  Lexy wrinkled her brow. She was always looking for ways to get new customers. But ending up on the radar of the person who killed Nunzio Bartolli didn’t seem like a good way to go about it. On the other hand, she found it almost impossible to say no to Nans.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Great!” Nans beamed at Lexy.

  “We also shouldn’t forget about considering the organized crime angle,” Ida said.

  “Yes, we should put out some feelers to our informants and see if anyone suspicious has come to town in the past few days,” Nans added.

  They had informants? Lexy narrowed her eyes at Nans. She was about to ask what kinds of informants they had when a police siren outside the window caught her attention.

  “What’s that?” Ida said getting up to look outside. “Looks like someone’s car got broken into.”