Leighann Dobbs - Lexy Baker 09 - Ice Cream Murder Read online

  “Come on, Sprinkles, let’s do some detecting.” She tugged Sprinkles down the hall, following the path she’d taken before. Luckily, her classmates had gone in the other direction and the halls were mostly empty, so there was no one to stop her.

  She paused at the mouth of the hallway where she’d heard Olivia talking to the mystery man.

  Should she venture down?

  The building was old, probably a warehouse at one time, and the floors were some type of industrial tile. Luckily, she had sneakers on so she wouldn’t make any noise. She took a deep breath and started down the dark wood paneled hall, the faint smell of baking dog food tickling her nose.

  The back area of the Fur Fun K9 Center was like a maze, with hallways that led to other hallways all peppered with locked doors. Well, maybe they weren’t all locked, but the few she’d quietly tried had been.

  What was going on back here?

  Lexy continued slowly down the hall, noticing that it intersected with a parallel hall about ten feet ahead. She was contemplating whether she should go right or left at the end when she heard voices coming from the left.

  “… can’t let anyone know … we’re so close,” a man’s voice whispered.

  “… if … finds out about the food, our efforts will have been wasted.” Lexy recognized the upper crust twang of Olivia Banks’ voice.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve taken care of that.” The man again.

  Lexy’s heart kicked. They were coming her way! She realized she didn’t have time to back down the hall without them seeing her, so she did the only thing she could think of.

  “Sprinkles! No!” Lexy lunged back on the leash, jerking poor Sprinkles backwards just as the couple rounded the corner.

  “Again?” Olivia looked at Lexy, her perfectly plucked brows forming a delicate ‘V’ on her forehead.

  “What are you doing down here? These are our private offices,” the man demanded, then he frowned at Olivia. “You know her?”

  “Sorry, my dog ran off and I was just retrieving her.” Lexy stuck her hand for the man to shake. “I’m Lexy Baker. My dog, Sprinkles, and I are taking the agility class.”

  The man eyed her dubiously before clasping her hand in his large calloused paw and giving it a firm handshake. “Steve Warren. I own the place.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Lexy said.

  Steve and Olivia continued down the hall, back the way Lexy had come. Lexy walked with them.

  Lexy noticed that Olivia clutched a large green hardcover book to her chest—The Book of Herbs. “Nice to see you again. Where’s your Pom?”

  “Oh, Farfel? She’s back there in the—” Olivia broke off, looking at Steve.

  “Kennel,” he completed for her.

  “Oh, maybe that’s what Sprinkles was after. She probably smelled dogs. Is there a boarding kennel back there or something?”

  “Yes.” Steve answered gruffly.

  “What’s with the herbs book?. Are you into herbs?” Lexy asked

  Olivia’s eyes darted over to Steve. “Yes … I mean … I have an herb garden as a hobby.”

  “Oh.” Lexy wondered why she had the book here. “Are you interested, too, Steve?”

  “Me?” Steve looked at her out of the corner of her eye.

  “No, someone borrowed it from me and just returned it to me here,” Olivia said before he could answer.

  Lexy cleared her throat. “I just discovered they are planning on developing all the land around here. Some retail mall or something. It’s too bad, the land is so pretty.”

  Steve’s face turned hard. “Yeah, that’s progress, I guess.”

  “It sounds like you’re not a fan.”

  Steve shrugged. “I’m not. I like the open spaces, the fields and wildlife. A lot of animals will be displaced with the construction.”

  Lexy’s heart melted a little. Maybe the guy was just a nature lover. “But I would think it would bring in a lot of extra traffic for the K9 Center,” Lexy said.

  Steve shrugged. “Maybe. But I like being out here in the country. It’s more private.”

  “Well, it might be good for—”.

  Olivia’s phone chirped, cutting off what she was about to say, but not before Lexy noticed Steve shoot her a warning glare.

  What was that about? There was definitely something going on between them.

  “Hello … what?” Olivia frowned at the diamond-encrusted watch on her wrist. “Oh, is that today? I’ll be right there.”

  She clicked off and shoved the phone in her Coach purse. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be at a hair appointment right now. I’m so bad with appointments—always mixing up the days. I have to run!”

  Olivia clip-clopped away in a pair of purple suede Steve Madden wedges, leaving Lexy and Steve standing in the large entrance foyer.

  “Well, I think you can find your way out, Ms. Baker.” Steve nodded toward the left where the front door was. “Pleasure meeting you.”

  Lexy watched Steve walk away. He was tall and broad shouldered and the way he walked niggled something in Lexy’s memory.

  She was at her car before she remembered what it was. Steve Warren was the man that Lexy had remembered during hypnosis, the one who had blocked her view of Regis’ ice cream.

  ***

  Lexy’s suspicions of Steve and Olivia were put to rest the next day when Nans called her at the bakery with news from their stakeout.

  “We’re on our way over with the proof to nail Winston!”

  “What?” Lexy couldn’t imagine what proof they had … had they found him with the pictures from the photography store? “From your stakeout?”

  “You’ll just have to wait and see.” Nans hung up on her.

  She hastily put together a plate of Snickerdoodles and Whoopee pies. She’d no sooner put the tray on one of the cafe tables when Ruth’s car careened around the corner, grinding to a stop in front of the bakery. The four ladies jumped out, Nans with a pile of paper in her hand, Ida with a camera.

  Nans ran into the bakery, waving the papers.

  “Look at these.” She spread them out on the table.

  Thankfully, no customers were in the bakery and Lexy could focus on the pictures. She looked down at them, her heart pumping with excitement as she went through the series. Winston at a park with a large briefcase, then him handing it to a man, then the two men moving away from each other in different directions.

  “Those are just some still photos we printed off from this video.” Ida shoved the camera in front of Lexy’s face. She watched as Winston gave the briefcase to the man, then walked away.

  “I can’t wait to show this to Jack.” Nans green eyes sparkled. “Let’s FaceTime him with your iPhone.”

  Lexy pressed her lips together. The photos did seem suspicious, but what did they prove? Jack didn’t like being summoned to talk on FaceTime unless it was critical.

  “I’m not sure this is enough evidence to prove Winston was the killer. All it shows is him handing over a briefcase. We don’t even know what’s in it,” Lexy said.

  “Why, that thing’s obviously loaded with money. Just look at who he’s handing it to.” Ida jabbed her index finger toward the face of the other man in the photo.

  Lexy squinted at it. “Who?”

  Ida gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you recognize him? That’s the notorious gangster Clubs McGinty … tell her, Ruth.”

  “Yep, that’s Clubs. I knew him quite well when I hung around with Nunzio.” Ruth ducked her head sheepishly. “He runs most of the illegal gambling around here.”

  Lexy’s eyebrows rose at the mention of Nunzio Bartolli. Ruth had had a fling with the retired mobster and almost been arrested for his murder a while back. Lexy and The Ladies Detective Club had to pull out all the stops to find the real killer and get to the bottom of why Nunzio was murdered.

  “Clearly, there’s only one reason why Winston would be handing Clubs that briefcase,” Nans tapped her iPhone impatiently.

  “Okay, I’
ll FaceTime Jack, but he’s probably going to be mad at me for doing so.” Lexy pulled out her iPhone and clicked the FaceTime app, then pressed Jack’s id, chewing her lip nervously as it rang.

  “Lexy, what’s going on? Is something wrong?” Jack’s concerned face filled her phone screen.

  “No. I have Nans here. She has something important for you.” Lexy handed the phone over to Nans like it was a hot potato.

  “Hi, Jack!” Nans yelled into the phone.

  “Mona, what’s going on?” Jacks face turned from concerned to amused.

  “I have some important evidence for you in the Regis Banks case.”

  “Case? There’s no case. We determined it was an accidental death due to his food allergy.”

  “Oh, I know, but once you hear what we’ve found, I think you’ll change your mind.”

  Jack’s heavy sigh blared out from the phone. “Okay. But be quick. I have a call to go on.”

  “We found out that a member of his family has some gambling trouble. Big trouble. And they needed money to get out of that trouble. Money that they’d get when Regis died.”

  “That’s not enough to prove he was murdered.”

  Nans continued on, “This person switched ice creams at the birthday party. We think the switch might have been captured by the photographer, Harry Wolf. Tell me, did you find the Banks folder in Harry Wolf’s studio?”

  “No,” Jack’s face took on a more interested look. “It never turned up.”

  “I thought so.”

  “That’s still not enough to prove murder,” Jack said.

  “No, but this might be.” Nans pointed the iPhone screen at the pictures laid out on the table so Jack could see them. “That’s the killer right there, meeting with Clubs McGinty and handing over a large briefcase, presumably filled with money. Money he got from killing his own father.”

  “Those pictures are hard to see … who is that?”

  “Winston Banks,” Nans announced. “Are you going to arrest him?”

  Another sigh from the phone. “I’m afraid I can’t.”

  “Nans scrunched up her face and whipped the iPhone back to face her. “Why the heck not?”

  “Because Winston Banks was found dead less than an hour ago.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Heart attack, my patootie,” Nans said after Jack explained what he knew about Winston’s death. They’d called for him to come on the scene only because Winston had died at the office, but all evidence indicated he’d had a heart attack.

  “It sure sounds like one,” Lexy replied. “Jack said the people that were in the meeting with him reported that he complained about a tingling and numbness in his arm, then he slumped over. He died before the ambulance arrived.”

  Nans narrowed her eyes at Lexy. “Doesn’t it seem rather odd to you that two members of the same family die within the same week?”

  “Yeah, but we thought Winston was the killer.”

  “I know.” Nans tapped her finger on her lips. “It sure did seem like he was. I guess our investigation got thrown off track.”

  “His death does complicate things.” Ida peered into the pastry case. “Lexy, can you get me a Whoopie pie?”

  “Do you think the same person killed both of them?” Helen asked Nans as Lexy moved behind the pastry case. “Oh, and I’ll have a Snickerdoodle while you are back there.”

  “Of course. It has to be the same person,” Nans replied to Helen, then turned to Lexy at the bakery case. “Put me in for a Snickerdoodle, too.”

  “Winston could have killed Regis and died of a heart attack. He was under a lot of stress what with being a murderer and owing money to gangsters,” Lexy pointed out as she piled pastries onto a tray.

  “I’ll take a brownie if you don’t mind,” Ruth chimed in and Lexy added a brownie to the tray.

  Nans pulled out chair and slumped into it. “He could have died naturally, but my instincts tell me he didn’t.”

  Ruth, Ida and Helen nodded their agreement and joined Nans at the table. When it came to murder, Nans’ instincts were almost always right on the button.

  “But he died in the middle of a meeting with witnesses and the EMT’s said it looked like it was his heart,” Lexy said. She put the pastries on the table and then moved over to the coffee center to pour coffees. “Surely someone would have seen something if anyone in the meeting killed him.”

  “Maybe not,” Ida cut in, “if he was poisoned before the meeting. Maybe someone put something in his coffee or the food they served.”

  “I hope Jack’s thought of that,” Nans said. “We should call him and make sure he tests anything Winston ingested.”

  “But he already said they don’t suspect foul play.”

  “Better to be safe than sorry.” Nans picked up her phone. “I’ll just text him.”

  “There is another explanation, too.” Ruth offered. “Maybe there are two killers. Winston killed Regis and then someone else killed Winston.”

  “Who would want to kill Winston?” Lexy brought the coffees to the table and passed them out, then took a seat herself. “He’d already paid off his gambling debt, so it wasn’t the gangsters. Plus, they’d use a more direct method, I assume.”

  Ruth nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t Clubs McGinty. He’d use guns.”

  Nans stood and paced back and forth in front of the table. “We know that Winston was going to carry on with the development project. That’s what he and Regis have in common. Maybe it was someone who wants that project stopped.”

  “It could be,” Helen said. “Who will be in charge of the company now that Winston is gone?”

  Everyone looked at each other in silence.

  “We need to find that out,” Nans said. “We already know there are plenty of people who didn’t want the development. Wasn’t Norman getting us a list of people who opposed it?”

  Lexy nodded. “I’ll text him and see if he has that yet.”

  “This is getting stranger and stranger.” Ida bit into her Whoopee pie. A dollop of cream squirted out the side and she licked it away. “If Regis and Winston were killed for the same reason, it has to do with the company … or the family money.”

  “Or maybe it has nothing to do with either,” Helen shrugged. “We went down the wrong trail before.”

  “It bears looking into, but you know what the number one rule is when investigating a murder.” Nans bit into her Snickerdoodle.

  “Follow the money,” Ida, Ruth, Helen and Lexy chorused.

  “And who would have benefitted financially from Winston’s death?” Ida asked.

  “It’s usually the spouse,” Nans replied. “But, since we don’t know what’s in Winston’s will, we can’t say for sure.”

  “That’s right, Winston’s widow, Evelyn.” Ruth sipped her coffee. “If he was poisoned, she’d have had access to him before he went to the office. She might have done it then, or put it in a bagged lunch. Some of those poisons have a delayed effect.”

  “She was also at the birthday party and could have switched ice creams,” Helen added.

  “And we already know she didn’t share a lot of Winston’s views.” Lexy thought back to their meeting at the Farmer’s market.

  “But, what motive would she have to kill Regis?” Ida asked.

  “That’s easy. Winston inherited a lot of money and stock from Regis. If Evelyn is his beneficiary, now all that goes to her.”

  “If that’s the case, she had a very clever plan.” Nans spread a napkin out on the table and piled two Snickerdoodles inside it, folded the edges over the cookies and stuck it in her purse.

  “And almost got away with it,” Ruth added, “by making the deaths look like either accidental or natural.”

  “We don’t know for sure that Winston’s death wasn’t natural,” Lexy reminded them. “Besides, Evelyn doesn’t seem like the killer type. She seemed like a nice, caring person when we saw her at the Farmer’s Market. I can’t picture her killing two people for money.”
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  Nans gave Lexy a look. “That’s the thing about killers that almost get away with it—they’re always the ones you suspect the least.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lexy kept herself busy the rest of the day with baking and waiting on customers. Sometime in between frosting chocolate brownies and filling cream puffs, Anna had called wanting to know about the case and to have Lexy look over an invoice from the Banks’ birthday party. Since Lexy was already planning to stop at Nans’ that evening to go over the clues, she arranged for Anna to meet her there.

  Anna’s catering van was already parked in the back of the lot when Lexy arrived at the retirement center.

  Anna jumped out of the van with some papers in her hand. “Hey, Lexy! How is it going?”

  “Great. How about you? Has your catering business suffered at all because of the … ummm … incident?” Lexy grimaced.

  “No. Thankfully, nothing got in the press, so I don’t think any customers have been scared off. But I heard about Winston Banks and I’m a bit worried. I thought you guys said he was the killer.”

  “We thought he was,” Lexy said. She started toward the entrance, balancing the coffee cake she’d brought in one hand. Anna fell in step next to her. “We actually have pictures of him handing over the money he owed. But just because he’s dead, doesn’t prove he wasn’t the killer.”

  Anna scrunched her face up. “True, but it does add a strange twist, doesn’t it?”

  “It sure does.” Lexy opened the glass door and the two navigated the halls to Nan’s apartment.

  “I brought this invoice from the Banks’ birthday party. I’ve had a heck of a time getting Cora to pay me. But I guess rich people like to hold on to their money for as long as they can.”