3 Bodies and a Biscotti (2 page)

Barry squinted at her. “Lexy Baker?”

“Hi Barry.” Lexy gave him a half smile. “You’re taking her straight to McGreevy’s?”

“Yep, natural causes. No need to bring ‘em to the hospital.”

Lexy exchanged glances with the other four women.

“So, you’re sure she died naturally?”

“That’s what the report says.” Barry nodded at a clipboard hanging from the end of the gurney.

“Are you a relative?” He asked.

“No, just a friend.” Lexy felt a pang at the lie and crossed her fingers behind her back.

“Oh, well I’m sorry for your loss,” Barry said, then turned to the bed. “Guess I better get to work.”
 

Lexy looked away as Barry pushed the gurney next to the bed in preparation for transferring the body onto it.

The women started to leave but their exit was blocked again, this time by Nurse Rothschild and one of the aids.

Rothschild scoured at them, then pointed at the door, “Get!”

Nans shuffled towards the door. The others fell in line. As they filed out, Lexy could hear Rothschild barking orders to the aid, her voice cold and unfeeling.

“Make sure you flush any medications labelled for this patient. And get the sheets and pillowcases to laundry right away … we need to get this room ready for the next one A.S.A.P!”

“I don’t know about you guys, but that nurse scared the bejesus out of me!” Lexy said, perching on the arm of Nans’s overstuffed sofa facing the other ladies in the dining room.

Ida rolled her eyes. “She’s not known for her bedside manner.”

“Kind of strange, a nurse being so cold and mean. You’d think she would have picked a different profession.”

Helen held up the eyeglasses she’d been wearing. “Lets get these pictures uploaded.”

“Pictures? What’s with those glasses, anyway?” Lexy asked remembering how Nans had instructed Helen to make sure she brought them to the room.

“These are spy camera glasses!” Nans said proudly. “They can take pictures or video and no one would even know.”

“We bought them on the Internet.” Ruth added.

Lexy raised her eyebrows and watched while Nans took them over to her computer desk, then opened a tiny door on the arm of the glasses. She sat down at the desk. Fishing in a drawer, she produced a USB cable which she connected from the glasses to the computer.
 

The women clustered around the computer desk as the pictures uploaded automatically, creating a gallery on the screen.

“Does anyone see anything out of place?” Nans asked.

Lexy studied the pictures, tilting her head at different angles. Nothing stuck out to her as out of the ordinary.

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Not me.”

“Let’s watch the video.”

The very bottom of the screen showed a video file. Nans double-clicked on it. A large video filled the screen. Everyone laughed as Ruth’s dentures shot out onto the floor. The video zoomed in on Lexy’s butt sticking out from under the bed as she fished to retrieve the dentures and they laughed even harder, causing Lexy’s cheeks to burn.

“If you guys are done laughing at me now, I did find something interesting under the bed.”

Four gray heads turned to look at her with four sets of eyebrows raised up to their hairlines.
 

She pulled the object she’d found under the bed out of her pocket and held it up.

Ida squinted at it. “What is that?”

“It’s a black pearl stud earring. I found it under the bed when I was looking for the dentures.”

“That could be from anyone, though,” Ruth chimed in.

“True, but when I was on the floor, I noticed how clean it was. They mop those floors twice a day, don’t they?”

The ladies nodded.

“So the earring must have fallen sometime between the last mopping and when we got there.”

“Which means, it’s highly likely the earring belongs to the murderer!” Helen said.

“Or it could have just fallen off someone’s ear. It’s not a definitive clue,” Nans lectured.

“Did anyone notice if Nurse Rothschild was missing an earring?” Lexy joked, “She seems like a likely murderer to me.”

The other women laughed, but Lexy was half serious.

“We don’t even know that Mavis
was
murdered. Barry said she died from natural causes. She did look pretty old,” Lexy said.

“Mavis? She was fit as a fiddle. Why, just last month we went on a golfing trip to Florida and she out-golfed everyone there. Even people in their sixties!” Ruth pointed out.

Lexy chewed on the inside of her bottom lip. It did seem coincidental that two reportedly healthy people had died in the past week.

“Does anyone know why she was there?”

Ruth tapped her lip thoughtfully. “When we were on the golfing trip she was complaining about elbow trouble. Kind of like tennis elbow, but from golfing, I guess. I think she mentioned she might be going in for an operation. She could have been there just to recover, like Bertram was. She also lived alone and probably couldn’t manage by herself until she was steady on her feet.”

Nans turned back to study the pictures on the computer screen. “You know, these pillows under her head look a little strange. Staged, almost. I bet the killer suffocated her with the pillows.”

Ida and Ruth gasped.

“With no autopsy, we’ll never know. But the nurses and doctors there must have thought she died from natural causes or they would have sent the body to the coroner instead of straight to the funeral home,” Lexy said.

Nans narrowed her eyes. “They might have just assumed it was natural causes … or they might be trying to cover something up.”
 

“Do you think the police will believe us now?” Ruth asked.

“I don’t know. Jack didn’t seem to think there was any foul play in Bertram’s death, but I can talk to him tonight. Maybe in light of this new death, he’ll start to take notice,” Lexy said.

“Great. I know you have certain persuasive powers with him.” Nans winked at Lexy, causing the other women to laugh. Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm again.

“If we could only figure out
why
someone killed them, we’d have a much better chance of convincing him.”

Nans pressed her lips together in a thin line. “That’s true. We need to find the motive.” She spun around to face the other women. “Girls, I fear we may all be in danger. The killer has struck twice this week already. If the police aren’t interested in helping us, we’ll just have to speed up our efforts to figure out who it is --before they have a chance to kill again.”

Lexy opened the back door to
The Cup and Cake
. Taking a deep breath she let the intoxicating aroma of sugar and butter permeate her senses. She never tired of that smell. Nor did she ever tire of being there. It had been her lifelong dream to open a bakery and she’d been able to fulfill that over a year ago.
 

“Is that you Lex?”

Cassie’s voice rang out from the kitchen. Lexy poked her head in. Cassie, Lexy’s assistant and best friend, was rolling out pie dough, her face flushed. Flour dotted her apron and black jeans. Her pink-tipped spiked hair bobbed up and down like a bird as she worked the dough.

“Hi.”
 

“Hey, how did they like the recipe?”
 

“What?
 
Oh, the biscotti recipe. They loved it.” Lexy had almost forgotten the reason she had gone to Nans’s that morning.
 

Cassie beamed a smile at her. Which was unusual considering she didn’t smile often. Lexy noticed Cassie was really working the dough, making exaggerated movements with her hands. What was up with that?

Ignoring Cassie’s odd behavior, she blurted out, “Something else happened while I was there.”

Cassie looked up from her dough rolling, eyebrows raised.

“There was another murder.”

Cassie gasped. “What?”

“Yep, another seemingly healthy person turned up dead in the nursing care section. Ruth assured me that this person wasn’t sick. I think it’s rather suspicious considering Bertram Glumm died there just a few days ago.”

Cassie set down the rolling pin. “That does
seem
suspicious, but you know these people are pretty old. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”

Lexy pursed her lips into a thin line. “Maybe, but Nans and the girls sure don’t think so.”

“And you’re going to help them investigate?” Cassie asked, her thumb on her chin.

Before Lexy could answer, she was blinded by a sharp glare of light. The glare was coming from Cassies’s finger, where a huge diamond ring glowed like it was plugged into an electrical outlet. Lexy felt her eyes grow wide. Her mouth fell open as she stared at Cassie.

“You’re engaged!” Lexy pointed at the ring.

Cassie giggled and held her hand out to show it off. “I was wondering when you were going to notice.”

Lexy felt her heart grow warm for her friend and she rushed over, smothering her in a hug. “Congratulations!”

“Thanks.” Lexy saw Cassie’s cheeks turn a faint shade of pink.

“Let me see.” Lexy grabbed Cassie’s hand, bringing the ring up towards her face. It must have been close to two carats, boasting a big round clear diamond center stone surrounded by a frame of black diamonds. “It’s gorgeous. The black diamonds are perfect for you." Cassie’s tastes tended to be on the Gothic side.

“John picked it out himself.”
 

Lexy smiled thinking of John Darling, Cassie’s boyfriend—fiancee now—picking out a ring. The long-haired detective was Jack’s partner and didn’t seem to be very sentimental, yet he’d done a fine job picking a ring that suited Cassie perfectly.

“Wow, you guys have only been dating a few months, haven’t you?” Lexy switched her attention from the ring to Cassie’s face.

“Six months, but when you find
the one,
you know it.”
 

Lexy thought about her own relationship with Jack. They’d been dating for close to a year. She glanced down at her naked ring finger. Maybe Jack didn’t think she was
the one
.

 
“I was hoping you’d be my maid of honor.” Cassie startled Lexy out of her thoughts.

“Of course. I’d be honored,” Lexy said.

“Great. We’re not going to have anything traditional. And, of course you’ll make the cake?”

Lexy nodded. “Of course.”

“Perfect. Now tell me about these supposed murders.”
 

Lexy took a deep breath. “Well, I don’t know very much about them. Both victims were in the nursing care facility, but neither of them had serious illnesses. They’d both recently had an operation and were recovering there until they could manage on their own. From what Nans and the ladies say, they should have had a full recovery, but instead, they ended up dead.”

“Does Nans have any idea why someone would want to kill these people?”

“That’s the strange part. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the two. They have no idea what the motive could be.”

Cassie narrowed her eyes. “Maybe it’s some sort of deranged serial killer that picks elderly people because he knows the police will just brush it off as being a natural death.”

“That’s a little far fetched, isn’t it? I mean if it was, he could target anyone in the retirement community, not just the people in the nursing center.” Lexy felt a chill walk up her spine thinking that Nans could be in danger.

“Maybe. But I’ve heard of it happening before.” Cassie snapped her fingers. “Or a mercy killing. Didn’t you ever hear of those nurses that go around killing sick people to stop their suffering?”

Lexy thought of Nurse
Rothschild. She didn’t seem like the merciful type. A serial killer, maybe, but not a mercy killer.
 

“I don’t know, I thought that stuff only happened on TV. Plus, neither one of the victims was suffering. Either way, Nans is determined to get to the bottom of it, especially since the police seem to think both deaths were natural.”

“Well, what do
you
think?”

“I’m not sure whether the deaths were natural or not at this point. But I
am
sure that Jack’s not going to be too happy if I start helping Nans investigate another murder.”

“Yeah, that could be a problem,” Cassie said. “How have things been between you two since we got back from Vegas.”

Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm. Things had been good. Very good. Jack had spent the last three nights at her house, even though he lived in the house right behind hers. It had felt good to wake up next to him every day…but did she want to wake up next to him on a permanent basis for the rest of her life?

“Things have been really good.”
 

Cassie wiggled her eyebrows. “Well, maybe you don’t want to rock the boat and get him all pissed off then.”

Lexy watched the light glint off of Cassie’s ring. Not if I want one of those, she thought. But if Nans needed her help, she’d help her no matter how mad Jack got—even if it meant risking never getting a ring she wasn’t even sure she wanted in the first place.

Lexy wedged herself through the front door and prepared for the barrage of white fur and paws that usually greeted her. Sprinkles, her little Shih Tzu-Poodle mix came running from the kitchen, jumping on her and pawing at her legs. Lexy bent down and scooped her up, her heart warming at the greeting.