3 Bodies and a Biscotti (3 page)

She dropped her purse on the couch, then released the dog, who immediately raced back towards the kitchen.
 

“I bet you’re hungry.” Lexy followed the dog, but instead of standing near her food bowl, Sprinkles was pawing at the back door.

“Oh, you want to go see Jack. I think he spoiled you when I was gone." Lexy glanced out her kitchen window to see if Jack was home. She mused about how convenient it was to have her boyfriend live in the house right behind hers … well, most of the time.

When she’d gone to Las Vegas to compete in a bakery contest the previous week, Jack had watched Sprinkles for her. In the four days since she’d been home, the dog had wanted to go over to his house every night.

“Well, I suppose Jack won’t mind if we pop over. Maybe we’ll stay at
his
house tonight." Lexy opened her back door, feeling the tingle of excitement she always felt when she knew she was going to see Jack. Pulling her jacket tight around her, she picked her way through the few leftover snow mounds in the backyard with Sprinkles in tow.

Peering through the window of Jack’s kitchen door, she tapped on the glass. She saw him peek out from the living room. The smile on his handsome face when he recognized her made her stomach do cartwheels. His long legs crossed the room in three strides, and he opened the door for her.

“Hi,” He said, enveloping her in a hug, then brushing his lips teasingly against hers. She was about to pull him in closer when Sprinkles interrupted with a bark.

“Hi Sprinkles.” Jack bent down to pet the small dog who wagged her whole body in response. “What brings you guys over here?”

“Sprinkles was scratching at the back door, so I figured we could hang out over here tonight instead of my place.” Lexy started toward the living room, but Jack caught her by the waist pulling her to him and distracting her with another kiss.

“Want some tea?” He dragged her over to the table.
Did he glance nervously into the living room or was it her imagination?

“Sure.”
Lexy peered around his shoulder into the living room.

Jack pushed her down into one of the chairs and started making tea. Sprinkles stood about a foot away from him waiting to spring on any errant crumbs that might fall on the floor.

“I brought Nans some biscotti today from my new recipe … and I found out something disturbing.”

Jack turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised. “What?”

“Another seemingly healthy person has died over there.” Her stomach lurched when Jack made a face.

“Lexy, you’re not going to start in on this murder stuff again, are you?”

“Nans and the ladies seem to think the deaths are very suspicious.”

Jack came over to the table, setting one mug in front of her and taking the opposite seat. He put his mug on the table in front of him and settled his hand on top of hers.

“Honey, the people over there are old. It makes sense that there would be a high ratio of deaths.”

Lexy felt her back stiffen. She hated it when Jack patronized her, but she realized she needed to keep her cool if she wanted to convince him the deaths were not natural.

“I know, but Nans seems adamant that something funny is going on. They didn’t even do an autopsy on either of the people who died, so how can you say for sure?”

“Well, I assume the staff over there is competent enough to know when a death is natural or not. After all, murders are usually a bit messy.”

“But, what if the murderer was very clever and made things
look
like they were natural?”

Jack chuckled. “Now you’re getting overly dramatic. Why would someone go to all that trouble?”

Lexy furrowed her brow. That was the problem, she couldn’t figure out why. “I’m not sure, but I think you should look into it.”

Jack let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, but I’m flat out busy at work right now. In fact, I have to go back in about an hour. But I’ll tell you what, if another supposedly healthy person dies over there, I’ll see what I can do.”

Lexy felt her heart sink—it was clear Jack didn’t believe her and was just trying to placate her.
 

Jack started rubbing the top of her hand with his thumb which made her feel tingles in all the right places. She started to forget all about the murders. Peering into his honey-brown eyes over the rim of her mug, she thought about luring him upstairs.
He did say he had about an hour.

The klaxon of Jack’s cell phone broke the spell and he removed his hand from hers to pull it from his pocket.

“Perillo.” Lexy heard him bark into the phone. She tuned out the subsequent “uh-huh’s” and “yep’s”.

Cutting her eyes towards the living room, she got up out of the chair and started in that direction. Just before she reached the threshold, Jack caught her hand and reeled her back in.

“That was work, I gotta go.” He planted a kiss on her lips and propelled her towards the back door.

“Sorry,” he said. “Maybe I can make it up to you with dinner tomorrow?”

“OK,” she replied uncertainly.

“Great,” he said, then turned her by the shoulders to face him. “I know how much you love Nans and like to help the ladies investigate, but I’m asking you not to get involved in it. Just in case there is something going on, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Lexy’s eyes narrowed and she felt her face getting warm.
Who was he to tell her what to do?
Before she could voice her feelings, he brushed his lips against her forehead, opened the door, and pushed both her and Sprinkles outside.

Lexy stood on the other side of the door fuming for a few seconds before she followed Sprinkles back over to her own yard.
 

Opening her kitchen door, she glanced back at Jack’s house. Her eyebrows knit together as she wondered two things--why she let him infuriate her so much, and what the heck he had in his living room that he didn’t want her to see.

Lexy surveyed the pastries in the bakery case.
Should she move the eclairs to the right, or put them behind the cannoli?
She tapped her fingernail on her front tooth, debating the best placement. Lexy was particular about how the pastries were displayed. She felt that her attention to detail is one of the things that made
The Cup and Cake
so successful.

“We’re almost out of K-cups.” Haley’s voice broke into her thoughts from the other side of the room where she was cleaning the self-serve coffee station.

“I’ll order some today,” Lexy replied, her heart swelling with pride as she turned towards Haley’s voice and surveyed the front area of the bakery.
 

She glanced through the floor-to-ceiling glass window, marveling at the beauty of the waterfall which the town was named for. Brook Ridge Falls was a quaint New England town and Lexy had been lucky to secure this space in the historic downtown section.

She had setup tables and chairs next to the window so her customers could enjoy the view while they sipped their coffee and ate their pastries. Haley, her part-time employee kept the place spotless.

Moving behind the pastry case, Lexy slid open the glass door and bent inside to get the eclairs. She picked up the tray, eyeing the chocolate covered pastry.
One of these would taste mighty good right now.

Lexy’s mouth started to water just thinking about how puff pastry filled with custard and topped off with a dab of chocolate would taste on her tongue. If she just took one from the plate, it wouldn’t hurt the overall look of the display. She started to reach for the top eclair, then stopped. Remembering how she’d had to shoehorn herself into her jeans, she jerked her hand back with a sigh.

Lexy felt grateful when the sound of her cell phone distracted her from the pastry.

“Hello?”

“Hi dear, are you busy today?” Nans’s voice sounded anxious.

“Umm…sort of. What do you need? Don’t tell me there was another death.” Lexy felt her heart plummet.

“No, nothing like that. We just might need your help on something to do with the case is all…” Nans let her voice drift off.

Lexy felt a spark of interest. She couldn’t help it, she loved helping out with Nans’s investigations, even if Jack disapproved.
 

“What is it?”

“We found out where Nurse Rothschild worked before she came here. We tried to look through the obituaries from there, but it didn’t tell us anything meaningful. We figure we have a better chance of getting the real dirt by talking to the people that live there.”

“Uh-huh. So, where do I fit in.”

“We need an excuse to go there, of course. So, we figure we’d call them up and arrange a pet visit with Sprinkles. You know how the people in retirement centers love to see pets.”

Lexy thought about Nans’s proposal. What if Nurse Rothschild
was
some kind of weirdo killer? Maybe she left the other retirement center under suspicion. Or maybe her mode of operation was to move to a new one every year or so before too many people died and she got caught.

They wouldn’t find out anything by looking at newspapers and company records. Nans was right, the only way to find out if any suspicious deaths happened when Rothschild was there was to ask the residents.

Her mind drifted back to Jack’s warning and she felt her stomach tighten. He’d be mad if he found out that she’d been “investigating,” but Nans needed her help. Besides, what harm could come from a simple pet visit to a retirement center?

“OK, count me in.”
 

“The residents here aren’t as sprightly as the people in
our
retirement center.” Lexy heard Ida whisper into Ruth’s ear as they approached the door leading into the Sunny Acres Retirement Home.

Looking through the glass doors, she could see why Ida might think that. The lobby was dotted with elderly, frail people dozing in chairs. A couple of them were lined up in the hall in their wheelchairs. They did seem “less sprightly” in contrast to the Brook Ridge Retirement Center where Nans and the ladies lived, which was always bustling with active seniors.
 

Lexy held the door open. Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen proceeded past her and Sprinkles inside.

“Oh, you must be Sprinkles!” A bubbly, nurse’s aid rushed over and bent down to pet the dog. Sprinkles happily accepted the attention, wagging her tail and licking the woman’s hand.

The commotion woke up the sleepers, who started to try to get out of their chairs.
 

Lexy realized most of them wouldn’t be able to bend down to pet the small dog, so she motioned for them to stay seated and pulled Sprinkles over to the sitting area.

Introductions were made all around, and Nans and the girls started up conversations while Lexy showed off Sprinkles.

“I live over at Brook Ridge Retirement. I think one of our nurses, Nurse Rothschild, came from here, didn’t she?” Ruth said to a pleasant woman who had introduced herself as Alma.

Alma made a face. “She sure did.”

“What’s that?” The man beside her said, loudly cupping his ear.

“Nurse Rothschild,” Alma said in a loud voice, leaning towards him.

“Oh, she was mean.” He nodded his head.

“You guys didn’t like her? Why, what did she do?” Ruth asked.

“It’s not any one thing … she just didn’t have much of a bedside manner,” Alma said a bit guardedly.

“Oh, look at the cute dog!” Lexy’s attention was drawn by two girls who ran squealing over to Sprinkles.

“Can we pet him?”

“Yes, and it’s a her,” Lexy said as she watched the girls cautiously approach the dog. Sprinkles loved kids and eagerly licked their hands and submitted to their gentle petting.

“What’s your name?” Lexy asked the taller girl.

“Bethany. And this is my sister Kathryn.”
 

“I’m Lexy, and this is Sprinkles,” Lexy said, eliciting giggles from the girls when they heard the dog’s name.

Ruth’s rather loud voice caught the girls attention when she said, “Were there any strange deaths when she was here?”

Lexy’s eyes went wide and she elbowed Ruth in the ribs, nodding her head towards the young girls.

“Oh.” Ruth covered her mouth with her hand. The talk of death didn’t seem to bother the girls at all.

“Nana San was mad her friend died when she shouldn’t have,” Bethany said with a shrug.

“Oh really? When was this?” Ruth asked.

The two girls looked at each other, their faces screwed up in concentration. After a second, Kathryn’s face lit up.

“It was last Easter,” she said.

“Yes, I remember it because Smiling Sam gave us Easter candy,” Bethany added.

“Smiling Sam?” Nans looked down at the two girls, her eyebrows raised.

“He was the janitor here, but he left.”

“Why did Nana San think her friend shouldn’t have died?”

“She said Renee—that was her friend—was too healthy and strong. She broke her hip though and had to go to the hospital.”

Lexy exchanged a look with the other ladies.