Scones, Skulls & Scams (3 page)

“Hi ‘ya, girls!” Nans yelled out a greeting on her way to the pastry case.

Lexy and Cassie greeted the four older women, then grabbed an assortment of pastries from the bakery cases and brought them to the tables.

“So, when is your article coming out, Helen?” Lexy asked once everyone was seated with a cup of steaming coffee or tea and the array of pastries in front of them.

Helen broke off a piece of blueberry scone. “It’s supposed to be Wednesday. I don’t think the owner of the other bakery is going to like it much.”

“Oh?” Cassie raised a pierced brow at Helen.

“Their goods are not as tasty as Lexy’s. I did an in-depth comparison and simply told the truth in my article. I have several factors I judged them on and Lexy’s came out as far superior.” Helen shrugged then added hastily. “And it’s not just because she’s Nans’ granddaughter, either.”

Lexy slid her eyes over to
The Brew and Bake
. She could see a couple of customers milling around inside but it was nothing like the day before, even though her sign still announced a fifty-percent off sale. She watched the door open. A familiar figure shuffled out, cane in one hand and grocery bag in the other.
 

Victor Nessbaum.
The traitor!
 

Lexy watched him amble across the street, dangling his cane from the wrist of the hand that held the bag while he put something in his pocket with the other hand. Lexy wondered why he had gone to the other bakery when the day before she had gotten the feeling he didn’t approve. Maybe the lure of getting fifty-percent off was too great.

“So, Lexy, were you able to get any information out of Jack about the skull?” Nans’ eager voice pulled her attention from the window.

“Not too much. He said the police were going into the sewer lines today to look for the rest of the bones and any evidence,” Lexy said. “Oh, and he did say the skull was from a man and they suspect he was murdered.”

Ida gasped. “I
knew
it!”

Ruth rubbed her hands together. “This is very exciting … maybe we can integrate his murder into the display we are making for the bicentennial.”

“We’ll need to research it first of course,” Nans said.

“Naturally,” Helen added.

“Where do we start?” Ida asked.

“If only we could get into the sewer.” Ruth craned her neck toward the end of the street where that had found the skull.

“Maybe once the police are done, we can talk to the sewer workers,” Nans said.

“John said they were going to be done today and then the sewer workers could finish up in a couple of days,” Cassie added. She’d heard about the skull from her husband John, also a homicide detective.

“Jack said there’s other ways to get into the sewers, too,” Lexy said, then immediately regretted it. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her grandmother crawling around in the sewer.

Nans’ face lit up. “Really? Did he say where?”

“Nooo.” Lexy drew the word out.

“Well, that’s no help,” Ida said. “Maybe we can go to the town hall and look up the blueprints. That’s what they always do on TV.”

“We need to go down there anyway to do some more research for the historical society display,” Ruth added.

“Which reminds me …” Nans rummaged inside her purse, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lexy. “… we found this newspaper article showing your great-grandma winning the Brook Ridge Falls Octoberfest with her famous scones, so all those times she bragged about the recipe being a sure-fire contest winner she wasn’t just shining us on!”

Lexy’s heart warmed as she looked at the paper. She had vague, but fond memories of her great-grandmother who had died when she was eight. The picture showed a younger version of great-grandma, proudly holding a blue ribbon.
 

“Boy I wish she were here to help me make the scones for the contest,” Lexy said.
 

“Oh, don’t worry dear.” Nans patted her hand. “You’re a wonderful baker. You’ll make the prize-winning scones and you’ll certainly beat out the
other
bakery.”

“Of course, and I have great-grandma’s recipe right here.” Lexy fingered a dog-eared yellow piece of paper that stuck out from the edge of the book. “Actually, I think I’ll go back to the kitchen right now and make a practice batch.”

She stood, clutching the book to her chest. “Cassie, can you watch the front?”
 

“Of course.”

“Thanks.” Lexy started toward the back. She
should
feel good. After all, she had the recipe that had proven to win dozens of contests for both her great-grandmother and herself. Plus, she knew the baked items at the other place didn’t even taste that good.
 

So, why did she feel less than confident?
 

Maybe it was because of what Cassie had said about seeing the other owner out at the dumpster. That seemed to indicate she wasn’t just someone who didn’t have the business smarts to not open a bakery across the street from an established one, but that she was
actively
trying to compete with Lexy.
 

But
why
would she do that?

Lexy couldn’t come up with a good reason. On her way to the kitchen, Lexy peered out at the dumpster.
 

Was there information to be gained by looking through another bakery’s dumpster?
 

Lexy had no idea, but she also had no intention of letting the other baker get the upper hand.
 

Two could play at the dumpster diving game.

***

The scent of butter and sugar from an afternoon of baking scones hung in the air around Lexy and Cassie as they crouched down in the darkness of the front room of
The Cup and Cake
.

“Is she ever going to leave?” Cassie hissed peeking up over the edge of the window to look across the street at
The Brew and Bake.

Lexy shifted her position in an attempt to stop her legs from cramping. It was almost eight o’clock and they’d closed down
The Cup and Cake
over an hour ago.

Lexy pulled the black knit hat down across her forehead, then looked up over the edge of the window. Across the street, the blonde bustled around her cafe tables, wiping them down and rearranging the napkin and sugar holders. Lexy’s heart skipped and she quickly ducked back down when the other woman glanced out toward her.

“I don’t think she can see us. It’s pitch black in here,” Cassie said as if reading Lexy’s mind. “Thank God, she’s turning the sign on the door.”

Lexy poked her head back up in time to see the blonde turn the sign to “Closed” and grab her coat from a coat rack beside the door before turning off the light and exiting the shop.

“Let’s go.” Lexy scurried to the back door. The two of them crept outside, then ran across the street like shadows in their identical head-to-toe all-black outfits.

It had turned cold after sunset. Puddles topped with thin ice crunched under Lexy’s black boots as she slipped along the side of
The Brew and Bake
and made a beeline for the dumpster
.

“What are we looking for?” Cassie whispered.

“I don’t know, but if she looked in our dumpster, it’s only fair we look in hers. There must be something one can find out by looking in your competitor’s dumpster, but I guess we won’t know until we find it.”

Lexy eyed the dumpster. It was one of the smaller ones and she could see over the edge without having to get up on anything; except it was hard to see anything in there in the dark.
 

“Did you bring a flashlight?” Lexy asked.

Cassie answered by snapping on a small light and aiming a thin beam into the dumpster.

“What is all this … It looks like just a bunch of cardboard boxes.” Lexy heaved herself up on the side, balancing like a seesaw on her hipbones. She reached into the dumpster lifting one of the boxes to flip it over. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the lettering.

“These are from the grocery store!” She picked one up and tossed it out to Cassie.

“That scammer! Do you think she’s buying baked goods at the grocery store and passing them off as hers?” Cassie asked.

Lexy rummaged through the pile to see if she could find anything else, but the only things in there were more boxes along with something gooey and sticky which made her thankful she was wearing gloves. She slid off the side of the dumpster before answering her friend’s question.

“Well, it sure seems like she has a lot of grocery store bakery boxes, but why would she open a bakery and then try to pass off grocery store goods?”

Cassie frowned down at the box in her hand. “I have no idea—”

“Shhhh.” Lexy heard a click coming from the direction of the back door and cut Cassie off.
 

She pulled Cassie behind the dumpster in a crouch. Lexy craned her neck to peer around the end of the dumpster just as a slice of light spilled out from the opening door. She jerked her head back and leaned against the cold metal.

“…figure out a way to get access across the street,” a man’s voice said.

More boxes clanged into the dumpster causing the girls to cringe. Lexy’s heart hammered in her chest, her breath came out in short puffs of condensation. Beside her, Cassie rubbed her arms, her nose was red from the cold.
 

“That’s going to be hard. But I have an idea. Maybe we can…” The woman’s voice was cut off by the door shutting behind them as they went inside.
 

Lexy exchanged a wide-eyed look with Cassie. Across the street? Did they mean her bakery?
 

“Let’s get out of here before they come back out.” Cassie ventured a look over the top of the dumpster.

Lexy nodded and the two girls ran for the side of the building, then across the street to the safety of
The Cup and Cake
.
 

“What was that about?” Lexy unlocked the back door to her bakery.
 

“Sounded like they want to get into your bakery.”
 

“Yeah, it sure did.” Lexy looked around the gleaming stainless steel kitchen. “But, what could they possibly want in here? And who was that guy?”

Cassie shrugged. “Maybe he is her business partner. My guess is they want your scones recipe. If they can win the contest it would lend a lot of credibility to their bakery … even if it is full of repurposed grocery store items.”

Lexy pressed her lips together. Winning the contest
would
give the bakery credibility, but surely, they couldn’t want to run a bakery
that
bad. She knew from experience the bakery business was no road to easy riches—it required a lot of hard work for very little money. And if you don’t like baking in the first place, which it seems the people over at
The Brew and Bake
didn’t, then what was the point?

She grabbed her purse and wool navy blue pea coat from the coat rack where she kept the vintage aprons she liked to wear. She hadn’t wanted to explain her dumpster diving plans to Jack, so she’d told him she and Cassie were going out for some “girl time” after work. He would be expecting her home soon.
 

“I guess we’d better be going.” Lexy shoved her arms through the sleeves of her coat then the two of them went back out the door to where their cars were parked behind the bakery.
 

Lexy glanced across the narrow parking lot toward
The Brew and Bake
. “I have a funny feeling something strange is going on over there—it seems like someone is going to an awful lot of trouble just to win a baking contest for a bakery that doesn’t even bake its own pastries.”

Chapter Five

The next morning, Lexy noticed the sewer workers were back in full force. They’d closed down the street, causing her to take a detour to get to the bakery from the other end of the road.

Walking from her car to the back door of the bakery, she resigned herself to another day of low sales. At least the other bakery would suffer the same predicament, since the whole street was blocked off this time.

She figured the sewer workers were putting in an extra effort to make up for the lost day yesterday, which reminded her that Nans would be coming to grill her about any information Jack had given up regarding the skull. She’d better hurry if she wanted to get scones baked and sugar cookie dough out of the freezer to thaw before she got sidetracked with Nans.

Focused on her thoughts, Lexy didn’t notice the door hanging slightly open until she tried to insert her key and the door swung inward without her even having to unlock it.

Her blood froze as her eyes registered the splintered wood around the lock—someone had broken in!

She stood in the doorway for a few seconds and then took two tentative steps inside.
 

“Hello?”

No one answered, so she made her way toward the kitchen, her heart sinking when she saw the mess. Cookbooks lay spread open and her recipe box had been torn apart. Recipes lay in messy piles on the counters and spilling onto the floor.

Reaching in her coat pocket for her cell phone, she ran to the front of the store expecting to see smashed display cases and food all over the place, but the front room looked just as she’d left it the night before. Either whoever broke in had run out of time and never made it to the front room, or they’d found whatever they were looking for in the kitchen and didn’t need to look further.

Her shaky fingers managed to find Jack on her contacts list and she pressed the button to call him.

“Perillo,” he answered in the voice he reserved for police business.

“Jack, it’s me,” Lexy said in a rushed, breathless voice. “The bakery’s been broken into!”

“What?” Lexy could hear alarm in Jack’s voice. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I came in this morning and the door had been broken. The kitchen’s messed up, but the front room is okay. I guess whoever did it is long gone.” Lexy glanced across the street at
The Brew and Bake.

“Okay, you stay put and I’ll be right over with a crime unit,” Jack said, then added, “And don’t touch anything.”

Lexy heard a sound behind her and whirled around just in time to see Cassie stop short in front of the opening to the kitchen.