Victor ignored Nans, his hand snaking around to Caraleigh's gun hand. "Now give me the gun nice and slow and I won't have to hurt you."

Caraleigh's eyes darted from side to side, the gun wavering back and forth in her hand.

"I know you're thinking your brother is gonna come up behind me, but I took care of him back in the basement. He's not going to come and save you," Victor said.

"What did you to do him?" Caraleigh whirled around, and Victor, with surprising agility for a man of his age, grabbed her gun and pushed her into the room.

He stood at the doorway, a gun in each hand.

"Oh, Victor! Thank you for saving us. How did you know?" Helen rushed toward Victor only to stop short, a look of confusion on her face as he aimed one of the guns at her.

"Get back!" he yelled.

"Victor ... what is going on?" Nans asked.

"I didn't come here to save you, you nosey old biddies ... I came for the loot!"

Lexy, Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen stared open-mouthed at Victor.

"Hey, you're the guy who stole my ring." Caraleigh crossed her arms on her chest and narrowed her eyes at him.

Lexy swiveled her head toward Caraleigh. "What? How could he steal your ring?"

Victor chuckled. "She's right. All my pick-pocket training as a young lad paid off."

"You mean the ring they found in my bakery after the break-in?" Lexy asked.

Victor nodded. "I lifted it right off her finger when I was paying for one of those god-awful stale muffins. Then I broke into your place and planted it so it would look like Caraleigh was the one who broke in."

"But why would you do that?" Nans asked.

"I was hoping to put Blondie here in jail," Victor nodded toward Caraleigh, "so she couldn't run around looking for the money. Sorry, Lexy, nothing personal."

"You knew I was here looking for the money?" Caraleigh asked.

"Of course, you look just like her."

"Who?" Nans, Ruth, Ida, Helen and Lexy asked, their heads ping-ponging back and forth between Victor and Caraleigh.

"Rose Cranston," Victor said wistfully. "You are her granddaughter, aren't you?"

Caraleigh nodded.

"Rose Cranston ... that sounds familiar," Ida's brows knit together.

"She used to run with Midas Mulcahey!" Ruth exclaimed.

Nans turned to Caraleigh. "So you knew about the money being here all along and that's why you opened the bakery across the street?"

Caraleigh nodded. "My grandmother said the money was down here somewhere. She'd made several attempts to find it, herself."

"Wait a minute," Lexy said. "That doesn't make much sense. Why didn't she just think Midas took off with the money like everyone else?"

"She knew he didn't take off with it ... because she's the one who killed him."

"Oh well, I see you planned to follow in her footsteps," Ida snorted.

"Yeah, your grandma and Midas were pretty tight, but what Rose didn't know was that Midas was fooling around with a pretty little redhead named Scarlet on the side," Victor said.

Ruth gasped. "The other skeleton!"

"I always wondered what would happen if she found out ... Rose sure was feisty." Victor's lips curled in a smile. "I figured she took off with Midas and the money back then. Did she confess to you on her deathbed?"

Caraleigh shook her head. "No. In her diary. We read it after she passed. Apparently, she had her suspicions about Midas. She followed him down here, caught the two of them in the act and shot them. She figured Midas hid the money down here, but she never did find it."

"So once you read that in the diary, you figured you'd come and find it yourself," Nans said.

"Yep. We rented an apartment in town figuring we'd be able to find a way into the sewer system pretty easily. We didn't count on the sewer construction screwing stuff up. The blueprints showed the only entrance we could use was below The Cup and Cake. All we needed to do was get rid of you somehow." Caraleigh thrust her chin toward Lexy.

"So you sold grocery store baked goods at ridiculous prices, scammed the whole town into thinking you baked them, got a big spot on TV to draw even more people, and sabotaged my scones so that critic would give me a bad review?"

Caraleigh nodded. "Yeah ... no wait-I didn't sabotage the scones."

"That was me," Victor said proudly.

"You? Why?" Lexy couldn't help but feel betrayed by the old man who had been in the neighboring store since before she opened. All this time she'd thought he was just a nice old man ... and her friend.

"My other efforts to get rid of Caraleigh weren't working, so I figured I'd try to pit you against each other. I was hoping if Lexy got good and mad she'd have her police detective husband do something. So, I just sprinkled some cat hair in the scones one day when I came in to buy one. I distracted Lexy by dropping my cane when I was picking out a scone-already had plenty of cat hair from Icharus on my sleeve."

"So you knew about the money all this time, too?" Lexy asked.

"Knew about it? I was one of the robbers that stole it."

"You were?" Ruth wrinkled her face at him. "We read all about that robbery. I don't recall your name being mentioned."

"Oh yeah." Victor straightened, keeping the guns steadily pointed at them. "Did you hear about The Bomb'? That was me ... Victor Nessbaum."

"Well, I'll be ..." Ruth said.

"Anyway," Victor continued, "Midas disappeared a couple of days after we robbed the bank. When Rose picked up and left town too, I figured the two of them took off with the money. Double-crossed the rest of us. I never even knew about his sewer hideout ... that is until I saw them dig up the skull. I knew it was Midas right away on account of the two gold teeth. That's when I put two and two together and figured the money might still be down here."

"And we led you right to it," Lexy said.

"Yes." Victor nodded his head at them. "Thanks, ladies."

"So that's why you were so interested in what we were doing," Nans said. "And all this time we thought you were sweet on Helen."

"Helen is a looker, but I'm more interested in the money. Which reminds me ... you ladies better start loading that cart before they raise the locks on the river." Victor motioned with his guns toward the cart.

"Huh? What locks?" Ida looked at Victor.

"Didn't you know?" he asked. "They do it in the years when there's been excessive rainfall to lower the level of Lake Humphrey before winter. The excess water swells the river and the runoff comes through the sewer system here. Floods it right out. Hasn't happened since 1947, so it's a good thing we got in here to get the money out in time. No telling what might happen once these sewers flood." He waved his guns at them. "Now hurry!"

Everyone, including Caraleigh, started loading up the cart. Lexy didn't dare say anything, but she hoped Nans had a plan. Should they rush Victor? She was sure they could overpower him, but with two guns pointed at them, she didn't know if it was wise to make a move toward him.

Lexy hefted the last brick of gold onto the cart and glanced sideways at Nans, her spirits sinking when she saw the worry on her grandmother's face.

"Now bring the cart here. Just you, Helen ... the rest of you stay back," Victor commanded.

Helen wheeled the cart over to him.

"Drop the handle and get back," Victor said.

Helen did as asked. Victor picked up the handle and wheeled the cart out into the tunnel.

"Well, ladies, this has been fun, but now it's time to say good-bye." Victor stuffed one of the guns in his belt and grabbed the door.

"Wait. You're not going to leave us in here?" Ruth's voice was edged with panic.

"I'm afraid I must," Victor said.

"But the water's coming." Caraleigh pointed to the bottom of the tunnel, which now had a shallow, but steady stream of water running down it. "We'll drown."

"Yes. It's so sad. But I can't leave any witnesses to tell that I made off with this money now, can I?"

And with that, Victor slammed the door shut and clicked the lock into place.

Chapter Seventeen.

The six of them ran to the door, their fists thudding hollowly on the solid wood.

"Hello!"

"Help!"

"Let us out!"

After several minutes, it became obvious they were wasting their energy, so they stopped yelling and banging. Lexy collapsed with her back against the door.

"We need a plan," she said.

"Don't you have one?" Nans asked.

"No, I thought you might have one."

"No."

"I know!" Ida reached in her purse. "We'll use our cell phones to call for help."

She pulled out her phone and pressed a few buttons, then held it to her ear.

After a few seconds, her brow creased.

She shook the phone and put it back to her ear.

A few more seconds and her brow creased even further.

"What the heck?" She pulled the phone away and looked at it. "Darn ... no signal!"

She walked to the corner of the room. "Maybe over here ..."

"It's no use," Ruth said. "We're underground ... the cell phone tower signals don't come in down here."

Lexy puffed out her cheeks, her heart sinking as she felt the cold water seeping under the door and soaking her shoes.

"Well, we better hurry and come up with a plan, then." She pointed to the floor. "The water is already rising."

"Yeah, you people better come up with a plan." Caraleigh glared at them with her hands fisted on her hips.

"Who are you to demand a plan?" Nans asked. "A few minutes ago you were going to shoot us!"

"Well, I wasn't going to do the actual shooting." Caraleigh looked repentant. "My brother was."

"Still, I don't think we'll be including you in our plan," Lexy said.

"Why not?" Caraleigh whined. "We're in this together now."

Lexy's brows mashed together. She couldn't believe the nerve of the woman. She took two large strides, getting right in Caraleigh's face.

"Let's get this straight." Lexy spat out the words. "We are not, and never will be, in anything together!"

Caraleigh straightened her spine and glared down at Lexy.

"Don't be a sore loser just because my bakery did better than yours," she said poking Lexy in the breastbone with her index finger.

The anger that had been simmering inside Lexy bubbled over. "You're nothing but a scammer. I bet you never baked even one thing in your life!"

Lexy pushed Caraleigh's shoulder. The other woman stumbled backward, crashing into the wall with the force of Lexy's anger, causing a large chunk of concrete to come loose from the top of the wall. Lexy watched in horror as the chunk tumbled down, bonking Caraleigh on the head. Caraleigh's face registered an instant of surprise, right before her eyes rolled back in their sockets and she crumpled to the floor.

Ida clapped her hands. "Yay, Lexy. You got rid of her!"