Lexy's stomach twisted-another reason for her to find the killer and close the case so the house could be sold. "No. I said we found a mummified body sealed up in Jack's basement."

"Sorry ... crackle crackle ... nection ... bad. We'll have to talk tomorrow. I'm running out for the night and will be busy until tomorrow afternoon ... crackle ... crackle."

And then the line went dead.

"What was that all about? Is she going to help?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. I think we just had a bad connection so I'm not sure she heard what I was saying."

"Oh. Well, I'm sure she'll want to help. I can't picture her not wanting to investigate a juicy crime that happened right in her backyard."

"Right. Of course, she will. I'll fill her in tomorrow when we have a better connection." Lexy stared at the phone in her hand. Nans must not have been able to hear what she was saying, otherwise she was sure the older woman would have ditched all her plans and come straight over. But Nans had put her off until tomorrow afternoon.

The connection must have been bad-Lexy had even heard the crackling ... except the crackling seemed oddly familiar. It sounded just like the crackling' that sometimes happened when Lexy wanted to cut the phone conversations with her mother short. The ones she manufactured by crinkling candy bar wrappers next to the phone and dropping words on purpose.

Lexy never realized how much that sounded like real static because the static on the phone call with Nans must have been real. Otherwise, that would mean that Nans was using the same trick Lexy used ... and why would Nans want to crinkle candy bar wrappers to fake a bad connection?

"I don't know why Nans isn't answering." Lexy frowned at her phone, then slipped it into the pocket of her vintage, rose pattern apron.

"Maybe she's just busy," her bakery assistant, Cassie, said without looking up from her task of frosting a three-tier wedding cake they'd been commissioned to bake for a local wedding. Lexy sighed, watching Cassie's pink-tipped, blonde, spiked hair bob up and down with her efforts. The two girls had been best friends since high school and Nans was like a second grandmother to Cassie. She was probably right-Nans did have quite an active social life.

Looking around the kitchen of The Cup and Cake from her spot in the doorway, Lexy felt a swell of pride. The stainless steel appliances gleamed, the floors and counters were scrubbed clean and the air was spiced with the sweet smell of baking. It was her dream come true, thanks to her parents. They had loaned her a large sum of money to open the bakery when they'd sold their home and bought an RV to fulfill their dream of traveling the country.

Lexy's swell of pride deflated into a gnawing of uneasiness as she remembered what Nans had said on the phone the night before. Her parents had been having trouble with the RV. They hadn't mentioned anything to her, but of course they wouldn't, because they wouldn't want her to worry. This made it even more important for her to get cracking on this case, so they could put Jack's house up for sale. Her parents had given her the ability to live out her dream and she didn't want their dream to suffer because they needed RV repairs. She had to pay them back right away, which meant she'd have to start investigating today, whether Nans wanted to help or not.

But first, she needed to try a variation of her meringue recipe. She glanced out at the front of the shop. The cafe tables set up next to the large window were all empty, giving her a clear view to the waterfall across the street. The morning coffee crowd was gone and the lunch-timers hadn't straggled in yet. She and Cassie usually used this time to bake, each girl taking turns to wait on any customers who wandered in.

Lexy caught a whiff of fresh-brewed coffee from the self-serve coffee stations as she turned her attention back to the kitchen. A pile of ingredients waited for her on the six-foot long butcher-block island that ran down the middle of the room.

The bells over the front door would alert them if a customer came in, so she made her way to the table and grabbed four eggs from the basket where she'd placed them hours ago so they could acclimate to room temperature.

"It's strange that Nans isn't jumping all over this. She must have heard about it through the grapevine by now, even if she didn't understand my call last night," Lexy said as she cracked the eggs, expertly separating the whites from the yolks. "Did John mention anything to you about it?"

Lexy often relied on Cassie to give her the scoop on various cases she was interested in because Jack was incredibly tight-lipped about police business. Luckily, Jack's partner, John Darling, wasn't as tight-lipped and, since he was married to Cassie, Lexy easily found out about the goings on down at the Brook Ridge Falls Police Department.

Cassie rolled her eyes. "He said Davies is acting like she found Jimmy Hoffa."

"Jeez, I hope she doesn't screw things up. She told Jack he was a suspect!"

"I know." Cassie stuck a tiny silver ball into the center of a flower on the cake. "John said that was just standard procedure. He's sure Jack will be cleared once they sift through the clues."

Lexy added salt, cream of tartar and a little vanilla extract to the egg whites, set the hand mixer inside the bowl and turned it on.

"Anyway, I'm stopping over at Nans after I get this new recipe in the oven. Will you watch the shop for me?" Lexy yelled over the sound of the beater.

"Of course." Cassie glanced up from her work. "So, tell me, what does a mummy look like, exactly, and how does a body get that way?"

"Brown and leathery ... I was surprised, but it really did look a lot like an old Egyptian mummy. I guess that's what happens when a body is sealed up with not a lot of air circulation."

"You'd think it would have smelled all this time."

"It probably did at first." Lexy turned off the beater and stuck a spoon into the egg white mixture, pulled it out slowly and watched the resulting peak carefully. It stood straight up. Perfect. She checked her recipe notes, which she'd adjusted to use a pinch more sugar than the ones she'd made the day before. She measured the sugar into a cup. "Jack said it would be long past smelling by now."

"It must have smelled at first, though ... you'd think the neighbors would have noticed."

Lexy poured a little of the sugar into the egg mixture and turned the beater on again. "Jack said he thought it might have been the builder that hid the body. I mean, I can't imagine the nice couple that lived in his house being involved. I think all those houses were built around the same time, so there were probably no neighbors to notice the smell."

"I guess that makes sense. It must have been scary finding that in the basement and then realizing it had been there the whole time. Was there anything else in there with the body?"

Lexy added a little more sugar and turned on the beater. "Just the clothes and the sachets."

"Sachets?"

"Yeah, you know those little perfumed pouches you put in your drawers? These still smelled like lavender. I guess they never lose their smell, even after being sealed up with a mummy."

"They were sealed up in there with it?"

"Yep. I assume the killer thought it would mask the smell."

"Really?" Cassie scrunched her face up. "What kind of builder carries around lavender sachets?"

Lexy added the rest of the sugar and beat it into the egg whites carefully, her mind trying to conjure up an image of a burly builder with lavender sachets in his pockets. She was pretty sure no builder would be caught dead with them.

Which begged the question-who the heck put them in there?

Chapter Four.

Lexy finished with the meringues and loaded the batches she'd made earlier in the morning into two white boxes, which she secured with old-fashioned pink and white striped baker's twine. One box was for Nans and the other for her first stop-the previous owners of Jack's house, Charlie and Lois McDonald.

She pulled her VW Beetle onto Main Street, then followed that to County Road. The assisted living complex the McDonalds had moved to was several miles away, off County Road. The traffic was almost nonexistent and Lexy let herself relax while she drank in the blue skies, lush woods, and occasional cow-dotted field along the way.

She was almost at her destination when a blue car coming the other way jolted her out of her driving trance.

Was that Ruth's Oldsmobile?

She squinted out the windshield as the two cars drew closer to one another. It was the same blue color and make as Ruth's 1970s Olds and, as far as Lexy knew, Ruth was the only one in the county that drove one. It had to be her.

But something was odd. Ruth rarely drove the car and when she did it was usually to shuttle Nans, Ida and Helen somewhere in search of clues ... and that was only when they couldn't talk Lexy into driving them. But she didn't see the usual four heads sticking up-there was only one.

As the cars passed each other, her heart skipped a beat. The driver was Nans.

Lexy tooted the horn and waved, but Nans paid no mind. Her eyes stared straight ahead, her hands gripping the steering wheel at the ten o'clock and two o'clock positions. Lexy wasn't surprised that her grandmother was unwaveringly focused on driving. Nans hardly ever drove anymore, which made her wonder what was so important that Nans would strike out in the car by herself.

She didn't have long to ponder it, though, because the turnoff to the assisted living was upon her. She parked, grabbed her white bakery box and headed inside. Lexy had met the McDonalds several years ago through Nans. She knew that Charlie had some problems walking and they had moved to this facility as opposed to the Brook Ridge Retirement Center, where Nans lived, because this one offered private apartments with assistance on site, but she had no idea what unit they lived in.

Lexy had stopped in at the office and was directed to apartment 112 where she now stood, rapping on the door loudly.

The lock clicked and a vaguely familiar, wrinkled face peered out.

"Mrs. McDonald?"

The woman nodded.

"Do you remember me? I'm Mona Baker's granddaughter, Lexy." She held up the white box. "I brought you some meringue cookies."

"Why, Lexy. Yes, of course. Do come in." Lois opened the door wider and Lexy could see Charlie standing behind her. Neither of them seemed that surprised to see her, but Lexy figured at their age, not much was surprising.

The apartment was small, but neat as a pin. To the right was a kitchen with almond Formica cabinets and a matching Formica counter. Stainless steel appliances winked at her. The kitchen was open, with a breakfast bar opening to a small dining area.

"Good to see you, Lexy," Charlie let go of the grip on his walker and his strong handshake surprised Lexy. He motioned to the living room in front of them. "Come on in."

Charlie ushered her over to a beige leatherette sofa while Lois rushed the box into the kitchen.

"This is a lovely surprise, Lacey," Lois shot over her shoulder as she arranged the cookies on a pink Depression-era glass plate.

"Lexy."

"Yes, of course. Sorry Lucy." Lois plopped the plate of cookies on the coffee table and tapped her head. "The memory isn't what it used to be."

"How is Mona?" Charlie turned to Lois. "We haven't seen her in months, right dear?"

"That's right. I hope she is doing well." Lois turned to Lexy.

"Very well." At least, I think she is.

"Did you bake these?" Charlie pointed at the cookies.

"Yes. I own the bakery The Cup and Cake downtown. I'm trying out a new recipe for the Brook Ridge Falls annual dessert contest." Lexy picked up the plate and held it out to him. "Please, try one."

Charlie took a cookie and Lexy passed the plate over to Lois. Then they all sat there looking at each other.

Lexy decided to get down to business. "I don't know if you know this, but I married the man that bought your house."

"Oh?" Lois raised her brow. "That's nice, dear."

"Yes. Well, anyway, we were cleaning out the basement-"

"Such a nice young man he was, wasn't he, Mother?" Charlie interrupted.

"Oh, yes." Lois nodded. "I think he was a butcher."

"No, I believe he was a gardener."

Lois narrowed her eyes. "No, that's not it either. I'm pretty sure he was a food critic."

"No, dear. He was a-."

"He's a police detective." Lexy had to cut Charlie off or she feared they'd go on like this all day.

"Yes, that's right." Lois nodded and settled back in her chair. "Anyway, what did you say about the bathroom?"

"The basement."

"Oh, yes. That house had a nice, large one. Did he refinish it? We were always going to do that." Charlie's expression turned wistful.

"No. It was full. Of your stuff," Lexy said. "That's actually why I'm here."

Lois waved her hand around. "Oh, whatever you find down there you can keep, dear. Isn't that right, Charlie?"

"Yes, of course. As you can see, we don't have much room here."

"It's not about the items. I was wondering about the basement itself," Lexy said. "Did you ever notice anything strange about it?"

"The Grange Hall? No, I don't think we had anything down there from the Grange Hall." Lois bit into her meringue cookie and made a face.

"No, not the Grange-I said strange. Did you notice anything unusual about the basement ... a smell, or maybe something about the walls?"

Lois and Charlie looked at each other and shrugged.

"I think we had some beach balls and probably a few tennis balls," Charlie said. "Lois here used to be quite the tennis player in her day."

The two of them fell silent, reveling in their old memories, judging by the wistful smiles on their faces. Disappointment prickled through Lexy's veins. She hadn't gotten any useful information from the McDonalds.

Were they too senile to be reliable?

She didn't know what she was hoping to find out. If Jack's theory of the killer being the builder was true, then the McDonalds most likely had no idea what was hidden in their basement ... and Lexy certainly wasn't going to be the one to tell them. They'd find out soon enough.

"When you bought the house, did you notice the basement walls were strange?"

"Oh, we were so excited. It was our first house, you know. We were going to decorate the basement like a speakeasy ... we planned to finish the walls off and ..." Lois's voice trailed off and she shrugged. "We started to do a little remodeling down there, but then life got in the way and we just started using it as storage."

"We never really did a lot down there. It was just storage," Charlie added.

"Did you notice the builder acting strange or anything that seemed out of place right after you moved in? You were the first people to move in on that street, right?"

"Oh, no, Mona was there already, and Paddy and Mary Sullivan. Floyd Nichols had just moved in the week before us. The builder was very nice and it was a wonderful neighborhood. We were all very close back in the day," Charlie said.

"Yes," Lois added. "We had a lot of fun. Lots of backyard parties and barbecues. People just don't do that sort of thing anymore." Lois's eyes turned sad. "I guess they prefer to stay inside, watching cable TV or tweeting and posting on Facebook."

Lexy was taken aback. If people already lived in the neighborhood, wouldn't they have smelled something? Especially Nans, who lived right behind them. Lexy felt certain the neighbors would have had some sort of welcoming party if they were as close as Lois said.