"Yeah, would you believe Earl was passing himself off as a life insurance agent? Took money from half the neighborhood." Ed clucked and shook his head. "Of course, I didn't fall for it, but some others lost several thousand, and that was a lot of money in those days."

"Was Floyd one of them?"

I think so, and I think the McDonalds were, too. Hey, come to think of it, that's right around the time Earl disappeared ..." Ed turned to Lexy, realization dawning on his face, "... you don't think one of them killed him over it, do you?"

Chapter Twelve.

Lexy left Ed with the box of cookies on his porch, her head spinning with information. Could Floyd Nichols have killed Earl over the property disagreement? Or did Earl's death have something to do with the insurance scam? And what, if anything, did Nans know about those things?

Ed had said Lexy's grandfather had had words with Earl, too, but Nans had acted like she barely remembered Earl ... either Nans knew more than she was letting on, or her memory was going. Lexy's heart pinched at the thought-was Nans lack of enthusiasm about the case due to a memory problem and not a boyfriend?

Lexy had tried to get some answers by rushing over to Floyd's as soon as she'd left Ed, but no one answered the door. There was no car in the garage, either. She'd have to come back later.

At home, she found Jack in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on a salad. Sprinkles sat at his feet, watching his every move.

"What did you find out?" He pecked her cheek, then reached around her to grab a plate of thick, juicy steaks from the fridge.

Lexy eyed the steak, her mouth watering as she told Jack about her conversation with Ed Johnston.

"An insurance scam?" Jack salted and peppered the steaks, then nodded toward the kitchen door. "Get that for me, will you?"

Lexy opened the door and followed him out onto the patio, watching as the steaks sizzled on the hot grill. The smell of grilling meat made her stomach growl and she realized she'd forgotten to eat lunch.

"Yeah, Ed said Earl was running some kind of life insurance scam and ripped off a bunch of the neighbors."

Jack's brows shot up. "That sounds like serious stuff. Nans didn't mention that. Do you think she knows?"

"She must know. I mean, she's usually up on everything that's going on, plus Ed said that Grampy had words with Earl more than once." Lexy chewed her bottom lip. "I don't know if they had words about the insurance scam, but it seems like Nans must know more than she's letting on. Do you think she knew about the insurance scam and didn't say anything?"

"Probably not. I mean, people don't usually talk about finances like that. Especially back then." Jack walked past her to the door. "Help me get the plates and salad."

Lexy relaxed. Jack was right. Nans probably really didn't remember Earl-it was over fifty years ago that he was around. She was probably blowing things out of proportion and worrying about nothing.

She followed Jack back into the kitchen and he loaded her up with plates, napkins, salad bowls and the salad, then reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine and grabbed two glasses from the counter.

"I got the important stuff." Jack gestured to the wine bottle as he opened the door for her.

"So, what do you plan to do next?" Jack asked after they were settled at the patio table with their food.

"I guess I need to talk to Floyd next. I went over there after Ed's but he wasn't home." Lexy cut off a slice of steak, the inside perfectly pink and the outside just charred-exactly the way she liked it. She paused, her steak-laden fork in front of her mouth. "Did you find anything out from Davies?"

Jack shook his head. "No, she's clammed up. All she would tell me was that the McDonalds verified they were on Vacation that summer and then they mentioned the stranger Nans was talking about-a tall guy with long hair."

"I asked Ed about him, but he didn't remember any stranger." Lexy speared a tomato and nibbled the edge.

"It's a very odd case. It seems no one reported this guy missing." Jack topped off Lexy's glass of wine and then his own. "I mean, didn't the guy have any family?"

"Judging by what Ed said about him, I doubt it. He sounded like a jerk, so maybe he was estranged from his family."

"Woof." Sprinkles looked up at Lexy ... or rather, at the piece of steak on the end of Lexy's fork. The dog's pleading, brown eyes won her over and she took the piece and held it out to the dog who inhaled it.

"I do think it's kind of funny that Sprinkles messed with Davies' crime scene. Serves her right for being so mean," Lexy said, remembering the receipt from The Elms Pub. "I should probably ask Sam down at the pub if he knew Earl. I didn't know the identity of the mummy when I talked to him before."

"It's worth a try," Jack agreed. "Hopefully, Ruth and Helen can dig up some information on him and maybe Nans will remember something."

"Yeah, I need to talk to her, too. I tried to call but she's not answering."

"Probably out with that new boyfriend," Jack teased. "Have you met him?"

"No, I tried to get information on him but Nans said she didn't want to talk about it yet."

"Well, now that I'm not the main suspect anymore, maybe you don't have to spend so much time on the mummy case. You do have that dessert contest to prepare for, don't you?"

Lexy's heart sank. She did have to get going with her recipe-the contest was in a few days. And she had Violet Switzer to deal with. But with all the running around she needed to do, when was she going to find time for that?

Solving the mummy case was important, too. She needed the money from the sale of Jack's house to pay her parents back. Her chest squeezed as she thought about them. She wanted to call and ask if they needed money for the RV, but she knew they wouldn't tell her if they did. The only way to make sure they would actually take money from her was to repay the loan.

Lexy steeled herself with another glass of wine. She'd better get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

Chapter Thirteen.

The next day, Lexy woke to see a cloudless, blue summer sky peeking out from between the gap in her bedroom curtains. She stretched lazily and pushed the curtains apart for a full view.

She looked out the window. Her heart jumped! A red car was parked right in front of her house-Violet Switzer's Mustang!

She pressed her face to the window in time to see a little, white-haired lady sprinting across her front lawn.

Lexy took the stairs two at a time, the squealing tires of the Mustang echoing in her ears as she reached the bottom step.

She ripped the front door open.

The car was gone. A white bakery box sat on the top step.

Lexy stepped out onto the stoop, looking up and down the street for a sign of Violet, but she was long gone. Her gaze dropped to the bakery box.

What could possibly be in there?

Lexy felt a niggle of trepidation as she bent down, picking the box up gingerly and bringing it inside.

"What's going on?" Jack asked from the middle of the staircase he'd been descending.

"I had a visit from my competitor."

"That Violet person?"

"Yep." Lexy held the box up. "She left this."

Jack eyed the box suspiciously. "Should we open it? She's not the type that blows up her competition, is she?"

"I hope not." Lexy knew Jack was joking, but her heart skittered as she slowly pried open the lid with the tip of her fingernail.

Inside were smashed up meringue cookies-her cookies. And a note.

"These will never beat my pies. You might as well quit now and save yourself the humiliation." Lexy read the note to Jack.

Jack made a face. "Are you going to let her intimidate you like that?"

"Heck, no." Lexy tossed the box on the table. "This is a battle ... Violet may have fired the first shot, but I intend to win the war!"

Lexy ran up the stairs, showered and got ready in record time. She didn't know how, but somehow she was going to give Violet a taste of her own medicine. She needed to find out where Violet lived in order to do that. And she needed to make a little adjustment to her recipe-if everyone wanted more sugar in those cookies, that's what they'd get.

But first she needed to talk to Floyd Nichols.

Lexy punched the doorbell of the white ranch home and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.

Why was she so nervous?

Oh, yeah, because she was about to interrogate a neighbor who might have killed someone and shoved them in another neighbor's basement, that's why.

The door opened and the wrinkly face of Floyd Nichols looked out at her.

"Lexy Baker?"

"Yes. Hi, Mr. Nichols."

"Come on in." He opened the door and Lexy stepped into the living room. Like many of the older neighbors, Floyd Nichols hadn't felt the need to remodel or even buy new furniture in over thirty years. It was almost like stepping back in time-an orange floral couch sat on one wall, an avocado green recliner across from it. The only item that had been updated was the large flat screen TV which wobbled on a flimsy particle board stand in the corner.

"Please, have a seat." He gestured toward the recliner and then picked up the remote and muted the volume of the TV. "What can I do for you?"

Lexy cleared her throat. Where to start?

"I guess you heard what happened over at Jack's house ... the McDonalds' old house?"

"Yes, of course." Nichols sat on the couch, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees and looked expectantly at her.

"I wasn't sure if you knew who it was."

Nichols eyes flashed surprise. "The body? What would make you think I would know who it was?"

"I didn't know if you'd seen it on the news yet. It was an old neighbor. Earl Schute."

Nichols leaned back into the couch. "Oh, you don't say? I remember Earl."

Lexy studied Nichols' face as she said, "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about him. I know he lived next door to you."

"Yeah. He did. In between me and your grandparents." Nichols' face turned sour. "Earl wasn't very easy to get along with."

"I heard. I also heard you got into a fight with him."

Nichols narrowed his eyes. "Now, who told you that?"

Lexy shrugged. "Another neighbor. I also heard he had some insurance scam going. Was that why you were fighting?"

"Insurance scam?" Floyd shook his head. "Nope, not me. We fought because Earl kept putting his junk in my yard. But I wasn't the only one around here that fought with him. He could be right obnoxious, especially after he'd been hanging around at that bar."

Lexy straighten in her chair, remembering the receipt Sprinkles had found. "You mean The Elms Pub?"

"Yep. Lots of people went there back then. The town wasn't as built up and it was the only watering hole for quite a ways." Nichols crossed his ankle over his knee. "Anyway, why all the interest?"

Lexy sighed. "The police have Jack's house closed up until they solve the case and we need to put it on the market to sell. I'm just trying to help the case along."

"So, you're wondering if I have any ideas as to who killed him?"

"Yep. The McDonalds are prime suspects for obvious reasons, but Nans says there's no way they did it."

"Oh, no." Nichols shook his head. "Not Lois and Charlie. They wouldn't hurt a fly. Besides, they were away in Europe that summer."

"Yeah, that's what Nans said. Do you remember anything unusual, any odd things going on over at their house? A weird smell?"

"Of course. That was the summer someone's septic system overran. It was ripe, I tell you." Nichols looked up at the ceiling, chuckling at the memory. Then he stopped laughing, leaned slightly forward and fixed Lexy with a serious look. "But that's not the strangest thing. That summer, a stranger was seen around town. I saw him on the street with my own eyes. We hardly ever had strangers hanging around."

"Really? What did he look like?"

Nichols answered without hesitation, as if the image of the stranger was burned in his memory. "He was short and stocky. Muscular with a dark beard and beady eyes. Just the kind of guy that would hide a body in someone's basement while they were on vacation."

Lexy left Floyd Nichols' house with a sneaking suspicion that he knew more about Earl Schute's death than he was letting on. It was no secret that the two men had fought, but that was probably no reason to suspect Floyd since it sounded like lots of people fought with Earl.

The thing that worried Lexy was that she hadn't told Floyd what year Earl had died. Floyd had claimed he hadn't seen anything about it on the news-that's why he didn't know the mummy was Earl. But if that were the case, how could he have possibly known it was the same year the McDonalds were in Europe?

Lexy hated to do it, but she moved Floyd Nichols to the top of her suspect list.

Nichols had claimed he didn't know about the insurance scam, but he could have been lying ... and something about his mention of the stranger seemed odd to Lexy but she couldn't quite place it. Maybe she'd find out more at The Elms Pub.