"No. It's okay." Ruth appeared calmer. "I'm at the door to my place ... digging out my keys. Someone is right behind me. Oh!"

"Slow down Ruth, tell us what you see. Remember you're safe."

"There's two of them. But I can't make them out, just shadows. One is a very big man. Tall and wide like a gorilla. The other is also tall, but skinny-lanky with a long neck like an ostrich." Ruth hitched in her breath. "The next thing I remember is waking up on the couch."

"Okay, Ruth. When I tap your shoulder you will wake up feeling refreshed and happy." Helen tapped Ruth's shoulder and her eyes popped open.

"Did you get anything useful?" Ruth asked.

"Sort of," Nans said. "At least we know there are two more people involved and their general description. I don't think Barry fits either one of those."

Lexy wracked her brain comparing Nunzio's relatives to the descriptions Ruth had given. None of them fit, but something niggled at her in the back of her mind.

She let herself relax. A gorilla and an ostrich ... an image of her bakery came to mind and her breath caught in her throat.

"I think I know who they are!"

"You know who the men that attacked Ruth are?" Nans raised her brows at Lexy.

"Well, sort of. I mean I don't know their names or anything but two men who match that description have been coming into The Cup and Cake almost every day," Lexy said. "They seem to have an affinity for brownies."

Nans clapped her hands. "That's perfect! All we have to do is hang around the bakery and wait for them to come in. Then we follow them and hope they do something suspicious."

Lexy felt her stomach churn. Somehow following men that knocked out little old ladies and searched their condos didn't seem like such a smart idea.

"We can get some pictures of them and do a photo search on the internet to find out who they are!" Helen said.

"Photo search?" Lexy wrinkled her brow.

"Yes, we can use TinEye or any of the other photo search sites and if a picture of them has been posted, it will come up in the search. So any news articles or even family photos will show up."

"We need to find out what type of gun killed Nunzio because, once we find out who these guys are, we can search the gun registry database to see if they own that type of gun." Nans turned to Lexy. "Lexy, do you think you can try to get that information today?"

Lexy's heart clenched. "I suppose I could visit Jack at the station, but I can't guarantee that he will tell me."

"Bring him his favorite dessert from the bakery," Ruth said. "That will butter him up."

Lexy looked at her watch. She'd have to hurry if she wanted to get to the bakery, pick up a pie and pretend like she was just bringing it to the station on a whim. Maybe it would be easier just to get Cassie to ask John.

Ida interrupted her thoughts. "Speaking of the internet. I've found something very interesting about Nunzio's finances."

"On the internet?" Ruth asked.

"Kind of." Ida winked. "Norman's grandson is a bit of a hacker and ... well ... he helped me take a peek into Nunzio's bank account."

Nans narrowed her eyes at Ida. "Is that legal?"

"No, but wait until you hear. It seems that Barry might have had enough incentive to kill Nunzio over the will after all." Ida paused looking each of them in the eye. "According to his bank account, Nunzio was worth over three million dollars."

Ruth gasped. "That's impossible."

Ida shook her head. "It's true. It's all here." She handed the iPad to Ruth whose eyes widened as she looked at the screen.

"Well I'll be ..." Ruth put the iPad down on the table. "He never let on that he had that much money."

"Not only that, but almost all of it was deposited gradually over the past two years."

"What? But he was retired. On a fixed income."

Ida shrugged. "I know. Makes you wonder what he did to get this sudden influx of money."

"It sure does," Nans said. "And I bet whatever it is was the very thing that got him killed."

Chapter Fifteen.

Lexy sat in the police station parking lot watching the top of her coconut cream pie break out in a sweat. It was no wonder, since the sun beating in through the windshield of her VW bug had turned the car into an oven.

She lifted her thick, brown hair off her neck, twisting it into a sloppy ponytail on top of her head. She realized she was procrastinating about bringing the pie to Jack, and wondered why. Probably she was afraid he'd refuse to tell her about the murder weapon and she knew that would make her mad. She felt like she and Jack were already skating on thin ice. She didn't want to rock the boat.

But, if she didn't get out of the car soon, she was going to succumb to heat stroke.

Grabbing the pie, she reached for the car door handle. A movement at the police station door caught her eye.

It was Jack ... and he wasn't alone.

Lexy's stomach sank when she saw who was with him.

Simone.

She saw Simone smile up at Jack. Lexy imagined her batting her eyelashes. Was he smiling back? Lexy's heart twitched as she watched them walk out into the parking lot together, toward Jack's truck.

Then she started to feel something else.

Anger.

She had the sudden urge to grab the pie and smash it into Jack's face. But she caught herself just in time. It wouldn't do to get angry like that.

The best way to deal with that sort of thing was to act like she didn't care. For all she knew, it was totally innocent. Right? Maybe it had something to do with the Nunzio Bartolli case and Simone was some sort of witness. Yes, that must be it. Why else would Jack be with her?

Jack's just doing his job, she thought, as she watched them pull out of the parking lot through narrowed eyes.

For a minute she pictured herself following them, just to make sure, then another movement inside the police station caught her eye.

Through the large glass windows in the front, she could see Brax Daniels standing at the desk. The sleeves of his white collared shirt were rolled up to reveal tanned, muscular forearms. From where her car was she could just make out a shadow of stubble on his chin which give him an appealing "bad boy" look.

Lexy looked down at her pie. She wondered if Brax liked coconut cream. I bet Brax is a lot more generous with sharing information.

She opened her car door. The outside air seemed cool compared to the roasting stuffiness inside the car, even though it was seventy-eight degrees out. She slipped out of the car, put the pie on the roof, straightened her short denim skirt and fluffed her ponytail, then grabbed the pie and walked over to the police station door.

Cool air rushed out as Lexy opened the door to the station. She stood nervously just inside, the pie balanced in her upturned palm.

Brax turned to look at her, his eyebrows climbing toward his hairline.

"Is that pie for me?"

Lexy held the pie out in front of her and did her best impression of a southern coquette. "Why yes, I do believe it is."

Brax rewarded her with his million dollar smile and walked toward her, causing her heart to flutter annoyingly. He took the pie.

"Coconut cream?"

Lexy nodded.

"I love coconut cream pie." Brax put his hand on the small of her back and swept her out of the reception area and down the hall. He opened the door to one of the interrogation rooms which was now setup as a makeshift office.

"Welcome to my home away from home," he said putting the pie on the table and rummaging in a box on the floor. He pulled out some paper plates and plastic forks. "Aha! It pays to be prepared."

Lexy sat in one of the chairs and watched him cut the pie with the plastic fork and scoop a piece out onto one of the plates. Well, it wasn't actually a piece. It was more like a messy glob. She put her palm up, waving him off when he offered the plate to her. Her stomach was too jittery for coconut cream pie.

Brax shrugged then scooped a large pile onto his fork and sat in the chair on the opposite side of the table.

"Yumm." He closed his eyes and swirled the pie around in his mouth. "This is delicious! Is it from your bakery?"

"Of course." Lexy smiled.

Brax demolished the piece of pie in two more bites then tossed his plate in the trash. Standing, he came around to her side and leaned against the table next to her.

"Now, why don't you tell me why you are really here?"

Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm. It was hard to fool the F.B.I.

He was standing very close to her and she had to lean back in her chair to look up at him which made her feel at a disadvantage. Probably some sort of interrogation technique, she thought as she scooted her chair back a few inches.

"Honestly, I just wanted to drop off this pie."

"For Jack?"

Lexy bit her bottom lip and nodded.

"And ..."

"Nans had a few questions about the Nunzio case."

Brax laughed softly. "And what might those be?"

"We ... I mean she ... was just wondering what type of gun he was killed with and the time of death."

"Oh, well that seems pretty straightforward. You need to bribe Perillo with a pie to get that kind of information?" Brax pushed himself away from the table and walked around to the other side. He grabbed a folder from a pile and rifled through it.

"Says here the time of death was 1:30 a.m. And the bullets were .22 caliber. Probably a revolver."

"Okay. Thanks." Lexy found herself wishing Braxton Daniels would be involved in every case she and Nans investigated. Getting information from him was a lot easier than getting it from Jack.

"Your hair looks nice up like that," Brax said.

Lexy's hands flew up to the hair piled in a mess on her head, her cheeks growing warm. Was it getting hotter in there? She had the urge to get out of there quick.

Lexy pushed her chair back and stood, brushing a wisp of hair out of her face.

"Well, I guess I'll be going. Thanks for the info." She turned abruptly tripping over the table leg on her way to the door.

"Perillo isn't here, you know," Brax said, boxing up the rest of the pie.

"I know."

"He's an okay guy, Lexy. But if you ever get tired of him ..." Brax wiggled his eyebrows up and down and flashed his smile again.

Lexy laughed and fanned herself, reaching for the doorknob.

"Seriously though, your grandmother and her friends might want to back off the Bartolli case for a while. Nunzio wasn't just shot. He was executed. We're dealing with a cold blooded killer here and I wouldn't want any of you to get hurt."

Chapter Sixteen.

Lexy shuffled around the pastries in the bakery case as she watched Nans, Ida and Helen sitting nervously at one of the cafe tables. Ruth was out in the back parking lot sitting in her antique Oldsmobile with the motor running. The plan was that as soon as the two suspects appeared in the shop, the rest of them would hop into Ruth's car so they could be ready to follow them.

Lexy brought a tray of cannoli to the table.

"Take some of these and stop staring out the window. You guys look suspicious."

"Oh, sorry dear." Nans turned away from the window and sipped her tea. "You're right, we'll just sit here and nibble just like any other day."

"They probably won't even come in toda-"

Lexy's voice stuck in her throat. The two men were crossing the street, heading straight for the bakery."