"Let's see if we can ram the door open." Ruth went over to the door and pushed her shoulder against it. It didn't budge.

"Let me try." Lexy took a few running steps and leapt into the door. It opened a tiny crack, but the door was solid and secured by something. She remembered the sound of metal chains.

"I think it's chained shut. We'll never get it open." Lexy felt her stomach drop. How were they going to get out of there?

Lexy pressed her ear to the door. She couldn't hear anything.

"Does anyone know how far we are from the field?"

A chorus of "no's" answered her.

She pounded on the door. "Help!"

Ida stared at her. "Lexy, I doubt anyone can hear us. The killers aren't that stupid ... are they?"

"Wait a minute." Nans turned around and squinted at the shelves. "Gimme those matches ... I want to see what we have to work with here."

"No way. You could blow this thing sky high and us with it!" Lexy shoved the match box into her pocket.

"How about we just use the flashlight app on my cell phone?" Ruth held out her phone and everyone stared at her.

Lexy felt her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline. "You have a cellphone? We can just call someone for help!"

"Oh right." Ruth fiddled with the phone. "Ughh ... no cell service."

"Damn!"

"Shine the flashlight over here," Nans said.

Ruth pointed the end of her cell phone at the shelf and a beam of light illuminated the boxes. Nans walked down the rows, telling Ruth where to point. Finally she found a box she liked and picked some firecrackers out of it, then brought them back to the front of the shed.

"Ida do you have a tube of lipstick?" Nans asked.

"Sure." Ida rummaged in her purse, then produced a gold colored metal lipstick.

"Thanks," Nans said. "Does anyone have any duct tape?"

Helen reached into her purse. "Right here."

Nans grabbed the duct tape and Lexy watched in fascination as she ripped the lipstick out of its container and threw it on the floor.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ida frowned down at the lipstick. "That's my favorite shade-coral passion."

"All for a good cause," Nans said as she ripped open the fireworks pouring the powder into the lipstick container top, then jamming the bottom on. "Lexy, see if you can find a nail and something hard to pierce a hole in this."

"Oh, I have some nails in my purse," Ruth offered.

Lexy found a large rock in the corner and set the lipstick on the floor. She took a nail from Ruth and balanced it on top, then bashed it with the rock to pierce through the metal.

"Perfect." Nans ripped off some duct tape with her teeth and used it to seal the tube closed, then she threaded the fuse from the fireworks into the hole Lexy had made in the top.

Nans held the modified lipstick out to show them. "Well, who wants to light it?"

"Light it? That thing could blow us up!" Lexy stepped back.

Nans waved her hand. "Oh, don't be silly. There's not a lot in here. I figure we wedge it in the crack of the door and it will be enough to blow the lock off and we can get out of here."

Lexy felt her stomach drop as she looked at Ruth, Ida and Helen. It sounded dangerous to her, but waiting around for Brad and plaid shirt seemed pretty dangerous too.

"Okay." she shrugged and cracked the door open. "Stick it in."

Nans stuck the lipstick in the crack and Lexy let go so the force of the door would hold it in place.

"You guys stand back." She motioned to the other side of the room as she took the matches from her pocket.

Holding her breath, she struck the match then backed up as far away from the lipstick as she could while still being able to touch the match to the fuse. Her heart leapt into her throat as it caught and she ran back to where Nans and the ladies were huddled. She turned away from the door and covered her ears.

Boom!

The door blew open and the five of them tumbled out of the shack coughing and batting at the thick smoke that hung in the air.

Lexy tilted her head to the side, trying to get the ringing in her ears to stop. It started to subside, but was replaced with a low drone which got louder and louder until she realized what it was ... motorcycles!

Rat, Snake, Weasel, Bug and Spike came roaring out of the woods behind them.

"Get on! Marchesi's getting away!"

Lexy looked at Nans and the ladies who shrugged and then hopped on the back of the motorcycles as they raced off in the direction of the chili contest.

Lexy looked back over her shoulder as they sped off and her heart clenched.

"The shed door, it's on fire!" she shouted.

Rat glanced back over his shoulder but kept racing forward. "We don't have time to go back. Marchesi's making a run for it!"

Chapter Twenty One.

Lexy felt the sting of bugs smacking her face as they raced over to a wooded patch directly behind Marchesi's tent. As they approached, she could see the fat chef, Brad and the guy in the plaid shirt making a run across the field toward the woods.

Something moved at the edge of the contest area and Lexy's eyes widened when she saw Detectives Payne and Wells racing across the field along with another uniformed officer after Marchesi.

Rat and the gang pushed their bikes to go even faster and Lexy felt her heartbeat racing along with her as they gained on the chef.

Marchesi was getting closer to the woods but Payne was gaining ground as Lexy and the bikers flew out into the clearing. They aimed their bikes toward Marchesi who jerked his head over his shoulder in their direction, his mouth forming a surprised O' as he saw the five motorcycles racing toward him.

With a final push, the motorcycles flew across the field and circled around Marchesi and his accomplices preventing their escape. Marchesi dodged and weaved trying to make it to the woods but the bikes were too quick for him and cut him off at every turn.

And then, just when Lexy thought she'd seen it all, Detective Payne made a running leap. He flew through the air in a colorful blur of pastel shirt and plaid pants, landing right on Marchesi and bringing the big chef to the ground.

Wells and the uniformed officer wrestled with Brad and the third man while Payne whipped out his handcuffs and locked them on Marchesi's wrist.

"Chef Martino Marchesi ... you're under arrest for the murder of Alain Dugasse."

Lexy jumped off the bike and approached Payne. "So, he really is the killer?"

"Not the actual killer, but the mastermind behind it." Payne turned to Brad and the other man. "And those are his accomplices."

"So one of them killed Dugasse?"

Payne nodded. "Marchesi sent Brad to work in the kitchen in order to get close to Dugasse and try to get the recipe. When it became clear that wasn't going to work, and Marchesi's threats didn't scare the chef, Brad lured Dugasse out to the dumpster somehow where the other gentleman was waiting to kill him."

Lexy felt a shiver despite the warm weather. The killer had been out there lurking behind the dumpster that morning and anyone could have stumbled across him.

"I think Brad might have been trying to frame you for it," Payne said to Lexy.

"Yeah, and for a while it seemed like you were going to believe him." Lexy narrowed her eyes at Payne. "So how did you figure out what really happened?"

"Actually, it was all thanks to you." Payne stood, heaving Marchesi up off the ground. "After our talk the other day, I had you followed ... you led us right to the clues in Marchesi's tent."

"The knife set?"

"Yep, that and the scrap of fabric your grandmother found tied the whole case together. Then we just waited for him to come back to the tent here to arrest him. He ran as soon as he saw us but ... well, you know the rest."

"So you knew we were here in the tent? Why didn't you help us?" Lexy fisted her hands on her hips.

Did Payne actually let Brad kidnap them?

"Unfortunately, my guy lost you, so I didn't know you had been kidnapped until these gentlemen here called me." Payne thrust his chin toward Rat and Snake. "Surely you don't think I'd let the bad guys kidnap you and your grandmother?"

Lexy frowned. Would he?

"Wait. How did Rat and Snake know we got kidnapped?"

Rat overheard her and walked over. "We got worried when you guys didn't come back so we did a little snooping around. We saw Brad and that other guy bringing some really big sacks of beans to the shed."

Snake joined them. "We thought that was pretty strange and after we asked around and found out it was the fireworks storage it clicked in that they had put you in the sacks!"

Rat laughed. "But it looks like you guys didn't really need us to rescue you."

Lexy felt the corners of her mouth curl and she looked at her grandmother. "Yeah, Nans and the ladies have a lot of tricks up their sleeves ... or should I say, in their purses."

"I'll say." Snake shook his head. "I never would have thought of a lipstick bomb."

"Well, I hope all this didn't ruin your chances in the chili contest," Lexy said to Rat.

"I have some of the other guys handing out the chili." Rat looked at his watch. "But I better get back there and make sure everything is in place for the judging!"

Lexy watched him and Snake rush off toward their bikes as Wells and the other officer took Marchesi from Payne.

"We would have figured it all out without you Miss Baker," Payne said. "But I do appreciate you helping to speed things up. That being said, I hope you will be going back to your bakery in Brook Ridge Falls soon ... where you will be out of my hair. If you want to meddle in the police business of your boyfriend, well that's his problem."

At the mention of Jack, Lexy's heart lurched.

How long had she been gone?

"Right. Nice meeting you too." She stuck her hand out at Payne who shook it and then she ran off to gather Nans and the ladies.

"We better get back to the blanket before Jack starts asking questions." She tugged on Nans arm.

Nans raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you don't want to tell him about our exciting excursion?"

"Well, it's not that I want to lie or keep things from him, but sometimes it's better if he doesn't know every little detail."

"I agree," Ida said. "We girls have to keep a little mystery in the relationship."

"Well, let's get a move on then." Nans hooked arms with Lexy and Ruth. Ida and Helen joined in on either end. "I want to get back there in time to see who wins the Chili Battle."

Chapter Twenty Two.

"Where have you been? Your chili is cold." Jack wrinkled his brow at Lexy as she plopped down on the blanket beside him.

"Oh, we were just walking around. Lost track of time," She said, feigning intense interest in the chili so he wouldn't ask for any details.

"What's with your hair? It's all wild." Jack reached up and picked something out of her hair, then held it in front of his face. "A beetle."

Lexy's hands flew up to her hair, fluffing and brushing away any other bugs that might have gotten trapped in there. "It's the humidity."

Jack leaned over sniffing her hair. "You smell like gunpowder."

Lexy's stomach tightened.

"That smell must be from one of the grills in the tent," she squeaked.

Her heart crunched as Jack frowned at her.

"Shhh." Nans saved her from further scrutiny. "They're judging the chili now."