The five of them studied it for several minutes without finding an easy entrance to the sewer.

"There's nothing on this one, let's check the next one," Ruth said.

Victor looked at his watch. "Darn, I better get back to the store. I'm meeting a customer who wants to consign some vintage jewelry. You ladies will let me know if you need my assistance later on, won't you?"

The four ladies murmured a "Yes" and Victor stood, then nodded at each of them. Lexy thought she saw him wink at Helen, but she couldn't be sure.

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and turned to Lexy. "What do I owe you?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. It's on the house," Lexy said as she walked him to the door. "We neighbors have to stick together."

"Ain't that the truth?." Victor glanced knowingly across the street then headed out.

"I thought he'd never leave." Nans sighed.

"Yeah, imagine him trying to hone in on our investigation," Helen said.

"I think he's kind of sweet on you, Helen," Ida teased.

Helen's cheeks turned pink. "What? Don't be silly ... he's way too old for me."

Nans, Ruth and Ida raised their brows at her.

Helen looked at Lexy and smoothly changed the subject. "Did you ask Jack if the police found out anything about the murder when they were down in the sewer?"

"No, they didn't find anything and he made it sound like they aren't going to pursue it anymore," Lexy said.

"I figured that," Nans answered. "So it's up to us."

"Right." Lexy chewed her bottom lip. She wasn't sure how involved she wanted to get in this whole sewer business. Victor was right, it did seem dangerous. And the murder was decades old, so who really cared? But she didn't want to disappoint Nans and she knew the older woman would go ahead no matter what. Lexy knew she couldn't talk Nans out of it. Her only hope was that Nans would get too busy with the historical society project to have time to investigate.

"I did find something in Jack's basement you guys might be interested in," Lexy said.

"Really?" Nans raised a brow at Lexy.

"Yeah, he had a stack of newspapers from 1948 down there. I saved them out for you guys."

"Oh, that's wonderful ... does it have articles from the bank robbery?" Ida asked.

"I don't know. I didn't read any of them."

"Let's see them." Ruth looked around the shop. "Where are they?"

"Sorry, I left them at Jack's," Lexy said. "But I promise to pick them up tonight and bring them to work tomorrow, so if you guys are going to stop by, I'll have them."

"We'll make a point of it, won't we, girls?" Ida asked.

"Of course," Nans answered and then turned to Lexy. "Now let's get back to these sewer plans, I don't see any entrances we can use on either of these."

The ladies rolled out the rest of the sheets and poured over them. Finally, Nans said, "I don't think we have the whole town here."

Lexy frowned down at the papers. "It sure looks like it."

"No," Nans insisted. "Look. Here is Adams Street, then Berkley, then Maple, but it ends at Cedar. This section of town here is missing."

"Hmmm ... You're right," Ida said.

"Wait. Let's lay them out end to end." Lexy grabbed the papers to do just that when the bell over the door jingled and Lexy turned to see a middle-aged man enter the bakery.

A customer!

She dropped the papers, a smile springing to her lips as she made her way behind the bakery case from which, hopefully, the customer would be making some purchases.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Why yes, I'd like one of these scones, if I may." The man pointed to the glass pedestal and Lexy grabbed a square of waxed paper and selected the largest scone.

"Is that to eat here?" Lexy asked.

"Yes."

"We have coffee and tea over at the self-serve station if you'd like," she offered.

The man looked over as he pulled out his wallet. "I'll take a large coffee too."

Lexy rang up the purchase and the man ambled over to pour himself a coffee while Nans, Ruth, Ida, and Helen moved the papers that were spilling over onto the other tables.

The man took a seat and the ladies bent back over the blueprints talking in hushed tones. Lexy busied herself cleaning off the self-serve station.

"Aghh ... pfft."

Lexy whirled around to see the man grabbing at his tongue while making choking and gurgling noises.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Lexy rushed to his side.

"Okay? Pfftt ..." The man glared at Lexy as he continued to grab at his tongue. "I should say not!"

Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen had stopped talking and were staring at the man.

Lexy raised her brows at him. "I don't understand, what's the matter?"

"I'll tell you what the matter is," he said stabbing his finger at the half-eaten pastry. "There's a big clump of hair in my scone!"

Chapter Nine.

"What?" Lexy stared at the scone. "I can assure you there are no hairs in my pastries!"

"You can see it right there," the man sputtered as he slammed closed the notebook he had open on the table beside him.

Lexy bent down to look closer at the scone and gasped. There was some hair there ... a small clump of short light-colored hairs.

"What's this? These weren't here before," Lexy said.

Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen craned their necks to see the hairs.

"Oh dear, that does look like hair," Ida said.

"But how would it get there?" Lexy asked. "I have a very clean kitchen."

"That's right, she's never had any kind of problem with contamination before," Nans added.

Lexy narrowed her eyes at the man who hastily jammed his arms in the sleeves of his coat. "Wait a minute, how do I know you didn't plant that in there?"

The man's faced turned red. "Plant it? Madam, don't you know who I am?"

Lexy glanced at Nans and the ladies who all shook their heads. "No."

"I'm Edgar Royce," the man stated.

Nans gasped.

"The food critic?" Lexy's brows shot upwards. That would be terribly bad luck to have one of the most influential food critics find a hair in her scone-the very recipe she was planning to enter in the bicentennial contest.

The man nodded. "And you can rest assured I will not be giving you a favorable review. In fact, I should probably call the health inspector on you."

Lexy's stomach twisted. That was the last thing she needed on top of everything else. The timing of this was unfortunate ... too unfortunate not to be suspicious.

"Wait a minute," she said as the man brushed past her on his way to the door. "What made you decide to come here today?"

"I got a call. Someone raving about your pastries and saying I should try the scones since it was some famous family recipe or something," he said. "I thought it would make an appealing article as I was told your great-grandmother won contests with that same recipe. I can only assume she omitted the hair."

"Do you know who called?" Lexy followed him to the door. "A man or a woman?"

"Lady, I have no idea. I just got the message from my editor." He stepped around her toward the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."

"Of course," Lexy said. "At least let me give you your money back. I'm so sorry this happened."

"Never mind about the money. If you want my advice, I think you better go over your kitchen with a fine tooth comb and make sure you have sanitary baking practices," he barked before turning on his heel and storming out the door.

"Well, I never!" Ruth said. "What was that all about?"

"It appears as if someone is setting me up." Lexy slid her eyes toward The Brew and Bake. "And I think I have a pretty good idea who it is."

The cold air stung Lexy's face as she flung open the door to The Cup and Cake. She didn't notice it though, despite the fact she hadn't put on a coat. Her anger kept her warm.

She stormed across the street, past the television crew loading their equipment into the van, and straight into The Brew and Bake.

"Just what are you up to?" she demanded.

Caraleigh looked at her in surprise. "Excuse me? Are you referring to the television segment?"

"No. I'm referring to Edgar Royce."

Caraleigh answered her with a blank stare. The customers who had been in the shop, probably trying to get their fifteen minutes of fame on television, edged their way to the door.

"Don't play dumb with me." Lexy stepped closer to the blonde baker. "You know who he is-the food critic."

Caraleigh fisted her hands on her hips. "I have no idea what you are talking about and I don't appreciate your tone."

Lexy got right in Caraleigh's face. "Don't give me that. I know you sabotaged my scones and then sent him in to give me a bad review."

"Like you should talk. What about the article in the Sentinel bashing my pastries? Wasn't it written by one of your friends sitting in your bakery right now?"

Caraleigh shot her arm out to point across the street. Lexy's gaze followed noticing Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen, their faces pressed against the glass window of The Cup and Cake looking back at them.

"She did an independent test comparing them!" Lexy said.

Caraleigh's face started to turn an unhealthy shade of pink. "Independent my ass. First you accuse me of being a thief, and now this? You better watch it or you might find yourself on the business end of a lawsuit."

Anger bubbled up inside Lexy. She jabbed her finger in Caraleigh's face. "You sue me? Ha! That's a laugh. I'm the one that should sue you!"

"Okay, break it up."

Lexy whipped her head around to see Watson Davies quickly making her way toward them.

"What is it with you two?" Davies pushed the two of them apart glaring at each of them in turn.

"She's trying to ruin my business," Lexy complained to Davies.

"No! She's trying to ruin mine!" Caraleigh said.

"You sound like two year olds," Davies replied.

Caraleigh's brows dipped. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I was actually on my way to The Cup and Cake to talk to Lexy about the break-in and I saw the two of you fighting over here."

"So, you checked out her alibi?" Lexy thrust her chin toward Caraleigh. "Are you going to arrest her?"

"No. Her alibi checked out just like she said."