"We're not going to eat them, dear," Nans said, then turned to Ruth. "Ruth, did you find a can opener?"

"Yes! Here it is." Ruth held something up.

"Great." Nans leaned in toward them and whispered. "Okay, now, here's what I want you to do."

Chapter Nineteen.

Ruth lay on the floor about five feet inside the room, clutching her chest and moaning loudly.

Nans and Lexy banged on the door.

"Help us! She's having a heart attack!"

They heard Louie and Sal running toward the room and jumped back just before they threw open the door.

"What's all the commoa"" Louie started to say, then his eyes went wide as he slid on the thick layer of applesauce that Lexy, Nans and Ruth had spread out in front of the door. Sal was right behind him and couldn't stop in time.

Lexy's heart hammered in her chest as she saw their feet slip up in the air, their legs flailing as they both landed flat on their backs in the slippery sauce. It would have been almost comical, if they didn't have guns.

Ruth was up in a flash, holding her gigantic purse that was now filled with heavy applesauce cans. She started pummeling Louie in the head with her purse while Nans did the same to Sal, knocking both the men out cold.

Lexy grabbed their guns and the three of them gingerly stepped over the applesauce and made a bee line for the main exit.

Nans got to the door first. Lexy saw her reaching for the handle, then her heart jerked in her chest as the door exploded inward and Brax Daniels along with five of Brook Ridge Falls finest came barreling through, guns extended.

"BRFPD. Put your hands in the air!"

Ruth and Lexy stopped in their tracks and raised their hands, but Nans simply brushed off her s.h.i.+rt and straightened her back.

She walked right over to Brax.

"We've already captured your suspects and have them immobilized for you in that room over there." Nans nodded toward the storage room, then continued out the front door with a look of satisfaction on her face.

Brax looked at Lexy while the rest of them ran for the storage room. "What happened?"

"You probably won't believe this, but Nans captured them with applesauce." Lexy held up the two guns. "These are their guns, and there's a locker full of more guns in one of the offices."

Brax laughed as he took the guns "Applesauce?"

"Yep. You'll see. But they mentioned that their boss was coming. A woman," Lexy said.

"Yeah, we caught her outside. Jack's arresting her right now." Brax looked over toward the office where Louie and Sal were. "Why don't you head on out, but stick around. We'll probably need to question the three of you."

Lexy's heart clenched when she saw Jack with Simone just outside the door. She stood there with her mouth wide, her heart sinking. It looked like Jack had his arm around her.

She was just about to turn away and join Nans and Ruth when Jack turned and saw her.

"Lexy. Thank G.o.d you're okay!" Jack shoved Simone toward the police car and that's when Lexy noticed he didn't have his arm around herea"he was handcuffing her!

Her stomach flip-flopped as she watched him cram Simone in the back seat, bonking her head on the roof in his haste. Then he turned and jogged over to Lexy. Her heart melted as he took her in his arms.

"I was so worried about you when Brax told me he got Nans's email."

"You were? But what about Simone?" Lexy looked back at the police car uncertainly. "I thought she was an old friend."

"Simone? She was. Sort of. But that's not why she was here in town."

"No?"

"She's with organized crime. She's behind Nunzio's death." Jack pushed a lock of hair behind Lexy's ear.

"But she was his granddaughter!" Lexy felt her heart constrict for Nunzio.

"Yeah, she's not a very nice person."

"But she was at your house a and a"

Jack put his finger on Lexy's lips. "Shhh. That was all surveillance work. I was trying to get vital information from her."

"You were?" Lexy wrinkled her brow. "But it looked like ..."

"I know." Jack pulled her in even closer. "I wanted to tell you that I was only hanging around with her to find out what she was up to and to feed her false information, but I didn't want to jeopardize the case."

Lexy looked into his honey brown eyes and her heart melted. "Really?"

"Of course," Jack said, "You know you're the only one for me."

And before Lexy could answer, he lowered his lips to hers causing her to forget all about Simone, organized crime, and applesauce.

Epilogue.

"So, Gina finally found the new will," Nans said, as she bit into a white frosted chocolate brownie.

"Yep." Ruth nodded. "She mentioned that Nunzio had given her an engraved silver box the night before he was killed, but the box was locked and she couldn't get it open."

"And the key from the locket fit?" Lexy wiped the crumbs from the table and brought a fresh pot of coffee over.

"Yep, I brought the key over and we popped it in, and the will was inside." Ruth smiled at the memory. "It gave her a share of Nunzio's millions that was equal to her brothers. She was very happy."

"No doubt." Lexy pulled out a chair and sat at the table. Glancing out the front window she marveled at how refres.h.i.+ng the waterfall looked and how bright the day was. Especially in contrast with being locked up in the applesauce factory.

"What about the grandson that was pretending to be Nunzio's brothera"he couldn't have been very happy to see the new will surface," Ida said.

"Oh, he wasn't," Ruth answered. "Started yelling about how it wasn't fair. Gina was very upset. I didn't have the heart to tell her what he'd been up to."

"And I suppose he won't be prosecuted for anything. I guess he really didn't commit much of a crime. So we'll really never know if he was the second person that searched Nunzio's condo," Ida added.

"It's too bad the granddaughter turned on Nunzio like that," Helen said.

"Yes, thankfully Jack got the evidence to put her behind bars for a long time, right Lexy?"

Lexy blushed at Nans's words. She felt bad that she had thought Jack was fooling around when the whole time he was digging up evidence on Simone. He'd known she was a crook all along.

"Yeah. She thought she was playing cute and using him for information, when it was really the other way around!" Lexy laughed, the glitter from her engagement ring catching her eye and making her heart swell.

"But she really wasn't the mastermind. Just another hired henchman," Ida said over the rim of her coffee cup.

Ruth nodded. "The other retired mob bosses hired her to silence Nunzio and get the list. Then she hired Louie and Sal."

Nans snorted. "Louie and Sal weren't all that bad. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when they went down in the puddle of applesauce."

Everyone at the table laughed.

"Yeah, I felt kind of bad they took them to jail. They were nice enough to put my groceries away after they knocked me out," Ruth said. "Then again, they were the ones that actually killed Nunzio, so maybe we don't want them loose on the streets."

"Did anyone ever find the list?" Helen asked.

"It hasn't surfaced yet," Jack said as he joined them at the table. "But we're still looking for it. A list like that could be very valuable to us."

"And to the retired mobsters. Which explains how Nunzio got those big deposits of money the past few years," Helen said.

Jack's eyebrows mashed together. "How did you find out about that?"

Helen just winked at him and took a sip of her coffee.

"Yep. Nunzio just went down the list, blackmailing each mob boss one after the other. It was a great plan, really. I mean it's not like the other mob bosses were going to tell the police on him," Nans said.

"Yeah, a good plan, except it got him killed." Ruth rolled her eyes.

"Now, I'm sure I don't need to tell you ladies that you played a very dangerous game with this one." Jack looked pointedly at Nans.

"Well, we did get our man and managed to escape relatively unscathed," Ruth said.

"Yeah, but next time you might not be so lucky." Jack aimed his gaze at Lexy and her stomach flip-flopped. "I know you like to investigate and we appreciate the help, but I'm a little upset you put yourselves in danger by going to the applesauce factory. That wasn't very smart."

Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm and looked down at the table.

"I hope you won't do anything that dangerous in the future." Jack picked up Lexy's hand, looking at her s.h.i.+ny engagement ring. "I need my bride-to-be in one piece for the wedding."

Nans smiled. "Oh don't worry dear. We've had enough investigating for quite some time. Haven't we girls?"

Ruth, Ida and Helen all nodded.

"In fact, we're planning a nice vacation in the mountains. Rustic cabins, a big lake, fine dining and all the activities we could want."

"That sounds nice," Jack said. "Maybe you can scout out honeymoon places for us." Jack looked at Lexy and raised his eyebrows causing giggles from everyone at the table including Lexy.

"We may at that." Nans smiled at Jack. "I'm planning for it to be a peaceful vacation far away from things like blackmail and murder. After all, what could possibly happen at a rustic retreat in the woods?"

The End.

Lexy's Brownie Recipe.

This recipe includes two of Lexy's secret ingredients - Kahlua and coffee. It's rich and fudgy, just the way Louie and Sal like them.

Ingredients:.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/2 pound b.u.t.ter, unsalted 2 tablespoons instant coffee 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup Kahlua 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 5 eggs 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt Preparation: Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt b.u.t.ter, chocolate and instant coffee on low heat. Whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool until it is luke warm.

Whisk in sugar, Kahlua and vanilla.

Add eggs, one at a time, whisking thoroughly after each egg.

Whisk the flour and salt together, then add to the chocolate mixture.

Spread batter in a 13 x 9 inch pan and bake for about 35 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

A Note From The Author.