Chapter Five.

Lexy put the pastry box that held an a.s.sortment of day old pastries from her bakery on Nans's dining room table and opened the lid. Nans, Ida, Ruth and Helen peered into the box.

"Oh, what a lovely a.s.sortment," Ida said, choosing a pecan roll.

"You brought my favorite! Pistachio biscotti." Helen gingerly removed one of the crunchy biscuits from the box and put it on her napkin.

"You know I love eclairs. How can I resist?" Ruth bit into the chocolaty confection with gusto.

"Really, Lexy, this is too much," Nans said, picking a cheese Danish out of the box. "All this fatty food will harden our arteries."

Lexy noticed the threat of hardened arteries didn't stop any of them from taking a bite of their pastry as she picked a cream cheese brownie out of the box for herself.

"I've found some exciting information on Nunzio." Nans pushed her Danish aside and pulled the iPad she had sitting on the table in front of her. She tapped a few keys then turned the screen to face the rest of them.

"Look at these newspaper articles. He was arrested quite a few times on various charges but they never stuck. Of course, that was decades ago. But still, I think it proves there could be an organized crime angle to the case."

"All the more reason to stay away from it," Lexy mumbled around a mouthful of brownie.

"Oh. No, dear. That's what makes it exciting!" Nans's eyes sparkled, "Right girls?"

Ruth, Ida and Helen all nodded.

Lexy rolled her eyes. Apparently Nans wasn't going to back off on this one, no matter how dangerous it might be.

"But why would the Mob take him out now? He hasn't been active in that business in a long time," Ruth said.

"Yeah, you'd think they would have had him rubbed out long ago if he was a threat, not wait until he was in his last years," Helen added, with an apologetic look toward Ruth.

"Well, that's just one of my theories," Nans said. "The other one, of course, is his family."

"Right, one should always look to the family first," Ida said. "That's what they do on TV and in the movies."

"Why would his family want to kill him?" Lexy furrowed her brow at Nans.

"Money? Hatred? Revenge?" Nans offered. "You know, all the usual reasons."

"Was there any tension in the family?" Helen asked Ruth. "Did anyone hate him?"

"I don't think so. He never mentioned it. Although he did say some of his relatives didn't live up to his expectations. And he was very disappointed in a few of them." Ruth's brow creased. "Seems to me there were a couple that were always looking for money."

"Aha! That could be a reason for killing him and searching his condo!" Ida said.

"I suppose, but that seems rather drastica"especially during a big family reunion week," Ruth said.

"We need to talk to the family. Feel them out. Try to figure out if anyone would have killed him," Helen said.

"Maybe we should have a little memorial here for Nunzio and invite them!" Nans's eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together.

"That's a great idea!" Ida said. "Lexy could cater it."

Lexy's stomach felt queasy. "Oh no," she said holding up her hands, "I don't want anything to do with this."

"Lexy we wouldn't dream of having anyone but you cater it," Nans said. "Think of how good it will be for business."

Lexy wrinkled her brow. She was always looking for ways to get new customers. But ending up on the radar of the person who killed Nunzio Bartolli didn't seem like a good way to go about it. On the other hand, she found it almost impossible to say no to Nans.

"I'll think about it."

"Great!" Nans beamed at Lexy.

"We also shouldn't forget about considering the organized crime angle," Ida said.

"Yes, we should put out some feelers to our informants and see if anyone suspicious has come to town in the past few days," Nans added.

They had informants? Lexy narrowed her eyes at Nans. She was about to ask what kinds of informants they had when a police siren outside the window caught her attention.

"What's that?" Ida said getting up to look outside. "Looks like someone's car got broken into."

Everyone rushed to the window. Below, Lexy could see a late model black Lincoln Continental sitting in the parking lot with the front door open. A police cruiser was parked at an angle to it.

A tall, round woman with flashy jewelry and a flowing leopard print top over tight black Capri pants stood next to the car gesturing wildly with her arms. Lexy cast an admiring glance at her impossibly high platform shoes.

"What's she saying?" Helen asked.

Nans unlocked the window and pushed it open so they could hear what was going on.

"This is my father's car. Look at the windowa"it's been smashed! G.o.d only knows what's been taken. I want to know what you are going to do about this!" The woman yelled loudly, standing only inches from the police officer, her hands on her hips.

"Ma'am, please calm down." The officer tried to steer the woman away from the car while the rest of the crew looked inside and performed various tasks that Lexy a.s.sumed entailed looking for fingerprints and evidence.

"Hey wait a minute." Ruth pushed Ida and Nans aside so she could get a better look. "That's Nunzio's car!"

Ida narrowed her eyes, craning to see out the window over Ruth's head. "And apparently that must be his daughter."

"This is wonderful news," Nans said, rubbing her hands together.

"It is?" Lexy, Ruth, Ida and Helen all asked at once.

"Of course," she replied. "This means that whoever killed Nunzio and searched his condo is still around. They didn't find what they wanted the first time so they looked in his car. Hopefully, they didn't find it in there either."

"Why do you say that?" Lexy furrowed her brow, her stomach roiled knowing she wasn't going to like Nans's answer.

"Because that means they will keep looking and all we have to do to catch them is figure out where they are going to look next."

Chapter Six.

"Nans wants me to cater a memorial service for Nunzio Bartolli at the Retirement Center tomorrow." Lexy straightened up from filling the pastry case in the front of The Cup and Cake and turned to face Ca.s.sie who was just coming out of the doorway to the kitchen with a tray of fresh, steaming turnovers.

"That sounds like a nice idea. You don't want to do it?"

"Well, you know Nans. She's only doing it so she can pump the relatives for information, to figure out who the killer is."

"Cool! She can have them gathered in one place and then blurt out the name of the murderer like Columbo."

Lexy narrowed her eyes picturing Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen in beige trench coats with cigars. She noticed Ca.s.sie's eyes light up a second before she heard the bell over the door and quickly turned to see who it was.

John Darling stood in the doorway. Of course, she could have guessed who it was judging by the look on Ca.s.sie's face. But she never would have guessed he'd have a linebacker with him. At least, that's what the guy standing beside him looked like.

He stood about six and a half feet tall and looked almost three feet wide. Lexy could tell from where she stood that he was solid muscle. His expensive looking dark blue suit must have been custom madea"she didn't think you could get tree-trunk sized arms like that on suits off the rack.

"Hi honey!" Ca.s.sie bubbled.

"Hi." John smiled at Ca.s.sie, and then turned to Lexy. "Hi, Lexy."

"Lexy?"

"What? Oh. Hi." Lexy's cheeks burned. She'd been too busy staring at the other guy to pay attention to John's greeting.

"This is Braxton Daniels from the F.B.I. He's in town working on a case with us." John gestured to the giant beside him, then continued. "This is my wife Ca.s.sie, and this is Lexy."

"Please call me Brax." The linebacker stuck out a beefy, but well-manicured hand and Lexy watched hers disappear inside it. She looked up into his face. Square jaw, green eyes, smile like a toothpaste model.

She murmured a greeting, and her stomach did a flip when his gaze traveled from her eyes, to her mouth and down the rest of her body, then came to rest on her engagement ring. Right a she was engaged. No harm in looking though. Lexy withdrew her hand and did her best to send out "not available" vibes.

"So, what kind of case are you working on?" Ca.s.sie asked.

"Organized crime. But nothing for you ladies to worry about." Brax tore his gaze from Lexy and looked at Ca.s.sie.

"Organized crime? Does that have anything to do with Nunzio Bartolli?" Lexy's radar immediately perked up.

Brax raised an eyebrow at her. "Why would you say that? Do you know something?"

"Well, no. It's just that he was just murdered, and there were rumors about him being connected to organized crime, so a" Lexy let her voice trail off.

"You made the connection," Brax filled in for her, turning up the wattage on his smile. "So, I guess there's more than just a pretty face under that ap.r.o.n."

Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm and busied herself by taking the turnovers from Ca.s.sie and arranging them in the pastry case.

"So you think he was rubbed out by gangsters or something?" Ca.s.sie asked.

John and Brax both laughed.

"Well, it's something we are looking in to," John said, then lowered his voice even though no one else was in the bakery to overhear them. "His family isn't above suspicion, either. We are looking at them very closely. In fact, Jacka" "

John stopped talking abruptly and Lexy jerked her head in his direction.

"Jack what?"

"I really shouldn't say a it's part of the case a he's just keeping the family under surveillance. He's going to be very busy with that."

"Oh. Okay." Lexy narrowed her eyes at John, her stomach sinking. It was more than just surveillance, she could tell. What was it that John had stopped himself from saying?

Brax cleared his throat and Lexy looked over at him.

"John tells me you have the best cinnamon buns in the area. I think I'll take that one on top," he said pointing to a gooey cinnamon bun that sat at the very top of the tray.

"I'll take one, too," John said as he walked over toward the self-serve coffee station by the window.

"How do you take your coffee?" He called back to Brax.

"Black." Brax pulled his wallet out of the inside pocket of his jacket and paid for the order. Lexy put the pastries in a white bag which she handed across the counter to him. She noticed he made certain their fingers brushed as she handed off the bag. She pulled her hand back quickly afraid of the tingles that resulted from his touch.

"We gotta run," John said, then looked at Ca.s.sie. "See you tonight."

They walked toward the door. When they got there, Brax turned and looked back at them.

"Nice meeting you both," he said, then aimed his gaze at Lexy, "I hope I'll see you again soon." Then he followed John out, shutting the door behind him.

"Wow. Did you get a look at him?" Ca.s.sie asked.

"Yeah. How could I miss him?"

Ca.s.sie sighed, "Boy, if I wasn't married I'd be wanting to get to know him better."

Lexy laughed. She had to admit Braxton Daniels was attractive. If she wasn't engaged to Jack, she'd have been looking a lot closer herself. But in her rule book, engaged people didn't look around on the side. Her mind conjured up images of Jack and his blonde ex-girlfriend across the street from the day before. She just hoped he was playing by the same rule book.

Lexy had her head and shoulders inside the bakery case, stacking a plate of cannoli that she and Ca.s.sie had just finished stuffing with rich ricotta cheese filling, when the door opened and Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen marched into the bakery.

She smiled out at them from inside the case, finished her stacking, then unfolded herself from the awkward position and stood up.

"We thought we would come and pick out what we want to serve at the memorial. It's all set for 2 P.M. tomorrow in the Sunset Room at the retirement center." Nans stared into the case. Her keen eyes scanned the pastries to see what would be most suitable for the occasion.

"How many do you think will attend?" Lexy asked. She could better gauge how many items to bring once she knew how many people would be there.