Mummified Meringues (13 page)

“Nope. She came into some money and lives up on Chapel Hill now,” Sam said, referring to the ritzy section of town.
 

Lexy’s eyes narrowed. “Really? When did she come into this money?”

“Oh, years ago.”

“Around nineteen-fifty-five?”

“It could have been around then. It was a long time ago. Do you think she had something to do with Earl gettin’ killed?”

“Maybe.” Lexy
wanted
to think she did because it was starting to look like Earl’s death might have something to do with one of her neighbors and she’d much rather have it be Violet. Her coming into money around the time of Earl’s death was suspicious, but it still didn’t explain how Violet could have gotten him into the McDonalds’ basement or
why
she would have killed him.

Sam leaned across the table. “I wouldn’t put murder past that woman, but if you asked me who would have wanted to kill Earl, I’d say it was Paddy Sullivan.”

Lexy reared back in shock. Paddy and his wife, Mary, had lived on Jack’s street since she was a little girl. They were good friends with Nans. “Paddy Sullivan? Why?”

“Earl had his eye on Paddy’s wife, Mary. Made quite a few passes at her in front of everyone. Paddy’s got an Irish temper if I ever did see one, and he didn’t like that at all. Almost punched Earl out right here in the bar. ‘Course I stopped that from happening.” Sam raised his right arm, flexed his pale, thin bicep and shrugged with a sheepish grin on his face. “I used to be more buff back then.”

Lexy laughed along with Sam, but her heart wasn’t really in it. Now she had a new suspect to add to her list and another neighbor to interrogate.
 

Paddy Sullivan.

Chapter Fourteen

Lexy’s shoulders slumped as she walked into the Brook Ridge Retirement Center. Her conversations with Floyd and Sam had been enlightening, but she felt a feeling of foreboding that most of the clues pointed to her elderly neighbors.

“Yoo-hoo, Lexy!” Ida’s voice boomed from across the room, pulling her from her thoughts. She headed toward the table where the three ladies were sitting, her heart sinking even lower when she realized Nans was not with them.

“Where’s Nans?”

“Still not back.” Ruth pulled out a chair and Lexy sat.

“We didn’t have much luck with our searches.” Helen peered at Lexy over the tops of her half-moon glasses. “What about you?”

“I’m not sure if you’d say I had ‘luck’, but I did get some new information. It’s too bad what I found out has me more confused than anything else.”

“What did you find out?” Ruth asked.

“Earl did hang around there,” Lexy answered. “And it turns out he was a jerk there, too.”

“Did your contact say if there was anyone in particular who might have wanted him dead?”

“Not really, but interestingly enough, he said that Violet Switzer had been asking around about Earl.”

“Violet?” Ida’s face wrinkled in distaste. “Were they competing in a contest?”

“He didn’t know.”

“Would Violet kill to win a contest?” Ruth asked.

“So far, she hasn’t had to,” Helen answered. “She just annoys people so much that they lose because they are so rattled.”

“Speaking of which,” Lexy said. “I heard she used to live in my neighborhood and has since moved to Chapel Hill.”

“That’s right,” Ida said. “She must have won enough prizes she could afford one of them fancy houses.”

“Or got a big pay-off for something …” Lexy suggested.

“You don’t think she had something to do with Earl, do you?” Ruth asked.

Lexy shrugged. “It’s probably just wishful thinking because my other suspects are all people I know, but she did come into some money to move to Chapel Hill. I just don’t know when or if it could be related to Earl’s strange death.”

“Well, it’s easy enough to find out when she moved.” Ruth whipped an iPad out of her purse, placed it on the table and started typing. A few seconds later, she said, “Yep, she bought that house in the beginning of nineteen-fifty-six.”

“Ha! I knew she was ruthless!” Ida said. “She must have known he was gonna beat her in some contest and she did away with him.”

“Now, Ida, that’s speculation,” Helen said. “Intimidating people to win a contest is one thing, but killing them is quite another. No one does that.”

“At least we better hope not, or Lexy might be next on her list,” Ruth added.

Lexy frowned. “I was planning to visit her later …”

Helen held up her hand. “Wait, this doesn’t make sense. She couldn’t have killed Earl and put him in the basement by herself. This isn’t about winning a contest. There’s got to be more to it.”
 

That made Lexy feel a little better. She wanted to win the dessert contest, but she wasn’t
dying
to win it.

“So, you think she had an accomplice? Who?” Ruth asked.

“Maybe it wasn’t her. Let’s not get fixated on that, even though I really want it to be her,” Ida said. “We need to explore all our clues methodically, like we do with every case.”

“Did you guys find out anything about the insurance scam?” Lexy asked. “It seems more likely it has something to do with that than with a contest.”

Ruth shook her head. “We didn’t find a thing. Literally. Earl Schute had no bank accounts.”

“What? That’s odd.”

“Yeah. Not only that, but he seems to be a ghost.”

“A ghost?”

Ruth made a face. “It’s almost as if he didn’t exist before nineteen-fifty-five. The first thing I can find about him online is a listing at the address on your street. He didn’t buy that house though, he rented.”

Lexy stared at Ruth. “Even so, he must have had a bank, especially back in the fifties where there weren’t any online payments or many credit cards. People needed to write checks back then, didn’t they? How did he cash his paycheck without having a bank account?”

“He didn’t get a paycheck.”

“What? He must have worked somewhere?”

“Can’t find any record of a job.”

“Well, that
is
strange. How did he get money?”

“Apparently, he scammed it out of people,” Ida said.

“I wouldn’t think that would be enough to make a living.” Lexy tapped her finger on the table. “So all we know is he hung around the neighborhood being a nuisance and he went to the pub.”

“Where he was also a nuisance,” Helen pointed out.

“And scammed people out of money,” Ruth added. “Did your contact at the bar have any other information?”
 

“He said one of my neighbors, Paddy Sullivan, had an ongoing problem with Earl.”

“Paddy Sullivan? Doesn’t he live a few houses down from Jack?” Ida asked.

Lexy nodded. “Sam said Earl used to make passes at Paddy’s wife and it made Paddy pretty mad. He mentioned something about them fighting over it in the bar.”

Ida’s left brow ticked up. “Jealousy is one of the prime motives for murder.”

“I know,” Lexy said. “But I can’t believe nice old Mr. Sullivan would
kill
someone. Fighting’s one thing … murder is another.”

“Very true.” Ruth pulled up a document on the iPad. “Now, let’s go over the suspects and clues.”

“Well, there’s Violet,” Ida said. “My money’s on her. She was asking about him in the bar and she lived in that neighborhood.”

“Then there’s the neighbor you just mentioned,” Helen said. “Paddy Sullivan.”

“And my other neighbor, Floyd Nichols,” Lexy added. “He was seen fighting with Earl and I already know he lied to me.”

“Let’s not forget about the McDonalds,” Helen cautioned. “After all, the body was found in their basement. We should check that they really
were
in Europe.”

“And then there’s the stranger that people keep referring to,” Lexy said. “Maybe we should see if there are any newspaper articles or police reports about him.”

“Good idea. I’ll note that as an action item.” Ruth’s gnarled fingers flew along the surface of the iPad.

“And we still need to talk to this Bobby Nesbaum. He had access to the basement and was refinishing it, so he’s
got
to be involved somehow,” Ida said.

“This is all so confusing,” Helen sighed. “I feel like a big piece is missing.”

“The thing that is missing,” Ida said, “is motive. We need to figure out
why
someone killed him. Then it should be easy to figure out who the killer is.”

Lexy’s phone chirped, notifying her of a text, and she looked at the screen. “It’s Jack. He says he has some new clues and wants to meet with us later at the bakery.”

“Good, that’s just what we needed,” Ruth said.

“Yeah, I could go for some scones and maybe a brownie,” Ida added.

“No, I mean the new clues.” Ruth swatted Ida in the arm and they all laughed.

“I could use the clues
and
the pastry,” Helen said. “And hopefully, Mona will show up. She lived in the neighborhood and knows all the people involved. I’m sure she can shed some light on this case.”

Chapter Fifteen

Lexy squeezed a blob of pink, creamy meringue out of the piping bag onto the parchment-lined tray, guiding it carefully so that the result was shaped like a rose.
 

“Those look great.” Cassie stood at her elbow watching her.

“I just hope they taste as good as they look. Everyone seems to think the recipe needs more sugar, but I’ve added a whole teaspoon to this batch.” Lexy set the bag aside and picked up the tray.

“I’ll put that in the oven for you,” Cassie said, taking the tray from her. “Don’t forget to fill out your entry form for the contest tomorrow.”

“That’s right!” Lexy ran her fingers through her hair. With everything else going on, she’d almost forgotten about the registration. Which reminded her, she needed to visit Violet Switzer. A quick glance at her watch told her that wouldn’t happen today—it was almost time for Jack and the
Ladies’ Detective Club
to meet her here.

As if reading her mind, the bells on the front door tinkled and she peeked out to see Ruth, Ida and Helen stroll in, their eyes locked on the pastry case like snipers on a target.

“Hey, ladies, where’s Nans?” Lexy couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice.
 

Ruth shrugged. “She said she’d be by later on.”

Lexy sighed. “Boy, she sure is taken with this new guy. Has she talked about him to any of you?”

“No,” Helen said. “But let her do that in her own time.”

“Good advice.” Ida rubbed her hands together. “Now, let’s get down to business. I’ll have an almond scone and a chocolate cream cheese brownie.”

Lexy grabbed a large round plate and put Ida’s selections on it, then proceeded to pile on the choices from the other ladies, which included lemon squares, scones, brownies and a big piece of German chocolate cake.

Lexy put the plate on one of the cafe tables while the ladies helped themselves to tea at the self-serve station. Then they sat down, spread their napkins out and wrapped half of the pastries inside, then slipped them into their giant, patent-leather purses.

Lexy made herself a dark roast and sat down at the table just as Jack came through the door.

“Good, you guys are already here.” He bent and pressed a kiss on the top of Lexy’s head then made his way over to the self-serve station for a coffee before pulling a chair up to the table.

“So, tell us this big clue.” Ida assessed him with her keen blue eyes.

Jack narrowed his honey-brown ones at her. “You go first.”

Ida pinched a corner off her scone and popped it in her mouth as she told Jack how they couldn’t come up with anything on Earl prior to nineteen-fifty-five and how Nessbaum seemed clean.

“Of course that could just mean this Nessbaum character hasn’t been caught yet,” Helen added. “He could still be involved.”

Jack nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Right. I found out something interesting about Earl, too. It seems no one missed him after he died. There were no inquiries at the police station—no missing persons reports. Nothing.”

Ida narrowed her eyes. “That seems impossible. I mean, surely he had some family.”

“From the sounds of it, he was a nasty person,” Ruth said. “His family probably disowned him and that’s why he moved out here.”

“Maybe he even changed his name because he got in trouble back home,” Helen suggested.

“And another thing,” Jack continued, “he rented that house, and the landlord said she’d get a check like clockwork and then all of a sudden it stopped coming. That’s when she went out to the house to collect the rent from him and she realized no one had been there in months, but all his stuff was still there.”

“That makes sense—he was dead so he couldn’t have packed up his things.” Ida reached over to Ruth’s plate and broke off a piece of brownie.

“The funny thing is,” Jack continued, “she said there were all kinds of holes all over the yard near the fence. She said you couldn’t notice them until you inspected closely, which she was very thorough in doing because she wanted to document the damage in case there was any question about her keeping the security deposit.”