Mummified Meringues (24 page)

Ruth scrunched up her face. “But there must have been a stranger because
someone
had to have shot that dart at Earl.”

Nans nodded. “You’re right. Someone else must have been there, but we just didn’t see him. I mean, if you were a hired assassin, you’d probably be pretty good at concealing yourself, right?”

“True.” Ruth scrunched her face in thought. “There’s one thing I was wondering, though. How did this Marco guy get that concentrated poison?”

“You mean aconite?” Helen asked. “Why, that’s easy. You can grow it right in your garden. It comes from the Wolfsbane plant. When harvested in a certain way, it can be very poisonous.”

“Oh.” Ida made a face. “Now that you mention it, I think I saw that on TV. What I don’t understand is who dug up Earl’s yard and what was buried there?”

“You mean the round holes?” Helen asked. “I was thinking about that and it reminded me of my crazy Uncle Louie who used to bury money in mason jars around his yard. He didn’t trust banks.”

“Maybe Earl buried the money from the insurance scams in his yard,” Ruth suggested. “We didn’t find any bank accounts where he deposited that money and he probably wouldn’t have trusted the bank, either.”

“Especially since he was in the witness protection program,” Helen agreed. “They probably monitor that stuff.”

“Maybe this assassin knew and dug the money up,” Ida suggested.
 

Ruth nodded. “It makes sense the assassin would have known. He was probably watching Earl—stalking him, you know, so he could plan a good time for the kill. The money was untraceable cash. It would have been an added bonus for killing Earl that no one would even know he had.”

“Boy, this assassin must have walked away with a windfall,” Ida exclaimed. “What with the money for killing Earl and the insurance money he dug up in the yard.”

“I’ll say.” Ruth turned to Nans. “And you say it was this Marco guy? Did the Feds check his bank accounts and find he had that insurance money? Some of that was yours, Mona, so maybe you could get it back.”

Nans waved her hand in the air. “Oh, I wouldn’t even try. I’m happy just leaving the past behind me now.”

Ida narrowed her eyes. “But I still don’t understand. Where did you get the wig?”

Nans glanced around uneasily. “Oh, well, I really can’t say about that.”

Lexy eyed her grandmother curiously. “But how did you guys get the wig to have DNA samples from this mobster?”

Nans gave Lexy her most innocent look. “I really don’t know. My source has connections and they wouldn’t tell me much more.”

“And he really was the killer?” Ida asked.

Nans shrugged. “I’m not sure. He’s been dead for years and he
was
a hired killer, but as to whether or not he was
Earl’s
killer, I don’t know. But what does it matter? That’s old history now.”

“What I don’t understand is why the Feds didn’t think one of you guys was the assassin,” Helen said.

“They checked us all out, and since we’d all lived in town long before Earl came along, and none of us had traveled on the dates of other killings, they knew it wasn’t us,” Nans replied.

“Well, they must not have checked very hard,” Ida said.

Nans looked puzzled. “Why do you say that?”

“There’s one person in your group who didn’t live in town before Earl came along,” Ida replied.
 

“Really? Who?” Nans asked.

Ida cut her eyes over to the front of the room where Violet Switzer sat, chatting with two other ladies.

Nans followed her gaze. “You mean Violet? She used to live downtown before she moved to our neighborhood. What makes you say she hasn’t lived here?”

“I decided to check her out while I was looking into the case,” Ida said. “Violet and I have a history and I was curious. Anyway, it seems she hasn’t lived in Brook Ridge Falls as long as she says she has.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Nans narrowed her eyes at Ida. “How is that possible?”

“Seems she faked some records,” Ruth cut in. “If you do a preliminary search, it appears as if she lived in town for decades before Earl was killed, but if you know where to dig, you’ll find she showed up just the same time Earl did.”

“Huh … We’ll, I’ll be.” Nans paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Well anyway, the Feds seemed pretty sure the assassin was this Marco guy and all the rest of us have to do is satisfy our community service requirements and stay out of trouble.”

“You’re lucky you aren’t going to jail for it.”
 

“I know, but I do have a record now,” Nans said, sounding almost proud of it.

“Uh-oh, are you violating your probation or something?” Ruth asked.

“What? No, why?”

Ruth thrust her chin in the direction of the door and they all turned to see Watson Davies striding toward them.

“Well, I’m happy to report Binder and his people have packed up and left.” Davies sat down next to Nans. “I’m glad to have him out of my hair.”

“Me, too,” Nans said wryly.

“You got off easy, Mona.” Davies gave Nans a stern look and Nans’ cheeks turned pink.

“What kind of service do you have to do?” Helen asked.

“I have to stock shelves in the town library for a month,” Nans replied.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Ida said. “What did your cohorts get?”

“Paddy and Mary have thirty days trash pickup on route five, Ron has to renovate the mayor’s office, Esther has to knit scarves for the councilmen, Violet is teaching a gardening class at the women’s prison, and Floyd is teaching fishing classes at the Y.”

“But, I wonder, Mona, how did you come up with that evidence?” Davies turned sharp eyes on Nans. “If you’d had that wig all along, I’m sure you would have produced it. You might fool Binder, but you can’t fool me.”

“Oh, well, you’re right about the wig—I didn’t have it. I’m sorry, though, dear. I can’t tell you my secrets. After all, the judge said the case is closed now and I think it’s best we don’t talk about it anymore, especially not in public.”

Davies turned to Lexy. “At least Jack’s house is cleared and you can finish cleaning it out and get it on the market.”

Lexy’s stomach pinched. “Yeah, if anyone wants to buy a house that had a mummy in it. I don’t have high hopes on that one and I was counting on the money from the sale to pay my parents back on my bakery loan.”

“Well, you might be in luck.” Davies pulled a business card out of her pocket and slid it across the table to Lexy. “This is a friend of mine. He’s a ghost hunter and he’s very interested in Jack’s house because of the mummy.”

“Really?” Lexy raised her brows. “That would be great. I think my parents need the money to fix their RV.”

“No, they don’t,” Nans cut in. “I got a text from Vera this morning. They got that old part you sent and the RV is running good as new. In fact, they’re leaving Maine and are on their way to Alamo Heights, Texas, to visit the toilet seat museum.”

Davies made a face. “Toilet seat museum?”

Nans shrugged, “What can I say. They like to visit strange places.” Nans turned to Lexy. “I didn’t realize you were in that old storage area in the garage. You didn’t find anything strange in there when you got that part out did you?”

Lexy narrowed her eyes, wondering why Nans was asking. Everyone already knew the flip-flop had been hidden in there … unless there was something else in there Nans didn’t want her to see. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing … just that … we’ll that’s where the flip-flop was.”

Lexy had the distinct impression Nans was hiding something, but she didn’t have the chance to think about it, because she could see the judges out of the corner of her eye and they were tasting the last dish—her meringue cookies.

Lexy focused her attention on the front of the room, trying to gauge the judge’s’ reactions to her cookies, but their faces didn’t give anything away—Lexy wondered if they all played poker in their spare time.
 

Finally, they pushed away their plates and Miriam Hash, the town clerk and head judge, stood up at the podium. She tapped the microphone, causing an ear-shattering screech to fill the room.

All talking ceased while heads jerked in Miriam’s direction.

“Thank you, everyone,” Mariam trilled into the microphone. “Welcome to the tenth Brook Ridge Falls Dessert contest.”

Lexy tapped her foot impatiently while Miriam introduced the judges and went through her spiel about the contest and the various entries. Finally, Joan Barnstead stood up with the ribbons and handed Miriam a piece of paper. Miriam settled blue, half-moon glasses on her nose, looked at the paper and took the yellow third-place ribbon from Joan.
 

Lexy held her breath.

“And now, I would like to announce our winners.” Miriam paused for effect and Lexy thought her lungs would burst. “In third place is Agnes Flint with her rhubarb meringue pie.”

The room erupted in applause and a small, gray-haired lady shuffled up to get her ribbon and shake hands with the judges.

Miriam waited for Agnes to sit down and then she took the red ribbon from Joan. “In second place … Lexy Baker, with her meringue cookies!”

Lexy’s breath whooshed out and she tried to hide the disappointment on her face.
 

Second place!
 

She knew she should have been grateful, but she was a baker, for crying out loud. She should have won. Lexy glared at Violet, who was watching her intently, and wondered if the older woman had paid off the judges. She’d seen her bribe the town hall clerk, so it wouldn’t have surprised her.

But, it was too late now and she’d just look like a sore loser if she tried to cast any accusations Violet’s way. Besides, she didn’t even know if Violet would win.

Lexy pasted a smile on her face, collected the ribbon and the judges’ congratulations and sat back down, the ribbon clenched tightly in her fist.

“Congratulations!” Ida, Ruth, Helen, Davies and Nans chorused.

“Thanks,” Lexy said, managing a tight smile.
 

Miriam cleared her throat and Lexy glanced down at her disappointing red ribbon.
 

Oh, well, second place was still pretty good, wasn’t it?
 

Lexy straightened in her seat, vowing to be grateful for what she had instead of moaning about not getting first place.
 

Miriam squinted at the paper. Joanne slapped the blue ribbon into Miriam’s outstretched hand. Miriam held it up in front of her. “And the first place prize goes to …”

The room fell silent.
 

“Violet Switzer and her lemon meringue pie!”

Violet stormed up to the podium amidst the applause. Lexy was surprised to see her grab Miriam in a bear hug … or so it appeared. But from where Lexy was sitting, she could see that Violet was whispering in Miriam’s ear and slipping a note into her hand. Miriam’s forehead wrinkled and she looked at what was in her hand, then her face turned white.
 

Miriam straightened the jacket of her navy polyester suit and grabbed the microphone. “Ahem … I’ve just been advised that there is a slight change in the contest winners … err … there’s actually a tie for first place so the ribbon goes to both Violet Switzer and Lexy Baker!”

Violet ripped the ribbon out of Miriam’s hand and broke out into the first genuine smile Lexy had seen since she’d known her. Then she stormed toward Lexy holding the ribbon high.
 

Violet thrust the ribbon out at Lexy. “You deserve to share this ribbon with me.”

Lexy stared at Violet, perplexed. “Why?”
 

“After what we’ve been through,” Violet nodded toward Nans, “I feel like we’re on the same team. Besides, your cookies probably would have won except they had a tad too much sugar. I’m proud to be splitting the ribbon with you.”

Lexy was too taken aback at the shimmer of tears in Violet’s eyes to say anything. She watched as Violet whipped out a pair of pinking shears and clicked them open. Lexy noticed they were very large—industrial-sized with fancy, curved blades that glimmered in the light while Violet worked the shears to cut the ribbon in half.

Something niggled at Lexy’s memory.

Then she remembered how Davies had said Earl’s toe had been cut off, with curly-blade pinking shears. Her stomach dropped as she watched the blade of the shears slice through the ribbon, cutting into the thick steel ring at the top like it was butter.

Her thoughts drifted to Violet’s garden and she remembered the purple flowers. She was pretty sure one of them was Wolfsbane.

Lexy’s mouth dropped open as she stared up at Violet.

Violet had access to a poisonous plant.

Violet had industrial strength, curly pinking shears.

Violet had moved to the neighborhood the same time as Earl and tried to cover her tracks.

Violet was the last person to see Earl’s body in the secret room when she jumped in to place the lavender sachets.

Violet had appeared out of nowhere right after Earl dropped dead.