Bake, Battle & Roll (12 page)

Ida turned to Rat. “What time do you start setting up for the
Chili Battle
?”

“We get our assigned spots tomorrow night and we can setup our tables and canopies then,” Rat said.

“The next day, the contest grounds open at noon. We can start cooking then and the general public is allowed in around 4 pm,” Snake added.

“Boy, it sure would be great to get in early and snoop around his tent,” Ruth said.

Rat looked at her and snapped his fingers. “I know! You can meet us tomorrow night and we’ll get you in with V.I.P. visitor passes … if you want.” 

“Oh that would be perfect!” Nans put her chili bowl in the sink and started washing the dishes.

“Oh, hey, you don’t have to do that … you’re a guest.” Snake took over the job of dish washing and Nans raised her brows at Lexy who shrugged.

“I feel much better knowing you guys are helping find out who killed my dad,” Rat said. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence in that detective Payne.”

“Neither do we, actually,” Nans replied.

“So he knows about you then.” Lexy cut her eyes to Rat.

“Yes, he was here the other day,” Rat said. “Weasel’s cousin is on the police force here but he didn’t know I was Dugasse’s son. I guess Payne figured that out on his own somehow.”

Lexy raised a brow. Maybe Payne wasn’t as much of a bumbling idiot as he appeared to be.

“Well, I guess we better get going.” Ida pushed herself up from the table where she’d found a seat in between Stone and Rusty.

Lexy noticed the men exchanging a look and her muscles tensed.
What was that about?

Rat raised his eyebrows at Snake and Snake nodded. 

“Is something wrong?” Lexy ventured, her nerves on high alert.

“No … we just …” Rat looked at the others. “Should we?”

“Should you what?” Nans stood near the door, her hand on the knob.

“Yeah, go ahead.” Snake and the others nodded at Rat.

“Well, I was wondering if you ladies would like to go with us to biker bingo tonight … it’s a lot of fun, the biker camps from all around the lake go and tonight’s the big game where you can win the grand prize.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun!” Nans raised her brows at the other ladies. “Do you want to go?”

Ruth, Ida and Helen nodded. The women loved bingo and never passed up a chance to get in on a big game.

“What’s the grand prize?” Ida asked.

Snake’s eyes lit up. “A Harley.”

“Count me in!” Ruth said. “I always wanted a Harley.”

Chapter Seventeen

Lexy didn’t go to biker bingo. Partly because she wanted to spend the time with Jack, but mostly because she didn’t want to have to explain to him how they’d befriended a gang of bikers. He’d been really understanding about her crime solving activities on this trip and she didn’t want to push her luck.

Jumping into the shower, she washed her hair then fluffed it dry letting the natural wave take over before changing into a short turquoise colored sundress. By the time Jack got back from fishing, she had beer in the cooler, steaks on the grill and Jack’s favorite coconut cream pie in the fridge which was, strangely enough, located on the porch.

She was sitting in one of the rockers on their screened in porch enjoying the view of the lake through the trees when Jack joined her, fresh from the shower. He’d given his hair a rough towel dry so it stuck up around his unshaven face. The rumpled hair and stubble gave him a handsome bad-boy look, causing Lexy’s pulse to beat a little faster.

She handed him a beer from the cooler and he sank into the second rocker. Sprinkles adjusted her position so that she was lying on the floor in between the two rocking chairs and Jack bent down to scratch behind her ears.

“How was fishing today?” Lexy asked, hoping the subject of fishing would distract Jack enough so he didn’t ask about
her
day.

“Good. I caught a four pound bass, which beat Norman’s best catch of three point eight pounds.” Jack smiled. “Plus a few smaller bass and some pickerel.”

“You’re really getting into vacation mode … too bad we only have a few more days here.”

“Yep. I haven’t relaxed this much on vacation in years. But it will be good to get back home and back to work.” Jack ran his finger lightly up Lexy’s arm sending tingly shivers down her spine. “Until we go on our next vacation … just the two of us.”

“Next vacation?” Lexy’s eyebrows mashed together.

Jack tilted his head at her. “Our honeymoon? We
are
getting married, right?”

Lexy laughed. “Oh, sorry. Yes, of course … but I guess there’s a lot of planning before that can happen.”

“Well, I think you should start planning right away, as soon as we get back.”

Lexy’s heart lifted at the thought. They’d been engaged for several months, now, but sometimes it seemed like Jack might be having second thoughts. He sounded so sure about it now that Lexy figured she’d just been acting silly and vowed to put the plans into action right away.

“How is the Dugasse case going?” Jack pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Well, it wasn’t the wife.” Lexy watched Jack pad out to the grill in his bare feet and flip the steaks over. The smell of grilling meat combined with the sizzling sound they made when he flipped them caused her mouth to water. 

“How do you know?” he asked through the screen.

“Payne said she had an alibi.”

“He shared information with you?”

“Only by accident.” Lexy grimaced. “He came to the kitchen to lecture me about bothering suspects and let it slip that the wife wasn’t the killer.”

“Well that sounds familiar.” Jack returned to his rocker and laughed as he settled back in with his beer. “So do you think it was the other chef … Sylvia?”

“She wasn’t having the affair with him and she also has an alibi.” Lexy felt a pang of guilt in not telling Jack the whole story about Sylvia’s affair with Prescott Charles but it wasn’t relevant to the murder case and she’d promised not to tell.

“So you’re out of suspects?” Jack raised a brow at Lexy, then grabbed the platter and headed out to the grill.

“No, we have one other.” Lexy got up and started setting out plates and a salad on the small table they had setup for eating on.

“Who is this other suspect?” Jack prompted as he dished steaks onto their plates.

Lexy glanced out the window to make sure no one else was around. “Another chef—one who was threatening Dugasse about his chili recipe.”

Jack’s eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t know he was getting threats. That sounds like something to investigate. I hope Payne is aware of that.”

“I’m sure he is.” Lexy put a small chunk of steak in her mouth and it practically melted on her tongue. She rolled her eyes back in her head. “Nummy … this is sooo good.”

Sprinkles put her paw on Lexy’s foot and stared at her as if to say “don’t forget to give me some.” Lexy’s heart surged and she threw her a small piece.

“Anyway,” Lexy said. “Dugasse’s son said this Marchesi guy—that’s the other chef—tried to buy the chili recipe and when Dugasse refused he got mad.”

“Wait … Dugasse has a son?”

Lexy nodded. “Yeah, I guess it was kind of a secret …” She let her voice trail off not wanting to get into the details of how
she
found out about the son.

“Speaking of the chili recipe … are we going to the big
Chili Battle
tomorrow night?” Jack asked.

“Of course. It should be interesting, considering what happened to Dugasse.” Lexy purposely forgot to tell him about Dugasse’s son entering the contest with the recipe.

“That’s for sure. And I heard there were going to be fireworks after. How about we bring a big blanket and spread it out on the hill? We can gorge ourselves on chili and then lay back and watch the fireworks.”

“Sounds good.” Lexy’s stomach flipped wondering how she’d manage to eat chili with Jack and stalk Marchesi at the same time.

Jack finished off the last of his steak and salad, then took a long pull on his beer.

“The thing is, I’m not really sure how to go about getting clues that prove Marchesi is the killer,” Lexy said, wiping her plate clean and stacking it on top of Jack’s.

Jack leaned back and took another sip of beer. “I would try to establish a timeline … where was Marchesi when the murder happened? Do you think he did it himself or did he have an accomplice?”

Lexy pursed her lips. “I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about it.”

“One technique we like to use is to simply follow and observe … we do it with suspects or people that seem to know too much about the case. Usually something shakes out. Criminals like that are dumb and all it takes is watching them a bit to find a clue.”

Lexy settled back in her chair. She’d have to have Ruth find out where Marchesi was staying and then maybe one of them could follow him around while Lexy was working tomorrow morning.

“But you need to be careful if you follow this guy around … he could be a killer. You’d be smart to leave that part to Payne.” Jack’s eyes drilled into hers as if he was reading her thoughts.

“Oh, of course,” she said, then stood up and walked to the fridge, thinking to distract him from giving her the usual lecture about messing in police business with his favorite coconut cream pie.

She opened the door, enjoying the blast of cool air. “I have your favorite pie for dessert,” she said, looking at him over the top of the door.

Jack got up and walked over to her, pulling her out from behind the door and closing it. He slid his arm around her waist, dragging her to him. He dipped his head, his lips brushing lightly against hers.

“Actually, I had something else in mind for dessert.”

Chapter Eighteen

Lexy was halfway through frosting a batch of miniature cupcakes when Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen showed up in the kitchen the next morning. She glanced nervously out the window, half expecting to see a shiny new Harley in the parking lot.

“How was biker bingo? Did you guys win anything?”

“Ida won a hundred dollars, Helen got a gift certificate for a pedicure and Ruth and I got skunked.” Nans shook her head.

Lexy made a face. “A gift certificate for a pedicure? Who would have thought bikers would want that as a prize?”

Nans shrugged. “I guess one of the bikers has a salon and he donated it.”

“So you didn’t win the Harley?” Lexy eyed Ruth.

“No.” Ruth laughed. “I guess I’ll have to make do with my Oldsmobile.”

“Probably safer,” Lexy offered.

“For everyone,” Helen added and Nans and Ida snickered.

“But we did get the V.I.P. passes,” Ruth said to Lexy. “We’re supposed to meet Snake, Rat and the gang at the field around five.”

“Okay.” Lexy checked her watch. “I’m tied up here this morning but I was thinking it might be smart to follow Marchesi around today. If he is the killer and he’s still after the recipe, he might do something suspicious.”

“Good idea. I’m sure he must be in town by now for the contest,” Ida said.

“Did you ever look into that?” Nans asked Ruth.

“Not yet. Shouldn’t be too hard though.” Ruth leaned in and said in a low voice, “I have a great program that hacks the hotel guest databases.”

“Easy peasy. We’ll just find out where he is then stake out his hotel and put a tail on him if he leaves.” Lexy thought Nans looked quite pleased that she’d been able to fit lots of police jargon in that sentence.

“Okay, but don’t confront him. He could be dangerous,” Lexy said, then wondered if she’d been listening to Jack too much.

A splash of vibrant color at the front of the kitchen caught her eye and her heart sunk when she saw Detective Payne in a bright pink shirt and pink, white and blue plaid shorts making his way down the aisle toward her. 

“What is it?” Nans turned to see what was causing the look of distaste on Lexy’s face. “Oh. Well, time for us to go.”

Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen turned abruptly and scooted off in the other direction before Lexy even had time to say good-bye.

Payne smiled at the cupcakes, then frowned at Lexy. “Miss Baker, I hear you’ve been making the rounds.”

“The rounds?” Lexy tried on her best wide-eyed innocent look. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Payne narrowed his eyes at her then grabbed a little cupcake and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. He brought the spiral notebook and pencil out of his pocket.

“I think you know we have a new suspect,” he said, studying her reaction. A glob of blue frosting rested on the corner of his mouth.

Lexy raised an eyebrow. She didn’t point out the frosting.

“It seems Dugasse had a son,” Payne announced.

“I knew that,” Lexy said. “But the son didn’t kill him.”

“Oh really? And how do you know that?”

Lexy pressed her lips together. She was already in enough trouble with Payne and didn’t want to tell him she’d scouted out the biker camp on her own or that she’d found the bracelet at the head of the trail. 

“Rumors around the kitchen.” She waved her hand around the room.

Payne looked at the ceiling and tapped the eraser end of his pencil on his lips. The glob of frosting quivered but stayed in place. 

“Seems like you know an awful lot about this murder … for someone who isn’t really involved.”

Lexy’s stomach sank. Whenever she talked to Payne she seemed to get herself in more trouble. All the more reason to investigate this herself, she thought.

Payne picked another cupcake off the tray and shoved it in his mouth. This one with chocolate frosting. “I trust you’ll be going to the
Chili Battle
?”

Lexy nodded.
What an odd thing for him to ask.

“Good, then all my favorite suspects will be in the same area at once.”

And with that he turned and walked off leaving Lexy to wonder what he meant.

###

The fairgrounds at Lakeshore Resort where the
Chili Battle
was being held was a giant field with barns at one end. Today, a big section was roped off and Lexy could see canopies being setup in rows. Two men in khaki shirts guarded the entrance.