Where was Sprinkles?
“Sprinkles!” She ran into the house praying the little white dog would come bounding out from one of the rooms. She barely noticed the kitchen was in a shambles as she ran upstairs stopping short at the door to her bedroom, which was a mess of piled up clothes. Her dresser drawers had been thrown on the floor and everything removed from her closet.
What the heck were they looking for? And what had they done with Sprinkles?
Lexy remembered her mother had taken Sprinkles to the RV the day before. Maybe she was in there now. She ran back down the stairs praying that whoever had done this hadn’t also gotten into the RV and done something even worse to her parents.
She bolted out into the yard and over to the RV. Ripping open the door, she sprinted into the RV, much to the surprise of her mother who stood in the kitchen cutting up a tomato.
“Lexy, what in the world are you doing?”
Sprinkles jumped off the couch yapping happily and Lexy burst into tears as she bent down, scooped up the dog and covered her with kisses.
“What’s the matter?” Her father’s concern made her cry even more.
“Someone broke into my house!” She sputtered.
Vera gasped. “What? Are you okay?”
Lexy nodded, accepting the tissue her father handed her.
“Did they take anything?” Roy asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t look around very good. I was worried about Sprinkles and you guys.” Lexy blew her nose on the tissue. “Did you see anyone here today?”
Vera and Roy looked at each other. “No. But we were gone most of the day in the RV.”
Lexy whipped out her cell phone. “I have to call Jack.”
Vera rubbed Lexy’s back and made soothing noises as she put in the call. Jack was at work, but said he’d drop everything and rush over.
“Don’t go back in the house,” he warned.
Lexy waited for him on the steps of the RV with her mom and dad. As soon as he stepped out of the car, Lexy flew into his arms, tears pricking her eyes. Jack made the appropriate hugging and patting motions and Lexy disentangled herself after a few seconds, feeling a little embarrassed.
She was usually much stronger than this. She barely even flinched, now, when she stumbled across a dead body. But for some reason, this break in at her house really bothered her.
This
was personal.
Jack held both her hands, his liquid brown eyes full of concern. “Are you okay to go back in there?”
“Yeah, I’m okay … now that you’re here.”
Jack led her inside with her parents and Sprinkles following close behind. “Wow, they really did mess the place up.”
“You can say that again,” Vera said from behind Lexy.
The four of them stood there surveying the damage while Sprinkles ran around sniffing everything.
“Too bad Sprinkles can’t talk. She probably knows exactly who did this,” Roy said.
“And what they were after,” Jack added then turned to Lexy. “Is anything missing?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to tell with all this mess.” She didn’t really have anything valuable, just a few antique vases that Nans had given her, but they were in their usual place on the mantle. It looked like everything was still there, just messed up.
“I don’t think anything is missing,” she said.
Jack was still holding her hand and he tugged her forward. “Let’s go room by room and you can tell me if you notice anything before Davies comes.”
“Lexy’s heart lurched. “Davies?”
“Sorry sweetie. I had to tell her. This could be related to the murders.” Jack pushed a lock of hair behind Lexy’s ear. “Besides, she’s not so bad once you get to know her.”
Lexy made a face. She doubted that.
“Murders?” Vera asked.
Lexy cringed. The cat was out of the bag.
“You remember, Mom, the dress designer Philippe? He was designing my dress.” Lexy waved her hand dismissively as if it was nothing to worry about.
“Why would that have something to do with this?” Vera frowned at the messy room.
“Oh, it doesn’t, but the detective in charge is a little … umm … overzealous. And since he was designing my dress …” Lexy let her voice trail, off hoping the lame excuse satisfied her mother’s curiosity.
As if on cue, a car screeched to a stop in front of the house. Turning to look through the large living room window, she saw Davies jump out of a dark sedan with flashing blue and red lights on top.
“Great,” Lexy muttered. “Now the whole neighborhood will know.”
Davies appeared in the doorway wearing her all black outfit again, but this time with mid-calf black boots adorned with lots of buckles.
“What happened in here?” She stood with her feet shoulder width apart, fists on her hips.
“Someone broke in and tossed the place,” Jack said.
“I can see
that
… but why?” Davies demanded.
“How would I know?” Lexy asked.
“Maybe you did it yourself to throw suspicion away from you.” Davies eyes scanned the room.
“Hey, now wait a minute.” Jack stepped toward Davies. “Lexy wouldn’t do something like that. And besides, she’s not guilty of anything.”
Davies held her hand up. “Just covering all the angles.” She crossed to the kitchen and looked in. “Is the whole house like this?”
“Yep. Even upstairs,” Lexy said.
“Is anything missing?”
“Not that I can tell. I don’t really have anything worth stealing except maybe these vases and some china in the china cabinet, but it’s all still here.”
Davies blew out a small bubble of pink gum, then sucked it back in again.
“Do you have any enemies or know anyone who would want to toss the place?”
Lexy shook her head. “No.”
Davies took out her cell phone. “I’m going to take some pictures. You’ll have to go through everything thoroughly and let me know if anything is missing. If they didn’t break in to steal stuff, then they must have been looking for something. Do you have any idea what that might be.”
Lexy’s stomach sank.
What would anyone be looking for in her house?
“I have no idea. Do you think this could be related to the murders?”
Davies lowered the camera and stared at Lexy. “I thought you had nothing to do with that other than finding the bodies.”
“I didn’t,” Lexy said. “But maybe whoever killed Philippe was looking for something and they
think
I have it ... or that I know something. Wasn’t
Chez Philippe
broken into after the murders? Maybe they got my name from the customer files.”
“Customer files?” Davies asked.
“Yeah, I heard the place was searched,” Lexy answered.
“It was. But not the customer files. The sewing area. All the little lace ribbons and beads were thrown all over the floor. It was a real mess … much like this place.” Davies spread her arms to indicate the mess on Lexy’s floor.
Lexy felt her brow wrinkle.
Why would someone search the sewing area?
She didn’t have long to ponder as a sharp knock sounded on her front door, which had been sitting wide open all this time.
Everyone spun around to see her neighbor, Mr. Johnston, standing in the doorway looking at her living room in dismay.
“Hi, Mr. Johnston.” Lexy crossed over to the elderly man.
“Lexy what’s happened here? Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes. Everyone is fine.” Lexy patted his arm. “Someone broke in.”
“Oh, I saw the flashing lights from my house,” he gestured toward the house across the street, “and I came over to see if you needed any help.”
“Oh no, we’re fine,” Lexy said.
“Okay then. Let me know if you need anything.” He turned to leave.
“Wait a minute,” Davies called after him and Johnston turned back around. “You didn’t by any chance happen to see anything strange going on here today?”
Mr. Johnston puckered his face. “Well, I don’t spend the whole day spying on my neighbors. But I did see the big rig out there pull out in the morning. Of course Lexy was gone to work early in the day and then in the afternoon a red Toyota was here for a while.”
“A red Toyota?” Davies perked up. “Did you get the plates?”
Mr. Johnston rubbed his hands nervously. “Plates? Well no, I didn’t realize I would have to do that. Do you think that’s the person who did this?”
“Possibly,” Davies said. “Do you remember how long the car was here?”
“I’m not sure. I was watching my shows when I first saw it and then I had my afternoon tea. Next time I looked it was gone … so maybe an hour or two.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Davies pecked away at the keys of her Smartphone. Lexy assumed that was her version of taking notes.
“You don’t think it’s dangerous around here now, do you?” Mr. Johnson lingered in the doorway.
“No, not at all,” Davies said. “This is an isolated case—you have nothing to worry about.”
Johnston nodded, looked at Lexy uncertainly, and then shuffled off across the street.
“Well, that’s an odd coincidence,” Lexy said.
“What’s that?” Jack asked as Davies resumed her picture taking.
“Stuart Wiggins’ neighbor told us that Veronica drove a red Toyota Corolla. But she’s dead, so either someone used her car to break in here or that’s one heck of a coincidence.”
Davies scrunched her face up at Lexy. “Who told you that?”
“The fiancé’s neighbor. He saw her peel out in it after they had a fight.”
“Well that’s strange. We towed Veronica’s car from
Chez Philippe
to the station to search it for evidence. We have it there right now, but it’s not a red Toyota … it’s a black Prius.”
Chapter Fifteen
Lexy spent most of the night cleaning up the mess in her house with the help of Jack, her parents, and a couple bottles of wine, so she slept in the next morning. She hadn’t found anything missing, unless you counted two pairs of red lace panties that she couldn’t seem to find. Oddly enough, she found something extra—a gold cross on a chain that definitely wasn’t hers. She set it aside figuring it was probably her mother’s.
Nans had left her a message that Veronica’s wake was that afternoon, so she scooted over to the florist and chose a gorgeous bouquet of white lilies and roses before heading over to pick the ladies up for the wake.
Despite her misgivings at attending Veronica’s wake and seeing Ramona, Lexy couldn’t help but smile at the clear blue sky as she drove to the retirement center. The gorgeous crisp fall morning had given way to a warm afternoon, which was the perfect weather for the champagne colored silk sleeveless blouse and black pencil skirt Lexy had chosen from the rumpled pile of clothes on her closet floor.
She pulled up to the front of the retirement center where Nans, Ida, Ruth and Helen were all waiting for her, each dressed in a beige trench coat and holding a gigantic patent leather purse. She jumped out of the car and pushed the front seat forward, marveling at how easily Ruth, Ida and Helen could contort themselves to fit into the back of the small VW Beetle.
“I’m still amazed that you guys can get into this car so easily,” Lexy said.
“Oh Pffft …” Ruth answered. “We take yoga and Pilates. This is easy. Try playing twister with the folks down on the first floor and you’ll see what difficult is.”
Nans, Ida and Helen laughed at her joke—Lexy had no idea what she was talking about and figured she was probably better off that way, so she didn’t ask.
“You guys won’t believe what happened last night,” Lexy said as she pulled out of the parking lot.
“What?”
“My house got broken into … they ransacked it.”
Nans gasped. “Are you okay?”
“Yep, I’m fine. Sprinkles was in the RV with Mom and Dad and they weren’t even there. It must have happened sometime in the afternoon. I discovered it when I got home from your place.”
“Was it a robbery?” Helen asked.
“No. Nothing was taken.” She didn’t feel the need to mention the panties—they were probably at Jack's.
Nans pressed her lips together. “This has to do with the murder case, doesn’t it?”
“I think so, but I can’t imagine why,” Lexy said. “I don’t know anything about the murders.”
“Maybe someone thinks you are asking too many questions,” Ida offered.
“Hmm … Maybe.” Lexy’s stomach clenched at the thought. Was the break-in a warning? “I found out a couple of other interesting tidbits about the case.”
“Do tell,” Nans said.
Lexy pulled into a parking spot in the back corner of the funeral home lot and turned in her seat so she could see the ladies in the back. “You know how
Chez Philippe
was broken into the night after the murders?”
Four gray heads nodded in unison.
“Well, I just assumed they were looking for something in the files,” Lexy continued, “information or customer’s names. But they weren’t.”
“What were they looking for?” Ida asked.
“I don’t know exactly, but they didn’t search the files. They searched the sewing area.”
Ruth’s brows lifted a fraction of an inch. “What could someone possibly want in there?”
Lexy shrugged. “Who knows? But it’s interesting that that’s where Millie was when we saw her there yesterday.”
“Yeah, that sure is something to think about.” Helen rummaged in her purse, then, much to Lexy’s surprised, pulled out an iPad. “I’m just going to make a note to look into that further.”
“Well, if you guys liked that,
this
is even better.” Lexy leaned forward, toward the ladies. “Stuart Wiggins’ neighbor told us that Wiggins had a fight with a woman—we assumed it was Veronica—shortly before she was killed. He said he saw her speed off in a red Toyota.”
“So?” Ida asked.
“Detective Davies told me that Veronica drove a black Prius.”
“Then who was in the red Toyota?” Ruth asked.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Lexy said as she pushed her door open and climbed out of the car.
Helen stuffed the iPad back into her purse as they walked toward the McGreevey funeral home. The heavy glass and oak doors swung open as if by magic as they approached and two gray-suited gentlemen ushered them in.