Read Online Murder, Money & Marzipan by Leighann Dobbs - Free Book Online

dear, that’s what I said.”
    “I was thinking it would be some sort of record of Evan’s rendezvous with Amanda Scott-Saunders. Maybe some notes about when they met and where?”
    Ida worried her bottom lip. “I don’t think so, unless my calculations are way off.”
    Lexy felt her stomach sink. Proof of the affair would help to finger either Westmore or Peter Saunders as the killer. She was hoping there might be an entry for the morning of Amanda Saunders’s death, but no such luck.
    She could hear Ruth vying for the iPad on the other end and watched the dizzying image on the screen as the iPad was passed from Ida to Ruth.
    “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with that theory, Lexy,” Ruth said.
    “Oh, why is that?” Lexy, Nans, and Cassie all exchanged a look.
    “I did some checking on Westmore’s background and I think you can safely rule out the notion of him having an affair with Amanda Scott-Saunders-Evan Westmore is gay.”

    ###

    “I hope Nans is okay doing some surveillance on Corinne. I would’ve done it myself, but I have so much work here.”   Lexy spread her arms to indicate their kitchen in Bakery Battles Stadium.
    Cassie placed two large bowls on the baking table and pulled a stand mixer out from the corner. “Are you kidding? She lives for this stuff. She’ll be fine. Besides, we need this win to recover from the disastrous wedding cake challenge.”
    “I know, there’s only one challenge left after this and we need all the points we can get to win the contest, since the points from all the challenges are added up to determine the overall winner.” Lexy went over to the refrigerator and started piling her arms high with eggs, butter, and milk.  
    She dropped the ingredients onto the counter near Cassie, then went over to her pantry area for flour and sugar. The pantry was next to Aurea Pearce’s kitchen. She couldn’t help but sneak a peek through the wire shelving to see what Aurea was concocting. Much to her surprise, the kitchen was empty.
    Lexy narrowed her eyes in curiosity. “I wonder why Aurea isn’t over there baking? Surely she must have pies to bake for the challenge?”
    Cassie craned her neck to look over into the booth. “That is strange. Maybe she’s just taking a break.”
    “Now that we’ve discovered that Evan Westmore and Amanda Saunders couldn’t have been having an affair, that only leaves us with Aurea and Corinne as suspects. At least that I know of…”
      “Maybe you can get friendly with that cute Detective Ryan and find out if he has any other suspects. Besides you, I mean.”
      Lexi felt her stomach clench as she realized she was still a suspect. She wondered if Nik Stone and Jake Ryan knew Westmore was gay. If they did, they might eliminate Westmore and Peter Saunders from the suspect list, and that didn’t leave too many people. She’d have to work faster to clear herself before their list whittled down to just one suspect - her!
    Lexy cut up some ice-cold butter into tiny chunks and put them in the food processor with flour, salt and sugar. She pulsed the mixture until it looked like small crumbles, then added a tiny bit of ice water, alternating pulsing and adding small amounts of water until the dough started to clump together.
      Thinking back to her investigation of Westmore’s office she remembered the picture of him and the other tuxedo-clad gentleman. With a   jolt, she realized the other person must have been his significant other. Lexy kicked herself for not picking up on it at the time.
    “I feel so discouraged now that Peter Saunders and Evan Westmore are out of the running in the suspect race.” Lexy had spent a lot of time thinking about their motives, and now she felt like she was back to square one. “Although, just because Amanda Scott-Saunders wasn’t having an affair didn’t mean Peter Saunders didn’t kill her.”  
    “True, they did have at least one fight that he admits to and what was with her new