Wedded Blintz Read Free Page A

lowered her voice. “Never mind about that though, I have something exciting to tell you.”
    “Oh? What?”
    “Remember how I told you I was bringing my dress back to Chez Philippe tonight?”
    “Yeeees.” Nans drew out the middle of the word.
    “Well, you won’t believe what I found,” Lexy said.
    “What?” Nans was starting to sound aggravated and Lexy could almost picture her making a circling gesture with her hand to indicate Lexy should move it along.
    “Philippe Montague and Veronica Maynard.” Lexy paused for effect.
    “In a compromising position?” Nans asked sounding much more interested.
    “No. Dead.”  
    Nans gasped on the other end of the phone. “Did you say dead?”
    “Yep.”
    “But who would want to kill them?” Nans asked.
    “That’s what I was wondering,” Lexy said. “Jack’s inside investigating the scene right now.”
    “What? And you’re not in there?” Nans practically yelled into the phone.
    “No. He told me to stay here.” Lexy looked over at the doorway again. She really wanted to know what was going on in there.
    “You need to get in there and listen to what they are saying. Find out what the clues are. Memorize the crime scene,” Nans instructed. “Otherwise, how do you expect us to solve the murders?”
    Lexy pressed her lips together trying to remember Jack’s words. He hadn’t actually said not to go in there, he’d just said not to leave. Which meant it was perfectly fine for her to go in.
    “Okay, I’m going in. I’ll call you later.”
    Lexy snapped the phone shut, walked over to the shop door, opened it and strode in like she belonged there.

    ***

    No one questioned her entrance, so Lexy snuck into the back room and slid into a corner, wedging herself in between a dress form and the counter. The form was fully clothed in a hoop skirt wedding gown, which she hoped would hide her.
    Jack was busy bending over the body with John and the medical examiner, Naomi Sprigs. Several crime scene investigators were busy taking pictures, dusting for prints and putting down yellow plastic cards with numbers on them. No one paid any attention to her.  
    She craned her neck to see what was going on over by the bodies. Naomi was pointing at different parts of the bodies, presumably the parts where the blood was coming out. With a start, Lexy realized she didn’t even know what had killed them. She tilted her ear toward the trio, hoping to hear what they were saying.
    “… gunshot wound here … and here,” Naomi said.
    John stood up and walked to the back of the room. Lexy noticed there was a back door right behind him. He made a motion like he was holding a gun. Some of his words drifted over to Lexy.  
    “ … Killer … stood …”
    From what she could gather, he was saying the killer must have come in the back door and stood where John was, firing the shots from there. So they were killed with a gun.  
    “Then, he probably ran back out.” Jack’s deep baritone carried over to Lexy.
    Naomi stood up and pointed to something on the opposite side of the bodies. “Well, then, what about that?”
    “And these.” A crime scene tech pointed to several places on the floor leading out into the front room.
    Lexy craned to see what she was pointing at. She cringed when she saw the smudged area of blood and subsequent footprints leading to the front, realizing it was she who had smudged the blood. Looking down at her shoe, she recoiled when she saw the smear of dark red on tan suede. Her elbow jerked out and hit the dress form, which teetered precariously before crashing loudly to the floor.
    Everyone in the room jerked their heads in Lexy’s direction making her feel like she’d been caught running naked down Main Street. Her cheeks burned and she managed a smile and finger wave.
    “Lexy? What are you doing in here?” Jack’s forehead pleated between dark masculine brows.
    “Oh, I thought you said to stick around …” Lexy plastered a look of innocence