Mummified Meringues Read Online Free

Ladies’ Detective Club . People had even started to seek their counsel as private investigators. If anyone could figure out who put the mummy in Jack’s basement, it was Nans and the ladies.
    “I’ll call Nans and get her working on this right away. I know she’ll want in on this.” Lexy grabbed her phone off the kitchen table and dialed.
    “Lexy, dear, how are you?”  
    “Great! I have some exciting news.”
    There was a moment of silence and then Nans ventured, “You’re pregnant?”
    Lexy scrunched her face up. “No, something even better. There’s been a murder and we need to help Jack investigate it.”
    “Oh, really?” Nans voice was infused with interest. “The ladies didn’t mention any new murders.” Nans, Ruth Ida and Helen always seemed to know when there was a new crime of interest in town.
    “That’s because it just happened … well, sort of.” Lexy told her how they had discovered the mummy when cleaning out Jack’s basement. “Isn’t that great?”
    Silence crackled in Lexy’s ear. She held the phone out and looked at the display. Still connected. “Nans?”
    “Sorry, dear,” Nans said. “You were breaking up. Did you say something about your mother? I know she’s been having trouble with the RV.”
    Lexy’s stomach twisted—another reason for her to find the killer and close the case so the house could be sold. “No. I said we found a mummified body sealed up in Jack’s basement.”
    “Sorry … crackle crackle … nection … bad. We’ll have to talk tomorrow. I’m running out for the night and will be busy until tomorrow afternoon … crackle … crackle .”
    And then the line went dead.
    “What was that all about? Is she going to help?” Jack asked.
      “Yeah, I guess so. I think we just had a bad connection so I’m not sure she heard what I was saying.”
    “Oh. Well, I’m sure she’ll want to help. I can’t picture her not wanting to investigate a juicy crime that happened right in her backyard.”
    “Right. Of course, she will. I’ll fill her in tomorrow when we have a better connection.” Lexy stared at the phone in her hand. Nans must not have been able to hear what she was saying, otherwise she was sure the older woman would have ditched all her plans and come straight over. But Nans had put her off until tomorrow afternoon.  
    The connection must have been bad—Lexy had even heard the crackling … except the crackling seemed oddly familiar. It sounded just like the ‘crackling’ that sometimes happened when Lexy wanted to cut the phone conversations with her mother short. The ones she manufactured by crinkling candy bar wrappers next to the phone and dropping words on purpose.
    Lexy never realized how much that sounded like real static because the static on the phone call with Nans must have been real. Otherwise, that would mean that Nans was using the same trick Lexy used … and why would Nans want to crinkle candy bar wrappers to fake a bad connection?

    ***

    “I don’t know why Nans isn’t answering.” Lexy frowned at her phone, then slipped it into the pocket of her vintage, rose pattern apron.
    “Maybe she’s just busy,” her bakery assistant, Cassie, said without looking up from her task of frosting a three-tier wedding cake they’d been commissioned to bake for a local wedding. Lexy sighed, watching Cassie’s pink-tipped, blonde, spiked hair bob up and down with her efforts. The two girls had been best friends since high school and Nans was like a second grandmother to Cassie. She was probably right—Nans did have quite an active social life.  
    Looking around the kitchen of The Cup and Cake from her spot in the doorway, Lexy felt a swell of pride. The stainless steel appliances gleamed, the floors and counters were scrubbed clean and the air was spiced with the sweet smell of baking. It was her dream come true, thanks to her parents. They had loaned her a large sum of money to open the bakery when they’d sold their home