Scones, Skulls & Scams Read Online Free Page B

He would be expecting her home soon.  
    “I guess we’d better be going.” Lexy shoved her arms through the sleeves of her coat then the two of them went back out the door to where their cars were parked behind the bakery.  
    Lexy glanced across the narrow parking lot toward The Brew and Bake . “I have a funny feeling something strange is going on over there—it seems like someone is going to an awful lot of trouble just to win a baking contest for a bakery that doesn’t even bake its own pastries.”

Chapter Five

    The next morning, Lexy noticed the sewer workers were back in full force. They’d closed down the street, causing her to take a detour to get to the bakery from the other end of the road.
    Walking from her car to the back door of the bakery, she resigned herself to another day of low sales. At least the other bakery would suffer the same predicament, since the whole street was blocked off this time.
    She figured the sewer workers were putting in an extra effort to make up for the lost day yesterday, which reminded her that Nans would be coming to grill her about any information Jack had given up regarding the skull. She’d better hurry if she wanted to get scones baked and sugar cookie dough out of the freezer to thaw before she got sidetracked with Nans.
    Focused on her thoughts, Lexy didn’t notice the door hanging slightly open until she tried to insert her key and the door swung inward without her even having to unlock it.
    Her blood froze as her eyes registered the splintered wood around the lock—someone had broken in!
    She stood in the doorway for a few seconds and then took two tentative steps inside.  
    “Hello?”
    No one answered, so she made her way toward the kitchen, her heart sinking when she saw the mess. Cookbooks lay spread open and her recipe box had been torn apart. Recipes lay in messy piles on the counters and spilling onto the floor.
    Reaching in her coat pocket for her cell phone, she ran to the front of the store expecting to see smashed display cases and food all over the place, but the front room looked just as she’d left it the night before. Either whoever broke in had run out of time and never made it to the front room, or they’d found whatever they were looking for in the kitchen and didn’t need to look further.
    Her shaky fingers managed to find Jack on her contacts list and she pressed the button to call him.
    “Perillo,” he answered in the voice he reserved for police business.
    “Jack, it’s me,” Lexy said in a rushed, breathless voice. “The bakery’s been broken into!”
    “What?” Lexy could hear alarm in Jack’s voice. “Are you okay?”
    “Yes, I came in this morning and the door had been broken. The kitchen’s messed up, but the front room is okay. I guess whoever did it is long gone.” Lexy glanced across the street at The Brew and Bake.
    “Okay, you stay put and I’ll be right over with a crime unit,” Jack said, then added, “And don’t touch anything.”
    Lexy heard a sound behind her and whirled around just in time to see Cassie stop short in front of the opening to the kitchen.
    “What the heck?” Cassie’s mouth fell open. She turned wide eyes in Lexy’s direction.
    “Looks like we’ve been broken into,” Lexy said. “The lock on the back door was jimmied.”
    “What? Why?” Cassie sputtered. “Did they take anything?”
    “I don’t know … Jack said not to touch anything, but I don’t think it can hurt if we look around a little.”
    Lexy followed Cassie back into the kitchen. “What a mess.”
    “I don’t see anything missing. I mean the blenders are all here, the equipment is in place.” Cassie gestured around the room. “The only thing out of place is all this paper.”
    “The recipes.”
    Cassie frowned down at the pile on the floor. “Wait. You don’t think …?
    “I sure do.”  
    Best friends since high school, the girls had an uncanny way of being able to read each other’s thoughts. She knew