Bake, Battle & Roll (13 page)

Nans pulled the V.I.P. passes out of her giant purse and handed them out so each of them could show their ticket and be let inside. Since the event wasn’t open for the general public, there wasn’t a lot of people, but those that were there seemed to be quite busy.

It was sectioned off into booths each about ten by twenty and with a post that held boxy electrical outlets. The contestants were setting up their tents and tables and getting their cookware in order. Lexy remembered that Rat had said they weren’t allowed to start cooking until noon tomorrow. She figured most of the contestants wanted to make sure they had everything in good order tonight so they could get right into cooking first thing the next day.

“So you didn’t find out anything today when you followed Marchesi?” Lexy said once they were far enough away from anyone who might overhear.

“No,” Nans said. “It was boring. Helen fell asleep in the back seat.”

“He stayed in the hotel and went out once to the grocery store. Bought a lot of beans,” Ida added.

“But you got a good look at him, right? So you’ll recognize him if you see him here.”

“Oh we got a good look,” Nans said, craning her neck to scan the area. “But I don’t see him here.”

“How about we go logically down the rows and check out each booth?” Ruth asked.

“Okay, we’ll start at this end.” Lexy pointed to a booth in the corner. “Then go up and down the rows.”

They started toward the end and Lexy felt a tingle at the base of her neck.
Was someone watching her?
She turned around but didn’t see anyone. Probably just nerves about what might happen if they have a run-in with Marchesi, she thought.

They walked the rows methodically. Lexy noticed a lot of the contestants had special canopies with their names. Probably not unusual considering the amount of money at stake. She wondered if some of them were professional contestants or just people that liked to make chili.

Nans stopped in front of a booth that had a tropical looking canopy with “Chilin’ Chili” written on it in scrolly letters. The canopy was turquoise and pink and the contestants inside had matching aprons. Even their crock pots were turquoise. 

“This looks like a fun booth,” Nans said.

One of the aproned contestants smiled over at Nans. “It is. We even give out small margarita samples.” She nodded to the stack of cups.

A second lady glanced up. “Be sure to come back tomorrow for the tasting … and vote for us!”

Nans winked at Lexy as they continued down the row. “I know the first place I’ll be heading to tomorrow night.”

They passed more interesting booths. “Hot to Taught” was manned by teachers and “It’s a Gas” claimed to have the hottest—and gassiest—chili in the contest. 

As they walked the rows, Lexy couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. She kept looking behind her, but didn’t see anyone.

They found Rat, Snake and the others in a booth in the third row. Nans rushed right over and Lexy watched the four older women exchange high-fives with the six bikers.

Lexy noticed their tent was a plain white color with Dugasse written in script on an awning that hung on the front. The guys wore plain black aprons and Rat shuffled around inside, placing items in one spot, then moving them a few seconds later.

“What’s that for?” Ruth asked pointing to a large grill they had setup in the corner.

“We’re going to warm the cornbread up on it so it will be lightly grilled.” Rat smiled proudly. “It’s going to be the best cornbread in the contest.”

“Over here we have the crockpots … this is where we’ll start the beans in the secret sauce right at noon.” Snake pointed to a table with rows of mismatched crockpots on it. Lexy wondered if the boys had attended every yard sale in a ten mile radius to amass the odd collection.

“And over here we’ll cook up the meat.” Weasel walked over to a stove plate that sat on another table. 

“Then we mix it all together with vegetables and put it back in the crockpot to simmer for a few hours,” Rat said.

“Sounds like you guys have it all worked out.” Nans looked around the booth, then lowered her voice. “Have you seen Marchesi?”

“No, we were afraid he might come by and bother us, but nothing so far. I’m not sure he even knows who we are.” Rat shrugged.

“But if he tries anything, he’ll be sorry,” Snake said, pointing to a stack of baseball bats in the corner. 

“I heard his booth was in the very last row,” Rat said.

“We should go check it out. He doesn’t know who we are so maybe we can interrogate him and get him to slip up,” Ida said.

Lexy mashed her brows together. “Interrogate him? That might not be such a good idea.” 

“Oh, I didn’t mean in an obvious way, dear,” Ida said. “You know us old ladies have a way of interrogating people without them realizing it.”

Lexy gave a half nod. She had to admit, being an octogenarian did have its advantages, one of which was that people paid little attention to what you asked and tended to spill their guts before they even realized what they were saying.

Nans clapped her hands together and started toward the aisle. “Shall we?”

Ruth, Ida, Helen and Lexy said a quick good-bye to the bikers and followed her out. She made her way down to the end of the row and skipped over the next one heading straight for the last row of booths. Lexy followed along, ignoring the feeling that she was being watched.

She rounded the corner to see Nans standing in front of one of the booths.

“Here it is.” Nans pointed up at the awning which said Marchesi in block letters along with a black and white line drawing of the chef.

“No one is here.” Ida looked deflated.

Lexy glanced around. The booth was blocked off, with tables set up around the edges where one would normally enter. The back had tables too and those were loaded with high tech stainless steel crockpots and racks of spices. On one of the tables close to them was a picture of Marchesi in his chef’s uniform in the kitchen.

Lexy picked up the picture. “So this is him?”

Nans looked over her shoulder. “Yep. Looks like he’s in his restaurant or something.”

“Who’s that other guy next to him?” Helen asked.

“I don’t know … wait a minute.” Nans grabbed the picture from Lexy and held it close to her face.

“It couldn’t be …” Her voice trailed off as she set the picture down and dug in her purse. She produced something wrapped in a tissue, her eyes lighting up as she unwrapped the tissue and looked inside.

“It is!” 

“Is what?” Lexy asked.

Nans laid the object flat in her palm and Lexy recognized it as the bloodied scrap of fabric she’d found under the dumpster. 

“The pattern on this fabric matches the pattern on that guy’s shirt in the picture … exactly.” Nans emphasized the last word by stabbing her index finger at the man standing next to Marchesi in the picture.

Lexy squinted, comparing the two fabrics and her stomach lurched … Nans was right. 

Ida gasped her eyes riveting between the scrap of fabric and the picture. “That’s it! He’s the killer!”

###

“Shhh!” Nans looked at Ida. “This doesn’t
prove
that he’s the killer … just that he has the same shirt.”

“Actually, we don’t even know that swatch is
from
the killer,” Lexy said.

“It could have been there before the murder,” Ruth reminded them.

“We probably shouldn’t have taken it.” Lexy’s stomach sank. “Now Payne will have no way to tie this to the scene of the crime.”

“Yeah, it’s unlikely that he’ll believe us if we suddenly come forward and say we found it there,” Ruth said.

“Maybe the best thing to do is to give this to Weasel. He had a cousin on the police force. He might know what to do about it.”

Nans frowned down at the swatch. “Yeah, probably. I guess we’ll just have to find some other evidence or get Marchesi to admit to it.”

“Too bad we couldn’t catch him trying to steal the recipe or threatening Rat and the gang.”

“Does he even know that Rat is Dugasse’s son?”

“Not according to what Rat said earlier,” Lexy answered.

“So, for all we know, he thinks he’s got the contest all tied up since Dugasse is dead,” Ruth said.

“Which is good because when killers think they are in the clear, they tend to let their guard down,” Ida added.

“Well, let's get this swatch back to Weasel.” Nans wrapped the fabric back in the tissue and put it in her purse. “We can come back to the booth tomorrow when Marchesi is sure to be here and see if we can get him to admit to being the killer … or at least having his henchman do it.”

As they turned to head back down the aisle, Lexy’s heart jolted when she caught a glimpse of someone ducking out of sight at the end of the row. 

“Hey! You!” She ran toward the person but when she got to the end no one was there—just a crowd of people milling about the area looking in the various booths.

“Damn!” She stopped and waited for Nans and the ladies to catch up.

“What is it?” Nans asked.

“I thought I saw someone watching us.” Lexy stood on her tip toes scanning the crowd. “I’ve had the feeling someone has been following us all night.”

Nans pursed her lips together. “Interesting … why would someone follow us?”

Lexy shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with Dugasse’s murder.”

Chapter Nineteen

Lexy kept herself busy the next day making extra batches of brownies and cupcakes to keep her mind off the chili contest that night. She was jittery with the feeling that
something
was going to happen and a little nervous at what Nans might to do try to expose Marchesi.

She’d expected detective Payne to show up and read her the riot act about the swatch of fabric. The bikers had been happy to hear about how they had found it and the picture that showed Marchesi’s friend wearing it. Weasel had even whipped out his cell phone and tried to call his cousin on the spot, except there’d been no cell phone service. 

Payne hadn’t graced the kitchen with his appearance by the time Lexy was done with her kitchen duties and she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t know if that meant he just didn’t know about it yet or if she was off the hook, but either way she wasn’t going to have to deal with him today … at least not until they could get a confession or some other clue from Marchesi later on that night. 

Rushing to her cottage to change, Lexy wondered how she was going to get away from Jack to go to the Marchesi booth. Jack wouldn’t approve of Nans interrogating him and she certainly wasn’t going to let Nans and the ladies go without her. God only knew what kind of trouble they could get into.

She showered and changed into a blue tank top and faded jeans. She fed Sprinkles and dug out a big blanket for them to sit on to view the fireworks which were supposed to start shortly after dark.

Lexy felt the corners of her lips curl in a smile thinking of how romantic it would be to lay on the blanket with Jack and watch the fireworks … and also of how leaving Jack on the blanket to ‘save their spot’ would provide the perfect excuse for her venturing off with Nans. 

###

By the time Jack finished showering, Nans, Ruth, Helen, Ida and Ida’s fiancé Norman had come to collect them. They put Sprinkles in her harness and then they all started off toward the field.

“I figure Norman and Jack can get some chili and then save our spots on the blankets.” Ida winked at Lexy. Apparently the older woman had the same idea Lexy did.

They made their way into the event and walked around to a few booths. Lexy wasn’t surprised when Nans went straight to the “Chilin Chili” booth and grabbed margaritas for everyone. The salty tang of the drink flirted with Lexy’s taste buds as the pungent tequila soothed her nerves.

The air was filled with a festive vibe and the smell of spices. Lexy felt good, walking hand in hand with Jack and surrounded by her grandmother and friends, but she still couldn’t shake that niggling feeling that she was being followed.

“It’s getting crowded up on the hill.” Ida pointed to the hillside which was starting to fill up. “Why don’t you and Jack grab some chili, then take the blankets and save us a seat? Us girls wanna walk around a little more.”

“Okay by you?” Norman asked Jack who nodded. Jack and Norman both loved fishing and the two of them had spent most of the vacation doing just that and becoming close friends in the process. 

Lexy knew Jack wasn’t much for milling around in crowds so he was more than happy to take the blanket and Sprinkles and set out for more spacious territory. He gave Lexy a quick peck on the cheek and off they went.

“Now, let's get down to business,” Nans whispered after they were out of hearing range. She turned and walked briskly toward the very last row where Marchesi’s booth was. Taking a detour to breeze by Rat’s booth, she stopped only long enough to wish him good luck, then continued on to the last row.

Lexy felt a jolt of apprehension as they turned into the last row. The crowd had thinned and it made her feel exposed. She got that hair standing up feeling on the back of her neck again and wished she’d had two—or more—margaritas.

Her heartbeat picked up speed as they approached the Marchesi tent. The crowd seemed oddly disinterested in it which was strange considering Marchesi was supposed to have one of the best chili recipes. As they got up closer to the tent, Lexy found out why.

The tent was closed.

“What the heck?” Nans turned around to face them her arms extended at her sides, palms out.

“Is anyone in there?” Lexy tried to lift one of the flaps but the tent was buttoned up tight as a drum. She managed to lift a corner flap to get a peek inside.

“It’s empty.” She shrugged at Nans and the ladies.

“Well, where could he be?” Ruth looked around.

“Maybe out killing someone else that he thinks might steal the win from him,” Ida whispered.

“Let’s look inside.” Nans tugged on the corner of the flap that Lexy had opened and a few more snaps unsnapped making the opening big enough for them to squeeze in.