Free Dying for Danish by Leighann Dobbs

murdered.” Nans said, “also, we need to find out who Chastine’s secret lover was.”
    Lexy ushered the ladies into the car and got behind the wheel. She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. They were no closer to solving the murder than they had been that morning. Quite the opposite, in fact, they had come to the wake hoping to narrow things down and had ended up with even more suspects than when they started!
     
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    Lexy sat at the counter in the back of the bakery sorting through the mountain of mail which had accumulated over the past few days. When she got to an envelope with red edges, she felt her heart freeze. It was from the appliance vendor. She ripped it open letting the envelope drift to the floor.
    It was due in seven days!
    Lexy looked around the kitchen, she couldn't risk having that payment held up by the Toliver murder any longer. She needed to get down to business and catch Chastine’s killer. The only problem was, she still had no idea who might have done it.
    She reached into a drawer, pulling out a pen and paper. Mentally running through the list of suspects, she tried to figure out who would be most likely. The people from Texas were a long shot, although, if Bob's daughter could be found, and she was here at the time of the murder, she would be a likely candidate.
    She wrote Bob's daughter down on the paper with an asterisk next to it. Then below it wrote Dinty Carter with a dash next to his name.
    Lexy had her doubts about Xavier discovering Chastine had a lover and killing her over it - he seemed genuinely upset about her death. She wrote his name down on the paper and lightly crossed it out.
    Chastine’s lover was another suspect. Lexy wondered if she actually did have one or if it was just a rumor. It seemed foolish for the woman to jeopardize her upcoming marriage by cheating on Xavier, but Lexy added “Chastine’s lover” to the list just in case.
    Trixie could have done it. She certainly was taking advantage of Chastine’s death to rekindle her relationship with Xavier. The incentive of marrying into all that money could easily justify murder in some peoples eyes. Lexy wrote Trixie’s name down on the list under Xavier's and put an asterisk next to it.
    Finally, her thoughts turned to Bronson and Blake. Either one of them could have done it. They had means, motive and opportunity so she added their names at the bottom.
    She studied the list. Seven suspects. They all had a motive. She figured she could narrow down the list by crossing off the ones who had an alibi for the time of the murder.
    Of course, she had no idea who two of the suspects even were, which could make it a little difficult. Maybe she should focus on the ones she did know. The question was which one to focus on first.
     Her thoughts were interrupted by the trilling of her phone. It was Nans.
    "Hi, Nans," Lexy chirped into the phone.
    "Morning!" The older woman bubbled."We have some information about some of the suspects. I wanted to let you know right away.”
    Lexy felt her heart grow lighter - she was already making progress!
    "Ruth checked with the local hotels. Your friend Dinty Carter and his posse from Texas, arrived only yesterday. She also found out they flew in on a private jet - apparently Dinty has some money. But since the jet only flew in yesterday they couldn't have murdered Chastine."
    "Great!" Lexy gingerly crossed Dinty Carter's name off the list.
    "And there's more," Nans continued, "Trixie couldn't have murdered her either because she was seen at an after party by hundreds of people. Her picture was even in the paper."
    "An after party?"
    "Yes Trixie is an actress in the theater downtown - she plays a small role in their rendition of  A Midsummer Nights Dream , which just opened this weekend. It's common for them to have a party after the play, which tends to go on until all hours of the night. Ida knows the director and some of the other people in the play - she checked