Read Brutal Brûlée (Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Book 11) for Free Online

nodded. “I’ve never made a rule about that. Most of the help has the common sense not to carry their phones around when they're working.”
    “ Meow! ” Houdini mashed his face up against the outside of one of the French doors that led to the lower garden.
    “My word, that cat is everywhere!” Ruth walked over to let him in, stopping at a potted plant whose sickly brown leaves were drooping to the floor. “This peace lily could use some care.”
    Once inside, Houdini ran over to Violet who scooped him up in her arms, petting him soothingly.
    Back at the window, Ruth fussed with the plant. She was really getting into this gardening thing, thought Lexy. Nans glanced over at her, a frown creasing her forehead. Maybe Nans didn’t like the way Ruth’s new obsession with plants was distracting her from their amateur detecting activities.
    “Any-whoo,” Ida broke into everyone’s thoughts, clearly eager to get on with the investigation. “It sounds like this Karen is suspect numero uno.”
    “I wonder if Garrity knows?” Helen asked.
    “That should be easy enough to find out.” Nans tilted her chin toward the door that led to the hallway, and Lexy saw Jack and Inspector Garrity walking toward them.
    Violet dropped Houdini, who landed on the floor with a soft thud and a belligerent meow, then she opened the door for Jack and Garrity. “What is it inspector Garrity? Have you carted Karen off to jail?”
    “No.”
    “Why ever not?”
    “No reason to put her in jail.”
    Nans frowned at Garrity. “We heard she might have some questionable motives.”
    Garrity looked at Jack. “You were right. They were investigating. Do they do this all the time?”
    Jack shrugged. “Yep. I’m sorry to tell you there’s no stopping them, you might as well just join forces with them.”
    Garrity nodded slowly as he considered it. “Okay. I’ll bite. You tell me what you know and I’ll tell you what I know.”
    Ruth, Ida and Helen exchanged a look. Each gave a slight nod to Nans, who then described their visit with Darlene and how she'd admitted that Karen had paid her to make up a story so Karen could replace her at the mansion.
    Garrity listened intently nodding his head. “Well that corroborates what she told me.”
    “So, she is the killer?” Violet sank into one of the wicker cushioned chairs, her hand fluttered around her neck. “Oh dear, I hired a killer.”
    “I didn’t say that,” Garrity said. “I said the story of her paying Darlene corroborates what Karen told me.”
    A look of confusion crossed Helen’s face. “She’s not the killer?”
    Garrity shook his head. “I don’t think so. She did pay Darlene to get this job here. But it actually wasn’t for her. It was for the management of the production company that is doing this documentary.”
    “Why would they do that?” Nans asked.
    “It seems there's a mole in the company. Someone is passing along the documentary ideas to a rival production company. Apparently, good ideas are worth a lot of money. But they don’t know who it is, so upper management hired Karen to infiltrate and see if she could ferret out the mole.”
    “And that’s why she paid off Darlene?” Violet asked.
    “Yep. The company gave Karen the money to pay Darlene, and Darlene persuaded you to hire her.”
    “Are you sure she’s not just making that up, you know, so you’ll let her go and she can make a getaway?” Ida asked.
    Garrity’s face twisted comically. “Gee, I didn’t think of that.” He paused then leveled Ida with a look. “Naturally we made a phone call and checked it out. She’s legit. But I’d appreciate it if you ladies didn’t tell anyone. It’s in our best interest to keep that secret while the investigation is on-going. If the killer thinks we suspect Karen, he might get sloppy and screw up.”
    “That’s why she was being so secretive on the phone and why she didn’t really have any relevant experience,” Lexy said.
    “That’s