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wrinkled. “What do you mean?”
    “She’s ruthless and cunning. She’ll do anything to win a contest. Some say she’d just as soon kill you as give up the blue ribbon.” Helen thrust her chin out at Ida. “Just ask Ida.”
    Lexy raised a brow at Ida.
    Ida nodded. “Yep. I went up against her in the Old Home Day pea-shooting contest back in fifty-five … or was it fifty-six? Well, whatever year it was, she was mean as a stuck toad and I’m sure the passing decades haven’t made her any nicer.”
    “Pea-shooting?” Lexy stared at Ida.
    “Yeah. You know, you take a hollow tube and put a pea in, then blow. I used to be the champion shooter. Won every contest for decades.” Ida’s chin tilted up proudly. “I have very good lungs.”
    “But then Violet showed up and blew Ida out of the water. No pun intended.” Helen giggled.
    Ida sighed. “She sure can shoot far, but it was the way she went about it. Following me and sizing me up. Then she would try to intimidate me into bowing out.” Ida pressed her lips together. “But I do have to admit she won fair and square. ‘Course they don’t have that contest anymore.”
    “Right, I think they replaced that with the cherry pit spitting contest,” Ruth said.
    “She wins that one, too.”
    “And she bakes, too?” Lexy asked.
    “Bakes, gardens, knits.” Ida picked a cookie up from her napkin. “You name it and Violet is into it.”
    “Well, I’m not afraid of some old lady that can shoot a pea through a straw,” Lexy said.  
    “No? You just wait. Anyway, we know that’s not the main reason you came.” Ruth leaned toward her and lowered her voice. “Our informant down at BRFPD told us about the mummy and we figured you’d be coming by.”
    “Been sitting here waiting on ‘ya,” Ida added.
    “Oh, good,” Lexy said. “I called Nans last night first thing, but I guess we had a bad connection. I’m surprised she’s not here waiting, too. I’m sure she must have heard about the mummy by now.”
    “Yeah, her new boyfriend must be more interesting,” Ida cackled.
    “We can get started without her,” Helen said. “Tell us what you know.”
    Lexy glanced around the room. The other tables were empty, but two gray-haired men sat in the lounge chairs, watching the big screen TV that was turned up to an annoyingly high volume.  
    “Oh, don’t mind them.” Helen waved her hand toward the two men. “They’re deaf as doornails. Won’t hear a word we’re saying.”
    Lexy told the ladies about how they’d found the mummy and Jack’s theory about the builder. Then she went on to describe her visit earlier with the McDonalds. “And, of course, Davies said that Jack is a suspect.”
    “Oh, dear! That’s crazy,” Helen said as she bit into the chocolate kiss meringue.
    “Well, a dead body was found in his basement.”
    “But surely they can tell it was put there before he moved in … I mean, that must have been what happened, right?” Ruth asked.
    “If Jack is a suspect, that’s all the more reason for The Ladies’ Detective Club to investigate and help clear his name,” Ida said.
    That’s right.” Ruth pressed her lips together and tapped them with her index finger. “Are you sure the previous owners weren’t hiding something from you? If they’re the killers, they might be very clever.”
    “They’re just a nice old couple,” Lexy said. “It couldn’t be them. Plus, they didn’t seem to have a clue of what I was talking about. And anyway, Jack said he figured it would be the builder since he would have had a perfect opportunity to make that secret room and hide the body when he was building the house.”  
    Ida frowned down at her half-eaten meringue cookie. “Wouldn’t the smell of a decaying body hamper the sale?”
    Lexy shrugged. “I guess he might have stalled the sale until that smell was gone.”
    “What about the other people coming on the job site?” Ruth asked. “Or the neighbors. Surely, someone would