STILL NOT SURE? HERE'S SOME EXCERPTS:

Lexy took a nibble of the pistachio biscotti. The crunch of the biscuit sounded like music to her ears. The sweet taste of the cookie combined with the contrasting creamy, soft bitterness of the dark chocolate coating created a riot of sensations in her mouth.

“Please take one, I’m trying out a new recipe and I’d love to know what you think,” she mumbled around a mouthful, shoving the tray of biscotti towards the three older women.

Ruth, Helen and Nans each picked up a biscuit, and bit into it noisily. They chewed tentatively at first and Lexy felt a pang of disappointment. Didn’t they like them?

Nans swallowed, then blotted her lips with a napkin. “It’s delicious, dear."

The two other women nodded in agreement.

Lexy relaxed. Creating new recipes was a key to success for her bakery business and she loved trying them out on her grandmother, Nans, and the other ladies because they always provided an honest critique.

“Just the right scheetmess,” Ruth said, slurring the last word, before reaching into her mouth and pushing down on her bottom teeth. She glanced around the table, then shrugged. “Sorry, I have new dentures and they keep slipping out.”

Lexy looked around Nans’s condo while she chewed her biscotti. It was a good size for an “independent living” condo in a retirement complex. Nans had moved here a year ago when she stopped driving so she could be closer to her friends and “the action”. The facility provided a variety of activities and entertainment and had a decent dining room where the residents could get meals if they didn’t feel like cooking.

The large complex had living quarters for senior citizens in various different situations, such as the assisted living facility and the nursing care section. Nans and the other ladies were quite independent and all had their own condos.

They were seated around Nans’s dining room table, situated in between her kitchen and living room, with a view of the entire living area. The morning sun streamed in through the sliding glass door at the other end of the room. Lexy could see water dripping from the snow melting on the roof and hoped it meant winter would soon be releasing its cold grip on the area.

Lexy’s eyes landed on the empty chair across from her.

“Where’s Ida?” she asked, her brows wrinkling together. The four women were usually always together and Lexy found it odd that Ida wasn’t there this morning.

“Oh, she’ll be right along. She had an errand to run,” Nans said, then looking at the plate of biscotti she added, “we’ll save her a couple of biscotti. I’m sure she’ll love them.” 

Lexy nodded and took another dainty bite. Normally she would have devoured most of the biscotti by now, but she’d noticed her jeans were fitting a little tight and figured it might be wise to cut down on the eating.

“Lets get down to business and talk about the Bertram Glumm murder,” Nans said.

Lexy rolled her eyes. Nans, Ruth, Ida and Helen were amateur detectives. Though they were all well past the age of seventy, they still kept active and had been successful in solving many cases. They even had a name for themselves — The Ladies Detective Club. The problem was, they saw murder everywhere.

“You don’t know he was murdered,” Lexy said.

Nans peered at Lexy over the top of her glasses. “Of course he was dear. I think the girls know a murder when they see one.”

Lexy felt a pang of guilt. Nans and the other ladies had been instrumental in helping her solve a few murders, including a couple where Lexy was the main suspect. She had just returned from a national bakery contest in Las Vegas with Nans, where she had managed to win second-prize despite having been one of the suspects in the murder of one of the judges in the contest.

The Ladies Detective Club had helped her solve the case by using old fashioned detective work and communicating on their iPads. Lexy owed it to them to at least listen.

“OK, what have you got?” Lexy grabbed another biscotti. Had she eaten a whole one already?

Ruth pulled out her iPad, fingers at the ready apparently, to record their conversation.

“From what I know, Bertram went into nursing care when we were in Vegas, and passed away suspiciously the day before we came home,” Nans said.

“That’s right. Bertram was only seventy-one. He was healthy as a horse. In fact, he lived just two doors down from me,” Helen said, her eyes wide.

Lexy wrinkled her brow. “If he was healthy as a horse, what was he doing in the nursing care section? And why aren’t the police looking into his death?”

Ruth’s lips pressed together. “The police are just passing it off as another old person dying. They didn’t even do an autopsy!”

“Yeah, you know how they can be,” Nans said, then looking at Lexy, “not your Jack, of course. He’d listen to us…or to you.” She raised her eyebrows.

Lexy felt her cheeks grow warm at the mention of Jack. She’d been dating Detective Jack Perillo for almost a year now and, while he might listen to her about other things, he had made it clear that he took a dim view of her investigating murders. She felt her stomach clench, realizing that she’d be in hot water with him if he knew what they were discussing.

“Anyway,” Nans continued, “Bertram slipped on the ice and broke his leg. He lives alone and couldn’t manage on his own. He was in immense pain, so they put him in the nursing section ’til he could care for himself. They had only planned to keep him there for a week.” 

Lexy narrowed her eyes in thought. Nans could be right—she usually was.

“But why would someone want to kill him?” Lexy asked stating the obvious question.

Before anyone could answer, the door to Nans’s condo flew open and Ida tumbled inside.

“Ladies, grab your coats. There’s been another murder!”