Mummified Meringues Read Online Free Page A

and bought an RV to fulfill their dream of traveling the country.  
    Lexy’s swell of pride deflated into a gnawing of uneasiness as she remembered what Nans had said on the phone the night before. Her parents had been having trouble with the RV. They hadn’t mentioned anything to her, but of course they wouldn’t, because they wouldn’t want her to worry. This made it even more important for her to get cracking on this case, so they could put Jack’s house up for sale. Her parents had given her the ability to live out her dream and she didn’t want their dream to suffer because they needed RV repairs. She had to pay them back right away, which meant she’d have to start investigating today, whether Nans wanted to help or not.
    But first, she needed to try a variation of her meringue recipe. She glanced out at the front of the shop. The cafe tables set up next to the large window were all empty, giving her a clear view to the waterfall across the street. The morning coffee crowd was gone and the lunch-timers hadn’t straggled in yet. She and Cassie usually used this time to bake, each girl taking turns to wait on any customers who wandered in.  
    Lexy caught a whiff of fresh-brewed coffee from the self-serve coffee stations as she turned her attention back to the kitchen. A pile of ingredients waited for her on the six-foot long butcher-block island that ran down the middle of the room.  
    The bells over the front door would alert them if a customer came in, so she made her way to the table and grabbed four eggs from the basket where she’d placed them hours ago so they could acclimate to room temperature.  
    “It’s strange that Nans isn’t jumping all over this. She must have heard about it through the grapevine by now, even if she didn’t understand my call last night,” Lexy said as she cracked the eggs, expertly separating the whites from the yolks. “Did John mention anything to you about it?”
    Lexy often relied on Cassie to give her the scoop on various cases she was interested in because Jack was incredibly tight-lipped about police business. Luckily, Jack’s partner, John Darling, wasn’t as tight-lipped and, since he was married to Cassie, Lexy easily found out about the goings on down at the Brook Ridge Falls Police Department.
    Cassie rolled her eyes. “He said Davies is acting like she found Jimmy Hoffa.”
    “Jeez, I hope she doesn’t screw things up. She told Jack he was a suspect!”
    “I know.” Cassie stuck a tiny silver ball into the center of a flower on the cake. “John said that was just standard procedure. He’s sure Jack will be cleared once they sift through the clues.”
    Lexy added salt, cream of tartar and a little vanilla extract to the egg whites, set the hand mixer inside the bowl and turned it on.
    “Anyway, I’m stopping over at Nans after I get this new recipe in the oven. Will you watch the shop for me?” Lexy yelled over the sound of the beater.
    “Of course.” Cassie glanced up from her work. “So, tell me, what does a mummy look like, exactly, and how does a body get that way?”
    “Brown and leathery … I was surprised, but it really did look a lot like an old Egyptian mummy. I guess that’s what happens when a body is sealed up with not a lot of air circulation.”
    “You’d think it would have smelled all this time.”
    “It probably did at first.” Lexy turned off the beater and stuck a spoon into the egg white mixture, pulled it out slowly and watched the resulting peak carefully. It stood straight up. Perfect. She checked her recipe notes, which she’d adjusted to use a pinch more sugar than the ones she’d made the day before. She measured the sugar into a cup. “Jack said it would be long past smelling by now.”
    “It must have smelled at first, though … you’d think the neighbors would have noticed.”
    Lexy poured a little of the sugar into the egg mixture and turned the beater on again. “Jack said he thought it might have been