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A Twist In The Tail. A Whisker In The Dark. A Purrfect Alibi

1. A TWIST IN THE TAIL

One

I should have known by the unsettling tone of the cat’s meows that disaster was looming. Of course, at the time I was more worried about how the guests liked breakfast. It was only the fourth one I’d served since officially becoming owner of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.

They seemed to be enjoying it. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was nothing fancy. Bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, and lemon poppy seed muffins were the extent of my culinary expertise. Quite frankly, I might have misjudged whether my cooking skills were up to par when entering into this agreement. Maybe I should have read the fine print in the documents I’d received from Millie Sullivan, the elderly former owner.

Even though the breakfasts weren’t five-star cuisine, I hadn’t had any complaints from my first batch of guests. Well, all except one. Charles Prescott. He was the reason I was now hovering in the doorway holding an antique egg cup with a perfectly warm soft-boiled egg nestled inside.

Charles had complained about his egg yesterday. It was too cold. He was quite loud about it, too. Since I aimed to please, this morning I had perfectly timed the egg for his pre-announced 8 am arrival in the dining room. It was now 8:05… where was Charles?

My eyes scanned the room just in case I’d missed him. But my guest count totaled five, including Charles, and four were seated and already digging into their breakfast. It was easy to tell who was there and who was not, even in such an enormous room.

Several small dining tables with white linen tablecloths sat atop a massive moss-green and gold oriental rug. Curtains in a complimentary green and gold silk framed the ten-foot-tall windows that offered a birds-eye view of the sparkling Maine Atlantic ocean and craggy rocks of Oyster Cove. It was summer, and Flora—who I was coming to realize was the world’s worst maid—had opened one window. A soft breeze fluttered the drapes and carried in the salty scent of the ocean and the cry of gulls in the distance… or was that the cats?

Ron and Iona Weatherby sat a small table located by the window. The adorable elderly couple had binoculars dangling from their necks and cameras at their sides. Ron was slathering the muffin with butter while Iona picked daintily at the fluffy scrambled eggs. They were a delightful couple who had come here for birdwatching and photography. Perfect guests with no complaints.

Near the buffet, Ava Grantham sat alone at a table for four. Ava was in her mid-60s. A society columnist, she was a thin, bird-like woman who noticed everything that went on. She was pleasant enough to talk to and told me she’d been vacationing in Oyster Cove since she was a child, even staying at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse a few times when Millie owned it. Her plate was loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages. I wondered how she stayed so thin.

Over by the door was the fourth guest, Tina Reeves. She was younger than the others, probably in her mid-30s, a bubbly blonde with wide blue eyes. She said she’d come to visit relatives, but I had suspicions that she had another agenda, of what I just wasn’t exactly sure. Nor did it matter. As long as the guests paid the bill, I didn’t care what they were up to. Tina had flawless skin and a figure like an hourglass, and no wonder. She only had about a tablespoon of scrambled eggs and three blueberries on her plate.

Still no sign of Charles. I was just deciding what to do about the rapidly cooling egg in my hand when I heard the front door open. Maybe Charles had gone out for a walk before breakfast? I backed up and stuck my head into the hallway.

Darn! It wasn’t Charles. It was Barbara Littlefield, the town building inspector, and the last person I wanted to deal with right now. She’d been a thorn in my side ever since I started renovations on the old mansion. Nothing I did pleased her, and she’d already fined me for two violations that a nicer person would have overlooked. It was too late to duck back into the dining room. She’d already spotted me and was marching down the hall toward me, a sour look on her face. I stepped into the hallway to head her off so she didn’t disrupt the guests’ breakfasts.

‘Barbara, how lovely to see you,’ I lied.

Barbara’s scowl deepened. ‘I just came to double-check the permit for the gazebo outside and I noticed—’

Merow!

Barbara jerked her head toward the dining room.‘Do you have cats in the dining room?’

I stepped aside to let her see in.‘Of course not.’

‘Good, because that would be a health code violation.’

Merooo!

Was it my imagination or were the cats’ cries getting louder and more insistent?

Barbara frowned down the hallway, where it sounded like the cats’ latest cry had come from. ‘Wait a minute. That sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. That’s even worse!’

Barbara stormed down the hall. I hurried after her, still balancing the egg cup in my hand. Some things are more important than Charles Prescott and his egg– like making sure the board of health didn’t shut me down for having animals in the kitchen.

‘It’s not coming from the kitchen.’ At least, I hoped it wasn’t. It actuallywas coming from that direction, but I was pretty sure it was from the West wing of the mansion, which had been closed off for extensive renovations. Not that the cats didn’t hang around in the kitchen—they did. I just hoped they weren’t in there right now.

‘I think you’re right.’ Barbara stopped and frowned at me. ‘I thought I made it clear that decrepit wing was supposed to be closed down so no one could get in there.’

See what I mean? I just couldn’t win with this woman. You’d think she’d be happy the cats weren’t in the kitchen, but no, she’d found something else to complain about.

‘Itis blocked off. To people. Cats are sneaky and can get into anything.’ Couldn’t they? I wasn’t exactly sure. I’d only owned the guesthouse, and, thus, the cats, for a short time, and had no idea what those furry little monsters could get up to. They’d been fairly well-behaved so far, but the way they stared at me — with their luminous, intelligent eyes —always made me feel like they were up to something behind my back. I didn’t have much experience with cats, but Millie had assured me they made great companions. Thus far, I’d been too busy learning the ropes of running the guesthouse to spend time getting to know them.

Feelings of guilt crept in. I promised Millie I would take good care of the cats, but judging by the sounds of their meows, they were in some sort of distress. I hoped one of them hadn’t found its way into the closed-off wing and been hurt. It was a mess in there, and not safe.

Mee-yow!

We continued down the hall. It felt like it was taking a long time to traverse, but that was because it really was quite long. The placewasa mansion after all. Gigantic. It had been built by shipping magnet Jedediah Biddeford 300 years ago. I’d bought it from Millie Sullivan—my mother’s best friend—whose family had owned it for the last 125 years. Judging by the looks of the West wing, that was the last time that section of the house had been updated too. Don’t even get me started on the condition of the caretakers’ cottageand carriage house.

The cats were really starting to caterwaul now, and I was getting worried. Barbara surged ahead of me, then stopped at the doorway to the West wing and turned to scowl at me.

‘I thought you said this was blocked off.’ She gestured toward the door, which was cracked open. I swore I’d locked it shut several days ago.

The large black and white tuxedo cat, Nero, stood in the doorway looking up at me with his striking green eyes, as if to ask‘what took you so long?’ The tortie, Marlowe, rubbed her face on my ankle. At least they weren’t hurt, even though the thought of hurting them myself for causing all this trouble did briefly cross my mind.

‘I don’t know how this got open. Maybe the handyman?’ The handyman was Millie’s nephew, Mike Sullivan. I’d known he was bad news since fifth grade and would never have engaged his services, but Millie had hired him to fix some things up before I’d bought the guesthouse. The work was already paid for and I couldn’t afford to turn that down. I couldn’t wait to get rid of him, though. ‘He’s probably working in here. I’ll check.’

‘Nice try, but this still violates code 401 of the state statute.’ Barbara whipped out her notebook, presumably to write up a violation.

Great. This was just what I didn’t need. And to top it off, the stupid soft-boiled egg was now cold. I switched it to my left hand and reached out my right to shut the door. ‘Maybe you could overlook it just this once? It wasn’t open that long and—’

Nero let out a wail and launched himself at the door before I could pull it shut. The door crashed open, revealing the rundown state of the West wing. Dust mites floated in the air, cobwebs hung from the chandeliers, water stains marred the walls. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was what lay at the bottom of the stairway. It was a body. Charles Prescott’s to be exact. And he was deathly still.

Two

I rushed over to the body. You may think most people would be put off by a body, and that the natural inclination would be to run in the opposite direction. But I’d been halfway to a promising career as a medical examiner when I’d given everything up in favor of my ex-husband’s culinary career and raising our daughter, Emma. I didn’t regret staying home for Emma. The marriage was another story. Apparently, my old medical training had kicked in. I wanted to see if anything could be done, even though it was evident by his pasty skin tone and blankly staring eyes that it was too late.

I felt for a pulse. Nothing. Charles was gone. At least he wouldn’t care that his egg had cooled, which was a good thing because it was now rolling around the floor. I must’ve dropped it in my haste to get to the body.

Talk about inconvenient. Not only did I have a dilapidated mansion and no money to repair it with, two cats I barely knew how to care for and a building inspector salivating to write me up for even the most innocent of violations, I now also had a dead body on my hands.

Of course, it was inconvenient for Charles too. A wave of sadness washed over me. Sure, they guy had been a bit of a pain, but he didn’t deserve to die. I felt selfish worrying about my own problems when poor Charles had lost his life.

A momentary depression descended over me as I saw my plans for success evaporating right before my eyes. And not just financial success. There was much more than money at stake here. I’d spent most of my adult life in the shadow of my ex-husband, Clive Stonefield, a semi-famous chef. His parting words about how I was nothing without him still stung. I had been determined to prove him wrong.

The Oyster Cove Guesthouse was my opportunity to shine. My chance to prove that I, too, could be successful. I’d put all my money and hopes into this purchase and ithad to work. At forty-six, I wasn’t getting any younger and this could be my last chance.

How much could a dead body hurt business? Didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to let this signal my defeat. I was going to consider it an opportunity to prove that I could succeed no matter what. After all, my daughter was just making her way in the world and I had to be a good role model.

The rustle of paper brought me out of my reverie. Barbara had whipped out her notebook and was flipping through it, probably trying to find the exact section of the building code that a dead body violated so she could write me up.

‘He’s dead. We better call the police,’ I said.

Barbara looked up from her notebook, her hawk-like gaze focusing on the stairway.‘It’s no wonder. Look at how the stairway collapsed.’ Her eyes narrowed, she craned her neck forward, pulling her phone from her pocket. ‘Looks like dry rot to me. This place is uninhabitable.’

I glanced at the stairs as Barbara dialed the police. She had a point. Jagged edges of splintered wood stuck up where the treads had broken through. The entire banister lay on the floor, though half of it had fallen away before I even bought the place. The stairs hadn’t been in good condition before this. Now, they were a disaster. But that was why I had this section of the house blocked off. Only a fool would try to navigate those stairs, which brought up two questions… how had Charles gotten in here? And why?

I didn’t know what Jedediah Biddeford had been thinking when he built this place. It could have easily housed four families. Maybe he’d planned to raise several generations here. The place was enormous, with several staircases and two kitchens. Over the years, parts of it had fallen into disrepair.

Millie had told me her family had closed off the West wing a generation ago and she’d had a hard time keeping up with the rest of it. That’s why she’d sold it at such a discount. Well, that and the fact that she wanted more time to go gallivanting around town causing trouble with my 78-year-old mother. Keeping an eye on her was the second reason I’d been compelled to moveback to my home town of Oyster Cove, the first being getting away from my ex.

At least the cats had quieted down. They were now sniffing around the room as if they were furry CSIs looking for clues. Nero was paying quite a bit of attention to the globe-shaped newel post that had rolled over in to the corner. Marlowe was sitting beside him and watching.

‘Well, I’ll be a monkey’s hiney. Is that Prescott?’ Ava Grantham appeared in the doorway, her eyes riveted on the body. Darn it! I was hoping to keep this from the guests, lest they flee the guesthouse demanding a refund.

‘Just a little accident,’ I trilled. ‘Go on back to the dining room. I’ll put out more muffins.’

But it was too late. The Weatherbys emerged beside Ava.

Iona gasped as she fumbled with her binoculars.‘My word! What happened?’

Ron slid his arm around her and held her tight.‘Don’t look, dear.’

I summoned my nothings-wrong-go-on-your-way voice.‘Just an accident folks. Nothing to see here, really.’

‘Not a surprise either,’ Barbara said, pointing out the broken stairs. ‘Safety hazard. You people should be careful here.’

Great. That was just what I needed, Barbara telling people that the guesthouse wasn’t safe.

‘Someone should call the police,’ Ron Weatherby said, then in a lower voice. ‘Though in a small town like this, I wonder how effective they’ll be at investigating the condition of those stairs.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Barbara said a bit too gleefully as she whipped out her phone.

‘What’s going on I… Eek!’ Tina had come to join the crowd. Her eyes were even bigger than usual. Her hand flew up to her mouth as she stared at Charles. The high-pitched squeak she’d emitted had the cats riveting their heads in her direction, their whiskers twitching. ‘Is that a dead body?’

Ron Weatherby transferred his attentions to Tina. He put a fatherly arm around her and patted her shoulder.‘Now, now young lady this is nothing for you to see. Let the missus and I take you into the dining room and get you some tea.’

‘Great idea,’ I said. ‘We’ll only be a minute here and then everyone can forget all about this.’

Finally, the area cleared out. I closed my eyes, willing the police to hurry before anyone else happened by. No such luck.

‘What’s going on? I was up fixing the sink in the sand dollar room and I—’ Mike Sullivan skidded to a stop in front of the door, his eyes widening as they flicked from the body to my face. ‘Sunshine, what happened?’

The last person I wanted to deal with right now was Mike Sullivan. Mike and I went way back. I mean,way back. He’d been my brother Tommy’s best friend growing up. I’d known him practically since I was in diapers, and the nickname ‘Sunshine’ wasn’t a term of endearment. It had come about because I wasn’t exactly a morning person as a teenager. Mike and Tommy had teased me about my morning grumpiness by calling me Sunshine.

Not for the first time, I wished he would hurry up with the work Millie had paid him to do. I didn’t like the dimple-inducing smirk on his face when he called me Sunshine, or the way it made his whiskey-brown eyes twinkle with mischief.

‘One of the guests had an accident,’ I said.

Mike came to my side.‘Are you okay?’

My heart almost melted at the tone of genuine concern in his voice until I remembered what a pain in the neck he’d been when I was younger. Especially that time when I’d heard he was going to ask me to the junior prom. Then he changed his mind and asked slutty Stella Dumont instead. Not that I really cared that much, now. That was decades ago and I’d been married and divorced since then, but the adolescent sting of rejection never goes away. Mike never married, but who knew how many ‘Sunshines’ he’d gone through in all those years. Since he’d spent most of his time touring the world in the Navy, I assumed it was plenty.

I swatted him away.‘Of course I’m okay. I’m not the one who had the accident.’

‘Make way! Make way!’ voices demanded from the hallway. They belonged to my mother and Millie, proving that just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. I should’ve known they’d be here. They had a police scanner app on their cell phones and showed up at almost every crime scene, usually before the police did.

‘Glory be, Josie, is this any way to treat the guests?’ As soon as Millie stepped in the room, Nero and Marlowe swiveled their attention to their previous owner. They trotted over, winding around her ankles and purring as she bent down to pet the cats in a movement that belied her age.

Her eyes fell on the egg cup.‘Oh, Grandma Tower’s china egg cup. Why is this on the floor?’ It was a miracle it hadn’t broken. At least I still had some luck left.

‘Not to mention the egg.’ My mother picked up the soft-boiled egg and looked from Mike to me. ‘You young people sure get up to strange things.’

‘We weren’t up to anything. I dropped the egg when I found Charles.’ I inclined my head toward the body.

‘Oh.’ My mother’s gaze moved to Charles’ body, over which Millie was now standing. You’d think my mother and her best friend would be shocked to see a dead body, but apparently all the crime scenes they’d attended had hardened them.

‘I don’t think this will be good for business.’ Millie tore her gaze from the body and glanced back at the doorway, where Ava Grantham still stood. ‘You’re not going to put this in the paper, are you Ava?’

Ava made a face and waved her hand dismissively.‘Of course not. I write society columns, not obituaries.’

‘Good. Now what we need to do is secure the area. Make sure it doesn’t get contaminated,’ Millie said.

‘And we need some gloves.’ My mother turned to me. ‘Josie do you have any gloves? Like maybe those yellow dishwashing gloves that Flora uses?’

‘I, err…’ I’d never seen Flora wearing yellow gloves, but that might be because she refused to do dishes.

‘And paper bags,’ Millie added.

Before I could say anything, there was a commotion at the front door. The police were here.

‘We’re down here!’ Millie yelled.

‘Don’t worry, we’ve secured the scene,’ Mom added.

Seth Chamberlain, the Oyster Cove sheriff, appeared in the doorway. I wasn’t sure how he kept getting elected because he was older than my mother and Millie and about as effective in fighting crime. Given the way my mom and Millie had turned into elderly CSIs, maybe that was a compliment. Anyway, rumor had it that Seth was just such a nice guy that people kept voting for him. Besides, there was hardly any crime in Oyster Cove.

‘I don’t see any prints in the dust here.’ Millie pointed at the dusty steps.

‘And we haven’t determined how the killer got in or out,’ Mom added.

Killer? Surely my mother was being overly dramatic.

‘Killer? It’s obvious the guy just fell down the stairs. They’re unsafe!’ Barbara crowed.

‘Now ladies, I’m perfectly capable of determining what happened here,’ Seth’s tone was gruff, but I could tell by the way he looked at Millie that he had the hots for her and she could get away with just about anything.

Millie blushed and fussed with her curly cotton-white hairdo.‘Why, we were just trying to help.’

‘I know. That was nice of you. Now how about everyone clear the area and give us room to work.’ Seth ushered us out.

I went willingly, my mind whirling with my mother’s insinuation. I felt bad that Charles had died, but I had to wonder… would it be better for business if someone had killed him as opposed to him falling down unsafe stairs?

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Nero licked his paw and washed behind his ear as he watched the humans leave. Worry and guilt gnawed at him. Death had come to the guesthouse and he hadn’t noticed until it was too late.

‘I hope Millie isn’t too disappointed in us, but we sent out the alert as soon as we smelled death. It’s not our fault Josie is slow in understanding our communications.’ Marlowe swished her tail, her eyes on Seth Chamberlain, who was inspecting the body.

‘Indeed.’ Nero continued washing. He took pains to keep his fur shiny and silky. Even a cat on his sixth life liked to look good. You never knew when a sultry Siamese or a cute Cornish Rex might be favorable to his attentions. ‘But perhaps we could have prevented this before it happened. Murder is not good for business.’

Marlowe jerked her head in Nero’s direction. ‘Murder? But this is an accident. Look at the stairs.’

‘Things are not always as they seem.’ Even though the situation was not ideal for the Oyster Cove Guesthouse—not to mention it not being ideal for Charles Prescott—Nero wasn’t about to pass up a chance to share some of his wisdom with the younger cat.

Nero had been watching over the Guesthouse for decades now. He’d wandered past the aged estate one day and knew it should be his home. Millie’s senior memory prevented her from realizing the cat had been there much longer than any normal cat would have lived. In those decades, he’d become very protective of the Guesthouse.

Marlowe had joined more recently. Nero had to admit he had been a bit put-out when Millie had brought Marlowe home as a young kit she’d found abandoned under a bush at the shopping mall about ten years ago, but over time he’d grown found of his young protege. Besides he had to have someone to pass his wisdom on to. And she could be good company. Sometimes.

Marlowe’s eyes widened. ‘You mean you’ve seen a clue that someone else was here?’

Nero simply nodded. Over at the body, Seth was taking care to leave things as undisturbed as possible for the medical examiner. The deputy, Johnnie Sanders, was taking pictures and the part-timer Sheila Watts was taking notes. Nero was glad they hadn’t noticed them and shooed them out. Cats weren’t usually welcome at crime scenes, but he’d learned that he could make himself practically invisible to humans if he was quiet and slowly slunk around, low to the ground. It worked well for sneaking into rooms and buildings too, though getting out could be a challenge if the humans shut the doors on you.

‘You think he came through that door up there and the stairs simply gave way?’ Sheila pointed to the tops of the stairs.

‘Looks that way.’ Sheriff Chamberlain leaned closer to the broken stairway. ‘These treads are rotted and the banister must have fallen off.’

‘That might have even happened before.’ Sheila inspected the edges of some upper treads still intact. ‘There’s dust here in the holes, so I think part of the banister might have fallen off long ago.’

‘Even more dangerous.’ Seth looked at the body. ‘What kind of fool would attempt these stairs, especially with no railing?’

Nero glanced at Marlowe. He wished the young cat would hurry up and find the clue before Seth Chamberlain made a faulty decision about the manner in which Charles Prescott met his maker. Honestly it was too bad that humans only had one life, otherwise Charles would be walking around in no time, and they wouldn’t have this problem on their hands.

‘Did you notice anything unusual last night?’ Nero asked. ‘I was chasing mice in the attic and catnapping in between courses. I didn’t hear a thing.’ He was only into the early part of his sixth life, and certainly not anywhere near the age his hearing should be going.

Marlowe shot him a sheepish glance.‘I… err… I may have gone down to the wharf.’

Nero raised a brow.‘You don’t say?’ He didn’t want to get into Marlowe’s nightly activities. Girls would be girls. He could already see that the cat felt guilty, and he wasn’t her parent, just her mentor.

‘I just hope we haven’t let Millie down,’ Marlowe said.

‘Yes, it’s unfortunate this has happened so soon after she entrusted the future of the guesthouse to us,’ Nero said.

Marlowe hung her head.‘We have failed our first important task.’

‘We may still be able to redeem ourselves. If we can help solve this quickly, it may not hurt things too badly. You know what a short-term memory humans have. The sooner the case is closed, the sooner they will move their attentions to something else. Making sure the guesthouse survives is of utmost importance. Millie entrusted that task to us.’ Nero frowned. ‘I do wish it didn’t come with that human Josie. She isn’t as savvy as Millie.’

Marlowe continued sniffing the perimeter of the room.‘Yeah, but she does come in handy for doing the menial work like a laundry, cleaning and cooking. And apparently since she came with the guesthouse, we need to be as loyal to her as we were to Millie.’

Nero nodded.‘I agree about the loyalty part. The cooking part needs work. She’s always burning things. Not like our Millie.’

‘As long as she fills our dishes.’

Nero joined Marlowe in sniffing.‘Have you picked up the scent of a stranger?’

‘No. Just the usual people and those who were in here this morning. Josie, Millie, Charles, Mike, Barbara Littlefield. There is something spicy, but I can’t quite place it. Oh, and Stella Dumont.’

Nero nodded sagely. Stella Dumont owned Smugglers Bay, just over the crest of the hill. They could even see the gulls that circled her deck from the side yard. Darn nuisance those gulls were. Apparently she’d been coming around the guesthouse to see Mike. ‘Yes, but we already know she comes here often.’

‘True, but I hope it is Stella that snuck in, because that would help us immensely. She owns a rival inn, and if she was out of the way, that might mean more guests would come here.’

Nero swished his tail thoughtfully.‘Indeed. Perhaps Stella was thinking that a dead body marring the reputation of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse would bring more business toher place.’

Marlowe narrowed her eyes.‘Yes, she could be the culprit.’

‘Are you sure thereis a culprit?’ Nero asked.

‘Wait, I thought you said there was.’

‘Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. You need to investigate.’

‘You mean look at the clues. The stairs. The things the police are taking pictures of.’

Nero nodded.‘But perhaps they are not looking at something they should be. They are investigating under their assumption that he fell down the stairs.’

‘Oh right!’ Marlowe was quick on the uptake. She turned her attention away from the stairs, sniffing along the edge of the wall, where a pile of debris lay – railing for the stairs, wall paper that had fallen off the wall and a metal wall sconce. She stopped when she came to the newel post cap—a large metal ball with a point at the end.

It had been before his time, but Nero’s fine senses told him that before this wing had gone to ruin, the staircase had been a focal point, with honey oak stairs and a scrolled railing that ended in the carved newel post, the gilt globe sitting atop. He could almost picture the ladies in their gowns descending to the room once filledwith velvet sofas and mahogany side tables. He figured the rounded top of the newel post had been an ornamental focal point of the stairway. Last night, someone had found a more sinister use for it.

Marlowe sniffed the round cap a few times, then shot Nero a triumphant look.‘There’s blood on here, but the post is not near the body. Charles couldn’t have hit his head on it during the fall.’

Nero nodded in satisfaction.‘Very good, little one. Now how do we alert the police to our findings?’

‘Easy.’ Marlowe put her paw on the post, pushed and let out a howl.

Seth, Sheila and Johnny jerked their heads in Marlowe’s direction as the ball rolled toward them.

‘Hey, you cats shoo! We’re investigating!’ Sheila made shooing motions with her hands.

‘Yes, you cats shouldn’t be here.’ Seth tried to sound menacing, but Nero knew the sheriff liked cats, because sometimes he fed them donut holes from his police cruiser when no one was looking.

Nero trotted over to the ball and looked up at Seth.‘Meow!’

Seth’s gaze flicked from Nero to the ball. Then he squinted and craned his neck forward. Johnny was about to pick the ball up when Seth shot a hand out to stop him. ‘Hold on.’

Seth’s knees popped as he squatted. He pulled a pair of reading glasses out of his top pocket and slid them on his nose, squinting at the ball.

‘What is it?’ Sheila was still shooing the cats with her hands.

Seth glanced back at the body, then at the stairs, then pointed at a dark spot on the ball.‘Guess these cats do come in handy. This here looks like blood. And if I’m not mistaken, this round piece matches the indentation on the back of the victim’s head. I think we’ve got a murder on our hands.’

Three

‘Murder? Why, I can’t believe it!’ Millie said after Seth had given us the bad news. Mom, Millie and I had adjourned to the parlor and were settling into the overstuffed chairs arranged around a low marble-topped table as a private seating area.

Barbara had rushed off, probably to file a complaint against me. Or maybe she was poring over the town statutes to see what kind of fine one can dole out when a person has a guest murdered in her guesthouse. Tina had taken the news of the murder very hard and the Weatherbys had taken her upstairs with Ava, after stopping in the dining room for a snack.

‘It’s awful.’ My mother looked at me. ‘Who do you think would have wanted him dead?

‘He’s been staying here a few days. Did you notice him arguing with anyone?’ Millie asked.

Just me.‘Not really. He kept to himself mostly.’

‘Hmm… what about the other guests, have they been acting suspiciously?’

Had they? I had been too busy trying not to burn breakfast and dealing with Barbara Littlefield to notice.‘I don’t think so. Quite frankly I’ve had my hands full. And now this, and who knows what kind of a punishment Barbara is cooking up. Do you think she can have the guesthouse shut down?’

‘Why would she do that?’ Millie asked.

‘I don’t know, it seems like she has it in for me. I try to do everything to the codes and still she persists on finding things wrong.’

‘Well, she is very strict about the building codes dear, but it’s for a good reason. I’m sure she doesn’t have anything against you personally.’ My mother patted my arm. ‘It’s all for the good of the town. She wants to maintain the quaint atmosphere.’

Millie nodded.‘She can be a stickler, but she’s protecting us. I mean, look at the good she did with those lousewort plants.’

‘She was instrumental in putting a stop to that big hotel on the cliff – what do you think would’ve happened to the guesthouse if that had been built?’ My mother glanced out the window in the direction of the shore.

I had to give Barbara that. Last summer, she’d discovered growing up on the cliffs a plant, very rare in Maine, called Furbish’s Lousewort. She formed a committee and petitioned the state to declare the area where it grew protected, and in the nick of time. Some big conglomerate had been finalizing plans to build a huge hotel up there.

‘But why be so hard on the guesthouse? It’s one of the oldest buildings in town and I fully intend to renovate it in keeping with the way it was back in the day.’

‘You left town, so you’re sort of an outsider in Barbara’s eyes. She doesn’t trust you yet. Give her time.’ The cats came in and trotted over to Millie without even giving me a glance. Guess they forgot who their owner was now. I had to admit I was a little bit jealous of the way they settled in on Millie’s lap.

‘I guess the cats prefer their old owner,’ I said, earning a cold glare from Nero.

‘Owner?’ Millie was aghast. ‘Cats don’t have owners, dear, it’s the other way around. The sooner you realize that, the better your relationship with them will be.’

Nero shot me a smug look and then curled up and went to sleep.

‘I have to say, though, I don’t know what this town is coming to,’ my mother said. ‘First dead gulls then dead people.’

‘Now Rose. Don’t you worry,’ Millie said. ‘Why there’s been hardly any problems here in town for decades. We’re due and now that we’ve had these two pieces of bad luck it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out.’

I hoped Millie was right. I had invested everything I had into the purchase of the guesthouse and was counting on it being filled with guests for the summer season. The dead seagulls weren’t a problem for me though. Gulls generally stayed away from the guesthouse, possibly because of the cats. If that were the case, I’d have to thank them. Seagulls could be annoying pests and I didn’t want them swooping around and driving away business. While I didn’t wish harm on any of God’s creatures, I wasn’t going to cry about fewer gulls. Then again, having dead birds wash up on the beach, like they had been doing lately, wasn’t very attractive to tourists either.

There was a sound at the door and I turned to see Mike.

‘I thought I heard you, Auntie.’ Mike gave Millie a peck on the cheek then turned to my mother. ‘Rose, how are you?’

‘Just fine Michael. Tommy said to say hi to you by the way.’

Mike winked at me and rolled his eyes. My mom had been calling him Michael since childhood, no matter how many times he told her he preferred Mike.‘How is Tommy doing?’

My mother rolled her eyes.‘Good, except he seems to think Maine is too far to come for a visit.’

My brother Tommy had moved to Florida a few years ago and now claimed Maine was too cold for him and only came to visit twice a year. I personally thought maybe he didn’t come often because Mom’s antics with the crime scenes and all were a bit much for him. Luckily, I was here to try to reign her in… not that that was working out very well.

Mike gave my mother a sympathetic look and turned to me.‘Hey Sunshine, I heard about the police verdict that your guest was actually murdered. I was wondering if I could do anything to help?’

‘I don’t think I really need any help, do I?’

Mike shrugged.‘I don’t know, but I’ll tell you one thing, I’m almost positive someone messed with those stairs.’

I frowned.‘Why would someone do that?’

‘To mask the murder of course, dear,’ Millie said, as if I was some kind of a dunce.

My mother nodded.‘Yes of course. They were probably hoping Sheriff Chamberlain would say that it was an accident.’

Huh, that was interesting. He almostdid say it was an accident… and hadn’t Ron Weatherby mentioned that small town police forces usually didn’t have the capacity to investigate thoroughly? I hoped that wouldn’t be the case here, a murder was bad enough but an unsolved one was even worse.

‘What kind of tampering do you mean?’ I asked Mike. If someone had murdered Charles on purpose, then tried to stage it as an accident, they would’ve spent a bit of time in that room. But that section had been blocked off, the doors locked. I supposed anyone could have picked the lock, and thesounds of tools echoing through the guesthouse wasn’t uncommon since Mike was working on repairs.

‘The stairs were pretty rotten, but it looked like someone helped them along. The way the boards broke look like they were snapped in two as opposed to breaking from the pressure of someone standing on them. And, the nails had been pulled up.’

I wasn’t sure what to do with this information. Tell the police? Could they figure that out on their own? And what did Mike know about stairs anyway? Sure, he was doing carpentry work here, and he seemed to be doing a good job, but he’d been a Navy officer before. Carpentry was just a sideline.

I was just about to open my mouth to say as much when Flora bustled in, her white orthopedic shoes squeaking as she sashayed toward Mike.

Flora was a skinny elderly woman with gigantic round glasses that made her eyes owlish. When Millie had sold me the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, she’d said that Flora had been the maid for fifty years and depended on the money. I mean, who can live on social security? I assumed that meant she actually did some cleaning, and since I was from out of town and didn’t know of anyone else, I agreed to keep her on. The joke was on me. Since I’dbeen here she’d managed to wiggle out of every job I’d tasked her with. Naturally, I didn’t have to keep her on, but who could fire a little old lady with thirty-two grandchildren? I didn’t have the heart for it. Maybe someday when funds allowed I’d get another maid that actually worked.

‘Mr. Mike, are you done in the sand dollar room?’ Flora blinked up at him. It was a long ways up, too, since Flora was about four feet tall and Mike was over six.

Mike smiled down at her, turning on that boyish charm that I remembered from long ago. Apparently it wasn’t only reserved for young girls. Of course that kind of charm didn’t work on me anymore but it worked on Flora, who practically swooned. ‘I am. Did I leave too much of a mess in there?’

Flora shook her head.‘Oh no. I’m happy to clean up anything you leave.’

My mouth practically fell open. Since when was Flora happy to clean?

Mike bent down and gave her a little kiss on her papery cheek.‘Thanks. You let me know if it’s too much.’ He turned to me. ‘And you let me know if I can help out, Sunshine.’

We all watched him leave, Flora’s gaze on a specific part of his body clad in faded jeans. As soon as he cleared the door, Flora turned to me, a scowl on her face.

‘I hope you don’t have any ideas about me cleaning up that mess in the West wing. I do not do crime scenes.’

And with that she turned and left the room, brushing past Ava Grantham in the doorway.

‘I’ve just been upstairs and Tina is finally settled down. Young people these days, they can’t handle anything worth a monkey’s patootie. Good thing those Weatherbys have clear heads. Your sheriff is up in Prescott’s room. He’ll be interviewing all of us soon.’ She pulled a straight back chair over and plopped down in it. ‘Honestly, I’m not surprised someone murdered Prescott.’

‘You’re not?’ We asked in unison.

Ava shook her head.‘Nope, not at all. He was a nasty man.’

My mother and Millie exchanged a glance.

‘You knew him?’ Millie asked.

‘Of course.’ Ava pointed to herself. ‘This old bird’s been around for a while. We worked together on a few newspapers.’

‘Charles worked in news? Was he a writer?’ I asked.

Ava gave me a funny look.‘You don’t know who he was?’

I didn’t like the way that sounded. Was Charles someone I was supposed to know? Knowing someone who’d been murdered in my guesthouse might not be good for business… or my freedom.

‘No idea,’ I said.

‘Charles Prescott was the Laughing Gourmet. You know… the food critic and chef.’

Darn! I probablyshould have known who he was. Hadn’t Clay—my ex—mentioned his name before? The truth was, I really hadn’t paid much attention to what was going on with the ex’s chef job in the later years.

When we were first married I’d been very involved. Always eating at his restaurants and going out to events with him, but then Emma came along and we agreed my focus should be on taking care of her needs. I started paying less and less attention to what was going on with the ex, because his career was going well and he was working his way to the top of his field. Little did I know he was also working his way to the top of a succession of pretty female sous chefs.

‘I might have heard of him,’ I said.

‘Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t. Truth is, he’s not that popular anymore.’ She leaned forward. ‘His column is barely read nowadays. It got cancelled from the paper we both worked on last year. Heard he was hurting for money, too. Rumor has it he was writing some fancy pantscookbook full of innovative and unusual recipes that he thought would make him rich.’

Millie’s brows shot up to her hairline. She looked at my mom. ‘Money? That’s usually a motive for murder.’

Mom opened her mouth, but before she could reply, footsteps pounded down the front stairs. Seth Chamberlain appeared in the doorway holding a plastic bag in his hand. Inside the bag was what looked like a small piece of paper.

‘What’s that?’ Millie asked.

‘We found this in the victim’s room. Looks like he was writing some sort of a note. And since we discovered that he is a food and hotel critic, it isn’t a big jump to assume the note was about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.’ Seth held the corner of an envelope up. We could see it was part of anote, a few words scrawled on the edge. No, not exactly words, just parts of words. I could make out ‘ull’ and ‘ick’ and ‘son.’

Millie craned her neck forward and squinted.‘That doesn’t look like a review to me.’

Seth turned the bag back to face him.‘Of course it’s not thewholereview. But anyone can put together that he was writing something about the inn being‘dull’ and the food ‘icky.’ The killer clearly took the rest of it because they didn’t want anyone to find it.’ His eyes drilled into mine. ‘And who wouldn’t want someone to find a bad review about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse?’

‘Lots of people,’ Mom chimed in.

‘I didn’t even know who he was until Ava mentioned it just now,’ I said.

Seth made a face.‘You expect me to believe that? Your husband is a famous chef, surely you’d have heard of the Laughing Gourmet.’

My expression turned sheepish.‘I never really paying that much attention to what my husband said.’

Seth didn’t look like he believed me. I had visions of him whipping out handcuffs and hauling me off to jail. Millie must have had the same vision because she stood and went to Seth’s side, possibly to distract him.

‘Josie wouldn’t kill anybody over a review. That’s ridiculous.’ Millie patted his arm.

‘People have killed for less, Millie. You’re too nice.’ Seth beamed at her.

‘Be that as it may, I have known Josie since she was in diapers and she is no killer.’

Seth frowned and swiveled his gaze back to me.‘What about that time she was caught trying to sneak out of the bowling alley with the rental shoes still on?’

Millie waved her hand dismissively‘Teenage hijinks. Besides, stealing shoes can hardly be compared to killing someone. I hope you’re not getting any ideas about arresting Josie. That would be foolish. You have no concrete proof. This isn’t even a letter, just some partial words. You wouldn’t want to arrest the wrong person,would you?’

Seth considered that for a second, then said,‘Maybe arresting the wrong person is better than arresting no person. We haven’t had a murder in this town in more than a hundred years and I think the townsfolk will be nervous and want to know that the police are doing something.’

‘A false arrest will not gain their confidence and it will also ensure that I don’t bake you any more of my blueberry pies.’ Millie let go of his arm and stomped back to her chair.

Seth’s face fell. ‘Okay, fine. But if I get any more evidence that points to you, Miss Josie Waters, you won’t have to worry anymore about what to serve for breakfast to your guests. You’ll be getting served breakfast yourself. Too bad it will be bread and water at the Oyster Cove jail!’

That wasn’t true. I happened to know they served eggs for breakfast there, but I was scared anyway.

Seth left and I exhaled.‘Really? He was going to arrest me because of some partial words on a piece of paper? That’s ridiculous,’ I said. Was it possible that Charles was writing a bad review about the guesthouse? He’d been mad about the egg, but surely that wasn’t enough to write a bad review? Even if it was, why would someone else kill him over it?

‘Of course it is dear,’ Mom assured me.

‘We know you’re no killer. But unfortunately Seth doesn’t have much experience in murder cases. He’ll want this wrapped up as soon as possible. There’s only one thing for us to do.’

‘That’s right.’ Mom pushed up from her chair and headed for the door. ‘We need to figure out who the killer is before Seth tries to arrest Josie again. The best place to start is the victim’s room.’

Four

Nero sunk his paws into the silky blue duvet on Charles Prescott’s bed and fluffed. ‘Now that the police are gone, I hope the humans figure out they need to look in here for clues. If they don’t come up soon, I’m game for a nap. This is my favorite room.’

Charles had been staying in what Nero referred to as‘the blue room.’ As you might have guessed, the room was a lovely shade of light blue. Nero found that the combination of the powder blue and gold silk oriental rug, Victorian-era sky-blue flowered wallpaper and the robin’s egg blue silk bedding to be very relaxing.

The room also had all antique furnishings, handed down from Millie’s ancestors, like the mahogany dresser and the four-poster bed. Nero loved the antiques because they were rich with lingering scents of lemon oil and pride from generations of use, unlike the new stuff that smelled like glue and a quick buck.

Marlowe poked her head in quickly from the adjoining bathroom.‘I wouldn’t be so sure that the humans will come. I don’t think that redhead is too smart.’

‘You mean Josie?’ Nero asked as Marlowe disappeared back into the bathroom to continue the search.

‘Yeah, she said sheowned us. She’s clearly not too quick on the uptake.’ Marlowe’s voice was muffled, likely because she had her head in the trashcan.

‘She’s just oblivious to the ways of felines. I sense that she has a kind heart and I think she’s worth training.’ Nero hopped down from the bed. He’d already canvassed the room for clues and was waiting for Marlowe to catch up. He knew there was one whopper of a clue in the room and wanted to see if the younger cat could figure it out.

‘Train her? You mean by not doing as she asks?’

‘Naturally. And sometimes the exact opposite.’

‘Good idea.’ Marlowe trotted back into the room. She sat on her haunches, licking her front paw. ‘Okay. I noticed a scent that shouldn’t be here.’

‘Indeed,’ Nero said. The young cat was coming along nicely. ‘And what do you make of it?’

‘Well, it’s salty like the sea but also has a tinge of seagull and wet dog. So, I’m guessing our victim was near the ocean and the gulls and possibly visited someone with a dog. Maybe near the cliffs where they nest or on the beach. Those darn seagulls are everywhere.’

The mention of the gulls had Nero cringing.‘Tell me about it. One dive bombed me the other day and I had to do a tuck and roll right out in the middle of the street!’

‘I had to hide under an azalea bush to get away from one.’

‘They’re a nuisance.’

‘They don’t even taste good. Like bland chicken.’

‘And very dry.’

‘Too salty.’

Nero glanced out the window. The room had a partial view of the ocean and he could see the gulls flapping above the Smugglers Bay Inn. Good, let them stay over there. He didn’t mind them so much if they just kept away from him. Live and let live was his motto. ‘But still, they seem to be dying in droves. And I hate to think of anything dying before its time. They only have one life, you know.’

‘True,’ Marlowe sniffed at a pair of tan chinos that lay on the floor. ‘Judging by these pants our victim was up to something sneaky before he died.’

Nero nodded. He had wondered if the other cat would discover the scent of nefarious intention on the human’s pants. That was an advanced sleuthing skill and he was happy to see that Marlowe was mastering it. ‘What do you think our next move is?’

Marlowe raked her claws on the oriental rug. Millie would have a fit if she saw her.‘We must talk to the gang at the wharf. One of them might know something about what our victim was up to.’ Marlowe started for the door.

Nero stayed rooted to his spot. The young cat would have to learn not to be so hasty. There was still something big left to be found.‘Not so fast. There is another clue.’

Marlowe turned back, her green gaze slit.‘There is? I skulked around the whole perimeter of the room and didn’t see anything that is not supposed to be here. Nor did I smell anything other than what I mentioned.’

‘Sometimes when looking for clues, it is not what you see, it’s what youdon’tsee,’ Nero said wisely.

Marlowe rolled her eyes.‘Seriously? Could you be any more vague?’

Nero simply gave her a blank look.

Marlowe sighed.‘Okay fine. I’m making another round.’

Nero watched the young cat carefully as she sniffed the perimeter, coming to stop in front of the small bookcase just as Nero had hoped. The bookcase was only two shelves that Millie had stuffed with a few oldReader’s Digest volumes. It looked like Charles had put those all on one shelf and added his own books to the other.

Marlowe turned around triumphantly.‘Aha! One book is missing.’

Nero nodded.‘Yes, and from the fact that the victim had placed books here in the first place, I think we can conclude that these books were important.’

‘Yeah, I see that. So how are we going to alert the humans?’

‘We’ll have to draw their attention to it somehow. Naturally they will thinkthey made the discovery.’

‘I know! We never get credit,’ Marlowe said. ‘But how should we draw their attention? Hair ball? Incessant meowing? Leaping in the air?’

Nero watched as Marlowe pantomimed all of the above. He was proud that the young cat had figured out the clues, but she could be a little overzealous at times.‘I think this calls for something more subtle. The good old pushing-everything-off-the-top-of-the-bookshelf routine should do the trick.’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

The police had secured Charles’ room with a large ‘X’ of yellow crime scene tape. Was that really necessary? I worried that it would make the other guests nervous.

Millie must have had the same thought because she stopped in front of it.‘Seems overly dramatic to have this here. What does he think this is, a scene fromCastle?’ She ripped the tape off one side and Mom and I followed her into the room.

The first thing I noticed was that the duvet was messed up. It looked like something had been burrowing in it. A movement in the corner of the room caught my eye. The cats.

I was sure Nero was the culprit.‘If you put any tears in that cover I’m not feeding you any more of that nice food with the gravy.’

Millie frowned.‘Josie! That is no way to speak to the cats.’

As if understanding what she said, both cats trotted over to her purring and rubbing against her ankles while casting me angry looks.

‘But they messed up the bed!’ In my defense I had no idea how to talk to them. Should one let them just do whatever they wanted or was there some secret way to get them to obey you?

‘You must never admonish or threaten them,’ Millie said. ‘That will only make things worse. You should speak to them as if they are the superior beings that they are.’

The cats preened and purred.

I looked at Millie out of the corner of my eye. I wasn’t sure if she had said that bit about superior beings for their benefit or if she was serious. If she was serious, then she was crazier than I’d previously thought. I filed that thought away for future reflection.

‘Enough about the cats,’ Mom said. ‘We’re in here looking for clues, right?’ Her gaze fell on a pair of tan pants on the floor. ‘Look, the man couldn’t even pick up his dirty laundry.’

Now what in the world was I supposed to do with those pants? I had no idea what the protocol for dealing with deceased guest’s belongings was. Would the police come and take his things? Should I box them up? How long should I wait? Because judging by the police tape that used to be on the door, I wasn’t even supposed to be in here.

‘I don’t see any computer, that’s usually where the good stuff is.’ Millie looked around the room.

‘I don’t remember him having one,’ I said. Had he? I thought back to when he’d checked in. He’d had a suitcase and a blue paper notebook but no case for a computer.

‘Darn,’ Mom added. ‘Maybe he left another clue.’

‘I say we look to his bureau drawers.’ Millie opened a drawer and started pawing through it.

‘I’ll take the bathroom,’ Mom said.

‘I guess that leaves the rest of the room for me.’ I got down on my hands and knees and peeked under the bed. There was nothing under there but dust bunnies. Not a surprise, I doubted Flora vacuumed under the beds. ‘Just what, exactly, are we looking for?’

Thud.

Over on the other side of the bed, something hit the floor. I jumped up to look. Marlowe was on top of the little bookshelf and apparently angry at the lack of attention. I’d heard that cats could be persnickety that way. She must have decided that a good way to get it was to push the little lighthouse statue off the top of the bookshelf.

‘Hey now, kitty, that’s not necessary for a supreme being such as yourself.’ I tried to temper my voice so it was soft and placating as I strode around the bed and picked up the statue. I was certain that cats responded to the tone of one’s voice and not the words.

‘They can understand sarcasm,’ Millie said from her position crouched on the floor looking in the bottom drawer of the bureau.

I smiled at the cat who looked at me warily. I reached out to pet her and she hissed. I replaced the lighthouse and went over to the closet.

‘No clues in here.’ Millie stood and brushed her hands together. ‘Maybe we should look in between the mattress and the box spring.’

Thud. Mew.

We turned to see that Marlowe had now pushed a candle off the top of the bookcase.

‘Is this some kind of behavioral problem I should be aware of?’ I asked Millie.

‘No dear, they just love to push things onto the floor. Nothing is safe.’

I replaced the candle. I could’ve sworn Marlowe rolled her eyes and looked at me like I was stupid. If you ask me, I wasn’t the stupid one. Pushing things onto the floor when you knew someone would just put them back was stupid.

Nero was much smarter. He’d jumped up on the bed and was curled up on the duvet. ‘Please don’t get cat hair on that.’ I tried to say it with the reverence due a superior being.

‘There’s nothing in this bathroom but shaving cream and toothpaste.’ Mom leaned against the doorframe looking disappointed. ‘How are we going to figure out why someone killed the guy if there are no clues in his room?’

Thunk! Merow!

Marlowe had pushed the alarm clock off the bookshelf.

‘Now Marlowe, really,’ Millie strode over to the bookshelf and petted the cat, who purred and bumped her head up against her hand. ‘She bent to pick up the alarm clock but stopped halfway down. ‘Hey, this doesn’t look right.’

‘What?’ Mom and I joined her. I could see someone had rearranged herReader’s Digest volumes and put different books in.‘Ava told us Charles was writing a cookbook, maybe these are his books for reference or something.’

Meow!

Nero had come over for his portion of attention and was rubbing the side of his face against the corner of one of the books.

‘Huh, looks like there’s a book missing,’ Mom said.

‘Maybe he just didn’t have enough books to fill up the shelf?’ I suggested.

Millie straightened.‘No, I don’t think so.’

Just then Flora sauntered past the room.

‘Hey, Flora!’ Millie yelled.

Flora stopped, backed up a few steps and narrowed her owlish eyes at us.‘Oh no. I don’t clean crime scene rooms. Anything with police tape I don’t go in.’

‘We don’t want you to clean,’ Millie pulled her into the room and dragged her over to the bookcase. ‘Do you remember if this shelf was full?’

Flora shuffled over to the book case and vertebra cracked as she bent to examine the piece of furniture. She stopped with her face only inches from the shelf. She ran her finger along the layer of dust on the edge.‘Yep, must’ve been something there.’

‘You remember that it was full?’ I asked.

‘Nah, my memory isn’t that great. But look at the dust on the edge. If that spot had been empty, there’d be dust in there too and that spot is clean as a whistle.’

Five

Nero breathed deep, savoring the delectable aroma of rotting fish. The bait wharf was one of his favorite places in Oyster Cove. It wasn’t just because the fishermen would sometimes throw them succulent scraps, either. The wharf had a certain ambiance that couldn’t be found anywhere else. From the sounds of the waves lapping on the dock, to the briny scent of sea and the warmth of the sun warming his back.

It was heaven on earth… well, except for the seagulls. They were partial to the bait dock too and, as far as Nero was concerned, created an incessant nuisance with their constant swooping and cawing. A cat had to be careful lest he get knocked into the water. No cat liked that, except for Harry, who loved the occasional saltwater bath.

A shadow darkened Nero’s path from above, and the loud gull cry made him cringe. He crouched, ready to dart under something, but the gull flew past. Looking up into the sky, Nero felt a tinge of sadness. There were fewer gulls than last week and even though he wished they would go swoop somewhere else, he still didn’t like the way their numbers were mysteriously dwindling. He didn’t want them to die off, just to tend to their business elsewhere. Still, he was glad there were no dead gulls at the wharf, last week they’d seen a gull body floating in the water and it was a most unpleasant sight.

Milling about in their usual spot, behind a stack of lobster pots, were five cats. The largest one, a solid gray cat named Poe, was sitting atop an old lobster pot, watching a fishing boat make its way out of the harbor and into the Atlantic.

On the ground next to the pot, Stubbs, an orange striped cat named such because his tail was a short stub, sniffed around the lobster pot for any old scraps of bait. The rumor about him was his tail had been chopped off with a cleaver when he’d been caught stealing an oxtail right from the butcher’s shop, but Stubbs would neither confirm nor deny this.

Boots, a black cat with white paws and somewhat of a snobby attitude sat in the sun grooming his whiskers, as he often did. His whiskers were elegantly long and thick, and they were his pride and joy. Nero had to admit they were lovely, but they were just whiskers after all. The way Boots carried on about them you’d think they were made of gold.

Harry, the large fluffy Maine Coon, was flopped down in the sun snoozing while Juliette, a fluffy gray cat with a white diamond on her forehead, groomed her tail in a quite unladylike manner.

The cats stopped their activities as Nero and Marlowe approached.

‘Heard someone got iced up at the guesthouse,’ Stubbs said. He was prone to using hard-boiled detective slang and Nero often thought that Stubbs’ owner must read too many Dashiell Hammett novels aloud. Then again, perhaps that was why the cat was such a good detective.

‘Unfortunately, it’s true.’ Marlowe trotted over to the lobster pot and peeked inside.

‘Was it murder?’ Boots gave his long whisker an extra tug to emphasize the last word.

Nero’s gut clenched. He was embarrassed that a murder had happened under his very nose. ‘Yes, it was.’

‘Did you see it happen?’ Harry stretched, humping his back up with his front legs out in front of him before trotting over to sit in the circle the cats had formed.

Nero and Marlowe exchanged a guilty glance.‘Neither of us was present at the time.’

‘So you don’t know who the culprit is?’ Poe asked.

Nero shook his head.

‘How was it done? Poison? Gunshot? Stabbed?’ Harry asked.

‘Bludgeoned with a newel post,’ Nero answered.

‘Nasty,’ Juliette shuddered.

‘Who was the vic?’ Stubbs asked.

‘One of the guests at the inn. Charles Prescott,’ Marlowe said.

‘And you didn’t notice anyone unusual? Who’s been hanging around there?’ Poe asked.

‘Well, there is Mike, Millie’s nephew,’ Marlowe said.

‘Oh, not Mike,’ Juliette said. ‘He’s much too handsome. And besides, we all know Millie is one of the good ones and therefore Mike must be too.’

Poe frowned.‘Yes, but what about the new one, Josie? Of course, we all love Rose and Millie, but Josie is an unknown. She’s from away.’

‘She’s not from away.’ Nero felt obligated to defend the new guesthouse keeper even if he wasn’t exactly sure that he liked her himself. ‘She was raised here and moved away to raise her own litter. Now she’s back where she belongs.’

Boots raised a brow.‘So you two like and trust this new human?’

‘Sort of,’ Marlowe ignored the warning look from Nero. ‘She did mention sheowned us… she’s not quite pet-broken yet.’

Harry laughed.‘Ownedyou? She’s new to serving cats then?’

Nero nodded.‘She sort of came with the house when Millie entrusted it to us. We still have much training to do.’

‘Have you tried the severed mouse head routine?’ Harry asked.

‘Not yet. We’re still breaking her in.’

‘What about the pet and scratch routine?’ Sonny referred to the typical routine of acting like you wanted the person to pet you and then scratching them when they did.

‘I’ve done that a few times,’ Marlowe said. ‘It seemed to put her in her place, but then she didn’t want to pet me anymore.’

‘How about refusing to eat? So that she has to bribe you with tasty morsels?’ Stubbs asked. ‘That one always sets the tone as to who is master.’

‘We might try that next.’ Truth was, Nero enjoyed eating too much to try that one. ‘Let’s keep on task here though. We must focus on finding the killer. If we don’t, we may not be training Josie at all, or even have a guesthouse to live in.’

The cats nodded somberly.

‘So you want us to do the usual? Keep our eyes open and scour the town for clues?’ Harry asked.

This wasn’t the first crime the cats had solved. Of course, the humans didn’t realize the cats’ involvement. Nero often thought it would be so much easier if humans would just be more aware. The human’s lack of cat-communication skills made the cats job that much harder because they had to practically hit the humans over the head with clues to make them think it was their idea.

‘Yes, but first I need to know if any of you saw anything out of the ordinary last night,’ Nero said.

The cats watched a sailboat glide past, cutting through the water silently as it made its way under the footbridge at the head of the cove and out past the jetty.

Finally, Juliette spoke.‘It wasn’t last night, but I saw a man up on the cliffs the night before that. It’s quite unusual to see anyone up there, as the path to the cliffs is steep and treacherous.’ Juliette lived with their feline friend Julie at the rectory of St. Michael’s church, which was below the cliffs. She often catnapped in the belfry, which afforded a birds-eye view of the cliffs. That was when the two cats weren’t wreaking havoc in the rectory by spooling toilet paper off the rolls.

‘Are you sure it was a man? It might have been Barbara Littlefield. You know how she mothers that Lousewort.’

The cats all made a face at the mention of the noxious herb. Lousewort smelled like wet dogs and tasted even worse.

Juliette narrowed her luminescent blue eyes.‘Of course I’m sure. I have excellent vision. It was a man and he was short, fat and bald.’

‘That sounds like Charles,’ Marlowe said.

‘And that would explain why he smelled like wet dogs and seagulls,’ Nero added. All the cats knew the seagulls nested near the cliffs and liked to eat the flockenberries that grew on the cliffside.

Nero nodded sagely.‘Indeed, but what was he doing up there and why would that have anything to do with his death?’

‘We’ll have to sniff around town and see what we can dig up,’ Boots said.

‘I’ll listen in on Father Timothy’s confessions. Perhaps the culprit will confess,’ Juliette offered.

‘If only it would be that easy.’ Boots preened his mustache. ‘What we need to do is set our superior brains to thinking of the solution. Are there any other clues?’

‘Only a missing cookbook,’ Nero said. ‘Oh, and it appears that someone was trying to cover the crime up and make it look like an accident. Someone had sabotaged the stairs at the guesthouse to make it look like the victim fell.’

‘And it almost worked except Nero here discovered the truth and we showed the clue to the Sheriff,’ Marlowe said proudly.

‘The Sheriff does need a certain amount of… help,’ Stubbs said.

‘That’s why we need to get cracking on this.’ Nero swished his tail with urgency. ‘We need to find out if there was anything going on with the victim and someone in town. He must have been up to something to get himself killed. Can I count on you guys to scour the town, eavesdrop on all conversations and report back if you hear anything?’

‘Yes!’

‘Certainly.’

‘Of course.’

‘Consider it done.’

‘Good.’ Nero surveyed his gang of feline friends with pride. If there was something to be discovered about Charles’ behavior, they’d ferret it out. He also knew the most important clues would be closer to home. ‘Meanwhile, Marlowe and I will go sniff around the guesthouse and see what we can dig up.’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I didn’t see any sense in doing something that would cause Seth Chamberlain to suspect me any more than he already did, so I was reattaching the crime scene tape to the door when Ava Grantham came down the hall and caught us.

‘Doing a little amateur detective work?’ At first I was worried she might be the type who would tell the police that we were in the room, but her tone was laced with curiosity and her eyes sparkled with mischief, so I doubted she disapproved.

‘No, the tape fell off and I was just reattaching it,’ I said, just in case my assessment of her attitude was wrong.

She surveyed us with narrowed eyes.‘Uh huh…’

Millie didn’t miss a chance to question another suspect. ‘Didn’t you mention that Charles was working on a cookbook?’

Ava shrugged.‘That was the rumor in newspaper circles. Why?’

‘Well do you see it in there?’ Millie pointed to the bookcase.

Ava leaned over the tape for a closer look.‘No, those are all already published. His wasn’t published yet. He usually makes notes in one of those binders, you know the refillable kind that you used to use in school?’

‘A three-ring binder?’

‘Yeah, that’s the one.’

I glanced back at the bookcase. No three-ring binder. Maybe the police had taken it.

‘We didn’t find any binder in there,’ Mom said.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he just started that rumor to make himself look important and wasn’t even working on anything. He was washed up old has-been.’ Ava leaned toward us and lowered her voice. ‘It’s a mystery to me how the women still found him so attractive.’

‘They did?’ I couldn’t imagine anyone finding Charles Prescott attractive, and judging by the sour looks on Mom and Millie’s faces neither could they.

‘Yes, can you believe it? Of course he used to be a looker back in the day, but now… well you saw him. Nothing to write home about. But I heard he still had a string of women.’ Ava glanced down the hallway, then turned back to them and lowered her voice again, this time to a whisper. ‘He even had one here.’

‘Here?’ Millie looked aghast.

‘Yep, I saw Tina coming out of his room late the other night.’

‘The other night? You mean the night he was killed? Are you sure?’ Mom asked.

‘I’m as sure as a monkey’s uncle. But it wasn’t last night. It was the night before. See, I’d fallen asleep in front of the TV in the sitting room and I was coming up the back stairs over there.’ Ava pointed to the stairway at the end of the hall. ‘When I saw Charles’ door open, I must confess, I ducked into the bathroom and hid behind the door because I didn’t want to talk to him. But it wasn’t Charles who came out. It was Tina.’

‘Did she say anything about why she was in there?’ I still couldn’t picture pretty Tina cavorting with Charles, but stranger things have happened.

‘I didn’t talk to her. I ducked back behind the door and I guess she just slunk off to her own room because I heard a door close, and when I peeked out the hall was empty. She never saw me.’

Millie turned to me.‘Did you get any indication that they were that chummy?’

‘Not at all. It seemed like they didn’t even know each other.’ I thought back to the interactions I’d seen between Tina and Charles. Charles had arrived four days ago, Tina had arrived the next day. Had they acted a little strangely around each other? It did seem like they’d made a point to avoid each other. Was I reading things into it because of what I now knew?

‘Well that is his modus operandi,’ Ava said. ‘He has a wife back home, so when he has these affairs, he just pretends like he doesn’t know the girls. Oh, there were plenty of young girls at the papers we worked at years ago who were quite smitten with him. Though even then, I couldn’t figure out what they saw in him.’

‘Tina did seem overly upset at his death, didn’t she?’ Mom asked.

Millie chewed her bottom lip and glanced back at the door to Tina’s room. ‘Yes, she did. Was that because her lover had been killed or perhaps because she had killed him and was afraid of getting caught?’

‘I wouldn’t be so quick to pin the murder on her. She seems like a nice person and if you ask me, there are plenty of people who would’ve wanted Charles Prescott dead,’ Ava said.

Mom’s eyes widened. ‘Really? You mean like old lovers?’

‘Or his wife?’ Millie asked.

‘Not just them. Charles was a jerk. He wasn’t above stepping on someone to get ahead, throwing a co-worker under the bus or even blackmailing someone if he had something on them. I say good riddance to him.’ Ava shot a sour look into Charles’ room, then turned and strode down the hall.

We watched her go into her room before Millie turned toward the stairs.‘Come on, we’ve got our work cut out for us. If what Ava says is true, we need to prove that there was a connection between Tina and Charles.’

Six

‘I didn’t realize you were being so literal when you said we should go back to the guesthouse andsniffaround.’ Marlowe lifted her nose from the flower bed and sneezed. ‘All this sniffing is making me hungry.’

Nero gave an exasperated sigh. Marlowe still had to learn the art of patience.‘We can eat soon. First, we must cover every inch. You never know where the killer might have dropped a clue.’

‘Right. Every inch.’ Marlowe stuck her nose back into the flower bed, then moved along to the corner of the guesthouse.

Nero continued on his course. So far he’d sniffed up several toads, a grasshopper and a few gull feathers. The feathers gave him pause, but luckily the gulls didn’t come over from Smugglers Bay Inn often, which was just fine with Nero.

He got a whiff of a familiar scent and looked up. He was on the east side of the house, where the wind whipped in from the ocean, causing the paint to peel. Millie had it repainted every two years. The mansion did need a lot of work, especially the old windows, which were no longer tight to the frames. The icy wind easily found its way inside in winter, especially on this side. During a Nor’Easter, the house could be downright frigid, especially if the power went out.

As Nero looked up, he saw that someone had fixed the window frames so that the windows were tight, and, according to what his nose was telling him, that person was Mike Sullivan.

‘Looks like Mike fixed the windows.’ Marlowe sat down in the grass beside him. ‘I heard him tell Millie he was going to do it even though she didn’t pay him to.’

‘He must have overheard Josie worrying about the heating bills come winter.’ Nero’s heart swelled at the human’s kind gesture. Mike must have done the work on his own time to help out Josie. Apparently not all people were selfish and uncaring. Maybe there was hope for humankind after all.

‘Yeah, he’s good people. And he gives good chin rubs.’

Nero glanced at Marlowe sharply.‘True, but you mustn’t act like you enjoy them too much.’

‘Oh, I know. I give a few purrs of encouragement but jump off his lap just when he thinks I’ve settled in.’

Caw!

A gull swooped overhead, and the cats ducked, crouching low while it flew past on its way to Smugglers Bay. Nero glanced over at the inn. Two gulls were circling above the deck. There used to be at least six.‘Stella Dumont must be happy at the decrease in gulls.’

‘I’m sure she is.’ Marlowe continued sniffing along the side of the house. ‘I just hope our buddy Mike is smart enough not to fall for her.’

Nero glared at the inn. They could see one corner of the building and the outdoor deck where Stella served meals to her guests. Nero wasn’t above skulking around the edges of the deck looking for scraps, but not when the gulls were around. ‘She certainly does flirt with him, but do you think that’s all she wants when she comes here?’

Marlowe followed Nero’s gaze. ‘I don’t know. She does seem very interested in the kitchen, but I haven’t seen her do anything suspicious.’

‘Hmmm.’ Nero went back to sniffing. He didn’t trust Stella Dumont, and not just because it seemed like she wanted to get her claws into Mike. She had a certain, deceitful scent about her.

As Nero rounded the corner, he caught a foreign smell. Something spicy and uncertain. He closed his eyes and followed his nose, homing in until he was right on top of it.

He opened his eyes and blinked.

He was on the back side of the mansion’s West wing. This side wasn’t visible to anyone unless you were in the back, so Josie hadn’t sprung for flowers and shrubs, but the gardener she’d hired had spread a thick layer of fine mulch up close to the building.

In that mulch was the unmistakable print from a shoe.

‘You got something?’ Marlowe trotted up and looked at the print.

‘Yep.’ Nero glanced up. Right above the print was a window.

‘Looks like someone climbed out that window and stepped here in the mulch.’ Marlowe’s whiskers twitched. ‘You know how damp it gets at night. The mulch was probably wet and the weight of the person compressed it. Then it dried into a footprint.’

Nero was encouraged by Marlowe’s deduction, but she’d missed one important point. ‘I believe you’re correct. We need to get the humans out here right away so they can discover it.’

Marlowe made a face.‘I don’t know. It could be from Mike or the gardener…’

‘Don’t think so,’ Nero said.

‘Why not?’

‘This is the West wing and if I’m not mistaken that window goes to the room Charles Prescott was killed in.’

Marlowe’s eyes flicked up to the window, then back to the mulch. ‘Then if that’s true, that print could be the print of the killer!’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

‘Might be a good idea to pick something from my recipe file for breakfast,’ Millie said once we were back in the kitchen. She was seated at the long pine table with a laptop open in front of her, googling Tina and Charles. Mom was eating one of the leftover lemon poppy seed muffins.

‘Therms-onsa-drough,’ Mom said.

‘Huh?’ I was a little worried at her unintelligible mumbling. Had Mom had a stroke?

She waved her hand in front of her face and made a big show of swallowing.‘I said, these are very dry.’

Millie’s attention snapped from the laptop to the muffin. ‘They are?’ She skewered me with a look. ‘The Oyster Cove Guesthouse prides itself on delicious breakfasts. I thought you were married to a famous cook?’

‘Don’t remind me.’ I hadn’t absorbed any of Clay’s extraordinary cooking skills, but so what? I was sure I could learn. Probably do a better job at it than him eventually too. Though, judging by the way my mother was choking and gulping down water, maybe I’d better speed up the learningprocess.

Meow.

I glanced at the window. It was open, letting in a nice easterly breeze that carried the salty scent of the ocean along with the perfume of honeysuckle bushes that ran between the mansion and the old carriage house. Out on the lawn, Nero and Marlowe were trotting back and forth, looking at the house. I got the impression that they were looking right in the window at me.

Millie went back to her computer work, her eyes on the screen as she addressed me.‘If the muffins are too dry, you need to add more fat. People think it means the recipe needs more moisture, but that’s not the case. Try adding some extra butter or substituting buttermilk for regular milk.’

Meow. Meow. Meow!

The cat’s cries stole my attention again. They were getting louder, more insistent, much like the day they’d discovered Charles’ body. Hopefully they hadn’t found another one. I looked out again. Now they were pacing back and forth.

‘Have you fed them, dear?’ Millie asked. ‘They like to have kibble left out in the morning and the wet food with gravy in the afternoon, and don’t forget a treat at night.’ Millie glanced at the stainless steel bowls on the black and white checkered floor of the butler’s pantry – where we kept the cat bowls when Barbara Littlefield wasn’t around. The bowls were empty.

‘I fed them first thing. They must have eaten it all.’ I rummaged in the cabinet for the dry cat food and filled their bowls, then opened the screen door to call them in. They ignored me, running back to the corner of the house and then looking back at me.

‘Give them time dear, they rarely come when called. It’s some kind of cat thing,’ Mom said.

Millie looked up from the computer.‘Yeah, they’ll come when they are ready. So, what are you serving for breakfast tomorrow?’

‘I haven’t decided yet.’ I was more interested in finding out if Tina and Charles knew each other, but Millie was typing so slowly I was beginning to wonder if that would happen in my lifetime.

Millie waved at the counter where the stack of cookbooks and recipes I’d inherited from her sat. ‘Now would be a good time to choose something. Pick something out and I’ll help you prepare it later.’

Good idea. I leafed through the stack of recipes on yellowed index cards and worn scraps of paper, handwritten in blue pen that had faded so much over the years that the letters were barely legible. Combine that with splotches of food stains and I was starting to think I had more problems than my lack of cooking expertise.

Hmm… let’s see. Quiche? Nope, I wasn’t ready to tackle crust. Smoked Salmon Croissants? Too fancy. Eggs Benedict? Sounded complicated.

Millie must have sensed my dilemma.‘How about my famous sour cream coffee cake?’

I shuffled through the cards. A coffee cake sounded easy. Throw a bunch of ingredients in a bowl and bake. I didn’t see anything with ‘Coffee Cake’ marked on the top, but Millie’s recipes weren’t all labeled. ‘I can’t find—’

‘Eureka!’

Millie spun the laptop around to face Mom and me.‘Look at this. Charles and Tina both worked for theDaily Crier in Noquitt, Maine at the same time!’

I bent over to see the screen. Sure enough, there were articles from Charles and Tina.‘Looks like Tina wrote a food column.’

‘Makes sense the two of them would know each other then, they both write about food.’ Mom eyed the muffins again, but must have thought better of it, because she didn’t take one.

‘So we have our first suspect.’ Millie pointed at the computer screen proudly. ‘Tina had a secret relationship with the victim.’

‘Yeah but why would she kill him?’ Mom asked.

Millie pursed her lips.‘Maybe he wanted to break things off and she got mad.’

‘I don’t know, Mike said the stairs had been tampered with as if the killer was trying to make it look like an accident, and that seems premeditated to me.’ I glanced out the window and saw the cats staring at me eerily with non-blinking eyes. Was that a signal that they were hungry?

‘Maybe he told her earlier and she asked for a meeting so she could kill him?’ Millie suggested.

Mom made a face.‘You can’t be serious. Tina is cute. Charles was old, bald and pudgy. She’d probably be happy if he broke things off.’

‘And what about the missing cookbook?’ I asked.

Merow!

Millie and Mom looked out the window to see Nero rolling on his back.

‘I think Nero wants some of those salmon treats,’ Mom said. ‘Maybe Charles wasn’t really even working on a cookbook.’

‘Right.’ Millie turned from the window and rummaged in the cat food cabinet.

‘And let’s not gloss over the fact that Ava Grantham also knew Charles, and she’s the one feeding us this information.’ I watched a lot of detective shows on television and knew the drill when it came to working out suspects.

‘Good point,’ Mom said. ‘Maybe Charles spurned Ava at some point and she saw this as her chance to get even.’

Meroop!

With a loud battle cry, Marlowe launched herself at the window screen, her claws out like razor sharp grappling hooks. She clung on, her large round green eyes looking in at us, her belly heaving.

I jumped back, but it didn’t seem to faze Mom or Millie. They simply stared at the cat as if this was a common occurrence. I certainly hoped it wasn’t. After a few beats, Millie turned to me. ‘I think the cats are trying to get our attention. We’d better go see why.’

Seven

By the time we got outside, Marlowe had unattached herself from the screen and the two cats were pacing around near the corner of the house. Millie tried to pet them but they darted off into the back. We followed.

Out back, the plantings I’d had the landscaper put in gave way to just plain mulch. Funds were limited, so I’d only sprung for flowers on the sides of the house that were seen by guests. I wistfully thought of the day when I could have lush flowers all around the entire guesthouse. That was if I evenhad a guesthouse to landscape with all this murder business going on.

Another thing I couldn’t afford was to fix up the old windows that were practically falling out. So imagine my surprise when I noticed the new wood around them. Someone had replaced the rotted frames and sills.

‘Hmmm… I don’t remember that being on my work order.’

‘I think Mike mentioned something about you losing a lot of air conditioning and heat through those windows come winter. My heating bill was through the roof last year,’ Millie muttered as she bent to pet Nero, who skittered out from under her hand and leapt into the bark mulch under the window.

‘That’s nice, but I can’t afford to pay for this kind of work.’ How much did something like this cost? I’d have to have a talk with Mike. I couldn’t have him just doing extra work like this. I was on a tight budget and could only spare minimal funds for repairs since most of my money was needed for day to day operations.

‘I believe he said it was at no charge,’ Millie said.

I jerked my attention from the window to Millie.‘What? Who does work for free?’

‘Someone who has a crush,’ Mom said, wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

I made a face.‘A crush? I think Mike’s a little too old to have a crush.’ I was sure he wanted something, otherwise why do the work? Very few people did something for nothing. I couldn’t imagine what, exactly, it could be though. Was it possible that Millie was right and Mike had fixed the windows to be nice? My heart melted a bit at the thought.

‘Never mind that,’ Millie waved her hand toward the windows. ‘These are in the West wing and that one there goes to the room Charles Prescott was murdered in. I think the cats have found a clue.’

Millie dropped to all fours and started combing through the grass.

Nero and Marlowe flopped down in the mulch, where they jumped, stretched, meowed and rolled around. As I watched their antics, I noticed something in the mulch that looked odd. It was a depression of some sort.

‘Wait a minute. Is that a footprint?’ I pointed to the indentation and Millie crawled over.

‘It is! It’s a footprint!’

‘Yeah but it’s probably from Mike doing the windows,’ I said.

‘I don’t think so.’ Millie peered closer at the footprint. I half expected her to whip out a giant magnifying glass. ‘Mike wears work boots and this is not in the shape of a work boot. Work boots are more rounded and they don’t have a high arch. But I know what does have a high arch. Chef’s clogs.’

Everyone looked at my feet. I was wearing chef’s clogs.

‘Come over here Josie, let’s see.’ Mom pulled me toward the mulch and I tentatively put a foot down a few feet away from the print.

‘Press down hard to make the print,’ Millie instructed.

I did as told then lifted my foot. Sure enough, the print was very similar.

‘Aha! Itwasa clue,’ Millie said as she reached down to reward Marlowe and Nero by petting their heads.

‘Yeah but too bad it points to Josie,’ Mom pointed out. ‘When did you step in the mulch?’

‘I didn’t.’

‘I don’t think it’s from Josie,’ Millie said as she studied the print. ‘There’s a bit of a difference. You can see here on the original print the edge is more rounded as if the clog is worn down, perhaps from someone who walks on the side of their foot. But if you look at Josie’s print, the edge is sharp.’

‘So it’s not Josie’s print?’ Mom asked.

‘I don’t think so,’ Millie said.

‘I haven’t been over here since the mulch was put down,’ I said.

Meow!

Marlowe scampered off to the other side of the house with Nero following at his heels. Apparently their job was done and they were off to greener pastures. Or at least I thought that was why they’d run off until I heard the booming voice behind us.

‘Tampering with evidence?’

We all turned to see Seth Chamberlain standing there, his eyes flicking from Millie to my foot, which was hovering over the print I’d just made in the mulch.

‘No. We found a clue. That’s more than I can say for the police,’ Millie huffed.

Seth frowned, but his eyes regarded Millie softly. He came closer, then looked up at the window.‘This is the window that goes to the room the victim was in, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’ Millie gestured toward the footprint. ‘And we found a footprint right here underneath the window. Now it seems to me the killer could’ve opened the window, climbed out and then shut it again. No one can see back here and he could have made the perfect escape into the woods.’

Seth inspected the print.

‘Uh-huh… Hmmm… Oh…’ He looked up at us. ‘This looks like a print from a chef’s clog. Are you sure you were discovering this clue and not hiding it?’

Mom fisted her hands on her hips.‘Now Seth Chamberlain, are you accusing us of obstructing justice?’

‘Why on earth would we do that?’ Millie asked.

Seth’s eyes were glued to my shoes. ‘Well this here is a chef’s clog print and Josie there is wearing chef’s clogs.’

It figured that the only good thing I’d gotten from my ex-husband besides our daughter was chef’s clogs. He’d always worn them and had talked me into trying a pair years ago. They were comfortable and I had taken to wearing them. It was only fitting that now, when I’d just started to get over our divorce and get my life on track, the clogs would be the thing that got me arrested for murder.

‘Not exactly.’ I pointed to the impression I’d made in the mulch. ‘See my footprint from my clogs is shaped differently than that footprint there.’

Seth squinted at the print and made a face.‘Yeah I see, yours is fresher. The other one has been there a few days. The edges are not as sharp.’

‘You can’t be serious,’ Millie said. ‘Why would Josie climb out the window? She lives inside the guesthouse, so if she killed Charles Prescott, she would simply go back to her room inside the house.’

‘That’s right,’ I nodded. ‘I mean, if I did kill him in that room. Which I didn’t.’

Seth looked dubious.

Millie put her arm through Seth’s. ‘Now I know you do a thorough job, and don’t jump to conclusions. Surely there are several other chefs who wear clogs and had a much better reason than Josie to kill Prescott.’

‘Yeah like maybe the one he was writing that bad review about,’ Mom added.

Seth nodded, but still looked at me suspiciously.‘Seems to me the bad review might have been about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. I mean hewas staying here.’

‘Yes, well you’re much smarter than we are at this sort of thing,’ Millie said, patting his arm. ‘I know you’ll want to check out all the clues and suspects thoroughly before homing in on one particular suspect. You wouldn’t want to arrest the wrong person, that wouldn’t look good on your record.’

‘Of course not,’ Seth said, glancing my way again. ‘I also don’t want to let the killer get away.’

‘Now Seth, you can’t seriously suspect Josie. And besides, where would she go? Josie owns the guesthouse. She’s tied to the area. It’s not like she’s going to run off somewhere.’

I nodded vigorously in agreement.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Millie changed the subject.

‘Huh? Oh, I was coming to release the crime scene. We’ve got everything we need and I’m coming to take off the yellow tape. Personal belongings in there can be sent to the next of kin.’

Millie’s brows shot up. ‘Oh? And have you gotten any clues? Have you a list of suspects?’

Seth gave me another wary glance.‘We’re working on some angles, but I can’t specifically say. Police business you know.’

‘Indeed.’ Millie nodded. ‘And did you find a clue in Charles Prescott’s cookbook?’

‘Cookbook? We don’t have any cookbook.’

‘You mean you don’t have his notes for his new book that he was writing?’ I asked.

‘New book? We didn’t hear anything about any new cookbook. Besides, what would that have to do with his murder? Seems to me that bad review likely ripped out of his hand is the thing that got him killed.’

‘Well now, I wouldn’t be too sure.’ Millie pointed at the footprint. ‘Is it any coincidence that there is a chef’s clog footprint right under the window of the room Charles Prescott was killed in and the man’s notes on his new cookbook are missing?’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Flora’s cleaning duties were limited, so after we got rid of Seth Chamberlain, I got to work, dusting, vacuuming and toilet cleaning. You’d think that would’ve been the cue for Millie and my mom to leave, but it must have been a dull day down at the senior center because they stayed on.

For someone who wanted to be free to engage in retirement activities and not have to worry about the guesthouse, Millie sure still spent a lot of time here. But since she’d volunteered to cook breakfast, I didn’t complain, because that meant less work for me in the morning.

She was probably worried my lack of cooking skills were going to ruin the guesthouse’s reputation for fine breakfasts. If a murder didn’t ruin it though, I hardly thought my cooking would.

It was late afternoon when I stumbled into the front parlor exhausted. It had been a long day, especially considering I’d discovered the body of one of my guests just that morning.

Flora was sitting on the overstuffed sofa in the front parlor watching soap operas and eating crackers. She glanced up as I flopped into a chair.

‘I get a fifteen-minute break every four hours.’ She said it as if I was about to chastise her for watching TV on the job.

‘Lucky you, that’s more than I get.’ I took off my clogs and massaged my aching feet. Who knew innkeeping would be such hard work? When I bought the place from Millie she’d made it sound like others did most of the tasks.

Of the several parlors here, this one was my favorite because it was the sunniest. Golden afternoon light spilled in from the tall windows and turned the pine flooring to honey and brightening the already cheerful room.

Millie and Mom must have had the same idea. No sooner had I begun to relax when they trotted through the doorway with a tray full of chocolate chip cookies. Millie set the cookies down on the marble-topped mahogany coffee table and both flopped into chairs.

‘I think this new wrinkle in the case is going to help narrow down the killer.’ Millie bit into a cookie then pushed the tray toward Flora and indicated for her to take one.

‘I certainly hope so. I don’t like the way Seth keeps looking at Josie.’ Mom waited for Flora to choose, then picked her own cookie.

‘Me either,’ I said.

‘I think we need to find out what other restaurants Charles went to. If he was writing a bad review and the chef got wind of it, that would explain the footprint,’ Millie said.

‘But what about the missing cookbook?’ Mom asked.

‘He may not have even been writing a cookbook,’ Millie said. ‘Ava said that herself.’

‘Speaking of Ava, I don’t think she wears chef’s clogs but I’m not ruling her out entirely,’ I said.

Mom leaned forward and lowered her voice.‘Let’s not forget Tina. If she was fooling around with Charles then that makes her a potential suspect. At least, that’s how it always is on TV.’

Flora remained silent, taking tiny bites of her cookie. Her eyes, gigantic behind the glasses, flicked back and forth from my mom to Millie to me as we talked.

Movement in the doorway caught our attention and we turned to see Mike, his broad shoulders leaning against the frame.‘I figured if I followed the smell of cookies I’d find you.’

He pushed off from the doorway, gave Millie a kiss on the top of her head, grabbed a cookie and sat in a chair.

‘Were you looking for us or for cookies?’ I asked.

‘You, Sunshine. Thing is, I’m a little worried. There’s a killer running around.’

‘Yeah, but the intended victim was Charles. The rest of us are safe.’ Millie leveled a look at Mike. ‘Right? I mean you’re the ex-investigator, so you should know.’

‘It does look that way. Still, I think you all should be careful. Someone gave a lot of thought into planning out how to sabotage the stairs hoping the death would be ruled an accident,’ Mike said.

‘Premeditated,’ Mom said ominously.

‘Makes sense,’ Millie said. ‘If the killer knew he was writing that bad review, they probably planned to kill him before he had a chance to publish it.’

‘I don’t know.’ I picked up a cookie and broke off a small piece. ‘Seems to me that killing Charles over the bad review would be something spontaneous, done in a fit of anger. The way the review was ripped up seems to indicate such.’

‘Maybe. Or maybe they ripped it up and then stewed over it until later that night, when they came back and killed him.’ Millie said. ‘The chef’s clog print outside the window is the clincher. Maybe whoever it was killed Charles first and then got the idea to stage it after. I mean, that part of the house is closed off. They wouldn’t worry about anyone stumbling across them while they were doing all that work.’

‘You found a clog print outside the window?’ Mike glanced at my feet.

‘It wasn’t mine.’ I broke off another piece of cookie—bigger this time—and shoved it in my mouth.

‘It was right under the window of that room,’ Millie said. ‘We think the killer escaped out the window.’

‘Which means it was not someone who was staying here,’ Mom added.

‘That’s possible, but whoever it was must have been here for a while because it would take them quite some time to stage the stairs to look like an accident,’ Mike said. Nero and Marlowe appeared out of nowhere then, both jumping in his lap and started purring loudly.

‘No one would have seen them in there since that wing is closed. They would have had all the time they wanted to stage the stairs. But then there is the question of how they lured Charles into that part of the guesthouse. That would be hard for someone who wasn’t supposed to be at the guest house to do,’ Millie said. ‘Maybe we should put more credence into Tina as a suspect. If they were having an affair, I could certainly see how she might use her feminine wiles to lure him there.’

‘They were having an affair?’ Mike asked.

‘Yes, please do try to keep up,’ Mom answered. ‘But if it was Tina then she would have just snuck back to her room. Why climb out the window?’

‘Good question, and if it was Tina, then who left the clog print?’ Millie asked.

Flora, who had remained silent the whole time, her head on a swivel like a referee watching a tennis match, spoke.‘What about Stella Dumont?’

We all jerked our heads toward the window, where we could see the corner of the Smugglers Bay Inn, circling seagulls and all, in the distance.

‘Stella Dumont? She does serve meals at her inn and it’s possible Charles ate there.’ Millie said.

‘I heard she was entering that cooking contest that the paper is running, you know, the one that has the $5000 cash prize?’ Mom said.

‘She was? Well that would be quite a coup for her business. If she won, she could use that to draw in customers, and of course, the money never hurts.’ Millie stared out the window at the inn. ‘She does have that seagull problem though, I wonder if her business is hurting.’

‘Maybe she’s afraid the renovations Josie is doing will hurt it even further,’ Mike said.

‘And maybe she’s afraid a bad review from Charles Prescott would put her under,’ Mom said.

‘She does a lot of the cooking over there, she might wear chef’s clogs just like the ones that left that print under the window,’ Millie said

‘That might explain why she’s been hanging around here,’ Flora said.

‘She has? When?’ I asked.

Flora shrugged.‘I didn’t write down the dates, that’s not in my job description.’ Flora took another cookie and settled back in her chair. ‘But I saw her at the door by the kitchen a few times.’

‘The kitchen? What was she doing there?’ I’d never seen Stella anywhere near the guesthouse and, given that we aren’t exactly best friends, I doubted Stella would be popping over to pay a social visit.

Flora crunched on her cookie and looked up at us innocently.‘I assumed she came here to flirt with Mike.’

All heads swiveled in Mike’s direction. Oh, that’s right, he’d taken Stella to the prom instead of me. Sure, we’d just been kids and that was all water under the bridge now, but it spoke volumes as to his character.

Mike held his hands up in a placating gesture.‘She doesn’t come here to see me. But I have seen her in the kitchen a few times. I thought she was coming to see Josie.’

I shook my head.‘She’s not coming here to see me. In fact, I had no idea she was anywhere near here. Did you talk to her Flora?’

Flora shook her head.‘None of my business what you people get up to. I see someone in the kitchen, I figure they have a reason to be there. I don’t ask questions.’

‘That’s odd, what do you think she was doing here?’ Mom asked.

Millie’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She leaned forward. ‘Maybe she was casing the joint. Maybe she figured she could kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of the food critic that was going to give her a bad review and make it look like the guesthouse was unsafe, potentially getting it closed down, or Josie arrested for murder, and thus driving more business to her inn.’

Eight

I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the police to accuse me again, so at five o’clock I headed across the field and down the hill to the Smugglers Bay Inn, hoping to catch Stella in the kitchen. I knew she served dinner at 5:30 so I figured she’d be in. It wasn’t a social call. I wanted to see why she’d been hanging around the guesthouse and, most importantly, I wanted to see if she wore clogs.

I found her outside setting up the tables for dinner and waving her arms to shoo away the seagulls who circled around the deck. The deck overlooked the cove, and the subtle sound of the waves and scent of the ocean would have made for great dining ambiance if it weren’t for the screeching.

‘Shoo, shoo. Get out of here!’ Stella flapped a white cleaning rag at the gulls. Two of them flew away, but one stood its ground on the post of the railing until Stella lurched toward it. She turned to glare at me as I approached.

I glanced at her feet. Darn it! She wasn’t wearing clogs, she was wearing white tennis shoes. But that didn’t mean anything. She could still be the killer. Maybe she had a pair tucked away in her closet, complete with telltale scraps of mulch stuck in the treads and splatters of blood on the top.

‘Well if it isn’t Josie Waters. I heard there was an incident at your guesthouse. Hope that hasn’t put off the tourists.’ Stella’s tone indicated that she did indeed hope that very thing.

A gull swooped overhead.Splat!

A white and orange plop of seagull poop landed on the railing between us.

Stella raised her fists to the gull.‘You get out of here!’ She raced over to the post and wiped it clean with a napkin.

Good to know that she was just as subtle and ladylike as ever. And out here in the afternoon sunlight I could see that she wore just as much makeup too. A suffocating cloud of flowery perfume wafted over and I tried not to gag. She’d put the perfume on heavy in high school too. There was one difference though – her hair hadn’t been that bleachy shade of blonde back then. What in the world did Mike see in her?

I glanced back at my guesthouse. Maybe it was a good thing that I hadn’t put in outdoor dining yet. Then again, I didn’t have a problem with seagulls like Stella did. Her place was directly over the water, while mine was set back a bit, up on a hill with a panoramic view. Not only did the gulls circle her deck, I’d heard talk downtown that a few dead ones had been found on it as well. Nothing more unappetizing than a dead gull on an outdoor dining deck. Unfortunately, dead gulls weren’t that unusual around here these days. The gulls seemed to be dying off at an alarming rate and their sad bodies had been found washed up on the beaches and even in the park downtown.

‘Did you want something?’ Stella came deck’s edge to look down at me. ‘I would think you’d be trying to figure out who killed your guest.’

‘I am. Which brings up the question. Why do you keep coming over?’

She frowned.‘What are you talking about?’

‘Don’t play dumb with me.’ Actually, she didn’t have to play, shewas dumb, but I was less likely to get the truth if I let that slip out.‘Flora said she saw you over at the kitchen door.’

Her eyes flicked in the direction of the guesthouse.‘Well I might have gone over a few times to see a certain person.’

‘So you’ve been lurking around the guesthouse to see Mike?’

‘Mike and I are good friends.’ She leaned over the railing, a knowing look in her face. ‘Very good friends.’

That figured. I wasn’t surprised in the least. Except… if she really had been coming over to see Mike, why had he lied about it? He would have no reason to say he thought she’d been coming over to see me, unless he didn’t want me to know that he was still carrying on with her. But why would he care if I knew? Someone was lying, that was for sure.

I crossed my arms over my chest.‘So you really were coming over to see Mike?’

‘So what if I was? It’s none of your business.’

‘It’s not. Well, other than the fact that a guest was murdered and you were seen lurking around.’

‘I haven’t been lurking!’ She waved the white cleaning cloth at the seagulls who had resumed their circling. ‘I’m very busy, if you must know. I have guests, gulls and other stuff going on. I don’t have time to listen to your false accusations.’

That’s right, she did have ‘other stuff’ going on. Like that cooking contest that would win her bragging rights and five grand. The contest that she might need an innovative and unusual recipe for. ‘You weren’t interested in getting your hands on a certain cookbook, were you?’

‘What? No?’ Stella flapped the towel even though the gulls were gone. ‘Why would I want a cookbook? That’s just silly.’

Now that she seemed a little rattled, I figured I’d toss out another question. She might be flustered enough to give an incriminating answer. Though honestly, I seriously doubted that Stella could pull off that kind of murder. Someone would have to know how to mess with the stairs to make it look like an accident, not to mention the sneaking inand out, and the planning. ‘Did you know the victim was a food critic? Maybe he ate at your place?’

Her eyes narrowed.‘What? No. I didn’t know anything about the victim. Look here, just because you got one of your guests murdered and you’re jealous that Mike likes me better than you doesn’t mean you can come over here and start accusing—’

Splat!

Seagull poop landed smack dab on the toe of her white tennis shoes. Darn, what a shame, she’d probably never get the stain out. Good luck for me though, because it gave me another opening. ‘That’s going to stain. You should probably be wearing your chef’s clogs out here.’

Stella had crouched to rub vigorously at her shoe. She scowled up at me.‘Clogs? I don’t wear chef’s clogs. These sneakers are more flexible. Easier on the feet in the kitchen. Not that it’s any of your business.’

‘I was just making a suggestion.’ I shouldn’t be surprised she didn’t wear clogs. Like I mentioned before, I didn’t think she had the brains to be the killer. But something about her told me she wasn’t telling the whole truth about why she’d been at my guesthouse. Mike hadn’t seemedlike he was lying. But why would Stella? But she didn’t wear clogs, so that ruled her out as the killer. Unless she was lying about that too.

‘Well I don’t need your suggestions.’ She scrubbed harder at the shoe. Just as I’d suspected, that stain was not going to come out easily. ‘If I were you, I’d pay more attention to your own inn instead of coming over here and trying to find out what’s going on with mine. Maybe if you did, your guests won’t need to seek accommodations elsewhere.’

What was she talking about? Were my guests leaving now because of the murder? That’s all I needed. No guests meant no income and no income meant failure. I just couldn’t let that happen. And I certainly couldn’t let it happen if it meant the guests would now be staying at the Smugglers Bay Inn. Was that why Stella had been lurking? Had she been poaching my guests?

‘What are you talking about?’ I asked.

She stood up, a nasty smirk spread across her face.‘Oh, you didn’t know? I’m sure I saw one of your guests checking in to the sleazy motel out by the highway. You know, the Timber Me Lodge. They rent rooms by the hour. Too bad I’m full up or they could have come here where it’s safe.’

I reigned in my temper. She was just trying to make me mad. I was sure she hadn’t seen any of my guests there because no one had checked out. I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my head to call her bluff. ‘Oh really? And which guest might that be?’

‘That ditzy blonde one. You know, the one that’s in her forties but tries to look like she’s a lot younger? Drives a black Volkswagen Beetle.’

Tina? The description fit and Tina drove a black Beetle. She couldn’t be talking about Tina though. Tina was still registered with me. Sure, she’d taken Charles’ death pretty hard, but not hard enough to move out. I hoped. ‘When did you see this?’

Stella looked up at the sky as if that’s where she kept her memory – apparently we hadn’t called her an airhead in high school for nothing. ‘Oh… two nights ago, I believe.’

Ha! Charles hadn’t even been killed yet. ‘Shows how much you know. The murder didn’t happen until last night.’

‘Even worse. If your guests were already jumping ship before the murder, things weren’t so great at your place then. Imagine what will happen now that someone’s been killed.’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero sat on the crest of the hill at the base of a tall scotch pine watching Stella and Josie down at the Smugglers Bay Inn. He couldn’t hear what the women were saying, but their body language indicated that the conversation was less than friendly. The sun was low in the sky, turning the wings of the gulls that flapped above the two women a brilliant white. The briny smell of the ocean mixed with the pine of the trees in a most pleasant aroma.

Beside him Marlowe was crouched with his front paws tucked underneath him, the sun warming his back. Stubbs, Boots, Poe and Harry were also there. They were waiting for Juliette, who was commonly late.

‘I don’t trust that Stella Dumont.’ Stubbs short tail twitched as he watched the two women with keen, intelligent eyes. ‘Never trust a dame who wears that much makeup.’

‘Me either,’ Marlowe said. ‘She’s been lurking around the kitchen at the guesthouse and I saw her sneak across the field from her inn late one night.’

‘Didn’t you say you smelled gulls on the victim?’ Harry jerked his chin toward the gulls circling above the deck.

As the cats watched, one gull dropped a gift onto Stella’s shoe.

‘Looks like the gulls are good for something,’ Stubbs chuckled. ‘She’ll never get that stain out of those canvas shoes.’

‘Stella Dumont might not be upset about the gulls’ dwindling numbers.’ Poe pushed a gray paw behind his ear.

Boots looked up from his task of smoothing the spot on his chest where the white fur met with the black.‘Do you think she could have something to do with what is happening to them?’

Poe shrugged.‘I can’t say.’

Doubtful,’ Harry cut in. ‘She’s the type that doesn’t like to get her hands dirty.’

Nero decided to reign the conversation in before it got off track. They were here to discuss the clues in Charles Prescott’s death. The reputation of the guesthouse was a more pressing matter to him than the fate of the gulls. ‘That is another mystery for us to solve later. Right now we need to get to the bottom of the death at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.’

‘Sorry I’m late guys,’ Juliette trotted up, her silky fur blowing back slightly in the wind like a supermodel at a photo shoot. ‘They had a lobster special down at Salty’s Crab Shack and you know how the humans never take the time to get that succulent meat out of the tiny lobster legs. Billy tosses me the scraps in the back alley and I guess I lost track of time.’

Juliette glanced down the hill at Stella and Josie who were now glaring at each other in what looked like a human stand-off. It was hard to tell with humans, their hairs didn’t stand on end, their tails didn’t stick up straight and they didn’t hiss or bare their teeth. But if they did, Josie and Stella would be doing that right now.

‘Are they having a cat fight?’ Juliette asked.

‘Could be,’ Harry said. ‘We were just saying how we don’t like Stella, and Marlowe has seen her lurking around the guesthouse, and Nero smelled gulls on the victim’s clothing.’

‘You think she could be the killer?’ Juliette asked. ‘Didn’t Nero also smell dog?’

‘I did,’ Nero said. ‘But Stella doesn’t have a dog.’

The cats knew every dog in a10-mile radius, of course. That was cat 101 to know where canines lurked so they could avoid the unfriendly ones. Though not all dogs were unfriendly. Nero had even teamed up with one or two to solve cases at times.

Boots huffed and groomed his long whiskers.‘I don’t think her not having a dog comes into play. We’ve already determined the victim was up on the cliffs near both the gulls and the lousewort. That could explain both smells. We should be careful about jumping to conclusions at this early date.’

‘Yeah,’ Harry said. ‘We need a motive. Find the motive and it’s easy to find the killer.’

‘And we need to evaluate all the clues thoroughly,’ Nero added. ‘Like the footprint in the mulch Marlowe and I discovered outside the window of the crime scene.’

‘A footprint? Do tell.’ Boots ran his paw along his long whiskers, making sure to twist so the whiskers curled up at the ends.

‘It was a chef’s clog print,’ Marlowe said proudly.

Everyone looked toward Stella and Josie.

Poe’s green eyes narrowed. ‘Stella Dumont is not wearing chef’s clogs, but Josie is.’

‘Perhaps we should take a closer look at Josie. I have an informant down at the Police Station. You know him, Stubbs. It’s Louie Two Paws, the Siamese with the double paws. Anyway, he said that the victim was killed because of a bad review. That doesn’t look good for Josie.’

Nero huffed.‘The police found a small scrap of paper in Charles’ room. It’s inconclusive as to what it really says. And besides, the review could have been about anyone, even Stella Dumont. Charles Prescott wasn’t confined to the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, he ate at other establishments. The police are making assumptions based on the one piece of evidence that their inferior investigative skills have unearthed. Whereas we have found a chef’s clog footprint, a clandestine affair and a missing cookbook.’

Boots nodded.‘I suppose you are right. We must look at all the clues and let our superior brains determine who the appropriate suspects are.’

‘Well, I hate to say it,’ Stubbs said. ‘But Josie is a good prime suspect at least from the police’s point of view. She had motive if the review is about the guesthouse, she had means because she lives right there, and she had opportunity to kill the victim any time during the night and no one would think it was unusual that she was lurking around.’

‘No it can’t be Josie,’ Nero felt instantly protective of Josie, though he wasn’t sure why. Surely he wasn’t that attached to her. He’d only known her a few weeks. It was probably displaced loyalty for the Oyster Cove Guesthouse which had been his home for several lives now. Millie had left the guesthouse to him and Marlowe, and they’d messed up by letting a murder happen in the first place. He had to make sure that whomever he accused was actually the right person.

Poe raised a brow.‘Oh, so you are bonding with your new human, then.’

‘Maybe. Sort of. I mean she still needs a lot of work but it doesn’t make sense that Josie would be the killer. Why would she kill him right in the guesthouse? That’s sure to raise suspicion on herself. Not to mention that it’s bad for business.’

‘And she is also looking for the killer. That’s what it sounded like when we were in the living room earlier,’ Marlowe added. ‘And why else would she be at Smugglers Bay? She also suspects Stella.’

Nero nodded.‘Yes. Flora told her that Stella has been lurking around.’

‘But also, Mike said someone rigged the murder scene so that it would look like it was an accident.’

‘You don’t say? A setup? Trying to make Josie the fall guy perhaps?’ Stubbs asked.

Harry gave him a knowing, skeptical look.‘Or the sabotage could point even more toward Josie. Who else would have opportunity to be inside the guesthouse messing around with the murder scene without anyone thinking it was odd?’

‘Right,’ Poe added. ‘Whatever was done to the scene probably took time and if it was not someone who was supposed to be there, questions would be raised.’

‘Not really,’ Nero said. ‘That part of the guesthouse is closed off. No one would be in there.’

‘Again, it all comes down to motive,’ Harry said.

‘In my experience, the most predominant reason people get iced is one of two things: money or love.’ Stubbs shook his head as if to indicate his disappointment with petty human motives.

‘That’s the problem,’ Nero said. ‘We have both. We have the missing cookbook that one of his associates said could be worth a lot of money and we have heard tale that he was having an affair with someone at the guesthouse.’

Poe frowned.‘Someone at the guesthouse? Who?’

‘The blonde girl, Tina, or so Josie said,’ Nero said.

The male cats all nodded knowingly.

Juliette frowned at them disdainfully.‘That doesn’t make very much sense. If it was someone at the guesthouse then why would they go out the window and leave the footprint?’

‘Yeah, that’s a good question. Why?’ Marlowe asked.

Nero’s gaze drifted to the cove as the cats considered the question. A red and white lobster boat bobbed in the waves. Inside, the lobsterman in his rubber apron was pulling up his pots. Nero watched as he snagged the blue and white polka dotted buoy and put the rope on the wheel that would dredge upthe pot. He recognized from the buoy colors—each lobsterman had his own color scheme—that it was Buddy Turner.

Nero liked Buddy because he was kind to the cats and usually tossed them his bait scraps. He hoped Buddy had a good haul. A few minutes later the wooden slatted lobster pot appeared. Inside, he could see the succulent little creatures, some sitting contentedly, others with claws flailing. Nero felt momentary pang of sympathy for them, being dragged out of their environment and boiled alive, but it soon passed. They did taste good.

Finally, Juliette said,‘Maybe the footprint is from someone other than the killer.’

‘Why would someone climb out the window?’ Poe said. ‘It does not make much sense.’

‘I was merely considering all possibilities,’ Juliette hissed.

‘What have you heard on the streets? Has anyone heard or seen anything?’ Nero asked quickly to keep things on track, and also avoid a fight between the two cats.

Juliette fluffed her tail.‘Unfortunately no one has come to Father Timothy to confess about the murder.’

‘Yeah, that would be too easy,’ Harry said.

‘I did, however, notice some unusual activity from some of the Guesthouse guests up on the cliff. The belfry offers amazing views.’ Juliette preened her tail. Nero suspected it was more to draw out the attention of her discovery than for actually grooming purposes.

‘Who was it?’ Nero asked.

‘That older couple. The one with all the cameras,’ Juliette said.

‘The Weatherbys,’ Marlowe said. ‘What were they doing? It’s a steep and treacherous climb up to those cliffs, and they are old.’

‘Tell me about it.’ Juliette’s blue eyes narrowed in concern. ‘I was quite worried that I would witness them plunge to their deaths as they were bandying about on the edge of the cliff with their cameras out. They are actually quite adept for older people.’

‘Seems awful risky but I guess you can get some good pictures up there on the cliffs,’ Harry said.

‘Yes, it’s a lovely view. Great backdrop for gull pictures,’ Juliette said.

Nero though about this new wrinkle. Perhaps it meant nothing. The Weatherbys had said they were avid birdwatchers, perhaps they would go to great lengths to get pictures of baby gulls, if there were any up there. With the gull situation going on, Nero wondered if they would be reproducing at all.

‘So, the victim was seen up there. And the Weatherbys were seen up there.’ Boots’ whiskers twitched.

‘But if it was the Weatherbys, how does the chef’s clog footprint figure in?’ Marlowe glanced at Nero.

Nero simply tried to look wise. He had no idea how the two could be related. He didn’t recall the older couple wearing clogs. He was sure he would have noticed and equally sure he’d only ever seen them in sneakers. But he supposed they could have a pair in their closet. Perhaps he should investigate. He didn’t answer though. He didn’t want to seem like he had no clue. Partof his job of mentoring Marlowe was to appear as the wise teacher.

‘What about the rest of you? Has anyone seen or heard anything?’ Nero asked to avoid answering Marlowe’s question.

Everyone shook their head except for Stubbs.‘I might’ve seen something. I put a tail on the skirt. You know, the one you said was having an affair with the victim? In my line of work, you always follow the dame.’

Nero’s brows shot up. ‘And did she do something suspicious?’

Stubbs’ shoulder sagged. ‘Not really. I spotted her downtown and that’s when I started the tail. She did a little shopping. Bought a purse. And then she went to The Marinara Mariner. I couldn’t follow her in of course, so I lost the trail.’

‘Why didn’t you wait outside?’ Harry asked.

‘I did. I sat out on the sidewalk for more than an hour, but then the wife came out and shooed me away with a broom. She’s a shrew! The owner Tony is nice, but that wife. Yeesh.’ Stubbs shook his head. ‘Anyway, I waited around back at the dumpster after that, but I never spotted her again. You can’t see the front door from the dumpster and I didn’t dare go back on the sidewalk with that wife around.’

‘Is it possible you were too busy looking at the contents of the dumpster to notice?’ Juliette’s voice was tinged with friendly sarcasm.

Stubbs drew himself up to his full height.‘No. I kept watch the whole time.’

‘Perhaps you should’ve been tailing the Weatherbys,’ Poe said with an annoying air of superiority. He could be that way.

Stubbs made a face at him.‘Maybe. I didn’t know Juliette had seen them on the cliff and I was going on my instincts. What didyoufind?’

Poe simply pretended to preen his whiskers.

‘You did the right thing,’ Nero glanced sideways at Poe. ‘At least you had some new information for us, though I don’t see what it proves other than the fact that Tina likes to shop and eat. Too bad you weren’t tailing her during the crime, then we’d know if she was the killer.’

‘But it doesn’t all add up. What does the missing cookbook, the footprint, the affair and the cliffs have to do with Charles Prescott’s murder?’ Harry asked.

‘Perhaps we need to put our noses to the grindstone – literally. The sticky part is the footprint. The Weatherbys and Tina are both guests at the guesthouse. Why would they climb out the window?’ Nero mused.

‘What about this footprint… did you scent anything on it?’

Marlowe glanced at Nero and Nero nodded for him to continue. He had picked up several scents, but he wanted to see if Marlowe had also. He felt a little bad he hadn’t thought of this angle before. He’d been so focused on finding who wore the shoes, he hadn’t considered that the scents could lead them to a particular place.

Marlowe screwed her eyes shut and thought for a few seconds then said,‘I smelled the usual things, bark mulch, anxiety, fear, but mixed in was another smell that I haven’t smelled around the guesthouse. A flowery sweet smell with just a hint of bitterness.’

Nero glanced at Josie and Stella, who were wrapping up their conversation. Josie was turning to leave.

‘Was it cinnamon?’ Juliette asked. ‘I smelled cinnamon in the field between the Oyster Cove Guesthouse and the Smugglers Bay Inn.’

Marlowe shook her head.‘No, it wasn’t cinnamon. It was more cloying. Like a flower.’

‘Hmmm, perhaps a flower garden?’ Harry suggested.

‘Maybe.’ Marlowe looked undecided.

‘Well I guess that’s what we’ve got to work with,’ Nero said. ‘We need to explore all these angles. And put a tail on the Weatherbys.’

The cats all stretched and turned to go in their opposite directions. Just as they were walking away, Poe turned around, his head cocked to the side, his green eyes thoughtful.‘Oh, one more thing.’

Nero sighed. Poe was always doing this. Saving up his little tidbit of information for the very last minute when they were all about to go their separate ways. But often Poe’s little tidbits were vital to the case, so he tamped down his exasperation and patiently said, ‘What is it, Poe?’

Poe looked at Marlowe.‘That scent on the footprint… was it sharp on the sweetness and tangy on the bitterness?’

Marlowe nodded vigorously, her eyes wide.

Poe nodded.‘Well then, we might want to check the Marinara Mariner more thoroughly, because what you describe is very similar to the scent of saffron, and I happen to know that Tony had a saffron squid ink pasta special running this week.’ Poe licked a paw. ‘It was quite delicious too.’

Down the hill, Josie was starting back to the guesthouse. Nero thought about Poe’s suggestion. Was it any coincidence that the chef clog had the scent of a special down at the Marinara Mariner and Tina was seen at the same restaurant? But did Tina wear chef’s clogs? If she did, why in the world would she climb out the window after killing Charles?

Nine

It was a good thing that I didn’t have to prepare supper for my guests because I was in no mood after that run-in with Stella Dumont. Where did she get off implying that the accommodations at a sleazy motel were preferable to those at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse?

Halfway across the field, I saw two familiar figures. Nero and Marlowe were bounding across the tall grass toward me from the path that led up the hill. I wondered what they had been doing up there.

They fell in step beside me. Unusual, because they usually ignored me. Maybe this was a good time to try to bond and make friends, like Millie had suggested?

‘Where have you guys been?’

Nero looked up at me, his golden eyes almost glowing in contrast to his jet-black fur.

Meow. Merow. Meroop.

‘Up on the hill you say? Yes, lovely view up there.’ Was that the appropriate reply? I wasn’t sure exactly how one spoke to cats. Surely they didn’t understand the actual words, it was probably more down to tone and gestures. Did you talk to them like little babies? I glanced down at them. Nope. Not these two. Millie had said to talk to them as if they were superior beings.

Marlowe flicked her striped tail.

Meyou.

I had no idea whatmeyou meant but I decided to answer anyway.‘Oh me? I was over talking to Stella Dumont. Can you believe that she insinuated one of the guests had preferred accommodations in that sleazy motel out on Route One?’

Meooow!

Clearly Nero was as outraged at that thought as I was.‘I know, right?’

We let ourselves in through the front door. I sauntered over to the guest register just in case Stella had been right. I didn’t think she was, but it didn’t hurt to double-check. I knew I hadn’t checked Tina out, but maybe Flora or Millie had done it.

Tina was still signed in. I checked her folder and the bill was still open. She hadn’t checked out. Take that Stella Dumont!

Nero hopped up onto the desk and pushed at the register with his paw.

‘Yeah, it’s just as I had thought, Tina didn’t check out. Stella doesn’t know what she’s talking about.’

Nero blinked.

‘But it makes me wonder… did Stella see someone who looked like Tina or did she lie? And if she did lie, then why?’

The guesthouse was extremely quiet. My stomach broke the silence with a growl so loud that it startled Nero, not to mention myself. It was unusual for it to be this quiet. Normally I could hear the hammering and sawing that indicated Mike was at work, or the television, or guests talking. But it was past supper time, Mike had gone home and it seemed that the guests were all out to dinner, as evidenced by the absence of their cars.

Just as well, I didn’t really want company. I headed back to the kitchen, the cats on my heels and thoughts of my visit with Stella on my mind.

I rummaged in the fridge, pulling out a bedraggled slice of pepperoni pizza, a few muffins that were leftover from breakfast and the remains of the seafood dinner I’d had two nights ago. Two glass baking dishes with foil wrapped around the tops were neatly stacked in the back. A note from Millie indicated they contained broccoli quiche for breakfast the next day.

That reminded me, I needed to figure out what to feed them for the rest of the week. I glanced over at the counter. Hadn’t Millie mentioned the sour cream coffee cake?

I shut the fridge, to the protesting meows of the cats.‘Don’t worry guys I’ll get your dinner in a second.’

I opened a batter-and food-stained hardcover copy ofThe Joy of Cooking and leafed through the loose recipes stuffed inside. Some were on index cards, some ripped out of magazines, some just on pieces of paper. All in Millie’s bold scrawl in fading ink. A smile tugged at my lips. I remembered some of these recipes from when I was a kid and had visited Millie here at the guesthouse with my mother.

As I leafed through the recipes looking for something that sounded tasty but looked easy, I chatted out loud to my feline audience.

‘It’s too bad Stella didn’t have clogs on. If she had I would seriously suspect her as the killer. Then again, maybe she lied about having clogs.’ I stopped the sorting and thought about that for a second. ‘I guess if she was the killer and wore the clogs, she might be afraid they had blood or some other evidence on them and lie.’

Meow.

I pulled out a couple of recipes that looked interesting and put them on the counter.‘And maybe she made that story up about Tina, but why?’

Mew.

‘She probably just did that to be mean. She’s like that, you know.’ I glanced down at Marlowe, who was watching me with her head cocked to the side. Did she give a little nod? I must have imagined it. ‘In high school she was one of those mean girls. Never could figure out what Mike saw in her. Not that I care. Is that why she keeps coming here, to see him?’

Merope.

‘Why would Mike lie about that?’

Meow.

‘I know. Men. Who can figure them out?’

I laid the recipes of interest on the countertop. I didn’t find the sour cream coffee cake recipe. I’d just have to pick something else.

‘I suppose Stella could have been here for a more nefarious reason.’ I glanced in the direction of the Smuggler’s Cove Inn. I could see the gulls circling it from the kitchen window. The deck had been set for dinner, but no guests were out there. Maybe they stayed inside because of the birds?

Was it possible that bookings at the inn were suffering because of the gulls? Stella had entered that contest where the winner would get five grand. Was it for the prestige of winning or because she needed money? And if she needed money, then having the Oyster Cove Guesthouse shut down would mean more customers for her. But would she stoop so low as to kill someone?

And let’s not forget that if Charles really was writing a new cookbook, then that book was missing. Had Stella somehow known about that and stolen it from Charles? What if that’s why she’d been here and he’d caught her and a struggle ensued that ended up in the closed off section of the guesthouse?

Nero jumped up on the counter and nudged my hand. Was that his signal that he wanted to be petted? But when I reached out a tentative hand, he let out a loud meow and almost scratched me. All righty then, here I was thinking that cat wanted affection but probably was just getting impatient for supper.

‘I know, you must be hungry but you have to get down from the counter. If Barbara Littlefield came in and saw you, she’d close me down!

I bent down and opened the cabinet where I kept the gravy-style canned cat food Millie had said they liked. The recipes fluttered down onto the floor around me. Nero had pushed them off the counter.

I looked up to see him peering over the counter at me.‘That’s no way to get your supper.’

Nero jumped down and batted at them.

‘Hey don’t rip these, they’re the only recipes I’ve got.’

Nero sat back and I started putting the papers into a pile. The recipes triggered a memory of the ripped note the police had taken.

‘Oh that’s right. That’s the other clue. The review that Charles was writing. But was it really a review?’

Merooo.

I hadn’t actually looked at the note in any detail, but when Seth Chamberlain had held that bag up I could see it was just a scrap of paper. Not even enough words to tell who the review was about.Ifit even was a review. Clearly the killer must’ve taken the other half. It seemed odd that the scrap of paper was found in his room, but Charles’ body was in the West wing.

Had he fought with the killer in his room and then somehow gone down to the closed off wing with them? That would indicate it was someone staying at the guesthouse. Of course, it could have been a review about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. But if it had been, then who had taken the other part of it and why? Seems like I would be the only one interested in keeping that from publication.

The piece of paper might not even be a review, but that didn’t mean that Charles hadn’t written a bad review of someone else recently. What if he had? And what if that chef heard he was in town and wanted to exact their revenge?

I glanced in the direction of the Smugglers Bay Inn again, except I couldn’t see it because I was crouched on the floor. I didn’t need to though, because the thought was already in my head. If he’d previously written a review about Stella, maybe I could find it online.

I grabbed two cans of cat food in one hand and stood with the recipes in the other. The cans went onto the counter and I pulled out a recipe entitled‘Brunch Egg Dish Casserole’ that looked interesting. Bread, cheese, eggs, milk and ham. I had the ingredients for it. I could assemble it at night and pop it in the oven in the morning. If I wasn’t mistaken, mom had gotten this recipe from Millie and made it many times when I was a kid. It was quite tasty and seemed easy (at least it did when Mom made it). I put the recipe beside the cans and tucked the other recipes back intoThe Joy of Cooking.

Meow.

Marlowe had jumped onto the little table under the window that I used as a work desk and was prowling around my laptop.

‘I’m one step ahead of you about looking online.’

Mewoow!

I sat down and started typing. Turns out finding Charles’ Laughing Gourmet reviews wasn’t as easy as I thought. A search for the Laughing Gourmet brought up a website all about Charles, but when I searched for ‘Smugglers Bay’ on it, no review came up. Odd, because I saw a few other reviews of restaurants in New York and Connecticut. I searched Yelp. No review was posted by him on there either. Charles probably didn’t use common places where anyone could post a review though. I decided to do a search on the Smugglers Bay Inn.

My phone chirped and I glanced at the display. It was my daughter, Emma. My heart filled with warmth. As I answered, all thoughts of murder and bad reviews fled.

‘Em! How are you doing?’ I chirped.

‘Great, Mom. What about you? Gram said there was some excitement in Oyster Cove today.’ Emma’s voice had an edge of concern, and I wanted to put her at ease right away. As the parent, I was the one who was supposed to be doing the worrying, not her. Speaking of parents, what was my mother thinking, telling Emma about Charles? Hopefully she hadn’t mentioned that the excitement involved a dead body.

‘Oh, a little excitement is always good. It’s nothing to be worried about,’ I lied.

‘A little excitement?’ Emma sounded incredulous. ‘I would say a dead person is more than a little excitement. And I heard it was murder? Are you okay out there?’

Oops… apparently Momhad told Emma the details. The concern in Emma’s voice made my heart swell, but I didn’t want Emma worrying about me. I made a mental note to tell my mother to keep things like this under her hat. Not that I expected ‘things like this’ to happen often.

‘I’m fine. There’s no danger. That poor man was killed over some sort of lover’s quarrel or old feud.’ I laughed to show just how unconcerned I was. ‘It’s not like there’s a serial killer running around town.’

Was there? I had assumed that Charles’ death was perpetrated by someone who had a reason to kill him, but what if there was a homicidal maniac running loose. For the first time I felt a niggle of worry. If the killer wasn’t targeting Charles in particular, were the rest of us in danger? I pushed that thought to the back of my mind, maybe I would be extra-cautious, but no attempts had been made on anyone else and Charles had had a reputing for rubbing people the wrong way. Hopefully his death was just a one-off.

‘Okay Mom, but if you need me to come out there—’

‘I wouldn’t dream of it! You’ve got your new job.’ Emma had just finished college and was a rookie at the FBI Academy. Though, come to think of it, maybe but Icould use her help to figure out who killed Charles… but of course I would never involve her in something like this. Besides, I was a smart confident woman on my own now and I didn’t need anyone to bail me out. Not my ex. And not my daughter. I wanted to show her how I could survive on my own, prove that I was competent and show her that women can do anything they set their minds to.

Mew.

Nero walked across the keyboard, his silky paws pressing the keys. I picked him up and put him on the floor but he just came right back and walked across it again.

‘Okay well if you say so,’ Emma said.

‘Of course. The police have it all wrapped up and there’s nothing to worry about. How are things going at the new job?’ I said, steering the conversation in another direction.

The murder took a back seat in my mind as Emma described her new job. I could tell by the enthusiasm in her voice that she loved her life. Part of me felt a little sad that she was all grown up and no longer needed me. She was living on her own and starting a promising career hundreds of miles away. But the other part of me was bursting with pride and happiness for her.

It was a constant chore to keep the cats away from the computer. Apparently they liked electronic devices, because they seemed to be taking turns either walking or laying on the keyboard and sitting behind the computer with their tails swishing on the screen.

By the time I hung up with Emma, I felt much better about the situation at hand. Emma was doing great in her new job and I’d persuaded her there was nothing to worry about here. Somehow just talking to her had imbibed me with new confidence about figuring out who had killed Charles, or at least persuading the police that it wasn’t me.

Meroo!

Nero stuck his tail in my face and I pressed my lips together and backed away. Yech. These cats sure got into everything. And they were starting to be pests with the way they were hanging around the computer. I’d never get any work done.

Prior to this the cats had mostly ignored me, but now their insistence of getting into my business was getting annoying. It made me wonder if this relationship was going to work out. But, I’d promised Millie, so I had to try. Maybe this was their way of telling me how hungry they were.

‘I know you’re hungry but if you’ll just wait—’

Something on the computer screen caught my eye.

It was a review of an establishment in Oyster Cove, but not the Smugglers Bay Inn. It was the Marinara Mariner.

Charles had eaten there last summer and didn’t like the lemon meringue pie. It had been too sour for his taste and he used a lot of negative and colorful words to describe his disappointment. Words that might anger the chef. If I remembered correctly, Tony Murano, head chef and owner of the Mariner, had a bad temper. Did Tony also wear chef’s clogs and hold a grudge?

Meow. Nero rubbed his head against me and I reached out to pet him. This time he let me. I glanced back at the screen. The cats must have inadvertently pressed a key that brought the screen with this review up. Ironically the cat’s annoying behavior on the computer had given me a clue.

‘Yes, you did do good. I think a reward is in order.’

Meowess!

I was hungry too and I’d left the cat food and scraps from the fridge on the counter. I pried open the white styrofoam takeout box and plucked out a shrimp. Nero and Marlowe sat at my feet staring up at the shrimp longingly as I popped it into my mouth. Cat’s liked shrimp, right? As I recalled, one of their favorite canned dinners was Scrumptious Shrimp Surprise.

‘Okay guys, you can have some.’

Their tails swished excitedly as I put a few shrimp in each of their bowls, then set the bowls on the floor.

I leaned against the counter and listened to their content purrs. As they chowed down, I thought, maybe this will work out after all.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

‘Maybe this relationship is going to work out after all,’ Marlowe said to Nero as she scarfed down her second shrimp.

‘Agreed. Josie isn’t so bad.’ Nero daintily bit into his shrimp. ‘But let’s not forget we must not show too much enthusiasm for the human.’

Marlowe looked up from her dish, a shrimp tail hanging out of her mouth.‘What do you mean?’

‘We wouldn’t want to look too appreciative by gobbling down our food so fast.’

Marlowe glanced down at the remaining shrimp in her bowl regrettably. Her whiskers twitched then she looked up at Josie, gave a disdainful meow and stalked out of the room, her tail high in the air. As she exited, he called to Nero over his shoulder.‘How’s that for not showing interest?’

‘Perfect.’ Nero plucked the shrimp from Marlowe’s bowl and downed it in one gulp before following Marlowe out into the front parlor where the comfortable overstuffed chairs were.

‘I thought she was never going to get the hint with that computer,’ Marlowe said from her spot on the couch where she was curled up and washing behind her ears.

Nero jumped up onto his favorite chair, stretched and then curled into a ball.‘Thankfully she finally did. I thought she would never figure out the message I was trying to send with the recipes.’

‘Yeah, but you have to admit that was a hard one and she did finally associate the recipes with the partial review that the police found and that led her to looking on the computer.’

‘I suppose, it’s just that she is so slow on the uptake.’ Nero tucked his face into his tail. ‘I think she’ll come around though. She has potential. I guess we still need to work on our communication. At least now she talks out loud to us.’

‘Lucky thing too because she uncovered a few more clues from her conversation with Stella Dumont.’

‘But can we trust the information?’ Nero asked. ‘Stella Dumont isn’t exactly a pillar of society.’

‘True, but I happen to know that Tina was not in her room late at night three nights ago.’

Nero jerked his head up and looked at Marlowe.‘The night of the murder?’

Marlowe sighed.‘No, I saidthree nights ago. Two nights before the murder.’

‘Hmmm. I wonder if that is related… but why wouldn’t she be in her room?’

‘You got me. What about the rumor of her affair with Charles? Maybe they snuck off somewhere to be away from prying eyes?’

‘Could be, the humans’ love habits are strange and disturbing,’ Nero said.

‘You can say that again.’

‘We should pay close attention to her.’ Nero looked out the window to see a Budget rental car pull up with the Weatherbys inside. ‘And let’s not forget the Weatherbys. Clearly they were up to something on that cliff.’

‘Do you really think so? They are birdwatchers. And they’re kind of old to be getting up to murder. If you ask me, they seem like the least likely suspects.’

Nero looked at Marlowe sharply.‘Never underestimate the older ones. Look at Millie, she can do anything that people half her age can do. And she’s smarter than most of them too.’

‘I suppose you’re right. Sorry.’ Marlowe said. ‘We should be sure to follow all leads anyway. That’s what you taught me.’

Nero turned back to the window, a feeling of self-satisfaction washing over him. The young cat really did pay attention to him. He watched the elderly couple getting out of the car. They didn’t look so elderly from here. In fact, they looked kind of spry. Cameras dangled from their necks as they hopped out of the car and practically sprinted to the front door, their heads bent conspiratorially together. ‘Yes indeed, we will need to watch the Weatherbys closely. Sometimes it is the least likely suspect that is the culprit.’

Ten

The next morning, I slid the brunch egg dish casserole into the oven an hour before breakfast. It was piping hot and smelling fabulous when the guests arrived in the dining room. Breakfast was punctuated by the clink of forks on plates and the rustle of the breeze coming through the window. They talked in hushed tones. At least they were all there. No one had defected in the middle of the night to a different hotel.

I hovered near the mahogany buffet where I’d laid out Millie’s breakfast quiche, orange juice that I’d juiced myself in my Jack Lalanne juicer, English muffins, a fruit bowl and, of course, coffee.

I was impatient for the guests to eat quickly and go. Mom and Millie would be here soon and I was eager to fill them in on the bad review and make a plan to visit the Mariner.

Today, Tina sat with the Weatherbys. They were still mothering her after yesterday’s tragedy. Here they were, taking care of Tina out of the goodness of their hearts not knowing she could be the killer! At the very least she was sneaky, having had an affair with Charles and being seen creeping around his room. Funny though, she didn’t look like a killer with her innocent wide gaze and perfect complexion.

As I studied Tina, she daintily bit a teeny tiny morsel of the muffin. Was that how she stayed so thin? I glanced down at my waistline, which I liked to refer to as voluptuous. I wasn’t fat, but I certainly wasn’t thin. I was probably going to stay this size, because I doubted I could nibble an English muffin like Tina was doing.

She hadn’t touched the rest of her food, either. Maybe if she had she wouldn’t be so pale and wan looking. Was her appearance due to the stress of hiding that she was the killer, or was she just upset her lover had died? I still couldn’t believe Tina would have the know how to sabotage the stairs at the crime scene, as Mike had suggested.

Stella on the other hand…

‘I say, Josie, you’ve really outdone yourself.’ Ava was sitting at the table next to the Weatherbys and Tina. She held up a forkful of the quiche and nodded at me.

‘Thanks.’ I didn’t feel the need to mention that it was actually Millie who had made it.

The Weatherbys stood, patting their mouths with the white linen napkins that matched the tablecloth.‘Yes, quite delicious today.’

Tina pushed some eggs around the plate with her fork.‘It was, truly.’

Mike appeared in the doorway earning an appreciative glance from Tina– and also from Ava if I was not mistaken. The Weatherbys nodded to him as they exited.

‘Hey Sunshine.’ He helped himself to coffee.

I rolled my eyes and faked a smile.‘You must be almost done with your work here.’

Mike sipped the coffee and made a face. I wasn’t sure if the face was about the coffee or the mention of his work. ‘Sort of.’

‘What do you mean? You have a set list of tasks that Millie paid you for. I don’t have money for extras.’

‘The extras are on me. Seeing as were such old friends.’ He moved closer. Too close really. Dizzily close. I stepped away, my butt hitting up against the sideboard. Ava watched from her table, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

‘So, ummm… did you want something besides coffee?’ I asked.

‘Uhhh yeah…’ Mike glanced over at Ava then back at me. He lowered his voice. ‘The police tape is gone in the West wing and I wanted to show you something.’

I glanced longingly back at the buffet table. I really wanted to clean this stuff up. But I also wanted to see whatever it was Mike had to show me. It might lead me to the killer’s identity. Maybe a miracle had happened overnight and Flora would come in and clean up the breakfast dishes.

‘Okay.’ I started toward the door and Mike followed, putting his hand on the small of my back. I sped up and his hand fell away. Who did he think he was? That was getting just a little too friendly and I didn’t like the way my stomach tightened and I got all hot-flashy.

As we passed into the foyer, I ducked behind the little podium I used as a checkin desk to get the key to the door that shut the West wing from the rest of the guesthouse.

The Weatherbys came down the stairs juggling various cameras and binoculars. When Ron Weatherby reached the bottom, he nearly dropped one of the cameras. Mike lunged to catch it before it smashed on the wood floor.

‘Hey, nice Nikon,’ Mike admired the camera before handing it back to Ron. ‘Is that one of the new models that has the automatic closeup focus?’

Ron frowned at the camera.‘Yeah, it’s the newer model.’

‘So do you use it for closeups of birds in the trees?’ Mike asked. ‘Can you set the autofocus so it works in all lighting and situations?’

Ron glanced at Iona, then down at the camera again.‘Yeah, that’s just what we use it for. It took me a while to learn how to fiddle with all the dials and everything.’

Mike’s brows knit together as Ron took the camera back.

‘We’re going out to do some birdwatching on the beach,’ Iona smiled and tugged Ron toward the door.

‘Have a great time,’ I said.

Mike watched them leave, an odd look on his face.‘That was strange.’

‘What you mean?’ I asked.

‘Well his answer about the camera was kind of odd. There aren’t any dials to fiddle with on those.’

‘Really?’ I watched them hop into their car and drive off. ‘Well they are old, maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about or couldn’t remember or used the wrong words?’

Mike shrugged.‘Maybe. Come on, let me show you what I found in the room.’

We proceeded down the hallway to the West Wing door. I was glad to see the door was still locked. Barbara would have approved, though I was sure she’d find something else wrong to complain about. I opened it and we stepped inside. The room had a creepy stillness to it. My stomach tightened as I glanced over at where Charles’ body had been. You could make out all the footprints in the dust and a dark stain. Blood? I was sure Flora would saythat cleaning blood was not in her job description.

‘Look over here.’ Mike pointed to the stairway where several of the treads had been broken. The small section of the railing that was left dangled precariously. It had appeared at first that Charles had slipped, perhaps grabbing at the railing, which gave way, causing him to tumble down the stairs and hit his head.

‘Looks like the stairs collapsed,’ I said.

‘Itlooks like it. But, if you look closely, you can see that the stairs were sawn from underneath.’ Mike got down on his hands and knees and gestured for me to follow suit. He tilted his head to the side to look at the treads from underneath. I did the same. I had to get very close to him to see what he was pointing at. There was definitely something fishy going on underneath those stairs –and it wasn’t the way Mike had gotten me on my hands and knees so easily either.

‘You can see how they sawed away just enough so that a light amount of weight would cause the stairs to break. But they didn’t cut all the way through, so at first glance the wood is splintered like it rotted and gave way. But when you look closer you can see the even break underneath.’

I looked again. He was right.‘Do you think the killer did this before and somehow persuaded Charles to come down the stairs?’

‘Maybe.’

I glanced at the pile of railing spindles.‘But then why hit him with the newel post?’

‘The fall probably didn’t do the trick. Or it’s possible the killer bludgeoned him first and then set the stage to make it look like Charles had fallen by accident.’

‘But wouldn’t someone have heard something?’ I gestured toward the boards. ‘I mean all that sawing makes noise, right?’

Mike rocked back on his heels and looked thoughtful.‘It does. But it’s possible the person did this some time ago and the sounds were masked by renovations going on in the other part of the house. I mean who can really tell where the hammering and sawing noises are coming from? And I’ve been working pretty steady every day, so the killer wouldhave had plenty of opportunity.’

‘So that means it wasn’t just done in anger when someone saw he had written a bad review.’ If only the police would see it that way, maybe Millie wouldn’t have to promise Seth Chamberlain so many pastries not to arrest me. I glanced over at the window. ‘We found a footprint outside the window. I think the killer might have escaped through there.’

I thought about Tony Murano, my stomach taking a tumble. Charles had written a bad review about Tony’s lemon meringue pie. But if Tony was the killer that meant he’d planned this all out ahead of time. And that he’d come to sabotage the stairs and then lured Charles in here. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go to his restaurant.? Then again, what could he do to me in broad daylight?

Mike walked over to the window and looked outside then checked the lock.‘It’s unlocked. You know you should keep all the windows locked here, Sunshine. Oyster Cove might be a nice town but thereis a killer running around.’

I refrained from rolling my eyes.There he goes again treating me like a little sister. I remembered it from when we were younger. I hadn’t appreciated it then and I didn’t like it very much now either.

‘Maybe the killer unlocked it to get out. He wouldn’t have been able to lock it back up once outside.’ So there, Mr. Smartypants!

‘Good point.’ Mike walked back to the stairs. ‘Whoever did this went to a lot of trouble to make it look like an accident. They must be angry that we weren’t fooled.’

‘And nervous about being caught.’ I walked back to the staircase and got on my hands and knees to take another look at the sabotage just to make sure that it really had been done on purpose. ‘It looks like you’d have to know exactly where to cut to get the boards to break like this. Who would know that?’

I had been intent on studying the saw marks and hadn’t realized that Mike had crouched down beside me. His voice startled me. ‘Anyone who knew about carpentry, or building.’

I glanced sideways at Mike.‘Like you?’

Mike looked incredulous.‘Why in the world would I sabotage the stairs and kill your guest? I didn’t even know the guy.’

‘He might have pissed off someone you’re close to. Someone whose been lurking around here.’ I glanced in the direction of the Smugglers Bay Inn. Not that I really thought Mike would kill someone for Stella, but stranger things have happened. And besides, what about the clog print? Maybe they’d done it together and Stella had hopped out the window in her clogs.

Mike caught my drift and his scowl deepened.‘You think I did this for Stella Dumont? No way. She might have been interesting in high school but believe me, I have no designs on her. I’m older and wiser now and prefer my women… not quite so made-up.’

He reached out to pluck a cobweb out of my hair and I suddenly I felt self-conscious about my lack of mascara or blush. I had put a little lip gloss on this morning though, so hopefully that counted for something

Self-consciousness gave way to guilt. It wasn’t fair to accuse Mike. I had no evidence and he had been nothing but nice since working here. Even if his kindness was suspicious, it was not suspicious enough for me to accuse him of murder.

‘Sorry. I don’t really think you killed him.’

‘I guess we should tell Barbara Littlefield about this.’ Mike leaned forward and looked underneath the stairs again. ‘She’s been running around town saying this place is unsafe.’

‘I know. I have no idea why she has it in for me. I’m trying to restore it to the way it was originally. You’d think she’d be happy.’

‘I don’t think she’s ever happy,’ Mike said. ‘But it might bemeshe has it in for.’

‘You? Why would she have it in for you? And why would getting the guesthouse closed down hurt you?’

Mike shrugged.‘I guess she doesn’t like anyone doing any kind of renovations or improvements. Wants things to stay just the way they are, and since I’ve been back in town, I’ve been doing a lot of renovations. Not to brag, but I am getting kind of popular in the home improvement sector.’

‘No doubt. But why focus on the guesthouse? I don’t see what it has to do with you.’

‘She probably thinks that casting a cloud on the work here would dissuade people from hiring me. Plus, she knows I’m attached to this place because of Aunt Millie. But I think she’s just crotchety in general. She doesn’t like that I came back here after a career in the Navy and started taking up carpentry. Thinks it’s suspicious.’

Now that he mentioned it, it was a little suspicious. Why would a Navy guy be doing carpentry?

As if reading my thoughts, Mike continued,‘I always liked working with my hands and now that I’m retired, it gives me something to do. It’s not about the money. I really just wanted to help out Aunt Millie.’ His gaze drifted and locked on mine. ‘And now you.’

Footsteps sounded the hallway.‘Hey look, this door is cracked open, I thought Josie was supposed to keep this wing locked.’

The door swung in and we looked over our shoulders to see my mother and Millie. Their eyes scanned the room, then widened as they fell on Mike and me kneeling on her hands and knees before the staircase. Millie’s eyes widened. ‘Oh sorry. We didn’t mean to interrupt.’ They backed out and Millie started to pull the door shut behind them.

I leaped up.‘You’re not interrupting anything.’

They stopped and looked at us skeptically.

‘We weren’t?’ Mom’s left brow was quirked up as she nodded toward the stairs. ‘Looked like you were doing something to me.’

‘Yeah, you young people, one never knows what you’re getting up to. You do things differently than when we were young,’ Millie added.

Mike stood and brushed the dust of his hands.‘We weren’t up to anything. We were looking at the staircase. Someone sabotaged it so that it would be unstable.’

‘Oh really?’ Millie hurried over and plopped down onto her knees. I was surprised she could do it so easily. ‘Let me see.’

My mother joined her. Maybe they took yoga or something? The two of them seemed to have no problem getting around on all fours.

‘Oh, I see. Right there, Millie.’ Mom pointed to the part of the treads that had been sawn.

Millie looked back over her shoulder at Mike.‘What do you make of it?’

‘Someone wanted to cover up the murder.’ Mike stated the obvious.

Millie smiled proudly and glanced at me.‘My Mike was an investigator in the Navy. He knows about this stuff. You should listen to him.’

‘I’ll try to keep that in mind,’ I said. I probably wasn’t going to listen to him though, in fact, I was counting the days until he wouldn’t even be around.

‘Well, well, well. I guess your suspicions were right after all, Mike.’ Millie stood. ‘So we have the chef’s clog, the missing cookbook, the torn review, and now the sabotage.’

‘And don’t forget the illicit affair,’ Mom added.

‘Affair? Cookbook?’ Mike’s eyes darted from Millie to Mom. ‘You ladies wouldn’t happen to be investigating again would you?’

‘Who us? No. We’re just little old ladies with too much time on our hands. One has to have a hobby, you know.’

Mike crossed his arms over his chest, disapproval radiating from his velvety brown eyes.‘Investigating is not a hobby. It can be dangerous. You ladies should not be meddling in a murder case.’

‘Don’t be silly, dear.’ Millie waved her hand. ‘We’re not meddling.’

Mike looked to me for support.‘Don’t you agree, Josie?’

I glanced at Mom and Millie. I actually did agree, they shouldn’t be meddling. But Seth Chamberlain had me at the top of his suspect list so someone other than the police had to investigate. I knew they weren’t going to stop meddling, so I figured it was best if I got in on the ground floor. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they don’t get into trouble.’

Mike looked skeptical.

‘That’s right. You don’t have anything to worry about,’ Millie said.

We all stood around and looked at each other for a few beats, then Millie continued.‘Well, don’t you have some work to be doing. I’m not paying you to stand around.’

Mike rolled his eyes and sighed.‘Okay, fine.’ He gave me a pointed look. ‘But I’m counting onyou to keep them in line.’

He kissed Millie on the top of the head as he left.

‘He’s a dear boy, but such a killjoy sometimes. Honestly, you young people seem to think we’re doddering old fools who can’t take care of ourselves.’ Millie brushed dust off the front of her shirt.

‘Indeed. I think they forget who raised them,’ Mom glanced at me. ‘So, what’s going on, Josie? I can tell by the look on your face that there’s something else. Spill it.’

I looked out the door to make sure Mike wasn’t lurking around in the hall before speaking. ‘I did find something else out last night. Charles Prescott wrote a bad review last year about the Marinara Mariner.’

Millie’s brows inched up. ‘He did? Now thatisinteresting. And if I’m not mistaken Tony Murano is one to hold a grudge.’

Mom nodded vigorously.‘Yes, he is. Remember last year how he almost got into a fight with Vinnie from Vinnie’s Pizza because he thought Vinnie stole his marinara recipe?’

Millie nodded.‘Who could forget? And even when it turned out he was wrong, Tony wouldn’t even apologize.’

Mom pressed her lips together.‘And I bet Tony wear chef’s clogs.’

We all glanced at the window.

Millie whipped out her phone.‘There’s one way to find out for sure.’

She thumbed into the phone like a teenager. After a few seconds she squinted at the thing, then nodded and smiled.‘All set. We have a reservation for 1 p.m. at the Marinara Mariner. Come on Rose, let’s go see if Vera can fit us in at Tremulous Tresses. I think I need my roots touched up before we confront the suspect.’

Eleven

I had some time to kill after I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and fed the cats—who did not act at all appreciative of the shrimp I’d given them the night before—so I decided to head downtown. It would be closer for Mom and Millie to meet me there anyway and I wanted to visit my best friend from high school Jen Summers, who worked at the Post Office.

Another good thing about moving back home was that I’d had a chance to reconnect with Jen. We’d been inseparable when we were younger, but had drifted apart when I’d moved away. It was hard to stay in touch while raising kids and all, but now that the kids were out of the house and I was back in town, we had a lot of time to catch up and I stopped in whenever I could.

The post office was the epicenter of Oyster Cove’s rumor mill and Jen always knew everything that was going on in town. But I wasn’t going there to pump her for information, I was going for the emotional support.

The Oyster Cove Post Office was in an old brick building in the center of Main Street. It had been built in the 1920s and no one had thought to do a thing with it since. It still retained the old marble-checked tile floor, oak teller windows with bars, wainscoting on the bottom half of the walls and the pervasive smell of stamp glue. I had to admit, it had a certain charm.

Jen looked up from her job of stuffing the post boxes as I entered. A smile replaced the bored look on her face and she practically dropped the mail on the floor to greet me.

‘Hey, how’s it going? I heard you had a murder at the guesthouse! I hope you’re okay out there?’

Her expression was a mixture of interest and concern. I was touched that she was concerned about me but figured she also wanted to know all the details. Clearly I was okay, since I was standing right in front of her.

‘I’m fine. It’s terrible that someone died but, even worse, I think Seth Chamberlain might suspect me.’

‘Pfft…’ Jen waved her hand in the air. ‘I wouldn’t put any stock in what he says. Remember when we were in high school and he kept trying to catch us with our boyfriends at Makeout Point? He was pretty easy to pull one over on.’

She had a point. It hadn’t been hard to evade Sheriff Chamberlain when we were younger. ‘That makes me even more nervous. If he’s so incompetent, he might arrest me just because he can’t find the real killer.’

Jen gnawed on her bottom lip.‘Oh, yeah. True. So, tell me what you know.’

I told her about the partial note, the affair with Tina, the missing cookbook, the sabotage and the clog print.‘And Flora said that Stella Dumont has been hanging around the guesthouse so, naturally, I suspect her.’

Jen nodded.‘She’s sketchy and I heard she needs money.’

‘You did? I did too. Mom said she entered some cooking contest and when I went over to question her, she acted evasive. You ask me, those gulls that keep pooping on her deck are hurting her business.’

‘But why would that make her kill your guest? Do you think she wants to make it so people are afraid to stay there?’

‘Maybe. She acted like she had a reason to be there.’

‘What reason?’

‘She implied she was there to see Mike Sullivan, but then he denied it.’

Jen made a face.‘Hunky Mike Sullivan? What would he want with Stella? I’m sure she was making that up. She’s not the most truthful person you know.’

It was true that Stella was prone to lying.‘Yeah, but I’m not sure I trust Mike either. Whoever sabotaged that room had carpentry knowledge.’

‘Oh, come on. Mike wouldn’t do that. He’s a nice guy. Please tell me you aren’t still holding a grudge about what happened back in high school.’

My spine stiffened.‘Of course not. That would be so immature. I couldn’t care less about Mike Sullivan. But, like I said, the crime scene was altered by someone in the trade and if the shoe fits…’

‘Speaking of shoe, you found a clog print and Mike doesn’t wear clogs. My money is on Stella.’

‘Stella wasn’t wearing clogs when I visited. She claimed she doesn’t wear them ever, but she could be lying. There’s another person who might fit that clog print too.’ I told her about the review I’d seen on the lemon meringue pie. ‘I’m meeting Mom and Millie to go there for lunch at one.’

‘Lordy, you have your mom and Millie in on this?’

‘Not much choice. Those two get into everything.’

‘Are you regretting your decision to move back here and keep an eye on your mom?’ Jen wheeled a cart over and started sorting mail.

‘She is a handful, but no. I love it here and buying the Oyster Cove Guesthouse was the right move. Even if it did take my life savings.’

It was only partially true that I had moved back here to keep an eye on my mother. Daddy had passed on five years ago and at the time I’d been terribly worried that my mother would wallow in grief. Luckily, she’d adjusted to widowhood like a trooper. Now I was worried about her barging in on crime scenes and causing trouble with Millie. It was like I’d turned into the mom and she into the teenager.

But the other reason I’d moved back was that I’d been terribly hurt by Clive. I’d left that marriage feeling like I was worthless. In order to sooth that pain, I’d run back to the one place where I’d always felt safe and secure. Oyster Cove. And buying the Guesthouse gave me a way to rebuild my self-worth. Well, as long as I could be successful at it, and I doubted this murder was going to help with that.

‘And then it’s all made worse by Barbara Littlefield running around town telling everyone we should be closed down because it’s unsafe. So if Chamberlain doesn’t arrest me for murder, Barbara Littlefield might close me down. Either way there goes my savings down the drain.’

Jen clucked in sympathy. She knew how important it was for me to make a go of this on my own.‘Don’t worry, no one listens to Barbara. She’s always grousing about something.’

‘Right, except as the building inspector, she does have a lot of power.’

‘I wouldn’t worry about Barbara,’ Jen assured me. ‘She doesn’t like change but she just wants to make sure the town doesn’t get too built up. She comes off as a hard ass, but she has all our best interests at heart. The tourists come for the quaint ambiance of an old-fashioned Maine fishing town and she wants to make sure that’s what they get. She’d never close down the guesthouse, it’s part of the town history.’

‘I suppose.’

‘She’s just crotchety.’ Jen tossed some mail into the cart. ‘But you have to give her credit for finding the Furbish Lousewort and working to get the government to declare that a protected area. Otherwise they would have built that big hotel. That would have changed the town forever. And not in a good way. Probably would have put the guesthouse out of business.’

‘Yeah, I guess,’ I hated to admit I might owe Barbara one for stopping the construction. I knew she hadn’t done it for me, but Jen was right about the hotel.

‘You hang around long enough, you might be able to thank her in person.’ Jen pointed to a pile of packages. ‘She gets a lot of packages. Some of them are dirty.’

My eyebrows shot up.‘You mean she gets porn?’

Jen looked at me and laughed.‘No. Dirty like with dirt. I don’t know, she might get special fertilizer for that Lousewort, you know how she babies it.’

‘Oh, that kind of dirt. For a minute there I thought maybe I could have some sort of blackmail to leverage over her.’

Jen made a face.‘Eww… just the thought of Barbara and porn makes me glad I had a light breakfast.’

‘Ditto.’

‘So what about this Tina person? Do you think she could’ve done it? Lover’s quarrel?’ Jen asked.

‘I really have no idea. She was very upset when we discovered the body, but she could’ve been acting,’ I said. ‘I just can’t imagine her being with Charles. I mean she’s kind of pretty.’

I glanced out the window to see a seagull perched on the back of one of the benches they had set at intervals on the sidewalk. They were kind of pretty with barrels of flowers beside them. The gull made me think of Stella Dumont.‘And I still don’t know why Stella’s been lurking around the guesthouse.’

‘Does she have a connection to the victim?’

‘I’m not sure. I couldn’t find anything. When I looked online the only review I found was the one for the Marinara Mariner. She sure was acting suspicious yesterday, but she was distracted because the gulls were flocking around her deck like she was putting out a buffet for them.’

Jen glanced out the window.‘Yeah, what about the gulls? It’s weird what’s happening to them, isn’t it?’

‘For sure. But Stella probably isn’t unhappy about it. They congregate around her deck and I don’t imagine her guests appreciate them begging for scraps when they are dining outdoors.’

‘I don’t know. I think some tourists like to feed them. That’s how they got in the habit of stealing sandwiches out of their hands on the beach in the first place.’

‘Hmm…’ I glanced at the gull who appeared to be watching people as they strolled past. Probably sizing them up for culinary handout. ‘Maybe people have stopped feeding them and that’s why they are dying off.’

Jen shook her head.‘I don’t know, Gordon Swift from the Audubon Society was in here the other day saying something about experts looking into some kind of a disease.’

‘Oh. Well that’s not good. I hope it doesn’t spread to other animals.’ I thought of Nero and Marlowe. Could cats catch a disease from seagulls? I certainly didn’t want something happening to them.

‘Anyway, it can’t be that they’re starving. They eat those flockenberries up on the cliff. That’s why they poop orange, you know? The berries are orange and pass right through,’ Jen said. ‘And there are tons of those berries. Those things are invasive. They practically choke out anything else nearby. Mrs. Landsdowne had them in her garden and they killed all of her tomato plants.’

‘You don’t say.’ As I made a mental note to make sure I didn’t have any flockenberries in the gardens that I’d be redoing at the guesthouse, something on the street caught my eye. It was my mother and Millie dressed to the nines and making a beeline for the post office. ‘Looks like I better get going. Millie and my mom are coming and it looks like they’re dressed to kill for our lunch at the Marinara Mariner.’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Despite its kitschy name, the Marinara Mariner was a pretty decent upscale Italian restaurant. It was located a few doors down from the Post Office and had a definite Tuscan vibe. The hostess led us through the dimly lit room, across the clay tile flooring, through the arch and into a grotto area with one wall made out of large stones and the others painted a pleasing Tuscany mustard color.

We were seated at a cozy table in the back. Our water glasses sparkled under the chandelier, our silverware gleamed. The plates were simple white china with a gold rim and the acoustics were such that we could only hear muted snatches of the other diners’ conversations. I could tell Mom and Millie were straining to eavesdrop on Carolyn Wheatly and her boss John Collingsworth, who looked particularly cozy in the corner.

Even the menu was classy, all done in dark brown quality faux leather with nice printing inside. I scanned the items—antipasto, eggplant, veal—while inhaling the tang of tomato sauce and freshly baked bread.

‘What are you going to have Josie?’ Millie looked at me over the top of her menu. ‘It’s my treat.’

‘I can’t let you do that, Millie.’ Though it would be nice because I didn’t really have any money for eating out. I scanned the side dishes. Maybe I could make do with a side of broccoli?

‘Don’t be silly. I’m rolling in it now that I have all that money from the sale of the guesthouse.’ She leaned across the table and lowered her voice. ‘And besides, if we play our cards right, we won’t have to pay a dime.’

Worry set in. Mom and Millie were known to play fast and loose. My eyes narrowed.‘Just what are you two planning?’

‘It’s nothing bad.’ Mom put her menu down. ‘I’m having the lasagna.’

‘I’m going for the veal scallopini. What about you, Josie?’ Millie asked.

‘Salad. Now tell me exactly what you are planning to do.’

Millie pressed her lips together and looked over my shoulder at the waitress who had appeared with a pitcher of water. Saved by the waitstaff, but it was only a temporary reprieve. The waitress would have to leave sooner or later, though it looked like it would be later given all the questions Mom and Millie were asking about the food.

Finally, after they found out about every dish, ordered what they wanted and demanded a basket of rolls, the waitress left.

I resumed my inquisition.‘Okay, fess up ladies. What do you have planned? How are you going to figure out if Tony Murano is our clog-wearing killer?’

‘Why we have to look at his feet, of course.’ Millie fluffed out her napkin and deposited it in her lap with a flourish.

‘And just how do you propose that?’ I asked.

‘Oh, don’t worry dear, we know how to get an audience with the chef.’ Mom looked over the edge of her water glass at me, her eyes sparkling with delight.

‘How do you do that?’

‘Why we complain about the meals, of course.’ Millie looked at me as if I was daft. ‘Shhh… here they come.’

The waitress deposited the plates on the table and we tucked in. Millie and mom both felt sorry for me and insisted I try theirs. It was delicious.

‘I don’t see how you can complain about this food, it’s delish,’ I mumbled around a mouthful of lasagna.

‘Oh no? Millie passed the glass of a light Pilsner she’d ordered to Mom. ‘Hold my beer.

‘Oh miss. Miss…’ Millie flapped her hands in the air to summon the waitress who hurried over with a frown on her face.

‘Can I help you?’

Millie pushed her plate away from her.‘This veal is as tough as shoe leather!’ Never mind that she’d eaten almost all of it.

The waitress looked at the plate skeptically.‘I’m so sorry, can I get you something else?’

Millie folded her arms over her chest.‘Certainly not. I’d like to see the chef.’

‘I’m sorry, but chef Murano doesn’t leave the kitchen.’ The waitress looked a little scared but I wasn’t sure if it was of Millie or chef Murano. If rumors of Murano’s temper were true, it was likely of him. All the more reason to suspect him of the murder.

Millie harrumphed. She sat up straight, her eyes shooting daggers at the waitress.‘But I insist. Nothing will make this better except a visit from chef Murano himself. I demand to see him.’

The waitress’ eyes narrowed slightly as if she was going to call Millie’s bluff, but she must have thought better of it because she simply said, ‘I’ll see if he’s available,’ before scurrying off.

Millie’s scowl turned into a smile. She grabbed the beer from Mom and took a swig. ‘See. Works every time.’

Millie’s gloating was short lived. The waitress came back wearing an apologetic look.

‘Chef Murano is busy in the kitchen. He said to offer a free dessert.’

‘Free dessert?’ Millie said loudly, her voice incredulous. ‘That’s no compensation.’

People were starting to stare and the waitress looked antsy.‘We can take your meal off the bill…’

Millie shot up from her seat.‘No. None of that will do. I need to talk to chef Murano. Which way to the kitchen.’

‘You can’t go in th—’

But Millie was already marching toward the steel doors that clearly led to the kitchen, casting a follow-me glance over her shoulder at us.

Mom tossed her napkin on the table and slid out of the booth.‘Guess we should follow her.’

The kitchen was a flurry of activity and a chaos of smells. Pots clanged, sous chefs rushed around plating salads and putting dollops of whipped cream on desserts. In the middle, Tony Murano stood in front of a steel table. He was tall with dark hair, a five o’clock shadow on his chin – though it was only 1:30 – and hairy knuckles. Perhaps I noticed the knuckles because they were clutched around a cleaver that he held high in the air. The florescent lighting glinted off the blade as it sliced down toward the table.

Thwack!

Mom, Millie and I all jumped as the cleaver cut through the side of beef that had been lying on the table.

‘Oh!’ Mom gasped.

Tony’s eyes jerked from the beef to Mom, then me, then Millie. His face darkened. ‘What are you doing in here?’

Millie marched to the other side of the table. I could see her trying to peek over to see what he had on his feet but she was too short.‘I would like to complain about my veal.’

Tony’s eyes narrowed. The cleaver glinted. ‘Look lady, there’s nothing wrong with the veal. I tasted it myself. I think you’re just trying to weasel out of paying the bill.’

‘I certainly am not!’ Millie stomped her foot then tried to peek around the corner of the table. ‘I just wanted you to… umm…’ She turned around and looked at us.

‘Admit that the meal was subpar.’ Mom came to her rescue.

‘Subpar? Who are you people? Food critics? I don’t like food critics.’ Tony raised the cleaver and we all took a step back.

The sous chefs had stopped working and were watching the argument.

‘We are not food critics.’ Millie started around the corner of the table, glancing back at us with a knowing look. ‘We’re just little old ladies trying to get a good meal. Social security only goes so far you know, and we need to get good value for our money. But more importantly, we want you young people to have the manners to admit when something isn’t good.’

Tony was looking at Millie like she was a three-day-old salad. Clearly he didn’t want to be on the same side of the table as her because he sidestepped away.

‘Listen lady, you need to leave.’

Millie pressed her lips together. Clearly this tactic wasn’t working. ‘Well maybe a handshake then and we’ll call it a day?’

She started toward him but Tony held up the cleaver, stopping her.

A door in the back of the kitchen burst open. A woman stood in the doorway, her eyes narrowing as she took in the intruders in the kitchen. She glanced from Tony to Millie to Mom, her eyes widened when they got to me.

She looked furious as she turned to Tony.‘What’s going on in here? Who isshe?’ She jabbed her finger in my direction.

Tony scowled.‘I don’t know, honey. They burst in here demanding I apologize because they didn’t like their dinners.’

The woman, Tony’s wife or girlfriend apparently, looked like she didn’t believe him.

While Tony was distracted with this woman, Millie sidled over to the other side of the table. She craned her neck looking down in the direction of Tony’s feet. Her eyes widened and she glanced over at us nodding her head in an exaggerated manner. Honestly, she couldn’t have been less subtle.

Luckily, Tony was no longer paying attention to us. He was busy arguing with the woman who was now standing in front of him, her hands fisted on her hips.

‘Well I certainly hope that this hussy here isn’t trying to get your attention.’ She jerked her head in my direction.Hussy?

I raised my hand.‘Uhh… I just came with them. I don’t want anyone’s attention.’

The woman got in Tony’s face. ‘Is that right? Maybe she came here thinking I wasn’t in and she could have you all to herself.’

Tony took a few steps back.‘No dear, that’s not it at all.’ He swaggered away from the woman toward us. When I say swaggered, I don’t mean in an old-fashioned cowboy way. I mean that he had a funny way of walking on the sides of his feet. Just like the clog print we’d found in the bark mulch.

Continuing with her subtle methods, Millie gasped and pointed at his feet. Luckily Tony still wasn’t paying attention. I mean, he did have a cleaver in his hand.

Millie scurried over to us and grabbed Mom by the elbow.‘Well, looks like our business here is resolved.’

Tony scowled at her, the cleaver glinting off the light.‘What do you mean, lady? I thought you were mad about your meal and wanted some kind of lame apology. Which you aren’t getting.’

‘No worries, I can see you have good intentions.’ She tugged Mom toward the door. ‘So all’s good then. See you later!’

And with that Millie turned and dragged Mom out of the double doors.

I had just enough time to throw some money on the table for the bill and a tip and meet them outside on the sidewalk.

Millie was already halfway down the street, her heels clacking on the sidewalk.‘Well I guess that settles it, Tony Murano was wearing the clogs and he walks on the sides of his feet. He’s the killer!’

Twelve

‘Anybody want the crusty garlic bread?’ Harry asked from his perch on the edge of the dumpster.

‘I do,’ Juliette said.

Nero watched as Harry used his tail for balance while reaching one orange striped paw into the dumpster to skewer the garlic bread, which he flipped to Juliette, who pounced on it.

A piece of newspaper drifted out and fluttered to the ground. Nero noticed it was the food section.‘I hope there are no reviews in that paper from Charles Prescott.’

‘Like the one the police found in the victim’s room?’ Harry tossed out a cheeseburger and Poe claimed it as his own.

‘Yes and we also made another review discovery last night,’ Nero said.

‘Do tell?’ Boots wiped some marinara off his whiskers and sat on his haunches.

‘Well, I think we finally made a breakthrough with Josie,’ Nero said.

‘It took her a while to get our drift though.’ Marlowe looked up from the remains of the shrimp scampi she was chowing down.

‘Some humans can be a little slower than others,’ Juliette said. ‘Father Tim took a long time to get on the same wavelength, but I think he’s coming along fine. Don’t give up on Josie.’

Nero and Marlowe exchanged a glance.‘Oh, we won’t. In fact, last night we were able to guide her toward something very interesting on the Internet.’

‘What?’ Boots asked.

‘It was actually Josie who instigated it, she’s not so bad after all. I think she has some smarts,’ Marlowe said. ‘She was looking for reviews for the Smugglers Bay Inn thinking that Stella Dumont might be mixed up in this.’

The cats all nodded.‘Yeah, she could be a killer.’

‘No, she’s too stupid,’ Harry said.

‘Sometimes they only play stupid and they’re really crafty,’ Stubbs added.

‘Would you let them tell us what they discovered?’ Poe asked.

‘It was a review for this very restaurant,’ Marlowe licked scampi sauce off her nose.

‘The Marinara Mariner?’ Juliette asked.

Nero nodded.‘Indeed, it seems Charles did not like a pie that he was served here.’

Juliette scrunched her nose up.‘Was it the lemon meringue? Itis very tart.’

‘Yes, I agree.’ Harry hopped down from the dumpster with a slab of eggplant.

‘Well that is very interesting.’ Boots’ whiskers twitched.

Harry swished his tail.‘Tony had the saffron special the other night and saffron was smelled on the clogs outside the window.’

‘Are you sure it was saffron that you smelled?’ Poe asked Marlowe.

‘I don’t know, I never smelled saffron,’ Marlowe answered.

‘Me either,’ Nero added.

‘Hold on,’ Harry jumped up on the rim of the dumpster and leapt right in. The sides clanged as he rummaged around, jumping out with a small napkin in his mouth. He dropped it in front of Marlowe. ‘There’s a little bit on the napkin.’

Marlowe and Nero looked down to see an orange smudge. They sniffed. Nero’s eyes widened. It was the smell. ‘That’s it all right.’

‘Well there you have it,’ Stubbs said. ‘Tony got a bad review. Tony’s footprint was outside the window of the room where Charles was murdered. Sounds like a wrap to me.’

‘You think that dame I followed here has anything to do with it?’ Stubbs asked.

‘Tina?’ Juliette asked. ‘Probably just a coincidence. I mean, lots of people eat in the restaurant.’

‘Probably. And I admit that all of this with Tony sounds suspicious, but what about that old couple, the Weatherbys?’ Harry said. ‘I followed them around just like we suggested and you’ll never guess where they went.’

‘Where?’

‘Right up to the gulls’ nests. They were practically crawling in them.’

‘Why would they do that?’ Stubbs asked.

‘Birdwatchers. Some of them can be quite eccentric,’ Poe said. ‘But it makes me wonder. Charles was up on the cliff. The Weatherbys were up on the cliff. The gulls are up on that cliff. Could the gulls have something to do with Charles’s death and it’s not about a bad review? And if so, why was Tony’s footprint outside the murder room?’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

When we got back to the guesthouse, the guests were either out or in their rooms, which was a good thing because Millie couldn’t stop blabbering about Tony and his cleaver.

‘He could’ve whacked any one of us right there in the kitchen!’ Her words echoed through the foyer as she dug out her phone.

‘I hardly think he would’ve done that in front of all the witnesses,’ Mom said.

‘Either way, I’m getting Seth to come right over and we can tell him about our interrogation.’ Millie dialed and put the phone to her ear.

‘I’d hardly call it an interrogation,’ I said. I was nervous about what Seth might say. Would he be mad that we went there? Would he feel threaten that we’d tried to do his job? But it was a little suspicious that Tony wore clogs and walked on the sides of his feet. It would seem to indicate that the print matched, but how reliable was a print in bark mulch? I could already picture Seth pointing out that any number of weather conditions could’ve altered the print. If the bark was too moist maybe his feet sank at a different angle. It was hardly conclusive. Then again, we had the badreview to back us up.

‘I need you to come over right away. I know who the killer is!’ Millie yelled into the phone. Unfortunately, she did this just at the Weatherbys were coming in.

Iona gasped.‘Did she just say she knows who the killer is?’

Ron fumbled his camera, practically falling down the last three steps.‘How would you know and not the police?’

‘We’re really not sure.’ I tried to usher them toward the stairs before Millie started talking about cleavers and chopping people up. ‘We think we might have some clues based on something we found here at the guesthouse.’

Iona’s hands flew to her face and she and Ron exchanged a glance. ‘Oh dear, it’s not someone staying here is it?’

‘No, it’s someone else,’ I assured them. Clearly they were very nervous about having a killer in their midst. I felt a little guilty about suspecting them earlier.

Their relief was obvious. Iona took Ron’s arm and propelled him toward the stairs. ‘Well that is a relief. Let’s go change and have a nice afternoon of birdwatching. The sun is out and the birds are twittering and if you’re catching a killer, all the better!’

It took Seth Chamberlain only ten minutes to arrive on the scene.

He looked at Millie skeptically and she explained everything that had happened in Tony’s restaurant.

‘And just how did you come about going to the Marinara Mariner?’ he asked. His arms were crossed over his chest and he wore a disapproving scowl on his face, even though his eyes turned soft as marshmallows whenever he looked at Millie.

‘Because of the review, of course.’ Millie glanced at me.

‘I found a review that Charles had written on the lemon meringue pie at the Mariner last year and it wasn’t very good,’ I explained.

The furrow between Seth’s brows deepened. ‘Last year? Why would Tony kill him now?’

‘Maybe he just found out that Charles was in town?’ Mom suggested.

‘Seems highly unlikely. Why would he carry a grudge all this time? Not to mention that he’d have to come all the way over to the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, sneak inside and then kill Charles.’ Seth shook his head, his eyes cutting over to me. ‘Nope, it seems more likely that the person he was writing that review about found it in his room. They probably ripped it up before they killed him. And it seems more feasible that someone here would be the killer.’

That made me a little mad. Up until now I was cutting Seth some slack. I mean, he was a friend of Mom and Millie’s and he seemed like a nice old guy, but now he was getting me a little angry with his not so subtle looks in my direction. ‘We don’t even know if he was writing a review. All you found is a scrap of paper with some words on it. And by the way, don’t you know me well enough to know I’m not a killer?’

Seth’s face reddened and he looked down at the ground. ‘Well Josie, I knew you when you were a kid. But you been away all these years.’

‘I’m still the same person.’

‘She has a point about the review. Let’s see what it said again.’ Millie said.

‘It’s pretty obvious, look.’ Seth pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and scrolled to a picture of the paper he’d had in that bag.

He held it up and we all craned our necks and squinted to read it. It was just the very edge of a handwritten note with just the endings of a few words.

….ull

…. ick

…. son

‘Those endings could go with lots of words,’ Millie said. ‘I want a copy of that. Can you text it to me?’

‘Me too,’ I said.

Seth looked uncertain.

‘There’s an apple pie in it for you if you text it to me.’ Millie turned to me. ‘I’ll text it to you after.’

Seth sighed.‘I suppose it won’t do any harm.’

‘Good,’ Millie said. ‘Now, until we figure out what that note really says, we have a lot of clues that point to Tony Murano. How many clues do you have that point to Josie?’

Seth opened his mouth but I cut in.‘Never mind, don’t answer that. This is what we have on Tony. His shoe print was under the window, Tony has a bad temper and Charles wrote a bad review about his lemon meringue pie.’

Mom nodded.‘Why would Tony’s print be outside the window if he wasn’t climbing out and why would he be climbing out if he didn’t kill Charles?’

‘Maybe the print wasn’t from Tony,’ Seth said. ‘I don’t think you can tell for sure that print was from his shoe. And besides, it’s risky to go out of the window. And how did he get in and mess with the stairs without anyone noticing? It makes more sense that it was an inside job.’

‘No one inside the guesthouse has a motive…. Well, except maybe Tina.’ Mom turned to me. ‘Didn’t Ava say she saw Tina sneaking out of Charles’s room?’

I glanced at Seth. He didn’t look surprised. Could he have known about Tina and Charles’ affair already? Maybe I wasn’t giving him enough credit. ‘She did. And Stella Dumont saw her down at the sleazy motel.’

‘Maybe Tina and Tony were in on it together,’ Mom said.

Millie bit her bottom lip.‘You know now that you mention it, didn’t we notice that Tina works for the culinary section of the paper? Is it possible she and Tony know each other?’

Mom slapped her forehead.‘Of course! That’s it. This wasn’t about a bad review at all Seth was right about that. It was about a love triangle.’

‘Love triangle?’ Seth looked more confused than ever.

‘Yes!’ Mom said. ‘What if Tina was having an affair with both Charles and Tony? Tony found out, and came here and murdered Charles out of jealousy!’

‘That would explain why Tina was checking into that other motel. Maybe Stella really did see her. She didn’t want Charles to know she was having an affair with Tony,’ I said.

‘That makes perfect sense,’ Millie said. ‘And Tony would have to go to a hotel because his wife seems very jealous. Did you see the way she acted in the kitchen?’

I nodded vigorously.‘And she also seemed suspicious of him. Like she suspected he was having an affair.’

‘That’s it then.’ Millie turned to Seth. ‘Are you going to make an arrest?’

‘That’s not really solid evidence,’ he said. ‘We like to have a few clues other than people’s say-so. Especially with your say-so is tainted.’

‘Tainted? How?’ Millie was indignant.

‘You guys are trying to get Josie off the suspect list,’ Seth said.

‘We are not!’ Mom said. ‘Well I mean, we are, but that’s cause Josie isn’t guilty.’

‘Seth Chamberlain you know these clues are good clues. This is a good working theory. Are you going to check it out or do you want me to never cook you a batch of snickerdoodles again?’ Millie asked.

Seth lips quirked in a smile and his eyes twinkled.‘Fine. I’ll check them out. I suppose I could find out where they were the night of Charles’s death and see how well this Tina person knew him. But don’t expect anything to come of it.’

Thirteen

Flora hadn’t washed the dishes I left in the sink, so after Mom and Millie left, I got to work on those. Nero and Marlowe accompanied me to the kitchen and stood meowing at their food bowls. Nero looked like he was getting a little fat, but I still fed them some kibble.

I thought about the clues as I worked. The sound of Mike’s hammering three floors up was comforting. Even the cats’ meows and little crunches as they ate the kibble made me feel at home.

I should probably move their dishes out of the kitchen just in case Barbara Littlefield made an appearance. Actually, one good thing about having a murder at the guesthouse was that it seemed to be keeping her away. She wasn’t due to come and inspect anything until Mike was done with that room next week. I could move the cat bowls before then.

From my spot at the kitchen sink I could see the Smugglers Bay Inn below the dark storm clouds that had rolled in. This time there were no seagulls around. That must make Stella happy. Thinking of her made me realize I had really been hoping that she was the killer. Though Tony Murano did seem more like the type. I still had to wonder why Stella had been lurking around the guesthouse? Was she really here to see Mike?

If Tony really was the killer, was he really in cahoots with Tina? The thought of having an accomplice to murder right under my own roof turned my blood cold.

I contemplated asking Tina some leading questions that might trip her up so that she inadvertently confessed, but maybe that wasn’t very smart considering she might be a killer. The advancing storm would be a great backdrop for her to murder me. The sound of thunder could mask the bludgeoning. Maybe I’d better not. Besides, though her little red convertible was parked in the lot, I hadn’t seen her all afternoon so she must be ensconced in her room.

Just before I finished the dishes, Ava Grantham popped her head into the kitchen.

‘Oh, hi Josie, I was wondering if I could get some tea. This damp weather is getting into my old bones.’ She wrung her hands together.

‘Of course, why don’t you sit in the front parlor and I’ll bring some out.’

She nodded gratefully and headed off toward the front parlor while I boiled water, got out of selection of teabags and threw some pumpkin muffins into a basket with the butter.

Ava sat in the overstuffed chair looking out the window at the storm. She looked up when I entered.‘I hope the storm passes over quickly.’

It was almost dark and the churning sea had a rough, ominous feel. Great ambience for a murder, I thought, but refrained from saying so. The last thing I needed was another one of those.

‘Hopefully it won’t be too bad.’ I put the tea and basket down in front of her.

‘Oh, you brought muffins! How lovely.’

The thought struck me that Ava had seemed to know an awful lot about what had gone on between Tina and Charles. Since I couldn’t really ask Tina, maybe Ava would have some insight. I picked out a muffin and buttered it while Ava sipped her tea.

‘Has there been any news on the murder case?’ Ava asked the question casually. Perhaps a little bit too casually? I looked up to see a glimmer of interest in her eye.

‘The police are still looking into it, but I may have found a little clue.’ I wasn’t going to tell Ava what I’d discovered, but I wanted to feel her out and see how willing she would be to talk.

‘Oh really?’ Ava watched me over the rose dotted rim of her china teacup.

‘Well, I don’t know much, but I heard it might have something to do with a jealous lover. And you said you saw Tina…’ I let my voice trail off.

‘Oh yes I did.’ Ava nodded. ‘Tina and Charles.’

‘And Charles was the type to fool around you say?’

‘Certainly. I’d seen it happen many, many times. But who would be jealous?’ she paused and then her eyes widened. ‘Oh? You think Charles had another lover and Tina killed him because she was jealous?’

Actually I hadn’t thought of it that way. But what if Ava was right? What if I had it backwards and the jealous lover wasn’t someone who was mad that Charles was fooling around with their woman, but rather someone who was angry that Charles was fooling around on them?

‘Or Tina had a lover that killed Charles. I guess either way, jealousy is a strong motivator,’ I said.

Ava nodded her head enthusiastically.‘Yes, that is a very good theory. Are the police going to make an arrest?’

‘That I don’t know,’ I said.

Ava nibbled on a muffin and made a face.‘Now that would be one for the columns. A love triangle murder.’

I frowned. Hopefully Ava wasn’t considering publishing a story about Charles’s murder.

‘Such a sad thing that people want to hear about murders and affairs now instead of balls and coming-out parties like in my day,’ Ava said.

‘People certainly have become ghoulish,’ I agreed.

Ava brushed the crumbs off her fingers and stood.‘Well, I guess things never stay the same. I’m just glad the police are onto somebody. I hate to think of the killer just wandering around in here. Now that the tea has warmed me up, I think I’ll get my old bones under the comforters. Always get so tired once the sun goes down.’ She glancedout the window and then headed toward the front stairs.

She must’ve passed Flora because I heard her asking the maid to bring her an extra blanket. To my surprise Flora agreed and said she would be there in a few minutes. With the lack of work Flora did, I figured she would’ve told Ava she was clocking out, but she hadn’t. Maybe Flora wasn’t a total loss after all.

Flora came into the parlor and flopped down in the chair Ava had just vacated.‘Dang guests, got me running all around.’ She glanced at the basket. ‘Oh muffins, don’t mind if I do.’

She plucked a muffin out and popped half of it into her mouth.‘I’m exhausted. Changing all those beds is hard work and I also did some dusting and now I’ve got to get that blanket. You know the dusting is hard enough, even without all that cat hair.’ Her words were barely intelligible because she was mumbling around her food.

Suddenly I realized that if Flora changed the beds, she would know if Tina had been home the night Charles was killed.

‘It must be very difficult,’ I agreed, pushing the muffin basket closer since she’d already finished the one she’d started. ‘You must be glad you don’t have to change them all every day.’

She swallowed hard and frowned at me.‘What are you getting at? Are you saying I don’t do my job every day?’

‘No not all. Just that if the beds haven’t been slept in…’

‘Yeah, that’s right. Why would I have to change the bed if it hadn’t been slept in? Did that little tart Tina complain? I don’t see any reason to change her bed if wasn’t slept in. Well I’ll tell you, she’s a fine one sneaking off to another hotel.’ She leaned back in her chair.

‘So Tina wasn’t here one night?’

‘No. And I’ll have you know. There’s no sense in changing the bedclothes if someone isn’t here. First of all, its work that doesn’t need to be done and second, it saves on electricity, hot water and laundry detergent. I mean, its bad enough I have to clean up straw and feathers and muck.’

‘Straw?’

‘Yes, those old people with the cameras. When I went in to clean up their room it was dirty with straw and twigs and feathers. Pigs!’

Nero and Marlowe had come into the room and jumped up on my lap. I absently petted them as I thought about Flora’s words. Straw, twigs and feathers sounded like nesting material. I knew they were birdwatchers but I had no idea they’d gotten close enough to the nests to have nesting material on them.

Thunder boomed in the distance and Flora jumped up.

‘Looks like the storm’s brewing and I aim to get home before the big rain starts.’ She pointed at her owlish eyes. ‘Can’t see very good with these old peepers anymore. I’ll just get that blanket to the old lady and be on my way.’

‘Okay, don’t worry about me, I’ll clean up in here.’ As if she would worry. The first rain drops splattered on the window, but I wasn’t paying attention to the weather. I was busy wondering what the Weatherbys had been up to and whether or not Seth Chamberlain had confronted Tony Murano.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero practically jumped out of his fur as thunder boomed in the distance. He snuggled further into Josie’s lap, enjoying the soft stroking of her fingers more than he cared to admit.

Marlowe kneaded Josie’s thigh. ‘I don’t like where this is going. Josie might be getting herself into a heap of trouble. She was asking Ava a lot of questions about Tina and Charles. She might be getting ready to interrogate a suspect.’

‘Let’s just hope she doesn’t confront the wrong person.’ Nero glanced at the basket of muffins. He wasn’t much of a muffin eater, but the butter on the other hand was quite delectable and enticing.

‘You think she’ll notice if we lick the butter?’ Marlowe echoed his thoughts.

‘Most likely.’ Nero glanced longingly at the bright yellow stick in the crystal dish. ‘I think we need to focus our attentions on making sure Josie doesn’t do anything rash.’

‘Yeah. Especially if the killer is around on a night like this.’ Marlowe shivered and glanced out the window.

‘Maybe we should sleep in the bed with her tonight?’ Nero tried to keep from quaking as another thunderclap boomed. ‘I mean for her comfort, of course, not for ours.’

‘We can try.’

‘Though of course you know what we must do,’ Nero said.

‘Of course. Try to sleep on her head and then only after she has shoved us away twenty-five times we can curl up beside her, but we must take up a sizable amount of space on the bed.’ Marlowe repeated what Nero had instructed her of early on.

Nero nodded.‘You have learned much.’

Josie set Nero aside and he hissed at her to indicate that she should only do that when he wanted her to. She looked down at him.‘When we were just getting along, now you hiss at me?’

Nero purred and put his head down and she patted him.

‘Now that’s better. I suppose I better figure out what to make for breakfast.’

Nero and Marlowe followed Josie into the kitchen and watched as she fussed around with the recipes.

‘We must stick to her like glue, she’s headstrong and may say the wrong thing to the wrong person,’ Nero said.

‘Agreed,’ Marlowe said.

Nero glanced out at the dark night, a grim feeling of foreboding coming over him.‘And tonight especially, we must be alert. My seventh sense is telling me the killer may return to the scene of the crime, and if he does, we will have to be here to protect our human.’

Fourteen

I listened to the rain splatter against the windows and prayed the power wouldn’t go out while I pawed through the recipe file in search of something to make for breakfast the next morning. The sour cream coffee cake would be nice, a great comforting treat after a big stormy night. Where was the recipe?

Maybe it had gotten wedged somewhere when I dropped the file the other day. The cabinet door under the sink didn’t close right. Maybe it had fluttered inside and was laying amongst the bottles of Windex and stacks of sponges?

I got down on all fours and stuck my head inside the cabinet. Marlowe and Nero trotted up beside me. In fact, they’d been sticking to me like glue all night. Probably afraid of the storm.

Kaboom!

The cats jumped and so did I, hitting my head on the inside of the cabinet. Ouch. At least the sound of the thunder had been muted with my head inside that thing.

I pulled my head out. I couldn’t hear a darn thing with it inside the cabinet, but I was expecting to hear a flurry of footsteps above as my guests leapt out of bed. But no. They all must have Ambien prescriptions because they were apparently fast asleep, tucked into their quilt-covered beds.

I stood, rubbing the back of my head and Nero jumped on the counter.

Meow.

‘Hey, I just washed that. Get down.’ I waved my hands at the cat who simply turned his back on me to look out the window. Good thing Barbara Littlefield wouldn’t be making a surprise visit tonight in the storm.

I followed his gaze out the window just in time to see a bolt of lightning illuminate the turbulent surf in the cove near the Smugglers Bay Inn. No seagulls were flying around in this storm.

Meroow!

Marlowe paced over by the door to the hallway. The sound of his meow reminded me of the tone of his wailing when we found Charles’ body. Hopefully it wasn’t a tone reserved only for body finding.

Nero leaped down from the counter and trotted toward the door, looking over his shoulder at me.

Kaboom!

The thunder sure was loud.

Creak.

Wait, what was that? One of the guests? I tilted my head to the side and cocked my ear toward the ceiling. No, the creaking hadn’t come from upstairs, it had come from the direction of the foyer. Both cats were now sitting in the doorway that led to the hallway and looking at me expectantly. Were they trying to alert me to an intruder?

I grabbed the first weapon I could find. A rolling pin. Not the new glass kind. The heavy old-fashioned wooden kind.

My heart pounded against my rib cage as I crept out into the darkened hallway.

Creak.

Whoever it was, was near the stairs! Was that the killer coming back to the scene of the crime? And if so, why?

I probably should’ve called the cops, but I didn’t want to alert the intruder to the fact that I knew he was there. Because now I had the element of surprise and I didn’t want to lose it. If I took my phone out and called, they might hear me and run off. I needed to catch him in the act and then hopefully detain him long enough for the police to come.

I moved slowly along the hallway, my rolling pin raised above my head.

A big hulking shadow loomed by the stairs. He looked like he was about to head down the hallway that led to the West wing. Just as I suspected, the killer was returning, probably to make sure he hadn’t left some sort of clue.

I was almost upon him when lightning lit the hallway, exposing the intruder. My heart crashed along with the accompanying sound of thunder.

It was Tony Murano and he was holding something shiny in his hand.

I must have made a noise because Tony spun around.

I flicked on the lights and raised the rolling pin over my head.‘You! Put that down. I knew you were the killer!’

Tony shoved his hand behind his back, scrunched up his face and shaded his eyes against the light with his free hand.‘Huh? Listen lady, you’ve caused enough trouble for me.’

He took a step toward me. I couldn’t see what was in his left hand. Was it the cleaver I’d seen him wielding the in restaurant? He seemed to enjoy hacking things with it. But I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me. ‘That’s far enough Tony. I’ve already called the police and they’ll be here any minute.’

‘Good, because you should be arrested.’

‘Me? You’re the killer!’

‘No. You are. Themarriagekiller. What do you mean coming over to my restaurant and getting my wife all upset. You should mind your own business.’

Huh? This wasn’t going the way I thought it would. Why was he talking about his wife? Perhaps he was trying to distract me.

‘I’m not falling for that! You broke in here! I bet you think we’re getting too close to the truth and want to make sure you didn’t leave more than just a footprint at the scene of the crime.’

‘I didn’t break in.’ Tony gestured toward the door. ‘I was knocking on the door but nobody answered. It was unlocked so I just came in. It was dark in here and I was standing, getting my bearings, when you came out and tried to attack me.’

I looked at the door. Had I left it unlocked? I couldn’t remember, but surely I would’ve heard him knocking? Then again, I’d had my head inside the cabinet and barely heard the thunder.

Nero and Marlowe were pacing around Tony with their tails high in the air. Now, what exactly did that mean? I was sure they were trying to tell me something, but was it that Tony was the killer or that he was not the killer? Either way, I wasn’t safe with him in here. I dug in my pocket for my cell phone and quickly realized I’d left it in the kitchen. Now what? Maybe one of the guests would come down and help distract him, and I could clonk him over the head with the rolling pin.

My arm was getting really tired, but I raised the rolling pin higher.‘You can’t talk your way out of this. I know that you snuck over the other night and killed Charles. Maybe you broke in the same way you did tonight. And you went out the window afterwards.’

‘Charles? Who is Charles and why would I kill him?’

‘Charles Prescott. The Laughing Gourmet. He wrote a bad review on your restaurant last year and when you found out he was staying here, you took your revenge.’

‘Bad review? You mean that review on my lemon meringue pie?’ Tony laughed, the sinister sound echoing along the hallway. ‘Why would I kill him over that? That review was good for business.’

‘You expect me to believe a bad review is good for business?’

‘Sure, that review is just sour grapes and it hasn’t hurt me none. In fact, it’s brought more people to my restaurant asking for the sour lemon meringue pie. Turns out there’s a whole bunch of people who like their pie sour.’ Tony said. ‘So you see I wouldn’t want to kill him. I want to thank him.’

I gnawed my bottom lip. It seemed like Tony might be telling the truth about that. Maybe my mom had been right about the love triangle.‘All right, maybe that review was not the reason why you killed him. Maybe you killed Charles Prescott because of the love triangle!’

The stairs creaked and we looked up to see Tina standing there, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open as she stared at Tony.‘You killed Charles?’

Tony’s brow furrowed. ‘What? No. I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t mad about that review.’

‘Not the review,’ I said. ‘You were jealous because you had to share Tina with him!’

Tina gasped. Tony’s gaze jerked to Tina’s face. He looked like he was ready to cry. ‘You were having an affair with this Charles guy?’

Tina’s eyes were about as big as Floras. ‘No. I swear!’ She rushed down the stairs to Tony’s side. ‘You’re the only one I’m having an affair with.’

Tony looked dubious. He turned to me.‘What do you know about this affair?’

I crossed my arms over my chest, mostly because my right arm was aching from holding up the rolling pin.‘One of our other guests saw Tina sneaking out of Charles’s room.’

Tony looked at Tina, crestfallen.‘Is that true? You were cheating on me?’

Tina glared at me.‘No, it is not true. Well it’s partly true. Iwas in Charles’s room.’

‘Aha!’ I said.

Meow. The cats obviously agreed.

‘But not because I was having an affair with him,’ Tina added.

Tony still looked dubious.‘Why were you in there then?’

Now that his attention was on Tina, I thought it might be a good time to do something to detain him for the police. I needed to know what he had for a weapon first. I tried to peek behind his back, but all I saw was what looked like a plastic bag. Had he brought the cleaver in a bag? I supposed it would raise suspicion if he walked around holding it in his hand.

Tina sighed and looked down at the floor. She shuffled her feet, then she said,‘I was in his room looking for his recipe book.’

‘Aha!’ I said again. My vocabulary had apparently diminished during the conversation.

‘A recipe book?’ Tony looked like he wanted to believe her but wasn’t sure.

‘Charles was supposed to be writing a book with unique recipes. It was going to be a hit. And… well… my food column isn’t going very well and I just thought if I got a peek at the recipes maybe I could re-create some and write a book too.’ She whipped out a tissue and sniffled, tears welling up in her big blue eyes. I could tell by the look on Tony’s face that the tears had softened him.

‘Wait a minute, so you’re the one who took his cookbook?’ I asked.

Tina nodded, dabbing her eyes with the tissue.‘It’s in my room. But I swear he wasn’t there. I had seen him that night up on the cliffs and I knew it would be a long time before he could make it back, so I figured that was my chance to get in his room and look for it.’

‘Let me get this straight. You weren’t mad about the lemon meringue pie review, the two of you are having an affair, but Tina wasn’t also having an affair with Charles?’

They both glanced at each other and nodded. That explained why Tony’s wife was acting like he was a cheater. He was. But was he a killer too? If Tina wasn’t having an affair with Charles, then there would be no motive for Tony to kill him. The affair could also explain why Stella had seen Tina out at the Timber Me Motel.

‘Did you guys meet at the Timber Me Motel?’

Tony’s eyes widened. ‘Yeah, how do you know about that?’

‘I have my sources.’ I turned to Tina. ‘But you weren’t having an affair with Charles?’

She shook her head.

‘And you were seen coming out of his room because you stole the cookbook?’

She nodded vigorously.‘Yeah and I can prove it too. It’s in my room upstairs. I’ll get it.’

Before either of us could answer, she ran up the stairs.

I turned to Tony. There were still unanswered questions, not the least of which was why he’d snuck in here carrying a weapon in a bag. ‘Well then, if you and Tina had your affair at the Timber Me Motel, why did you sneak out the window in the West wing?’

His eyes widened.‘How did you know I did that? Do you have cameras in this place? Do you have cameras in the rooms? You watching what’s going on?’

‘No. We saw a footprint in the bark mulch outside the very room Charles Prescott was killed in.’ I glanced down at his feet. ‘It was a chef’s clog and the sides had extensive wear on them, as if the owner walked on the sides of his feet.’

Tony backed up. I was a little nervous because he was still holding his left hand behind his back. What did he have back there?‘I didn’t kill Charles. But I did sneak out that window. I came here one night to meet Tina when she first arrived in town. But then that busybody old lady saw us. I panicked and wanted to get out without being seen. I was afraid word would get back to my wife. Tina knew that section of the guesthouse was closed off so we went down there and I went out the window.’

‘What night was that?’

‘It must’ve been two nights before the guy was offed? Because after getting caught out in the hall here, we decided to lay low the next day and meet at the sleazy motel on Tuesday and that’s where we were the night that guy died.’

I cringed at his coarse language, but that wasn’t the worst thing about what he’d said. If he really was at the sleazy motel the night Charles was killed, then he might have an alibi. And if he did, then who was the killer?

Tina had also been in the breakfast room that morning, so how could he have been at the Timber Me Motel? Then again, I didn’t know if she’d come into the dining room from her room or from outside. It was possible she’d just gotten in from her midnight interlude or had snuck back in the wee hours of the morning. If they were trying to fly under the radar, that would make sense.

Tony must’ve seen the look of doubt on my face because he continued, ‘You can ask that sheriff guy. In fact, he came to visit me after you got poking your nose into my business. That’s how I know when this Charles guy was killed. That sheriff started spouting off some stuff about me being a suspect and I told him just what I told you. He went down to the sleazy motel to verify my alibi. And that’s why I came here tonight. I knew I had to explain myself and beg you not to tell my wife.’

Before I could answer, Tina came back down the stairs with the cookbook. It was a blue three-ring binder just like Ava had described.

‘See? This is what I got from Charles’ room.’ She looked down at the floor again. ‘I know it was wrong to steal it. And after he died, I tried to put it back, but the police were in there and then you were in there and well I figured since he was dead maybe I could use the recipes…’

I opened the book. It was filled with handwritten recipes. I turned to Tony.‘If all this is true and you only came here to talk to me then why did you bring the cleaver?’

‘Cleaver?’ Tony looked down at his hand. ‘Oh this?’ He whipped his hand out from behind his back, the white plastic bag dangling menacingly. ‘This isn’t a cleaver.’

I stepped back as he reached into the bag.

‘It’s a ricotta pie. I brought it as a peace offering. I was hoping that if I got in your good graces you and those crazy old ladies would stop coming to the restaurant and wouldn’t tell my wife about the affair with Tina.’

And just like that, my prime suspect evaporated. If what Tony said was true, I could easily verify his alibi with Seth. And why would he lie about it?

I accepted the ricotta pie, grimaced as Tina and Tony gave each other a sickening smooch goodbye and then proceeded to the kitchen. At least I had the ricotta pie to offer my guests for breakfast. I didn’t have time to sort through recipes and put something together for the morning. I needed to come up with a new suspect.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I put the ricotta pie away and went to my suite to settle in with the cats. Okay, I admit I did take a teeny sliver of pie with me, but only because I had to test it out to see if it was good enough for the guests. Tina had gone back to bed and by some miracle the rest of the guesthouse had not been awakened by the argument down in the foyer, so it was nice and quiet.

The owner’s suite wasn’t big, but it was comfortable and cozy. It consisted of a small fireplace, living room that had a window overlooking the ocean, complete with blue cushioned window seat, a bedroom that was part of the rounded turret, and a small bath. It was done in neutral shades of gray and mocha.

The trendy colors blended nicely with the antique touches like the carved mantel and hardwood flooring to give it an eclectic feeling. The living room had a microsuede sectional and I settled in, pulling a fleece blanket over me. The cats immediately jumped on the blanket and curled up beside me. The low hum of their purrs was comforting. Maybe I could get used to having cat companions.

I sipped my chamomile tea and dug into the ricotta pie. It was creamy and sweet. If I hadn’t been married to a chef, I would have been grossed out by the idea of ricotta pie. I mean wasn’t that something you put in a lasagna? But I’d had it before and Tony’s was much better than Clive’s.

As I savored the pie, I flipped through the recipe book. Charles was making a book of recipes that included berries. He even had a section of information about each berry. There were berry tarts, berry pies, berry dressings, even berry bread. There were even flockenberries in there. Maybe that was why he’d been on the cliff, to research the flockenberries.

I closed the book and sighed.‘Well I guess these berries probably didn’t have anything to do with Charles’s death.’

Meow.

Nero hopped down from the sofa and trotted over to the old mahogany writing desk Millie had left for me, casting a glance back at Marlowe who soon joined him.

‘Yeah, I know. Dead-end right?’ I said. ‘Who would kill someone over berries?’

Nero jumped up on the desk and batted at a pen.

‘Unfortunately now, I’m back to square one.’

Merope. The pen clattered onto the wood floor.

‘Hey, cut that out.’

Nero stared at me with his golden eyes as he pushed another pen off.

‘You’re doing that on purpose!’

Mew. Purr.

He pushed another pen.

‘Okay, now I’m getting angry.’ I disentangled myself from my fuzzy cocoon, picked up the pens and put them back on the desk. Marlowe was sitting in the window seat and I patted the top of his head.

‘At least you’re a good girl, not tossing things off the desk.’ I gave Nero a pointed look.

Nero narrowed his gaze.Mew.

I kept petting Marlowe who was gazing out the window toward the Smugglers Bay Inn. It had stopped raining and the silver light of the moon highlighted the edges of the clouds and bounced of the rolling surf. Marlowe was probably thinking about getting out and catching some midnight mice.

‘Not tonight, my friend.’

Merow.

The tone of her voice indicated he wasn’t very happy with that, but I was the boss.

Mreep!

Nero swatted a small pad of note paper off the desk. Was he jealous that I was paying so much attention to Marlowe?

Meow!

Marlowe leapt off the window seat and lunged for the paper, tearing it with her claws.

Meroo!

Nero jumped down and swatted at it, shredding a few pieces off.

Marlowe pounced, Nero swatted, pieces of paper flew.

‘Hey, hey!’ I intercepted the pad as it slid across the floor and picked it up.

Both cats screeched to a stop and looked up, innocent expressions plastered on their furry faces.

I looked down at the paper which was practically shredded into confetti.‘Boy, you guys have sharp claws.’

It was only a cheap notepad, but I’d written a partial grocery list and now you could only see the last few letters of the words. Now what was the food that ended in ‘ery’ that I’d wanted? Celery? What other words ended in that? This was like the partial note that had been found in Charles’s room that the police had assumed was the review he’d been killed for.

I’d assumed Charles had been killed because of a review too and that turned out to be wrong. If my assumptions about the motive behind Charles’s death were wrong, then maybe that partial piece of paper wasn’t a review after all.

I rushed to my phone to look at the picture of the note that Millie had texted to me.

…ull

… ick

… son

What if‘ull’ was for gull. The gulls were sick. Was it possible the letter had something to do with the reason for that? That last word ended in ‘son.’ Poison?Gull, sick, poison. Charles had been seen on the cliffs. What if he’d stumbled upon some evidence pertaining to what was happening to the gulls? And what if he knew who was behind it? Ava had mentioned that Charles wasn’t a nice man. He wasn’t beyond throwing someone under the bus or lying or cheating. And he needed money.

What if the note was a blackmail note? Someone being blackmailed would have a much deeper motivation to kill Charles than someone he was writing a bad review about.

But if this was a blackmail note and if the note really was the reason Charles was murdered, then who was he blackmailing and what did he have on them?

Fifteen

The next morning, I arranged the slices of ricotta pie on a fancy plate so that no one would realize I’d taken a slice out the night before. With only four people at the guesthouse, there was plenty of pie. I just wanted it to look nice on the buffet. But one can’t have only pie for breakfast, so I also got out some eggs and bacon. I was cracking the eggs when Mom and Millie burst through the kitchen door.

‘Josie! Bad news! Seth Chamberlain informed me that Tony Murano can’t be the killer. He has an alibi.’ Millie pushed me aside and took over egg duty. Fine by me, I didn’t really want to scramble them anyway and besides, I was bursting to tell them about my visit from Tony and my new suspicions about why Charles was killed.

As if summoned by Millie’s voice, Nero and Marlowe trotted into the kitchen and sat at her feet, gazing up at her.

‘I know. And there’s more.’ I moved to the bacon, which was crackling and sizzling. The cats swerved their gaze in my direction. I removed the fully cooked pieces and put them on a paper towel to drain, then added a few more slabs to the pan.

Millie turned to look at me.‘Do tell.’

I told them about my visit from Tony and how Tina hadn’t been having an affair with Charles, but had been in his room to take the cookbook.

‘Hmmm, well, that is a bummer,’ Millie opened the spice drawer and started fishing around. ‘Where’s the vanilla? It’s a secret ingredient for the eggs.’

‘Should be in there.’ I peered in and spied it way in the back. ‘There it is.’

‘So now what?’ Mom had helped herself to a piece of ricotta pie and was sitting at the table. ‘Seems like we have to start from square one with the suspects.’

‘Not necessarily,’ I said. ‘I think we might have been barking up the wrong tree with the review angle anyway.’

Millie poured eggs into the pan and started mixing them around while I told them about my suspicions that the note was really a blackmail note having to do with the gulls.

‘You don’t say?’ Mom glanced toward the cove. ‘Do you think someone is harming the gulls on purpose?’

‘Maybe. Charles was seen on the cliff and that’s where they nest. He might have discovered someone doing something to their nests.’ I lowered my voice. ‘I already have some suspects.’

‘Who?’ Millie rummaged for serving dishes and then started spooning the eggs into a silver bowl with a lid.

‘Well, now let’s think of this logically,’ Mom said, her forkful of ricotta pie hovering near her lips. ‘The partial note was found in Charles’s room, which seems to indicate the killer was in his room. So who visited Charles?’

I thought about that for a second as I layered the crispy bacon onto a white ironstone platter.‘I don’t think anyone came to visit him. At least no one that I saw.’

‘Ava Grantham said she saw Tina in his room,’ Millie pointed out.

‘But Tina was there because she was stealing the cookbook. Charles wasn’t even at the guesthouse then, because she’d seen him on the cliff.’ I picked a piece of bacon out of the pile and crunched.

‘He could have gotten the letter earlier, maybe he confronted the person and they tore it up and Charles took part of it back with him.’

‘But the killer had to have been in the guesthouse at some point, either the night they killed Charles or when they sabotaged the room. And no one saw anyone who wasn’t supposed to be here,’ Millie said. ‘With Josie, Flora and Mike around I would think someone would have seen something.’

‘Charles was killed in the middle of the night, everyone was asleep.’ Mom snagged a piece of bacon and broke off two tiny morsels, then tossed one to Marlowe and one to Nero.

‘Not too much of that, Rose,’ Millie admonished. ‘That’s not good for them. I hope you aren’t going to get in the habit of feeding junk to the cats like your mother does, Josie.’

‘Huh?’ I hadn’t been paying attention because my brain was still processing the fact that no one had seen anyone in the guesthouse who wasn’t supposed to be there. ‘What if none of us saw an intruder in the guesthouse because the killer was one of the guests?’

‘Who?’

I glanced around to make sure none of the guests were hovering in the hallway. Especially not the guests that were now on my suspect list. The hall was empty.

‘The Weatherbys,’ I whispered. ‘They are very interested in the gulls and Flora found straw and feathers in their room. Tina said she saw them up on the cliffs near the nests!’

‘Well of course she did.’ Millie looked at me as if I was batty. ‘They are bird watchers. I mean surely you’ve seen them with all their cameras and binoculars.’

‘Oh, I’ve seen them all right. But the other day, Mike asked Ron some questions about his camera and Mike said that the answers seemed to indicate that Ron didn’t know much about the camera. Now wouldn’t he be somewhat of an expert if he was a bird watcher?’ I asked.

Mom pressed her lips together.‘Maybe. But you know us older folks aren’t that good with technology. I had to ask your brother to help me with my new smartphone.’

Millie nodded.‘She’s right. And they hardly seem like the type to bludgeon someone and try to make it look like he fell down the stairs.’

‘Right, someone would have to have carpentry skills for that,’ Mom added.

‘Either that or maybe they thought an elderly small-town sheriff wouldn’t be able to figure out the scene was tampered with. I remember Ron made a comment about small-town police forces not doing a thorough job. Maybe he was banking on that,’ I said.

Millie and Mom’s brows drew sharply together.

‘Did you say elderly? Seth is our age,’ Mom said.

‘Err… I meant senior.’

‘Right, well anyway,’ Millie picked up the serving bowls. ‘It’s time to serve the breakfast. Meanwhile we need to figure out exactly what the Weatherbys have been up to.’

‘How do we do that?’ Mom picked up the plate with the ricotta pie on it, eyeing the pieces as if she was counting them to make sure she’d get leftovers.

‘We ask who saw them around and what exactly they were doing. Were they watching the gulls or doing something more? That sort of thing,’ Millie said.

‘What about Barbara Littlefield?’ Mom asked. ‘She’s always up on the cliff mothering that lousewort. If the Weatherbys have been up to some shenanigans, chances are she’s seen them. I’d say someone should talk to her.’

I grabbed the pitcher of juice from the fridge and follow Millie to the dining room. Mom had a point about Barbara. Maybe the crotchety building inspector would have her uses after all.

Sixteen

Millie and Mom had cast suspicious glances at the Weatherbys all during breakfast. It was a wonder they didn’t catch on to the fact that we suspected them. I couldn’t help but study them myself for suspicious activity, but they acted normal. Tina on the other hand kept staring at me, then averting her eyes, then dropping things on the floor. Clearly she was nervous that I’d tell everyone about her affair with Tony. I wouldn’t. That was the least of my worries.

Ava seemed oblivious to all of it and enjoyed two slices of ricotta pie while sipping tea from her dainty china teacup and chatting with Millie and Mom.

After breakfast, Mom and Millie helped me clean up and I drew the short straw so it was determined I would talk to Barbara. That’s how I found myself standing outside Barbara’s office in the town hall with the last piece of ricotta pie in a handy reusable plastic container.

The door to Barbara’s office was a giant imposing oak door. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had a humongous metal doorknocker and squeaky iron hinges, but it was just a regular oak four panel door.

‘Go ahead and knock, she’s not busy,’ the receptionist prompted because I was hesitating. ‘She doesn’t bite.’

I sucked in a breath wondering how badly I wanted to find out if she knew about the Weatherbys doing anything strange on the cliff. I reminded myself that Sheriff Chamberlain still thought I could be involved and tapped the door.

‘What do you want?’ Her voice bellowed through the door and it didn’t sound friendly.

‘Umm… It’s Josie Waters. I brought you some pie.’

‘Oh good. Come on in, I can serve you this fine in person.’

Great. I opened the door anyway. I figured she’d give me the fine no matter what, but maybe the pie would butter her up a bit. At the very least I still needed to ask about the Weatherbys.

I don’t know what I had expected her office to look like. Probably sparse and unwelcoming and filled with stainless steel furniture, bland indoor-outdoor carpet and uncomfortable plastic chairs. But what was inside was something else entirely. It looked like a tropical paradise.

Lush green plants lined the windowsills, crowded the tables and obscured the desk. There were plants of every size. Tall palm-like plants that stood in giant pots in the corner, to tiny seedlings under a fluorescent lamp. The heat was turned up to sweltering.

‘Well, well, well. I didn’t expect or want to see you, but I guess it is convenient.’ Barbara’s voice came from somewhere in front of me, but all I could see was plants. Then, two claw-like hands reached out to part the leaves of a gaggle of giant philodendrons that sat on the desk, and Barbara’s face peeked through, her eyes narrowed, mouth twisted in a sour puss.

‘Hi Barb— I mean Mrs. Littlefield!’ I tried to act cheery and shoved the pie out in front of me. ‘I had this leftover from breakfast and Millie thought it would be nice to bring it down.’

I heard a chair push back and I assumed she had stood. I couldn’t tell because the plants were so tall. She appeared around the corner of the desk (yes, it was dull gray metal just as I’d envisioned).

‘Millie Sullivan you say?’ She eyed the pie with suspicion and I hoped she wouldn’t recognize it as Tony’s. Was it bad etiquette to re-gift pie?

I nodded and handed it over. Barbara grabbed it and found some space on the desk for it, then folded her arms across her chest.‘That wouldn’t be a bribe now would it?’

‘What? No, of course not.’

‘I don’t take bribes.’ She shoved a piece of paper in my hand. ‘This here’s your fine for having a corpse on the premises during breakfast.’

‘That’s a real thing you can get fined for?’ I stared at the paper, my palms starting to sweat. I wasn’t sure if the sweating was because of the two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar price tag or the fact that the room was sweltering. Two hundred and fifty dollars? I could barely come up with that, but I knew it was no use to argue with her. Better not to anger her either, I still had a lot of renovations I had to get her approval for.

Barbara didn’t seem affected by the heat. ‘Yes it’s a real thing and payable within thirty days. You better get your act together over there or you might find yourself without a guesthouse to run.’

I swallowed hard, sweat beaded on my forehead. I felt like a chastised schoolgirl.‘Yes ma’am.’

‘Okay, now get lost.’

Shoot. I had to ask her about the cliffs. I wiped sweat out of my eyes and glanced at the plants. Inspiration struck. The best way to get people to like you was to talk about something they were interested in. Barbara was certainly interested in plants.‘I see you have some nice plants here. They look so healthy.’

She turned and frowned at me.‘What’s it to you?’

‘Nothing. Just um… they look nice.’

‘Thanks.’ She blinked and I thought I saw her eyes soften, but then they grew cold and hard just as quick.

This wasn’t working out the way I’d hoped. Okay, be more specific and get her talking. I walked over to the plants that were growing under the lights and made a pretense of admiring them while sweat rolled down my back. There were some dead plants on the lower shelf and I purposely didn’t mention, those focusing on the live ones instead. ‘Take these for example, they’re very green even though they are so young.’ I bent closer to them and reached out my hand to touch one.

‘Watch out!’ Barbara rushed over and practically slapped my hand away. ‘Those are

endangered lousewort. Be careful.’

Bingo! The perfect opening for me to ask about the cliff.‘Speaking of that. I’ve heard some of my guests talking about that and was wondering if you’ve seen them on the cliffs?’

‘Your guests? No. That area is off limits.’

‘I know, but it has a nice view.’

‘View, schmoo. The endangered plants are up there and no one is allowed.’

‘But the Weatherbys are avid birdwatchers and the gulls’ nests are near there and they eat the berries. Surely you must have seen them up there?’

She just glared at me and repeated,‘No one goes up there.’

Darn. She hadn’t seen anything. She’d probably have made big scene about it if she had seen them anyway. Was it possible that I was on the wrong track, that Charles and the Weatherbys weren’t up there? ‘Not even Charles Prescott?’

‘You mean the man who died?’

I nodded.

‘Nope. Never even met the man, much less saw him in a protected area. I would have written him up if I did. Now if you’re done asking me inane questions and trying to bribe me, I have work to do.’ She practically shoved me out the door.

I supposed that Charles could have been on the cliff when Barbara wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time tending to the lousewort, but she couldn’t possibly be up there every minute. And, if the Weatherbys were up to something suspicious, wouldn’t they make sure they were alone? Unfortunately my whole trip had been a waste, but just because Barbara hadn’t seenanyone, didn’t mean that they hadn’t been there.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Barbara hadn’t been a wealth of information, so I left her office disappointed. I had been hoping she could corroborate my theory about the Weatherbys and had seen them doing something suspicious.

Since I was in town, I figured it was only fitting that I pop in and visit Jen. Seeing her always lifted my spirits and I could use someone to bounce my theories off of and help me figure out what to do next. Mom and Millie were fine to investigate with, but I needed another opinion.

As I started down Main Street toward the post office, my phone pinged. It was Emma.

Just checking in. How you doing?

How nice was that? My daughter was taking the time out of her busy day to check up on me. Then I frowned. Maybe she’d been talking to mom again and had gotten an earful of information about dead bodies and potential suspects.

I’m great. Don’t listen to anything grandma tells you.

It took a few seconds for her reply.

Lol. I just want you to be safe. Remember, don’t jump to conclusions without the proper evidence. That’s what I learned in school.

How the tables had turned. When Emma was a teenager, I’d texted her advice trying to keep her out of trouble, now she was texting it to me. But she had a point. Did I have the proper evidence to suspect the Weatherby’s or was I jumping to conclusions?

I won’t, don’t worry. I’m too busy running the guesthouse for that.

Okay so it was a little white lie. Probably no worse than some of the things she’d texted me when she was young. Of course, her reply speared me with guilt.

Okay, Mom. Gotta run. Love you!

Love you too.

I put my phone in my pocket and continued on to the post office, my thoughts swirling about the Weatherbys. I was starting to second guess myself. What did I really have on the Weatherbys? The fact that they didn’t know technical information about cameras and had straw and feathers in their room? Flimsy at best.

I held the door for two senior citizens who were leaving as I exited. Their smiles faded as they recognized me, and they sidled away as if I was contagious.

‘Morning Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Newhart,’ I said pleasantly.

Mrs. Newhart narrowed her eyes and nodded.

Mrs. Fisher grabbed Newhart’s arm and hauled her down the street

They shuffled off, heads bent together, hose wrinkled around their ankles. I thought I heard some words drift over to me‘…heard she was involved in a murder…’

Oh no. The Oyster Cove rumor mill was in full force and I was the subject. I shouldn’t have been surprised, I knew from past experience that all the good gossip was gleaned down at the post office. All the more reason to help Sheriff Chamberlain along with his investigation. I strode into the post office with dogged determination.

Inside, Jen was standing at the counter, a two-foot-high pile of envelopes on her left, a large round stamper on her right and an angry look on her face.

Stamp. Stamp. Stamp.

She plucked envelopes from the top of the stack and hammered the stamper down on them, then piled them on her right.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked.

She blew a bang out of her eyes.‘Stupid postmarking machine broke. I have to do these by hand.’

‘Can I help?’

She paused the stamping and smiled at me.‘No. Thanks for the offer, but I only have one stamper. I could use the company though, this is boring.’

Stamp. Stamp.

‘I have some news that will liven things up.’

She looked up at me, barely stopping the stamping rhythm.‘Oh? Did you figure out who the killer is?’

‘Sort of. Remember how I told you about the footprint and the bad review that Charles wrote on the Marinara Mariner?’

‘Yep.’ Stamp. Stamp.

‘Well, I was partially right.’

The stamping stopped and she looked up at me.‘Tony really was the killer?’

‘No. But it was his footprint.’

The stamping resumed.‘But he wasn’t the killer? What was he doing there?’

I told her about Tony’s visit and his and Tina’s confession. ‘I have new suspects now though. I think it might be the old couple staying at the guesthouse,’ I said.

‘The birdwatchers? Why?’

‘According to Flora, they had feathers and straw all over the room. You know. like from birds’ nests,’ I said.

Stamp.

‘Flora doesn’t see too well and she’s been known to exaggerate.’ Jen punctuated her words with more stamping.

‘Well, they were seen up at the gulls’ nests.’

‘Why is that unusual? They are birdwatchers, right?’

Stamp. Stamp.

Hmm… she had a point. Maybe I was seeing malice where there was none. But they were my only suspects. ‘Mike said they didn’t know the details about one of the cameras they used. That seems odd to me if they are such avid bird watchers.’

Jen stopped stamping and looked up at me with a sly smile.‘So youare hanging around with Mike.’

‘No!’ Judging by the knowing look Jen gave me, the protest might have been too forceful. I tempered my voice and said matter of factly, ‘He only saw the camera because he’s working there and hopefully not for long.’

‘Uh-huh. Come on, I know you were crushing on him in high school. Admit it. You like having him around.’

‘That was more than twenty years ago. I’ve been married since. Who lingers on their high school crush anyway?’

She looked at me skeptically then went back to stamping.‘Just because you were married to a jerk, shouldn’t sour you on men. Look at all the jerks I dated before I found the right guy.’

Jen wasn’t joking, she had dated a lot of jerks, but now she was with her soulmate. I was a little envious of their wedded bliss, but also doubtful that would happen for me. I was no spring chicken. ‘I don’t think I’m ready for dating.’

‘Ohhh so there’s a chance you might be someday. Good, I’ll keep that in mind.’

‘Great. So back to the case…’

‘Right’ She made a face as if trying to remember the specifics. ‘What about the sabotage? Could Ron have done that?’

I’d wondered that myself, but it wasn’t like it took a lot of strength or skill to do that sawing. One would have to know just where to make the cuts, but it wasn’t rocket science. ‘Maybe Ron was a carpenter before. I mean he certainly could have sabotaged the roomand he made a remark about small-town police not following up thoroughly, so I wonder if he was banking on the fact that Seth Chamberlain might not even notice the sabotage and rule it an accident.’

Jen stopped stamping and thought about it.‘I guess that is a lot of counts against them. I just can’t believe those nice people could be killers. The Wessons were so nice.’

‘Wessons? You mean Weatherbys.’

She scrunched her face up.‘No. Wesson. They came in to pick up a package the other day and I’m certain that was the name on it.’

‘No. They signed in as Weatherby. It was on his license.’

Jen’s brows shot up. ‘What if they have a fake identity? If they are the killers, they might be pretending to be someone else.’

‘Why? I doubt they came here knowing they would kill someone.’ Then again, if they came knowing they were going to poison the gulls, maybe they did use a fake identity.

‘Serial seagull killers? Who knows. With fake names they can kill off whole colonies of gulls and then disappear and no one can trace it back to them.’

That made sense to me.‘You could be on to something. There is definitely something suspicious about the old couple.’

‘There’s only one way to find out what it is.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Follow them around and see what they do. If they killed Charles because he discovered they were doing something shady, and they didn’t leave town right away, then chances are they are still doing it.’

Seventeen

Nero shrunk back into the doorway of the bookstore as Josie came out of the Post Office.‘Get back! She’ll see us!’

Marlowe crouched low beside him. Juliette, Boots and Harry just looked at him.

‘So what if she sees you?’ Stubbs asked.

‘We don’t want her to think we’re following her.’

‘Ahh… Still playing aloof?’ Juliette preened.

‘Yep. Plus we don’t want her to try to lock us up inside or anything. We need to be free to protect her,’ Marlowe said.

All the cats shuddered at the thought of being shut up inside. Sure, many humans tried to curtail their outdoor activities thinking it was in their best interest and it likely was forregular cats. But Nero and his gang were special and needed to be free to roam around. How else would they solve mysteries?

‘Especially since I feel she may be barking up the wrong tree.’ Nero peeked out from his hiding spot. Josie was almost a block away. He slipped out and trotted a few stores down, taking care to stick close to the edge of the building and duck into doorways when possible. The others followed.

‘Barking up the wrong tree?’ Juliette asked. ‘Sounds like something that Mrs. Peterson’s chihuahua would do.’

‘I’ve seen him do that a few times,’ Harry said.

‘Very funny,’ Boots ran his paw the length of his long whisker, curling it up at the end with a flourish. ‘Nero means that he thinks Josie is on the wrong track. Why don’t you fill us in Nero?’

‘There was an incident at the guesthouse last night that eliminated some of the suspects.’ Nero told them how Tony had come to the Guesthouse and what happened after. Admittedly, he might have embellished the whole confrontation part a little bit to make it seem like he and Marlowe had stopped Tony from harming Josie, but since Marlowe didn’t disagree he felt like he was within his rights. He certainlywould have if it came to that.

‘Darn. I thought that clog print was a sure-fire clue and Tony would take the rap. So now what?’ Stubbs asked.

‘Once Tony was cleared, we knew Josie had to go back to the earlier clue. The note.’ Nero ducked quickly behind a tree when Josie turned around. ‘Holy Hiss, did she see us?’

Marlowe, who had ducked right behind him, peered out.‘I don’t think so. Looks like she’s getting into her car.’

‘Hmm… I wish I knew where she was going.’ Nero narrowed his gaze at Josie, who was settling in behind the wheel of her twelve-year-old Dodge sedan.

‘Hopefully back to the guesthouse,’ Harry said.

‘We can take the shortcut back there,’ Nero suggested.

‘Did you convince her to look at the note? I thought the police had it,’ Boots said.

Marlowe nodded.‘It took quite a bit of effort, but she finally got the hint. Luckily she had a picture of it on her phone.’

‘So what happened? Don’t tell me the note was a bum steer,’ Stubbs said, using his hard-boiled detective lingo again.

‘She puzzled out the potential meanings of the letters,’ Nero said.

‘Josie seems quite adept at word puzzles and games. I’ve seen her do the crosswords before,’ Marlowe added.

‘She discovered something?’ Juliette asked.

‘Now she suspects the Weatherbys. I feel she might be getting into dangerous territory though and want to keep her close.’ Josie’s car pulled onto the road and Nero dove under a shrub, scaring the bejesus out of a sparrow who burst out the other side like he’d been shot from a canon.

‘Are you sure she’s correct in suspecting the Weatherbys?’ Boots asked. ‘My whiskers are tingling at the thought and not in a good way.’

‘There are some clues. We saw gull feathers and nesting material in their room,’ Marlowe said.

‘And I saw them near the gulls’ nests,’ Juliette added.

‘They do seem overly interested in the gulls and Josie thought the note might be a blackmail note because Charles caught someone messing around with the gulls somehow.’

‘You mean this all has to do with what is happening to the gulls?’ Harry asked.

‘It’s a possibility.’ Nero scrambled out from under the bush and shook errant leaves off his coat, then started to groom off any dirt that might have gotten on the white patch of his chest. ‘Whatever the real reason is, Josie is determined to find the killer. Her reputation is on the line, after all.’

‘Of course. And we must assist like we always do.’

‘Great. Well, we gotta run.’ Nero trotted off in the direction of the shortcut that led to the guesthouse. ‘I’ll keep you all posted.’

‘Let us know if we can do anything else!’ Poe yelled after him.

‘You know where to find us!’ Harry added.

‘I’ll be watching the cliff from the Belfry!’ Juliette purred.

Nero broke into a full run, Marlowe at his tail. If they hurried they could get back to the guesthouse before Josie did something that might put herself in danger.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I waited almost all day for the Weatherbys to make a move. I hovered around the front rooms with my duster, trying to look busy. I wanted to stay near the foyer so I could catch them if they left, but there was only so much dusting and straightening one could do in the front rooms.

I felt a little like a creep. Was I doing the right thing? If they were innocent, I’d simply see them taking pictures of birds. But if not…

I’d also had the distinct feeling someone… or something… was following me when I left the post office earlier that day. I hadn’t seen anyone when I did a tricky glance over my shoulders and the Weatherbys car was parked and cold (yes, I felt the hood) when I got back to the guesthouse, so itwasn’t them. What ifthey weren’t the killers and it was the real killer who was following me?

The cats had been acting strangely too. They bolted into the house a few minutes after I got home and had been staring at me the whole time. Now all of a sudden they’d disappeared. A creak on the stairs brought me out of my reverie.

‘Oh, hi, Josie. Huh, I saw Flora cleaning in here earlier.’ Ron looked at me suspiciously. ‘How often do you have to dust this place?’

‘One can never have things too clean!’ I chirped. ‘Old houses collect lots of dust.’

‘Ahem. Right. Well the Mrs. and I are just going for a walk.’ Ron held up the camera that dangled around his neck. ‘Going to see if we can spot a blue-billed horn-swallow.’

‘They have those around here?’ I’d never actually heard of one. Was he making it up? If he was the killer, then he probably was. I remembered how Mike had said that he thought it was odd that Ron had the specifications of his camera wrong, maybe he’d been lying then too? Maybe if I’d listenedto Mike, I would have realized Ron could be the killer sooner. Of course, I would never tell Mike that.

‘They are very rare, but we’re hopeful!’ Iona pulled Ron out the door and I stared out the window as they headed off to the path at the edge of the estate property. It wound up the hill above the Smugglers Bay Inn, then over to the cliffs near the gulls. I tossed down my feather duster and followed.

I’d always liked the serenity of walking in the woods with only the chipmunks and birds as company. The smell of pine and the dapples of sunlight filtering through the leaves can be magical. Except for today. Today the woods had an ominous feeling and being alone wasn’t quite so serene.

I came to a fork in the path. Now, which trail had they taken? I squinted down the path on the right and caught sight of something red moving in between the trees. Iona’s shirt. I picked up the pace. Something dark ran in front of me, almost tripping me.

‘Whoa!’

Mew! Nero leapt onto a rock and preened.

‘Hey, watch it.’ I whispered because I didn’t want to alert the Weatherbys to my presence.

Purrr. Marlowe did circle-eights around my ankles.

‘Get lost. Shoo. I’m busy.’ I stepped over her and continued on the path, slowing when I came to the corner. I didn’t want the Weatherbys to see me if they’d slowed down. And surely they must have slowed, because we were going uphill. I knowI felt like slowing down, and they were a lot older. I could probably take my time and let them get to the cliffs and still see them doing something nefarious. But what if they also did something along the way? I didn’t want to miss that.

Meow!Nero shot ahead of me on the path then stopped, almost blocking it.

‘Look out,’ I whispered, stepping over him again. Darn cats were going to ruin everything.

I turned the corner. No Weatherbys. I went a little faster, now afraid I might miss out on something.

Nero and Marlowe trotted in front of me in the most annoying way possible. It was almost as if they were trying to trip me.

Another splash of red! They were just ahead. I didn’t want to lose them now, but also couldn’t let them know that I was here.

I continued on, craning to see ahead. They were probably around the next corner. I rounded cautiously.

No one was there.

I picked up the pace. Maybe the next corner.

Nope. Where were they? Had I lost them? And where were the cats? They’d run off and—

‘Josie. What brings you out here?’

I spun around to see Ron and Iona Weatherby blocking the path.

‘Josie. What a surprise!’ Iona really did look surprised, but how had they gotten behind me without seeing me on the path? And why would they double back and then come back up? Had they seen me following them and come to confront me? Would I be their next victim? I tensed, ready to flee. Too bad they were blocking the way. I had nowhere to go but toward the cliff. Images of my body smashed on the rocks came to mind.

Mew.

Nero, the traitor, was threading between Iona’s ankles and she bent down to pet him. ‘We didn’t realize you were a nature lover.’ Ron stepped closer, a look of suspicion on his face.

‘I am. Really. But I don’t get much time to enjoy it what with all my duties at the Guesthouse.’ I stuttered as I tried to plan my escape. I could dart around the big pine, jump over that fallen oak and crash through the woods to connect with the trail below. They were old, I could outrun them.

Meow!Nero trotted over to Ron and gave him the same purring ankle rubbing routine.

‘Yes, of course.’ Ron said. ‘But you do come out here often?’

‘Uh huh… Yep.’

‘I suppose you go up to the cliff?’ Iona straightened from where she’d crouched to pet the cat and brushed her hands together. ‘The view is outstanding.’

‘Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t? Is that where you go?’ While I was stuck here, I might as well ask them some questions and see if I could trip them up.

‘Oh yes.’ Ron hefted the camera. ‘Bird watching.’

‘The gulls?’ I tried to keep my voice casual.

Ron’s brow furrowed. ‘What do you know about the gulls?’

Aha! I could tell by the way he asked that he was worried. His tone definitely indicated guilt. But I had to be careful. If they had killed Charles as I suspected, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

I shrugged as if I had no suspicions at all.‘They nest up there. It’s sad what’s happening to them, but that’s nature I guess.’

‘What do you mean?’ Iona asked innocently.

Trying to play dumb? Well, two could play at that game.‘They’re dying at an alarming rate. I guess it’s just a cycle of nature? Not enough food to support the growth of the colony.’

Ron and Iona exchanged a glance. Had I fooled them? Now was my chance to get away.

Nero and Marlowe had trotted back on the path and were looking over their shoulders at me. Yep, that was my cue to leave.

‘Oh, look at the time!’ I glanced at my wrist. ‘The cats are signaling that they need their afternoon meal.’ I pointed toward the two cats who were staring at us.

Ron and Iona looked dubious but they stood aside.‘Of course, dear. You shouldn’t delay their feeding. Too bad you won’t make it to the cliff. Seems a waste to come halfway up and not get to the top.’

Yeah, too bad because that would be a great place to push me off.‘I know, but I live here so I get to go anytime I want. You two enjoy!’ I hurried off without looking back.

Only when I was a safe distance away did I turn around. Judging by the way those two had been acting, my suspicions were confirmed that there were the culprits. But what should I do about that? I couldn’t tell Seth Chamberlain until I had some concrete proof. He’d never listen, especially after I’d messed up by pointing the finger at Tony. I was going to have to resort to breaking into their rooms and looking around.

Eighteen

Later that afternoon, I made sure the Weatherbys saw the big coupon for the senior special at Salty’s Crab Shack that night. Since I didn’t serve dinner it was a sure bet they’d be dining out. I waited a few minutes after they drove off just to make sure they didn’t turn back.

Once all the guests were out to dinner, I rushed up the stairs, tamping down the guilt that was spreading in my chest as I fingered the spare key to the Weatherbys room. I’d only ever used the room key for cleaning, and this felt like a violation. I reminded myself that the nice old couple could be hardened killers and looking in their room was necessary to find evidence.

I was bent over the keyhole and assured myself this was the right thing to do when I heard,‘What are you doing?’

Dang! I’d been so focused on sneaking around that I hadn’t noticed Mike coming down the hall. He had his tool belt and a dark gray t-shirt that showed off the fact that he still kept in shape even after being out of the Navy for several years. Not that I was noticing.

I straightened and leaned against the wall casually as if breaking into guests’ rooms was nothing out of the ordinary. ‘Cleaning.’

He glanced at the door.‘Isn’t that the Weatherbys room?’

‘Yep. Still needs to be cleaned.’

He leaned his shoulder against the wall so he was facing me and cocked his head.‘I thought Flora did the cleaning.’

I snorted.‘Seriously?’

‘Yeah, I guess maybe she doesn’t do all of it.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But you wouldn’t be doing some snooping in there, would you?’

I tried to look incredulous.‘Me? I would never snoop on guests. Why would I?’

‘Aunt Millie told me all about the new theory you guys have come up with that Charles was blackmailing someone. She said you suspected the Weatherbys.’

Dang. Millie had a big mouth.

‘Maybe.’ I studied him for a second. He had been an investigator in the Navy and had been acting like he was interested in this case. Maybe he had an opinion. And since I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure about the Weatherbys, maybe I should listen to it. ‘What do you think?’

He shrugged.‘Might be a good deduction, but I don’t think they did it. The sabotage of the stairs doesn’t seem like their forte.’

I leaned closer to him and lowered my voice.‘But you said they acted suspiciously about the cameras.’

He inched closer and my heartbeat sped up.‘Yeah, I did. But whether it is or isn’t them,you shouldn’t be investigating it. Leave it to Sheriff Chamberlain.’

I sighed.‘I wish I could, but he seems to be barking up the wrong tree and I’m sitting on the top branch.’

Mike’s face softened. ‘I know. Don’t worry. The truth will come out. I’ve been looking into it myself, so you don’t need to concern yourself with it.’

I didn’t need to concern myself? Did he seriously just say that? Did he think I should keep to the cooking and cleaning and let the men do the investigating? Ha! I’d show him. But I didn’t voice my thoughts. Better to let him think I was playing along with him, I knew how to handle domineering, control-freaky men.

I smiled sweetly.‘That’s really nice of you. I suppose you’re right. Thanks. Now if you don’t mind…’ I gestured toward the door.

‘Right, you have cleaning. You work really hard here. Maybe you need a night out.’

Not with you. No way.‘Maybe.’

‘I’m just finishing up here and…’

He let his voice drift off and an eager puppy dog look spread across his face. I knew what he was suggesting but I would not be swayed. He probably just wanted to get me away from the Weatherbys room so I wouldn’t get evidence that they were the killers before he did. I knew how competitive men could be. Besides, I had no desire to go on a date. Not with him or anyone for that matter. For one, I was still reeling after the divorce and for two we had history and it wasn’t all pretty.

‘You must be almost done with the work Millie contracted you to do,’ I said by way of avoiding his suggestion.

Mike nodded, looking kind of sad.‘This place needs a lot more work though. I have spare time in my schedule…’

‘Thanks, but I have a tight budget.’ The last thing I wanted was Mike hanging around here. As it was, I was almost starting to get used to him and I certainly did not want that. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I’d already been talking to Ed O’Hara—a nice retired gentleman who was not within my dating range—about doing the rest of the work.

He leaned in.‘I’d be willing to give you a discount or we could work something out.’

He was magnetic, with a charming smile and soulful brown eyes. A discount would be nice. So would… wait! No. I was not going to go there. Best if he was out of my sight for good.

‘I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you, but thanks for the offer.’ I gestured toward the door. ‘I really need to get to work.’

He pushed away from the wall, obviously disappointed.‘Ok. But I hope you really are cleaning. I’m serious Josie, there’s a killer on the loose and it could be dangerous.’

‘Me too. Just cleaning.’ I smiled and managed to hold his gaze until he walked away. Once I heard the last stair creak, I let out my breath. I didn’t like being sneaky or lying, but one did what one had to do.

I slipped the key into the lock, turned the knob and the door squeaked open.

Given Flora’s description, I had expected the room to be filled with feathers and straw, but it was neat as a pin. Maybe Florahad cleaned. Most likely she’d exaggerated. I poked around in the bureau, under the bed and in the medicine cabinet.

The sound of tires on gravel startled me and I ran to the window. It was only Mike leaving. The driveway was empty. The Weatherbys car was still gone, but I knew I had to hurry.

In the small drawer of the writing desk, I hit pay dirt. An envelope addressed to Bill and Cindy Weston. Hmm… maybe I was on to something, but I needed more.

Maybe in the closet or between the mattress and box spring?

I was on my hands and knees in the closet, examining the bottom of Ron’s shoes, which had straw and twigs embedded inside the thick treads, when I heard the door open.

‘I’ve been craving clams ever since—’ Iona’s words were cut off as she noticed me crouched there on the floor. ‘Josie? What are you doing?’

‘Ummm… just cleaning.’

Her questioning gaze was riveted on my right hand, which still held Ron’s shoe.

‘I like to vacuum under the shoes.’ I plopped the shoe back down and jumped up. ‘See? All nice and clean.’

Ron’s closed the door and glared at me. His eyes were not friendly. ‘I don’t see any vacuum cleaner.’

Crap. Maybe Mike had been right and I should have stayed out of investigating. But if I didn’t, I’d have to remember to bring props next time if I was trying to pose as a cleaning excuse.

‘I prefer the old-fashioned method of picking stuff up by hand.’

Mew!

The cats must have snuck in with the Weatherbys. They trotted around Iona’s feet, looking up at the bag of takeout food from Salty’s which was filling the room with the delicious smell of fried clams. Just my luck they’d decided to get takeout instead of eat in.

Meow!

Nero cast a glance at me. Was he trying to signal me? To let me know they would help me escape if need be? Because judging by the way Ron was planted in front of the door with his hands on his hips, I might need help.

Iona put the bag on the dresser and Marlowe immediately jumped up and started sniffing.

Iona glared at me. No longer did she look like a sweet old lady.‘Looks like you didn’t rush home to feed the cats like you said you were going to do when we saw you out in the woods. This one appears to be starving.’

‘Oh, them.’ I waved my hand dismissively at the cats. ‘They beg for food all the time.’

I inched toward the doorway. Maybe I could rush Ron and knock him over? I hated to knock over a senior citizen, but he was a killer.

‘No sense in lying, Josie. We know what you were up to out in the woods,’ Ron said.

So they knew I was on to them. Fine! I’d get myself out of this somehow.

Mew!

Nero jumped up on the dresser and sniffed.

Iona snatched up the bag.‘I don’t think fried clams are good for cats.’

Lovely, a senior citizen killer who cared about cat nutrition.

‘That’s right. I’ll just take them downstairs for some properly formulated cat food.’ I glanced at Nero and Marlowe. Not sure what I was expecting. Maybe for them to distract the Weatherbys while I made a break for it? But they were more interested in the takeout bag because now they were sitting at Iona’s feet practically begging like dogs.

‘Nice try, Josie. You might as was well confess. We aren’t letting you go.’ Ron stood firmly in front of the door.

Images of my body at the bottom of the stairs in the West wing bubbled up. I hadn’t heard any other cars pull in, so it was likely no one else was home. Why hadn’t I listened to Mike? I decided to buy some time.

I crossed my arms over my chest.‘You confess first. I know what you’ve been up to.’

Ron and Iona glanced at each other.‘You do? How did you find out?’

‘Process of elimination,’ I said proudly. But not too proudly, lest it anger them and make their killing method more painful.

Meroo…

Nero tore his attention from the bag long enough to blink at me. Was that some kind of signal? Too bad I didn’t understand cat-blink.

I moved toward the door another inch. Maybe it was best to let them take me to the West wing. That way I’d have more opportunities to escape. Or maybe I should try to reason with them? Convince them to give themselves up.

‘What are you going to do? Push me down the stairs and try to make it look like an accident? I don’t think the police will fall for that again.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Iona looked confused.

‘Don’t play dumb. I know the truth and what you’ve been up to. But you can’t kill me like you did Charles. It won’t work. Might be easier to give yourselves up. I’m sure it was an accident. The cops will go easy, but if you kill me too… not so much.’

‘What are you talking about? Why would we kill Charles?’

‘To cover up the fact that you were messing with the gulls, of course.’

Ron and Iona looked nervous. Clearly I’d hit a nerve. They hadn’t figured that I’d discovered their secret about the gulls.

Meroo!

Marlowe and Nero sat at Iona’s feet, tails swishing back and forth anxiously. Eyes focused on the bag of clams. Fine friends they were. Here I was about to be murdered and all they could think about was clams.

‘Oh, for crying out loud, give them a clam.’ Ron took a step toward me, and I backed up. ‘Now Josie, I see what you are trying to do but it won’t work.’

Darn! He was onto my ploy to keep them talking and try to hedge toward the door. Now what? I glanced back at the window, but we were on the second floor. Maybe I could lock myself in the bathroom?

‘You’re not going to get away with murder. Think about it.’

‘Why do you keep saying that?’ Iona had taken a clam out of the bag, picked off the coating and was feeding little pieces to the cats. They were lapping it up, not paying any attention to the dire circumstances going on around them. ‘It’s no use trying to cover up what you’ve been doing.’

I frowned.‘WhatI’ve been doing?’

‘Yes dear,’ Ron managed to look fatherly. ‘It’s quite obvious that you’re the one who has been killing the gulls. Earlier when we caught you in the woods, we know you were going to the nests, but turned back because you ran into us. I don’t know what happened with that Charles fellow but if you just confess, I think we can convince the authorities to go easy on you.’

‘What I don’t understand is why you would do it… were the gulls hurting business at the guesthouse?’ Iona tossed a tiny clam morsel to Nero, who caught it mid-air like a dog.

This was confusing. What was their angle? Would they try to blame me for their crime? Maybe they were trying to force a confession like I was doing to them. I fisted my hands on my hips and stood my ground.‘I had nothing to do with the gulls. They aren’t hurting business at all. They don’t even come here.’ I gestured toward the window where a few evening gulls were circling far over the water, as if to prove my point.

Iona popped a clam in her mouth and exchanged a confused look with Ron.‘Well then, why harm them?’

‘It’s not me, it’s you!’

Ron shook his head and gave me a sad look of pity, then reached in the bag for a clam.‘Think about it, this has been happening long before we came. It’s not us.’

I still didn’t believe him. ‘How do I know you weren’t in town staying somewhere else before? And what about the fact that you have been lurking up near the gulls. You don’t know the specifics of your camera and had straw and twigs from the gulls’ nests in your shoes!’ Ha! Now I had him.

Ron glanced at Iona.‘Looks like we better enact plan B.’

He advanced toward me, a serious look on his face. Ooops, now I’d done it. I stepped back, but the dresser stopped me from going further. He kept coming. My heart thudded against my chest as I searched for a means of escape.

I glanced at Iona for help. I mean I know she was in cahoots with him but maybe she’d have pity on a fellow woman.

Too late. He was almost on me. He reached out as if to grab me, I dodged left, threw myself on the floor and tucked into a roll.

To my surprise he didn’t lunge for me. Instead he gave me a funny look and opened the bureau drawer.

He fished underneath. Probably where he kept the gun!

I squeezed my eyes shut and threw my arm across my face as if that might stop a bullet.‘Don’t shoot!’

‘Shoot? Josie, dear, what are you talking about?’ Iona asked.

I opened my eyes. Ron was standing in front of me, a yellow padded mailer in his hand. He reached in and pulled out what looked like a wallet. He flipped it open. Inside was a gold badge and ID card.

‘You didn’t believe us, so I wanted to prove to you why we were here and why we can’t possibly be the ones who have been harming the gulls.’ Ron handed the badge over.

It looked official, but I’d never heard of the department. ‘U.S. Department of Audubon Investigations?’

Rona and Iona nodded.‘Yes. We’re investigators for a special government division. Not a lot of people know there is a department of Audobon Investigations. We often get confused with the Audubon Society, but we have no relation to that. You were right about one thing, we aren’t here as regular guests. We were sent to investigate what’s happening with the gulls.’

‘And our name isn’t Ron and Iona Weatherby either.’ Iona picked a clam out of the bag and passed it to Ron. ‘It’s Bob and Cindy Wesson and I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re looking mighty suspicious right now.’

‘Especially since we caught you skulking around in the woods today and looking very guilty,’ Ron added.

Iona nodded.‘And the way you ran off after we caught you… well, you can see why we think you’re the culprit.’

I sank down on the bed. Ron and Iona (yes, I still thought of them as their fake names) were government agents? Even worse, they suspected me! I supposed I had been acting funny in the woods, but that was only because I thought they were killers.‘I was guilty. But not of doing anything to the gulls. I was following you because I thoughtyou were doing something to them!’

The cats purred around my ankles as I told Ron and Iona about the note and my suspicions that Charles wasn’t killed because of a review, but because he was blackmailing someone.

‘And you thought he was blackmailing us?’ Iona chewed thoughtfully. ‘Well I suppose I can see why. We were going off and watching the gulls every day, but that was for research, of course you didn’t know that.’

‘And we did investigate the nests,’ Ron said. ‘Funny thing we didn’t find anything wrong. We suspect someone is somehow poisoning the gulls. We’ve been trying to figure out where you kept the poison so we could confiscate it for evidence and turn it over to the police.’

‘Well it’s not me,’ I said. ‘I mean why would I? The gulls are not a nuisance to me and why would I kill Charles and put the reputation of the guesthouse in jeopardy?’

‘Good point.’ Iona sat on the bed beside me, passed me the clams and patted my knee. ‘Besides you’re not the killing type. Gull or human. And we’ve seen a lot of killers, haven’t we dear?’ She looked up at Ron, who nodded.

‘I was afraid we were on the wrong track with you, anyway,’ Ron said. ‘We had no evidence that you even went near the cliff until we saw you on the path. And, as you said, you have no motive.’

Iona nodded.‘But when we ran into you on the path, we started to second guess ourselves. Funny that it turns out you were looking for the same person we were.’

I fished around in the bag and picked out a clam with a big belly. I paused before scarfing it down.‘Well, if it’s not you and it’s not me, then who is it?’

Nineteen

Nero’s mouth watered as he watched Josie eat the succulent clam with the plump belly. ‘I wish they’d pass some of those to us.’

‘Yeah what gives? The lady was feeding us until they sorted things out.’ Marlowe watched Josie pass the bag to Ron. ‘It’s like they’ve forgotten all about us. Maybe I should hack up a hairball.’

‘No, they don’t like it when that happens around food,’ Nero sighed, and hopped down from the bed. ‘I’m just glad they’ve straightened things out.’

‘Yeah, I was sure there would be a problem when Josie followed them through the woods.’

‘Me too, especially since she wasn’t understanding our hints about turning back.’

Marlowe preened her belly.‘It did seem as if she was turning to us for help a little while ago here in the room, though.’

‘Yet she didn’t ‘get’ the hint that we were not concerned and she shouldn’t be either.’ The clam bag crinkled and Nero looked up at the humans. They were seated side by side on the bed, no longer paying attention to the cats. Had they eaten all the clams?

‘I think we need to figure out who has a vested interest in getting rid of the gulls,’ Ron said.

‘Are we really sure the gulls’ plight is connected to Charles’ death?’ Iona glanced at Nero. He willed her to pick out another clam for him and she did! But just so the humans didn’t think they were too eager, he let it drop on the floor before sniffing at it disdainfully for a few seconds, then hunkering down and eating it slowly.

‘I get the next one,’ Marlowe said.

‘Fine, but we can’t waste too much time eating. We have to point them toward the real suspect.’ Nero swallowed the last tidbit and licked his lips.

‘Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the gulls. I could have been wrong about the letter. I mean it was only a few parts of words,’ Josie said.

‘What were the parts?’ Ron asked.

While Josie fished out her phone and showed the Weatherbys the picture of the note, Nero got to work trying to give them a hint. Who was the killer and what were they doing with the gulls? Now that it had been proven not to be the Weatherbys, Nero could think of only one person it could be.

He hopped up on the old cast iron steam radiator under the window. Luckily it was summer and the heat wasn’t on, otherwise he would surely have burned his paws. As it was, the radiator, with its fancy accordion of scrolled pipes, was not very comfortable. It was all part of the sacrifices cats to make for their humans. ‘The humans are asking the same question we asked ourselves earlier. Maybe this time Josie will listen and come to the same conclusion.’

Meroo!

‘Oh shush now, you’ve had more than your share of clams.’ Iona waved a dismissive hand at him without even looking in his direction.

‘I think I’m going to need help,’ Nero said to Marlowe.

Marlowe joined him on the dresser. She sat and curled her tail around him, then looked out toward the cove, her whiskers twitching. The moon was out and the last gull had gone wherever gulls go at night. But hopefully Josie would get their drift.

Merooo!

Mewo!

Merowl!

‘What’s going on? Is something out there?’ Josie came to join them at the window, petting the top of Nero’s head. He had to admit it felt good. He let down his guard and purred a few times.

Mew!Marlowe signaled that she wanted attention too, but she kept her eyes on the cove.

‘Something sure must be interesting out there.’ Josie petted Marlowe, giving her equal attention. ‘What do you see?’ Josie stared out the window. ‘Oh, I think I’ve got it!’

‘What’s that?’ Ron asked.

Josie whirled around.‘Stella Dumont runs the Smugglers Bay Inn over there. The gulls have been hanging around her deck and pooping all over it.’

‘Really?’ Iona and Ron joined Josie, squinting out in to the night.

‘Not only that, but Stella has been seen lurking around here,’ Josie said.

‘And Charles was killed here,’ Ron added.

‘Do you think Charles caught Stella doing something to harm the gulls?’ Iona asked.

‘I wouldn’t put it past her to do that. Or to kill Charles,’ Josie said.

Nero and Marlowe hopped down from the radiator, they tails held high proudly. Finally, Josie had gotten their hint and now it was up to the humans to catch the killer.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

‘Iknew it was Stella,’ I said. ‘I should have trusted my first instincts, but I thought it had something to do with Charles’ cookbook. When I found out that it was Tina who took it, I ruled Stella out.’

‘But what proof do we have?’ Iona peered out the window as if the answer was out there somewhere.

‘Well, she does have a problem with the gulls,’ Ron said. ‘Remember when we went there for lunch and gull pooped in your clam chowder?’

Iona made face.‘Yeah. Nasty.’

‘And my maid saw her skulking around here.’ Josie pressed her lips together. ‘I don’t remember if she said it was the night Charles died. I’ll have to ask.’

‘That does seem like a start. But it’s not enough to call the sheriff on.’ Ron’s words dashed my hopes.

‘But we have to dosomething,’ I said.

‘Indeed.’ Ron tapped his lips with his finger. ‘What we need is to set a trap and let her walk right into it and prove her guilt.’

‘Like what?’ Iona asked.

‘Something that would be irresistible to the killer. Something that would make them expose themselves somehow.’

I snapped my fingers.‘Got it! What if we say we found a clue in the room Charles was killed and when the police run forensics on it, it will leave no doubt who killed Charles.’

‘Like what? DNA? A fingerprint?’ Ron asked.

‘Maybe.’

‘We might not have to be too specific,’ Iona said. ‘We can avoid the details, just a hint is better.’

‘But how do we get this information to the killer?’

‘This is a small town and unless I am out of touch, if there is something juicy to talk about, there are certain circles where you can let the secret out and it will be around town in no time.’ Iona glanced at me and I nodded.

‘Good,’ Ron said. ‘Here’s what we need to do. We’ll start a rumor that you’ve found a clue to the killer’s identity. It’s in the West wing where Charles was killed.’

‘And the killer will come to find it before the police!’ Iona said.

I frowned.‘That won’t work, the killer isn’t just going to waltz into a guesthouse full of people.

Ron’s eyes gleamed. ‘Not with a guesthouse full of people. But everyone knows that you don’t serve dinner. Can you arrange something in town where your guests get a discount somewhere tomorrow night? We’ll help make sure everyone goes out to take advantage of it.’ Ron pointed to the clam bag. ‘You know, like you made it so obvious that there was a special at Salty’s.’

My cheeks prickled with heat. Had I been that obvious? Is that why Ron and Iona had gotten takeout? Oh well, it all worked out in the end.‘I think I can arrange something. Tony down at the Marinara Mariner owes me one.’

I could maybe get him to make a special twenty percent off coupon for the guests in exchange for making sure no one ever found out about him and Tina. Blackmail? Sure. But it was for a good cause.

‘And one more thing to make it irresistible,’ Ron said. ‘When you are spreading the rumor, make sure it is known that you will be out of town until the next morning, but the guesthouse will remain unlocked so that your guests can come and go after dinner.’

‘Okay,’ I said.

‘Good, maybe if you can get that rumor started tomorrow morning, we can have our killer in handcuffs by tomorrow night.’

‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘I know exactly where to start.’

Twenty

The next morning I was up with the gulls. Looking at them through the kitchen window, I wondered if they would stop dying off once Stella was in jail. There were only two over her deck now and I swear a month ago there would be six or seven in the morning.

Now what for breakfast? I wished I hadn’t spent so much time trying to come up with the best way to spread the rumor and sweet-talking Tony into getting me coupons last night. Mom and Millie had picked them up and were supposed to deliver them here any minute.

I was rummaging through the recipe file—still no sour cream coffee cake —when I heard a tap on the kitchen door.

Mom and Millie were outside with sneaky looks on their faces, glancing back behind them and whispering. I motioned for them to come in and the door squeaked as Millie opened it. I made a mental note to oil the hinges later on, or whatever one did for squeaky doors. I had enough going on right now.

Millie presented the special coupons from The Marinara Mariner.‘Tony made these up special, just like you asked him to.’

‘He was very nice to us.’ Mom leaned in and whispered. ‘Didn’t want us to tell his little secret.’

The cats trotted over and purred at Millie’s feet while she fed them some sort of fishy smelling treats. I didn’t have those types of treats here for them and I wondered if she’d been holding out on me and keeping the most savory treats for herself so she would still be their favorite.

Millie scowled at the stove, peeked in the oven and then turned her frown on me.‘You haven’t started breakfast yet?’

‘I was just trying to figure out what to cook.’

Millie glanced at her watch.‘It’s almost seven thirty, not much time to make something.’ She pressed her lips together and glanced at the pantry. ‘Hmm… I know. Do you have any breakfast ham?’

I glanced in the fridge. Two ham patties sat wrapped in their plastic covering.‘Yep.’

‘Good, then we’ll make Ham and Cheese Muffin Puffs. It will only take twenty minutes and the guests love them.’ Millie rushed into the pantry and grabbed the Bisquick. ‘Get out the ham and some eggs, milk, cheese and olive oil.’

I did as I was told and twenty minutes later the kitchen was filled with the smell of homemade biscuits. Millie pulled golden biscuits with pink dots of ham and gooey cheese out of the oven. I added a fruit bowl and milk and cereal and we headed to the dining room where the guests had already gathered.

Ron and Iona shot me a knowing look. Tina gave me a nervous glance. About the only one I didn’t have a secret with was Ava. She was looking around with a twinkle in her eye as if she was onto the fact that there were questionable goings on at the guesthouse.

‘I have a nice surprise for everyone,’ I announced, after I’d laid the food out and they were milling about the buffet table making their selections. I held up the coupons. ‘The Marinara Mariner has offered a wonderful 50 percent discount on dinner between 7 and 9 tonight for guests of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse only.’

‘The food there is wonderful,’ Ron said.

‘That’s a good deal,’ Iona added.

‘Marinara gives me heartburn.’ Ava squinted at the coupon.

‘I’ve never heard of the place, is it good?’ Tina’s demeanor dripped with faux innocence but her sideways glance told me that Tony had already alerted her to my blackmail demand.

‘Yes and since Josie has to go out of town tonight, it will be good for you all to have a night out. The guesthouse will be unlocked for you when you get back,’ Millie said.

Ava’s eyes narrowed. ‘So, would the last person in lock the front door, then?’

That stumped me.‘Err… that’s not necessary. It’s not like someone is going to break in and steal things. Very low crime here.’ Except for the recent murder. ‘And of course your individual rooms are locked, so no one can go in there.’

Ava studied me for a few beats then nodded.‘Okay then. Sounds good. I do have a hankering for garlic bread.’

With breakfast served and the dirty deed done, I headed back to the kitchen with Mom and Millie. I didn’t have time to waste. I had to get to the post office during peak gossip hours in time to let the news that the guesthouse would be empty and unlocked make its way to the killer.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

The post office was always the most crowded at 11 a.m., so I timed it to get there then. I wanted to maximize the amount of people who overheard me to ensure the rumor got spread around quickly. I knew that Stella liked to keep track of everything that went on around town, so I was positive it would get back to her.

‘Hey Josie,’ Jen looked over at me as she wrestled Priority Mail tape onto a ginormous package that little old gray-haired Lottie Cox had hefted onto the counter.

‘Hi Jen! I just stopped by to say goodbye before my trip tonight.’

‘You’re going on a trip?’

‘Just overnight. Be back in the morning.’

‘Umm… okay.’ She put the last of the tape on the package and punched something into the postal machine, then turned to Lottie ‘That will be $23.21.’

‘$23.31!’ Lottie clutched her purse against her chest. ‘Highway robbery!’

‘Sorry Lottie, but I don’t set the prices. I could send it regular mail?’

Lottie’s lips pursed. ‘How long would that take?’

Jen consulted the screen in front of her.‘Seven days.’

‘Forget it.’ Lottie creaked open her purse and counted out the money. ‘Darn government is getting greedy.’

While Jen completed the transaction, I continued,‘Yeah, so my guests are eating at the Mariner tonight. Tony has a special coupon just for the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. Isn’t that nice?’

Jen’s left brow quirked up at the mention of Tony. ‘All the guests?’

I hadn’t yet filled her in on the fact that I’d discovered the Weatherby’s true identity and our plan to dupe Stella into revealing herself as the killer. ‘Yep. And it’s a shame I have to go away too because I may have found an important clue as to the identity of the person who killed Charles Prescott.’

The hubbub of conversation among the post office customers stopped.

‘A clue? Like what?’ Jen asked.

‘I can’t really say, but the police are meeting me tomorrow morning to take it. I’d do it tonight but already had the plans to go away.’

‘Right. Plans. So, I guess the guesthouse will be empty?’ Jen said loudly. She’d been a quick study in high school and apparently that hadn’t changed. She must have caught on to my intentions.

‘Yep, exactly.’ I winked to thank her.

‘Did you have something to mail?’ She asked, because I was standing there holding up the line.

‘Huh? Oh no… Ummm… Just came to check my post office box. You know because I’m going out of town tonight.’ I made a big show of going over to the post office box. I tried to keep the smile off my face as I heard people mumbling about the big clue and the guesthouse, how I was going out oftown and how it wasn’t fair that Tony Murano had given a special coupon to only my guests.

The box was full of fliers, so I tugged them out and went over to dump them in the bin that the post office kept against the wall for such things. My way was blocked by Mike Sullivan. Arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed. He looked suspicious. Probably that Navy investigator training.

‘What’s this about you going out of town, Sunshine? Aunt Millie didn’t mention that,’ he said.

‘I don’t usually apprise Millie of my itinerary and if I did, she wouldn’t tell you because it would be none of your business.’ I dumped the fliers in the bin and headed for the door.

He followed me, holding the door open as I swept out into the street.‘I think you’re bluffing. Tell me what you’re up to.’

I stopped on the sidewalk and looked back at him, using my most innocent expression.‘Honestly Mike I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

Mew! Meow!

Nero and Marlowe appeared at my feet. How did they get into town so fast? They ran over to Mike, circling around his ankles and purring. He bent down to pet them.

‘Josie, I don’t mean to be nosey, but this could be dangerous.’ He stood, towering over me, which is no easy task because I’m five-foot-seven. ‘I just don’t want you to get hurt.’

Meroo!

Apparently Nero agreed with him.

‘Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.’ I turned to walk toward my car, but he latched onto my elbow, holding it gently but swinging me around to face him. My arm tingled, my heart fluttered, but my brain got annoyed with his insistence.

‘Josie, I think I know who the killer is. I was with Internal Affairs in the Navy and have experience with this sort of thing. Leave it to me.’ His face showed only concern, not ego or pushiness, but I wasn’t going to leave it to him. For one, I doubted he was going to nail his old high school sweetheart and for two it was important for me to prove that I could do this. Plus, I had it all planned out with the Weatherbys and what could possibly go wrong?

I extracted my elbow gently.‘I think I know who it is too and the wheels are already set in motion. And besides, I’m not stupid and I’m not a kid anymore. I think I can solve this without your help.’

Twenty-One

Despite the confidence I’d had about catching the killer when I’d talked to Mike outside the post office, I was jittery as a chihuahua in winter. I was half afraid he’d stick around the guesthouse, as I knew he suspected I was up to something. But he must have believed my story about going away. He finished up work and bid me farewell at four, asking about my flight. I told him I was taking a train just in case he had designs on checking up on me at the airport. I had a twinge of guilt as I watched him drive off. He’d acted a little cool all afternoon and I hoped I hadn’t been too harsh with him outside the post office.

At 6:30, Ron and Iona got the ball rolling by ushering everyone to the Marinara Mariner. Their plan was to get seated with all the others, then Ron would excuse himself to the bathroom and double back. He wanted to be here to make the arrest.

We figured the killer would come in the front door and head straight down the hall to the West wing. They wouldn’t try the window for fear it would be locked, and why bother when they knew the front door would be unlocked and no one home? I turned off the lights and Ron and I crouched in the pitch-black doorway to the butler’s pantry and waited.

At around 7:15, we heard a noise. Only problem was, it wasn’t at the front door.

‘That sounds like the kitchen,’ I whispered to Ron.

‘Why would someone come in the kitchen?’ Ron whispered back.

‘I have no idea.’ Mom and Millie knew about the plan so they wouldn’t be coming in that door. Flora had already left for the day and she never came back to the guesthouse after work. Could it be Mike? I knew he’d seen through my act at the post office but surely he wouldn’t ruin our plan.

Ron stood and the floor creaked.

‘Shhh…’

We froze, but the creak must not have bothered the intruder because the next thing we heard was the squeak of the hinges on the kitchen door opening. Good thing I hadn’t oiled them.

Ron tapped my arm and pointed to the kitchen, communicating that we should sneak over there quietly. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t have figured that one out on my own. One end of the butler’s pantry opened into the kitchen and we tiptoed through.

The kitchen was dark, but I could make out a form bending over the counter. By the size, shape and cloying smell of floral-scented perfume wafting over, I could tell it was Stella.

Ithad been her all along! But why was she standing at the kitchen counter? It looked like she was going through the recipes. Had she hidden something in the recipe box or cookbook? The rest of the note they’d found in Charles’ room? Or maybe she wanted to swipe a recipe before heading into the West wing to look for the fake evidence I’d found. Either way she wasn’t going to complete her mission.

I flicked on the light switch and jumped into the room.‘Aha!’

‘We caught you red-handed!’ Ron chimed in.

Stella whirled around, squinting into the light. Her hands flew out, palms up in front of her. She dropped the paper she was holding and it floated down to the floor.

‘What is that?’ I pointed to the paper. ‘Part of the note Charles left?’

‘A confession maybe,’ Ron said. Did he have to add something every time I spoke?

‘Hardly.’ Stella put her hands down and glared at us.

‘Fine.’ Ron whipped out his badge, the gold shield glinting in the light as he thrust it out toward her. ‘I’ll be calling the police then and they’ll get a confession from you.’

‘For what?’ Stella crossed her arms over her chest. ‘I hardly think the police will care that I came to borrow a recipe.’

I glanced at the floor. Yep. Looked like a recipe.

‘Not for that,’ Ron said. ‘For poisoning gulls and killing Charles Prescott.’

‘What? I never killed anyone! Or poisoned anyone for that matter. Except that time Mr. Dudley got sick from my cream puffs but that was unintentional.’

‘Of course you did. He found out you were poisoning the gulls and threatened to blackmail you, so you had to kill him,’ I said.

Mew.

That sounded like Nero out in the parlor. Not sure what he was meowing about but apparently he hadn’t figured out that all the action was going on here in the kitchen.

Stella made a face.‘I’m not poisoning the gulls. Who told you that?’

‘No one told me. It’s as plain as day that they are affecting your business.’ I gestured in the direction of her inn.

Meow.

Was that Marlowe? It sounded like she was near the front stairway.

‘They are not. I admit it’s hard to keep up with cleaning the gull poop off the deck, but tourists love to go and feed the gulls. In fact, I have special ‘gull food’ canisters now that I sell them specifically for feeding the birds.’ Stella shrugged at our disbelieving looks. ‘It’s just stale bread but hey, if life gives you lemons you make lemonade.’

I glanced at Ron. He was stroking his chin and studying Stella.‘Then why did you break in here tonight if not to get the evidence before it was given to the police?’

Stella sighed and pointed at the scrap of paper on the floor.‘Okay, I admit it. I wasn’t borrowing a recipe. I was returning one.’

‘Returning?’ I bent down to pick the paper up.

‘Yes, it’s Millie’s sour cream coffee cake recipe. It’s really delicious, so I stole it to make for the cooking contest. I wanted to sneak in and return it sooner but after you came over and started asking all the questions about why I was hanging around the Guesthouse, I didn’t dare. So when I heard you wouldn’t be here and the place would be unlocked, I figured it was a perfect time to return it.’

I stared at the paper in my hand. Handwritten on a blue lined index card and smudged with an old butter stain was Millie’s distinctive handwriting in a faded blue pen. It was the missing Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe. Had Stella really broken in just to return it or was this some clever trick to use as an excuse to be here because she really was breaking in to get the trumped-up evidence?

‘But it has to be you,’ I said.

Meroo!

That one came from the hallway, probably the cats were just figuring out we had the killer cornered in the kitchen. But now, looking at the recipe I had to wonder if we’d made a mistake.

‘Why does it have to be me? I’m not the only one who could poison the gulls. Why don’t you ask Barbara Littlefield? She’s the one who was conspiring with Charles up on the cliff.’

Now I knew she was lying.‘But Barbara said she never met Charles and she—’

A gruff voice in the doorway cut off my words.‘That’s right. I said what I had to say to stop you from nosing around.’

We turned in the direction of the voice to see Barbara Littlefield standing in the doorway with a gun pointed directly at us.

Twenty-Two

I’d been so focused on getting Stella to confess that I never heard Barbara coming in.

Meow!

Nero and Marlowe appeared behind her, blinking at me as if I was the dumbest human on earth. I guess that’s what they’d been meowing about. They’d been trying to warn me.

‘Aren’t you the building inspector?’ Ron asked.

‘Yeah, what of it?’ Barbara glared at him.

‘What do you have to do with all this?’ Ron looked genuinely perplexed and for good reason. Why would Barbara kill Charles? Was she the one poisoning the gulls? Even Stella seemed confused as she glanced from the small silver gun Barbara was waving around to Ron to me.

‘Did you know Charles from before?’ I asked. Maybe she had a grudge? Maybe she’d been one of the many he’d had an affair with and was out for revenge.

‘No. That dimwit thought he could outsmart me though. Ha!’ Barbara jerked the gun toward the door to the basement. ‘Now all three of you shuffle over toward the cellar nice and slow.’

I glanced at the door and shivered. I’d only been down in the basement once and that was plenty for me. It was an old house and the basement was dark, dank and full of spiders the size of kittens.

Meow.

Nero rubbed up against Barbara’s ankle.

She shook her foot to push him away.

‘Get lost, Kitty.’ Her face twisted even more. ‘I thought I told you not to have cats in the kitchen. It’s a code violation. I’d write you up, but after I burn the place you won’t even have a kitchen.’

‘But why would Charles blackmail you?’ Ron asked.

Barbara gestured with the gun again and we all shuffled a bit closer to the door.‘He shouldn’t have been up on the cliff. I mean what kind of a stupid cookbook uses flockenberries? They don’t taste that good, you know.’

‘The gulls seem to like them,’ Stella said.

‘Yeah. Unfortunately. That’s how he found out.’ Barbara gestured with the gun again and we moved another half inch.

Meow!

Marlowe scratched Barbara’s ankle.

Barbara lashed out with her foot. Luckily, she missed the cat. Unluckily she kept her grip on the gun and her eyes on us. I had to wonder if the cats were trying to distract her.

‘Found out about what?’ I prompted. Maybe if she got talkative one of the others would come back and save us.

A sly look came over Barbara’s face. ‘About what I was doing to the flockenberries. Someone had to get rid of those nuisance berry plants. Still hadn’t perfected the poison though, I had a few experiments going on.’

I remembered the dead plants in her office. Had she been experimenting on those?

‘So you poisoned the berries to get rid of the gulls?’ Ron asked.

‘No. Not the gulls, but hey, theyare a nuisance. Town should thank me. I was trying to save the lousewort from getting choked out. If the lousewort dies the cliff will no longer be protected and next thing you know a big giant hotel will be looming over us ruining the quaint ambiance of the town.’

‘That’s preposterous,’ Ron said. ‘Those lousewort plants must have been there for generations.’

Merooo!

Marlowe wound around Barbara’s feet and she glanced down annoyed but then looked right back up at us. Guess she didn’t want to be distracted too long for fear one of us would lunge for the gun which, of course, had been exactly my plan.

‘That’s where you’re wrong. That lousewort was never here. I imported it and planted it to stop the hotel from being built. Cost me a pretty penny and was a lot of work keeping it thriving. And you people,’ Barbara waved the gun at me and Stella as we jumped back. ‘Don’t even appreciatemy efforts! Now where would the town be if I hadn’t done that!’

I remembered Jen had mentioned that Barbara got dirty packages. Had it been the lousewort? Where had she imported it from? I knew it was protected here in New England, but thought I’d heard my mother mention something about it growing like a weed in some other country. Maybe she’d sent away for it and no wonder she’d had to spend so much time ‘mothering’ it, the cliff wasn’t its natural habitat and it needed extra care.

But none of that mattered now. The only thing that did was making sure we did not get forced down into that basement.

Barbara smiled, but it wasn’t a warm and fuzzy smile, it was cold and calculating mixed with a bit of pride. She shoved the gun forward. ‘To the basement door!’

We shuffled over more. Now we were right next to the door. Time was running out. I glanced at my watch.

Barbara laughed.‘Hoping someone will come back early from dinner? Hardly. It’s only eight o’clock and your guests will be at the Marinara Mariner for another hour at least. Guess your little plan to lure the killer here didn’t work out so well after all.’

‘Well, it did lure the killer here…’ Even facing death, I felt defensive of my plan.

‘Yeah, but it gave me an even better idea. Now that I have to get rid of you and the evidence, a nice fire will do the trick!’

My gut clenched. She was planning to shove us in the basement and set the place on fire. My mind raced. I had to do something to stop her. I glanced around for a weapon, but only saw bowls, dish towels and canisters.

Barbara moved forward, stepping on Nero’s tail and earning a screech and hiss from him. ‘Open the basement door and shove those cats down there first.’

Nero looked up at Barbara and wrinkled his nose, then glanced at me.

My heart clenched at the thought of the cats burning in a fire. At least maybe I could save them.‘Not the cats. Let them go, they’re innocent.’

‘Yeah,’ Stella agree. ‘Killing us is one thing but not innocent kitties.’

I glanced at Stella. She actually had a heart?

If the cats could understand Barbara, they were being awfully calm about their fate. Marlowe stretched and Nero trotted over to the cellar door. He glanced up at me and then at the doorknob. Suddenly I got an idea.

‘Ok. I see we have no choice but to go down there. Stand back though. The door sticks and I need some room.’ Stella and Ron stood back and I grabbed the knob.

The cats sat to attention, eyes on Barbara, tails swishing on the floor.

I planted my feet and tugged. I twisted the knob. I made a show of trying to open the door holding my breath and letting my face turn red. I glanced at Barbara.‘It won’t open.’

Barbara rolled her eyes.‘Figures. This old place isn’t even worth fixing up. Good thing I wrote all those violations. I’m doing the town a favor by burning it down.’ She stomped over to the door. ‘Let me try. You’re wimpy.’

But just as she reached me, I whipped the door open. The movement surprised her and she teetered at the opening. Marlowe and Nero sprang into action. Weaving around her feet. I gave her one hard shove.

She stumbled forward, tripping over the cats and losing her grip on the gun.

The gun clattered to the floor.

And then, as she was teetering at the top of the stairs, Stella gave her one last push and she fell down into the dark hole of the basement.

‘I’ll get you for this!’ Her words were punctuated by Ouch! And Dang! As she hit each stair going down.

Ron dove for the gun and I slammed the door shut just as the kitchen door burst open and Mike and Sheriff Chamberlain ran in.

They skidded to a stop, taking in the three of us standing there and the two cats planted firmly in front of the door, calmly licking their paws and washing behind their ears as a fresh string of curses drifted up from the basement.

Sherrif Chamberlain’s eyes were wide, his gun held straight out in front of him. He glanced at Mike. ‘Well? Which one of them is the killer?’

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Seth Chamberlain hauled Barbara out of the cellar, slapped the cuffs on her and shoved her in the squad car with the energy of an eager rookie. We were standing in the driveway, the cats preening around us as if they’d been the ones to capture the killer. Inside the car, Barbara pounded on the window.

‘You let me out of here Seth Chamberlain. I’ve done a lot for this town and don’t you forget it!’

We moved away from the car so we couldn’t hear her.

‘Sorry for acting like I suspected you, Josie,’ Seth said as he fished some cat treats out of his pocket and flipped them to Nero and Marlowe.

‘What do you meanacting?’ I asked.

Seth smiled and for a second I could see what Millie saw in him. Even though he had to be in his late seventies, the dimpled smile and intelligent twinkle in his eye gave him a boyish charm.‘Heck, I knew it wasn’t you all along. That was just an act. I would have arrested you if I had really thought it was you seeing as there was evidence pointing in your direction. I didn’t want the real killer to know I was on to them until I got solid evidence.’ He glanced uneasily at Ron and Stella.

I sensed that Seth was telling the truth about not suspecting me, but I doubted he’d known who the real killer was. More likely he’d suspected Ron or Stella just as I had. After all, he had asked Mike which one the killer was when they came bursting in. At least he’d ruled me out early on.

Speaking of Mike, he’d been fussing around me ever since they’d arrived and I wished he’d stop.

‘I knew you were up to something when I ran into you in the post office,’ he said. ‘I figured you were luring the killer in with that trumped-up story and it was a good ploy. I just wish I’d gotten here sooner. It took me a while to explain it to Seth and get him moving.’

‘My gut instincts were spot on, but I didn’t think anyone would believe me so I had to do something to flush the killer out.’ I didn’t mention I had actually thought it was Stella.

He stepped closer and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. Stella scowled at us.

‘You could have been hurt. I wouldn’t have liked that very much,’ he said softly.

Yeah, me either.‘Why not?’

‘Well, for one your brother would kill me and for two…’ He hesitated then shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped back. ‘I’m kind of getting used to you being back in town.’

‘Thanks.’ For once I was at a loss for words. I felt like something had happened between us. Not sure what, but it wasn’t entirely unwelcome. It was just too soon. For a second I regretted hiring Ed O’Hara to do the rest of the renovations so I wouldn’t have to keep Mike on. I was going to miss having Mike at the guesthouse. It was probably for the best though, I still needed to prove that I could be good on my own before I was ready to add another person to the mix. Plus, Ed charged a lot less.

Millie’s 1970s Dodge Dart careened into the driveway and Mom and Millie spilled out, cell phones in hand.

‘Did we miss it?’ Millie asked.

‘The police scanner app never went off!’ Mom scowled at her phone.

Seth walked over and gave them a stern look.‘We didn’t put in a call this time. Now you ladies can’t be using some app to go to all the crime scenes, it’s dangerous.’

Millie drew herself to her full height.‘Why Seth Chamberlain, you know darn well that without us, most of the crimes in this town would go unsolved. Besides, the crimes scenes are not dangerous because the crime has already been committed.’

‘That’s right,’ Mom chimed in. ‘And crimes scenes are swarming with police, therefore very safe.’

Seth closed his eyes and I pictured that he was mentally counting to ten. I couldn’t blame him, I’d had to do that myself a few times when dealing with Mom and Millie. Then he smiled at Millie. ‘It’s true that you help immensely, but I would appreciate it if you don’t broadcast that all over town. I have a reputation to protect.’

Mom and Millie looked contrite.‘Of course, sorry.’ Millie patted his arm. ‘There will be an extra dozen chocolate chip cookies for you this weekend.’

Seth’s smile widened and he covered her hand with his.

Millie grinned up at him, batted her eyes a few times and then slid her hand out from under his and tore away.‘I’m glad you understand, but now we have to go get the scoop from Josie!’

They scurried to my side. Mike was still standing there and Mom beamed at him.‘I see you’re watching out for my girl.’

Mike smiled.‘Can’t let anything happen to her.’

I bristled.‘I’m a grown woman and don’t need anyone to watch over me.’

‘Never mind that,’ Millie said. ‘Tell us all about it! How did the killer end up being Barbara? I thought it was Stella!’

By the time I was done telling them what had happened, the other guests were pulling into the driveway. Iona rushed to Ron to get the lowdown from him, and they beckoned Tina to join them, which she did reluctantly.

Mike had drifted off and was chatting with Stella. I didn’t really mind – I mean, he was free to talk to whoever he wanted, but for some annoying reason I kept glancing in their direction as if I cared. A few times I caught Mike’s eye. He had a smug expression every time he caught me looking, which I ignored.

Ava strode over to us, nodding her head as if she’d known what was unfolding the whole time. ‘Well, things sure are interesting at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.’

‘Never a dull moment,’ Millie said.

‘I knew something was going on,’ Ava said. ‘It’s good to know my reporter’s instincts are still working. Too bad people don’t give a monkey’s banana about society happenings anymore. It’s okay though, I have something better in mind.’

Ava walked off with a satisfied look on her face and I got a little worried.

‘I hope she’s not going to write some sensational newspaper article about this,’ I said to Millie.

Millie’s brows drew together. ‘Me too. Then again, maybe it would bring in business. You know how morbid people are.’

‘Hmm… you have a point.’

‘Never mind that,’ Mom tugged on my arm. ‘Mike’s leaving. You’re not going to let him get away, are you?’

I glanced over at his car, half expecting to see Stella inside, but she wasn’t. ‘Yes, I think I am.’

‘Are you sure? Could be your last chance to get him to ask you out on a date,’ Mom said. ‘Millie said he finished up the last task on his list today.’

‘I’m not in the market for a date,’ I said. ‘Besides, it’s probably for the best if he doesn’t hang around here too much. The way he calls me Sunshine is annoying.’

As I watched his truck turn onto the road, I felt a little tug of regret. Now that he wouldn’t be working at the guesthouse, I probably wouldn’t see him much, but surely that was for the best?

Meow!

Meroo!

Nero and Marlowe joined our circle and Millie and Mom bent down to scratch their ears. The two cats strutted around, tails in the air and heads held high.

‘Sheesh, by the way they’re acting, you’d think they’d caught the killer,’ Mom said.

‘They sure do look proud of something,’ Millie glanced up at me, her brows raised in a question.

I looked down at the two cats. They met my gaze with intelligent, luminescent eyes.‘Funny you say that. I think they did actually help out. It was due to them getting underfoot, that I was able to push Barbara into the basement.’

Millie looked adoringly at the cats, a proud smile on her face.‘Well then, I say they are certainly taking good care of the guesthouse and their new human. What do you say, Josie?’

‘I agree, in fact I’m getting used to their company. I can’t imagine the guesthouse without them.’

Meow!

Meress!

Twenty-Three

‘I’m so proud that you caught a killer all by yourself while running a new business, Mom.’ Emma’s voice gushed over the phone, swelling my heart with pride. ‘But it sounds like that could have been dangerous.’

‘Not at all, Sheriff Chamberlain was right outside the door.’ I made it sound like I’d arranged for the sheriff to step in so Emma would think I was never in danger.

‘Even so, I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you,’ Emma said.

‘You don’t need you to worry about me. I’m sure nothing like that will happen again. I mean, what are the odds?’

Emma laughed.‘Good point. I gotta run. You take care. Love you, Mom.’

‘Love you too.’ I barely got the words out before she disconnected. Kids these days, always running off. Truth was, I’d wanted to give her the same heartfelt warning about her job at the FBI. I took some comfort in the fact that she was an analyst and not in the field, but still, a mother never stops worrying. Unless maybe you were talking aboutmy mother. She seemed to thrive on danger and it didn’t seem to matter which one of us was in it.

It was one week after Barbara’s arrest and Millie, Mom and I sat in the kitchen at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.

Steam wafted up from mugs of coffee that sat beside warm pieces of sugary sour cream coffee cake on the table in front of us. Nero and Marlowe were there too, of course. They’d been treated like royalty all week and were now lapping up the last of a small bit of cream I’d given them as a treat.

‘At least Stella Dumont did the right thing and decided not to use my coffee cake recipe for the contest.’ Millie forked up a piece of the crumbly top.

‘That would have been cheating,’ My mother said. ‘What’s she using instead?’

‘Her Aunt Sally’s fruitcake, I think.’ Millie said.

Mom laughed.‘I doubt that will win any prizes.’

I relaxed back in my chair. Honestly, I hadn’t been worried about Stella wining that contest and getting one-up on me anyway. Not much. I was sure my baking would improve over time. Besides, considering how often Millie popped in to help make the breakfasts, I was sure the Oyster Cove Guesthouse would be able to keep its reputation for good eats. ‘It’s nice not have guests to tend to.’

Ava had left two days earlier for a cruise to the Caribbean. The Weatherbys had gone off on a top-secret mission to Antarctica the day after Barbara was arrested and Tina had broken off her affair with Tony and gone back home on Tuesday. I was glad their affair was over, I liked the chicken parmesan at the Marinara Mariner and didn’t want the restaurant to close down if Tony and the Mrs. got divorced.

‘I think things went very well for your first round of guests.’ Millie pressed her index finger to the plate to pick up the last sweet crumbs from the coffee cake, licked them off and then pushed up from the table and headed to the cabinets where she started to assemble bowls, whisks and measuring utensils. Apparently she was going to do some baking. I knew the kitchens were small over at the retirement village, but honestly, if she was going to just keep coming here to bake she might as well make the breakfasts all the time.

At my skeptical look, my mother added.‘Well, there was that little hiccup of a murder, but you handled it very well, dear.’ Mom patted my arm.

‘And caught the killer!’ Millie added.

Meow!

Meroo?

‘Yes, we know you guys helped too,’ Millie said to Nero and Marlowe who appeared offended at the lack of credit. They twitched their whiskers and sauntered off toward the hallway, apparently appeased by Millie’s praise.

‘Who would have figured it was Barbara?’ Mom said. ‘I mean, I knew she was went overboard tending to the lousewort but I never thought she’d planted it herself. I would have suspected Ava before Barbara, but I was hoping it was Stella.’

‘Me too,’ I said.

Millie turned around to look at us.‘Ava? Why would you suspect her?’

‘She knew Charles from before, she was the one who told us about Tina, she was here at the guesthouse… it sort of seemed like she turned up everywhere,’ I said. ‘I just hope she isn’t going to do some big column in the paper about it. It sounded like she needed something exciting to bringin readers.’

‘Don’t worry, she isn’t writing a column.’ Millie glanced out into the hallway to make sure we couldn’t be overheard. By whom I had no idea. We were the only ones in the guesthouse. ‘She’s writing a book about it.’

‘Oh.’ Was that better than a column? Probably. Maybe they’d make it into a movie and people would flock here to see where it happened.

‘I’m just glad all’s well that ends well,’ Mom said. ‘Barbara would have done anything to protect herself, so it’s a good thing you guys were able to outwit her.’

‘I can’t believe she would have burned down the guesthouse,’ Millie shuddered as she cracked eggs into a bowl.

‘Yeah that could have been a problem, especially with the town’s 250th celebration and all the descendants of Jedediah Biddeford coming to stay here in two weeks.’ Though the guesthouse had been added to over the years, it had started out as a smaller mansion way before Millie’s people evenowned it. The main part of the mansion that was now the West wing had been originally built by Jedediah Biddeford, and seeing as he’d lived here 250 years ago, apparently his descendants felt the town celebration was a great time to have a family reunion right in the house that started it all.

A family reunion was nice and all, but I was really thrilled because all five of the rooms which had been renovated to this point had been booked by Biddefords. If only I’d kept Mike on, I might have been able to squeak out a few more rooms, but it was just as well that he wouldn’t be around. I was getting too comfortable with him. And while Ed O’Hara was a bit slow, he did good work and I was happy to supplement his Social Security income.

‘That’s probably only because of the curse,’ Millie said as she whisked something together in a stainless-steel bowl.

‘Curse?’ The familiar baritone came from the doorway. I hoped I was hearing things. I scrunched my eyes shut and turned in that direction, opening one eye slowly. Mike Sullivan lounged against the doorframe. Who had invitedhim? To be even more annoying, he winked at me.‘Hey Sunshine, how’s our little detective?’

‘I thought you were done with your work here.’ I said.

‘I am.’ Mike pushed off the frame and strode over to Millie, kissing her on the cheek. ‘Aunt Millie invited me over for cookies.’

‘I’m just getting ready to put them in the oven now.’ She scooped big dollops of batter out of the bowl with a tablespoon and plunked them on a cookie sheet.

‘Forget about the cookies, what’s this about a curse?’ Mom asked.

Millie waved her hand in the air dismissively, keeping her back to us as she continued dropping cookie dough onto the sheets.‘Oh, just some old curse where Jedediah claimed he was coming back at the town’s 250th to deal with anyone who dared plunder his treasure.’

‘Treasure?’ Moms eyes lit up like a slot machine on tilt. ‘I never heard anything about a treasure.’

Millie opened the oven and shoved the cookie sheets in.‘My grandmother told me about it when I was a little girl. Apparently, it was told to her grandfather when they bought the place. But there’s no treasure. Jedediah was sailing to the West Indies and figured he’d come back with treasure, but he never made it back to the country.’

‘Why not?’ Mike asked.

Millie shrugged.‘How should I know? Died over there. Plague or something.’

‘So why have a curse then?’ I asked.

‘Sounds like he was overly dramatic. Probably setting the stage, getting everyone scared for when he did bring back the treasure so no one dared mess with it. You know how superstitious people were back then.’ Millie put the dirty dishes in the sink and started running the water.

Merooo!

The cat’s hollow cry came from deep inside the mansion. It was kind of eerie and reminded me of the way they’d sounded the morning we’d found Charles Prescott’s body. Must be a strange echo coming from that room…

‘But there could still be a treasure,’ Mom said hopefully. I could already tell she was dreaming of treasure maps and x-marks-the-spot. Probably already planning her trip to Ace Hardware to buy a shovel.

Millie turned around, her hands on her hips.‘Really, Rose. If there were a treasure don’t you think someone would have found it by now?’

Mom looked disappointed.‘I suppose.’

Mereech!

This time everyone looked in the direction of the cry.

‘Is that Marlowe?’ Millie cocked her head to the side. ‘I hope she’s not hurt.’

‘I’ll go see,’ Mike said.

‘Me too.’ If something was going on in the guesthouse, I certainly didn’t want Mike one-upping me like he’d tried to do with the Prescott investigation.

I followed Mike into the hall to the sounds of another loud cry from the cats.

‘Sounds like it’s coming from the West wing near where we found Charles Prescott,’ Mike said.

‘Lucky thing there can’t be another dead body in there now, no one else is in the guesthouse.’ I didn’t feel as confident about that as I sounded.

Mike scowled as he tried to open the door that separated the main house from the West wing.‘It’s locked. That’s good. You’re supposed to keep it shut, especially if you have new guests in here.’

Okay, now I remembered why I had hired Ed in his place. Mike was kind of bossy. I didn’t need that. ‘Yeah, I know. You sound like Barbara.’

I ducked into the pantry and retrieved the ring with the spare sets of keys to unlock the various doors that didn’t go to the guests’ rooms. I kept the keys to the guest room in a more secure place.

Meroow!

Mike frowned at the keys jangling in my hand.‘Are those keys easily accessible to anyone?’

I paused before opening the door, my annoyance with Mike overshadowing my worry about the cats.‘What’s it to you?’

He smiled, a twinkle in his eye that I did not like.‘Oh, it’s very important to me.

What was that supposed to mean?

Meoooo!

‘That sounds bad,’ Mike’s face creased with worry. ‘We better get in there.’

I pushed the door open, my stomach tightening as I glanced over at the stairs. No dead body. I felt silly. Of course, there wouldn’t be.

Meroop.

The sound came from the next room.

‘I think they’re over here.’ Mike headed toward the sound. I gave one last glance at the place where Charles had been found. Ed had been starting to work on this part of the guesthouse and the fallen banister and wooden debris had been cleaned up. There was no sign that a man had died there just over a week ago. Good, I was glad to put that whole incident behind me.

Meroeeow!

Never mind that the cats’ cries sounded eerily similar to the tone and insistency they’d had when they’d alerted me to Charles’ body. I was more worried about what Mike had just said. Why would anything at the Guesthouse be important to him? If he thought he was going to make it a habit to pop over all the time I’d have to set him straight.

I followed him to the room. Millie had said that it had once been a small ballroom. Remnants of black and white marble tile dotted the floor, water-stained floral wallpaper peeled from the walls, and the ceiling still had chunks of plaster medallions that once surrounded grand chandeliers. I wasn’t going to restore it to a ballroom, as there was little interest in balls these days. My plan was to make it into a game room. Judging by the clouds of dust in the air, the cobwebs in the corners and the smell of decades’ old dry wood, that was going to take a lot of work.

Mew!

Nero and Marlowe were at the far wall. Thankfully they seemed unharmed and I wondered if all the incessant meowing was simply because they were admiring themselves in the few shards left of the wall-length mirror that still clung to the wall. Right now it reflected the dilapidated room, but I imagined guests in ball gowns and elbow length gloves waltzing around on the dance floor, their images reflected in the gigantic mirror, making the room look twice as large and the crowd twice as big.

‘This place is in bad shape.’ Mike stood in the middle of the room surveying its entirety. I doubted he was picturing ballroom dancers. He might have been picturing a ball, but it was probably more like a wrecking ball.

Meow! Nero’s cry was insistent, as if we weren’t paying enough attention.

‘It looks like they’re fine,’ I said. Though I didn’t like the way Marlowe was scratching at the wall and then looking back at me. It was almost the same way she’d looked back at me when we’d discovered Charles. But that was crazy, there was clearly no dead body in this room.

‘You’ll need to make sure you shore up these joists before you do any work here. This room is big and that’s a load bearing wall over there. You’ll want to submit plans and get the proper inspections before you mess around with it,’ Mike said.

Now he was really starting to bug me.‘I think I can handle it and Ed knows what he’s doing. Besides the renovations here aren’t your business anymore and I sincerely doubt you’ll be coming around much anyway, right?’ Maybe I sounded a little too hopeful with that last part because Mike’s eyes darkened with disappointment for a second before returning to their devilish twinkle.

‘Sorry, Sunshine, that’s where you’re wrong.’

Somehow those six little words were more disturbing than the prospect of the cats finding another dead body inside the guesthouse.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked cautiously.

Mike’s smile widened. ‘Haven’t you heard? What goes on here is going to be very much my business from here on out. I’m taking over as building inspector, at least until they find someone else to take Barbara’s place. So, you see, I’ll be coming around here a lot more –especially considering all the work you have going on and the decrepit state of this part of the mansion. Why, you might even see me more than you did when I worked here.’

Nero’s despairing cry echoed my thoughts. I gaped at Mike, remembering how Barbara would just waltz in unannounced all the time. Was he planning to do the same?

But Mike was no longer paying attention to me. He was over near the cats, bent down petting them. They butted their furry heads against his hand and purred. Clearlythey wouldn’t mind him coming around all the time. Traitors.

‘What have you got here?’ Mike bent closer to the wall where the cats had been pawing and scratching. He poked at it with his finger, sniffed, then looked up at me. ‘Looks like you might have a problem with rot here, maybe even mold.’

Perfect.‘I’m sure Ed will address it when he gets to this part. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we follow proper inspection procedures.’

Meow!Nero clawed at the wall.

Meroo!Marlowe butted his head against it.

‘Yes, I heard him, Marlowe. The wall needs attention. Don’t worry I’ll see to it that everything gets fixed properly.’ I didn’t relish the idea of Mike hanging around inspecting all the renovations, but I was glad that the cats weren’t hurt and all they were crying about was some rottedboards. After all, I’d dealt with a dead body here at the guesthouse, how hard could it be to tackle a little bit of rot and mold?

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Nero rolled his eyes and scratched at the wall again. Josie just wasn’t getting it. And here he’d thought she was starting to clue in to their attempts at communication.

‘I don’t think she’s on the same page as us,’ Marlowe purred as Mike scratched the top of her head.

‘No kidding. She’s no Millie, that’s for sure.’ Nero’s whiskers twitched and he held back a sneeze. The moldy smell emitting from the wall was ten times stronger than it was to the humans due to his highly developed senses. And, he was incredibly allergic to mold. But the mold and rot weren’t the only scents coming from the wall, not that Josie was noticing. She was too busy pretending not to act nonchalant around Mike.

‘Ahh Millie. I wish she hadn’t left the guesthouse to us. It’s such a huge responsibility.’ Marlowe licked his paw and pushed it behind her ear. ‘But at least we redeemed ourselves for not preventing Charles Prescott’s murder.’ Marlowe glanced at Nero out of the corner of her eye hopefully.

‘Indeed. I do think we did. We led Josie to many of the clues and if not for our fancy footwork Barbara might not have been safely dispatched into the cellar where she could do no harm.’

‘Not that we got a lot of credit for either of those things.’ Marlowe stretched against the wall, running her front claws down it, creating an annoying sound.

‘Ahh, but that is for the best. Their fragile egos couldn’t take it if they knew most of the detecting was done by us and our feline friends.’ Nero glanced up at Josie. She wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to them or to the wall or the scratches Marlowe had just made in the remnantsof wallpaper left on it. She was busy scowling at Mike. Judging by the snatches of conversation, they were arguing about how often Mike, as the building inspector, could come by unannounced. Nero didn’t see what the problem was. Mike gave good belly rubs and always treated the cats kindly. Maybe Josie should let him give her a belly rub and she’d be more accommodating to his visits?

‘I suppose you are right. They are a strange breed, but we need to keep them happy, otherwise who will buy the treats and gravy-laden cat food from the store for us?’ Marlowe said.

‘Exactly. Make them think they are the brains of the operation.’ Nero smiled at the younger cat. She was coming along splendidly and Nero was pleased with the way she’d caught on to some of the clues in the investigation. It would be a long time before she was as good as Nero himself was, butshe was showing promise. At least Marlowe was trainable. Josie on the other hand… well, Nero was a little worried about whether or not she would ever come up to speed.

The two humans left the room, still arguing, and Nero waited a few beats so they wouldn’t think he was trotting after them obediently or anything – that type of behavior was for dogs.

‘Well, we’ve done our best to alert Josie,’ Nero said after he heard the lock on the door click shut. It didn’t bother him that they were locked into the West wing. He knew dozens of secret exits and entrances into many of the rooms in the mansion. ‘Let’s go see if Millie is still in the kitchen and try to finagle some of those bacon-flavored cat treats while we contemplate how to better communicate with our resident human.’

‘Good idea,’ Marlowe trotted along after him. ‘But I hope Josie starts catching on a little quicker, because if she doesn’t, she may be in for a big surprise when Ed really gets going on that room renovation.’

2. A WHISKER IN THE DARK

One

I’m fairly certain that having a guest die before breakfast is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Even so, I was feeling a bit nervous as the guests at my newly acquired Oyster Cove Guesthouse dug in. Never mind that the memory of how a previous breakfast had been spoiled in a most alarming manner was still fresh in my mind, the reason I was nervous aboutthis breakfast was that I was trying out a new pumpkin-bread recipe on my guests and, seeing as my culinary skills were meager at best, I was worried they might not like it.

My worries were not unfounded. Though the guests had filled their plates, the brown loaf sat on the antique mahogany serving table, alone and uncut, shoved to the side like an overweight schoolboy on the playground. It was probably because of the dark edges. Admittedly, I’d left it in the oven a bit too long. Who knew that baking had to be that precise? But it was important I get this right. Millie Sullivan, my mother’s best friend and the guesthouse’s previous owner, had stressed the fact that having a winning loaf cake to serve at the town’s 250-year celebration would be vital to the future of the guesthouse. And, since all my retirement savings were tied up in the purchase of the place, I very much wanted it to have a good future.

I eyed the room with satisfaction. It was the lavish dining room of the grand old mansion that was now a bed and breakfast, boasting a twelve-foot ceiling, ornate green-and-gold wallpaper and a gigantic green oriental rug. Ten-foot-tall Palladian windows with a coveted view of the sparkling Atlantic Ocean ringed the far wall. They were open, causing the sheers lining the inside of the gold-and-green silk drapes to flutter from a cooling, salty sea breeze.

On the buffet, eggs steamed in a warming tray, toast glistened with melted butter, bacon practically sizzled on its platter and pancakes dripped with maple syrup. But, more importantly, all the guests were accounted for, so there would be no chance of discovering that one of them had met their maker in a most unsavory manner inside my establishment. It wasn’t so much the welfare of the guests themselves I was worried about, more that I didn’t want to get a reputation for being a place where people only checked out in a body bag.

It was a positive sign that the two resident cats, Nero and Marlowe, weren’t wailing like they’d done a few weeks ago to announce said dead body. In fact, it was relatively quiet, the only sounds the faint cry of gulls drifting in through the window and the far-off sounds of hammering from my carpenter, Ed O’Hara, as he worked to renovate one of the dilapidated sections of the mansion.

I had nothing to worry about other than that no one seemed to want my pumpkin bread. Unless it was the concern that a brawl might break out amongst the guests. I should have known it could be troublesome to rent all the rooms to one peculiar family—especially one that was in business together. Making cheese sculptures. Yes, you heard me. The Biddefords had a cheese-sculpture business. You’d wonder how that would sustain a whole family, but apparently cheese sculptures were quite popular for parties. I mean, who didn’t want a swan carved from a block of Swiss or a rendition of Michelangelo’s David chiseled from Muenster on their dining table?

I hadn’t known they were peculiar when they checked in. I thought it was kind of cute that the descendants of the shipping magnate who had built the mansion wanted to stay in it for the town’s 250-year celebration. Jedediah Biddeford had been an important figure in town back then, and even though ownership of the mansion had passed out of the Biddeford family a couple hundred years ago, I guess they still felt a kinship with it.

How was I supposed to know that every member of the family seemed to have a grudge against the next? From what I could gather—not that I was eavesdropping or anything but sometimes one overhears things by accident—their animosity was a combination of sibling rivalry and jockeying for position in the company. It was all nice-nice on the surface, but I could feel the tensions boiling underneath.

The family had requested that I push the individual tables for four that dotted the antique room together to form one long table. Seemed like a good idea to me since there were no guests other than Biddefords. So there they sat, plates loaded with the sumptuous breakfast for which the guesthouse was known. All homemade, of course, except the pancakes. I confess I made those from a mix.

Doris Biddeford, the matriarch, sat at the head, a look of disapproval on her face as she surveyed her children. She had to be eighty if she was a day. The“children” were in their fifties and I couldn’t really say I blamed Doris for scowling. Her kids left a bit to be desired.

Doris’s critical gaze zoned in on one of her daughters, Paula. Paula was in her mid-fifties but had the look of someone who’d had more than their share of late nights. Not surprising though—I could tell Paula liked to imbibe. In fact, as I watched, she retrieved a little nip bottle out of her purse and dumped the entire contents into her coffee.

Seated across from Paula was her brother Earl, who, along with his wife Arlene, were precisely the opposite of Paula. Fastidiously groomed, they both wore expensive clothes, and Arlene’s hair was perfectly coiffed, her fingers glittered with bejeweled rings. Their expressions echoed the mother’s disapproval.

“Honestly, Paula, can’t you get through one day without the help of Mr. Jack Daniel?” Earl asked.

“Shows how much you know, that wasn’t Jack Daniel’s, it was Baileys Irish Cream. I would never mix Jack with coffee.” Paula hiccupped and practically fell off her chair.

Doris rolled her eyes and shook her head.“Earl’s right, you need to straighten up. No wonder the business is going down the crapper.”

Earl turned to his mother.“Mom, it is not going down thecrapper.” He glanced back at me as if he was thinking they shouldn’t be airing their dirty laundry in front of the innkeeper. It would have been prudent to quietly fade into the hallway so as not to witness the family argument that appeared to be brewing, but I was nosey. Besides, I liked to know who was arguing with whom under my roof, just to keep an eye out for any trouble.

“Might as well be, with all you shady characters running it,” added Bob, the other son, who I’d determined was the black sheep of the family. Unlike Earl, who dressed to the nines in designer clothing and Italian leather footwear, Bob was wearing a navy-blue hoodie, jeans and sneakers with the laces undone. He was probably in his late forties and had salt-and-pepper hair that swooped over his forehead in a comb-over. I don’t know if he was just a sloppy dresser or trying to look younger, but his clothing choices did nothing for him. It was no surprise, given the way he dressed, that Bob didn’t appear to have a significant other.

Carla, the other sister, gave Bob a raised brow.“Like you should talk. You’re the one who has a suspicious past.”

I could tell Carla was the most normal one of the bunch. But that wasn’t saying much. She was also the most annoying, insisting on using her navy-blue Yale coffee mug for breakfast, as if she had to show off her pedigree. I mean, she was in her mid-forties and college was a long time ago. I figured she probably handled the legal aspects of the business. Her husband, Henry, sat quietly beside her as always. I got the impression that Henry only spoke when Carla gave him the okay.

“I do not. That’s Paula,” Bob said.

Paula took offense.“I don’t have a suspiciouspassht. Mypassht is wide open. You should be looking at Arlene when talking about a suspiciouspassht.” She eyed her sister-in-law. I didn’t like the way Arlene was clutching her knife as she glared back at Paula.

“Children!” Doris tapped her spoon on her glass. “Quiet! Can’t we all just get along for one week?”

Silence ensued while they all got busy with their food. Arlene primly rearranged the napkin in her lap while still managing to shoot daggers at Paula. Even Ed’s hammering had stopped, which was kind of weird. Maybe he was taking a break. I should see if he wanted some breakfast.

Carla broke the silence.“Did you take the last pancake?” She jerked her head toward Bob’s plate.

Bob shoved a maple-syrup-soaked piece of pancake into his mouth and gestured toward the buffet and its empty silver pancake platter.“No one’s name was on it. Maybe you should fill your plate once instead of taking little bits and going up four times.”

Carla folded her arms across her chest.“I was going up for seconds. You always take the last pancake. It’s not fair.” She turned to her mother. “Right?”

Doris rolled her eyes again.

Merow!

“What was that?” Bob made a show of looking around the room, probably hoping to change the subject. “Is that one of those adorable cats you have here?”

Adorable? I supposed they were sort of cute when they weren’t pushing things off the counter or ripping the toilet paper off the roll… or finding dead bodies.

“Yes.” I glanced at the door to the hallway. The meow sounded far away, like it had come from the closed off west wing where Ed’s hammering had been. It also sounded eerily like the meows they’d made a few weeks ago when they were trying to alert us that a guest was dead in that very same wing. I glanced around the table. Nope, all guests accounted for, thankfully.

“Don’t try to change the subject.” Carla stabbed her fork into a piece of pancake on Bob’s plate.

“Hey!” Bob took his knife and tried to knock the pancake off Carla’s fork.

You’d think they were ten years old and not grown adults with children of their own. Thankfully they hadn’t brought any of them. I could only imagine whatthose kids were like.

Meoooo!This one was louder and more insistent.

Doris frowned and craned her neck to look out into the hallway from where the meows were emitting.

“I hate when he takes the last pancake,” Paula slurred and listed in her chair.

“Taking the last pancake is nothing compared to some of the things I’ve seen you people do,” Bob said.

Merow!Even louder.

I strained to hear. Was that Ed hammering again? It sounded like he was using the sledgehammer on something, but at least that indicated he was alive. Of course, it was silly of me to assume that every time the cats yowled like that there would be a dead body. But still…

Earl leaned forward, getting into Bob’s face. He was blissfully oblivious to the potential hidden meaning of the caterwauling. “What are you talking about?”

Bob shoved another piece of pancake in.“I think you know.”

Meroogh!

“What is with those cats?” Doris asked, ignoring the ridiculous pancake argument.

“I’m not sure. They might be hungry.” Yeah, that was probably it. Even though it sounded like they were in the west wing, they were probably near their food bowls in the kitchen. Sound tended to get distorted and carry from strange places in this old house. I started in that direction when….

Crash!

That came from the west wing.

Mewooo!

Mewargh!

“Josie!” Ed’s voice, loud but shaky, echoed through the house. “You’d better come see this.”

Two

“You stay here and enjoy your breakfast. I’m sure it’s nothing. Ed tends to get overly excited,” I reassured my guests, who were all staring at me.

I dashed off toward the west wing. Judging by the thunder of footsteps behind me, they didn’t stay put as I’d suggested. Darn it! The last thing I needed was some sort of disaster to make them want to check out of the guesthouse early with an unpaid bill. My mind reeled. What could it be? Was it the mold? I’d been told one of the walls was rotting and likely had mold inside. That might put guests off, even though I was fixing it. Maybe it was something else. Ed could have been hurt. Or the cats. Though judging by their meows no damage had been done to their vocal cords.

I really didn’t want the Biddefords to follow me, but they seemed determined. And besides, I would just have to go back in the dining room and explain whatever it was that Ed was yelling about to them anyway. I forged ahead full speed with the whole family on my heels. As I reached the door I glanced over my shoulder. Doris was right behind me. Who knew the old girl could run so fast?

Of course, the door to the west wing was locked, just as I’d been instructed by our new building inspector to do, so I had to detour into the kitchen and grab the key out of the drawer. When I came back, I had to clear the Biddefords away from the door to open it. Doris had been bent down peeking through the keyhole.

I unlocked the door, and it swung open. My gaze went immediately to the stairway on the right. That’s where the body had been just a few weeks ago. Today, though, there was only some dust. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Merooo!Nero ran over to me and then trotted back to the doorway that led to the room where Ed was. He stopped and looked over his shoulder as if waiting for me to follow. All sounds of hammering and sawing had stopped.

“Ed, are you okay?” I yelled. Ed was elderly, maybe he’d had a heart attack or something.

“I’m fine but I don’t think this guy is…”

This guy? I steeled myself as I entered the other room.

The room Ed was working in had been a ballroom at one time. It wasn’t gigantic but it wasn’t tiny either. It was in quite a state of disrepair; water-stained ceiling, wallpaper coming off in strips. Remnants of the original black-and-white marble-tile flooring were chipped and cracked, and most of the windows were boarded up. I was planning on turning it into a game room. Ed had been replacing the old plaster walls first since we already knew there was water damage.

He was standing in front of the worst damaged section of the wall. He’d made good progress and a large section of the old horsehair plaster had been removed to reveal the inside of the wall. The demolition had created a dusty pile of rubble, and I could see the slats inside the wall. Too bad I could also see something else. A skeleton.

A human skeleton.

“Talk about skeletons in your closet.” Bob came up beside me and leaned forward to peer at the bones.

Human bones didn’t faze me in the least. I’d been in the middle of training as a medical examiner before giving up my career to raise a family. I immediately took note of the appearance of the bones. They looked dry, brittle. No tendons or flesh stuck to them. The skeleton had been in there for a long time. What was it doing inside the wall? Had it been buried in the wall when the place was built or put in sometime later? And why had no one noticed? Seems like a dead body would have smelled, unless already a skeleton when it was shoved in there.

Paula dug a nip out of her purse and I recognized the black-and-white label of Jack Daniel’s. Guess discovering a skeleton called for the hard stuff.

“This calls for a drink!” She downed it in one quick swig to the disapproving glare of her siblings.

Doris didn’t admonish Paula. She was busy staring at the skeleton. Her face was pinched, her eyes narrowed. She swayed a bit and I was worried she might faint, but it turned out she was just trying to get a closer look. Before I knew it, she was crouched down beside the skeleton, lifting up its hand. It was wearing a ring—gold with an oval carnelian signet.

“Lordy! It’s Jedediah Biddeford! He’s come back to enact the curse just like he said he would!” Doris dropped the hand and the bones clattered as she shot up to a standing position.

Ed raised his brows at me.

The cats sniffed the ring.

“Wait a minute? What curse?” Arlene’s gaze shifted between Doris, Earl and the skeleton.

“You didn’t tell her about the curse?” Doris shot a look at Earl.

Earl shrugged.“It’s just a stupid old wives’ tale.”

Carla gestured toward the skeleton.“Apparently not. I mean heis here.”

Earl scowled.“He is nothere. That’s just a skeleton. It’s not like it’s his ghost or anything.” He turned to his wife. “There’s an old family legend about an ancestor who will come back and haunt anyone who digs up his treasure.”

Carla frowned.“Hey, wait. Does that mean someone dug up treasure?”

Doris’s dark eyes scanned the faces of her children. “Well, did anyone?”

They shook their heads.

“I doubt there is an actual treasure…” Bob said slowly. He looked distracted, as if he was wondering if there really was a treasure and, if so, where it might be.

“We don’t even know that this is Jedediah,” I said. I’d heard about the curse from Millie. Millie’s family had bought the guesthouse from Jedediah’s family back in the day. Apparently old Jedediah Biddeford had issued some curse meant to warn anyone away from the treasure he was planning on bringing back from Europe. He claimed he’d come back and haunt whoever messed with his treasure.

“That’s his ring.” Doris pointed toward the hand. “I saw an old picture of it once. My granddaddy said Jed always wore it. Never took it off.”

“But Jedediah never came back from Europe. So that can’t possibly be him in there.” At least that’s what I’d been told.

Doris looked at me like I had five heads.“Don’t you know? He always said he’d return. And this is the form he’s taken. And if he’s back you know what that means?” She looked around at her kids like a lady who was sure she had the winning lottery ticket. “The treasure came back too.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Paula had dug out another nip. She raised the Jack Daniel’s in the air then threw her head back and chugged it down.

Ed scowled at Doris.“Lady. This isn’t a ghost. This is a skeleton. He hasn’t come back.” Ed poked at the femur bone with a long old-fashioned oak folding ruler. “This guy’s been in here for a couple hundred years.”

“What the—”

I turned to see the guesthouse maid, Flora, in the doorway. Flora had sort of come with the place. Millie had assured me she did a great job. At what, I had no idea because for most of the tasks I gave her, she simply claimed she didn’t “do” that sort of work. I did see her dusting sometimes, but mostly she could be found watching the new TV in the parlor. She must have been on a commercial break and come to check out the ruckus.

Flora was a tiny thing with a shock of white hair and round glasses that made her eyes look gigantic. I had no idea how old Flora was but if I had to guess I’d say she was about as old as the guesthouse itself. Probably knew Jedediah Biddeford personally.

She narrowed her gaze at the skeleton.“What’s that?”

“Jedediah Biddeford,” Doris said.

Flora’s brows shot up. “You mean the guy who buried the treasure? He really did come back from Europe?”

Great. Even Flora believed in the curse. That’s all I needed, a bunch of treasure hunters digging up the place.

Doris nodded.“Yep.”

“I doubt it’s him,” Ed reiterated.

“Did he really bury treasure?” Henry seemed interested in something for the first time since he’d arrived.

“Doubt it.” Earl didn’t sound convinced.

“Stranger things have happened.” Paula leaned against the wall, probably to keep from falling down.

“It’s nonsense,” Ed said, waving his hand dismissively. “Old rumors probably got all misconstrued over the years. I’d be more concerned about how the guy got here. Someone stuffed him in and closed up the wall. That’s no curse. That’s murder.”

The room fell silent as we all let Ed’s words sink in.

Flora broke the silence.“I don’t know who he is, if he buried treasure or who put him in there, but I do know that I’m not cleaning this mess up. I don’t do skeletons.” She gave me a pointed look and then turned and shuffled off toward the hallway.

Ed had a point. Whoever the skeleton was, he didn’t get into that wall on his own. And while I didn’t believe in curses and I was darn sure there was no treasure buried at the guesthouse, I did know one thing. This discovery was a police matter.

I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed the sheriff.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero sat off to the side, preening his sleek black fur as he watched the humans inspect the skeleton. Of course, he and Marlowe had known the skeleton was in the wall for quite some time now, but Josie hadn’t heeded the many warnings they’d given her.

“If only she’d listened to us two weeks ago when we were trying to alert her by scratching on the wallpaper. Then she wouldn’t have made the guests aware of this gruesome discovery.” Marlowe’s mottled black-and-ginger tail swished on the floor, clearing away a swath of dust.

“Indeed. Her communication skills are not progressing as quickly as they should.”

Nero glanced at Josie. They’d inherited the tall redhead when Millie had put them in charge of the guesthouse. Oh sure, it was all disguised as a sale of the property and Millie had told Josie she couldn’t have cats at the senior housing where she was moving and that their continued presence at the guesthouse was a condition of the sale.

But Nero knew the truth. Millie was getting on in years and wanted to enjoy life free from the responsibility of running a business. She still loved her precious Oyster Cove Guesthouse and had left the most trustworthy being on the planet in charge—Nero. Of course, Marlowe thought that she was also in charge, but Nero knew the responsibility lay mostly with him. Marlowe was, after all, Nero’s prot?g? and therefore a subordinate. Lord knew Marlowe had a lot to learn, not the least of which was how to investigate a murder properly. At the rate the younger cat was progressing, Nero feared it might be two lifetimes before she came up to speed.

Still, it didn’t hurt to let Marlowe think she was more important than she was and on equal footing in guesthouse responsibilities. Sometimes one had to let others think things were one way, even when you knew the real truth. Like the fact that Josie thought she was in control of the guesthouse simply because Millie had sold her the property, for example. Silly humans.

Though much superior, Nero had to admit cats couldn’t do everything that humans could, so naturally they needed Josie as a frontwoman to run things. Nero also had no desire to concern himself with the more mundane tasks of cooking, laundry, accounting and the like. That’s what humans were for.

Unfortunately, Josie had proven to be a slow learner. She didn’t listen to them like Millie did. And that’s why she had misunderstood their previous communication about what was inside the wall, thinking it was merely mold or dry rot. Oh well, she would learn eventually. He hoped.

Marlowe grimaced as the old lady, Doris Biddeford, picked up the skeleton’s hand and let it fall back. “That’s tampering with a crime scene.”

Nero smiled. As the older and wiser cat, he’d been training Marlowe in the ways of a cat detective. Because that’s what they were, not merely stewards of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, but also detectives of the feline variety who helped humans solve their cases. The humans had no inkling of their help, of course. It was quite a trick to point them toward clues and reveal suspects, all the while making them think it was their idea.

“It is of little matter. There will not be much to investigate here,” Nero said.

Marlowe jerked her gaze toward the skeleton, her face scrunched in disappointment.“What do you mean? There’s a body inside the wall. That guy didn’t get there on his own, just like Ed said.”

“That much is true, but this death doesn’t warrant a feline investigation. It doesn’t take a forensic anthropologist to see the skeleton has been in there for centuries.” Nero jerked his head toward the skeleton. “I mean look at it, it’s all dried out and smells of old hatred and long-buried criminal intent.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Nero nodded sagely. He usually was right, at least when it came to matters of murder.“What would there be to investigate? The killer is long dead. No suspects to follow or clues to unearth.”

“Wouldn’t be much fun, I guess.” Marlowe’s disappointment was palpable. Good girl. At least someone here was progressing nicely. Marlowe had made great strides during the last investigation and now wanted to try her hand at another, and that was a good sign. But just notthis investigation because there was simply nothing to explore.

Nero loved nothing more than to sink his claws into a juicy murder, but this death was about as interesting as a week-old can of sardines.“Besides, much of the satisfaction is bringing the killer to justice and this killer is long gone already.”

Marlowe yawned and stretched out her front paws.“I just wish there wassomething for us to investigate.”

Nero didn’t want to get Marlowe’s hopes up, but if his seventh sense was as good as it usually was, therewas something going on inside the guesthouse that may need investigation soon. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he’d sensed little undercurrents, sneaky nefarious vibrations. Unfortunately, very soon, Marlowe might get her wish.

“Odd, none of the guests seem disturbed by this discovery.” Nero studied their faces and posture. He could tell they were interested in the skeleton but not in a who-killed-my-ancestor kind of way. He could also tell that they were all trying to conceal their interest from each other.

“They seem more excited than anything,” Marlowe said.

“They are an odd bunch. Don’t seem to like each other much.”

Marlowe’s green eyes narrowed to luminescent slits. “No. And I think they have secrets.”

Nero’s whiskers twitched. So Marlowehadnoticed the whispers and secret meetings. Good for her.

“I’m not sure any of them can be trusted,” Nero warned. “Though their business sounds delightful. All that cheese.”

“Odd business, isn’t it? Cheese sculptures? Wouldn’t think there would be a big call for it among humans.”

“Maybe that’s why they are not doing well.” Nero sniffed the air. His keen olfactory senses had been flooded with the scents of Brie and cheddar since the new guests had arrived. It was enough to drive a cat mad. “Though I think their business not doing well is due more to infighting.”

“You’ll get no argument from me there. I don’t know how Josie stands it with them constantly snapping at each other,” Marlowe said.

“I think Josie is just happy to have paying guests. At least that’s how I’d look at it,” Nero said. “She’s practical and that’s a good way to be. Now if only we could get her to actually pay attention to us.”

“Do you think we’ve been too soft on her?”

Nero thought about it for a second. There was a fine line between creating a bond with your human and spoiling them to the point where they thought they were in control.“I’ve been taking her seat every night in the chair she loves to sit in in the parlor. You know, the overstuffed comfy one that shows off the black hairs I shed?”

“Yeah, and I’ve been lying on her keyboard when she wants to type, then sticking my tail in her face when she tries to move me.”

“And we’ve been going into the dining room when the guests are in there eating, just like she asked us not to.” Nero glanced up at Josie. She did seem to be taking command of the situation. At least she wasn’t swooning or acting all weirded out about the skeleton. “Maybe we are expecting progress too quickly. I mean, she did finally get our drift about the murder a few weeks ago.”

“Yes, that is something at least.” Marlowe threaded her way through Doris Biddeford’s ankles. “Do you think there really is treasure out there somewhere?”

Nero’s whiskers twitched at the mention of treasure. Oh, how fun that would be. His claws itched to grab onto some dirt and really dig. But if there had been treasure on the grounds, surely his superior senses would have alerted him long ago. “Doubtful. Though by the looks of the humans, they mightbelieve in such a thing.”

Marlowe finished her route around the humans’ ankles and trotted back to where Nero was under the window. “Come on, let’s go claw some dirt out of those plants in the conservatory. Millie brought them even though Josie hasn’t had Ed finish the room yet and no one will even notice we’ve been near them. I’m in the mood for digging.”

“Perfect. Josie won’t like that at all.” Nero stood and stretched.

“Yes, one more way to show her she doesn’t own us.”

“Good thinking.” Josie had made the mistake of saying that once and it really stuck in Nero’s craw. Apparently, Marlowe felt the same.

“I just hope Josie doesn’t withhold treats once she discovers the mess,” Marlowe said as she led the way out.

Nero paused at the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the Biddefords, who were talking animatedly while Josie called the cops on her cell phone.“Me either. But somehow I have the feeling a little dirt and an old skeleton are going to be the least of Josie’s problems.”

Three

“Who says he never made it to Europe? Maybe this happened when he got back from Europe,” Mom whispered to Millie and me in the hall after the sheriff, Seth, had kicked us out of the room.

Millie nodded.“Good point, Rose. But either way, whoever did it is long gone. Still, maybe we could do some research and come up with a list of possible suspects.”

“Might not be very much fun though if we can’t confront the culprit and see him arrested,” Mom said as she and Millie slowed to a crawl. Apparently, they couldn’t walk fast while their minds were full of the possibility of a new investigation.

I sped ahead and continued down the hallway. The Biddefords had all disappeared and I felt it was my duty to make sure they weren’t shaken by these new events. Whoever was in the wall was likely a relative… or had been murdered by one.

I heard a murmur of conversation from the dining room and headed in that direction. The Biddefords were there, but they weren’t sitting in shocked silence contemplating their lost ancestor as I’d imagined. They were scarfing up the remains of the breakfast. There were no sniffles, or muted grieving tones. The room was abuzz with excitement.

“I’ll tell you exactly what this means,” Doris said. “This means that Jedediah really did bury that treasure.”

“I thought the curse was that he would come back to enact some revenge on anyone who messed with his treasure. Doesn’t seem like he came back to me. Looks like he’d been there the whole time.” Paula strolled along the server looking at what was left of breakfast. She stopped in front of thepumpkin bread and my heart leapt. Would she cut a piece? I wondered if the excessive drinking had dulled her pallet. Then again, that might be a good thing if she was going to eat my pumpkin bread.

Doris pinched off a piece of bacon and fed it to Nero, who was skulking around under the table. Darn cat, I’d told him not to go in the dining room when guests were eating. They never listened. I was sure Marlowe wasn’t far behind either. Yep, her tail was sticking out from under Earl’s chair.

“Nonsense! You know how those old curses are, they get all mixed up because they’re handed down generation to generation. It’s like that game where you whisper in each other’s ears and by the time it gets to the end, it’s not even close to what it was when it started. The specifics of thecurse might have been different too. But there’s one thing for sure. He did come back—seeing as his skeleton was found in the wall,” Doris said.

Her children looked at her with a mixture of doubt and greed in their eyes.

Paula picked up a knife, her hand hovering over the loaf. I held my breath.

“Did anyone try a piece of this?” Paula bent down and sniffed. She eyed the loaf as if it were trying to trick her, then put the knife down.

No one answered her.

“Maybe I’ll just have some more eggs.” She scooped some onto a plate and returned to her seat.

“But now what does it mean? If he came back doesn’t that mean someone took his treasure? And how, exactly, will he get revenge?” Arlene asked.

“Maybe the opening of the wall has released his ghost,” Henry answered, eyes scanning the edges of the room, no doubt looking for Jed’s spirit. Would tourists want to stay in a haunted guesthouse or was that off-putting to most? Hopefully this would all be cleared up before word got out and Ihad to find out firsthand if having a ghost would be bad for business.

Mom and Millie had come in behind me, but the Biddefords were too engrossed in their conversation to notice us.

“If someone did take his treasure, that person is long dead, so good luck to old Jed for getting his revenge.” Earl popped a grape into his mouth.

“How do you know he even made it to Europe?” Arlene asked.

“He must have, because I remember seeing family letters he sent from overseas.” Bob poured a cup of coffee and slurped.

“But what about those rumors that he never came back? Wouldn’t people have noticed that he did?” Carla asked.

“I know!” Doris fed a scrap of bacon to Marlowe this time. “I bet you he kept it a secret because he had the treasure. He didn’t want anyone to know he was back because he wanted time to bury it.”

“But then someone came in and bashed him over the head and buriedhim in the wall!” Bob sounded almost gleeful.

“Yeah, but the question is, did he bury the treasure first or did the killer get it?” Paula asked.

Her question was met with silence as they contemplated this.

“I bet he buried it first. If he hadn’t buried it, then surely the family records would have shown someone spending a lot of money.” Earl turned to Doris. “There weren’t any rumors about a big influx of money back during that time, were there?”

Doris pressed her lips together.“Well that was a bit before my time, but I don’t remember anything about sudden wealth. If someone found it, they could have doled it out a little bit at a time. The family originally had a lot of money from Jed’s spice import business, but since future generations had to sell off the house, I’m gonna assume there was no treasure chest of riches found.”

Paula’s eyes lit up. “It could still be buried here.”

“Yeah, but where?” Bob glanced out the window.

“Maybe he didn’t bury it, maybe he hid it in the house somewhere?” Henry said.

Doris scowled at him as if he were dense.“I hope not. Most of the original structure from Jed’s time—aside from that one ballroom wall where he has been found—has been torn down and renovated. I remember my grandfather showing me that the only part that hadn’t been touched from the old house was that wall where Jed’s skeleton was. And there was no treasure in the wall with him, so if it was hidden somewhere else in the house someone would have found it by now.”

“Mom’s right,” Earl said. “Besides, I think I remember the curse having something to do with haunting anyone whodug upthe treasure—he must have intended to bury it. Our best bet is to look on the grounds.”

“So my question still stands,where on the grounds?” Bob said.

“I wonder if he left a map?” Arlene asked.

Earl put his arm around her.“That’s a good question, honey. You’re always thinking. Where would he have left it?”

“Hopefully not hidden in the house otherwise that’s gone too,” Doris said.

“Maybe he had it on him?” Paula suggested.

“In the wall?” Earl glanced toward the hallway. “We should go look.”

“Can’t,” Doris said. “The police are in there now. Besides, I looked in there pretty good and didn’t see anything but that ring and a bunch of bones. We all got there together so no one would have had time to take the map out without the rest of us seeing them do it.”

“Can we look in any of the family documents?” Bob asked Doris. “Did Grandpa Biddeford ever mention anything about a map?”

“He never mentioned anything to me.” Doris waved her hands. “You can look if you want. I’m not gonna waste my time looking for some map.”

“What if someone did find out and never said anything.” Carla tapped her fork on her empty plate. “There might not even be any treasure.”

“True, but what if it wasn’t found… then it could still be out there.” Doris gestured toward the window.

“Don’t any of you care who killed him?” I asked. I’d walked to the buffet and was bravely cutting into the pumpkin bread. One didn’t have to be a master chef to see it was a little dry. I’d have to work on that recipe, but for now copious amounts of butter should make it palatable.

The conversation stopped and they all looked at me, then at each other. Doris shook her head.

“Nah! None of us knew him and, besides, the killer is long dead. Whoever did it got what’s coming to him. That’s old news. What’snew news is the treasure, and I’m fixin’ to be the one who digs it up, my business depends on it!” She pushed up from the table and hurried out of the room.

“Hey, where’s she going?” Arlene asked.

Earl leapt from his chair and pulled Arlene up with him.“My guess is to scout out likely spots.”

Bob threw down his napkin and followed them out of the room.

Carla jumped up.“Come on, Henry. We’re not letting them get a head start!”

Paula remained seated at the table alone. She looked shell-shocked. After a few beats, she stumbled up from the chair and spun in the direction of the door.“Hey, wait for me!”

Meow.

Marlowe and Nero were at my feet looking up at me, probably waiting for a crumb of pumpkin bread to fall. Unlike most cats, these two would eat anything.

“Yeah sure, now that everyone is gone, you’re looking to me for food? I thought I told you two not to come in here when the guests were eating.”

Millie scooped Nero up in her arms.

“See they never listen to me.” I examined the piece of pumpkin bread in my hand. I’d put so much butter on it, it looked like frosting. Surely something with that much butter couldn’t taste bad.

“Now, dear,” Millie clucked. “Cats have their own rules. You have to listen tothem not the other way around.” She picked a dried leaf from Nero’s fur. “Have they been digging in the plants? Naughty. Naughty.”

Nero purred and rubbed his cheek against Millie’s while casting a see-that’s-how-you-treat-me look in my direction.

I took a tentative bite. Just as I suspected, it was dry and tasted like sawdust.

“Josie, I hope you’ve been watering those plants.” Millie put Nero down and picked up Marlowe.

“I have,” I managed to choke out while trying to swallow the pumpkin bread. Truthfully, I’d forgotten about the gigantic potted trees that Millie had bought at a yard sale last week. She said they’d go perfectly in the conservatory, which they would have if the room was anywhere near being done. Right now it was as dilapidated as the ballroom. I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth so I accepted them and put them in the room near one of the windows that wasn’t boarded up. Hopefully they weren’t as dried up and dead as the skeleton.

Millie looked at the piece of pumpkin bread in my hand.“Is that what you’re making for the town celebration?” She must have noticed I was trying, unsuccessfully, to choke down that one little bite.

“It was a recipe I tried. It needs some work,” I admitted.

“Looks dry. Maybe add some more oil.” Millie was a whiz at baking. She’d generously left her recipes here when I’d bought the guesthouse. Lucky thing for me she also kept popping in to bake too. If it wasn’t for Millie the guests might have starved. Though I was a tad bit insulted she thought I couldn’t handle the cooking, I had to admit she was right.

“I can help you on that later.” Millie glanced toward the hallway. “Once the police are done. Hopefully Mike will tell us what they said.”

“Mike?” I picked a crumb off the pumpkin bread and dropped it on my tongue. Even that was dry. “I thought he left. I mean, doesn’t he have building-inspector business to tend to?”

Mom and Millie exchanged a look.

“So, you are interested!” Millie sounded as if she’d just won the lottery.

“No,” I said. “I just thought he had left.”

“He’s in the crime-scene room making sure Seth doesn’t damage anything,” Millie said.

That figured. I was willing to bet Mike was hanging around for more reasons than to make sure nothing got damaged. He’d been an investigator in the navy and, judging by his actions when we’d found the last body, he still couldn’t resist an investigation. How he’d ended up a handyman turned building inspector was anyone’s guess. He’d told me it was because he liked to work with his hands, though I suspected at the time thatthat statement had a double meaning.

Thoughts of the last investigation reminded me of how annoying Mike could be. He’d insinuated that I had no business investigating to clear my own name and practically ordered me to stop looking for the killer. The nerve!

Good thing I had no interest in getting to the bottom of this skeleton case. He could have it.

“If you thought he left, you must have been thinking of him,” Mom said in that tone that indicated she knew my mind better than I did. “I don’t blame you. He’s a hottie. And he’s a very nice boy.”

“Just because you made a bad choice for your last husband doesn’t mean you can’t try again,” Millie added.

My“bad choice” was the other reason I’d come back to Oyster Cove. No wonder I was no good at cooking. My ex-husband was a semi-famous chef, so naturally he’d done all the cooking when we were married. He’d also done a lot of other things that I won’t bore you with. The divorce was not amicable and the only good thing that came from that marriage was my daughter, Emma. It had all turned out for the best though. I was finding a new freedom, and, by running the guesthouse, learning I was capable and self-sufficient. I didn’t need anyone to take care of me or tell me what to do, especially not Mike Sullivan.

“What do you make of all this Jedediah Biddeford business?” I changed the subject.

“Notsh oroamnl oar,” my mom mumbled. While we’d been talking about my love life, she’d grabbed a plate and helped herself to the buffet.

“Huh?”

“She said she’s not sure she believes in the curse,” Millie translated.

“Yeah me either,” I said. “But still thereis a skeleton in the wall.”

“Right. And that means shenanigans,” Millie said.

Mom washed down her bacon with a swig of juice.“He must have been killed for a reason.”

“Maybe nothing to do with treasure, though,” I said.

“Of course, the mere notion of treasure here on the property is ridiculous,” Millie said softly as she cast a wistful glance out the window.

“If there was one, I’m sure we’d have heard about it by now.” I tossed the rest of my pumpkin bread onto one of the dishes and started clearing the table.

“Or someone would have dug it up. Right, Rose?” Millie asked my mother.

“Right.” Mom stuffed the last bit of food in her mouth and headed toward the door. “But just the same, I want to be prepared.”

“Where are you going?” I stacked more dirty dishes on top of each other.

“Why, down to Ace Hardware to buy a shovel, of course,” Mom called over her shoulder. “Hurry, Millie. A little digging will be good exercise and you never know what we might find!”

Four

Nero stretched out in the puddle of sunshine on the conservatory floor. The guesthouse was blissfully silent; all the guests had gone out to buy shovels and Josie had gone to the store. He rolled this way and that, enjoying the warmth on his fur and smelling the fresh scent of the dirt from the plants. He stretched his claws, noting that there was still a smidge of dirt under the nails from digging in the enormous pot of the ficus tree that sat next to the window. Sure, they could dig all they wanted outside, but there was nothing like digging up a plant in the comfort of your own home. Plus, it would help keep Josie on her toes, and impress upon her that cats didn’t simply obey human orders.

The conservatory faced east and therefore had a delightful view of Smugglers Bay, with its craggy rock inlet and sun-dappled waves. Too bad most of the conservatory windows were boarded up. The room would have a magnificent view once new ones were installed.

Nero didn’t mind the windows on the far side of the room being boarded as those blocked the view of the neighboring Smugglers Bay Inn. Not only was that inn somewhat of a rival to the guesthouse, but the owner, Stella Dumont, and Josie were rivals for the affections of Mike Sullivan. Even if Josie herselfdidn’t realize this yet, Nero was firmly on Josie’s side. The less he had to look at Smugglers Bay Innand Stella Dumont, the better.

From his spot, he could just see the edge of the deck where Stella served meals. He watched the gulls swooping in circles above it. There were more there now than there had been last week, and he was glad their numbers were no longer diminishing, even though they insisted on tormenting the cats by dive-bombing them.

Of course, Nero himself was not afraid of the gulls. Those times he ducked under a hydrangea when a gull swooped were only to demonstrate to the other cats what they could do to protect themselves… even if no cats were around to see.

“The gulls are in good form today I see,” said Marlowe, her luminescent green eyes following Nero’s gaze.

“Let’s hope they discourage some of the diners at the Smugglers Bay Inn.” Nero figured anything that drove customers away from the inn was good for the guesthouse.

“It’s nice and quiet in here now with all the guests gone.” Marlowe trotted to another small patch of sun in the corner and curled into a tight ball, wrapping her tail around her nose.

“Silly of them to run off after shovels, don’t you think?” Nero asked.

Marlowe raised her head.“I suppose so. Humans are always looking for some sort of treasure when all they really need to make life worth living is free. What would they do with it anyway? Probably just spend it on silly material things.”

Nero nodded sagely.“Humans just don’t get it like we do. All we need is a warm meal and a comfortable spot in the sun. Though I do enjoy the gravy cat food and manufactured treats that Josie buys from the store.”

Nero heard a commotion in the foyer.

“Looks like the blissful silence is over. Someone is home.” Marlowe sighed.

Nero’s ears perked up, listening to discover who it was. He couldn’t quite hear what was being said, but he sensed it was the two brothers, Bob and Earl. His whiskers tingled. Something was going on between them and he was sure it was not good. He stood and stretched.

“I think we should take a trot upstairs and see what these humans are up to.”

Marlowe slit one eye open, obviously reluctant to leave her sunny spot.“You think they’re up to something? I have noticed a certain amount of strain between the siblings. Not to mention a tinge of animosity and nefarious thoughts.”

“Indeed. Perhaps this treasure will bind them together.” Nero gestured toward the doorway. Marlowe could be a bit lazy, but skulking around and finding out what the humans were up to was important cat business.

“Or set them at each other’s throats even more.” Marlowe rose, stretching so hard that her back cracked.

“Let’s take the back stairs. I hear them up near their rooms.”

The mansion had several sets of stairs, but the back stairs near the kitchen were Nero’s favorite. The old narrow treads that creaked under human weight were silent when cats ran up them, allowing Nero and Marlowe to sneak around the mansion without being heard. They were covered in layers of white paint so thick that it was almost soft. No human liked to go in the confined space,which made it even more perfect for cats. He and Marlowe trotted up stealthily, spilling out into the jewel-toned oriental runner that ran the length of the second-story hallway where most of the habitable rooms were situated.

Nero was surprised to see Flora standing in the middle of the hallway with a pink feather duster in her hand. She was dusting off a credenza on which sat various knick-knacks that Nero liked to push to the floor every so often. Her head was bent about two inches from the surface so that she could inspect her own work. Poor Flora—even with her coke-bottle glasses, her eyesight wasn’t the best.

Marlowe and Nero exchanged a glance. They’d never seen her so intent on cleaning. Was Flora turning over a new leaf?

They skulked along the perimeter of the hallway, ears cocked and superior hearing senses on alert to overhear what the humans were saying. Nero was a little worried. He’d already suspected the humans were not enamored with each other and now he was concerned the thought of this treasure might cause them to do something crazy. The last thing the guesthouse needed was another scandal. But if such a thing happened, he wasn’t going to fall down on the job like hedid last time.

“They’re each in their rooms,” Marlowe whispered. Aiming her ears first toward Earl’s room and then toward Bob’s. “It’s boring when they are quiet.”

No sooner were the words out of Marlowe’s mouth than Bob’s door flew open. He stormed over to Earl’s room, knocking loudly before being let in.

Marlowe turned and looked at Nero, the whiskers over her left eye sticking up slightly. They both glanced at Flora, who hadn’t noticed. She moved on to dusting a plinth that held a marble bust outside of Earl’s room.

Yelling drifted from inside the room. The two men were arguing. Nero strained to listen, and Marlowe followed suit. But the arguing had stopped.

Flora continued dusting. She probably couldn’t hear them since Nero was sure she was also hard of hearing.

Nero pressed closer to the door. He could hear hushed tones, but he couldn’t make out the whole conversation, only snatches.

“… secret book!…”

“… reveal to the rest of them…”

Reveal what? Something in the secret book? Something to do with the treasure?

The door flew open.

Flora jumped back, dropping the duster.

The cats scattered.

Bob stormed out, slammed the door shut and continued to his room.

Flora scowled at him, then shrugged, picked up her feather duster and kept dusting.

Nero sat on his haunches and washed behind his ears. Apparently the Biddefords were already in deep competition for the alleged treasure, and judging by the way he’d seen them fight over pancakes, they might not be willing to share.

Five

The kitchen of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse held a lot of fond childhood memories. Mom had brought me here often when I was a kid and Millie always had a fresh baked treat for me. Now it was my turn to carry on those delicious recipes. It was a daunting task since everything I tried to bake either came out dry, burned or tasting like dirt.

The kitchen was a mixture of old antique fixtures, cheery yellow-painted cabinets and newer stainless-steel appliances. The worn, wide, pine flooring creaked in all the right places and the space always had the savory, sweet smell of family-style cooking. At least it had when Millie owned it. Now it mostly smelled like a two-alarm fire.

I’d just returned from picking up some supplies and was riffling through the yellowed, grease-smudged recipes trying to pick out another type of sweet bread since the pumpkin hadn’t worked out so well, when I glanced out the window to see Stella Dumont on the deck of the Smugglers Bay Inn looking toward my place.

Yes, that Stella Dumont. The one Mike had dumped me for in high school. Not that that had anything to do with the urge I had to trip her every time I saw her. Those feelings were more to do with her acting superior about her inn, as if it was more desirable than mine. Sure, hers was closer to the ocean with that deck overlooking the water, but at least I didn’t have seagulls pooping all over my guests’ food.

Her inn was pretty far from my place, separated by a large field that gently sloped downward. My guesthouse was situated atop the hill and had a nice panoramic view of Smugglers Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Some said it was a much better view than Stella’s inn had and I agreed.

I kind of had to squint to make out who the scrawny figure on the deck was, but I was pretty sure it was her. Why was she looking in this direction? It looked as if she was scoping out the property. Of course, she could be looking for Mike. She’d been known to pop over here a time or two to try to talk to him while he was still working here, finishing up the renovations Millie had hired him to do before she sold the place. Mike didn’t work here anymore, so what was Stella looking for? Had word already gotten around town about Jed’sskeleton and the mythical treasure? I hoped she wasn’t looking for potential treasure-hiding spots. Would more people come and try to dig? I was kind of hoping it would all die down and I wouldn’t have to figure out how to stop people from churning up the grounds. The Biddefords were my immediate problem. They seemed keen to dig up the treasure but I was sure I’d heard at least two of them come home and no one had started digging yet, so maybe they weren’t as keen on putting in the manual labor necessary.

“Seth’s done in the west wing and the body has been removed.” I jumped at the words, then turned to see Mike lounging in the doorway. His gaze shifted to the window. Was he looking out hoping to see Stella?

“I didn’t realize you were still here,” I said.

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure that the Sheriff’s Department didn’t mess with the structural integrity of the wall when they were getting their evidence out,” Mike said.

“Oh, I didn’t realize that was part of the building inspector’s job.” Was it? Or was he giving the guesthouse special treatment? Of course, if he was giving it special treatment it was probably because his aunt was still attached to it, and not because of me.

“Also, Ed wanted me to double-check on his plan for redoing the conservatory, so we don’t run into any code violations later on.”

“Oh.” I guess maybe he was here officially. I turned back to my recipes.

“So anyway, this treasure thing is kind of interesting, huh?” He’d made his way across the room and was now leaning his hip against the countertop, mere inches from where I stood. “You think there really is a treasure out there?”

“I doubt it. If there was, my mom and Millie would’ve probably dug it up by now.”

Mike laughed.“Yeah, they sure are a pair, aren’t they? I heard something about them going downtown for shovels. Probably rushing back already so they can start digging any minute.”

I snorted.“No doubt.” Millie had requested I meet them at the town common later that day to go over how I wanted the Oyster Cove Guesthouse display to be setup for the town celebration. She’d said this was of the utmost importance because the display needed to be perfect so that tourists coming for thecelebration would be enticed to book a future vacation at the guesthouse, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she cancelled so she could dig for treasure.

“Are you going to go out and dig?” He leaned in closer.

I sidled away, clutching at the recipe I’d just pulled out. Cranberry-orange bread. I guess that would do for the celebration. “Nope.” I held the recipe in the air between us. “I need to try out this recipe for the town celebration. It’s really important I have something to offer that represents the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.”

His eyes drifted out the window again in the direction of the Smugglers Bay Inn. My heart twitched. If I kept putting Mike off, I was driving him right toward Stella Dumont. But if he had intentions toward her, I didn’t really want him anyway.

He pushed away from the counter.“Well, I gotta get back to the town offices. Let me know if you need anything and don’t forget to make sure you get your proper inspections for Ed’s work.”

He was all business now, probably thinking about what he might like to inspect over at the Smugglers Bay Inn.

“Will do.” I watched him leave, glad to have some alone time. I needed to concentrate on the loaf recipe.

As I pawed through the file trying to choose between the cranberry-orange bread I had in my hand, the apple-pecan bread and the peanut-butter-banana bread, I could hear the Biddefords coming back inside. They were in rare form, jostling and arguing. Not much different from before the discovery of the skeleton, but I’d probably have to lay down the law about digging. I didn’t want the yard filled with dangerous holes.

I glanced into the yard just in time to see Henry skulking around the corner of the old chicken coop, near the shed. Now there was an odd one, always with his head buried in a book. He was very quiet and didn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the family at all. I’d heard in snippets of conversations that Henry was also one of the most-skilled cheese sculptors of the entire clan and had become famous for a very detailed sculpture of the Taj Mahal in white cheddar.

What was he doing out by the shed? The shed was a newer structure and old Jed wouldn’t have used it as a landmark for his treasure cache since it wasn’t around during his time.

I craned my neck, pressing my face almost to the glass to get a better look. It didn’t look like he was digging up anything. He didn’t even have a shovel. It almost looked as if he was spying on someone, but I couldn’t see who because he was casting furtive glances in my direction. Whoever the person was they were hidden behind the tall, overgrown shrubbery on the other sideof the kitchen window.

I rushed to the pantry because the window in there was on the other side of the shrubs. Darn it! I still couldn’t see anyone, but I could hear the low murmur of voices.

“Just what do you think you’re getting at?”

I recognized Carla’s nasal Ivy League twang but she obviously wasn’t arguing with Henry. He was on the other side of the yard spying on her.

“You know what I’m getting at…”

Was that Bob? He sounded awfully mean and mad.

“… not gonna stand for it, you make it right or else…” Bob again.What wasn’t he going to stand for?

“Ha! I don’t answer to you.” Carla’s hushed whisper was sharp with anger.

Unfortunately, they then lowered their voices and I couldn’t hear what they were saying. After a few minutes of ear straining, Carla’s voice came through once more, loud and clear. “Don’t bet on it.”

The sound of rustling shrubs and Carla cursing under her breath signaled the end of the conversation. I rushed back to the kitchen, my mind whirling. What in the world was that about? I knew the whole family was at odds but clearly Carla was up to something and Bob was calling her out.

I peeked out the window in time to see Henry walking over to meet Carla. They were about twenty feet from the window now and I could see Carla had two shovels.

“What was that about?” Henry asked.

Carla glanced back toward the shrubbery and I jumped back from the window. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but still…

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna just stand by and take his crap. This time I’m going to do something about it,” she said as she thrust one of the shovels into Henry’s hands. As they turned and stalked off, her words rang in my ears. I couldn’t shake the fact that her tone was unmistakablythreatening.

Six

Carla’s words were still echoing in my head an hour later when I pulled up to the town common where they were setting up for the 250-year celebration. Millie and Mom hadn’t cancelled or shown up at the guesthouse to dig up the grounds, so I assumed our meeting was still on. It was a perfect day witha cloudless blue sky, warm sun shining down, and birds twittering and flying in the leaves of the stately oaks and maples that lined the common.

The smells of fresh peaches and honeysuckle mingled with the sounds of volunteers hammering the stakes for the giant white tents under which other volunteers were setting up tables for the various town businesses to place their brochures and items for sale. At the far end, a myriad of colorful boats could be seen moored in Oyster Cove, with the sound of the ocean lapping against the town docks and the cry of seagulls in the background.

Under the tents, the area was abuzz with town merchants vying for the best spot for their table. The celebration didn’t open to the public for another day, but everyone wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

I found Millie at the front of the tent, draping a red gingham tablecloth on a long white plastic folding table.

“Hi, Josie, what do you think?” Millie placed some Oyster Cove Guesthouse pamphlets into a plastic holder and stood back to admire her handiwork.

“It looks pretty good,” I said.

“You can pile up the baked goods over here, and then I thought we would put that book about the history of the guesthouse over here. You know, the one in the bookcase in the owner’s quarters?” She pointed to various spots on the table then turned an inquisitive face toward me. “Youare nailing down the baked goods, aren’t you?”

“Yep. I’m going to do peanut-butter-banana bread.” Of all the recipes I’d culled out, that one sounded the most interesting. I mean, who doesn’t like peanut butter and bananas? I tried to sound confident but the look on Millie’s face made me think I’d missed the mark. Maybe that recipe was above my level.

After a few seconds, she nodded.“A very good choice. If you need help let me know.”

My eyes drifted to the next table. To my dismay I spotted a pamphlet for the Smugglers Bay Inn.

“Stella Dumont’s display is right next to ours?” My tone was incredulous.

Millie’s excited expression soured. “Yes. Can you believe that? I talked to Fay Weinstein from the Chamber of Commerce to try to get it moved, but she wouldn’t do it. Two guesthouses advertising next to each other. It’s preposterous, isn’t it, Rose?” She turned to my mother who simply nodded.

I scrutinized Stella’s table. It was decked out in an eyelet-lace tablecloth with crystal candleholders and a pile of magnets and lip balm with the Smugglers Bay Inn logo. If you ask me, her logo of a one-eyed bearded pirate with a parrot on his shoulder was a little clich?d. The Oyster Cove Guesthouse didn’t have a logo, but if it did I would pick something a bit more elegant. Maybe Ishould have one, though. Would it make a difference in bookings?

I wondered what Stella was baking. She’d been known to steal recipes from Millie.

“I hear Stella is making a lemon custard,” Millie clucked disapprovingly and gestured toward the sky. “I mean with this heat, doesn’t she know the custard will sour?”

Hopefully itwould sour and fewer people would go to her inn and come to mine instead.

The buzz of activity behind us continued as we talked. Townspeople rushed around. Merchants came to check their tables and drop things off. There was something odd about the whole thing, though. Most of them had shovels. Had word gotten out about the treasure? Suddenly, I pictured the grounds of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse littered with holes much like the Swiss cheese that the Biddefords used for carving. Visions of lawsuits from people who hurt themselves falling in the holes swam in my mind.

One of the people running around inside the tent was my maid, Flora. Funny, I didn’t remember giving her the afternoon off.

Millie noticed me giving her the stink eye.

“Flora is baking for the great-grandmothers of twins’ club,” she said, as if that explained it.

I remembered Flora boasting about having dozens of grandchildren and a large number of great-grandchildren too. No surprise at least some of them were twins.“What is she making?”

“Chocolate chip, I think.” Millie leaned in. “At her age it’s hard to get a lot of baking done.”

Or maid work. Flora gave us a finger wave. Apparently she was too busy to come over and say hi. Too bad someone else wasn’t. Myron Remington.

Myron’s family owned the First Oyster Cove Bank and Trust and provided loans for most of the businesses here in town. His family had lived here for generations. I’d gone to school with Myron and he was okay, but he could be a bit snobby. I remembered he’d acted particularly snooty about getting accepted into Yale our senior year. He was wearing his usual designer three-piece suit and high-end Italian leather shoes.

Why was he coming over? He rarely gave me the time of day. Maybe he wanted to talk me into taking out a loan.

“I heard you had a little incident up at the guesthouse,” he said.

“Incident?” Millie asked. She could be very defensive about the guesthouse even though she didn’t actually own it anymore. “Honestly, it wasn’t really anincident, just some old history we dug out.”

“Well, I don’t know if you would call it old history. I heard there was a body inside the wall.”

“A skeleton. Been there for a while,” Mom said.

“Yeah, that’s interesting. Do they know how he got there?” Myron smoothed his red silk paisley tie. He seemed pretty interested in the skeleton. He’d probably heard about the curse, but I doubted he’d be the type to get his hands dirty digging up treasure. Maybe prissy Myron had a ghoulish side that was into skeletons.

“How do you think he got there? A killer put him in there.” Mom’s blunt reply earned a sharp look from Millie.

Myron blanched. Probably too graphic for his sensibilities.“He? So the skeleton was a male? Do they know who it was, or have any suspects?”

Millie scoffed.“Really, Myron, the guy has been in there for generations. The suspects would all be dead. Kind of hard to investigate that.”

I wondered about that. Was Sheriff Chamberlain going to proceed with an investigation? Did he care who the killer was? Did anyone? Anyone that would’ve known or cared about the victim, be he Jedediah Biddeford or not, was long gone. Even his own ancestors didn’t seem eager to seek justice for him.

“Is there going to be an investigation?” Myron asked as if reading my thoughts. That concerned me because the last person I wanted to be able to read my thoughts was Myron Remington.

Mom and Millie looked at each other and shrugged.

“Darned if I know,” Millie said.

Myron’s gaze narrowed. “Well if anyone would, it would be you, Millie, wouldn’t it?”

Millie blushed.“What are you trying to say, Myron?”

“Oh nothing. Just that you ladies like to investigate.” He smoothed down his comb-over. It had started to flap a bit in the breeze. “I heard you were pretty good at it.”

Millie’s scowl turned into a smile. She straightened and patted her puffy white hair. “Oh, did you really? Isn’t that lovely, Rose? Looks like we have a fan.”

My mom leaned on her shovel and nodded. She didn’t look impressed with having Myron as a fan.

“Though I suppose no investigation would be necessary if it was natural causes,” Myron said.

“I don’t think it was natural causes, Myron. Who dies of natural causes inside a wall?” Millie asked.

Myron laughed. His laugh wasn’t all that pleasant though. It reminded me of a screeching meerkat. “Right. Good point.”

He glanced around, then apparently spotted his next victim a few tables over.

“Well nice talking to you, ladies. Gotta run.” He turned and walked away.

“That Myron never changes, does he?” I turned to see my best friend from high school, Jen Summers. We’d always managed to stay in touch even after I moved away and we both were busy raising our families. I mean, you kind of have to stay in touch with a friend like Jen who knows all your girlhood secrets. One of the highlights about moving back to town had been rekindling my friendship with her.

Besides knowing all my secrets, she was a kind person and a great friend to have. She was also the postmaster in town and, since the post office was the unofficial gathering spot of the Oyster Cove grapevine, she knew all the gossip before anyone else did.

“Hey, they let you out of the post office.” I gestured toward the blue post-office uniform she wore. It might have looked industrial on anyone else, but Jen had modified it with a little tuck here and a fancy button there, which gave it a bit of designer flair. Then again, Jen was slim and looked good in most anything—even the butt-end of the cow outfit we’d once worn for Halloween—unlike myself who had a more um…curvy… physique.

She gestured toward a table at the back of the tent with a gigantic stamp on it.“I have to set up our table. Don’t know why the post office needs to advertise on a table at the town celebration. It’s not like you people could go anywhere else for your mail.” Jen laughed.

“The post office is very expensive so I get a lot of stuff from UP—” My mom’s words were cut off by Millie poking her in the ribs.

Jen pretended like she didn’t hear. “Hey, I heard about the skeleton. What’s up with that?”

“Ed was working on that old ballroom and found it inside the wall. Kinda creepy, if you ask me,” Mom said.

“Well, at least there’s no ghost,” Jen said. “Is there?”

Her voice held a hopeful tone, but luckily I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any ghost. That was the last thing I needed with all those crazy Biddefords running around. “Nope. No ghost, just a skeleton.”

“Some say it’s Jedediah Biddeford come back to get his treasure,” Jen said.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that.” I glanced around the tent. More people with shovels had shown up. Mom still leaned on hers as if she was protecting it from being stolen right out from under her.

“In fact, it seems like a lot of people are going to be looking to dig it up.” Jen looked at Mom’s shovel. “I heard the hardware store was sold out of shovels.”

“I got one of the last ones,” Mom chimed in.

“Lovely. So my yard will be a minefield of holes tomorrow?”

“Is it legal for people to just come on the guesthouse property and dig?” Millie asked. “I mean, it is still private property even if it is a public guesthouse.”

“Well what can you do?” Mom asked. “You can’t hire guards to patrol it.”

Millie pressed her lips together.“And you want to keep up good relations with the townspeople. Don’t want anyone bad mouthing the guesthouse.”

She had a point. If I kicked people off the property they might get angry and take revenge with bad reviews on Yelp. Was there a way I could control the digging and still keep people happy? I wasn’t too worried about the yard since the estate had acres, but most of it was rundown. “I’m going to have to lay out some ground rules. Hopefully the whole town won’t come out. And hopefully they will get tired of digging when nothing is found the first day.”

“What about the Biddefords? They tend to act like they own the place because they used to,” Millie said.

“Yeah they’re going to be a tough crowd to control.” I said wondering how, exactly, I would control them.

Jen’s eyes widened at something over my shoulder and I turned to see Mike making his way toward us. Was the guy everywhere? He swooped over to Millie’s side and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“Does your job entail inspecting tents too?” I gestured toward the area around us.

Mike smiled, all boyish charm and dimples.“Nice to see you, too, Sunshine.”

Jen snorted. Mom and Millie looked pointedly from Mike to me. I pretended to ignore all of them.

“I just came by because I knew Aunt Millie would be here and she said she had something for me.”

Millie produced a bag of cookies from her canvas tote bag.“Just baked them this morning.”

Odd, usually she came to the kitchen at the guesthouse to bake. Maybe she was getting used to her own kitchen at the independent living resort where she now resided. She’d claimed the kitchen was too small to do any serious baking, but maybe cookies weren’t that serious in Millie’s book. Truth be told, the thought of Millie not stopping by the guesthouse anymore to bake made me sad. She could be a handful, but I enjoyed her company. Plus, I needed her to keep bailing me out with breakfast dishes so the guests would have appetizing food to eat.

“Did you come from the town offices?” Millie’s words dripped with faux innocence. I knew she had an ulterior motive.

Apparently Mike did too because his gaze narrowed and his hand hesitated as he pulled a chocolate-chip cookie out of the bag.“Yes, why?”

Millie played with the tablecloth avoiding Mike’s eyes. “I was just wondering… you know, because you’re right next to the police station there, if you’ve heard anything further about the skeleton they found earlier this morning?”

Mike tortured her by biting into the cookie and making a show of chewing slowly before answering.“Well, as a matter of fact I did.”

“And…?” my mother and Millie both said, leaning in toward Mike with eager looks.

“Early assessment is that the skeleton was there for almost three hundred years. I guess it’s pretty hard to date exactly, but the medical examiner used to be a forensic anthropologist so he knows old bones.”

“Did they find any more clues inside the wall?” Millie asked.

Mike shook his head.“Nothing but a bunch of plaster. They did identify the ring and they’re pretty sure the skeleton is Jedediah Biddeford based on the ring and an old fracture on his leg.”

“Aha!” My mother straightened and pulled the head of her shovel out of the ground, showing the most animation I’d seen since I’d arrived. “That settles it then. If Jedediah Biddeford really did come back from Europe, then there’s a good chance he brought the treasure back with him. And that treasure is buried somewhere on the property of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.”

Seven

Nero scanned the activity under the tent at the town common, his intelligent gaze coming to rest on Josie. She was talking to Myron Remington at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse display table. Nero felt sorry for Myron. He knew that many of the townspeople gossiped about him behind his back but then pandered to him in person because he was in control of the money. Try as he might, Nero would never understand the humans’ obsession with money, nor how acquiring it could make them do unspeakable things.

“Hurry up, the gang’s waiting.” Marlowe had trotted ahead, her black-and-orange tail high in the air. They were heading toward the bait wharf at the town dock where they often met with their other feline friends.

The others would have heard about the discovery of the skeleton by now and would want all the juicy details. He hated to tell them that their excitement would be in vain; there was nothing left to decipher after all these years. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too disappointed. Lying around all day in the sun could get boring and he was sure the others were as eager as he was to dig into a good investigation. Then again, judging by the behavior of the guests at the guesthouse, the cats might get that chance sooner than they thought.

Nero followed Marlowe past the colorful boats bobbing in the cove, down the long wharf and up the ramp to the bait dock. It was a mystery why the humans avoided this dock. He’d see them giving it a wide birth, covering their noses and making faces as they walked past.

The bait wharf had its own unique ambiance. The lapping of waves, the briny scent of ocean and rotting fish were pleasant, the incessant cawing of the gulls not so much. The gulls could be a nuisance, especially if they swooped down at you. Luckily there were plenty of old lobster traps to hide behind if that happened. Still, Nero knew to be careful where he stepped. One panicked misstep could land you in the cold Atlantic.

“Heard someone got iced up at the guesthouse again,” said Stubbs, an orange-striped tabby with a stub of a tail who was batting at a rope dangling from the side of a lobster trap. Stubbs had a habit of talking in old-time detective speak, which Nero presumed was a result of his human reading too many Raymond Chandler books to him.

“Not exactly,” Marlowe said. “Well, I guess he got iced at some point but not in our time.”

“How long do you think he was in there?” Juliette curled her fluffy gray tail around her as she settled on top of one of the lobster pots.

“Probably about two hundred and fifty years.” Boots licked his paw, the white boot contrasting with the black on the rest of his leg, then smoothed one of his long whiskers.

“How do you know that?” Harry, a fluffy Maine Coon, asked.

Boots gave him a look of superiority. Boots could be that way. He fancied himself cleverer than the others, which could be annoying at times. But he had a good heart and mad detective skills, so Nero let it pass.“I used my superior sense to find out who the victim was and did the math.”

“You mean you overheard Sheriff Chamberlain.” Poe, a gray mix, leveled Boots with a green-eyed stare.

“Well, am I correct?” Boots ignored Poe and turned to Nero.

“Indeed. The body has been there for exactly two hundred and fifty years.” Nero used the word “exactly” loosely. His superior senses enabled him to deduct an average or expected amount of time, but he couldn’t be sure. Then again, none of the other cats could either, so he might as well try to sound smart while he could.

A shadow loomed from above and the cats all ducked. A seagull!

Splat!A white-and-orange dropping landed on the ground in the middle of the cats who had formed a conversational circle. The gull’s raucous laughter echoed as it swooped up into the sky.

“Darn things are getting aggressive again.” Juliette checked her fluffy tail for bird droppings.

“Maybe it wasn’t so bad when they were dying off.” Stubbs eyed the splatter as they all shifted over to a non-soiled part of the wharf.

“If the crime is that old it doesn’t sound like anything we could dig our claws into,” Harry said, once they were settled. “Murder most likely. I mean, how else would a skeleton get inside a wall? My informant down at the police station, Louie Two Paws, has told me the victim was all bones,and not even delicious ones either. Not that we would eat human bones. And the police think it was Jedediah Biddeford, the guy who built your very own Oyster Cove Guesthouse.”

“Indeed.” Again Nero acted like he already knew all this, but in fact he’d only suspected. He’d have found out from Millie or Josie eventually, but it was good to have confirmation straight from the police source.

“But how can we investigate?” Boots preened his long whiskers, curling them up at the end. “There are no clues left to stimulate our superior brain power or suspects alive to spy on.”

Another shadow loomed and the cats ducked again.

“Darn gulls.” Marlowe looked up at the sky.

“They seem healthy now,” Nero said. Earlier that summer the gull population had been mysteriously dying off. That was resolved now and, while Nero was glad the creatures were not dying, he still wished they would stop tormenting the cats.

“From my bird’s-eye view from the belfry, it seems as if there are more and more of them swooping around the cliffs every day. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I wouldn’t mind if they left us alone.” Juliette lived at the rectory and had full range of the entire place, including the belfry. She’d invited Nero up there once and the view was astounding. No wonder she spent so much time up there.

All the other cats nodded. The gulls took pleasure in tormenting the cats. Nero had tried to catch one once, and it was not an easy endeavor. Besides, it could be very dangerous as their beaks were sharp.

“Too bad your bird’s-eye view couldn’t show us who killed Jedediah Biddeford,” Poe said. “Then we’d be able to solve a case even the police probably can’t.”

Juliette sighed, the white star on her forehead scrunching together.“No, it can’t, but it can show me that the town has gone crazy for shovels.”

“Yeah, at first I hoped maybe they were all trying to bury bodies. But then I realized there was no way all those people bumped someone off,” Stubbs said. “Turns out it’s because of the treasure curse.”

“You mean the humans believe in that?” Boots looked incredulous. “I would think they’d be smarter.”

“When it comes to treasure, you never can tell what people will do. They go crazy,” Stubbs said.

Juliette nodded.“Sometimes even so far as to commit murder.”

“I wouldn’t put it past the Biddefords to try to bump off the competition,” Marlowe said. “We heard two of them arguing about a secret book earlier.”

“You don’t say.” Poe turned his gaze to Marlowe. “Tell me more.”

Marlowe shuffled uneasily.“Well, we’re not sure what kind of book. But it sounded important.”

“A treasure map?” Stubbs asked.

Marlowe scrunched up her nose.“I don’t think so.”

“Well what did your human, Josie, make of the argument?” Harry asked.

“She didn’t hear it,” Marlowe said.

“So she knows nothing of this supposed secret book?” Poe asked.

Marlowe washed behind her ears.“No. Hopefully it won’t become important if someone is bumped off because I have no idea how we would let her in on it.”

“We’d have to look for evidence in their rooms, I suppose,” Nero said. Then added, “But let’s not get too eager for nefarious activity.”

“Right,” Stubbs said. “We have a skeleton mystery to look into.”

“But maybe that’s how Jedediah ended up inside the wall. Someone killed him over money,” Poe suggested.

“If that’s true that means the treasure is long gone.” Nero hopped up onto one of the lobster crates, looking up anxiously to make sure another gull was not about to launch a sneak attack.

“Judging by the number of people I saw running around with shovels, the humans don’t think the treasure is long gone,” Juliette said.

“Sometimes they lack common sense,” Boots said.

“Your spot on the belfry sure is good for getting an overview of what is going on in town,” Stubbs said. “Easy to get the dime on someone that way.”

“My home at the rectory is good for more than that. I get to hear and see all sorts of things. Like the odd confession I overheard when I was napping in the confessional box this morning.”

“You nap in the confessional box?” Poe asked. “That sounds sacrilegious.”

Juliette’s fur ruffled in offense. “Well, I don’t do it to overhear confessions unless we are investigating a murder where confessions might come in handy. But it’s a lovely place to nap. All dark and cozy and silent. It’s rarely used. I didn’t realize Father Timothy would be hearing a confession and I was fast asleep. By the time I realized what was going on, it was too late to leave.”

Nero’s whiskers twitched. He moved closer to Juliette. “What did you hear?”

Juliette’s eyes took on a faraway look as her mind worked to conjure up the conversation. “It was a woman, and she was confessing how regretful it was that she was forced to betray those close to her.”

Eight

I let myself in through the back door in the kitchen of the guesthouse shortly before supper, loaded with bags of ingredients for the peanut-butter-banana bread I was planning to make that night. Millie had said that loaf cakes were the easiest thing to bake, so I was going to trust her on that. I needed something easy. And even though my first few attempts at baking had turned out as hard as hockey pucks, I was still hopeful.

I’d barely gotten the ingredients on the counter when I heard a ruckus in the parlor. The Biddefords were at it again. I figured now would be a good time to talk to them about digging up the yard. I headed toward the parlor, passing a pile of shovels in the foyer on the way. Flora was going to have a fit. Shovels brought in dirt and she barely vacuumed as it was.

“It’s not my fault theShmithsh canceled the order for twenty miniaturecheesh cashtles,” Paula slurred.

“Well it certainly isn’t mine,” Carla said.

“Children!” Doris yelled. “It’s not anybody’s fault. Things happen in business. All this infighting is making things worse.”

“You can say that again,” Earl said.

Just as I suspected, the entire family was dressed for digging—old jeans, T-shirts. Earl and Arlene’s were of the designer variety, of course. Doris even had mud on her feet. I glanced out the window. Had she already started digging?

“Ahem.” They hadn’t noticed me lurking in the doorway, so I cleared my throat to capture their attention. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bring dirty shovels into the house. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t dig up the yard, either.”

Doris hurried over to me.“Don’t you worry, dear. We’ll fill the holes back in. We’re just looking for the treasure buried by our ancestor.” Doris glanced behind her for confirmation and the others nodded.

“Yeah. We won’t disrupt your property or anything,” Bob said.

I gazed at them skeptically then back at the shovels. Earl saw me looking and hastily added,“We’ll keep the shovels in that old carriage house so the guesthouse doesn’t get dirty.”

He pointed toward the dilapidated building that had been a carriage house when the mansion was in service. Even though it was overgrown with vines and needed a paint job badly, Mike had assured me it was still safe when I’d bought the place. At least if they kept their shovels there that would keep most of the dirt out.

But there was something else bothering me. It was the way Doris had saidour ancestorin reference to the treasure. It made me wonder, if there really was any treasure, then who actually owned it? Wouldn’t it belong to me since I now owned the property?

I didn’t think now was a good time to bring that up; I could practically see dollar signs in the Biddefords’ eyes. Odds were against a treasure being buried out there anyway and even more odds against them finding it. I’d cross that bridge when and ifwe came to it.

Earl went to the foyer and started gathering up the shovels and I returned to the kitchen. I laid out the ingredients on the counter. Peanut butter, bananas, flour, milk, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.

I pulled the old jadeite green batter bowls from the cupboard, preheated the oven and started mixing things together. Millie would’ve been proud. Of course, when she baked, she didn’t spew flour in a ten-foot radius all around her like I did. Guess I still had plenty of room for improvement.

I kept one eye on the ingredients and the other on the yard. A movement coming from the front of the house caught my eye. It was Bob. He rushed past the window, a shovel clutched in his hand. Getting an early jump on his siblings?

He headed toward the carriage house, glancing behind him as if to make sure no one had followed.

Did Bob know something about the treasure that the others didn’t? How would they go about locating Jed’s cache, I wondered? How would they know where to dig? Were they just going to randomly dig holes? Or did they have a plan in mind?

I ladled the batter into two loaf pans. Itlooked good. I bent down and sniffed. And itsmelled good. The real test would be if ittasted good. Only one way to find out. I opened the oven and shoved them inside.

No sooner had I finished that when a loud knock on the front door echoed through the house. I brushed the flour off my hands and rushed to the front. I had no idea who it could be since the door was unlocked during the day and the guests just walked in. Maybe it was a tourist wanting to check out the place to rent a room at a later date.

I’m sure I didn’t hide my disappointment very well when I opened the door to reveal that it was Sheriff Chamberlain. Nevertheless, I invited him into the foyer.

“Hey, Josie, I just wanted to come and retrieve the police tape and markers from the crime scene.”

“You’re done with your investigation?” I asked as I led him toward the west wing.

“Yep, done as we’re gonna be.” Seth spread his hands. “I mean, what’s to investigate?”

I unlocked the door and we proceeded over to the area where the skeleton had been found. Sheriff Chamberlain pulled the crime-scene tape off the edges of the wall and picked up the yellow crime-scene markers.

“So you’re not going to go figure out who killed him?” I asked. I know the guy was killed a long time ago, but it didn’t seem right not to bring his killer to justice, even if we couldn’t arrest them and bring them to trial.

Seth leveled a look at me.“Josie. There would be no suspects to interrogate. We’re not even sure who the victim was though it probably was Jedediah. We researched his whereabouts. We know he went to Europe and supposedly never came back but his death was never recorded over there either.”

“Did they record deaths back then?”

What if Jed had fallen into the sea on the way back or something? Surely someone had written something down? But if it wasn’t Jed in the wall, then who was it?

Seth shrugged.“They did record deaths back then, but if he died alone somewhere and they didn’t know who he was, his name wouldn’t be on any death certificates, so…” Seth shrugged and let his voice trail off.

“I guess you have a point. There’s not much to go on after all this time, but you’d think his relatives would want closure.”

“So far not one of them have come to me for it,” Seth said. “I mean, it’s not like any of them actually knew the guy and I don’t want to take up valuable police resources on an investigation that no one cares about.”

What else did the police have to do? There wasn’t much crime in Oyster Cove. But given the way the Biddefords were acting about the treasure and the fact that the whole town had bought shovels, a police presence might be needed in my very own backyard in the not-too-distant future.

I glanced out the window, my brow furrowing as I saw a form in the shrubbery. A form with a shovel. Thankfully it wasn’t dead. Paula lay curled up under the azalea bush like an innocent child—if innocent children passed out from drinking and hugged shovels in their sleep. As I watched, her nose twitched—that’s how I knew she was alive.

“Yeah I guess they’re pretty far removed. So that’s it then? Case closed?” I asked.

Seth put the last of the police equipment into a bag and turned to the door.“Yep. The room is officially cleared and you can start working in here again.”

Good thing I’d given Ed the rest of the day off. He’d resisted going home, puttering around the grounds instead, but I knew he hadn’t started in the conservatory yet. This way I could just have him continue in the ballroom. I’d told him he needn’t stay but I kept seeing him around and whenever I asked him why he hadn’t left he simply said he was tending to “this and that”. I guess he felt guilty about going home since I’d given him the day off with pay. Call me an old softy but I knew he was supplementing his social-security income and I didn’t want him to miss a day’s pay just because someone had shoved a body inside my wall three centuries ago.

My phone chirped, and I pulled it out of my pocket. A bright spot in the day! It was my daughter Emma. I couldn’t help but smile. Emma lived halfway across the country and I didn’t get to see her often, so her phone calls were like balm for my soul. I loved hearing stories about her job. She’d recently started working at the FBI, so I figured she would get a kick out of the skeleton story.

“Gram told me you found another dead body,” Emma said as soon as I answered the phone.

Leave it to my mother to spread distorted news as fast as she could. Emma and my mom were close, and that was a good thing, except sometimes they were a little too close. I didn’t mind so much except my mother tended to be overly dramatic and sometimes she exaggerated when she passed on information to Emma.

“Well it wasn’t exactly a body, at least it hasn’t been for quite some time.” I didn’t want Emma to worry. Or think that I was some kind of weird murderer attractor.

“Gram was a little vague.” The tone of concern in Emma’s voice squeezed my heart. It was sweet that she was worried, but it was my job to worry about her, not the other way around. That would come much later in life if I turned out like my mother, I hasten to add. “Turns out there was a skeleton buried in the wall here. Sheriff Chamberlain says he’s been dead almost three hundred years.”

“No kidding. Gram said something about treasure, too.” Emma’s concern turned to excitement. That’s good, it meant she wouldn’t be worried about me.

“Apparently there was some curse about the treasure and now the whole town is going crazy thinking they are going to find it in the yard here.”

“Oh, that sounds messy. What about the investigation?” Emma asked. She’d always been interested in investigations, so it was no surprise when she’d gone to college to study criminology and then jumped at the FBI’s job offer upon graduation. Who knew her mother would end up with a dead body and an old skeleton in her guesthouse? Maybe the abundance of homicides would make her want to move to town. We could use her help if dead bodies continued to crop up.

“There won’t be one. Sheriff Chamberlain pointed out that there are no suspects still alive and no one to arrest. They aren’t even a hundred-percent sure who the victim is.”

“Hmm… still seems like one should get to the bottom of what happened. Maybe he should send it to a forensic anthropologist or something and have them look into it. I could hook him up, but there’s probably a backlog.”

“I could mention it to him. No one here seems interested in it though. Not even the dead guy’s family.”

“Oh, right. They’re staying at the guesthouse. Were they upset?”

“Hardly. More like excited once they concluded the discovery of the skeleton meant his treasure could still be buried outside.” I peered out the window to see if any digging had started. Thankfully not yet. Paula was still asleep in the shrub.

“So things are going good otherwise?”

“Fabulous.”

“And Uncle Tommy’s friend, Mike? How are things going with him?” Emma’s voice held a hint of mischief and hopefulness.

That must have been my mother exaggerating again.“He hasn’t written me up for any building code violations yet.”

“Gram implied he might be inspecting more than just the guesthouse…”

“Gram implies a lot of things that are not correct. There’s nothing going on.” I put that to rest as soon as possible. The last thing I needed was my daughter digging into my love life. Or lack thereof.

“Well if there was, I think that would be great. I mean, I love Dad and everything, but you deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks, honey, I’m glad you feel that way.” At least if I ever did start dating, Emma wouldn’t be one of those adult children who protested their mother ever being with anyone but their father. It made me wonder how she felt about Clive’s many lady friends. A pang of jealousy surfaced. Did Emma like them? Then again, how could she get to know any of them? His bedroom had a revolving door. I assumed Clive still liked to have several on reserve just like he had when we were married.

I started toward the foyer. The Biddefords had agreed to keep the shovels in the carriage house, but I wanted to make sure the entranceway stayed clear and clean. I didn’t want any prospective guests thinking I ran a dirty show here. The shovels were all gone, but clumps of dirt remained. I’d have to clean those up, Lord knew Flora wouldn’t do it.

“So how are things with you?” I asked to move the conversation away from me and Mike.

“Fabulous…” Emma proceeded to tell me about what was going on in her life while I got the broom and dustpan out of the pantry. I was glad that she was settling in to her adult life. She was healthy, had friends and a good social life and was happy at work. It was all a mother could ask. Now, if I could just getmy mother to stop worrying her about dead bodies and getting her hopes up about romantic prospects, things would be great.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

As I cleaned up the mess, I mused about how quickly Flora had trained me to do pretty much everything on my own. Honestly, I had wondered more than once if I should keep her on. But she was a great-grandmother on social security. She needed the money. Besides, Millie had said that Flora had provided decades of loyal service to the guesthouse and that counted for something. And she did dosome of the cleaning. Besides, the dirt was easy to clean up, just a few swoops into the dustpan and it was gone.

I heard a door open upstairs and glanced through the railing to the hallway out of habit. The front foyer was large and had a grand staircase that opened to a gallery hallway that looked down on the foyer. I saw Flora’s orthopedic shoes coming out of the middle room.

Surprise, surprise, she’d actually been cleaning the rooms!

Not wanting to disturb Flora if she was in a room-cleaning mood, I started back toward the pantry with my dustpan full of dirt.

“Oh, there you are.”

I spun around to see that Arlene had snuck up on me. She had a sour look on her face. I half expected to see a shovel clutched in her hands but they were empty. The smell of Chanel No. 5 wafted around her so strongly it almost gave me an asthma attack.

“Can I help you?” I asked, stepping back out of range of her perfume.

She made a face.“Well, I certainly hope so. The accommodations… our room… it’s deplorable!”

“How so?” I thought the rooms at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse were quite nice. They were loaded with antiques, decorated in lovely colors with wallpaper and rugs suitable to the time-period and had been all redone less than five years prior.

“Our room hasn’t been cleaned. We’d appreciate it if you could send up the maid. I don’t believe she’s been in there since we arrived.” Arlene made a big production out of sneezing. “I’m allergic to dirt and soot you know.”

Maybe she should back off on the perfume dousing. I was willing to bet that was what was making her sneeze. But I knew better than to argue with the guests. The customer was always right. Besides, I’d just seen Flora come out of her room so I was sure it would be at least a little bit cleaner when she went back.

“I’ll have it cleaned right away.” Sometimes it was beneficial to let guests think they’d bossed you around.

She huffed and turned to leave, practically bowling over Doris.

“What are you doing?” Doris looked at her suspiciously. “Are you pumping Josie for information on likely places where the treasure might be buried?”

Arlene looked her motherin-law up and down. No love lost there, I sensed.“Hardly. I’m just trying to get our room cleaned. I doubt there even is any treasure.”

“Ha! Then you don’t need to dig for it.” Doris watched Arlene walk away then turned to me. “Say, you wouldn’t have happened to find anything like an old map or any indication in the house of where the treasure could be?”

“No.” Hadn’t Millie mentioned an old book about the history of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse that she wanted for the table at the town celebration? Might that have some clue? Not that I believed in the treasure, but it might be worthwhile to browse through it. Of course, I wasn’t going to mention that to Doris.

“Dang. Well, if you think of anything speak up.”

“Oh, I will.”

Movement outside caught my eye and I glanced out the narrow window beside the door where Bob was rushing by with a shovel.

“Those darn nincompoops. I told him to wait until dark,” Doris said.

“Dark? Then how would you see what you’re digging?” I asked.

“Headlamps.”

“Speaking of digging, I want to make sure there’re not a lot of holes in the ground. I don’t want a liability issue.”

“Oh no, don’t worry. We’re gonna fill them in just like we said. And we’ll put the shovels in the carriage house and wipe our feet so we don’t track dirt in.”

“I hope you will.” I showed her the dirt in the dustpan. “You’ve already tracked quite a bit in. And I still think it might be smarter to dig in daylight.”

Doris shook her head.“Nah. If they did that, then each one would see where the other one was digging.”

“You mean they’d steal the treasure from each other?”

Doris sighed.“Sadly, I think they would. I mean, they are my children and I love them, but they have their faults.”

“All kids do.”

“I made them make a pact that we’d share the treasure but I’m not so sure they’ll stick to it. They haven’t played nice together since they were toddlers. Take the cheese-sculpture business, for example. My husband Barney and I built that up from nothing. We started off whittling Wisconsin cheddar and ended with sculpting masterpieces of Gruy?re.”

I nodded with empathy even though I wanted to get back to the kitchen and throw away the dustpan full of dirt I was holding.

“Once Barney was gone, the kids took over. Big mistake. Turns out that when you inherit a business you don’t take as much care as when you build it up. You don’t work as hard. I’m afraid things are going downhill.” Doris flopped into a chair and I suddenly felt sorry for her.

As if proving her point, Bob’s voice wafted down from above. He was arguing with someone, but we couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying or who he was arguing with.

“See what I mean?” Doris pointed up.

“Well, siblings always fight and hopefully things will pick up with the business,” I assured her, for lack of anything better to say.

“If we found the treasure it sure would. ’Course, I doubt any of my kids would actually use the money for the business.” Her eyes turned steely. “But I would. In fact, I’d do just about anything to get some extra cash flow to save it. Barney would have wanted that.”

If the treasure actually belongs to you, I thought. Again, I didn’t see the point of voicing that opinion. No sense in pissing off paying guests over something that was unlikely to happen.

She sighed and pushed up from the chair.“Anyway, I don’t know how those kids turned out all wrong. I tried my best.” Doris made a face, her eyes crinkling and her nose twitching as she sniffed. “What’s that smell? Is something burning in the kitchen?”

Nine

I rushed back to the kitchen to see smoke billowing from the oven. Luckily I had the presence of mind to grab some oven mitts before ripping open the door. I used the mitts to fan the smoke away from my face as I bent down to inspect my loaf cakes that now resembled shrunken dried-out old leather. I pulled them out and slapped both on the counter, then waved frantically and prayed the sprinkler system the previous town building inspector had made me put in didn’t go off and soak everything.

I rushed over to open the back door to let out some of the smoke. It was getting dark and I could barely make out the moonlit ocean and the silhouette of the Smugglers Bay Inn beyond the tiny little lights that danced over my yard like fireflies. Except they weren’t fireflies. They were little flashlights in the hands of the people digging up the yard.

And it was a lot more than just the Biddefords.

I squinted into the night. Who was out there? My mom, for one. I saw her by the old oak tree jabbing her shovel into the earth. Leave it to Mom, that was probably a good spot for buried treasure. Didn’t pirates always bury their treasure under a tree?

Doris Biddeford was now out there too, digging in the mound of the hill we thought was an old bottle dump. Another good location.

But the number of flashlights indicated there were a lot more than just my mom and the Biddefords digging. Just how many people were out there?

I stepped on to the stairs and a shadowy figure ran by my feet. Nero. He darted over to the old rose arbor and started digging. Apparently even the cats wanted in on the treasure hunt.

Darn! Was that a light bobbing over from the Smugglers Bay Inn? Even Stella was getting in on this crazy treasure hunt. And was that figure around the edge of the property Myron Remington? The town’s richest banker wanted a chance at buried treasure, too.

What was wrong with people? More interested in treasure than finding out who had killed Jedediah Biddeford or how he ended up in the wall? And howhad he ended up in there? Had he really brought treasure back and then someone killed him for it? And if so, wouldn’t that person have taken the treasure? All these people were on a fool’s errand. No treasure existed in my yard, I was sure of it. But maybe I should go out and dig, too… just in case.

I considered it for a second until a whiff of burned peanut-butter-banana bread reminded me that I had more important things to do. I needed to mix up another batch of batter and get it in the oven and figure out what to cook for breakfast the next morning. I didn’t have time to go on any treasure hunts.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero stopped sharpening his claws on the soft rotted wood of the old rose arbor and sniffed the air.“What is that noxious odor?”

“Smells like burned bananas.” Marlowe’s eyes flicked to the kitchen window. “Josie must be baking again.”

Nero sighed.“I do hope she can master that. Millie is right, the guests do want good food.”

“But if she doesn’t, maybe Millie will come over more often and help her?”

“That would be good, but Millie needs to have her fun too. Can’t expect her to bake for the guests every day. Josie needs to learn.”

“I suppose.” Marlowe’s eyes reflected gold in the light of the moon as she watched the people walking around the yard with their shovels and flashlights. “Silly humans. I could have told them nothing is buried here. I know. I sniffed the entire estate.”

“Me too.” Nero watched the other cat closely. “But did you discover anything interesting while you were sniffing?”

Marlowe jerked her head back to look at Nero.“Interesting? No. There is no treasure, I assure you.”

Nero washed behind his left ear. See? The other cat still had a lot to learn.“Not treasure, true…”

“What, then?”

“Nefarious intent and betrayal. I smelled it on the searchers. Someone is thinking dark thoughts.”

Marlowe looked back at the searchers.“Do you think that has anything to do with the confession Juliette overheard?”

“Perhaps.”

“And do you think it has something to do with the guests here?”

“Likely. They do have issues. The mother made them swear that they would split the treasure, but I think some of them want to take it for themselves.”

“I think all of them want to. But since there is no treasure, there will be no problem there.”

“No.” Nero stopped washing and watched the lights bobbing in the yard. He was going to have a heck of a job early tomorrow morning checking the grounds and filling in any holes the diggers had forgotten to fill. He didn’t want to leave any open for someone to trip into. That might reflect badly on the guesthouse. “I think we need to watch them carefully though. There is dissension in the ranks.”

“I’ll say,” Marlowe agreed. “Weird bunch. Not even interested in the old bones of their ancestor. I must say, I’m a bit disappointed that the police have dropped the case.”

“Me too. But you know we sniffed that wall for hours and not one clue. Not one old scent. Nothing.”

“I know.” Marlowe’s voice dripped with disappointment.

Nero glanced back to see Josie’s silhouette moving around in the kitchen window. Hopefully she was mixing up something that would be suitable for the town celebration. “Looks like Josie has her hands full in the kitchen. We’ll need to watch these diggers carefully. It’s up to us to make sure the guests don’t leave theyard in a shambles… or do something even worse.”

Ten

I slept like a log. You’d think I would have tossed and turned, what with the discovery of a skeleton in my wall and half the town digging up my yard, but stress always made me sleepy. I’d fallen asleep with the cats snuggled against me in the bed around midnight only to jerk awake one minute before my alarm went offat seven. I rushed downstairs to get breakfast ready. Luckily, I’d picked out something that I could whip together quickly.

I got bacon and sausages going on the stove. Those were the mainstays of a good breakfast as far as I was concerned. And, of course, given the Biddefords love of pancakes, I whipped up some batter. I might have put in too much sugar—I mean the one tablespoon in the recipe hardly seemed like enough—but hopefully they wouldn’t notice. I quickly diced up some fruit and put it in Millie’s great-grandma’s cut-glass boat-shaped fruit bowl. That always made a great presentation.

Now for omelets. I set some butter heating in a few pans, then beat together some eggs, water, salt and pepper. Was I supposed to be paying attention to the ratio? The mixture looked okay, so I poured it into the pans. Now what? I tilted the pans so the egg mixture coated the bottom and waited until it looked like it was cooking and tossed in some ham and cheese I’d chopped the night before. Hmm… it looked like it needed something else. I rummaged in the fridge and pulled out some spinach. A little greenery always adds a nice touch. I threw it in at the last minute. Hmmm… shouldn’t it get wilty? I didn’t have time to wait for that.

For once I had timed things perfectly and it was ready by the time I heard the Biddefords stirring upstairs.

I rushed it into the dining room where coffee was already percolating in the old-fashioned urn. Say what you will about Flora but at least she always put on the coffee. That was probably because she wanted some herself, but I wasn’t about to complain.

The Biddefords shuffled in and filled their mugs. Good thing I’d remembered to put out Carla’s Yale mug. She looked like she was in a bad mood and I didn’t want to suffer her wrath. In fact, they all looked a little worse for wear. No doubt they’d been up late digging.

I glanced outside at the yard but true to their word they’d filled in the holes, though the grass looked a little ratty. I had to admit my landscaping hadn’t been that great to begin with. Apparently no one had dug up treasure because they weren’t celebrating.

“No treasure last night?” I asked as they filled their plates and took their seats at the long table.

“Not for lack of trying, though.” Doris shoved a forkful of pancakes into her mouth and chewed. Then she glanced around the table suspiciously at her children. “I mean, one of you didn’t find it, did you?”

Paula hiccupped and shook her head, looking at her mother with big, innocent eyes over her coffee mug. Her face was still scratched from the shrub she’d fallen asleep in the day before.

“Well I certainly didn’t,” Carla said. “But maybe someone else did?” She glanced across the table at Bob’s empty seat.

Doris followed her gaze.“Where is Bob? Has anyone seen him?”

Earl shrugged.“I didn’t hear him moving around in his room. Maybe he’s sleeping in. Knowing Bob, he was the last one up digging. He always did try to one-up the rest of us.”

Carla’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t think he found the treasure and took off with it, do you?”

“Where would he go and how would he get there? We only have three rental cars between us and they are all in the driveway.” Earl looked at me. “Bob didn’t leave in a taxi or anything early this morning, did he?”

I shook my head.

“I’m just glad we don’t have to share the pancakes,” Henry said as he raised a forkful of golden pancakes dripping with syrup.

I smiled pleasantly. At least no one had said the pancakes were too sweet. In fact, they seemed to be enjoying them. Maybe I was onto something with the extra sugar.

Mereeoow.

The sound came from outside, and it wasn’t the cat’s normal meow. It sounded panicked. My heart jerked. Had an animal gotten them? I rushed over to the window, shoving aside the sheer blind that was fluttering in the breeze and looked out.

I didn’t see any cats. Nor did I hear any more panicked meowing. I scanned the yard, then the field, but the only movement was a lobster boat motoring around in the cove picking up traps and a few seagulls circling above it.

I turned back to the room in time to see Paula spit out some omelet. Gross.

“What’s the matter with you?” Doris asked.

Paula made a face.“The spinach in there is weird.”

Arlene nodded and pinched up a spinach leaf between her thumb and forefinger and held it up.“They’re supposed to be wilted. This isn’t cooked.” She leveled a look at me.

Who knew you were supposed to put them in sooner so they cooked all the way?

“It’s a new thing. More healthy this way. A lot of the vitamins are lost when you cook it.” I had no idea if it was true, but I thought I’d recovered quite nicely.

“I heard that the sheriff came by yesterday,” Doris said.

“Yes, he cleared the crime scene.”

“Did he say what happened?”

“Not much more than what we learned yesterday, but he did think it was Jedediah Biddeford.”

“Huh, go figure. I knew it was him.” Doris looked round the table. “Should we have a funeral?”

The kids shook their heads.

“Who would pay for that?” Arlene asked.

“Good point,” Doris said. “Maybe we could make a cheese sculpture in his honor. I mean, it’s not like we knew him. No sense in spending money on a funeral when there are no friends or family to attend.”

“Maybe just have him buried in the old family cemetery.” Paula had a Baileys Irish Cream nip in her hand and was pouring it on the pancakes.

“Well that would be up to Josie. She owns it now.” Doris raised a brow in my direction.

The old Biddeford family cemetery was at the west edge of the property. I’d seen the moss-covered slabs ringed with a black wrought-iron fence once when Millie had taken me back to show me some of the acreage. It was overgrown and barely accessible and I was sure no one had been buried there in two hundred years.

“I guess it’s okay. I don’t think they actually bury people in old family plots like that anymore, do they?”

Doris shrugged and then she laughed.“Maybe we can do it ourselves. We have shovels.”

“Speaking of which, we put the shovels away in the carriage house like you wanted, Josie,” Earl said.

“Thank you.”

A movement outside caught my eye. It was Mike Sullivan. I’d forgotten he was coming to inspect an old toolshed that I’d had Ed replace the roof on. I was looking into hiring someone to work on the landscaping and they’d need a place to store the tools. I watched as he headed down the path.

Merow!

This time it sounded like the same high-pitched caterwauling that had happened when they’d found the skeleton. If I wasn’t mistaken, the noise was coming from the direction in which Mike was heading. Mike was good with cats, if something was wrong he would help them.

“I hate to be a complainer,” Arlene said, inspecting her fingernails for dirt—not that dirt would dare stick to her, “but I would appreciate it if we could get some maid service in our room. It’s still dirty like I told you yesterday.”

I bit back a sarcastic remark. Arlene was the type that was never happy. I’d seen Flora in there cleaning, so I knew it had been cleaned. Then again, Flora wasn’t the best cleaner so maybe I should go in myself and make sure it was spotless.

Merooo!

This time it was loud. Everyone looked toward the window.

“What is that?” Paula asked. “Is that those cats?”

“Yes, they meow like that sometimes.”

Doris’s eyes narrowed. “The last time they did that we found a skeleton in the wall.”

I forced a laughed.“What are the chances of that happening again?”

Doris craned to look out the window as another panicked meow drifted in.“I don’t know, but something urgent must be going on out there. Look.” She pointed and I tilted my head so I could see what she was pointing at.

It was Mike Sullivan and he was running toward the house.

My heart jerked. Was one of the cats in trouble? Maybe one was hurt badly and he was running to call for help.

As I ran into the hallway, I heard the kitchen door whip open and Mike’s footsteps as he rushed toward the dining room.

“What is it? Are the cats okay?” The tightness in my chest made me realize how fond I’d grown of the cats. I hated the thought of one of them being hurt. Not to mention Millie would kill me if anything happened to them.

“Where’s the fire?” Doris had come out into the hall and was standing behind me. Wait, was she making a reference to my loaf cakes that kept burning?

“There’s no fire,” Mike panted. “My phone battery is dead and we need to call Seth Chamberlain. There’s a body down by the pond and it doesn’t look good.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

“Well at least Mike will get the ball rolling. If we waited for Josie to understand what our different cries mean this one might turn into a skeleton too.” Nero eyed the body floating face down at the edge of the pond. Unfortunately, this body wasn’t almost three hundred years old. And even more unfortunately, it was the body of one of the guests.

“It doesn’t bode well that another one of the guests has died here.” Marlowe’s voice held a tinge of guilt.

Nero understood why the other cat felt guilty. He felt that way himself. They’d been asleep (literally) on the job a few weeks ago and a guest had been killed inside the B&B. The Oyster Cove Guesthouse was their responsibility now and being unaware that someone was being murdered, and thus not taking steps to prevent it, had weighed heavily on him. Luckily it didn’t seem like it had hurt business, but the results could have been disastrous.

And now there’d been another murder and they hadn’t prevented that one either. Hopefully this wouldn’t stain the guesthouse’s reputation.

“What’s going on? I could hear you guys all the way over at the Smugglers Bay Inn where I was under the deck looking for handouts.” Poe pushed his way through the shrubs.

“Yeah and you interrupted my nap in the morning sun.” Juliette ducked under a pine bough, her eyes growing wide when she saw the body.

“Oh… You’ve got a floater.” Stubbs appeared from a small path that led up to the cliffs.

“Yeah, guess we messed up again,” Marlowe said.

“Is it one of the guests?” Boots trotted to the edge of the pond and proceeded to inspect the body.

Nero sighed.“I’m afraid so.”

“Hey, don’t feel bad.” Harry picked a burr from his fur. “It’s not like you can watch over every piece of the property.”

“Yeah and this place was crawling with people last night,” Juliette said.

“Tell me about it.” Nero watched as Boots trotted gingerly around the body, taking care not to disturb anything. He’d already done his own inspection, but valued the others’ opinions, even if Boots could act a bit uppity at times. “Were you guys here last night? Did you see any odd behavior from the humans?”

“Sorry, I was at the rectory all night,” Juliette said.

“I wasn’t here either, but people were acting weird all over town,” Harry said. “Treasure fever.”

“You think it was a townie who did it?” Poe asked.

Boots had finished with the body and come back to the others now standing at the edge of the clearing. They knew the humans would be there soon and wanted to blend into the background. It wouldn’t do to have the humans suspect they were actually investigating.

“That’s doubtful,” Boots said. “Who would have motive? Makes more sense that one of the other guests did it since they know each other.”

“Of course.” Nero regretted the huffy tone in his voice, but it did get tedious when Boots stated the obvious as if he was the only one who would think of it. The other cat raised a brow at him, preening his long whiskers.

“I’ve had a gut feeling that something was going on with the guests,” Nero said.

“This is good news,” Harry said.

“Not so much for the body,” Poe replied.

“Oh sorry, yeah. What I meant was this is a fresh case. One we can really sink our claws into.”

“First we start with the family members,” Juliette said.

Marlowe nodded.“They smell sneaky.”

“And a bit like Swiss cheese,” Nero said. “They’ve been arguing a lot too. Especially with the victim.”

“We should check out their things. One of them might have evidence,” Harry said.

“Do you think they have any of those cheese sculptures in their rooms?” Stubbs’s pink tongue darted out and licked his lips.

“No, I checked,” Marlowe said. “Most I found was a few crumbs of Camembert.”

“It might have something to do with that confession I overheard. It was a woman. And she mentioned something about betraying someone close to her,” Juliette said.

“Not necessarily a family member, though,” Boots pointed out. “One must use their superior feline brain cells to interpret the meaning of the clues.”

Stubbs made a face.“Clues schmues. This guy was hit over the head with a shovel. They were digging for treasure. My bet is that he found something and someone wanted it. A fight ensued and the killer clonked him over the head and took the treasure for their own.”

“Well it wasn’t this shovel.” Boots gestured toward a shovel that lay next to the body. “There is no blood on the end.”

“If the killer did steal the treasure, then someone is a little bit richer today. Maybe we should see who is spending more money,” Poe said.

“Or hiding it in their rooms.” Nero made a mental note to do a thorough inspection later.

The wail of a siren split the air and the cats shrunk back into the tall grass at the edge of the clearing. Now they could hear the pounding of footsteps and the shouts as the humans came running from the house.

“The humans are coming. Are you all sure you’ve checked the scene for clues? Once the humans come even the most subtle of clues will be obfuscated with weird smells and bumbling footsteps.”

“I have what I need.” Boots preened his whiskers.

“I’m good,” Stubbs said.

“Ditto.” Harry picked another burr out of his long fur.

“Me too,” Juliette said.

“Good because the humans are going to need our help, especially Josie,” Nero said. “We know about the confession and the argument about the secret book Marlowe and I overheard, but Josie doesn’t have that advantage.”

“Yeah,” Marlowe added as the humans rushed out of the path practically falling all over each other. “And we better make it fast, before our dear Josie is accused of murder. Again.”

Eleven

The pond was on the west edge of the property, too far to be visible from the house. Mike led us down a brambly path to the small muddy body of water. I supposed it had once been a lovely pond. Now, the rotted remnants of a wooden bench with a bush growing through it marred its appearance. The body, laying face down at the water’s edge with the shovel beside it, was a bit of a detractor as well. Even though he was face down, I was certain that it was Bob Biddeford.

Nestled into the overgrowth on the other side of the pond were Nero and Marlowe. They weren’t alone. Several other cats were crouched near them. A lovely fluffy Maine Coon that looked like it needed brushing, the gray cat with white on its forehead that I recognized as Father Timothy’s, an orange-striped one with a stubby tail, another gray cat, this one with shorter fur, and a blackcat with white paws that had a know-it-all look on its face.

To my relief, Marlowe and Nero looked fine. Their alarming cries must have been to alert us to the body. This was the second time they’d done that. I guess I’d have to pay more attention to their meows in the future.

Doris’s hands flew up to her face. “No! Is that Bobby?”

Paula went over to look at the body, her heel getting stuck in the mud and causing her to stumble a bit. She crouched down, peering at the body but staying a distance away. She sucked in a breath then turned a sad face to her mother.“I’m afraid so.”

I glanced over at Mike. I figured he wouldn’t let anyone get too close. Rule No. 1 at a crime scene was don’t mess with it.

Before Mike could say anything, though, Earl rushed over and grabbed onto Bob’s ankle, trying to pull him out of the water even though we all knew it was too late.

Mike lunged for Earl and pulled him back.“Don’t touch him. This is a crime scene. We need to leave it just like this for the police.”

As if on cue, the sound of sirens split the air.

“Crime scene? Maybe he just fell in,” Carla said. She’d gone over to console Doris and she, Doris and Paula stood in a circle, their arms around each other. Arlene stood off to the side appearing to be disinterested. Henry stood back, his arms over his chest, watching the family.

“Maybe it was the ghost,” Doris said.

Earl jerked his head in her direction.“Ghost? You don’t really think…” He swiveled his head back to look at Bob, his expression pensive as if he were considering the possibility that Jed’s ghost had killed his brother. It was doubtful. I didn’t know of any ghosts that could bash someone’s head in, which is what had clearly happened to Bob.

“What do you suppose he was doing over here?” Carla asked.

“Looking for treasure like the rest of us, of course,” Doris said.

Mike frowned down at the body.“Yeah and I wonder if he found it and that’s how he ended up in the pond.”

“Maybe he just tripped and fell in by accident?” Henry said hopefully.

Mike glanced at me. Judging by the way the back of Bob’s head was flattened, it didn’t seem like he had fallen in by accident. And besides, who could drown in only a few inches of water without help? Unless he’d been getting into Paula’s nips, he would’ve just picked himself up, brushed himself off and continued along the way.

I glanced at the cats. It was clear by the way Nero was looking at me that he didn’t think it was an accident either.

The grass rustled behind us and we all turned to see my mother and Millie bursting out of the narrow path that led to the pond.

“See, what did I tell you, Josie’s got another body!” Millie sounded almost excited. Then she looked around at the Biddefords, her face dropping. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is it one of the guests?”

Nero and Marlowe sprang into action upon seeing Millie and darted over to rub against her ankles. The other cats pulled back further into the overgrowth, satisfied that they’d seen all there was to see.

“It’s Bob Biddeford,” I said.

Millie eyed the Biddefords suspiciously and whispered.“Huh, really? Family dispute?”

“I have no idea,” I whispered back.

“I heard they didn’t get along very good,” Mom said.

“Well you were both here last night, did you see anything?”

Mom and Millie shook their heads.“We didn’t think the treasure would be around here. We focused our efforts on the older side of the property.”

More rustling from the path and Sheriff Seth Chamberlain and his deputies, Johnnie Sanders and Sheila Watts, came rushing into the clearing, cutting off any other queries I had with Mom and Millie.

“What happened?” Seth asked as they started getting out their crime-scene paraphernalia.

“Mike found him down by the pond,” Millie said.

Seth turned to Mike.“What were you doing down here, Mike?”

Mike pointed toward the old toolshed, barely visible through the tall grass.“I came to inspect that. Josie had Ed do some repairs on it and it’s on my inspection list.”

Seth nodded, his eyes drifting back to the body.“Any ID on him?”

“It’s my Bobby.” Doris’s voice cracked and she dissolved into tears.

Millie hustled over to her, put her arm around her and patted her shoulder soothingly.“Now, now, dear, it’s going to be okay.”

“My guess is it has something to do with this treasure, Sheriff,” Johnnie said.

Seth nodded.“Good guess. Let’s say this Bob character found the treasure and someone saw him, then clonked him over the head and took it from him.” Seth glanced around at the ground as if looking for the hole the treasure might’ve come out of.

“Who would do that?” Carla asked.

I didn’t say a word, but the way I looked over the Biddeford family might have given away my suspicions. Seth wasn’t privy to their family dynamics though. I’d have to let him find out for himself. But even though they argued a lot, killing your own brother—or son—was a whole different matter. Surely none of the Biddefords would stoop to murder?

“Just about anyone in town,” Sheila shot over her shoulder from where she was crouched down in the muck beside the body taking pictures.

Seth nodded.“I heard a lot of people were out here last night. That true, Josie?”

“Well, I didn’t see everyone who was out here, but there were a lot of flashlights,” I said.

“Really?” Seth raised a brow at me. “And where were you?”

“I was inside preparing the breakfast for this morning,” I said.

“And what about all your guests?”

“They were outside digging for treasure,” I said. “Along with the rest of the town.”

“It was dark, Sheriff, and hard to see who was who,” Johnnie said. “There were people all over the place.”

“Is that so? How would you know that, Johnnie?”

Johnnie’s expression turned sheepish. “Well, I might’ve come here. The wife dragged me along.”

Seth pressed his lips together.“Kinda odd. Two dead bodies here in two days. That seems a little suspicious to me, Josie.”

Millie fisted her hands on her hips.“Now that’s technically not true. The first one was a skeleton and he was put in there years ago, nothing to do with any of us here. If you keep twisting the truth like that, Seth Chamberlain, I won’t bake you that apple pie I promised for the town celebration.”

Seth’s eyes twinkled and he looked at Millie fondly, but I could tell the threat of her withholding the apple pie was real. “You might be right, but still that doesn’t negate the fact that bodies seem to keep showing up at the guesthouse ever since you sold it to Josie.”

Meow!

Nero, who had trotted over to join us earlier, voiced his disagreement. Good kitty. He and Marlowe were now sitting on their haunches in our circle and it appeared as if they were listening intently to everything we were saying.

“All right, I guess we will have to talk to each one of you and see if I can piece together Bob’s activities last night.” Seth walked over to take a closer look at the body. “Josie, you didn’t notice that he didn’t come in? Looks like he’s been here all night.”

“No, like I said, I was preparing the breakfast and then I went to bed early. I don’t know what time people came and went.”

Seth glanced over at the Biddefords.“Anyone see Bob last night?”

“Bob’s an adult. We don’t keep track of him,” Carla said.

“Besides, we were all too busy minding our own business and looking for our own treasure,” Arlene added.

“I might’ve seen something.”Hiccup. Paula weaved on her feet.

Seth turned to face her. The look on his face told me he wasn’t going to put much stock into what she had to say and, frankly, I couldn’t blame him. I mean Ihad seen her sleeping in the bushes yesterday so she must have been soused.

“What did you see?” Seth asked.

She fidgeted.“Well, from the angle I was positioned in, it’s kind of hard to say.”

“Angle? Where were you?”

Her cheeks flushed and she pointed back toward the trail.“I was tired, so I took a little rest on that stone bench at the beginning of the trail that leads down here.”

“On the bench?” Arlene snorted. “I think I saw youunder the bench.”

Paula straightened.“I might’ve taken a little nap but that doesn’t mean I didn’t see anything. You can see things from laying on the ground as easy as you can from sitting on the bench.”

“Okay so out with it. What did you see?” asked Seth.

“Well, I mean, it woke me up. I was a little groggy and down at that level you see different things.” She glanced over at the body. “My memory is fuzzy but I’m sure I saw someone coming from the direction of the pond.”

“Who?” Doris asked as the Biddefords eyed each other with suspicion.

Paula paused dramatically. I think she was enjoying the attention. Given the fact that she was probably drunk most of the time this might have been one of the few occasions anyone paid any notice to what she had to say.“That maid. You know, the one who doesn’t really clean anything.”

“Flora?” Millie looked at her incredulously. “Little short thing with round glasses?”

Paula crossed her arms over her chest and nodded emphatically.“Yep, that’s the one. I saw her coming right down this path and she was walking pretty fast as if she was rushing away from the scene of a crime.”

Twelve

Seth made everyone go back to the house. The Biddefords settled into the parlor and I brought them some tea and cookies. The Biddeford siblings didn’t appear overly upset seeing as they’d just lost their brother. Doris, on the other hand, was appropriately distraught. She kept wringing her hands and wailing about her baby. Paula did her best to comfort her mother.

Mom and Millie hung out in the kitchen with Mike. Millie was irate that Seth would even consider suspecting Flora. Speaking of which, where was Flora? I hadn’t seen her all morning.

The cats had followed us into the house and were settled in Millie and Mike’s laps.

“Sunshine, are you okay?” Mike placed Marlowe down on the floor much to the chagrin of the cat and came over to stand next to me.

“Of course I’m okay. I’m not some delicate flower like Stella Dumont who needs a man to coddle me.” Maybe my words came out a little sharper than I meant them, but I was a grown woman who had already proven that she was self-sufficient. And truth was I was still upset over how Mike had insisted I shouldn’t investigate the last time we found a body. It was as if he thought I wasn’t competent. Well, the joke was on him because I’d figured out who the killer was last time and I could do it again.

“Now I know what you girls are thinking.” He looked over at Mom and Millie then glanced back at me. “There’s no sense for you to go investigating this on your own. Murderers are dangerous.”

See? I knew he was going to say that! Mom and I exchanged an eye-roll.

“Dangerous schmangerous.” Millie jumped up from her seat. “Someone has accused Flora and I won’t stand for it. She’s practically family and has been here as long as I can remember. And she’s a good, hard-working woman with dozens of grandchildren!”

Mike glanced at me as if looking for help. I shook my head.“If I feel like investigating, I’m going to.”

“I’m a trained investigator, guys,” Mike said. “If you want to investigate something you can ask me to do it for you. But we really should all leave the investigating to the police.”

“I don’t think we need you to do our dirty work for us.” I glanced at Mom and Millie, who nodded.

“We’ve investigated plenty,” Mom said.

“Yeah, what do you think we were doing while you were still in the navy?” Millie asked. “Got a pretty good track record, too, don’t we, Rose?”

“Yeah,we know what we’re doing. Josie here is the amateur,” Mom said.

“Hey!” I bristled at her comment. Had she forgotten that I’d figured out who killed the last guest who had turned up dead? Sometimes nothing I did was good enough for my mother.

Seth appeared in the doorway and Millie scowled at him, taking the tray of cookies she had brought over from the counter and putting them away for emphasis.

“Have you seen Flora?” Seth asked.

“She’s probably cleaning, as is her duty.” Millie’s posture was stiff and she avoided eye contact. “Now you know that nice little old lady couldn’t have killed anyone.”

Seth appeared visibly upset that Millie was cross with him. His sad gaze flicked to the cookies. His voice softened.“Now, Millie, you know I need to follow all the rules. I just want to question her.”

“Question who?” Flora appeared in the doorway that led up the back stairs with a mop in her hand.

“I was just looking for you, Flora,” Seth said.

“Oh really? What for Sheriff?” She looked around, noticing the grim looks on our faces. “What’s going on?”

“Someone was killed on the grounds last night,” Millie said.

Flora’s brows shot up, her eyes getting even bigger behind her round glasses. She looked genuinely surprised, not that I had suspected her for a minute. “Really? Again?”

“I’m afraid so. Whacked over the head.” Mom’s comment earned a look of reproach from both Millie and Seth.

“I didn’t see nothing.” Flora opened the closet to put the mop away.

“Where were you last night?” Seth asked.

Flora turned and scowled at him.“What do you mean? I was at home.”

“Are you sure you weren’t here… Maybe digging for treasure?”

Flora’s eyes flicked from Seth to Mom to Millie.

“Digging? I already told you I didn’t see anything, what does it matter where I was?” She thrust her scrawny left arm, bent it at the elbow to make a muscle, and pointed to it with her right hand. “Does this look like an arm that could hit someone over the head hard enough to kill them?”

Seth looked at Flora uneasily.“Well, it’s hard to say.”

Flora rolled her eyes.“I don’t have time for this.” She looked at Mike. “Surely you don’t think I killed someone, do you Mr. Mike?”

As if to show their support, the cats ran over to Flora. She bent down to pet them, her knees popping and creaking. They sniffed her shoes gingerly, then rubbed their faces against her old wrinkled hands.

“Of course not, Flora. They don’t have any concrete evidence against you, do you, Sheriff?” asked Mike.

Seth sighed.“No evidence. Just that someone saw her there.”

“And who might that be?” Flora demanded.

“I can’t really give out my sources,” Seth stammered.

“Oh, come on. We all heard her say it.” Millie turned to Flora. “It was Paula.”

“The lush?” Flora waved her hand in the air. “She’s not reliable. I’ve got things to clean. When you guys have something concrete then maybe you could come and arrest me, Seth. But don’t forget I used to change your diapers and I’ve got stories to tell.” Flora grabbed a roll of paper towels from under the sink and shuffled off upstairs.

I remembered Arlene’s comments about the cleaning, so I called after her, “Could you double back into Earl and Arlene’s room and make sure it’s extra clean?”

She whirled around and scowled at me. I figured she was going to say she doesn’t clean rooms, but instead she said, “What do you mean double back? Isn’t that the green room?”

“Yes.”

“Well, for your information, I haven’t cleaned that one yet. If I had, it would be clean. I can only do one or two rooms a day, so I haven’t gotten to the green room yet. But I will.” She turned and we heard the stairs creaking as she went up.

“There you have it, Seth. Are you satisfied? Flora didn’t do it. Now why don’t you go try to dig up a real suspect,” Millie said.

Seth stared at Millie with his sad eyes for a second, then he turned to Mike.“I’m ready to take your statement.” As he and Mike started out of the room, Seth glanced over his shoulder at us. “Don’t run off. I’ll take all your statements but Mike’s first. I’m sure he has to get back to work.”

“Yes, I’m sure he does have to get back to work. He doesn’t need to hang around here andhelp us,” I said.

“Nope we can help ourselves,” Millie added, then under her breath. “And find the real killer even if the cops can’t.”

Mike shook his head and followed Seth out of the room.

Millie watched them leave then she opened the box of cookies and put them in front of us. We all took one. Snickerdoodles.“I had just baked these at home when I heard the police call on my scanner app. Lucky thing I thought to bring them. We might need them for sustenance. We need to get on top of this investigation before Flora gets into trouble.” She glanced at the doorway. “Those men think they know everything. We’ll show them.”

I bit into my cookie.“Yeah, we’re good at investigating. Do you think it has something to do with the treasure? Maybe Bob really did find it and someone killed him to take it away.” Had there been a treasure buried in this yard the whole time I’d been struggling to pay bills?

Millie scowled.“That’s just a stupid rumor. There was no hole or signs of digging near Bob and, besides, the odds of treasure being here are pretty much nil.”

“Then why were you guys out here digging last night?” I asked.

Mom and Millie laughed.“What else are we going to do? Besides, half the town was here, and it was fun seeing them all. People get up to shenanigans at night and we wanted to spy and eavesdrop.” She looked at my mom, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Did you see Myron and Stella Dumont?”

“Yeah, they looked pretty chummy over by that gazebo.” Mom glanced at me. “That should put your mind at ease, Josie.”

I frowned.“Why is that?”

Mom rolled her eyes.“A blind monkey could see that you have a thing for Mike. I know you’re still smarting about how he dumped you for Stella in high school, but it’s time to get over that now. You’re a grown woman with a daughter of your own and if Stella’s chummy with Myron that means Mike is free pickings.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. I wished my mom wouldn’t try to fix me up. It was embarrassing at my age.

“I don’t have a thing for Mike.” Okay, maybe a little thing. I had to admit, even though his constant use of my childhood nickname bugged the crap out of me, he was kind of cute and the way he seemed concerned about me did make my heart flip-flop sometimes, but the last thing on my mind was striking up a relationship, Stella Dumont or not. “I think we need to focus on finding out who killed Bob, don’t you?”

“Yeah. That’s more fun than your love life,” Millie said.

“I agree.” Mom dug a cookie out of the box. “Now, who do you think did it?”

“It’s got to be one of the family members. Did you see how Doris was the only one who seemed upset when we found him?” Millie asked.

“They don’t get along very well,” I said.

“And it’s no wonder, what with them working with cheese all those years. That would make anyone not get along,” Millie said.

“Bind you right up, too.” Mom patted her stomach and made a face.

“You ask me, I think it was that drunk one, Paula.” Millie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I heard Bob threatening her the other day.”

“You did? About what?” I asked.

“Something about her being a detriment to the company. Turns out her cheese sculptures are getting messed up because of her drinking. I overheard them arguing when we were outside digging last night. He said she should be fired from the company.”

“And she’s the one who put the finger on Flora. She might be trying to frame Flora to throw the police off track,” Mom said.

“That would make sense, but I heard Bob arguing with someone, too,” I said. “Carla.”

“About what?” Millie asked.

“I’m not exactly sure. Bob said he wasn’t going to stand for ‘it’ and she needed to make it right… or else.”

“That sounds threatening,” Millie said.

“Even worse, Henry overheard them and when he questioned Carla about it, she said for him not to worry about Bob because she was going todo something about him.”

Mom munched on another cookie.“I wonder ifdoing something entailed killing him.”

“Yeah, what if it did?” I said. “Thing is, it seems like the cheese company isn’t doing very well and they’re all blaming each other. It could’ve been any of them.”

“Yeah, but now we have two suspects who we heard arguing with the victim. And we can do something that Seth can’t do.” Millie snapped off a bite of the cookie. “We can interview them one-on-one and try to trip them up so they confess.”

Mom smiled and nodded.“Yeah, that sounds like fun. I say we start right away.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero sat under the kitchen table and aimed his gaze at Josie, willing her to understand his attempts at communication. Unfortunately, she was more interested in the conversation she was having with her mother and Millie about the suspect list.

“Doesn’t matter how hard you stare at her, she’s never going to be able to read your mind. Humans are just not that advanced,” Marlowe said.

Nero sighed and trotted over to his favorite spot near the pantry where Millie had put two plush cat beds. He hopped into the blue one and curled up.“I know, but I wish we could tell them that we overheard Earl and Bob arguing.”

“Then they could add Earl to their suspect list.” Marlowe hopped up onto the counter. The humans weren’t paying any attention, so she trotted over to the sink and tilted her head under the faucet to catch a drip of water. Fresh water out of the tap always tasted so delicious it was worth the risk of getting swatted at. “We’ll just have to figure out a way to clue them in so that they get the idea into their heads on their own.”

“But how? We can’tshow them an argument. We’ll have to find something that points to Earl.” Nero licked his front paw. “And we need to enlist the aid of the others to skulk around town keeping their eyes open for anything suspicious and listening in on conversations. The killer could be anyone who was here last night.”

“Plenty of suspects on that roster.” Marlowe jumped down from the counter and hopped into the tan cat bed beside Nero. “Do you think this has anything to do with the confession Juliette heard? She said something about a woman who was going to betray her family. Perhaps Millie’s theory aboutPaula being the killer is correct.”

“Well, it could be. I know one thing though, it’s not Flora. She’s like family and we’ll protect her like we would protect Millie,” Nero said.

“Sure, but her shoes did smell kind of funny just now.”

“But they didn’t smell like murder. More smoke.”

“Maybe she stepped in some cheese? A little slice of smoked Gouda. I think I saw Carla bring some into her room.”

“Flora could have come into contact with it while cleaning, but we’ll inspect their rooms thoroughly later today when they are out. Perhaps there will be some cheese morsels we can appropriate for ourselves. Purely for investigative purposes, of course. We would never steal from the guests,” Nero said.

“Of course.”

“Naturally, we must protect the reputation of the guesthouse and make sure the blame for this does not fall onto Josie or Flora. I wouldn’t put it past that Seth Chamberlain to try to accuse one of them,” Nero said.

“Ah, come on. We know Seth isn’t that bad. He feeds us doughnut holes when no one else is looking.”

“Exactly. That’s what he does when no one is looking but right now everyone will be looking to see that he solves this case and there is an eyewitness pointing the finger at Flora. If he takes the easy way out, he could throw Flora in jail.”

Marlowe nodded.“We need to help Millie, Rose and Josie figure out how to point him in another direction.”

“Preferably not Josie’s though.” Nero winced as Millie scraped her chair back. It made an ungodly noise, at least to his sensitive cat ears. It didn’t seem to bother the humans any though.

Millie went to the recipe box on the counter and started to leaf through the recipes. That meant baking. Well fine. The humans could leisurely sit around baking all day but Nero didn’t have that luxury. A killer was loose and he had to help catch them. He stood and stretched.

“Come on. Let’s go down to the bait wharf and get this investigation rolling.”

Thirteen

“Just how do you propose we interrogate the family?” my mother asked Millie, who was pawing through the recipes looking for the perfect one for the town celebration. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the presence of mind to hide the remains of my burned peanut-butter-banana loaf, and Millie had seen it in the trash.

Millie had her lips pressed together and was squinting at the cards as she flipped through them. She stopped and then pulled one out.“Yes, this is the one, the apple-pecan bread.” She looked at me and nodded, her eyes sparkling. “That’s the one, Josie. It’s a showstopper. Now let me see if we have the ingredients.”

She bustled over to the cabinets, pulling out the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, a bag of pecans and a bottle of vanilla vodka. She had pulled some apples and a pitcher of orange juice out of the fridge, then turned to me.“Do you have any champagne?”

“Champagne and vodka?” my mother asked. “Do you put those in the apple-pecan bread?”

“No. Those are for Paula. I think she’s making up that story about seeing Flora, and what better way to trip her up than to get her drunk?” Millie said. “And we all know she likes her drinks. I was thinking maybe we could cut her from the herd, serve her a complimentary vanilla mimosa and get her to confess.”

It sounded like a good plan to me, and, luckily, I did have some champagne on hand in the butler’s pantry. I knew one little drink wasn’t going to loosen Paula’s tongue much, so I proceeded to make a pitcher of mimosas. I might’ve taken a little sip or two for myself. I needed to steady my nerves. After all, it was a bit disconcerting that another body had shown up on the property.

Seth Chamberlain was taking people’s statements in the reading room. He had the pocket doors shut, and, try as we might, we couldn’t hear much through them.

“They sure don’t make things like they used to. These doors are solid,” Mom said as we pressed our ears to the door.

“Yeah, too bad,” Millie added. “Oh well, let’s find Paula, that will be much more enlightening than eavesdropping on Seth’s investigation.”

We found Paula sitting alone in the back parlor. The back parlor was a cozy room with overstuffed chairs and pillows in blue-and-yellow accents. Mike had painted the walls pale yellow and I’d had the pine floors refinished so they glowed like warm honey. The room wasn’t used much because it didn’t exactly have a nice view right now as it overlooked the gardens, which were an overgrown mess of tangles. Eventually, I would spruce them up, but now it was mostly weeds and dead flowers. Paula didn’t seem to mind, though. She was sitting in the chair, her blank gaze fixed at something outside the window.

Perhaps her somber mood was due to guilt over killing her brother and she’d break down and confess right away. That would be convenient for me, avoiding a long, drawn-out investigation with the police traipsing through my guesthouse.

“That dreadful sheriff has already taken my statement. It was so stressful.” Paula lifted a shaky cup of tea to her lips.

“I know, dear,” Millie clucked and sat down beside her. I set the silver tray with the pitcher and a champagne flute on the table beside Millie, and she poured a mimosa and held it out to Paula. “We’ve prepared a little something for you to settle your nerves.”

Paula’s eyes lit up. She grabbed the glass, settled back into the chair and chugged the whole thing down.

“Would you like another?” Millie asked.

Paula nodded and Millie topped the glass off.

“It must’ve been dreadful for you, dear, seeing your brother like that,” Millie said.

Paula nodded, the glass still to her lips.

“Funny that you were right at the beginning of that trail last night, though. I don’t think a lot of people were down there digging for treasure, so what made you think that would be a good place to dig?” I asked.

“I didn’t. I went there because it was out of the way. I didn’t want to be disturbed, that’s why I chose that particular bench,” Paula said.

“But it seems odd that you would’ve seen Flora down there. I mean, like we said, it was out of the way and I don’t even think she was digging for treasure. Are you sure it was her?” Millie asked. “I mean, she is kind of old to be traipsing around out there at night.”

Paula put the glass down and wrung her hands together.“I know. That’s what the sheriff said. I got the impression he thinks I made that up, but I swear I didn’t kill Bob, and I’m sure it was the maid I saw.”

“But you did have a fight with Bob earlier, didn’t you?” I asked.

Paula’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you say that?”

“Oh, somebody else mentioned it. I think it was something about your cheese sculptures not being up to par.”

Paula sniffed.“Sure, we fought about that, but that was nothing new. Bob was always fighting with us about one thing or another, and that’s no reason to kill him. I really was on that bench asleep, honest.”

“So Flora woke you up when she came by then? Was she carrying a shovel?” I’d looked at the back of Bob’s head and was pretty sure that he’d been hit with a shovel, but I hadn’t seen any blood on the shovel at the crime scene. I glanced out the window in time to see Johnnie collecting the shovels from the shed. Looked like I was right then.

Paula closed her eyes as if trying to remember.“You know, I’m not sure if she had a shovel, but I saw her clear as day coming down that path. She didn’t notice me because I was on the ground out of the line of sight.”

I jumped on the inconsistency in Paula’s description. “Well, if you were lying on the ground asleep like you said you were, then how could you see Flora coming down the path? You must’ve been awake to see her.”

She squinted again and sipped her mimosa.“Right. Something else woke me up because I did see Flora, but after I was jolted awake by something.”

“Somethingor someone?” Millie asked.

Paula took a deep breath.“I guess it was someone. Someone stepped on my hand. I didn’t see who it was, though. I was fast asleep on the ground, my face pressed to the grass, and then all of a sudden, there was this big shooting pain in my hand.” She made a face and winced, grabbing her hand. “I woke up right away, but the person had already gone by. All I remember seeing is a black Ferragamo tag on the back of their shoes, then when I turned back to try to pull myself up, I saw the maid coming down the path.”

“Ferragamo shoes?” Millie raised her brows. “Those are very expensive shoes. Not everyone wears those.”

“Yeah, and what kind of a moron would wear them digging in the dirt?” my mother asked.

Paula’s eyes widened as if she had made a sudden realization. “I know one moron who would. My brother, Earl.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I went to the kitchen to wash out the empty mimosa pitcher while Mom and Millie ran off to find Seth so they could tell him about the Ferragamo shoes.

If Paula was telling the truth and she really was asleep at the time, I was sure she hadn’t been simply napping. She’d been passed out drunk, which made her an incredibly unreliable witness. I still wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t making the whole thing up so she could frame someone because she was the real killer. Maybe she figured she could throw the investigation off track by implicating both Floraand Earl.

On my way back to the parlor I passed the front sitting room and saw poor Doris in there looking as if she’d lost her best friend. My heart squeezed. The woman’s son had just been murdered and it was possible that one of her other kids did it.

I slipped into the sitting room.“Can I bring you something? Maybe some tea? I have some fresh snickerdoodle cookies.”

So what if I didn’t mention that Millie had baked them at her house? Did it really matter where they’d come from? If Doris thought I had nicely baked cookies for her and gave me a good review on Yelp because of it, Millie wouldn’t mind my little lapse.

Doris turned red-rimmed eyes to me, then glanced in the direction of the kitchen, her nose twitching.“Are they burning?”

I straightened my back. See what happened when you were nice? People mocked you.

“No.” I wasn’t baking anything so of course nothing was burning.

She sighed and slumped in the chair.“It’s just so awful, that Sheriff interrogating us. It’s preposterous to think one of us would have murdered Bob.”

“Do you know anyone whowould have wanted to murder him?” I wasn’t pumping the grieving mother for information, just trying to take her mind off things. But if she happened to have some information about who might have wanted Bob dead, all the better.

Doris pressed her lips together.“Hopefully not his own brother or sisters, though there has been a lot of fighting and animosity lately. You see, Bob could be a bit of a troublemaker. Never quite got along with the rest of the family.”

I raised my brows. Maybe Bob had done something to his brother or sisters and they had a long festering animosity toward him.“Really? What kind of trouble?”

Doris shrugged.“You know, the usual things. Not pulling his weight. Wanting to surf and ski instead of working. Marrying that awful woman.”

I frowned. Bob hadn’t brought a wife to the guesthouse. “He was married?”

“Yep. They were getting a divorce. Good riddance to her, I say.”

“Is it an amicable divorce?” My hopes rose. Maybe the person who had killed Bob was his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Doris wiggled her hand back and forth in a seesaw motion.“So-so. I guess it’s fairly friendly, as divorces go.”

I inched forward to the edge of my chair.“You don’t think the ex-wife could have killed him, do you?”

“I wish. It would take the heat off my other children. I can tell that the sheriff suspects them.” Doris looked thoughtful, as if she was coming to terms with the possibility that one of her children had killed Bob. “But she’s out of the country. I told the sheriff all about her. He’s going to double-check, but, honestly, I wouldn’t think she’d have it in her.”

“What about somebody else from his past? If he was a troublemaker, maybe he rubbed someone the wrong way.”

“Bob rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but I have no idea who he would have angered so much that they’d come here to kill him. I don’t think he knows anyone from Oyster Cove and most of the people he associates with are losers who wouldn’t travel so far to do him in.” Doris shook her head. “It’s just such bad timing with the family tensions being high because the business is doing so badly.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“I suppose I’ll have to arrange a funeral. If only the cheese-sculpting business was doing better we could do something more lavish, but I guess now it will have to be something simple,” Doris said.

I patted her hand for comfort.“Simple is better, sometimes.”

Doris nodded.“They’re not bad children, you know. Even though they each have their little quirks. I blame my husband for making them so lazy and selfish. He wanted them to have it easier than we did and didn’t want them to work as hard. Barney and I started the business from scratch, you know.”

“You don’t say. What made you start a cheese-sculpting business?” I asked.

Doris smiled at the memory.“Barney used to make little sculptures out of cheese for parties and all our friends loved them. It was just a silly hobby, but then people started asking if they could order specific sculptures. Next thing we knew, we were shipping out of state and running a full-blown business.” Doris swiped at the tears drying on her cheeks. “When the kids were grown, we brought them in, and when Barney died they took over. Sometimes when you get something for nothing, you don’t appreciate it. You don’t work as hard. I’ve used up all my retirement income supplementing the business.”

I nodded. I knew how that was. I’d worked my whole marriage to make things good for my husband and he hadn’t appreciated it one bit. I’d put my whole life savings into the guesthouse and my future depended on its success. I sure as heck was going to work my butt off and not let it fall to ruin like Doris’s cheese-sculpting business. All the more reason to clear up this murder fast. I’d do just about anything to make sure my business was a success.

Hey, wait a minute… hadn’t Doris mentioned spending her retirement income earlier in reference to the treasure? She’d looked pretty serious too. But surely she wouldn’t bash her own son over the head in order to grab the treasure from him?

“Of course, some of them don’t have a lick of sense and that might be part of it. Take Carla, for example.” Doris shook her head and looked out the window. “Now before we started digging, we discussed where the old homestead was located in Jedediah’s day. Even though he started off with apretty big house, it’s been added to quite a bit over the years. Carla knew the gazebo didn’t exist on the grounds back then, it was added after Millie’s people bought it.”

I nodded. Apparently talking had comforted her. She was more animated and not as sad now.“I’m going to have that restored, the gazebo.”

“Good idea, but Carla should have been smarter. See, that’s why the business is failing.” Doris tapped her head with her forefinger. “They don’t use their smarts.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because last night when we were digging, I saw Carla coming from the gazebo. Now we know Jedediah wouldn’t bury treasure there because there was nothing there in his day. No trees, no landmarks, nothing, and everyone knows, when you bury treasure, you need a landmark so you can locate it later.”

I thought about that. Why would Carla be digging in a place unlikely to have treasure? Did she know something the others didn’t? The gazebo wasn’t near the pond, but could she have killed Bob at the pond, then taken a long route to get away? Maybe she’d gotten lost in the overgrown bushes and grasses and found her way out at the gazebo.

A ruckus in the hallway interrupted my thoughts.

“That’s preposterous. Who would wear fine Italian leather shoes to go digging in the yard?” It was Earl. Millie had obviously talked to Seth, who was questioning him about the shoes.

“Who knows what people wear to dig? Now answer the question. Do you have Ferragamo shoes?” Seth said.

“Yes, but I was wearing Nikes,” Earl said, “and I can prove it.”

Doris and I went into the hallway in time to see Earl stomping up the stairs. We heard him rip open his door, then slam it shut loudly.

We all stood around looking at each other.

“What’s this about?” Doris asked.

“Your daughter Paula seems to think she saw fancy Ferragamo shoes when she was passed out on the bench before Flora ran past,” Millie said.

Doris scrunched up her face.“Are you people colluding? Trying to get my daughter to say something that she didn’t really see? I mean, you know she’s not that reliable.” Doris made nip-tipping gestures with her thumb and forefinger against her lips.

“I’m just being thorough,” Seth assured her. He narrowed his eyes at Millie. “We won’t be playing favorites here.”

After what seemed like ages, Earl came running down the stairs with a pair of white Nikes in his hand. He threw them down on the round table in the foyer so hard that the Tiffany bird lamp with the delicate stained-glass shade wobbled precariously. I cringed as I pictured the dirt in between the treads caking off onto Millie’s grandmother’s hand-tatted white doily.

“See?” Earl pointed at the mud caked on the side of his shoes. “Those are the shoes I was wearing last night, so if my sister claims she saw someone with Ferragamo shoes walking past her, then it wasn’t me.”

Fourteen

The pungent smell of dead fish tickled Nero’s nostrils as he came around the side of the harbormaster’s station.

“Ah, we’re in luck. They’ve got fish scraps.” Marlowe picked up speed. Likely, she wanted to get to the others before the scraps were gone.

The other cats were already hunkered down near the lobster traps. Poe was chowing down on a halibut head. Juliette was finishing off a haddock tail. Stubbs was industriously picking clean the bones of a cod. Boots must have just finished eating and was now fastidiously preening his whiskers.

As Nero approached, a gull swooped down and attempted to steal a piece of fish away from Harry. Harry hung on with one claw.“Hey, give it back.”

Caw!

The gull flapped its wings with its beak deep into the morsel of fish.

Harry tugged. The gull pulled back.

“That’s mine, go get your own.” Harry tried to grab at the fish with both paws but the gull was stronger. He ripped the meat out of Harry’s paw and flew off. Nero could have sworn the gull’s cry sounded like “ha ha!”

“Stupid gulls. They’re a nuisance.” Harry sat back on his haunches and preened.

“I agree.” Juliette pushed a piece of her haddock over to Harry.

Stubbs finished picking the last bit off the bones of his cod and tossed a perfectly formed fish skeleton into the water, then looked at Nero.“So, what’s going on? You guys figure out who plugged the vic?”

“He wasn’t plugged,” Nero said. “He was bludgeoned with a shovel.”

“Hit from behind,” Marlowe added.

“From behind? So it wasn’t a fight, then?” Boots’s green eyes brimmed with curiosity. “Do you think they got him by surprise?”

“Good question. Someone could have snuck up on him, I suppose, or maybe he knew the person and wasn’t afraid to turn his back. I don’t see how that narrows it down much though.”

“It could have been one of his siblings, he was on the outs with all of them,” Marlowe said.

“Have you located the shovel that was used as the murder weapon yet?” Harry asked.

Nero shook his head.“It could be anywhere.”

“That makes our job harder. Almost everyone in town was out there last night with a shovel.” Boots tugged at his whiskers. “But you said you heard the victim argue with someone?”

“Several people,” Nero said. “Marlowe and I heard him argue with Earl.”

“And Josie heard him arguing with Carla. Josie claims that Carla even made a threatening comment about him,” Marlowe added.

“And Millie heard him arguing with Paula,” Nero said.

“What were they arguing about?” Juliette asked.

“Seems like it all stems from their cheese-sculpting business. It’s not doing well. It seems Bob had made threats to each of them.”

“What kind of threats?” Stubbs asked.

“It would appear Bob had something on them and might have been about to expose what he knew.”

The cats looked pensive. Everyone knew that mixing family with business was fraught with danger, especially if that business was having problems.

“Sounds like tempers might have been high. And maybe someone didn’t want Bob to make good on his threats,” Harry said.

“Bob was the most disruptive one, maybe Doris did him in so they could have harmony in the company again?” Marlowe suggested.

Juliette hissed.“The mother? I don’t think a mother would kill one of her kits. Not unless there was something wrong with it.”

“Sounds like there was plenty wrong with this Bob character,” Harry said.

“Yeah, it’s the age-old motive. Silence anyone who might drop the dime on you or is getting in the way of something you really want,” Stubbs agreed.

Poe picked a piece of fish out of his teeth with a razor-sharp claw.“In any case, I think we should be able to get some cheese samples out of this job. Maybe a pinch of Parmesan or a wedge of Wensleydale or a morsel of mozzarella.”

Juliette frowned at him.“Mozzarella? Do you think they would have that? I don’t think you can sculpt mozzarella. It’s not firm enough.”

“But it is delicious.”

“True.” Juliette smacked her lips together. “Maybe with some little tomatoes and basil or—”

“Kids,” Nero cut in. “Let’s stick to the question at hand. What course of action should we take to ferret out the killer? As you heard, our dear friend Flora has been accused by one of the siblings and of course we must make sure this doesn’t reflect badly on Josie.”

“We all know Flora could not have committed such a heinous crime,” Boots said.

“Surely Seth Chamberlain won’t think it’s Josie again? She has no motive,” Stubbs added.

Juliette jumped on top of the lobster traps. She often liked to get up higher than the rest so she could look down upon them, especially when she thought she had information that she considered to be important.“Don’t forget, I heard the woman confessing about betraying her family. I believe that could have been the killer trying to clear her conscience before committing the crime.”

“Do you think you would be able to recognize her voice? Was she one of the siblings at the crime scene earlier?” Nero asked.

Juliette shook her head.“In the confessional people whisper so you can’t recognize the tone that way. But it does narrow our suspect list down to a woman.”

“Who confesses to a murder before they commit it?” Stubbs asked. “The confession could have been about something else. I don’t want to narrow down the list prematurely.”

Juliette gave him a haughty look and jumped down off the lobster trap.“Fine, thenyou come up with a plan.”

“I have a plan,” Nero said. “I want you all to canvas the town. Sniff out all the shovels, see if you can find the murder weapon among them. The cops took the shovels from the Oyster Cove Guesthouse toolshed, but only the Biddefords used those shovels. If the killer is someone else, the shovel could be hidden somewhere around town.”

“Yeah, we can’t forget that the guesthouse grounds were lousy with diggers last night. Anyone could have whacked him,” Stubbs said.

“Poe, Stubbs, Boots, you check around the alleys and benches downtown. See if you can overhear anything or pinpoint guilty behavior. Harry, get the word out to your network that we are looking for the killer.” Harry was a scrappy street cat with a network of informants that would rival any cable network.

Harry nodded.

“Juliette, you stick close to the confessional at the rectory in case our confessor comes back. If your theory is correct, they may need to cleanse their soul of the guilt.”

Juliette swished her tail in agreement.

“Meanwhile, Marlowe and I will investigate the rooms at the guesthouse. If someone is hiding something there, we’ll find it.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

It was almost noon by the time Seth finished interviewing everyone and departed. Mom and Millie had left me with the ingredients and instructions for the apple-pecan bread and I had baked a trial loaf, which I left cooling on the counter before meeting Mom and Millie downtown to make the final touches on the Oyster Cove Guesthouse table at the town celebration. I hadn’t burned the cake this time, though it did smell a little bit like sour cider. At least I was making progress.

The Biddefords were ambling around the guesthouse, talking in hushed tones. They seemed to be in a somber mood again. I couldn’t imagine one of them had killed Bob, though the alternatives were also not that great. It had either been one of them, someone from town or Flora. Speaking of Flora, I hadn’t seen her since she’d talked to Seth in the kitchen, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. It wasn’t like she’d skip town or anything.

The town common was full of activity again. This time tourists were milling about, sampling the goods here and picking up brochures there. This weekend even more tents would be set up on the other side, part of a gigantic craft fair after the parade. The mood was festive, and maybe word about the murder hadn’t spread yet.

Stella Dumont was hovering around her table. She wore a tight V-neck shirt and a pound of makeup, and was meticulously fussing with her brochures, arranging them just so and standing back to admire the presentation. I glanced back at my table where my brochures lay in a messy pile. I sauntered over and started arranging them, peeking surreptitiously at Stella to see how she was doing hers.

“No copying. Just like in high school, Josie,” Stella said.

“I wasn’t copying.” Where were Mom and Millie? They had requested I meet them here and I hoped they’d hurry so I didn’t have to talk to Stella for too long.

“You’re always after the things I have. Like Mike,” Stella said.

I crossed my arms over my chest.“I heard you were after Myron now.”

Stella’s brows knit together and she laughed then continued fussing with her brochures.

“I thinkyou’re after what I have now,” I said.

Stella paused what she was doing and looked up at me.“What do you mean?”

“I saw you in my yard digging for treasure last night,” I said. Technically that wasn’t correct. I hadn’t seen her in my yard, just scoping it out. But Millie had said she’d seen Stella and Myron so I figured that was almost as good as seeing her there myself.

“Oh, that. I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Who believes there is still an old treasure there anyway? That’s silly.”

“Well, lots of the townspeople were there so apparently not everyone thinks it’s silly,” I said.

“People love to gamble. Look at how many play the lottery. People just came out because there was achance there is treasure. I don’t think too many actually believe in it.” In the corner of the tent sat Myron, donning his perfectly pressed suit. He’d snagged a young couple and was pointing to something in one of his brochures. Trying to sell them a loan no doubt. “Even people who already have money can be lured by thedream of finding treasure—even if they don’t deserve more.”

What was that all about? She sounded mad at Myron. Had he given her the brush-off? She couldn’t really be interested in him, could she? Maybe it was all his family money. Mike was a lot more handsome. Not that I was comparison shopping or anything.

Her words made me wonder. Whywould Myron be out there digging when there was only a slim chance anything would be found? He wasn’t the type to get his hands dirty and his family came from old money. Maybe the bank wasn’t doing well… was that why they had a table here? The First Oyster Cove Bank and Trust didn’t usually need to drum up business. It was the only bank around and everyone in town used them for their checking accounts, loans, investments and savings.

“How’d the bread come out?” Somehow Millie and Mom had snuck up and were standing beside me.

“Not too bad. At least I didn’t burn it.”

“That’s good.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “And what about the suspects? Did anyone blurt out a confession?”

“Unfortunately, no. The closest we came was Earl with the shoes.”

“Those shoes! Can you believe he put them down on Grandma Sullivan’s tatted doily?” Millie glanced up at me. “Flora did clean that off, didn’t she? I hope it doesn’t stain.”

I wondered about that. Flora cleaning it, I mean, not the staining. Flora had made herself scarce after talking to Seth in the kitchen and I couldn’t really say I blamed her. It doesn’t feel very good to be accused of killing someone—I should know.

I made a mental note to check on the doily as soon as I got home. Millie seemed distraught about it, so I wanted to make sure it got cleaned even if I had to do it myself.

“Actually, I haven’t seen Flora since we talked with her and Seth this morning.” I glanced over at the grandmothers of twins’ table, but Flora wasn’t there. “She didn’t say she was taking any time off, but she might have been busy cleaning when I left.”

“Flora? I thought she’d be preparing for her trip.” Annabel Drescher piped in from the table to our left. Clearly, she’d been eavesdropping.

The table was for the Drescher Travel Agency that Annabel owned. It was decorated in a turquoise-and-coral beachy theme, no doubt to entice innocent celebration-goers into buying one of their expensive Caribbean beach packages. Annabel was dressed to the nines as usual with a fancy tailored suit, understated but expensive jewelry, and what looked like a very expensive leather handbag resting next to her chair. Probably keeping it within arm’s reach in case someone tried to make off with it. Naturally, the handbag matched the pair of designer shoes she had on her size-nine feet.

“Trip? What do you mean? Flora isn’t going on a trip, is she, Josie?” My mom turned to me and I shook my head. That was the first I’d heard of any trip.

“Oh yes she is. She was in the travel agency asking about some coordinates.” Annabel straightened some pamphlets.

“Coordinates?” Millie asked.

“Yeah you know longitude and latitude. She was a little bit off though because they ended up in the Caribbean Sea but I think she wanted the island of Martinique. At least, that’s the package I’m gonna try to sell her,” Annabel said.

“Did she say when she was going on this trip?” I asked. Flora hadn’t mentioned any plans, which made me a little suspicious. What was going on with her? Of course, I couldn’t imagine that she’d have killed Bob but where would Flora have gotten the money for a trip? She was always complaining about how hard it was to survive on social security and a maid’s wages. As far as I knew, she was broke.

“You know she was a little vague about that when I asked. Said she’d have to come into a lot of money to afford it. But she must’ve been expecting some soon because why else would she be asking about a specific place?” Annabel shrugged and smiled, showing her ultra-white teeth, just like the ones Jaws showed right before he tried to eat the boat. “I don’t try to force them. Whenever someone comes in with a hankering for a vacation I know sooner or later they’re gonna buy.”

I exchanged a glance with Mom and Millie. This was not looking good. Flora thought she might come into some money, Paula claimed to have seen her rushing away from the scene of the crime, and Flora had denied that. What if Seth’s theory about Bob finding the treasure and someone killing him over it was true? And what if that someone really had been Flora?

I didn’t have long to think about it because a voice boomed from behind us.

“Heard about the goings-on at your place!” We all spun around to see Myron Remington standing there looking superior. “Seems like you’re racking up the bodies like nobody’s business. Maybe you should get a loan for a new wing. A mortuary wing.”

“I don’t think that’s anything to make jokes about, Myron,” Millie said.

“No joke, actually. I really could give you a loan. I have some great rates right now and I’d love to see that old place fully restored.”

I eyed him suspiciously and thought about taking on a loan. On the one hand, it would be great to get the house done in one fell swoop, instead of working on it a little at a time, but I was also maxed out on monthly bills. I couldn’t pay the note on a loan no matter how good the interest rate was. “I’ll think about it, Myron.”

He nodded.“Hey, how is the investigation going on that skeleton? Did I hear it ended up being Jedediah Biddeford?”

“That’s what Seth says, but there’s not much of an investigation going on. My daughter pointed out we could have a forensic anthropologist look into the old bones. Might be able to tell us more.” I couldn’t help the tinge of pride that snuck into my voice at the mention of Emma’s suggestion. Maybe I should suggest that idea to Seth, though not right now. In light of finding another body on my property, it would be best to steer clear of Seth Chamberlain and avoid making him feel like I was telling him how to do his job.

“That seems like it would be quite a waste, doesn’t it?” Myron fiddled with his silk paisley tie. “You know how I hate wasting money.”

“Well it wouldn’t actually be your money, Myron, but yes it does seem like a waste,” Millie said.

“Speaking of your money, did I hear you were in my yard trying to find the treasure last night?” I asked.

Myron looked taken aback.“Treasure? No. Why would I dig up treasure? I own a bank.”

“So you weren’t in my yard? With Stella Dumont?”

He looked sharply over at Stella’s table and she turned her back on him. “I should certainly say not. I couldn’t even get a shovel to dig up treasure if I wanted. Your maid Flora got the last one.”

Fifteen

Since I was already in town, I figured I’d visit Jen. I’d been so busy lately that we’d rarely gotten a chance to talk. I wanted to catch up. Okay, I admit that I had an ulterior motive. The post office was rumor central and I wanted to get some insider information on what people were saying about the murder.

Jen was standing about five feet from the open slots on the postmaster side of the post-office boxes with a stack of letters in her hand. She was oblivious to the fact that someone had come in, her concentration aimed at pitching each letter into its rightful post-box slot like she was practicing for darts.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Each letter made a hollow sound as it slid, hitting the slot door on the other side.

She noticed me as I approached the desk because she stopped pitching and turned, her mouth quirking in a smile.

“Oh, thank goodness. Someone to talk to. It gets so boring in here and I have to make up little games to keep myself amused.” She gestured toward the post-office boxes. “So, what’s up?”

“I just came down to check out my table under the tent. Millie is obsessing about having a good presentation.”

Jen’s face turned serious and she reached out and patted my forearm, which I had rested on the counter. “I heard about the murder. Are you okay?”

“Sure. Never let a little thing like murder in my guesthouse get me down. I might be getting used to it.”

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t become a common occurrence.” Jen’s concerned eyes turned inquisitive. “Any idea who did it?”

I glanced around to make sure we really were alone. The post office had a lot of nooks and crannies and you never knew where someone might be lurking around reading the magazines or fliers they’d gotten before tossing them in the recycling bins. No one was around. “I think it might be one of his siblings. Can you believe one of them tried to pin it on Flora?” I said.

“Flora? No way.” Her eyes narrowed. “Do you think that person was trying to divert suspicion away from themselves?”

“Possibly.” I picked a candy out of the bowl that sat on top of the counter. Hershey’s Kisses. If I had that on my counter the bowl would be empty in about five minutes. “What are people saying?”

Jen shot me a mischievous look.“First tell me what’s going on with you and Mike. I heard he was the one who discovered the body so that means he must have been at your place very early this morning.”

I rolled my eyes. My mother and Millie weren’t the only ones meddling in my non-existent love life. Jen had been wanting to see Mike and I get back together since I moved back to town. Not happening.

“Yes, he was there.” I let my voice trail off and gave her a coquettish look just to yank her chain. I almost felt bad at the hopeful gleam in her eye.

“I knew it! Did he stay over?”

I drew it out, popping another Hershey Kiss in my mouth and pretending to be too busy chewing to answer. Jen was practically jumping out of her black government-issued shoes with anticipation.

I swallowed and smiled.“Nah. He was just there to inspect the toolshed. That’s why he was down near the pond.”

“I heard it was in the pond. But you’re sure he didn’t fall in and drown on his own?”

“Nope. The back of his skull was crushed.”

I gave her the Reader’s Digest condensed version of finding the body and what had gone on this morning, with Seth interrogating people and how Paula had claimed to see Flora coming up the path from the pond.

“Flora? She wouldn’t harm a fly. She’s a great-grandmother, for crying out loud.”

“I know.” I pressed my lips together. Of course Flora wouldn’t kill anyone. She was loyal, trustworthy and a good worker. Okay, scratch that part about a good worker. She was loyal and trustworthy though. And I couldn’t picture her bashing someone over the head with a shovel, especially with those scrawny arms of hers. But still, something didn’t sit right. There were a few disturbing, unanswered questions when it came to Flora.

“She has been acting a little odd lately. Did you hear anything about her going on a trip?” I asked.

Jen shook her head.“But I wouldn’t necessarily hear about that.”

“True.” Not everyone gave Jen their itinerary, though most people going on a trip had their mail stopped. Flora lived in an apartment and would probably have a neighbor or her landlord collect it. So, unless Flora was going with someone who might create a scandal, the post-office grapevine would find her trip uninteresting.

“Do they have any other suspects?” Jen peeled a stamp off a stamp sheet and pressed it onto an envelope, then tossed the envelope into a mailbag.

“I’m not sure. Seth probably suspects me, though.”

Jen laughed.“What motive would you have?”

“None, but he was looking at me with suspicion. Remember he thought I killed the last person too.”

“Only because you own the guesthouse now and were out of town for a long time and he thought you killed the last victim because he was going to give the guesthouse a bad review. But it really does come down to motive, doesn’t it? I heard that Seth thought perhaps someone killed Bob to take the treasure away from him. Do you think he dug something up?” Jen asked.

“Did you hear anything about any treasure through the grapevine?” If someone had the treasure, chances were someone else knew about it and sooner or later that person would talk. I doubted there actually was any treasure though or that Bob had dug it up. If he had, wouldn’t the hole—or at least evidence of digging it—have still been there?

“You don’t really believe that whole treasure curse thing, do you?” Jen asked.

“No. You?”

“Nope. But some people do. I’ve heard a few people say that old Jedediah killed Bob to make good on his curse.”

“If that were the case, then Bob would still have had the treasure in his possession. Unless they think a ghost took it away.”

Jen laughed.“With some of the folks here, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“No, I think this murder was done by someone on the earthly plane. Someone closer to the victim.”

“You mean like his family?”

I nodded.“Bob had threatened several of them. The business isn’t going well and apparently they were all at odds.”

Jen nodded.“Typically the victim knows the killer.” She watched a lot of crime shows on TV.

“You haven’t heard any rumors about anyone in town knowing Bob from before, have you?”

Jen slapped another stamp on an envelope and tossed it in the bag.“Nope.”

“Anyone come to town asking around for him? He’s getting a divorce, but his wife is supposed to be in Europe.”

Jen’s left brow rose. “An estranged wife? Sounds like a person with a motive. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of anyone looking for him. The only people asking about the Biddefords are those interested in the skeleton you found. That seems to have raised everyone’s curiosity. Even Myron Remington was in here asking about the investigation.”

“He was asking me too, but Sheriff Chamberlain isn’t going to investigate Jedediah’s death. I mean, how can he?”

“The clues are too old and a fresh murder would take priority, I imagine,” Jen said. “Myron’s family has history here. Maybe he was more interested in the historical aspect or maybe he’s one of those creepy serial-killer ghouls who is fascinated with skeletons and bodies.”

Jen had an excited look on her face as she said this. I started to worry that maybe she’d been watchingtoo many crime shows.

“He always was a little weird. I think he might have only been feigning interest so he could make googly eyes at Stella Dumont.”

“He was making googly eyes at Stella?” The dramatic look on Jen’s face was replaced by skepticism.

“Millie said she saw them together last night on the grounds when everyone was digging.”

Jen waggled her brows.“Together, together?”

The thought made my lips purse like I’d eaten a sour lemon. “Ugh… did you have to put that image in my head? I think they were just talking. She seemed to imply they were an item but then today Myron denied even being there. Said it was beneath his dignity and he had plenty of money already.”

“Sounds like something he would say. He always acted superior especially since he went to a better college than the rest of us. Maybe his business isn’t doing well and he needs an influx of money but doesn’t want anyone to know. He always was worried about appearances.”

“Or maybe he wanted to hide the fact he really was with Stella.”

“Well I wouldn’t be surprised if Stella was trying to hook Myron. He has the money and you know how she likes to go for that.”

“True.”

“At least she won’t be going for Mike if she’s after Myron. Not that Mike would give her the time of day,” Jen said slyly.

This time I didn’t bite. “Well, I better get going. During the interrogations someone got Millie’s grandmother’s doily dirty and I want to make sure it’s clean before I get home.”

“Shouldn’t Flora do that?” Jen asked.

I raised my eyebrows in response and she laughed.“Oh yeah, what was I thinking?” She picked up her big pile of envelopes as I turned to leave. “Well one thing at least, you won’t have to worry about people coming over to dig more holes in your yard tonight.”

That was welcome news since I was starting to worry about how to control the hole diggers. I didn’t need another one ending up dead. “Why is that?”

“Everyone is scared off because of the curse. I told you, a lot of folks think Jedediah Biddeford made good on his promise. They think he already killed one person digging up his treasure and no one else wants to be next.”

Sixteen

“Searching rooms is exhausting,” Nero said as he flopped down in a pool of sunshine in the conservatory.

“The actual searching is fun, but it’s tedious timing things so precisely so that we can get in and out,” Marlowe said. “I mean, waiting around until someone opens the door then darting inside without being noticed and then making sure we don’t get trapped inside. Sneaking out when the door is open…”

“It’s risky if we have to resort to the old meowing incessantly to go in and then out and then in again trick,” Nero said.

“Good thing we know some secret passages in this old place.”

“Too bad all our efforts were for nothing, though. We didn’t find a thing.”

“We did get to sample some of that Gouda Paula had in her room,” Marlowe said. “Good thing Gouda doesn’t need to be refrigerated, I would hate to have it mess with my digestion.”

Nero shot Marlowe a recriminating look.“I think you got a little overzealous with that sculpture by the way, I hope she doesn’t notice that the ears are missing from the smaller bunny.”

Paula had made a sculpture of a grassy field with rabbits. It was actually rather nice and the little blades of grass were perfect for nibbling without anyone noticing. Of course, Marlowe had to get greedy and go for one of the ears. Hopefully Paula would just think she’d bitten them in a drunken fog or maybe blame one of her siblings.

Marlowe turned away, appropriately embarrassed.“Perhaps I did get a bit carried away. I was frustrated that our search didn’t turn up any evidence.”

Nero had shown Marlowe some of his most-valued methods of clue detection, yet they had not found anything.“At least Flora cleaned Earl and Arlene’s room. That woman has been quite obnoxious about it.”

“She sure was. I hope they find out that she’s the killer. I don’t like her at all,” Marlowe said.

“I don’t actually like many of the Biddefords. I mean, what kind of family argues all the time? Family should stick by each other, not be at each other’s throats,” Nero reflected. “I guess Doris is okay, but then I do have a fondness for older humans.”

Marlowe trotted over to the potted ficus trees and started sniffing.“Hey, did you dig over here again? There’s dirt all over the floor. Josie is not going to like that. Or did you do that on purpose to keep her in line?” Marlowe glanced over her shoulder at Nero.

Nero’s whiskers twitched. What was the young cat talking about? He sighed and got up from his warm spot to see.

“I didn’t dig here. If I was to spew dirt to keep Josie in line, I would make it much more obvious and spread it all over the room like this.” Nero swatted at a large clump of dirt and it skidded out into the middle of the room breaking up into smaller pieces. “See, now that piece Josie would be able to see from the doorway. You need to be more obvious with these things.”

“Me? I didn’t mess with the dirt.” Marlowe cocked her head and looked at one of the boarded-up windows. “I do think someone has been here though.”

They trotted over to the window and sniffed.“Smells like fresh wood and nails.” Something in the corner caught Nero’s eye and he snaked his paw out and batted it around. A shiny new nail.

“Ed must have been here. But why would he dig in the plant?”

“Beats me, but it looks like someone did. Maybe it was one of the guests.”

“Either that or we’ve got another cat in here, and I think if we had another cat one of us would know.”

Nero laughed. Of course his superior senses would have alerted them to an intruder cat.

“It is curious. Sadly, these humans must be dumber than I thought. Surely they aren’t stupid enough to think the treasure is buried in a potted plant?”

Marlowe trotted over and lay in the sunny spot under the window. Curling her tail around her and closing her eyes she muttered,“Don’t ask me, I wouldn’t put anything past them. Maybe it wasn’t one of them, maybe it was that dead guy’s ghost. I heard people saying downtown they believe he’s here.”

Nero snorted.“Hardly. We’d have been able to sense a ghost too.”

Nero looked at the dirt a few seconds more before joining Marlowe in the sun. Something was definitely odd about this whole business. Maybe a nap would help. He’d seen Josie at the town common earlier in the day and had a funny feeling she might be heading down the wrong path. He needed to reroute her by showing her clues that would lead to the real killer… too bad he had no idea who that was.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

After my visit with Jen, I hurried back to the guesthouse. If Flora hadn’t cleaned Millie’s great-grandmother’s doily, I wanted to be sure I got it done right away. I should clean all the doilies really. They’d been here for a couple hundred years and I didn’t want one to be cleaner than the others. How did you clean a doily anyway? Could you put it in the washing machine with bleach? Maybe I should ask Flora. No. She didn’t seem to know a lot about cleaning. Hand washing was probably best.

I stepped into the foyer, surprised to see Nero and Marlowe on the table, sniffing around the doily. They turned as I came in and I could have sworn their looks were a tad judgmental. Were they the cleaning police now, judging me for not getting the doily cleaned right away?

“I know, I know. It’s dirty.” I shooed them away to find that the doily was not dirty at all, apart from a few little pieces of dirt that the cats had apparently decided were quite fascinating. Flora must’ve cleaned the doily, but left loose dirt. No surprise there. I could at least give her credit for the effort, and Millie’s family doily wasn’t ruined.

Meow.

Nero blinked at me with his intelligent golden eyes as if he was trying to tell me something.

“Yes, I already admitted that I see there’s dirt here.” I brushed the dirt into my palm, making a mental note to wash off the table later.

Mewp.

Marlowe jumped down and sniffed my shoes.

“My shoes aren’t dirty. I’m not the one who was out digging for treasure,” I said.

Both cats blinked up at me, their tails swishing. The intensity of their stares gave me the impression that they were either trying to telepath some thoughts my way or were thinking I was the dumbest human around. Maybe both. Then again, maybe they just wanted some food.

“Are you guys hungry?” I’d been making attempts to communicate with them as equals. I’d really been trying to see if they had any understanding of my questions. I still wasn’t convinced that they were as smart as Millie seemed to think, but at times they did seem eerily intelligent.

Meroo!

They both ran to the kitchen. Just as I thought, my attempts at communication were getting better.

Flora walked in the front door just then, wearing a crocheted sweater with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and her giant beige patent-leather purse hanging from her arm.

“Oh, Flora, there you are.”

She scowled at me.“Where else would I be?”

“Where have you been?”

Flora sighed and rolled her eyes, the thick round coke-bottle glasses giving this a comical effect.“I told you earlier. I was going to Irma Blazer’s to work on our cookies for the great-grandmothers of twins’ table.” She spoke slowly as if I was a dunce and couldn’t understand her. “I left shortly after Seth Chamberlain interrogated me.”

Now I remembered. Flora had mentioned that the other day, but with all the excitement going on, I’d forgotten.

“Oh right. How did that go with Seth anyway?” I asked.

Flora pursed her lips as she put her giant purse down on the table, shrugged out of her sweater and hung it on the coatrack.“That young man needs to learn some manners. Accusing his elders. I don’t know what the world is coming to.”

I bit back a smile. Seth had to be almost seventy and I didn’t think he was that much younger than Flora. Then again, she said she changed his diapers, so there must have been at least a decade and a few years between them.

“I don’t know what gives him cause to accuse you. You weren’t even out there digging, right?” Flora had been cagey about this before and I wanted to ask again because Flora was getting up there in years and maybe she was having some memory issues. Paula had claimed to have seen her. Myron had said Flora got the last shovel. Paula couldn’t actually be trusted to remember stuff right and Myron could have been lying, but why would he?

Flora pressed her lips together and fisted her hands on her hips.“I never said I wasn’t out there. I said I couldn’t very well clobber someone over the head. I don’t have the strength.” She bent her scrawny arm at the elbow again to make a muscle, as if to prove her point. “But just like everyone else in town I was curious about the treasure, so I wanted to see what was going on.”

I searched my memory banks for the previous conversation. Flora was right, she had said she couldn’t clobber someone. But I still got the impression she’d purposely avoided admitting she was out there. Maybe she was embarrassed about digging. Or afraid about being accused? But she hadn’t actually lied, I’d just misinterpreted what she’d said. That made me feel a lot better. “So youwere digging?”

Flora looked appropriately embarrassed.“As much as I could. It’s hard work.”

That explained why Paula had seen her. But it didn’t explain something else I’d heard about her.

“Are you planning on going on a trip?” I asked.

Flora frowned at me.“No. What makes you ask that? Where would I get money for a trip?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I thought I heard from someone that you were taking one.” I didn’t want to rat out Annabel. No sense in making enemies out of someone you might want to get information from later.

Flora’s gigantic eyes assessed me as if she was considering having me committed. Butterflies swarmed in my gut. Either Annabel had gotten her wires crossed or Flora was a very good actress. And if it was the latter, then all the details of her being capable of hitting someone with a shovel could have been acting too.

“I would have asked for the time off if I was going on a trip, right? Did I ask for time off?” Flora reached into the closet and pulled out the feather duster.

“No. But if you want some time off you can have it.”

“Got no need for time off. Got no need for travel. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to get cleaning. Lots of work to do.” She shuffled off toward the stairs then stopped, turning to look at me. “By the way, don’t worry. I did clean that room for that nasty Arlene. You ask me, she doesn’t deserve it. The place was a pigsty. But that’s none of my business.”

“Thanks. And thanks for cleaning off the doily too.” I gestured toward the table. I didn’t mention she’d forgotten to pick up some of the dirt. With Flora you had to take what you get.

She gave me another one of those Ishould-have-you-committed looks.“If you say so.”

Merup.

The cats had been sitting patiently watching us as if they understood every word we were saying. But now it appeared their patience had come to an end. They trotted toward the kitchen, glancing back at me every few steps. They wanted the food I’d promised earlier.

Flora was swatting at the railing with the duster as she ascended the stairs. I was glad she hadn’t lied about being out there last night. Paula probably had seen her but been confused about where and when. Okay, the thing about the trip was a little odd but maybe Flora didn’t want me to know she was planning one or maybe she was looking into it for one of her bazillion grandchildren.

I could cross Flora off my suspect list and focus on the others. The Biddeford siblings were at the top and I couldn’t discount Doris, either. Myron was running a close second though. He’d lied about being here, but I felt that might be because he was embarrassed to admit he was with Stella. Too bad we didn’t know more about the arguments amongst the Biddeford clan. So far it didn’t seem like any of themwere worth killing over. I needed someone with a more compelling motive.

At least the townspeople wouldn’t be digging up the yard again. If what Jen said was true, they were all too afraid of Jedediah Biddeford’s ghost. But I didn’t think Bob’s death had been perpetrated by any ghost. No, whoever clobbered Bob over the head was undoubtedly human, and might be getting very nervous about being discovered as the killer.

And, as I knew from previous experience, people who were nervous about being exposed as a killer could become very dangerous.

Seventeen

I shook off the silly notion that Jedediah’s ghost was killing people who had been searching for his treasure and fed the cats. They seemed to appreciate their meal of turkey chunks and gravy if the way they circled around my feet and rubbed their cheeks on my ankles was any indication.

I bent down to pet them, and they rewarded me by butting their soft heads against my hand and purring. My relationship with the cats was improving greatly. I’d never had a cat before buying the guesthouse and I had to admit they were actually quite good pets.

“You know, you guys are actually pretty great. I’m glad to own you.”

The cats abruptly stopped their purring and rubbing, and looked at me with eyes that were practically shooting daggers.

“I mean, I’m glad you guys own me now.”

That must have mollified them because they continued their purring and rubbing—it was as if they could understand every word I’d said.

The cats went back to their bowls and I stood and watched them eat for a few seconds. Unlike humans, the cats seemed to appreciate most things I gave them, except when they were being finicky. Turns out cats are pretty good company too. Maybe even better company than husbands. I certainly enjoyed my relationship with them more than the last several years—possibly even the last several decades—with my ex, Clive.

I left the cats to their bowls and pulled out Millie’s recipe file. I needed to find something for breakfast the next day. The Oyster Cove Guesthouse didn’t provide lunch or dinner, but the guests sure did expect a spectacular breakfast.

I riffled through the file, discarding the ones that seemed like they were beyond my skill set or that had too many ingredients, when the back door opened and in came my mother and Millie.

“I hope you don’t mind us just walking in, dear.” Millie came over to inspect the recipes I’d pulled out. “Are you planning for breakfast tomorrow? That’s very good. You need to plan ahead when you are running an operation like this. What are you going to make?”

The cats immediately ran over to greet Millie but I noticed this time they hesitated just for a second, looking up as if to assure me that even though they were meeting their old friend Millie, they still knew that their new friend—me—was the one who fed them. I found that heartwarming even if it was likely just my imagination.

“I’m not sure. I was thinking about maybe a quiche or a frittata, but I’ve never made a frittata…” I glanced at Millie hopefully. So far Millie had helped me cook most of the breakfasts I’d served. I guess she felt a responsibility to keep up the reputation of the guesthouse in that department. I didn’t mind.

“We have a lot going on, so I think a quiche would do. You know you can make those ahead of time.” Millie selected a broccoli quiche recipe and put it on the counter. “You have some leftover cooked white rice from our Chinese takeout the other day, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

“Perfect. I don’t like to waste food. We can use that up in here,” Millie said. “You know, back when I ran the guesthouse in my younger days, I used to like to pre-prep. Some things like the frittata must be prepared fresh that morning, but I always preferred doing something the night before, that way I didn’t have to get up early. I could just rush down, heat it up and then put it on the breakfast buffet with the other items. I never did like to get up early.”

“All those late nights out with your boyfriends,” my mother teased.

Millie blushed and fluffed her hair.“Well now, I guess I’ll just start assembling these ingredients.”

She opened the cupboard and took out some salt and pepper, then grabbed eggs, cheese and milk and the rice out of the fridge before taking the frozen broccoli out of the freezer and popping it into the microwave.“It’s always a good idea to have some frozen veggies around, comes in handy when you need to whip up a quiche.”

I nodded. The broccoli must have been left over from when Millie owned the place. I certainly didn’t remember buying it.

As she worked, she talked.“Did you learn anything new about…” She jerked her head in the direction of the pond.

“I talked to Jen and she said people around town think Jedediah’s ghost came back and committed the murder.”

My mother gave a nervous laugh, her eyes darting around the room as if she expected a ghost to manifest out of nowhere.“That’s ridiculous. Isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course it is.” Millie cracked an egg into a bowl and started beating it. “That man was definitely killed by a human. He was bludgeoned over the head with a shovel. Ghosts would do something less physical.”

“I think all of Bob’s siblings are still suspects. I’m not sure about Flora, she did say she was out there… but she didn’t kill Bob, of course.” I chewed on my bottom lip. Should I mention to Mom and Millie that she’d sort of lied? Millie would probably say she had just been forgetful, shewas quite old. I wondered if the police still suspected her.

“I haven’t talked to Seth Chamberlain, have you?” I asked. Millie always could wrangle sensitive information out of him.

Millie blushed. Just as I suspected, she’d been doing more than talking with Sheriff Chamberlain. Good thing for us though as we could use all the information we could get.

Millie added rice to the egg and beat faster.“I happen to know the siblings are still suspects but don’t tell anyone I told you.”

“All of them?” my mother asked as Marlowe jumped up onto her lap. “I thought maybe Earl had cleared himself with the shoes.”

Millie nodded.“Yes. His Nikes do seem to clear him, but who can believe what Paula said? Maybe she didn’t see fancy shoes at all.”

“And is she a suspect?” I asked. “I mean, she does admit she was in the proximity. Shesays she was asleep under the bench, but she could be lying about that.”

“I don’t think we can rule any of them out because they all argued with Bob,” Mom said.

“And Flora didn’t,” Millie added. “She has no motive.”

“Other than the treasure,” Mom added.

“If only we knew what those arguments were really about we could determine if his siblings had something to kill over,” I said.

“And let’s not forget about Myron Remington. He was acting very strange and overly interested in the case. He dresses fancy. I bet he has a pair of Italian leather shoes like Paula said she saw. Didn’t you see him here last night, Millie?” my mother asked.

“Yep. I think he was with Stella Dumont, but you’re wrong about one thing. He’s not really interested in Bob’s case, he’s more interested in Jedediah’s case. The skeleton,” Millie said. “He was asking Seth all about it.”

Millie had mixed grated cheese in with the egg and rice and she pressed that into a pie plate to make the crust. I watched carefully. Millie made it look easy.

“Myron said he wasn’t here that night,” I said. Millie turned to look at me, her left brow quirked up. “I asked him directly.”

“I saw him. I know it was him,” Millie said.

“Why would he lie?” my mother asked.

“If he was with Stella he might not want anyone to know,” I suggested.

“Or maybe he’s the killer and pretending he is interested in the skeleton as an excuse to find out more about the police investigation into Bob’s murder,” Mom said.

Millie mixed the rest of the eggs and the other ingredients together and poured it in the pie plate on top of the egg and rice crust. The cats begged and she tossed them a piece of cheese.“I don’t know. Myron has always been worried about what people think. Always boasting about how his family has been here for generations, as if that was some sort of pedigree. He probably just didn’t want anyone to know that he’d lowered himself to the level of regular folks.”

“Did Flora say what she was doing down by the pond? Or even if shewas there?” Mom asked.

“Not to me,” I said. “I didn’t hear her deny Paula’s accusation either though.”

Millie pressed her lips together.“Seth didn’t mention what he talked about with Flora. I know he thinks I am biased about her. But if Paula is telling the truth and she was awakened by the shoe stepping on her hand,then saw Flora, that means Flora was coming down the path after the person with the fancy shoes,” Millie said. “Do you think Flora might’ve seen something and is afraid to talk about it?”

The cats meowed loudly. They were over by a small bookshelf that held ephemera related to the guesthouse. All kinds of old brochures, menus, pictures. Nero swatted at the little blue plastic ring from a milk bottle that had fallen on the floor and it skittered under the bookshelf. The two cats peered after it, then Marlowe snaked her paw under to retrieve it.

“She might have seen something, but I doubt it,” Millie said. “I mean, have you ever seen Flora afraid to speak up?”

“Good point,” I said. “And what about this business about a trip to the Caribbean? Why would Annabel say Flora was taking one if she isn’t? Or if she is, why would Flora lie?”

Millie waved her hands dismissively.“Annabel probably thinks if she says it enough times Flora will think it’s her idea. She’s doing a big renovation on her travel agency and I bet she needs the money. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s saying that about everyone—you know, planting the idea sort of like a subliminal message.”

“Maybe. I just hope Seth will leave Flora alone now. He has many more interesting suspects to consider,” I said.

“Not the least of which is Jedediah’s ghost.” Mom stared at the cats, who were now staring at the bookcase as if mesmerized by something the rest of us couldn’t see. “Maybe Nero and Marlowe know more about that than we do.”

Mew!

They turned to look at us as if they knew we were talking about them, then continued playing with the plastic ring, Nero swatting at it and sending it skidding into the butler’s pantry.

“Oh, go on.” Millie waved her hand in the air. “You don’t believe that, do you?”

“Maybe not, but plenty of peopledo believe it.” Mom glanced at me. “I just hope it doesn’t hurt the reputation of the guesthouse.”

“All the more reason to figure out who really killed Bob so the rumors can stop.” I would like nothing better than to solve this case quickly and move on. I hadn’t gotten a reservation for the guesthouse in the last couple of days and soon the Biddefords would be leaving. I needed new guests to pay the bills. And I didn’t need something like a lingering murder investigation to scare them off.

Millie shoved the quiche into the oven.“I’m just going to cook this for a while to let it set and you can heat it up tomorrow morning. Now, let’s talk about the town celebration. Are you all set with the rest of the display items and the loaf cakes?”

“Sure.” I was a bit reluctant to stop the murder discussion since I really wanted to figure out who the killer was, but I supposed that talking about something else would give our collective subconscious time to work on all the clues and suspects. “I’ll dig up that book on the guesthouse history from my room tonight. I made a trial batch of apple-pecan loaf.” I gestured toward the loaf I’d left cooling.

“I saw that. Was wondering when you were going to let me try it.” Millie cut into the loaf and I held my breath as she took a bite and swirled it around in her mouth like she was taste testing fine wine.

“It’s okay. A little tart.” Millie picked up the recipe card and looked over the recipe. “Oh yes, I remember this one. You might want to add a pinch more sugar. Plenty of people like it sweet. And you have the little mini loaf pans and bows?”

“Yep.” I can’t tell you how relieved I was the loaf had passed Millie’s taste test. Sure, she’d complained about it being tart, but the fact that that was all she’d had to say was a high compliment. Millie had given me these cute miniature tinfoil loaf pans, pink plastic wrap and red bows. She’d said the presentation would draw people to my table. I was afraid I needed as much help as I could to get people in my line and out of Stella’s, so I was willing to try anything, even if it meant pouring batter into dozens of tiny pans.

“Okay.” Millie brought her hands together and looked at my mother. “What do you say we leave Josie to it? The bingo game at the senior center starts in thirty minutes and it’s a double pot tonight. Don’t want to miss it.”

“You guys take off, I can handle this.” I gestured toward the oven.

“Great.” Millie pointed. “Let that cook for twenty more minutes, then let it cool and put it in the fridge. Heat it up tomorrow morning for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Easy peasy.”

The cats trotted out to say their goodbyes and Millie and Mom went out the back door. As I was watching them go, Millie turned and said,“Don’t worry, Josie, everything will work out perfectly. You’ll see.”

“That’s right,” Mom agreed. “But you might want to burn some sage, just in case those rumors about Jedediah’s ghost really are true.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

No sooner had Mom and Millie left, than the front door opened and I heard the Biddefords come in. At least they wouldn’t be digging up the yard tonight. The police had taken their shovels, but I also doubted they would be so cold-hearted to want to dig when that’s how their brother had been killed. I lurked in the hallway, hidden by the staircase—not to eavesdrop, but to give them some privacy. Okay, maybe Iwanted to eavesdrop a little. They were my prime suspects and one of them might say something incriminating.

“I think a nice simple service with no wake is fine,” Carla said. “We don’t really need to rub elbows with any of Bob’s unsavory acquaintances, so there’s no need for a wake.”

“If the police ever release the body,” Earl said.

“Maybe someone could do a cheese sculpture of a dove to put on top of the casket?” Doris asked.

The kids mumbled their agreement.

“White cheddar would work well for that,” Paula said.

“Boy that Marinara Mariner sure has spicy sauce. I’ll be up all night.” Earl burped.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have eaten so much,” Carla said. I could hear her sniffing. “Did Josie bake something? Maybe we should make sure the kitchen isn’t on fire.”

The siblings laughed and I resisted the urge to march right out there and give them a piece of my mind. I’d burned a few loaf cakes since the Biddefords had been here, but I didn’t burneverything I put in the oven.

“I’m going to bed to see if I can get some sleep,” Arlene said. “It’s kind of freaky knowing there is a murderer running around. I knew this town was weird. Luckily, we’ll only be here a few more days. I don’t even care about the town celebration or how Earl’s ancestors practically founded Oyster Cove anymore.”

“You can say that again,” Carla agreed. “And honestly, I don’t know if I want to sleep in this creepy old house with Jedediah Biddeford’s ghost rambling around. I don’t want to be his next victim.”

“You don’t really think there is a ghost here, do you?” Arlene scoffed.

“That’s what they’re saying in town.”

Great. People were starting to believe this murdering ghost nonsense. Now even the current guests were afraid to stay. I heard the stairs creaking as they all went up to bed.

“You know, it would make sense that it would be Jed’s ghost,” Earl said. “I mean, who else would want to kill Bob?”

“You mean other than one ofush?” Paula slurred.

“Yeah,” Earl said. “Maybe Bob really did find something and Jed made good on his curse to harm whoever messed with his treasure.”

“Stop it!” Arlene admonished. “I won’t sleep a wink. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Well I, for one, hope there really is,” Doris said. “And I hope Jed is rambling around in here. In fact, I hope he pays me a visit tonight.”

“Why is that?” Henry asked.

“Because then maybe I can persuade him to tell me where he hid the darn treasure!”

Eighteen

The cats had been sitting silently at my feet the whole time I listened to the Biddefords’ conversation. They blinked up at me as if in agreement that the whole family was crazy. But was one of them a killer?

Nero rubbed his face on my ankle and then looked up at me adoringly. I could see why people got so attached to the furry creatures. I was really starting to like them, they could be very friendly and attentive. They were especially attentive when I headed toward the fridge and got out some cheese and an apple for a snack.

“You guys want a snack too? Okay maybe a little cheese.” I broke off two pieces and added it to my plate. At their protesting meows I articulated, “You can have these up in our room after I get this quiche out of the oven.”

Ourroom. Who knew I’d be thinking of the cats as part of my family in that way?

Meow!they chorused.

Sounded like they’d understood. But when I started toward the back stairs, after securing the quiche in the fridge, the cats meowed loudly… prancing off in the direction of the butler’s pantry. Did they not understand we were going to our room? Or maybe I was the one who didn’t understand. I decided to follow them and find out.

As I started toward them Nero’s tail twitched and he trotted off even further, casting glances over his shoulder as if to make sure I was following. I’d determined he was the smarter of the two after watching them interact. Marlowe seemed younger, more impetuous. Marlowe had trotted ahead not even looking back, her tail waving in the air like a flag to follow.

The other side of the pantry opened into the hallway. At first, I thought they’d go toward the west wing. That seemed to be where everything happened. Bodies, skeletons, who knew what would be next? To my relief, they veered off to the right continuing down the hall to the conservatory.

Oh no. Was something wrong in there now? Had Ed started work and uncovered something dastardly or, even worse, been injured? I’d given Ed the day off but it would be just like him to come in and work anyway. The room was off the beaten path and no one would be walking past it to look in and see if someone was hurt in there.

We came to the French doors that opened into the room and my fears were put to rest when I saw it was empty except for the plants Millie had given me. Maybe the cats were trying to remind me to water them.

“Nice try, guys. Everything looks fine in here.” I scanned the room. Even in its dilapidated state, it was clearly once lovely. Large Palladian windows—most of which were temporarily boarded up—ran the length of the room and French doors opened to the overgrown garden. The moon shone in from the one window not boarded, creating a swatch of silver light on the floor. Wait… what was that shadow on the floor, over by the giant ficus tree?

The cats trotted over. Uh oh… was this why they’d come here? Dread washed over me. The cats always seemed to insist on summoning humans when something terrible had happened.

The electricity had been shut off to this room, so I ventured in to get a closer look. I bent down slowly… phew! It was only dirt.

“Hey, did you guys do this?” I asked.

The cats looked up at me, the moonlight reflected in their eyes, making them glow bright. I inspected the ficus. Yep, looked like someone had rummaged in the dirt. I was pretty sure the cats liked to dig, I’d seen them digging outside.

“It’s not nice to dig in the house. That’s for outside.”

They gave off some confused meows. Nero batted at the dirt.

“Don’t spread it around or you won’t get any treats.” I tapped the plate with the cheese.

Mew!

Marlowe had something in the corner. I hoped it wasn’t a mouse. She crouched down and swatted. It rolled out toward me. Thankfully too small to be a mouse. I bent down to pick it up. A shiny nail? Had Ed been working in here? He’d said he hadn’t started here yet.

I stood and looked around. I didn’t see any tools or any evidence that work had been done. The nail could have come from anywhere though, the cats were known for batting things around and then leaving them in other rooms. They particularly liked the plastic water bottle caps. They must have batted the nail in here all the way from the ballroom.

They were looking up at me as if expecting praise. I held the nail out to them.“I don’t think it’s a good idea to be batting nails all over the house. A guest could step on one and become injured.”

The cats looked at each other, shook their heads and trotted off. I looked back at the dirt as I left. Too bad I couldn’t train them to pick it up. I’d have to have Flora do it. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have plants in the house with the cats? And they must not be as smart as I’d been giving them credit for if they led me to their mess.

I followed them to the owner’s quarters, a cozy suite with a window overlooking the ocean. It was in a rounded turret and had a cute sitting area in the round part. The neutral shades of mocha and heather were soothing. I loved retreating here at the end of the day.

Millie had left quite a few of the antiques that decorated the room, but it also had some modern touches like a comfy microsuede sectional. I settled onto the couch and the cats jumped up beside me, looking expectantly from me to the cheese.

“I did promise you some, didn’t I?” I took the two small pieces and broke them up some more, then held one out to Nero, who sniffed it for what seemed like an hour before gently taking it.

“And you?” I held one out to Marlowe. She glanced at Nero who was still busy daintily eating, then sniffed twice and grabbed it.

I nibbled my piece and thought about the day. I was a bit disturbed by the conversation I’d overheard in the hallway. I certainly hoped people weren’t going to start spreading rumors about a murderous ghost. All the more reason to find the killer pronto.

But the murder investigation wasn’t the only thing I had on my plate. I had to juggle that along with my responsibilities for the town celebration. I had the ingredients for the loaf cake I planned to make all ready to go and I’d do another test run tomorrow morning. The pamphlets were already on the table. I just needed that book about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse history. Millie said that should be up here, so I put my snack down and went over to the antique oak bookcase in the turret part of the room.

Meow!

Nero hopped on top of the bookshelf and peered down at me.

“Where’s the book, buddy?” I waited for him to indicate the general location but all he did was stare at me.

“Okay…” I ran my fingers along the leather-bound spines of the books. Poetry.Uncle Tom’s Cabin. An Audubon Anthology. My fingers stopped at a large book.“Oyster Cove Town History. This must be it.”

Merooo… Marlowe stared at me from the back of the couch.

“Right, I thought so.” I took the book and flopped down on the couch. Nero trotted over. Both he and Marlowe seemed overly interested in the book, sniffing at it and putting their paws on it.

“You want to see what’s inside? I do too.” I opened the book, inhaling the vanilla scent of age-old paper. Inside were pictures of the guesthouse back in Jed’s day. It had been a large house but not nearly as large as it was now. Jed stood in front alongside a woman in a black dress with a voluminous skirt.

I pointed the woman out.“I guess this is Mrs. Jed.”

Nero smacked his paw on the page right above the description. Yep, Helena Biddeford. It was his wife.

“Maybe she’s the one who put him in the wall. What do you guys think?”

Meroo.

Marlowe pushed the edge of the book and it flipped to the next page.

“Going too slow for you?”

I flipped through, marveling at the old photos of the guesthouse and the town. Things had changed a lot over the centuries. There was a picture of a realistic drawing of Jedediah Biddeford with his family and household staff. He had his hand on a cane, the ring found on the skeleton clearly evident on his finger.

“I wonder which one of these children is Doris’s ancestor?” Doris hadn’t mentioned the name of the ancestor at the top of the Biddeford tree, but I looked at the inscription under the image anyway.

A familiar name caught my eye. Thomas Remington. Was that Myron’s ancestor?

I pulled the book closer to my face. He kind of looked like Myron. But this guy wasn’t a wealthy banker, he was a servant.

“Looks like Myron’s ancestor was Jedediah Biddeford’s butler,” I said out loud to the cats, who both were staring at me. “Funny how things work out, huh? He’s always boasting how his family was one of the first in Oyster Cove, but he makes it sound like they were part of the upper class.”

Meroo. Nero’s paw shot out and he riffled the pages, losing my place in the book.

“Yeah, I agree Myron sure is uppity considering where he came from.” I flipped back to the page just to double-check.

Meyawl! Marlowe whacked the cover of the book and I caught the pages before it snapped shut.

“Hey, I can’t read if—” Wait. Was their behavior an indication that I was on to something? They did have an uncanny way of knowing what was going on and it had seemed like they had helped me out during the last investigation, though I didn’t want to admit it at the time. Now that I’d spent more time with them, I was more inclined to consider that they might be smarter than everyone thought.

I broke off two more small pieces of cheese as a reward. I didn’t want to give them too much lest it upset their delicate systems. “I think you guys are trying to tell me something, aren’t you? Is this why Myron lied about being here last night? Does he have something to do with this?”

Meroo.

Merow.

The cats looked at me funny as if they didn’t understand what the reward was about, but they weren’t about to pass up cheese because they gobbled it down before head-butting my hand and practically shutting the book in their zeal to be petted.

Shutting the book wasn’t a bad idea. I didn’t need to read further. I was pretty sure I was onto something. Myron’s ancestor was the butler to Jedediah, and butlers always knew all their masters’ secrets. What if one of those secrets was the location of the treasure? And what if that location got passed down through the generations?

But if it had, wouldn’t someone have dug it up by now? Why would Myron wait so long and why was he over by the gazebo, which would be the least likely place for Jedediah to have buried it? Not to mention that Bob had been killed at the pond, which was very far from the gazebo. What if it was Myron who found the treasure and Bob who caught him and tried to take it? And did that mean there really was treasure after all?

Some of this didn’t add up, but one thing was fishy. Myron had lied about being here and if that didn’t indicate guilt about something, I didn’t know what did!

I might have to do some digging, but I knew one thing for sure—I was finally starting to understand what the cats were trying to tell me!

Nineteen

“Josie still does not quite understand what we are trying to tell her,” Marlowe said from her perch near the pantry the next morning as they watched Josie heat up the quiche in the oven.

“But at least she is open to the fact that we are trying to tell hersomething. She needs more work, but this is a start,” said Nero.

“Start schmart, she needs to listen to us now or she’s going to end up in trouble just like she did with the last murder.” Marlowe eyed the countertop where the dishes were drying. “We may need to do something drastic.”

Nero sighed.“I know. Unfortunately, she is going down the wrong path. She totally misinterpreted our hints about that history book. There are much more interesting suspects to pursue than Myron Remington.”

“True. Though it is interesting that his family was connected with the Biddefords. I thought I smelled something familiar on him too,” Marlowe said.

Nero glanced at the tortie as she strutted over to the countertop. Had Marlowe really developed such a keen sense of smell or was she just saying that to make herself seem smart? It was true Myron had smelled familiar, but it wasn’t because some ancestor had once worked in the house. No, Nero suspected there was an entirely different reason and he needed to clue Josie in on it.

“What are you kitties up to?” Josie stood hands on hips watching them. “Do you need a treat for all your good work last night?”

Nero gave her his most adorable head tilt.

Meow.

Josie opened the fridge and Marlowe hopped up onto the countertop and started batting at the dishes. Josie backed out of the fridge with a plate in her hand then scowled at Marlowe.“No, don’t do that. Especially not that Yale mug. Carla will have a fit.”

Josie picked Marlowe up and placed her on the floor then put down a small dish with some little bite-sized tidbits of steak inside.

“That’s very good steak, so you guys chew slowly and savor it.”

Marlowe eagerly got to work on the steak along with Nero.

“We’re going to have to push her in the right direction, somehow,” Nero said between mouthfuls. “We need to show her that Myron is not up to what she thinks he is.”

“But we don’t know for sure, do we?” Marlowe asked. “Hecouldbe the killer.”

“Perhaps. He could be involved, but remember that Juliette heard a woman in the confessional.” Nero finished off the last of the steak just as Ed O’Hara appeared in the doorway.

Nero knew the elderly gentleman had something of a crush on Josie, though their ages were mismatched. The smile on Ed’s face as he silently watched Josie work left little doubt. It was all harmless. Ed’s wife had passed a few years prior and he needed something to focus on. He would never actually try to ask Josie for a date. Besides, Josie was perfect for Millie’s nephew Mike. Everyone but Josie could see that.

“I could get to work on the ballroom again today, Ms. Waters,” Ed said.

Josie jerked and turned to look at him.“Oh, Ed! You scared me.”

“I snuck up on you like a ghost.” Ed smiled, the weathered lines around his eyes crinkling.

“Yeah, like Jedediah’s ghost.”

“I hope you’re not scared because of those rumors, they don’t mean nothing.”

“Well I certainly know that,” Josie said. “Even if half the town thinks a ghost killed Bob Biddeford.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, Ed, if you got any work done in the conservatory, did you happen to tip over a plant?”

“No. I never got set up in there because you gave me the day off, then this morning I heard the ballroom had been cleared by the cops.” Ed’s gaze drifted to Nero and Marlowe. “Must’ve been those cats, because I certainly would have no reason to be in there.”

Josie frowned at them and Nero’s spirits sank. Though he wasn’t beholden to having the human like him, he still felt the need to be accepted by her. Though he considered Millie to be his real human, Josie was the one he had now, and her disapproval cut deeply. Besides, they weren’t the ones who made the mess. At least, not that time. Just another example of Josie misinterpreting their communications. He looked at Ed suspiciously, he was certain the old man had been in the conservatory, but why would he lie to Josie about it? He made a mental note to keep a close eye on Ed. But right now he had more important things to do.

“Bad kitties. I expect you not to do that anymore.”

Marlowe swished her tail and looked at Nero.“How do you like that? She thinks we made that mess.”

“Yeah. Well if she doesn’t know what’s good for her, we’re gonna have to show her what’s good for her.”

Nero took the opportunity to hop up on the counter while Josie was distracted by talking to Ed. He pushed gently at the dishes. He didn’t want to push too hard lest they fall off onto the floor and smash. Some of them were dishes that Millie had collected for the guesthouse and he couldn’t bear to see them in pieces on the floor. Somehow, he needed to get Josie thinking along the right lines.

“I’ve just taken a quiche out of the oven.” Josie gestured toward the steaming pie plate on the counter. “I was about to cut pieces for the serving tray if you’d like one.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Ed came into the kitchen and Josie turned her back, not even watching Nero’s attempts at communication.

“She’s not even watching us,” Marlowe said, disgusted.

“Are those cats supposed to be on the counter?” Ed asked.

Josie turned around, pressing her lips together when she saw Nero at the dishes.“No. And luckily our building inspector is a little bit nicer than the last one and probably wouldn’t rat me out, but still I don’t relish being closed down by the Board of Health.”

She marched over to the counter and picked up Nero—not very gently, either—and plopped him down on the floor. “Now you stay down there. I don’t want to have to banish you guys from the kitchen.”

Josie went back to cutting up the quiche while Nero and Marlowe rolled their eyes at each other.

“Doesn’t Josie know that cats don’t do as they’re told?” Marlowe asked.

“No kidding. Human orders rankle us and we tend to do the exact opposite.”

“Yeah and in this case it’s for her own good. Maybe once she’s not distracted with Ed she’ll understand what we’re trying to say. But we may have to take more drastic action.”

“I’ll get her to understand.” Nero hopped up on the counter again. He pushed the Yale mug so that the edge of it hung precariously over the lip of the countertop.

Ed looked up from the slice of the quiche Josie had put on a dainty floral plate in front of him.“Hey! That cat’s gonna knock that mug to the floor.”

Josie whirled around, her eyes zoning in on the blue Yale mug. Her hand shot out and snatched it from harm’s way.

“Bad kitty. Now if you broke that Carla would be—” And then Josie’s eyes widened. She glanced at the mug, then back at Nero. Their eyes locked and in that instant Nero knew Josie had finally gotten the message he was trying to send.

“Finally,” Marlowe said as she jumped onto the counter to join him.

Movement outside the window caught Nero’s eye.

“Isn’t that Harry and Stubbs out there in the shrubs?” Marlowe asked.

Nero craned his neck to see further. The tortie was right. The two cats were pacing back and forth and looking over at the guesthouse.“It is them… it looks like they’ve found something important.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I stared at the Yale coffee mug in my hand. Myron had gone to a fancy college, had it been Yale? Is that why Myron had been at the gazebo when Bob was killed at the pond? He was working with someone else. Carla. Hadn’t Doris said that Carla wasn’t very bright because she’d been lurking around near the gazebo?

Maybe that’s why Stella had said something about Myron not deserving treasure. Maybe she had her sights set on Myron and saw him with Carla. Had Bob known about Carla and Myron and threatened to tell on her? But would that really be worth killing him over? Maybe it would if treasure was involved.

Myron and Carla were around the same age. If Myron had also attended Yale, it was possible they knew each other, but I had to find out for sure.

But first, I had to get this apple-pecan bread in the oven.

I sliced off another piece of quiche for Ed and sent him off to the west wing, then chopped the pecans and apples and mixed eggs, oil and vanilla, setting everything aside while I mixed together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon. I combined the wet ingredients with the dry into a thick batter and poured some into one of the tiny loaf pans and shoved it in the oven, then set the timer for ninety minutes after double-checking the directions for cooking time on Millie’s recipe. I wasn’t going to let it burn again!

I quickly got the breakfast trays together. The guests would be down in ten minutes but usually I could find Doris wandering around downstairs. If I could get her aside privately I might be able to find out when Carla went to Yale. I knew that Myron had gone after we graduated high school, so if Carla attended in the late 1980s it was possible they knew each other. I didn’t want Carla to overhear the question though, so I had to catch Doris before Carla came down.

I rushed over to the parlor. No sign of Doris. Maybe she was in the back sitting room? Nope. The conservatory? Nada. Darn. I was coming back down the hall when I saw Earl staring at the door to the west wing. It was open, likely because Ed was moving tools in. I could hear Ed inside setting things up.

“Can I help you?” I asked Earl.

He turned around, his face white as a sheet.“Look, Jedediah’s ghost has left the door open! He’s coming for the rest of us!”

“Hardly,” Ed’s voice came from inside. “I’m just coming back to shut it. Had my hands full with my tools.”

“That’s just the carpenter, Ed. Besides, why would Jedediah be coming back to kill you? Nobody got the treasure, right? And the curse was that he was gonna do away with anyone who had his treasure.” I steered Earl away from the door as Ed shut it from the other side.

Ed was supposed to keep the door shut so that guests didn’t wander onto the worksite, and he was very good about it. I glanced down. There was no gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. If the cats had batted a nail from this wing into the conservatory, I was sure they would have had to bat it under this door. The other exits were too far away. But there was no gap to push it through, so if the cats hadn’t moved the nail, then how did it get into the conservatory? Had Ed lied about being in there? Maybe I needed to expand my suspect list to include Ed, but right now I had to focus on finding out about Carla and Myron.

Earl frowned.“Yeah, but somebody killed Bob.”

“Are you sure that had something to do with the treasure?”

Earl’s eyes narrowed. “I thought so. This place might not be safe with a murdering ghost around.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Not only was the notion of a murdering ghost absurd, I sure as heck didn’t need him spreading that rumor around town.

“I’m sure the police will find out that whoever killed Bob was no ghost.” Or, more likely, my mother, Millie and I would.

Earl didn’t look convinced. He glanced down at the mug in my hand. “Is that Carla’s mug?”

I’d almost forgotten I was carrying it. “Yeah. I washed it out and was returning it to the dining room so she could have it for her morning coffee.”

“Thought so. She acts like that thing is the Holy Grail, for crying out loud, brings it everywhere. It’s kind of embarrassing. You should see her at the office. She has a fit if anyone touches it.”

Maybe it wasn’t so bad that I’d encountered Earl in the hallway. He’d probably know what years Carla went to Yale. And the conversation about the mug was the perfect opportunity to ask. Not to mention no one else was in the hallway to hear us.

“I guess it’s quite an accomplishment to graduate from Yale though, right?”

Earl shrugged.“I guess. I went to Stanford.”

I nodded.“That’s a good school too. Are you older than Carla? Were you guys in college the same time?”

“I’m a few years older. Graduated in 1987.”

I did the math. Myron and Carla would have been at Yale at the same time. It was possible they’d worked together to kill Bob… but why?

“Is breakfast ready?” Earl asked, startling me out of my reverie.

“Almost. Go ahead in there and I will get everything set up for you.”

I rushed back into the kitchen after putting the mug on the sideboard where Carla liked it to be placed right next to the coffee urn, which I noticed with approval Flora had already set to percolating.

I rushed back into the kitchen, gathered the breakfast items together and walked them out to the sideboard.

I hovered in the doorway, watching everyone eat contentedly, if not a bit solemnly. They were shoveling in the quiche. No one complained about the lack of pancakes.Had one of them killed Bob?

My eyes drifted to the Yale mug. That mug could be the key to uncovering what really happened. But I still wondered if Paula had really seen Flora. Maybe Paula was in on it with her sister and Myron and they were trying to point the finger in Flora’s direction. And what about Ed? I didn’t dare mention my suspicions about him to Mom and Millie, they’d known him for years and would defend him as they had Flora. I didn’t want the killer to be Ed either. Myron and Carla were much better suspects in my book.

The crunch of tires on gravel pulled my gaze to the window. Mom and Millie were here and I couldn’t wait to tell them what I’d discovered.

I heard the kitchen door open and then Millie’s voice. “Josie is something burning?”

Twenty

I rushed in to the kitchen to see Millie rescuing the loaf pan from the oven. She put it on the counter and waved the smoke away, then sniffed.

“Oh, it’s the apple-pecan bread.” Then she sniffed deeper. “I think it needs more cinnamon. How long did you put it in for?”

“Ninety minutes just like your recipe said.” I gestured toward the timer on the microwave still ticking down. “It still has ten minutes.”

Millie looked at me as if she felt sorry for me.“Josie, that time was for a full loaf pan. You have to reduce it for the smaller pans.”

Darn. Who knew that you cooked things for less time when they are in a smaller pan? I probably should have. Lucky thing I’d decided to start small with my experiment and I still had some of the batter left. Besides, we had more pressing matters to discuss.

“Never mind about that.” I glanced back out into the hallway to make sure none of the Biddefords had followed me in. “I think I’ve discovered something.”

“Do tell,” Millie said.

“Remember how Myron lied about being here the night Bob was killed?”

“Yep.” Millie tasted the batter I’d mixed, then puckered her lips and rummaged in the spice drawer.

“Do you know where he went to college?”

Mom huffed.“Who could forget? He went to Yale. His father always made a big deal out of that, making the rest of us feel like our kids were inferior.”

“Why do you ask?” Millie sprinkled some cinnamon into the batter, grabbed a spoon and mixed it in.

“Well, Carla went to Yale too. She even has a mug that she makes me wash out so she can drink out of it. That’s how I put two and two together when I washed the mug this morning.” I hadn’t done that all on my own, though. Nero had practically pushed that mug off the counter. Had he been trying to point me in the right direction? Or had he just been trying to smash the mug on the floor because he also thought it was ridiculous that Carla brought her own mug?

“So you think they knew each other?” Mom asked.

I nodded and opened the oven door for Millie to slide in the two tiny loaf pans she’d filled with batter. I made a mental note as she set the timer to thirty-five minutes.

Millie shut the oven door, a twinkle in her eye.“We found out something about Myron last night too. His ancestor was Jedediah Biddeford’s butler.”

“I found that too! In the history book that you wanted me to bring for the table at the town celebration.” The cats had been interested in that book as well. Except it had seemed like theydidn’t want me to read it. Maybe I was reading too much into their actions?

Millie’s face fell in disappointment. “You already knew?”

I nodded, pushing down the pang of guilt at Millie and Mom’s looks of disappointment. Investigating was a source of pride for them and they clearly didn’t like the idea that I’d also discovered their key clue.

Millie broke into a genuine smile and turned to my mother.“Josie is turning into a good detective. We should include her in all our cases.”

Cases? It sounded as if they were contemplating becoming private investigators or something.

I held my hands up in front of me, palms out.“I think I have plenty to do just running the guesthouse.”

Mom looked me over as if I were an unworthy job applicant.“I don’t know. I suppose she might come in handy to drive us around while we interrogate suspects and look for clues.”

“Can we stick to the problem at hand?” The last thing I wanted to do with my days was drive my mother and Millie around. Hopefully this would be the last murder Oyster Cove would see for a long time and there would be no need to investigate anything in the future anyway.

Millie pressed her lips together.“Fine. Myron might have gone to school with Carla and his ancestor was Jed’s butler. Why would they kill Bob?”

“Well, I was thinking that a butler would know all the secrets of his master and maybe Myron’s ancestor knew where the treasure was buried. Maybe that information got passed down in the family and Myron came to dig it up.”

Millie and Mom looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Maybe Josie isn’t a good fit for our investigative exploits after all,” Mom said.

“Yeah, your theory is full of holes,” Millie added.

I crossed my arms over my chest.“How so?”

“Well, for one, if Myron’s family already knew where the treasure was, why wouldn’t someone have dug it up before?” Millie asked.

“And for two,” my mother added. “Why would he need to combine forces with Carla?”

They had a point, but I wasn’t letting go of my theory that easily. “Maybe the family didn’t know where the treasure was all this time, but the discovery of Jed’s skeleton and the curse rumor resurfacing prompted Myron to look through some family documents and he found something that made him think he knew where the treasure was.”

“He did seem awfully interested in that skeleton,” Millie said.

“And he did lie about being here, which means he was up to something,” Mom added. “But what’s the connection to Carla?”

“Maybe they were rekindling an old affair,” I suggested.

Millie leaned in toward us and lowered her voice.“Can’t say as I’d blame her, her husband doesn’t seem like much fun.”

“And Bob did threaten to tell on her about something. But why wouldn’t she just divorce Henry then? Bob outing an affair doesn’t seem worth killing over,” Mom said, then added, “I have another theory, maybe whatever Myron found wasn’t a precise location and he needed some family information from Carla to narrow it down so they partnered up.”

“And Bob found out and was going to steal the treasure so they did him in,” Millie added. “That makes sense.”

“Do you think there really is treasure then?” Mom asked.

Millie shrugged.“Good question. I doubt it because if Myron and Carla dug it up, they’d have taken off together, wouldn’t they?”

“Treasure or not, it’s something to look into,” Mom said. “Flora is still a suspect and we need to help Seth close this one fast before those rumors about this place being haunted spread too far and hurt bookings.”

Millie tapped her finger on her lips.“Indeed. But how can we approach Seth with this? He’s already suspicious of any clues I give him because he thinks we are biased as to Flora’s innocence.”

“I know the dates that Carla and Myron were at Yale, which proves they could have known each other,” I said.

“Yes, but that’s not concrete evidence. We need something more.”

Mom snapped her fingers.“The shoes! Paula saw fancy Italian leather shoes. Earl was wearing Nikes but he’s not the only one who likes to dress fancy.”

Millie put her hands on her hips.“Those could have been Myron’s shoes she saw.”

“So all we have to do is get Paula to identify the shoes, preferably while Myron is wearing them and in front of Seth Chamberlain so that he’ll have his physical evidence,” I said.

“Easier said than done,” Millie said, peeking into the oven to check on the loaf cake. “We need to get Paula to run into Myron somehow when Carla isn’t around.”

“I know how we can do it,” Mom said. “The beer tent is open today and they’re having free samples. All we have to do is mention that to Paula and drop the hint that we are on our way to the beer tent, then offer to give her a ride.”

Millie nodded.“And once we’re down there, we will just take a little stroll past Myron’s bank table. I know he’s there today trying to trap tourists into investing in something at the bank.”

“But how do we get Seth in on this?” I asked.

Millie whipped out her phone.“Easy. I’ll call him and bribe him to come and meet us there. I just happen to have some of his favorite cookies in the car.”

Twenty-One

“I think the beer tent is over there.” Paula twisted around, pointing in a direction behind us and almost stumbling as she pulled her heel out from where it had sunk into the grass. I grabbed her elbow to steady her.

“I know. We’re just going this way to get our free tickets,” Millie said as we propelled her toward Myron’s tent.

Millie glanced at me behind Paula’s back and grimaced for telling the lie. A little white lie was necessary sometimes in an investigation. Still, Paula wouldn’t miss out on her free beer—she’d be well rewardedaftershe identified Myron’s shoes to Seth. Hopefully Myron would be wearing the same ones, or at least something similar that Paula would recognize and spark Seth’s suspicions.

“I hope Jed’s ghost doesn’t show up here.” Paula scanned the crowd. “Though I guess he won’t be after me. I didn’t take any treasure. I wonder if Bob did? And if he did maybe Jed took it back because no one’s found it yet and Bob certainly didn’t take it with him. So if Jed took it, there won’t be any more killings because he’ll have his treasure and the curse will be broken.”

Paula’s train of thought was pretty logical even if it was a bit rambling, but my mother glanced over at her as if she were crazy. “I doubt it was Jed who killed Bob.”

“Well, that’s the rumor I heard,” Paula huffed. “Who else could it be? Certainly not your maid that I saw running from the scene. She’s too old, now that I think of it.” Paula frowned as if considering her own words. “Or maybe itwas your maid. Some of those old people are pretty strong.”

Flora had been acting strangely. I had no idea if she actually was strong enough to have clobbered Bob, but I saw her move the antique carved-mahogany couch out from the wall to get behind it with the vacuum, so she was pretty strong. And what was this business with the vacation?

But if Flora had stolen the treasure why would she still be hanging around the guesthouse? Unless she hadn’t actuallyfound the treasure and Bob’s murder was for nothing. What was I thinking? Flora wouldn’t kill someone, no matter how valuable a treasure was involved.

Up ahead at Myron’s table, I saw a familiar figure lurking about. Annabel Drescher stood in front of one of the plastic displays that held interest-rate information. She snatched a pamphlet out and looked around furtively. I caught her eye and waved, but she pretended not to notice me. Maybe she didn’t want to be seen associating with someone whose maid was accused of murder?

“Looks like Arlene has some competition.” Paula’s gaze was pinned on Annabel as she walked away. “Fancy duds and even shoes like Earl’s.”

Wait, what? I swivel around to check out Annabel’s shoes. Paula was right, they were Italian leather similar to Earl’s. Suddenly I was second-guessing my Carla–Myron theory. Maybe Flora wasn’t lying about the vacation. But why would Annabel make that up… unless she was trying to cover something up or distract us.

“Oh look, you can get a home-equity line of credit for three percent, maybe you should tap into that for the renovations?” Millie’s comment redirected my attention from Annabel to Myron’s table.

Paula inspected the pamphlets closer, her eyes clouding over in confusion.“Where are the tickets for the beer tent?”

“Beer tent?” Myron’s eyes darted from Paula to me. “Are you interested in a loan?”

I glanced around for Seth. Millie had said he’d be meeting us here and we had to stall until he showed up so we could get Paula to identify the shoes in front of him. Mom jabbed me in the ribs and jerked her head toward the big display touting the low-interest-rate loans. Guess that would be a good way to stall.

“As a matter fact I am,” I said. It wasn’t totally a lie, either. Extra money would help me complete the renovations sooner. Too bad I didn’t actually have much money to make the payments until business picked up. It was a catch twenty-two. I needed the loan to accommodate more guests, but I needed more guests to pay the monthly rate on the loan. “You know, I have that whole west wing over at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse and the sooner I can get it renovated the sooner I can get more guests in. Do you have anything special, preferably with a delayed payment schedule?”

Approval radiated from Millie at my quick reaction, but before Myron could launch into his spiel, Seth showed up.

“Hello, ladies.” Seth nodded at each of us, but his gaze lingered on Millie.

“I made your favorites, Seth.” Millie held up the bag of cookies and opened it, tipping the bag forward so we could all see inside. She tipped the bag further forward, letting one cookie slide out onto the grass as if by accident. “Oh, dear me. I’ve dropped one.”

She dropped to her knees and made a show of rooting around in the grass under the table for the cookie.“What lovely shoes, Myron. You’re always such a sharp dresser.”

Myron tugged at his tie uncomfortably, a look of confusion crossing his face.“Um… thanks.”

Millie tugged on Paula’s arm. It didn’t take much to get her to stumble and Millie pulled her down so she could see Myron’s shoes. “Aren’t those lovely, Paula?”

“Sure, they’re very nice but I don’t see any beer-tent tickets.”

“We’ll get to the beer tent. Don’t you worry about that. But do these shoes look a little familiar to you?” Millie asked.

Myron shot up from his seat.“What is the meaning of this? Why are you so interested in my shoes?”

Seth was watching carefully. He might seem like a dunderhead, but he actually could be rather sharp sometimes. He’d caught on that Millie had an ulterior motive here and was smart enough to keep quiet and see where this would lead. Perhaps all of Mom and Millie’s meddling in his investigations really had given him respect for their skills.

“Familiar?” Paula stumbled to her feet and glanced around behind us. “If there’s no tickets I’m just going to—”

“Take another look, Paula,” Millie said. “I think these might be the shoes that woke you up the night Bob was murdered.”

Paula’s eyes widened. She bent down again to look at the shoes. She scrunched up her face, closed her eyes and then opened them one at a time. “Well, they are fine Italian leather like the ones I saw. Very similar. Let me see the backs. I mostly saw the backs as the person was running away.”

“I certainly will not.” Myron looked at Seth. “Do I have to?”

Seth shrugged.“What’s the harm? Unless you have something to hide.”

Myron marched out from behind the table and spun around.

Paula nodded.“Yep very similar to the shoes I saw.”

“Similar? Or are theyexactly the shoes?” Seth asked.

“Well, I can’t say for sure. I mean I was just waking up and my memory is fuzzy. There are a lot of fancy shoes like these, in fact I saw a woman wearing similar shoes earlier.” Paula glanced in the direction that Annabel had gone.

“She’s not a reliable witness. I heard that she’s drunk all the time!” Myron said.

“I’m not drunkall the time.” Paula crossed her arms over her chest.

“I demand to know what this is about.” Myron looked at Seth.

“Paula saw someone running from where the murder happened and they wore expensive shoes,” Seth said. “Apparently Millie here is playing amateur detective and thinks Paula might recognize the shoes as yours.”

“Running from where the murder happened? But that was centuries ago, why I couldn’t…” Myron’s face relaxed a little. “Oh! You mean the recent murder, not the skeleton they found in the wall.”

“Of course. That’s what we’re investigating. Can’t really investigate a murder from three centuries ago.”

Myron blew out a breath.“Well that’s ridiculous. Why would I kill one of the Biddefords?”

“You have a family connection to the Biddefords,” Mom said.

Myron made a face.“Yeah, about three hundred years back. What would that have to do with anything recent?”

“There was treasure rumored to be buried there,” Millie said. “Maybe one of your ancestors knew where it was and when you went to dig it up Bob had gotten there first.”

Myron laughed.“You believe that treasure rumor? What would I want with some old moldy treasure chest that probably doesn’t have anything of modern value in it? I have plenty of money. I own a bank. And besides, I wouldn’t waste my time. That treasure doesn’t even exist according tomy family lore.”

Did Myron have some family intel about the treasure or was he just saying that as a cover?

“Why did you lie about being there then?” I asked.

Myron turned sheepish. He glanced around to make sure none of the other people in the tent were listening.“I had a good reason—that stupid treasure hunt actually messed it up. I was there, but not because of the treasure.” He glanced at Seth. “I have proof. Normally I’d make you get a search warrant, but I’m not guilty and I want you to stop accusing me and find the real killer, so I’d behappy to show it to you.”

Millie looked skeptical.“You would? That’s a little fishy. If you really have a reason, seems like you’d be more irate about being accused.”

“Oh, I am. But I don’t want to ruin the bank’s reputation, which would happen if a crowd witnessed you accusing me, or worse, hauling me off in cuffs.”

“Okay, let me see this proof,” Seth said.

“Me too,” Millie added.

“Notyou.” Myron glared at Millie. “You’re just a civilian and it’s none of your business. Just the sheriff.”

Paula crossed her arms over her chest and pouted at Millie.“You said we were going to get free beer at the beer tent.”

“I’ll take you,” Mom said, and headed off with Paula.

Seth leveled a look at me and Millie.“Well, you heard the man. We don’t need civilians seeing someone’s private business.”

“Come on, Josie, let’s go look over there at the Frobusher’s local honey display.” She shot a coquettish glance at Seth and batted her eyelashes before pulling me aside and whispering in my ear. “I’ll get it out of him later, but for now let’s just let Myron show it to him.”

We wandered away, both keeping an eye on Seth and Myron. Myron showed him something on his cell phone and Seth nodded approvingly. Darn! Whatever Myron was showing him must’ve satisfied Seth.

Seth started walking away and Millie did an about-face.“Yoo-hoo, Sethy!” She summoned him over in her most provocative manner. “Now, I know it’s probably a big secret and all, but I don’t think it would hurt if you could tell us what Myron showed you.”

She walked her fingers up his arm playfully. Seth smiled but took her hand away gently.

“I can’t tell you, but I can tell you one thing: he does have proof of why he was there and that proof has a timestamp of when the coroner has told us Bob was killed. The pond is a fifteen-minute walk from the gazebo in the daytime, probably longer in the dark, and we all know Myron is no woodsman. It would take him an hour to get through the thick overgrowth. I don’t think he could be the killer.”

“So, it must have been one of the Biddefords,” Millie said.

Seth’s face turned solemn. “I don’t think so.”

“Why?” Millie asked.

“We processed all of the shovels we took from the carriage house. There were six shovels in the shed, one for each member of the Biddeford family, except Bob whose shovel was found next to him at the murder scene. And not one of them has any DNA from Bob on the metal end—the blade. The coroner has determined Bob was killed with the metal part of the shovel, but the only shovel that matched his DNA was the one Bob used, and that only had epithelia on the handle. Nothing on the blade, which substantiates Doris Biddeford’s claim that Bob took off on his own but the rest of them stayed together.”

“He wasn’t killed with one of the shovels in the carriage house?” I asked. Something about Doris’s claim didn’t sit right. Hadn’t she asked the others at breakfast before Bob’s body was found, if anyone found the treasure? If they all stayed together she would have known if anything was found. Had she lied to the police?

Seth shook his head.“Nope. He was killed with another shovel, so the murder weapon must be out there somewhere.”

“Half the town had shovels, the store was sold out,” I said. Everyone except Myron, who had said he couldn’t get one because Flora had gotten the last one. Which made me wonder… where was Flora’s shovel? Had she taken it home or was it on the premises somewhere?

“That’s right,” Seth agreed. “But I am afraid half the town wasnot seen running from the scene by an eyewitness—only one person was. And that person is now my main suspect.”

“Seth Chamberlain, you can’t be serious!” Millie said. “What motive would she have?”

“That remains to be seen.” A look of regret passed over Seth’s face. “Unfortunately, unless new evidence comes to light, I’m going to be bringing Flora in for questioning and you better hope there isn’t another shovel out there with her fingerprints on one end and Bob’s DNA on the other.”

Twenty-Two

“It simply can’t be Flora,” Millie insisted later on when we were back in the kitchen of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. She was vigorously beating together batter for a new batch of apple-pecan bread with extra cinnamon. “She’s been with the guesthouse since I was a little girl. My parents hired her. She’s a great-grandma, for crying out loud!”

It was just the two of us in the kitchen since my mom had texted that she and Paula had found a ride home from the beer tent and were staying for a few more. Apparently Paula was good company over a mug of beer.

Millie had actually stayed behind too, to try to wrangle more information out of Seth, and I’d driven home by myself. He’d dropped her off at the guesthouse a little bit later.

“I don’t know,” I hesitated. “A lot of the clues do point to her.”

I didn’twant it to be Flora. Even though she was the world’s worst maid, she was starting to grow on me. She had a certain grandmotherly way about her, sort of like Sophia fromThe Golden Girls, but grumpier.

Even so, I had to admit some things about Flora’s story didn’t add up. Then again, I’d just added a few suspects to my mental suspect list. “I have my suspicions about a few other people too.”

Millie turned to look at me.“Really? Who?”

“Annabel Drescher, for one. Paula said her shoes were like Earl’s and she is doing a lot of renovations on her travel agency, so might need treasure-money. Plus, it seemed like she was avoiding us and Flora said she never went in to book a vacation. Maybe Annabel has something to hide.”

Millie considered this, then shook her head.“Kind of far-fetched that she would kill Bob but I’ll keep her in mind. Who is the other person?”

“Ed O’Hara.”

“Ed? You must be joking. Why he’s the nicest man you’d want to meet. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. Why do you suspect him?”

That was true, but wasn’t it always the nice ones that turned out to be the killer? “I think he was sneaking around in the conservatory.”

“The conservatory? What’s that got to do with any of this? That part of the house wasn’t even built back in Jed’s day and besides, don’t you have work for him in there?”

“Yes, but he wasn’t supposed to be doing that yet.”

Millie scowled at me.“I think you are grasping at straws. Do you have some reason to think Ed being in the conservatory has something to do with Bob’s death? Or the treasure?”

She had a point. All I had was a nail that could have gotten in there in a dozen ways. I guess Iwas getting carried away.

Millie must have taken my silence for agreement because she went back to considering the Biddefords as prime suspects.“Just because those shovels didn’t have any of Bob’s blood on them doesn’t mean one of the Biddefords isn’t the killer.” Millie beat the batter more vigorously.

“True. I mean, if they were clever, they could have clonked him over the head and switched shovels. Besides, I think Doris lied about them all being together.” I much preferred Doris as a suspect over Ed anyway. “But then where is the shovel that killed Bob? And where is Flora’s?”

“I don’t know, seems like Seth would have confiscated it from her if he thinks she’s a suspect.” Millie paused her beating and turned to me. “Do you think Doris lied because she killed her son?”

“I’m not sure. She was pretty upset about the business failing and Bob was threatening everyone. If he made good on any of those threats, it wouldn’t be good for business,” I said. “Maybe she thought that the treasure curse and ghost would make a good cover. Someone has been pushing that ghost rumor pretty hard around town.”

“Would Doris really think that Seth would believe that a ghost killed someone?”

Millie and I exchanged a glance. Seth wasn’t the sharpest pencil but I didn’t think he believed in murdering ghosts. But maybe Doris thought he did.

“We have to figure out what is going on with Flora.” The missing shovel bothered me. Seth had said the Biddefords’ shovels had been tested and none of them had been used to kill Bob. If Doris was the killer, then how had she pulled that off? On the other hand, Flora had been making herself scarce around the guesthouse lately. Was that so she could avoid Seth because she knew that he was going to ask for her shovel?

“Butwhy would she kill Bob? I doubt there is even any treasure and she never mentioned needing money,” Millie said, almost to herself. “Maybe I should’ve given her a raise before I sold the guesthouse.”

Was I not paying Flora enough? But she barely did anything. I made a mental note to give her a raise anyway once profits increased. If she wasn’t rotting away in a jail cell.

“Myron could have used a shovel from home. I mean just because the store was sold out doesn’t mean a thing. I’m sure there are some shovels hanging around that big estate he lives on. Maybe his proof that he showed Seth was fake?” I said.

“Oh, that.” Millie fluffed her hair, her cheeks turning crimson. “I got that out of Seth behind the Chamber of Commerce tent.”

Best not to ask what she’d had to do behind the tent to get it out of him. “So what was it?”

Millie grabbed a loaf pan and started pouring the batter in.“Apparently one of your guests is taking out a loan to buy out more than fifty percent of the stock in the cheese-sculpting business.”

“Seriously?” This was big news. Why hadn’t she mentioned that when she first came in?

“Yeah, I thought it was important too, but it’s not because it clears Myron as well as one of the Biddefords. And it also proves that Doris is lying.”

“Wait, one of them was going to steal the company out from under the rest of the family? Was it Bob? Is that why he was killed because someone found out and wanted to stop him from taking control?”

It wasn’t totally ridiculous. After all, the company was failing and the siblings were at odds. It did seem prudent for one of them to buy the others out, take control and dictate a course of action that might bring the company back to its former glory. At least, I hoped so for Doris’s sake. “But why would they get a loan from a bank all the way out here? Their business is in New Jersey.”

“Turns out you were partially right about Myron and Carla. They did know each other from Yale. They weren’t having an affair though, she prevailed upon him to get this loan because she didn’t want to go with anyone local to them because she wanted secrecy.” Millie glanced around to make sure no Biddefords were lurking within hearing distance. “You can imagine what a ruckus that would cause if the family found out someone was attempting a hostile takeover.”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine that Bob would have liked it much. I wonder if that’s what Bob was threatening her about?”

“It could’ve been. But I don’t think she’s the one who killed Bob because Seth said it’s one of those online documents that you sign electronically and it’s timestamped. Apparently, that’s why they didn’t go to the bank and did the dirty deed here in the gazebo.” Millie shoved thepan into the oven. “Carla already knew her family would be digging outside and that they wouldn’t be anywhere near the gazebo since that wasn’t built in Jed’s day. She figured it would be the perfect place to meet him without her family asking a lot of questions about where she was going. They’d all be focused on where they thought the treasure was and no one would be paying much attention to her. The timestamp is shortly before the time of death for Bob, so that gives both Myron and Carla an alibi. Seth said there was no way they could have gotten from the gazebo to the pond that quickly.”

“Unless they signed it while they were killing Bob. How does he even know they were actually at the gazebo?” I asked.

“GPS coordinates,” Millie said. “Besides, what motive would they have? Once the papers were signed Carla could buy the stock and it would all be out in the open anyway, so Bob telling on her was no threat. And Myron got to sell a loan so he wouldn’t care about Bob.”

“Good point, but the cats were specifically showing me…” I looked around the room. “Hey, where are the cats?” They usually ran in at the first sight of Millie.

“Probably napping somewhere or outside with their friends.”

I frowned remembering the cats I’d seen at the crime scene. Were Nero and Marlowe in some kind of cat gang?

“What were you saying about the cats anyway, dear?” Millie continued.

“Oh nothing. I just sort of thought that maybe they were pointing me toward Myron and Carla.”

“Oh, they might have been. Nero and Marlowe are very perceptive. They know things. And of course they see things that humans can’t see. But even if they were pointing you toward Myron and Carla, it could’ve been to tell you that you were on the wrong track,” Millie said wisely.

“Great. Well, this doesn’t help us clear Flora.”

“I know. That is a problem, but I’m sure she must have an explanation for all these things that appear to point to her. Things are not always as they seem, you know.”

The kitchen door opened and Mike strode in with my mom giggling behind him. He shot me an apologetic glance.“I found your mom dancing down at the beer tent. Seemed like it was a good idea to take her home.”

Mom slouched into a kitchen chair and hiccupped out a sentence.“Yeah. That Oyster Rock Brew sure has a kick to it.”

“New local beer,” Mike said by way of explanation.

Mom cradled her head in her arms on the table and Millie said,“I’ll make a pot of coffee.”

Mike smiled at my mom then turned his pearly whites on me.“This brings back memories, Sunshine. Like the time I found you drunk in a beer tent back in high school. I think that was the first time you went drinking. You acted a lot like your mom is now. Except when you—”

“Never mind that,” I cut him off. That day had not been one of my finest moments. I didn’t want to remember how Mike had saved my ass by dragging me out of that beer tent where I was holding court with a bunch of college guys.

Truth be told, I was grateful he’d barged in and pulled me away, but my memories of the actual events were a bit fuzzy. I had the ridiculous feeling that he’d kissed me that day, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. Even so, my cheeks burned and my heartbeat sped up when my gaze met his.

Was Mike’s memory of that day the same as mine? I saw something flicker in his eyes, then his gaze turned suspicious. “So, what were you guys up to down there?”

Millie’s expression was all fake innocence and sweetness. “Whatever do you mean? We were simply making sure the Oyster Cove Guesthouse table was set up properly.”

“Uh huh.” Mike looked like he didn’t believe a word. “And that’s why you needed to bring Paula? She’s upstairs passed out by the way. I drove her home with Rose.” He leaned against the counter nonchalantly, folding his arms over his chest. “And why were you over at Myron’s table with Paula and Sheriff Chamberlain?”

How did he know that? Had he been spying on us?

“They just happened to be there too.” Millie averted her gaze and pretended like she was checking on the loaf pan.

“Interesting. I just hope you aren’t up to something you shouldn’t be. The sheriff is perfectly capable of conducting an investigation.”

Millie sighed.“Of course he is. You don’t think we’re trying to figure out who killed Bob Biddeford on our own, do you? I mean if we were, we’d ask for your help.”

Mike didn’t look like he was buying Millie’s song and dance in the least.

“He should join forces withushh andweed find the killersfashter,” Mom slurred. Her head was resting on her arms atop the table but she’d turned it sideways to look at us.

“Aha!” Mike said. “I knew it.”

“Knew what? We’re just baking a loaf cake.” I pointed at the oven. “She’s drunk. Doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

Mom frowned at me but was smart enough to hold her tongue.

“I’m not the enemy here and I’m not trying to ruin your fun. I just don’t want you to get hurt. Any of you.” His eyes drifted from Mom to Millie and then settled on me. “You’re all very precious to me.”

“Don’t worry, dear. We’ll be careful,” Millie said. “I don’t need to remind you that Rose, Josie and I are mature adults and don’t need you telling us what to do.”

Mike threw up his hands in exasperation.“Fine. I know I can’t tell you what to do. But I just hope you won’t get into any serious trouble.”

He pinned me with his gaze, but to his credit didn’t elaborate as to how we should back off on the investigation—or worse—how we should leave it to a professional like him.

“Yes, dear, and thank you for bringing Rose back.” Millie pushed him out the door. “I know you’re very busy downtown with your new job and all, so we’ll let you get back to it.”

Mike paused at the door and turned to me.“I’ll be back later to double-check the foundation and walls under the conservatory.”

He would? That was news to me.“Now? Ed won’t be starting in there for a while.”

He looked at me funny.“I think you might be focusing too much on investigating and not enough on what is going on in your own guesthouse. Some structural work was done to the walls already and I need to make sure it didn’t effect anything because of the weird way they constructed that room.”

Again, news to me.“What weird way?” Wait! Ed had already done something in there?

“When they added the conservatory, they used the wall of an existing barn that was adjacent to the house. That old barn had been original to the property. Did you notice that the foundation underneath is giant slabs of granite?”

I nodded.

“You can’t find those anymore. Anyway, since that existing wall and foundation is so old, I want to check the structural integrity before too much more work gets done.” Mike glanced at his watch then grimaced. “Gotta run. Have to inspect an addition over at the old Dunkirk place.”

Mike shot a smile in my direction and went out the door as I digested this new tidbit of information. Not only had Ed lied about being in the conservatory, but the foundation and one of the walls dated back to Jed’s time. My thoughts drifted back to the conversation between the Biddefords right after we’d discovered the skeleton. They’d been talking about looking for a map and wondering if one could have been in the wall with Jed. Doris had said she’d looked in there pretty good, but she hadn’t seen a map and since they’d all arrived at the same time none of them could have taken it without the others seeing. The thing was, there was one person who had been there before any of us and that person could have taken the map. Ed.

I looked up at my mother and Millie, a feeling of dread blooming in my stomach.“I think we better go talk to Ed.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero, Marlowe and the other cats crouched under an azalea bush, inspecting the shovel that protruded halfway out of the ground. There was no doubt why it had been buried. The coppery scent of blood and murderous intent hung maliciously in the air. A faint breeze rustled the leaves, the only sound breaking the silence as the cats watched Harry carefully brush away some of the dirt.

Nero was proud of Harry and the others. They’d sniffed around the grounds and uncovered this valuable clue, then ran to gather him and Marlowe from the guesthouse. Now, it had been carefully uncovered just enough so that they could lead the humans over to discover it on their own.

“Yep, that’s the murder weapon all right.” Harry sat back on his haunches and licked his paw, clearly satisfied with his own detective work.

“I can smell Bob’s blood on the end.” Juliette’s face wrinkled in distaste. “But I don’t smell the woman who made the confession.”

“So she’s not the killer.” Nero paced around the shovel, sniffing at it from all angles. Some of it was still buried, but his superior senses could sniff out the lingering scents even below the earth. Unfortunately, those scents did not provide clues as to who had wielded the weapon.

Marlowe glanced back in the direction of the guesthouse.“How are we going to get Josie out here to find a shovel?”

“Good question,” Nero said.

Boots looked at him with his usual air of superiority and Nero resisted the urge to hiss at the other cat. He knew Boots was mostly jealous of Nero’s superior skills of deduction, not to mention that Nero had white tuxedo markings on his chest while Boots only had white on his paws. The tuxedo gave Nero a debonair air and Boots had always been a little jealous.

“I thought Josie was starting to come around?” Stubbs said.

Nero sighed.“She is a work in progress. She is starting to become aware of our communication attempts. Why, just this morning I pushed her toward a clue about Carla Biddeford’s mug and I know for a fact she understood the mug was a clue.”

“She’s not up to speed yet though,” Marlowe added. “Last night she misconstrued our communications and even though she knew the mug was a clue, we aren’t sure she realized what we meant by it.”

“True,” Nero mused. “Perhaps it would be best if we try to bring Millie.”

“Millie is certainly a possibility.” Boots tugged at his whiskers. “But does Millie have enough clues to figure out who the killer is?”

Juliette swiped her paw toward the shovel.“The murder weapon seems like a big enough clue. I’m sure the police can do forensics on it and figure out who the killer is.”

Boots sniffed and turned up his nose.“Their lab tests are far inferior to our feline senses.”

“Is that so?” Harry asked. “Then you tell me.Who is the killer?”

“Well… err…” Boots glanced around the area. “There isn’t enough evidence to say. Having said that, are we sure Millie will even want to present the murder weapon to Sheriff Chamberlain?”

“What do you mean, will she want to? Of course she will, because it may prove who the killer is,” Marlowe said.

“Precisely my point,” Boots said. “What if the killer is someone Millie does not want revealed? Someone she is very close to and has a vested interest in protecting.”

Nero’s heart dropped at the thought. Normally he would never even think that Millie would shield a killer from the law. But Millie was loyal to those she loved and Nero knew that Sheriff Chamberlain had Flora on his suspect list. But it couldn’t be Flora, Nero was sure of it. He was a good judge ofcharacter and beneath Flora’s gruff exterior was a kind heart. Never mind that she’d lied about a few things and never mind that her shoes had smelled like burned loaf cakes. She simply couldn’t be the killer. But that begged the question… who was?

“Well one thing we know is it ain’t no ghost,” Stubbs said.

Nero would have laughed, if laughing wasn’t beneath him. “Of course not. Although half the town thinks it is. If there was a ghost, we would be seeing it.”

It was common knowledge that cats could see spirits from other planes, though humans seemed to find the idea hard to grasp. What did they think the cats were doing when they stared at the wall or into the corner, apparently at nothing? Since Nero hadn’t seen a ghost at the guesthouse, he was confident that Jed’s spirit had not returned.

“But that means the killer is much more dangerous. A human. A human who thinks he or she is getting away with murder,” Harry said.

Nero’s expression was grim as he looked down at the shovel. “We need to bring this to the attention of the humans before it’s too late. If my guess is correct, the killer is planning to dispose of it once the heat dies down.”

A rustling in the bushes startled them and they turned, ears like radar dishes figuring out what made the sound.

“Uh oh,” Poe said. “Looks like we may be too late. Unless I’m totally off my game, that’s the killer and they’ve come back to find a better hiding spot for the murder weapon.”

Twenty-Three

Ed should have been working in the west wing, but he wasn’t. We searched the house, finally bumping into him as he came in the back door that led to the overgrown gardens. He seemed surprised to see us and possibly a little bit guilty as he wiped off wet hands on his jeans.

“So, where have you been?” I asked.

A flicker of surprise at my accusing tone passed over his kindly face and I was speared with guilt. Was I jumping to conclusions?

“I was out by the water spigot washing off my paint brushes. I started doing the trim work in the game room. Would you like to see?”

“Not right now.” I glanced back at Millie. I probably should have prepared a line of questioning or something, but I hadn’t and suddenly didn’t know what to say. Thankfully Millie took over.

“Ed, we were just talking to Mike and he mentioned something odd about the conservatory,” Millie said.

Ed straightened, his eyes narrowing. Aha! I hadn’t been jumping to conclusions.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, Josie here says that you haven’t done any work in there yet.”

Ed couldn’t meet my eyes. Or Millie’s. “That’s right.”

“But Mike said he was inspecting some work you’d done for structural integrity.”

Ed bit his lip but remained silent.

I took that as guilt.“Ed, what were you doing in there? Does it have anything to do with the treasure or the murder?”

Ed’s eyes widened. “What? No! Why would you ask that?”

I glanced at Millie. Mom was leaning against the wall, her eyes half closed. She was no help. Ed sounded genuinely surprised at my question.“Well, it’s obvious you are up to something. You lied to me. Why else would you do that?”

Ed sighed, his shoulders slumping.“Okay, fine. I admit I lied. But it was what you’d call one of them little white lies.”

A little white lie? About murder and treasure stealing?

Millie patted Ed’s arm. “Of course it was. Now, why don’t you tell us all about it so Josie can get rid of this silly notion that you had something to do with the murder.” She shot me a see-I -told-you-Ed-wouldn’t-do-anything-wrong look.

“Fine, but it will ruin the surprise. Better that I show you.” Ed gestured toward the hallway and we all started walking.

I had to admit, I wasn’t as convinced of Ed’s innocence as Millie was. He was leading us toward the conservatory and my mind kept telling me to run. If Ed was the killer and knew that we’d figured it out, wouldn’t he want to kill us next? Then again, he was an old man and we were three women. Well, two and a half if you consider my mother wasn’t operating at full speed. I figured we could take him and didn’t I owe him the chance to prove me wrong?

Millie didn’t seem the least bit worried and followed him right into the conservatory. I hung back in the doorway imagining how the conservatory, which had most of its windows boarded up and was in an isolated part of the house, was a great place to murder someone without being seen. Remaining in the doorway seemed like a good plan because then I could run if he tried something. There was no way I was going to let him get me inside the room and shut the door.

But then Ed did something surprising. He headed over to one of the windows and ripped off the plywood.

Mom, Millie and I gasped.

Underneath the plywood, the windows had been replaced and Ed had installed gorgeous hand-carved molding that was a replica of the original, now rotten, wood.

“Oh! It looks delightful!” Millie squealed.

Ed blushed and revealed the next window, and the next.

This is what he’d lied about?

Mom and I wandered into the room for a closer look. The wood was oak, stained and polished to honeyed perfection. The carvings were vines and flowers. The artistry was stunning. I turned to Ed.“Did you carve these?”

His cheeks reddened even further and he nodded.“Got nothing much else to do now that the missus is gone.”

“But why did you lie about it?” I asked.

“It was supposed to be a surprise. I was going to wait until I had all the windows done and show you all at once.”

I pushed words out around the lump of guilt that had formed in my throat:“Thank you. This is really above and beyond anything I was expecting.”

I couldn’t believe that Ed had done all this and I hadn’t been aware. Maybe I had been too focused on my lack of cooking skills. In my defense, the conservatory was in a secluded section of the guesthouse and he had done most of the work in his shop at home. I wouldn’t have heard the hammering. And since the gardens outside were incredibly overgrown, I never went back there so never noticed the windows had been replaced.

I ran my hand over the woodwork.“I’m sorry I suspected you.”

Ed looked down at his feet.“That’s okay. But why did you suspect me?”

I explained about the wall being original and how I’d thought maybe he had taken a map out of the wall we’d found Jed’s skeleton in and it had led to this area.

He shook his head.“Nope. No map. If I was a thief I’d have taken that ring, not some map. But now I wonder if that’s why she was acting so sneaky and secretive.”

“She?” Mom, Millie and I said in unison. Even Mom had perked up for that.

“Flora. I saw her coming out of one of the guest rooms and she was shoving something in her pocket and looking around to see if anyone was watching. She didn’t see me because I’d just come down from the attic stairs in the back. I can’t be a hundred-percent sure, but I could have sworn she was muttering something about it being the strangest map she ever saw.”

Twenty-Four

We found Flora in the front parlor dusting, if you consider sitting on the sofa and running the feather duster over the coffee table while watching the TV dusting.

She must’ve known something was up though because she eyed us suspiciously as we approached.

“What? I’m working on my break.” Flora seemed indignant. “You should be lucky I’m just not sitting watching TV. I get a fifteen-minute break every two hours. Federal law.”

I glanced at Millie. Was that really true? Didn’t matter right now, we had more important fish to fry.

“It’s not about that, Flora,” I said.

Flora’s eyes got a little bigger behind the round glasses. She stopped dusting and fiddled with the feathers. “Well, what is it? I cleaned that room like you asked me to.”

Millie sat down next to her and took her hand. Flora suddenly became very interested in the floor, the window, the table… anything so she didn’t have to look at us. “Well, what is it? Spit it out if you have something to say.” The tone in her voice didn’t match the gruff words. It was clear that Flora was hiding something. I hoped it wasn’t the fact that she’d killed Bob.

“Now, Flora, we’ve known each other for a long time,” Millie said soothingly. “And you know you can tell me the truth.”

“The truth? I always tell the truth.” But the way Flora couldn’t meet Millie’s eyes seemed to indicate that this was not the case. My stomach swooped. Had we been wrong about her?

“Maybe sometimes you tell a little white lie or omit things,” Millie persisted. “Like when you said you weren’t out digging earlier but then admitted later on to Josie that you were in fact out there.”

Flora scowled.“I never said I wasn’t outdigging. I said I wouldn’t have the strength to bash someone over the head with a shovel. You people need to learn how to listen. Why don’t you ask your boyfriend if you want the truth.”

Millie blushed.

Mom snorted.

Flora smirked.

“But that’s not the only thing you were evasive about is it?” I asked.

Flora jerked her hand away from Millie and crossed her arms over her chest.“I’m not a liar. I might have a bad memory though. What, exactly, are you talking about?”

“You lied about cleaning Arlene and Earl’s room. I saw you go in there and Ed saw you acting sneaky when you came out.” I didn’t mention the part about him thinking she was hiding something in her pocket and mumbling about a map. Stealing from a guest’s room was a harsh accusation and Ed hadn’t seemed completely certain. If Flora had taken something, I wanted to give her the chance to admit to it on her own. “And you lied about not having a shovel.”

“And you lied about taking a vacation,” Mom said. “Annabel at the travel agency said that you were looking to go to the Caribbean.”

Flora looked at Mom like she was crazy.“The Caribbean? Where in tarnation did she ever get that idea?” She turned her gaze on me. “I don’t appreciate you calling me a liar, either. And that Ed is a tattletale.”

“Well then explain all this,” I said. “Why are you being so evasive about being near the pond? What were you doing at the travel agency? Why were you sneaking around Earl and Arlene’s room? Andwhere is your shovel?”

Flora straightened on the couch, looking rather indignant. Her eyes drifted from me to Millie and then to my mother. Her mouth worked up and down.“I… I…”

Finally, she sighed and collapsed back into the couch.“Okay, maybe I told a little lie about one of these things.”

“So youwere running from the pond the night Bob was killed?” I said.

“Sort of. Well, I was near there, but I didn’t kill Bob.” Flora looked contrite and picked at the feathers in the duster. “Let me explain.”

“Okay. That’s a relief. I knew you couldn’t kill anyone anyway.” Millie patted her hand.

“When I heard there was treasure, I figured why not try to dig it up too, so I went out there with the rest of them. I was following the family members around thinking they might have a lead on the location. That’s how I ended up on the path from the pond.”

Millie and Mom scooted to the edges of their seats.“So you were there before Bob was killed? Did you see him with someone or hear them arguing?”

“No, I didn’t see him at all. It was kind of dark and… well, I don’t see as good as I used to. For all I know, Bob was already dead when I went past.” Flora blanched. “Oh dear, I hope he wasn’t flopping around and I could’ve helped him. Truth was it was a little scary out there and I was rushing back toward the house.”

“You didn’t see anyone rushing away. No one in front of you?” Mom asked.

“No.” Flora still couldn’t meet our eyes. There was something she wasn’t telling us.

“But you must’ve seen something. Sheriff Chamberlain thinks you’re the killer so anything you know would be really helpful in your defense,” Millie said.

“I didn’t see anything, I swear. If you ask me it’s one of those family members. They were all arguing with Bob.”

“Yeah, we know that. But, Flora, think hard. You must have seen something,” I said.

“Nope.” She gazed out the window.

“Okay, what about your shovel? Where did you put that? Maybe if we can give the shovel to Seth he can do some testing on it to rule you out,” Millie suggested.

Flora gave her a funny look.“Give it to Seth? He already has it. I’m surprised he still suspects me. Seems like he could have figured out my shovel isn’t the one that killed Bob. Then again, that boy always was a little slow on the uptake.”

“You already gave him the shovel? When?” I didn’t see how she could have possibly done that in between the time we saw Seth at the town celebration and now, especially since she’d been here cleaning the whole time and Seth hadn’t stopped by. But at the celebration Seth still suspected her, so he must not have had it yet.

“Give it to him? No. I saw him take it. I put it in the carriage house with the rest of the shovels. That’s where you said you wanted people to put them.”

My brows knit together.“You did? But Sheriff Chamberlain only found six shovels, one for each of the Biddefords, besides Bob. His shovel was at the murder scene.”

Mom jumped out of her chair.“Seth just assumed all those belonged to the Biddefords, but if one of the shovels was Flora’s then that means one of the Biddefords’ shovels is missing. My guess is that is the murder weapon!”

“Which means that Flora is cleared because Seth himself said none of those shovels were the murder weapon,” Millie said.

“And that also means that one of the Biddefords really is the killer,” I said. Or could it still be Annabel? But if it was her, why would one of the Biddefords’ shovels be missing?

“But which one?” Mom asked.

“I hate to say it, but Doris said she’d do anything to get the company back on track and she also lied about them all being together that night,” I said.

“Bob argued with Carla but she seems to have an alibi,” Mom said.

“Paula also argued with Bob,” Millie pointed out. “And Paula has been trying to frame quite a few people. Flora and then Myron with the shoes. Maybe she’s the real killer.”

“I heard someone else argue with Bob,” Flora said.

We swiveled our heads in her direction.“Who?”

“Earl,” she said.

“What did they argue about?” I asked.

“It’s not like I was trying to eavesdrop. You were out shopping and I was cleaning the hallway when Bob burst into Earl’s room. They had a little bit of a tiff. I couldn’t hear too good but it sounded like something about a secret book and rubble. I figured the rubble had to do with digging, that’s why I…”

Flora’s voice trailed off and she got more fidgety with the feather duster and glanced around the room.

“You what?” I prompted.

“Okay, okay! I’ll admit it. I was lying about one thing. I didn’t clean Earl and Arlene’s room that day, but Iwas in there.”

“What were you doing?” Millie asked.

Flora glanced around to make sure no one else was about, then continued,“When I heard the argument about the secret book I assumed it was something about a treasure map. You know, maybe an old family book or something? I figured it wouldn’t do any harm to go in there and while I was cleaning maybe I could find this book.” Flora glanced out the window. “But whenI went in it was pretty obvious where the treasure map was.”

“Wait, there really is a map?” I could practically see my mom thinking about rushing home to get a shovel. News of the map plus Millie’s coffee had sobered her up.

“Well, therewas. Problem is Earl had burned most of it in the fireplace in his room. I could make out nothing but a few lines of longitude and latitude.” Flora’s expression turned sheepish. “I lied because I didn’t want you to think I stole from the room.”

“Really? If Earl knew where the treasure was, then did he dig it up?” Millie said.

“If Bob and Earl argued over it maybe only Bob knew where it was,” Mom said. “Maybe that’s why it was burned.”

“Wait a minute. I want to see this map. Do you still have it?” I asked.

Flora blanched.“It wasn’t really stealing, honest. I mean it was in the fireplace so technically it was trash and I was just taking out the trash.”

“Of course. I’m not mad you took it, but I would like to look at it,” I said.

“It’s right here in my pocket.” Flora produced a wrinkled, charred piece of paper. “It won’t do you any good though. The map wasn’t for anything on this property. I think Jedediah might’ve buried his treasure at sea.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked. Millie and Mom had come to stand behind me so they could look over my shoulder.

“I went down to the travel agency lady to find out where these longitude and latitude would be. But this stupid map isn’t for this property—she said it was for somewhere in the Caribbean Ocean!”

Millie glanced at me.“Annabel wasn’t lying. Flora really was there, she just assumed she was looking to take a vacation because of the longitude and latitude.”

“But why would Jed bury the treasure in the middle of the ocean?” Mom’s eyes narrowed. “What if Annabel really did lie? What if she lied to Flora about the coordinates?”

“What do you mean?” Flora asked.

Mom leaned forward in her seat.“What if Annabel recognized the numbers for what they were—a map to the treasure. And what if she didn’t want anyone else to know the location. She might have given Flora false information about what the longitude and latitude really meant so that she could dig up the treasure herself!”

Millie pressed her lips together.“Hmmm… she did have those fancy shoes and she is expanding her business which means she got an influx of money.”

I stared down at the paper. It was a column of numbers that reminded me of the unbalanced accounting ledger I had for the guesthouse.“Are you sure these are longitude and latitude? Because they don’t look like it to me.”

“They don’t? Well I just assumed they were. I mean, why talk about a secret book and then burn the paper?” Flora asked.

Something else tickled the back of my brain. I was on to something, but had one more question.“Flora, did you clean Millie’s grandmother’s doily in the parlor the morning that Sheriff Chamberlain interviewed all of us?”

“No, I actually didn’t clean that. I know I should have corrected you when you thanked me for cleaning it before, but I figured what the heck, if you thought I did extra work who am I to set you straight? Besides, after Sheriff Chamberlain interrogated me I had to go to my friend’s house to bake cookies for the great-grandmothers of twins’ table at the town celebration.”

If Flora didn’t clean the doily, then why had it been clean when there were clumps of dirt on the table? Of course! It was all coming together. “I think I know who the killer is and if we can just find that missing shovel, we can prove—”

Meroowl!

At the panicked sound of a cat’s cry, we whipped our heads around to see Nero standing in the doorway. His fur was puffed and his tail stood straight up as his large golden eyes beseeched us.

Millie frowned.“I never see Nero alone. Nero, where is Marlowe?”

Nero gave an ungodly cry, spun around and raced out of the room.

Millie, Mom and I were on our feet in a second, following the cat. It was clear by the way Nero was acting that something was dreadfully wrong.

Twenty-Five

Millie was the first through the kitchen door, with my mother and me close behind. Who knew Millie could move so fast? I had to hand it to Mom too, she was managing to keep up despite the afternoon in the beer tent with Paula.

“Marlowe must be in trouble!” Millie yelled as we watched Nero’s tail disappear down the path that led to the old gardening shed. My mind conjured up all the bad things that could happen to a cat out there. Had she fallen through old rotted boards? Cut herself on a rusty tool? Gotten stuck insome old animal trap? Fallen into an abandoned well? The thought of poor Marlowe hurt was crushing.

As we headed deeper into the overgrown area, I glanced behind me. Flora was making a good effort to keep up but had barely made it down the back steps. She waved me on and I turned forward, running to catch up to Mom and Millie.

Branches whipped in our faces as we jumped over gnarled roots sticking up out of the ground and sidestepped fallen branches. We heard a voice ahead.

“Hey get off, you mangy fur ball!”

Meow!

Millie and Mom had sprinted ahead. They skidded to a stop and I just barely missed bowling them over. My eyes immediately scanned for Marlowe. She was caterwauling loudly and her fur was standing on end, but she seemed fine. It was kind of hard to tell for sure though because she was latched onto a pant leg and the owner of said leg was trying vigorously to kick her off.

The cats I had seen at the murder scene were all there, too. Their backs were humped and tails fluffed out like bottle brushes. Some were hissing as they stood between the person and the bloody shovel sticking partway out of the ground.

The murder weapon!

“Marlowe!” Millie was aghast. “Leave him alone. I’m so sorry, the cats don’t usually act this way.”

Apparently Millie hadn’t put two and two together yet. The cats weren’t attacking for no reason. They’d captured the killer—Earl Biddeford.

I felt momentary satisfaction that my suspicions had been correct. I was about to name Earl as the killer when Nero had interrupted with his caterwauling. I hadn’t been a hundred-percent positive then. I was now.

“I don’t know why she’s acting this way…” Millie wrung her hands, probably picturing a lawsuit.

“She’s acting that way because he is the killer.” I stepped between Earl and the shovel, standing next to the cats, my arms crossed over my chest to signify that there was no way Earl was going to get to that shovel.

“He is?” Mom turned to me.

“Yes, he is. Isn’t that right, Earl?”

Earl forgot about Marlowe, who was still digging in to his leg, and turned malicious eyes on me.“You three busybodies should have left well enough alone! You should have let everyone think it was Jedediah’s ghost.”

“Why would we do that? Bob deserved to have his killer caught.” I inched to the left, hoping Mom and Millie got the hint to surround him. It looked like the cats did too because they started to fan out. The black cat with the white paws seemed a bit reluctant but the orange-striped one with themissing tail looked like he was itching to dig his claws into Earl’s other leg.

“He didn’t deserve anything! He was a slacker. Always weaseling out of work. His sculptures were sub-par. He couldn’t even carve a decent swan.” Earl tried to step toward me but was weighed down by the cat on his leg.

“But that’s not why you killed him, is it?” I inched my way further to the left.

“No. His lack of skills wasn’t the reason. Bob was always a tattletale. I’m surprised someone else didn’t do him in before me.” Earl twisted to try to get rid of Marlowe. My blood froze. Tucked in the back of Earl’s pants was a gun. I had to tread very carefully. Hopefully, I could keephim distracted with talking.

“I never did like a tattletale,” Mom said.

“No one does,” Earl said. “I did everyone a favor.”

“But you mostly did yourself a favor, didn’t you? Because Bob had something on you that would pit your entire family against you and probably send you to jail.”

“You mean the secret book with the treasure map?” Mom asked.

“No. There was a secret book, but it wasn’t about treasure. Earl was embezzling from the company.” I looked at Earl. “Weren’t you?”

Millie snapped her fingers.“Of course! I should have known. I thought it was odd that Earl and Arlene always dressed to the nines given that the company was having trouble.”

I pointed toward Earl’s feet. He was wearing fancy Italian loafers. “It really was your shoes that Paula saw running away from the pond, wasn’t it?”

“Stupid Paula. Leave it to her to be passed out right in my getaway path,” Earl said. “I chose that pond area because I knew no one was over there. No witnesses.”

I shifted to the left, still trying to surround him. Millie was over on the right but unfortunately my mother appeared oblivious to the plan. She was shuffling from foot to foot and looking a bit uncomfortable.

“That wasn’t the only flaw in your plan,” I said. “Oh, you almost had us fooled. I mean, who would suspect you had a reason to kill Bob, especially after you burned the real accounting ledger in your fireplace.”

I smiled at the look of surprise on Earl’s face. “Yeah, the maid found the evidence and we have it safe and sound at the guesthouse for the police.”

Earl looked skeptical.“What? There must only be a few small scraps left. Nothing that would prove anything except that I burned some paper with numbers. By the way, you should look into getting a new maid. That one’s work leaves a bit to be desired.”

I ignored his comment about Flora. It’s not like it was anything I didn’t already know. “You made another key mistake, too.”

“What? Picking a guesthouse with you three nosey people at it?”

“Well that too, but when you brought the Nikes down to prove that it wasn’t your shoes that Paula saw, you made a big error. I worked out that you put that dirt on them not from outside, but from the plants in the conservatory. But you messed up.”

“How?”

“You only put dirt on the tops! If you’d really been wearing them, the dirt would have been clumped into the treads and have fallen out on the table, but dirt only came off the sides. The actual spot where the soles had been was clean.” And that explained why the doily had not been dirty. Turned out Flora’s reluctance to clean most things provided a key clue to catching the killer.

“And now we have the murder weapon,” Millie said, pointing at the shovel. “I would say your cheese-sculpting days are over. You might as well just give up. Play nice and you might get a reduced sentence. I’ll just call the sheriff and tell him—”

“Not so fast!” Earl pulled the gun out of his pocket and waved it around. “I’m not going to jail.”

“Now, Earl, be careful with that thing. You don’t want to go to jail for multiple murders.” Millie glanced over at me as if to ask what our plan was now. I didn’t have one other than not getting shot.

“Why not? If I’m going for one anyway, how much time can it add?” Earl laughed. “But I’m not going for even one. Too bad you’re all so nosey. I had the perfect setup here, especially once that skeleton was discovered. I mean, who gets a chance to frame a ghost? And if that didn’t work, I could always let your maid take the rap.”

“Well, that’s not going to work. Not once they get this shovel to the CSI lab and find your fingerprints and Bob’s blood on it,” Millie said.

“Not gonna happen. If only these stupid cats didn’t dig it up. Actually, maybe it’s a good thing they did. I’ll need something to dig the hole to bury your bodies in.”

Mom raised her hand.“Can I go to the little girls’ room?”

“No. You won’t need to worry about that soon.”

My heart stopped as he stepped toward my mother, pointing the gun at her head.

Meroooo!

A blur of black-and-white shot toward Earl’s gun arm. Nero!

“Ouch!” Earl shook his arm, but he didn’t drop the gun.

My mind whirled with indecision. Should I lunge toward the gun? Go for his knees and knock him down? He was still holding the darn gun!

There was a rustle in the bushes behind him. A thick branch appeared, crashing down on Earl’s head. He crumpled to the ground.

Behind him stood Flora. She looked down at Earl’s still body.

“Guess I lied about another thing,” she said.

“What?” Millie asked.

Flora nudged Earl’s arm with her toe. “Looks like this old bird really does have the strength to clonk someone over the head.”

Millie hugged her.“You saved the day.”

“Ahh, it was nothing,” Flora said.

“Thanks, Flora. I gotta make a pit stop.” Mom ducked behind a shrub.

Nero and Marlowe trotted over to me and rubbed against my ankles.“Thanks, guys.” I picked them up one by one and buried my face in their fur. When I put them back down, they trotted over to Millie. It didn’t escape me that they’d come to me first.

“I better call Seth before Earl wakes up. He is alive, isn’t he?” asked Millie.

“Yep.” I’d already done a visual check to make sure he was still breathing.

“That’s a relief. Didn’t want Flora to be accused of murder again.”

Mom reappeared from behind the bush and I noticed that while Nero and Marlowe were sticking close by, the other cats had disappeared. I guess they didn’t want to hang around and take credit for discovering the murder weapon. Just like Millie had always said, there was more to the cats than met the eye—and not just Nero and Marlowe.

Millie dialed. Then she made a face, her eyes squinting and her nose wrinkling. She turned in the direction of the guesthouse and sniffed the air.“Say, do I smell something burning?”

Twenty-Six

“Josie, this is the most delicious apple-pecan bread I’ve ever tasted!” Annabel Drescher stood in front of my table chewing noisily on one of the tiny loaves of bread.

I’d burned another test loaf when we’d been busy capturing Earl. But I’d finally nailed the recipe for the bread, and fifty-four miniature loaves were stacked in a pyramid in the middle of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse display table at Oyster Cove’s 250th town celebration. The tent and streets were crowded and the mood was festive.

From inside the tents, which were nestled on the lush green grass of the town common, shaded by stately oaks and maples, one could see the quaint shops that lined Main Street in one direction, and the sparkling blue ocean in the other.

The Oyster Cove Chamber of Commerce had outdone themselves decorating for the festivities. A large banner with an image of the town two centuries ago hung across the street. Various food vendors and carnival games had been set up on the other side of the town common across from the shops, which all had sparkling clean windows and vibrant awnings. Baskets overflowing with colorful flowers hung from the fancy wrought-iron lamp posts that lined the streets. The air was spiced with the scent of popcorn, the sounds of laughter and the cry of an occasional gull.

“Thank you. Josie is a fine baker.” Millie sat proudly in the chair beside me. It was generous of her to give me credit since she was the reason they were so delicious, but I wasn’t about to argue.

Annabel took another bite and leaned across the table, glancing over at Stella out of the corner of her eye.

“Much better than Stella Dumont’s custard… that tasted sour,” she whispered.

“I knew it would,” Millie muttered under her breath.

“Lucky for Myron he gave me that loan for my travel agency instead of giving one to Stella,” Annabel said.

“Yeah, lucky.” I felt bad for suspecting her. It turned out she really hadn’t lied about Flora. Flora really had gone there with numbers, except they weren’t longitude and latitude, they were accounting numbers which had correlated with a longitude and latitude in the Caribbean Sea. Annabelhad no idea what the numbers really were though and had just made an assumption that Flora wanted a vacation. She hadn’t dug up treasure to renovate her travel agency, she’d gotten a loan.

I simply smiled and nodded, then glanced over at the Smugglers Bay Inn table. People were milling about in front of it, but no one was eating the custard. I wondered if she’d gotten any bookings.

There were plenty of tourists in town and some of them might want to make a reservation to come back. Hopefully the curdling custard would drive more tourists toward my place, though I wasn’t particularly worried. I’d gotten quite a number of reservations in the past few days.

“You haven’t cut the cheese yet?” Mom gestured toward the towering sculpture that dominated the right side of the table. It was a likeness of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse as it was 250 years ago, carved out of cheddar.

Doris had secretly whipped it up after I’d given her permission to bury Jed’s skeleton in the old family cemetery on the property. Unfortunately, the burial never happened. With the logistics of getting into the overgrown part of the estate, heavy equipment to dig up the yard and state regulations, the Biddefords decided it was too costly and had opted for cremation. Doris said she’d rather use the money for a good rehab place for Paula.

Doris had handled Earl’s arrest well. I had to admire her, finding out one of your sons murdered another one couldn’t be easy. It turned out she had had her suspicions that one of her children had killed Bob from the beginning, that’s why she’d lied to Seth when she’d told him they’d all stuck together that night. She was hoping to provide an alibi for her kids.

But she was making the best of it, and at least something good had come from it. It seemed to have brought Doris, Paula and Carla closer together. Doris was taking back the reins of the cheese-sculpture business. She was determined to run it the right way and restore it to its former glory.

I suspected her gift of the sculpture wasn’t totally unselfish—she’d conveniently presented it to me under the tent and suggested I put it on my table with some of her business cards, just in case someone wanted to order a cheese sculpture of their own. I was happy to drum up business for her after everything she’d been through.

“Seems a shame to cut it, don’t you think?” I said. Doris had nicely provided crackers, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut into the sculpture. Besides, it was attracting people, and that was good for business—both mine and the Biddefords’.

“Yeah, but I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll just pinch off one of the shrubberies here,” Mom said, bending down and presumably looking for an inconspicuous spot to pinch some cheese.

A splash followed by a round of laughter caught our attention and we looked over to the Mayor’s head surfacing from the dunk tank. I’d heard dunking the mayor had been a very popular attraction and since the money people paid for a go went to the Chamber of Commerce festivals fund, he was being a good sport about it.

“Looking for Jed’s ghost in there?” Myron nodded at the sculpture. Apparently, he’d wandered over when my attention was on the dunk tank. As much as I would have liked to tell him to get lost, I couldn’t. He had approached me with the terms of a loan that I didn’t have to start paying on for twelve months. That meant I could step up renovations and get the guesthouse fully functional a lot sooner. Unfortunately, it also meant I’d have to be nice to Myron.

“Hardly.” Mom pinched off a corner and plopped it onto a cracker. “You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?”

Myron shook his head.“Nope. And I don’t believe there’s treasure either. At least not from what my grandfather told me.”

“We never thought there was any treasure,” Millie said. “I think I would have known if there was something valuable right under my very nose.”

“Naturally. My relatives would have known if Jed had buried any treasure. I just hope this whole business with finding Jed’s skeleton and the rumor of his ghost doesn’t dissuade people from staying at the guesthouse.” Myron winked at me and I tried not to make a face. “I have a vested interest in it now.”

“Don’t worry, Myron. People haven’t been put off by the skeleton. Quite the opposite, in fact. Several of the people who made reservations specifically asked if it was the place where Jedediah Biddeford’s skeleton was found so, apparently, that helps business not hurts it.”

“That’s good.” Myron picked up an apple-pecan loaf. “Say, did they ever send the skeleton to that forensic anthropologist your daughter mentioned?”

“No. The Biddefords are having him cremated.”

“Statute of limitation ran out on that case, anyway.” Seth Chamberlain had come up, along with Mike Sullivan. The two of them paused to let a small gang of children grasping pink and blue clouds of cotton candy on sticks run in front of them.

“So you won’t be running around, trying to investigate that murder, then?” Myron said.

Myron had taken an interest in the guesthouse because of his ancestral ties to it. He said he wanted to embrace his humble beginnings and that was why he’d give me the loan, though Mom and Millie thought it was because he was sweet on me. I guess that’s why he was so interested in the investigation in the first place. I felt a little sad that Jed’s murder would never be solved, but if the police weren’t going to look into it, who would?

“Nope. We’ll be investigating the murder of Bob Biddeford, although that one is pretty cut and dry,” Seth said. “We found the evidence we needed on that shovel and since the three of you heard him confess, it’s a slam dunk.”

“And you won’t need to disrupt the guests in the guesthouse, right?” Millie asked.

Seth looked at her with twinkling eyes.“Nope. Josie is free to run it unencumbered by a police investigation.”

“And since she’ll be having so much construction done with the new loan, I’ll be spending a lot of time over there inspecting it,” Mike said.

I wasn’t sure I liked the non-businesslike look he gave me when he said that. Or the way my mother’s eyebrows waggled up and down. Or the smug look on Millie’s face. Before I could say anything, Ed O’Hara came up and broke a piece of porch railing off the cheese sculpture.

“And I’ll have work for a long time.” Ed looked at me fondly… maybe a little too fondly. “Congratulations on catching the killer by the way.”

“It wasn’t just me. I had a lot of help.” I gestured to my mother and Millie. Even though I reallywas the one who had figured out who killed Bob, I could be modest when I wanted to be.

“Yeah, and you were on the wrong track, Seth,” Millie said.

“Right. See, we can investigate and not get ourselves in trouble.” My mother shot a pointed look at Mike.

“Yeah. See?” I added, also giving Mike a look just to drive the point home.

Mike held his hands up in a gesture of surrender.“Okay, I admit you guys did manage to capture him. But he had a gun, you could have been shot.”

“But we weren’t. Flora was the real hero anyway. She clonked him over the head and saved the day!” Millie turned to Seth. “And to think, you suspected her.”

“Nah… I knew she wasn’t the real killer and that the truth would come out in the end,” Seth said.

Millie scrunched up her face.“You expect us to believe that? You said you were going to bring her in for questioning. Why, I bet you were about to arrest her when we called telling you we’d caught the real killer. Without us you might have arrested the wrong person for the murder.”

“Yeah,” my mother said. “You needed us to put it all together for you. We don’t mind doing it this time, but next time I hope you’ll be able to do some of the work yourself. I mean, you can’t expect us to solve all the murders that happen in this town, can he, Josie?”

“I’m sure Sheriff Chamberlain can do just fine without our help.”

Seth was taking it all in his stride. A movement behind him caught my eye. Nero and Marlowe were skulking around the edges of the tent, heading toward the town docks.

It had been kind of fun figuring out who had killed Bob, but I hoped we wouldn’t have another murder in town anytime soon. We hadn’t totally figured it all out on our own, either. I was starting to realize that we’d had a little non-human help. As if sensing my thoughts, Nero turned and looked right at me.

Yep, I was sure we’d gotten more than a little help from the cats. But I couldn’t very well tell anyone that, now could I?

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“Too bad the humans will never realize the key role we played in helping them find the killer,” Nero said as they trotted past the tents on their way to the bait wharf.

“I don’t know, I think Josie has an idea. I mean, she must have figured out that I was hanging on to Earl’s leg for a reason,” Marlowe said. “But I suppose she can’t very well go around telling people that her cats helped her solve a murder.”

They rounded the side of the harbormaster’s station and proceeded straight to the bait wharf. All the other cats were lounging around by the lobster traps. No fish scraps this time, Nero noted with disappointment. Maybe they could persuade Josie and Millie to give them some morsels from the cheese sculpture later.

“Louie Two Paws tells me the case against Earl is pretty much tied up,” Harry said. His police informant—a double-pawed Siamese—always had interesting and invaluable information from the station.

“Yep. I think we did well,” Nero said as he hopped onto a lobster trap.

“And finally Josie is starting to realize that it pays to listen to us,” Marlowe noted, flopping down in the sun.

“And the confession I overheard?” Juliette asked.

“That was Carla. She wanted to cleanse her soul in regards to her sneaky plan to take over the company,” Nero said.

“But it’s all worked out because now Doris, Carla and Paula will run the company. Since Earl was embezzling most of the money, the company’s financial situation isn’t as dire as they thought,” Marlowe said.

“They can get the company back on track and it’s all thanks to us,” Boots preened.

“Right,” Stubbs said. “By catching Earl, we exposed his embezzling and saved the company.”

“And we cleared Flora,” Nero said. “You know, I knew her shoes smelled like something burnt. At first I suspected it had something to do with all the breads Josie was burning. Turns out she was rooting around in Earl’s fireplace for what she thought was a treasure map.”

“Who knew she was actually listening to the argument we overheard between Bob and Earl that day in the hallway? I thought she was dusting,” Marlowe said.

“Sometimes things are not always as you think,” Nero said wisely. The truth was that he also had thought Flora was just dusting but he wanted to make it seem like he knew more.

“And that also explains why the dirt on the table in the foyer smelled so familiar,” Marlowe said.

Juliette frowned.“What do you mean?”

“Earl claimed he wasn’t wearing the Ferragamo shoes that Paula saw the night of the murder. He produced a pair of mud-caked Nikes to prove it.”

“But it turned out the dirt on the Nikes was from the pot of the ficus tree in the conservatory,” Nero added. “When Earl was accused, he snuck down to the conservatory and dirtied his sneakers. The dirt was still on the table in the foyer where he’d presented them to Sheriff Chamberlain. I just wish we’d sniffed that one out sooner. Could have cracked the case earlier.”

“Well, the important thing is that we did crack the case,” Poe said.

“Yep. And Josie even has a full house of guests next week and more money for renovations.” Nero watched a lobster boat motoring out of the narrow mouth of the cove on its way to the open ocean. “There is something odd about the new guests.”

Juliette sat up, her interest piqued.“Odd? How?”

“They seemed unusually interested in assuring themselves that the Oyster Cove Guesthouse was the guesthouse where Jedediah’s skeleton was found,” Nero said.

“Why would they want to do that?” Stubbs asked.

“One reason,” Harry said. “They’re interested in ghosts.”

“But there is no ghost,” Marlowe pointed out.

Nero shrugged.“I guess they will discover that in due time. For now, Josie has a full roster of bookings and that’s what counts.”

Poe plopped down on the warm ground.“And now we can rest.”

“I will miss having guests with cheese,” Marlowe said. “But hopefully the next guests will be able to keep from killing each other.”

Boots looked down his long whiskers at Marlowe with an expression that indicated she had a lot to learn.“I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Josie doesn’t have a very good track record in the murder department. And if recent history is any indication, we may need to keep a close eye on the next batch of guests.”

3. A PURRFECT ALIBI

One

It’s not every day that the guesthouse you own is filled with tarot readers, crystal-ball gazers and psychic mediums, so one needs to take advantage of that when it happens. Which is how I found myself seated at a small antique mahogany table in the parlor across from Madame Zenda, who was laying out a row of colorful tarot cards.

“That’s a lovely card, look at those reds and the blues!” Millie Sullivan, my mother’s best friend and the woman I had bought the Oyster Cove Guesthouse from, leaned over my shoulder and pointed at a card that depicted a dashing knight on a horse waving a sword. Millie had sold me the old mansion, which was badly in need of repairs, because she wanted to retire. To “get out and do things”. Things that, so far, mostly consisted of getting into trouble alongside my mother. But the truth was, since I’d taken ownership, it seemed as if they’d both been here more than when Millie had owned the place.

Madame Zenda tapped the card with a sausage-like finger. She had to be in her late seventies, and was thin as a rail, with a face like a bloodhound and large, meaty hands.“A restless mind or a sudden surprise.”

“See, I told you that you should ask Mike to the Marinara Mariner for dinner on Wednesday.” Millie poked me in the shoulder. “They have a chicken-parm special that is out of this world. That might calm your restless mind.”

“Wait.” My mother, who was standing over my other shoulder, piped up. “Maybe the sudden surprise is that Mike is going to askherout.I think Josie should hold off. You know, play hard to get. Men always want what they can’t have.”

“Don’t I know it.” Millie’s voice carried an air of authority.

I sighed but remained silent.

Mike was Millie’s nephew and also the town building inspector. I’d known him since I was a kid when he’d been my brother’s best friend. I guess you could say we sort of had a history. Nothing too sordid, so don’t get your hopes up. That had been a long time ago, though, and much water had passed under that bridge. Mom and Millie had been trying to push us together ever since I’d moved back to town, but I wasn’t in the market. One of the reasons I’d moved back to my hometown of Oyster Cove was that I’d recently gone through an unpleasant divorce. I had no intention of repeating that mistakeany time soon.

Across from me, Madame Zenda was making a big show of selecting the next card, her gold bracelets jangling as she waved her hairy arms over the deck she held in her hand. She was wearing some sort of flowing caftan with vibrant reds, purples, and oranges that matched the cards she laid out. Her curly gray hair bobbed around her head like unruly springs. She flipped the card.

Millie gasped.

I looked down at the card; a skeleton in armor riding a horse.

Madame Zenda stared at the card, her bushy gray eyebrows mashing together like two elderly caterpillars jostling for the best spot on a leaf. Her hazel eyes clouded over.“Is that a skeleton?” Mom asked.

Millie leaned closer to the table.“That can’t be good.”

“It’s the death card,” Madame Zenda said softly, then hastened to add, “but it doesn’t always mean death.”

“Well if it does, you’re too late,” Millie said. “There’s already been a death here a few weeks ago.”

“And a few weeks before that, too,” my mother added.

“You’ve had several deaths here recently?” The question came from another of my guests, Victor Merino. He had been sitting cross-legged in the mahogany-trimmed upholstered chair in the corner, his eyes closed, hands on his knees, palms up. He was wearing a royal-blue velvet sweatsuit and had a shaggy, oversized mustache. I wished he wouldn’t sit like that on the chair, it was a delicate antique. He claimed he talked to dead people and apparently our talk of dead bodies had roused him from his meditation. I can’t say I was sorry about that, his constantohm-ing was starting to drive me up the wall.

“Oh, nothing to do with the accommodations here at the guesthouse,” Millie added quickly. “You are in no danger. Those folks had it coming to them. Err… I mean, someone had a grudge against them.”

“Yeah, and don’t think it was Josie’s cooking either,” Mom said. “She’s getting a lot better.”

Meow!Nero, a black-and-white tuxedo cat that had come with my purchase of the guesthouse, hopped up onto the windowsill and fixed my mother with a slit-eyed gaze. I nodded at him approvingly. At least someone was sticking up for my cooking. I mean, that little incident when I practically burned down the guesthouse with my overcooked banana loaf was just one teeny mistake. I’d been whipping up some fine breakfasts lately, even if I did say so myself. Sunlight spilled in from the window highlighting Nero’s glossy, jet-black fur. His intelligent golden eyes met mine and then he glanced out the window. Following his gaze, I caught a flash of something pink.What was that?

I leaned over to look outside.“Did you see that?”

“What?” My mother glanced out as Marlowe, the other guesthouse cat, hopped up to join Nero. She settled in next to Nero, her black-and-orange tortie-patterned fur mingling with his jet black. I went to get a better look. The window was cracked open and I could smell the ocean breeze and hear the faraway call of the gulls. The guesthouse sat atop a hill with a sweeping view of Oyster Cove, but not from the front parlor. From here all I could see was the long driveway and part of the overgrown gardens.Wait… was that movement?I could have sworn I saw someone moving around in the thick shrubbery, but who would be lurking outside?

“I don’t see anything,” Mom said.

“Me neither.” Victor had come over to look out. “Let’s get back to these dead people. You say there have been several deaths here over the past few weeks?”

Millie turned to face him.“Yes, but let’s not dwell on that. I mean, it could happen anywhere.”

Mom nodded.“That’s right. When a person is determined to kill someone, the location is hardly a consideration. Just because it happened here shouldn’t be a concern.”

“Oh, I’m not concerned,” Victor said. “I’m intrigued. Their spirits may still be around, and it would be good practice to talk to them. Might help me get a line on old Jedediah Biddeford.”

Getting a“line” on old Jedediah Biddeford was the reason my guesthouse was filled with psychics. A few weeks ago, his skeleton had been found inside the wall during renovations. Turned out someone had put him in there about three hundred years ago. So, I guess there had actually been three murders at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. Well, three that we knew about, anyway. Jed had been a seafaring merchant back in the day and had set off for Europe to bring back treasure. He’d never returned. Or, so they’d thought. Turns out hehad returned and someone had killed him and closed him up inside the wall. No one knew what had happened to the treasure. Was it buried here on the grounds or had the killer taken it? My bet was on the latter, but these psychics had all come to try to communicate with his ghost so they could find the treasure.

I doubted there actually was any treasure, but they were paying guests and I needed the money. I’d spent my life savings on buying the guesthouse and had recently taken out a substantial loan to get the renovations done. I wasn’t about to turn away guests, even if they did think they could chat with someone who had been dead for three hundred years. I just hoped they wouldn’t kill each other in the process. Judging by the level of animosity between them, I would have to keep a close eye out.

“You doneed the help communicating, Victor,” Madame Zenda muttered. See what I mean? These folks had history and were constantly sniping at each other.

“Look who’s talking.” Victor waved at the tarot cards. “Your readings are never anywhere near accurate. Predicting something that happened weeks ago.”

“You should talk.” Gail Weathers stood in the doorway cupping a mug of tea in her hands. Gail was a short, stout woman with long, snow-white hair. She was a tea-leaf reader and had just about depleted my stock of Earl Grey. Millie was partial to her because she’d read her tea leaves and told Millie she would soon find love and fortune. “Last week you were called out for researching your audience in advance of the show you did in Boston.”

“I like to know who is in the audience. I wasn’t cheating; those dead folks really did come through for their loved ones.” Victor crossed his arms over his chest and stepped toward Gail. “At least I can readsomething. Those tea leaves of yours are useless. What a scam. You can’t be very good if I’ve never heard of you, I’ve worked with the best in the business.”

Gail glared at him as she proceeded to the sofa, carefully holding her mug.

“People! Stop arguing.” Esther Hill, a pleasant little old lady with sparkling blue eyes, got to her feet from where she’d been seated at a small, square, oak table near a window. The table had been set up with a black velvet cloth upon which sat a luminous crystal ball. If you ask me, she was the nicest of the bunch. Unlike the others, she was dressed normally in a powder-blue cardigan and navy slacks. “If you want a reading, Josie, come over here. I have much to tell you.”

She motioned me to the chair across the table from her and we both sat. In between us the crystal ball winked ominously. I wondered if it, too, would reveal death.Mew.

Nero hopped up on the table and gazed into the ball as if he was wondering the same thing. Esther smiled down at Nero and petted the top of his head. Nero purred and looked at her adoringly. I scowled. The cats never looked at me that way. I was still getting used to being owned by cats. Yes, you heard me correctly. Since I’d come to the guesthouse, I’d learned that one didn’t own cats, it was the other way around. Though my relationship with Nero and Marlowe had improved vastly since that first day, I still had a lot to learn. Esther waved her hands over the crystal ball. Unlike Madame Zenda, she didn’t havea lot of jangly bracelets or loose-flowing sleeves, but her technique was just as impressive. She bent her neck to peer closer into the ball. I did the same. Nero did too. Esther was making a lot of faces. I wasn’t sure what she was seeing; all I saw was my own reflection, except upside down.

“Aha!” She lifted her head, a mischievous smile on her face. “I see something in your future.”

“What is it?” Hopefully not a dead body.

Her smile widened.“Someone tall, dark and handsome.”

“We know who that is!” my mother said.

“That’s right. Mike. I told you you should ask him out,” Millie added.

“See? My reading wasn’t off,” Madame Zenda said from the corner where she’d been pouting.

“I saw that in the tea leaves!” Gail piped in from the sofa.

“Lots of men are tall, dark and handsome,” I said. Though Mike really was tall, dark and handsome. Still, it was the clich? crystal-ball reading and I wasn’t putting much weight into it.

Thunk!

We all jerked our attention in the direction of the mantle where a small candlestick had fallen on the floor.

“Where did that come from?” Gail asked.

“That looks like Great-grandma Sullivan’s brass beehive candlestick.” Millie bustled over and picked up the stick, then placed it back on the mantle. “It must’ve been right on the edge. Maybe Flora moved it too close when she was dusting.”

I was skeptical about that because I wasn’t sure Flora actually dusted the mantle. Flora had been the maid at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse since Millie was a child. No one really knew how old Flora was, but one thing I did know was that she was the world’s worst maid. Almost every chore I asked her to do was met with an excuse as to whyshe couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it. But Millie had been pretty insistent that I keep Flora on. She’d explained that the elderly maid didn’t have much in social-security income. She depended on the wages here and she’d been very loyal to Millie’s family. No one else had applied for the job, so I’d kept her. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain—she had come through for us during the apprehension of the latest killer, so I guess I should give her a pass on the dusting and, I had to admit, I was getting sort of attached to her.

“I didn’t put anything close to the edge.” As if summoned by her name, Flora appeared in the doorway. She was a tiny thing, about four feet tall, with wisps of cotton-white hair sticking up and gigantic round glasses that gave her eyes an owlish appearance. Apparently, her hearing wasn’t asbad as her eyesight. Her eyes fell on the crystal ball and grew even bigger, if that was at all possible. “Oh, you giving readings?” Flora sidled over to the table.

Esther smiled and gestured to the chair I was currently occupying.“Won’t you sit down?”

Apparently, my reading was over, so I stood up. Say what you will about me, but I can take a hint. Esther produced a card seemingly out of nowhere and pressed it into my palm.“In case you want to recommend me to a friend.”

Flora dropped the feather duster she had in her hand on the table and sat in the chair. Esther went into her hand-waving and crystal-ball-peering act.

“Aha!” She looked up sharply at Flora.

Flora frowned.“What?”

“I see someone special in your future.”

Flora straightened and smiled.“Someone tall, dark and handsome?”

Esther shook her head.“No. Small, pink and wrinkly.”

Flora made a disgusted face and waved her hand.“Oh, that’s Harold Ditmeyer. I already dated him last month.”

Esther looked at her funny.“I wasn’t talking about a man. I was talking about a baby. You’re going to have another great-grandchild.”

Flora looked disappointed.“Oh darn. I already have dozens of those. I was hoping to get a good reading like Josie got.”

Esther nodded.“Sorry. I can only convey what the ball shows me.”

“Sure.” Victor had been leaning against the mantle. Probably so he could look down his nose at all of us, which he was doing now to Esther. “Like that crystal ball shows you anything.”

Esther glared at him, her normally kind eyes turning hard. I thought she was going to really lay into him, but she simply took a deep breath and said in an even voice,“Victor, you’re not the only one who has gifts.”

“Yeah,” Madame Zenda said. “You have no respect for anyone.”

“That’s right.” Gail stood, still cradling the mug. “Why, I have a good mind to—”

“Oh look, someone’s here!” Millie pointed out the window. Even though I knew she was doing it as a distraction to keep the guests from descending into another argument, I rushed to the window remembering the flash of pink I thought I’d seen earlier.

It wasn’t a person she had seen though. It was a car. My spirits sank when I saw whose car it was. Myron Remington.

“Is that the tall, dark and handsome man I saw in the crystal ball?” Esther asked.

“I should say not,” I replied. Myron was neither tall, dark, nor handsome. He was short, stout and annoying. Ever since he’d offered to give me a low-interest loan for some badly needed repairs he’d been acting as if the guesthouse was his pet project and stopping by periodically to check on his little investment. I guess he had a fondness for the place. Myron’s family went back as far as the Biddefords and his ancestors had even worked for Jed. That’s why he wanted to make sure I had the funds to restore the guesthouse to its previous glory. He claimed he was proud of his family’s modest roots in the community and wanted to show that he took pride in that by loaning the money to restore one of the oldest properties in town.

Mom and Millie insisted it was because Myron had a crush on me. Either way, I had to play nice with him because I’d already invested the very last penny I had in pre-ordering all the lumber and supplies so I could get a bulk discount. I needed to stay on Myron’s good side—that loan was critical to my success.

I glanced up at Mom and Millie who had smirks on their faces. I narrowed my eyes at them to discourage any chatter about a romance between Myron and myself and headed to the front door. As I left the room, I looked back toward Madame Zenda. She was seated at the table, looking over the cards she’d laid out earlier. A breeze gusted in from the window, sending the cards scattering and my thoughts drifting to the death card. I didn’t particularly care for Victor, but I had to admit that I hoped he was right in thinking Madame Zenda’s reading was off. Because if the death card didn’t represent the deaths that had already happened, then what did it represent?

Two

The front door to the guesthouse was unlocked during the day. It was mostly so guests could come and go, but I figured if a wayward tourist wandered in and booked a room, all the better. Myron had let himself in and was already standing in the foyer when I got there. He was wearing a designer suit and silk tie as usual. His face brightened when he saw me and I squelched the urge to make a face. I wouldn’t go as far as to go out on a date with him or anything, but remaining friendly seemed the best course for the continued flow of finances.

“How nice to see you, Myron. What brings you here today?” I asked.

Myron adjusted the cuffs of his jacket.“I was just coming to check on my little project. Need to keep the investments of the bank in mind, you know.”

“Of course.” I started down the hallway toward the west wing where the current renovations were taking place. Myron followed. I could hear his shoes squeak to a stop at the doorway to the parlor and I turned to see him peering in, a frown on his face.

I backtracked to see what had him frowning. I suppose the scene was a little odd. Mom and Millie were clustered around Esther who was waving over the crystal ball again. Victor had gone back to meditating, this time in the middle of the room. Madame Zenda was practicing some kind of fancy shuffling maneuver, her bracelets clanging and sleeves flowing. Gail had laid down on the sofa and appeared to be napping. Nero and Marlowe trotted over and started sniffing Myron’s shoes.

“What is going on here? What kind of guests are you entertaining?” Myron asked.

“They’re psychics,” Flora said. She was standing next to the grand staircase dusting the shade of a Tiffany stained-glass lamp that sat on a small table.

“Psychics?” Myron pursed his lips as if to indicate he took a dim view of psychics. “Is there some kind of convention?”

“Nope. They’re trying to talk to Jedediah Biddeford. Gonna dig up the treasure.” Flora kept her focus on the shade even though she was talking to Myron.

“You don’t say.” Myron glanced at me. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

I didn’t, but I didn’t want to say that in front of the guests who were now all looking at us. “You never know.”

“I thought it was determined that there wasno treasure,” Myron said.

“Correction.” Victor had been roused from his meditation and was now standing in the doorway. “No treasure was everfound. I aim to find it as well as uncover who really killed Jedediah Biddeford.”

Myron looked skeptical.“The police couldn’t even figure that one out, but good luck to you.”

“You’ll see.”

Victor sounded as if he was getting ready for an argument, so I gave Myron’s arm a little tug. I hope he didn’t get the wrong idea.

“I think you’ll be happy with the progress on the renovations.” I gestured for Myron to precede me down the hall. Thankfully he took the hint and started walking. “I hope so.” He whipped out a small notepad and a lovely bone-colored pen with carvings all around it. Was he going to write me up if my renovations weren’t up to snuff?

I led Myron down the hallway to the west wing. That’s where I was doing most of the renovations. It had once been a sumptuous ballroom, but since the days of balls were long over I was turning it into a game room.

Ed O’Hara, the elderly carpenter I’d hired to do the renovations, was skim-coating the joints on the sheet rock covering the wall inside of which we’d discovered Jedediah Biddeford’s skeleton.

“Great, I see there’s no evidence of what happened here before.” Myron crouched down, his face inches from the wall and then put the paper and pen down on the floor so he could run his fingers along the joint. “That’s good, no sense in scaring future guests off by making it obvious that there was a skeleton in the wall.”

Even before he’d lent me the money, Myron had been a bit disturbed that we’d uncovered the skeleton. But now that I’d taken out the loan, he seemed to be getting kind of bossy about the whole thing. I get that he had an interest in the cash flow of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse and my ability to make payments, but I didn’t want him telling me what to do with my business. Then again, maybe his constant trips over to check up on progress really were about his having a crush on me. I shuddered to think of it. Myron definitely was not my type. Ed met my gaze over Myron’s head and rolled his eyes. I liked Ed, and even though he’d been spending a lot of time in my kitchen eating when he should be working, he was still worth the money I paid. I also felt a little guilty that he’d been one of my suspects during the most recent murder and I was trying to make up for that by giving him extra baked goods. Those that were edible, I mean. I could tell that Ed saw right through Myron but knew enough to be patient and play along with his twenty questions.

“I got it all patched up now like nothing ever happened,” Ed said. “In fact, I have an appointment with the building inspector in five minutes to inspect it and make sure we can move on to the next stage.”

Oh, no… Mike was coming too? The day was really going downhill and it wasn’t even noon yet.

“Well, hello, Sunshine.” Mike Sullivan appeared in the doorway, smiling at me. Speak of the devil. I returned the smile. It wouldn’t do to be inhospitable to the building inspector, and besides, Mike was kind of easy to smile at with his tall, broad frame and whiskey-hazel eyes.

Though I had to admit, it did irritate me when he called me Sunshine. That was a nickname he and my brother had given to me when I was younger and it wasn’t as complimentary as it sounds. However, since I’d moved back to town, I’d learned to just ignore him when he used the nickname because whenever I got riled up about it, it caused him to use it even more.

“I’m here to inspect the wall. Myron, what brings you here?” His eyes flicked between me and Myron as if he thought I’d invited him. Mike was probably wondering why Myron was crouched on the floor.

“Just checking up on my investment.” Myron stood and made a show of brushing off his slacks. “Now, Josie, I don’t know about these psychics and all this talk about speaking to Jedediah’s ghost. Maybe it’s not a good idea to encourage that sort of thing. Rumors could get out about the guesthouse being haunted and that might affect bookings.”

“You mean it might affect her ability to repay your loan,” Ed said bluntly.

“I’m only thinking of Josie’s best interests,” Myron said.

“I didn’t have anyone else booking the rooms and I figured there was no harm in it. Maybe they actually will dig up the treasure and solve the mystery.” Did these guys think I needed them to look out for me? I could take care of myself and decide who to book as a guest in my own guesthouse.

“Treasure? Mystery?” Mike asked. “Is that why Anita Pendragon is lurking around outside?”

My eyes jerked to the window. Is that who I’d seen fluttering around out there? Anita was a reporter who worked for theOyster Cove Gazette. She was always looking for the“big scoop” that would make her famous. I’m sure it was no secret that I had a guesthouse full of mediums who wanted to talk to Jed’s ghost. Maybe she’d smelled her big break and was spying on us to see what was going on.

“She was outside?” I asked.

“Yeah, I caught her taking pictures through the window.” Ed nodded toward the big window on the east side. “I shut the shade. Wouldn’t be surprised if she snuck in here though. I heard someone up on the third floor where those old servants’ rooms are near the attic, but when I went up to look no one was there.”

Thunk!

A hammer landed on the floor beside Ed’s toolbox. Ed picked it up. “Huh, that’s weird. Guess I didn’t set that squarely down on the box. Good thing we don’t have those oak floors in yet, might have made a mark. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Myron was peering out the window, hands cupped over his eyes, looking for Anita presumably.“If Pendragon gets word about this kooky plan to find the Biddeford treasure, she’ll blab it all over. You have to do something about this, Josie.”

“What do you want me to do? Kick them out? Have Anita arrested for trespassing?” I know I said I was trying to play nice with Myron, but I just didn’t like the idea of anyone telling me what to do. “They’ll only be here for a few more days. I’m sure it’s all harmless. You don’t really believe Jed’s ghost is hanging around here waiting to talk to them after all this time, do you?”

Myron moved back from the window. I guess Anita wasn’t out there after all. “I suppose not.”

“Of course not. Hopefully they’ll just try to communicate with him for a few days and then get bored and leave when he doesn’t show up. No harm done,” I said, ushering Myron toward the door. He could be a bit of a fussbudget and I didn’t need him messing around with any of my bookings. I wasn’t about to kick out paying customers, especially now that I really needed the money.

Mike and Ed started the inspection of the repairs Ed had done to date and I walked Myron back down the long hallway. The front door stood open, giving a nice view of the birch trees on the side of the driveway. We were almost at the front door when a loud clapping sounded from the parlor.

Myron pulled up short and looked in. Madame Zenda was standing next to the window, which had been pushed open even further. Was it stuffy in the guesthouse? I didn’t think so— even though it was late summer—we did have air conditioning. And right now, most of it was going out the window. I made a mental note to tell the guests to keep the windows shut.

Madame Zenda clapped her hands again, pulling my attention from the window.

“People! People!” she yelled, leaning toward the window. “I have exciting news! Jedediah Biddeford has contacted me from beyond and he says he’ll be giving me the answers to everything we seek tonight when the moon kisses the ocean.”

The others murmured and looked at her skeptically. I could feel the disapproval radiating from Myron.

Madame Zenda continued,“After tonight, not only will I know where the treasure is, but also what happened to him three hundred years ago!”

Three

“When the moon kisses the ocean? What’s that supposed to mean?” Marlowe asked half an hour later when she and Nero were catnapping in the conservatory. The conservatory had yet to be fully renovated, other than some replacement windows that Ed had put in as a surprise for Josie. That’s why the cats liked it so much. No one ever went in there and there was always a pool of sun to lie in. The hand-carved trim that Ed had added around the windows as a surprise for Josie didn’t hurt the ambiance any either. They could see Oyster Cove from an east-facing window and Nero enjoyed watching the lobster boats hauling in their catch, the waves crashing against the jagged rocks and the seagulls circling above. He didn’t particularly like seagulls though, because they often dive-bombed the cats, but they were fine to watch from afar. He was glad to see the population was making a resurgence after an incident a few months ago that had caused a number of gull deaths.

Marlowe trotted over to one of the large potted plants Millie had brought over a few weeks ago and raked her claws through the dirt, then looked back at Nero for an answer to her question.

Nero sighed.“I’ve noticed these guests tend to be overly dramatic. I assume it was just a fancy way of saying when the moon comes up over the ocean.”

They both glanced toward the window. The moon rose up in the east just around dusk. At this time of year, it was a glowing disk that loomed over the ocean highlighting the crests of the waves. It would be a full moon tonight. Nero wondered if Madame Zenda had chosen today to make her announcement because of that.

“They are a strange bunch,” Marlowe continued. “I liked the last batch better. At least they had some cheese morsels in their rooms we could steal.”

“These guests are sneaky, too. Though I do like Esther. She has no problem slipping us some treats under the table.”

Marlowe, who had been examining the dirt inside the pot, glanced over at Nero.“Well, I wouldn’t consider that any bonus. Some of Josie’s breakfasts leave a bit to be desired.”

“Yeah, but she can’t screw up bacon.”

“True. So, what do you make of Madame Zenda’s proclamation? I noticed she made sure to be near the window.” Marlowe finished her inspection of the plant and trotted over to the pool of sun.

“You mean the window she’d opened wider and let all the lovely cool air out of?” Nero plopped down beside her and started preening the white fur of his tuxedo. “I bet she was making sure that Anita Pendragon overheard her.”

“That reporter that’s been lurking around? Yeah, I could see her over in those gigantic overgrown rhododendrons and she looked pretty excited. I guess she doesn’t realize that Madame Zenda was lying.”

Both cats had a keen sense of the spirit world and they had sniffed the house thoroughly for signs of Jed’s ghost when the skeleton had been discovered. There were no static disturbances, no other-worldly smells, no hint of ectoplasmic moisture. If Jed’s ghost was still on the earthly plane, he wasn’t hanging around in the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. Then again, Nero had noticed that items seemed tobe falling to the floor at odd times recently and his hair had even stood on end inexplicably. But if a ghost were in the house, surely it would have made its presence known to them?

“Too bad she’s going to end up being disappointed. As you know, there are no ghosts here for the humans to talk to. Had Jedediah’s ghost been haunting this house we certainly would’ve heard from him by now.”

“Boo!”

Nero nearly jumped out of his fur. He whirled around, back humped, fur standing on end.

A ghostly apparition floated next to the wall.

“Talk about being careful what you wish for.” Marlowe seemed to take the specter all in her stride, calmly licking her front paw and rubbing it behind her ear.

“Jed?” Nero asked. In fact, he didn’t really have to ask because he recognized the clothing from the skeleton they’d pulled out of the wall.

“One and the same,” the ghost replied.

“So you really are here,” Marlowe said. “I guess Madame Zenda wasn’t lying.”

“No. She was,” Jed said. “I haven’t talked to any of these kooks you have running around in here. She’s making it up.”

“Why would she do that?” Marlowe asked.

“Beats me.” Jed swirled over to the window. “Nice view. I guess this room was added on after my time.”

“There’s been a lot of changes since then.” Nero knew that the mansion had been much smaller in Jed’s time. Over the years it had been expanded by his own descendants, as well as Millie’s ancestors who had bought the house over a hundred years ago.

Jed nodded.“But it’s not in very good shape.” He looked kind of sad about that.

“So, where have you been?” Marlowe asked. “I mean, you’ve been dead for three hundred years, right?”

“I guess so.”

“Then why pop up now? You weren’t here a few weeks ago.”

“I’ve been inside a wall, in case you didn’t know. My spirit was just kind of hanging there in limbo. Only once my skeleton was freed was I able to roam about. It’s taken me a while to get my bearings, though. I’ve been trying to communicate with you two but haven’t been successful until now.”

Nero nodded and watched as Jed floated about the room taking in the flooring, moldings, windows. Could Jed have communicated with Madame Zenda and not remembered? Perhaps she’d seen him floating around and was overly optimistic about their communication tonight. Or was she actually making that up, not knowing Jed’s ghost really was around?

“So, you haven’t communicated with anyone but us?”

“Nope. You’re actually the first creatures that can see me. Guess my manifesting skills need work. I’ve been having fun messing with people though.”

“Messing with them?” Marlowe asked.

“Yeah, I figured out how to push things off tables and such. I can’t actually pick anything up, but the pushing off has been fun. Makes everyone jump.”

Nero raised a brow at him.“Did you push the salt shaker off the counter the other day?”

Nero had thought he’d sensed something a couple of days ago when they’d been helping Josie prepare breakfast. He’d been up on the counter looking out the window, where he wasn’t supposed to be, when his hair stood on end and suddenly the salt shaker slipped off the counter and smashed on the floor. Josie hadn’t been happy about that and had scolded him.

“Yep,” Jed said proudly.

“Thanks a lot. I got blamed for that.” Nero was more upset that he hadn’t known a ghost was present than getting in trouble with Josie. Then again, ghosts could be cagey and if their manifestation skills were lacking, it would be hard to sense them.

“Sorry about that.” Jed really did look repentant. “Anyway, I’ve been spending most of my time in the attic. There’s an area way in the back with a trunk that has some of my stuff in it. Feels kind of comforting and familiar, though I’m a little offended that it was shoved way in the back.”

“A lot of people have lived here since your day,” Marlowe said.

“I guess you’re right.” Jed looked around the room again. “Lots of changes. I’d like to see the old place get fixed up again. But on the other hand, I feel like I should move on to the nether regions. Wherever that is.”

Nero nodded sagely.“The spiritual plane. It’s where you will be most fulfilled.”

“Whatever you say. Any idea how I get there?”

“Something must be holding you here,” Nero said. “Say, do you know how you ended up inside the wall?”

“Nope. No idea. I just remember bringing my treasure back from Europe and next thing I knew it was darkness for three centuries.”

“Wait! There really is treasure?” Marlowe’s eyes glowed with excitement.

Jed nodded.“At least therewas. Though it could be gone by now. As you said, a lot of time has gone by.”

“And you were murdered,” Nero said. That much had been obvious when they’d found the skeleton. If it hadn’t been the crack in the skull that gave it away, it was the fact that a person couldn’t very well wall themselves up from the inside. “The treasure could have been the reason, in which case you’re right that it’s long gone. But that could be your unresolved issue.”

“You mean I can’t move on until I figure out who killed me?”

Nero wasn’t exactly sure about that. It seemed like that’s what most ghosts who were stuck on this plane wanted, but he supposed each case was different. “It can’t hurt.”

“Too bad Madame Zenda really couldn’t solve the murder, but even if she could talk to me, I wouldn’t be able to tell her who killed me,” Jed said.

“That’s too bad. We’ll have to figure out another way to find out who killed you.” Nero loved a good investigation, even if the killer was long dead, but he had another motive for helping Jed. He didn’t want the old ghost hanging around any longer than necessary. Lingering ghosts could bea nuisance and he liked things the way they were. He knew that as time went on and Jed got bored, his antics might not be as innocent as pushing things off tables. Best to help him move on to where he belonged.

“Yeah, but there’s one good thing about Madame Zenda being a kook. It means that death card she pulled up is meaningless. That had me worried,” Marlowe said. “But now that we know she’s a fake, we won’t have to worry about another death at the guesthouse.”

Four

“You ask me, they’re all a bunch of fakes,” Millie whispered as she leaned against the door frame and peeked out into the hallway.

Mom nodded from her place at the table where she was eating a sliced-up apple.“Old and washed up.”

“I did a little bit of research on them and I heard that Victor Merino was accused of fraud back in Ohio.” Millie came back into the kitchen and rummaged in the new stainless-steel fridge. The Oyster Cove Guesthouse kitchen was a mixture of old and new. Old wooden cabinets painted a cheery yellow, golden pine floors so old that they were worn down in front of the sink and new appliances for cooking the delicious home-style breakfasts that the guesthouse had a reputation for.

Funny thing about the breakfasts; it turned out I wasn’t much good at cooking them. That’s why Millie kept coming over to help me out. I was learning, but I didn’t mind Millie pitching in, it lightened my workload and kept Mom and Millie out of trouble. Right now, she was rummaging up some ground meat for a homemade turkey sausage recipe she’dpulled from her trusty stack of weathered and food-stained recipe cards.

“What kind of fraud?” Mom asked.

“A woman accused him of billing her thousands of dollars to communicate with her dead husband. Victor argued that he really was talking to the deceased and he had told her things no one else knew about. Her son claimed it was all information he got by reading old newspapers and asking around.” Millie had opened a cabinet and was squinting up to the top shelf. Millie was only about five feet tall and I could see she had her eye on the old jadeite mixing bowl.

“Do you think any of them really can communicate with the dead?” I asked as I reached above Millie’s head for the bowl and handed it to her.

Millie laughed.“I doubt it.”

“Then why are they here?” Mom put her plate in the sink and ran some water over it.

Millie shrugged.“Who knows. Maybe they think Josie will pay them to talk to Jed. Or maybe they really are searching for treasure. Remember a few weeks ago when the whole town came out.”

How could I forget? The discovery of Jed’s skeleton last month had started a treasure hunt that involved most of the town. Never mind that legend had it that Jed had cursed anyone who stole his treasure, I guess people were more interested in money than they were afraid of whatever the curse might bring. “I hope they don’t start digging, I just got the grass to green up over all the holes again.”

“Why would Madame Zenda make a big announcement that Jed was going to talk to her?” Mom asked. “She seemed pretty sure of herself. Sounds to me like she really is going to talk to him. Maybe she isn’t a fake.”

I hoped she was. Images of the death card bubbled up again and I shuddered.“Maybe she figured if she announced it then the others would think she really was going to talk to him and give up?”

“It could be that. She’s trying to stake a claim. Now the others have to come up with something better or more interesting. I think each one of them might be trying to get a sensational story to boost their careers.” Millie cracked an egg and separated the white into a bowl. “I hear most ofthem have careers that are on a downswing.”

My gaze flicked to the window.“Maybe that’s why Anita Pendragon has been seen skulking around here.”

“She has?” Millie stood on her tiptoes to look out the kitchen window. “Huh, I wonder if one of them called her so she could write a story on their supposed communication with Jed.”

“Getting in the papers would definitely boost someone’s career,” Mom added. “And I did notice that when Madame Zenda made her pronouncement she made sure that her voice carried out the window. I thought maybe Jed’s ghost was out there but now I wonder if she knew Anita was out there and wanted her to hear it.”

“She was very loud about it.” Millie whisked the egg white rapidly.

“Yeah, unfortunately Myron heard it too and he didn’t look very pleased,” Mom said.

I pulled out a chair and sat at the 1940s’ Formica table, worry gnawing at my gut. “I know. He’s worried that publicity about people talking to a ghost here could hurt the bookings at the guesthouse. What do you think?”

Mom made a face and looked at Millie, then bent down to pet Nero and Marlowe, who had trotted into the room and were sitting next to her looking at us as if listening to our conversation.

“Myron is a worrywart. I wouldn’t worry about anything he says.” Millie pulled a knife out of the rack and started chopping the onion and apple she’d laid out on the cutting board.

“Except if he really thinks that, maybe he won’t give me the next installment on the loan. Or worse, demand I pay what I’ve borrowed in full. I already invested everything I have and without the loan the guesthouse will go under,” I said. “Not to mention that I need the guesthouse to be fully booked to keep cash flowing.”

Millie put the chopped apple and onion into a bowl, tossed in some sage and nutmeg and then plopped the ground turkey in and mixed it all together, then formed them into small patties and put them in the fry pan. Soon the sounds of sizzling meat and the spicy smell of sausage permeated the air. Millie flipped the sausages and then turned to face me.

“Myron is a man and he’s easy enough to handle. I can tell he’s sweet on you so all you have to do is dazzle him on a date and he’ll give you the keys to the vault.”

At my obvious look of distaste she continued,“You don’t have to marry the guy, for crying out loud. But sometimes us businesswomen need to use every advantage. Lord knows I’ve had to many times.” She patted the sides of her hair and smoothed her apron over her hips. I didn’t dare ask for details.

Mom must have been still thinking about the treasure.“What I don’t understand is how each one thinks they are going to get the treasure without the others seeing them.”

Millie pursed her lips.“You know, that’s a good question. I’ve noticed they’re all following each other around.”

I’d noticed that too. “It’s like they don’t trust each other.”

“But if they are all fakes, then each would know the others can’t talk to Jed,” Mom said.

“Maybe they aren’t sure about who is a fake and who isn’t.” Millie bent down to pet Marlowe who was doing figure eights around her ankles. “I know some of them have crossed paths before from what I read about them. Except Gail, she seems to have kept a low profile.”

The cats had once been Millie’s, but since she couldn’t have pets at the senior housing complex where she lived, she’d made keeping the cats a stipulation for the sale of the guesthouse. At first, I hadn’t been too sure, I’d never had a cat before, but I had to admit they were growing on me. As if sensing my thoughts, Marlowe turned her green gaze on me, eliciting all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings. Okay, I admit it, I was getting really attached to them, not to mention that they might have saved my bacon a few times in the previous murder investigations.

“Or maybe their whole goal is not to dig up the treasure or talk to Jed, but to get publicity?” Mom said.

Thud!

We jerked our heads in the direction of the sound to see a cookbook lying on the floor. The recipes, which had been torn from magazines and stuffed inside, spilled out. Millie walked over and bent down.“Here’s that apple strudel recipe I was looking for!”

Mom glanced over at it.“Huh, guess Nero must’ve pushed that off.”

Merow!Nero caterwauled from the other side of the room, then pranced over to the book, sniffed, looked up at the ceiling and started doing figure eights in front of the book.

Millie frowned down at him.“See, he ran over to the other side of the room and now he’s pretending he didn’t push the book off.”

Meow! Nero’s intelligent gaze flicked from Millie to me to a spot near the window.

Meow.Marlowe joined him in the pacing and gazing.

“Josie, I think they might be hungry.” Millie gestured toward their empty bowls as she placed the recipes back in the book and put it in the bookcase.

Meeeeoww. Nero sounded exasperated, indicating that I’d better get those bowls filled right away before he started to make a racket.

Millie straightened.“Something’s fishy about this Madame Zenda character. I think we need to set our sleuthing skills to determine what she’s up to. I don’t like anyone taking advantage of the legends here at the guesthouse for their own gain.”

Millie’s words set off my internal alarm bells. She and Mom were known to go a bit to the extreme and get into trouble. I didn’t need them doing anything that would bother the guests and might result in a bad review on Yelp.

“Just how will you do that?”

Millie shrugged.“I suppose we’ll do some stealth detecting and find out what her angle is. Maybe follow her and see if she really does communicate with Jed.”

“Good idea.” Mom pushed up from the table. “Let’s go get our black outfits and we’ll come back later tonight. Should we get our hair done?”

Millie patted the sides of her hair.“Might be a good idea. If we expose her as a fraud we might be on TV.”

They started toward the door, and Millie threw a backward glance at the stove.“Josie don’t forget to watch the sausage. Cook until they are no longer pink and then drain them on a paper towel.”

“Will do.” They left and I turned my attention to the cats. “I don’t think this is going to end well.”

Meewoo. I was pretty sure that was Nero’s way of voicing his agreement.

Meooup. Marlowe chimed in.

I was glad they agreed with me, but the way they were still skulking around the bookcase instead of rushing to their food bowls made me uneasy. Typically food was their main priority. Then again, sometimes they delighted in doing the opposite of what I thought they would do, maybe this was one of those times.

Five

“See? I got in trouble for that cookbook.” Nero glanced up at Jed. At least the ghost looked contrite. Some of them could be downright unrepentant about their mischievous antics, but Jed seemed to be a kind spirit. Even so, Nero still hoped he didn’t hang around the guesthouse for any length of time.

“Sorry ’bout that, I was trying to get the attention of the pretty redhead.”

“Josie?” Marlowe’s eyes slanted as she looked up at the human.

Nero supposed Josie was kind of pretty. The coppery-red color of her hair was unusual and he liked that she didn’t wear a lot of smelly makeup. Her greenish eyes, though not nearly as bright or luminescent as a cat’s, were a good match for her fair coloring. He liked that she wasn’t boney. Not that she was fat, but she had a bit of meat on her and Nero preferred his humans to have some padding because it made them more comfortable to lie on. But, best of all, she had a kind heart. Even if she was a little slow to catch on.

“I don’t think you’ll get her attention,” Marlowe said. “She’s not very advanced when it comes to communication with those other than her own kind.”

“Well, to be fair, most humans can’t see ghosts like we can,” Nero said in defense of Josie. He’d been unsure about her when she’d first come to the guesthouse, but Millie had advised him to give her a chance and now he was starting to grow fond of her.

“True.” Marlowe licked her paw and washed behind her ear. “What about our current guests? They all claim to be able to speak with spirits.”

“So far none of them actually have,” Jed said absently as his gaze flicked about the room. “Look at these new-fangled contraptions.”

Nero glanced at Marlowe. New-fangled? While the stainless-steel appliances were a fairly recent upgrade, it was clear that Jed hadn’t been keeping up with the times.

Josie opened the fridge and put the ingredients Millie had left on the counter away. The ghost’s eyes practically popped out of his head. “Is that an icebox?”

“Yep.” Nero swished his tail.

“Where’s the ice?”

“Don’t need any. Modern technology keeps it cold,” Nero said.

“Go figure.” Jed tore his eyes from the fridge. “I’m glad to see that people are taking care of the place, but it looks like Josie might be in a little over her head. The house still needs a lot of work. I sure wish I could help her out.”

“Josie’s working on it. Myron gave her a loan so she can speed things up,” Nero said.

Jed’s eyes narrowed. “Myron? Is that that fancy-dan guy who came over earlier?”

“Yeah, he thinks he’s the cat’s meow with his tailored suits, shiny cuff links and designer shoes,” Marlowe said.

“Didn’t much like him.” Jed toyed with a delicate teacup that sat in a saucer on the kitchen table. It teetered in one direction then the other.

“Hey, don’t shove that on the floor, it’s from Millie’s great-great-grandmother’s Royal Albert china set,” Nero said.

Jed snatched his hand away.“Sorry. Can’t move it that far anyway. Try as I might I can only jiggle and wiggle things. I can shove them off if they are on the edge but that’s about it. Maybe I just need more practice.”

Nero hoped not. The last thing he wanted was for objects to fall to the floor repeatedly. Could be off-putting for the guests. Jed glanced at Josie wistfully.“I sure wish I could help her out.”

If Nero wasn’t mistaken, the ghost might be developing a crush on Josie. He’d seen that look before. Like one time when his feline friend Harry had a crush on that sleek white Persian with the blue eyes. He suppressed a sigh. Good thing Josie appeared incapable of seeing Jed. Ghost to human relationships never worked out.

Jed scratched his chin.“If that treasure is still out there, maybe we could get her to dig it up? She could use the money for the repairs on the guesthouse.”

Marlowe’s ears perked up. “You mean you might have some idea of where it is?”

“Well maybe, but…” Jed’s voice trailed off.

“But what?” Marlowe asked.

“Well, I’m not sure, but I think my killer may have taken it. Or someone could have dug it up after all these years.”

“Where did you bury it?” Nero asked.

Jed swirled over to the window.“Hard to tell after all these centuries. The land doesn’t look the same. Judging by the view of the cove, seems like we’re standing in the barn so I might have my landmarks mixed up. I’ll have to look around out there—truth be told, I haven’t been concerned about the treasure. Don’t have a need for it now. I was more drawn to my old things in the attic. As a spirit, I find that haunting the most familiar places feels comforting. But if it can help Josie, maybe I’ll widen my horizons and see if I can locate the area. Course if I do find it, I can’t dig it up.”

Nero flexed his claws.“How deep is it?”

“About two feet.”

“We can probably bring Josie over and give her a hint,” Marlowe said.

“That’s if we can find it.” Nero wasn’t convinced the treasure was still there or that Jed would even remember the location. The grounds had changed a lot over the last several decades, never mind over several generations.

“I can’t make any promises, but if I can find it, I might have an idea as to how we can get it dug up. First though, I need to go up and look the place over from the attic window to get my bearings. I’ll be in touch.”

And with that Jed disappeared leaving only a few drops of spirit dew on the floor.

“What do you think of his idea?” Marlowe asked, her gaze trained on the spot where Jed had just been as if trying to figure out how she could do a similar disappearing act.

“I don’t know. It would be nice if Josie got the treasure, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. If Jed even remembers where the treasure was, it will likely come to nothing. I think we should focus our energies on Madame Zenda’s pronouncement. It seems to have disturbed the other guests and I sense foul play may be afoot.”

Marlowe’s ears perked up. “You don’t say. I’ve noticed they are not a very trusting crew and I think some of them may be spying on the others.”

“Indeed. And that Anita Pendragon hanging around does not bode well.”

“Yes, I saw her lurking in the lilacs earlier this morning.”

“Yesterday she was hiding in the hydrangeas.” Beneath the hydrangeas was one of Nero’s favorite napping spots and he’d been put out that he couldn’t have his afternoon snooze because the nosey reporter was crouched down behind the bushes watching the house.

“And she was being furtive in the forsythia, too,” Marlowe added. “I say we put a tail on her and see what she’s up to.”

Nero liked the way the young cat was thinking. As an older feline, he took his responsibilities to mentor Marlowe in the ways of cat detecting and human training very seriously.

“We need to follow all of them, something is fishy around here.” Nero sniffed the air, the scent of salmon-flavored kibble causing his stomach to growl. Josie had finally left the kitchen after shooting a few concerned looks at their full bowls. Nero knew that she wanted them to eat and that, plus the fact that they’d been talking to Jed, had held him back from digging in. He didn’t want Josie to think they would trot over and start eating at her command. But right now, she wasn’t in the kitchen. “Let’s eat first, though. We might need the energy to figure out what these humans are up to.”

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With the sausage all cooked and stored in the fridge for the next day’s breakfast, I set to my cleaning tasks. Flora was dusting so I spent the next several hours doing laundry and vacuuming.

I couldn’t help it if doing the tasks allowed me to sneak around the nooks and crannies of the guesthouse unobtrusively. It was part of my goal to make myself invisible so as not to disrupt anyone. I’d noticed with the last few batches of guests, being “invisible” allowed me to overhear some juicy stuff. I’d hoped to hear more about Madame Zenda’s plan to talk to Jed’s ghost, but today my guests were silent. Madame Zenda was in her room preparing for her ghostly meeting, according to Esther who I’d crossed paths with in the foyer. Esther had called an Uber and was on her way downtown.She was very tight-lipped when I asked her opinion about Madame Zenda’s proclamation. She was also tight-lipped about why she was going into town, but maybe she just figured it was none of my business.

I was on my way to the back hallway to put the vacuum away when I spotted movement outside through the back parlor window. Anita Pendragon? Peering through the blinds I was surprised to see it was Victor Merino. He was skulking along the side of the house looking suspicious. Was he meeting with Anita? Trying to find a hiding place so he could follow Madame Zenda? He moved out of view and I scurried across the hallway to the butler’s pantry. The window in there would allow me to spy on him without anyone seeing. Or so I thought. Someone else was already in there. Gail, who had her face pressed to the window, spun around looking guilty, which was good because if she was guilty then she wouldn’t notice I’d been sneaking in here to spy on Victor.

“I was looking for some tea.” She held up the ever-present mug as if to prove it.

“It’s in the cabinet, same spot as always.” I glanced out the window trying to see what she’d been looking at. I didn’t see anything unusual unless you consider Victor tiptoeing through the overgrown gardens unusual.

“The tea leaves have told me to be aware of what’s outside.”

Something in her manner set me on edge. Now that I thought about it, Gail didn’t seem to be a very good tea-leaf reader. Her readings were always very vague. At least Esther had come up with the tall, dark and handsome routine. And Madame Zenda had produced the death card. Madame Zenda claimed to be a medium, Esther could summon spirits in her crystal ball, Victor claimed he talked to those from the afterlife in his meditations, but, as far as I knew, Gail only read tea leaves. That seemed like a one-way conversation to me.

I pulled some Earl Grey out of the cabinet and handed it to her. Her gaze had drifted out the window again and she jerked her attention back to me and took the tin.

“I was wondering, how will you be able to communicate with Jed using just tea leaves?” I asked.

She looked confused.“What? Oh, well… the leaves don’t actually help me talk to him directly. Not the way you think. But I see things in the leaves. Answers to questions. So I focus on a question and the answer is supplied.”

I craned my neck to peer into her mug where a clump of crushed-up leaves sat on the bottom. It looked just like a regular bunch of tea leaves to me but who knew, maybe the arrangement of the leaves had some meaning for her.“Have you gotten any answers?”

“Unfortunately I haven’t gotten anything from Jed.” Her eyes were drawn back to the window as if magnets were attached.

“If Madame Zenda isn’t full of hot air, he must be around. Maybe he doesn’t like tea,” I suggested.

“Maybe.” Gail’s gaze dropped to the tea mug and I sensed she had something to add but she remained silent.

“So whathave you seen in the tea leaves?” I asked.

“Oh… A few things about the guesthouse. Nothing important.”

“Things about the guesthouse? Like what?”

Gail’s gaze dropped to the mug. “I see lots of renovations.” She frowned. “And maybe some problems with completing them.”

My left brow ticked up. You didn’t need to be a psychic to see that I was doing a lot of renovations. “You don’t say.”

“Oh.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I know you have renovations going on, but this is more than that.” Then she glanced down again, a frown spreading on her face. “Of course, I also see something disturbing.”

“Disturbing?” What could be more disturbing than a bunch of psychics trying to talk to the ghost of the guy I’d found inside the wall? I leaned over to look into the mug again.

Her face darkened further as Victor passed by the window, ducking and weaving in the shrubs. What was he doing? Trying to figure out Madame Zenda’s location?

“Yes, you’d better be careful,” she whispered, then tore her gaze from the window and forced a laugh. “Listen to me being all dark and ominous. Nothing bad is coming, just be careful around that Myron guy. And don’t take what you hear from the guests too seriously. Everyone might not be on the up and up here.” With that she raised her mug at me and turned to leave. “Thanks for the tea.”

The conversation was a little unsettling, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. I also didn’t have time to think about it because two dark-clad figures lurking by the side of the house caught my attention. I pressed my face to the window. First Anita Pendragon, then Victor, and now this. How many people were skulking around in my yard and what did they want?

The two strangers resembled small, white-haired ninjas. Except they weren’t strangers. It was Mom and Millie and they were heading for the kitchen door.

Six

I got to the kitchen just as Mom and Millie came through the door. They were wearing identical plain black T-shirts. Their white, spider-veined legs called for attention beneath the hems of their black shorts. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the white pompom-backed Peds and tennis shoes sort of ruined the look.

Millie went straight to the fridge, presumably to inspect the sausages.“Oh good, I see you browned them. Very nice.”

“What do you think?” Mom gestured to the outfits. “We’re going incognito tonight so we can find out what Madame Zenda is up to without being seen.”

“It’s not incognito, Rose,” Millie said. “It’s undercover.”

“No, not really undercover… invisible, like a stealth bomber,” Mom said.

Nero and Marlowe trotted in from the pantry and looked Mom and Millie over, then glanced at each other as if wondering what the two senior citizens were up to.Mew. Nero looked up at me. If a cat could roll its eyes, I swear he would have done it right then.

I noticed their bowls were empty. So, theyhad rushed over to scarf down their food as soon as I’d left the kitchen. They didn’t fool me, I knew they liked to be ornery but I also knew they liked to eat.

“So you’re going to hide in the bushes and follow Madame Zenda?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Millie whipped out a copy of the Farmers’ Almanac.“This here says the moon will rise in forty minutes. We better be on high alert.”

Mom went to the kitchen window and cupped her hands around her eyes, peering out. It was dusk and the trees cast shadows in the dim light. In the distance, the ocean looked dark and ominous.

“We need to ascertain Madame Zenda’s whereabouts.” Mom sounded like she’d been brushing up on police lingo. Probably from one of the TV cop shows she and Millie liked to watch.

“Do you have an idea as to her whereabouts, Josie?” Millie asked.

“Last I knew she was in her room, but I really haven’t been keeping tabs on her.”

I knew Esther had come back and Victor was outside somewhere still. Gail had retreated to the back parlor with her tea. Had Madame Zenda already gone out to make her way to her meeting with Jed? Millie pressed her lips together and looked out the window.“I think we need to secure the perimeter.”

“Where should we start?” Mom asked. “I mean, what’s her most likely ETA and location.”

“She mentioned the moon kissing the ocean,” I said.

“Yes, but you can see that from anywhere,” Millie said. “Most of the property has a view of the cove and I don’t think she necessarily meant it would be in view. She was referring to the time she would meet with him.”

“Funny thing,” Mom said. “Why wouldn’t she keep that a secret? It seems like she wouldn’t want all the other psychics barging in on her meeting.”

“That supports my theory that she is up to something. Probably wanted everyone to know.” Millie nodded sagely. “Especially Anita Pendragon.”

“So you’re going with the theory that getting publicity about being the one who talked to Jed would boost her career?” I asked.

Millie nodded.“Yep, and she’s lying about really being able to communicate with him.”

Mom narrowed her eyes.“I don’t like liars.”

“Me neither, and that’s why I want to catch her. If we can figure out where she is, then we can observe her and see if she is faking,” Millie said.

“If we could figure out where she was going, we could get there ahead of time and stake the place out,” Mom said.

“In our undercover outfits, we’ll blend right in to the shadows.” Millie looked thoughtful. “Did she give any clues as to where she might be meeting him?”

I thought back to her pronouncement.“No. She only mentioned the moon.”

“True, but everyone knows that spirits like to haunt familiar places.” Millie glanced around.

“Well that doesn’t eliminate much. Wouldn’t this whole place be familiar to him?” Mom asked.

“Not thewhole place. Remember, most of this wasn’t around in Jed’s time.” I turned to Millie. “Do you remember which sections existed back then?”

“Well, the main part of the house was in the west wing. And there were barns on the property that no longer exist. There is a part of the attic that I think has some old belongings of the Biddeford family and, of course, there is the three-seater.”

“Three-seater?” I asked.

“The old outhouse. Three people could go at one time,” Mom informed me.

“Well, if Jed’s anything like my late husband, he’d be really familiar with that, maybe we should start there,” Millie said.

“No. We have to think like Madame Zenda. What would she know about Jed?” Mom asked. “Everyone knows his skeleton was found in the wall in the ballroom, so maybe that’s where she will go.”

Millie shook her head.“That’s not secluded enough. But didn’t Ed say he heard someone on the third floor? He thought it might be Anita Pendragon, but maybe it was Madame Zenda scoping out a good place for her fake meeting. The attic would be ideal, and no one would know it was locked until they went up to check it.”

I thought about Victor outside and Gail’s frequent glances out the window. They’d probably been trying to figure out where Madame Zenda would go, same as Mom and Millie. “I don’t think she’d do it in the house. I think all the others are trying to figure out where she is supposedly meeting Jed and the house is just too easy for them to find her. I saw Victor and Gail looking around outside. I’m not sure about Esther, she went into town, but she could have been waiting for Madame Zenda to get up from her nap so she could follow her.”

“Well there’s one place Madame Zenda might think would be familiar to Jed and it would make a perfectly eerie backdrop for her fake meeting,” Millie said.

“Where’s that?” Mom asked.

“The cemetery.”

“But Jed isn’t even buried there,” I said.

There was an old family cemetery on the property and when Jed’s skeleton had been found, his descendants had asked about burying him there but apparently it took an act of congress for that sort of thing to happen these days. And besides, the cemetery was overgrown and it would have been hard to even get the right equipment in there.

“Yeah but Madame Zenda might not know that. I’m certain she isn’t speaking to his ghost and she is very dramatic. What better setting than the cemetery? It’s creepy there,” Mom pointed out.

Millie scrunched up her face.“I don’t know. She might also be in the gazebo. That wasn’t around in Jed’s time but she might not know that either. You can see the cove from there and—”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

A blood-curdling scream split the air.

We jolted up from the table and ran towards the sound of the scream.

Seven

The scream had come from the northeast part of the property where the old family cemetery was. We dodged branches and fought through overgrown shrubs, my stomach sinking as we grew closer to the noise, which was now a low sobbing sound. Was it part of Madame Zenda’s act or had something happened to her?

Millie reached the cemetery first and paused just inside the broken wrought-iron gate. The moon had risen, and the slab headstones cast eerie shadows on the scene. Something lay on the ground next to a triangular monument with a weeping willow etched on it. Anita Pendragon stood over it.

Anita looked at us, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water gasping for oxygen. She pointed at the body. Madame Zenda. Millie crouched down beside the body, which was no pretty sight. Madame Zenda had been stabbed in the chest. Blood soaked the front of her white caftan. The weapon looked familiar. I leaned closer and recognized the Oyster Bay Guesthouse logo on the handle. Anyone could have nabbed that at any time. But that wasn’t the worst part of the scene. The worst part was the note on her chest that looked like it was written in blood.Get out. Leave me alone.

“What’s that?” Mom bent down and jabbed her finger toward an old rusty buckle that lay beside the note. I was getting a little concerned that finding dead bodies didn’t seem to faze my mother and Millie anymore. It wasn’t such a big deal for me because I’d been going to school to be a medical examiner before my career was derailed with marriage and a daughter. I was used to seeing dead bodies and it wasn’t just because this was the third one that had shown up at my guesthouse.

“Looks like an old buckle.” Millie glanced up at Anita. “Did you kill her and leave this note and buckle?”

Anita’s eyes widened. “No! I was following her to get a scoop on her talking to the ghost. But I lost her. I wandered around looking for her and then I stumbled upon that.” She gestured toward the body.

Millie looked skeptical.“Did you see anyone else? Like the killer leaving the scene, perhaps?”

Anita’s eyes darted around the area as if looking for the culprit. “No. It’s so overgrown here, who could see anything? Besides, it’s clear who the killer is.”

“Is it?” Mom asked.

“Yes.” Anita sniffled and let out a shaky breath before glancing around furtively and leaning toward us. “The ghost.”

Was it my imagination or was Anita acting just a littletoo scared? It didn’t escape me that the body and note would make a sensational story. And shewas the only one here. Would someone else have had enough time to kill Madame Zenda, leave a note in her blood (if it was, indeed, in her blood) and an old buckle and scurry off before Anita discovered her? Had it really been Anita who screamed upon discovering the body or was it Madame Zenda’s scream we’d heard as Anita was stabbing her? Anita was wearing a pink jacket and a white shirt underneath. Not a drop of blood was on her. Could she have changed clothes? She could have hidden another outfit anywhere in this messy overgrowth.

“I hardly think a ghost did this,” Millie scoffed. “Where would he get the murder weapon? Or a buckle? Can ghosts write notes?”

“I’ve heard of ghosts doing lots of things.” Anita gestured to the note. “And look at the note. It says to ‘leave me alone’. All these psychics were bothering Jed. And what about that old buckle? It looks to be from his era. You ask me, that’s a sign that it was him.”

The buckle did look old, but I’d seen some very convincing replicas. A closer look would be nice, but I knew better than to disturb anything at a crime scene. Luckily, so did Mom and Millie. Despite Sheriff Chamberlain’s crush on Millie, I didn’t think he’d look too kindly on that.

A rustle in the bushes announced a new arrival.

“I called the police, they should be here any minute.” Victor Merino appeared, giving the body only a cursory glance.

“How did you know the police would be needed here?” Millie asked. Clearly she was suspicious, and with good reason. Victor had hardly seemed surprised that Madame Zenda was dead. Was that because he already knew? He wouldn’t be the first killer that doubled back to the scene of the crime.

“I heard the scream.” Victor’s eyes darted to the body again. I saw a flicker of something. Fear? Guilt? “I figured it couldn’t be good, but I wouldn’t have thought it was this. What happened?”

He was going to have to come up with something better than that to convince me. So someone screamed, so what? It could have been that someone saw a snake or a rat. How did he know the reason for the scream involved something that the police would be needed for?

More rustling in the bushes and Esther appeared. Unlike Victor, she was visibly shaken. Her hands flew to her face.“Oh my, how dreadful!”

Then she stepped a little closer, curiosity apparently overtaking her horror.“Is that a note?”

“Yes, the ghost left it,” Anita said. She must have recovered from her grisly discovery because she’d whipped out her notebook and was taking notes.

“Poor Betty Sue,” Esther said.

“Betty Sue?” I asked as everyone turned inquisitive eyes on her.

Esther nodded.“Oh yes, that was Madame Zenda’s name before she changed it. Betty Sue Lipowitz. Did none of you know this?”

“No.” How would we have known that? But the fact that Esther knew indicated a past relationship. They must not have been close friends though, because Esther didn’t seem overly upset about her death. Millie zoned right in on that. “Did you know her well?”

Esther looked thoughtful. Was she reminiscing, or deciding how to cover up the nature of their relationship? Now that I thought about it, they hadn’t seemed friendly at all, in fact they had seemed slightly adversarial. Then again, all the guests had seemed that way toward each other. I hadn’t thought much about it as it seemed natural to have some professional rivalry in their business.

“Well, we weren’t besties or anything but we’ve both been mediums for decades and have crossed paths before.”

“Do you know why anyone would want to kill her?” Mom asked. By the tilt of her head and narrowing of her eyes, I could tell she had Esther at the top of her suspect list.

“Oh dear me, of course not. Such a shame. And what is with this note? Sounds ominous.” Esther looked around, as if expecting Jed’s ghost to appear from thin air.

“Yeah what is with the note?” Of all people, Myron had shown up. Now why in the world was he here? I thought about Mom and Millie’s insistence that he had a crush on me, hopefully he wasn’t stalking me or something.

He peered over at the body, his face turning visibly white. He looked as if he was going to throw up.“That looks like a warning.” He turned his scowling gaze on me and visions of my loan drying up ran through my head. Dread curled in my stomach. Were Myron’s concerns valid? I knew he was worried that rumors of murdering ghosts would affect bookings.

The sound of sirens split the air and Mom and Millie sprang into action, securing the crime scene as if they’d been deputized.

Millie moved everyone back from the body and Mom stood in front of them as if to provide a barrier. By the time Sheriff Seth Chamberlain and his deputies arrived on the scene things appeared quite orderly.

Seth glanced at the body, then at Mom and Millie, his gaze taking in their all-black outfits. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, then addressed Mom and Millie.“Okay, tell me what’s going on? Who discovered the body and how did you all get on the scene? And what is with those outfits?”

Millie filled him in on what had transpired, glossing over the reason for their outfits and simply saying that they just happened to be both wearing all black today because it was supposed to be slimming.

“And see, right there is proof this was Jedediah’s ghost.” Anita snapped a picture of the note on the body with her cell phone.

“No pictures of the crime scene, please.” Seth frowned at Anita. “And just what areyou doing here anyway? You’re not a guest at the hotel.”

Anita shoved her phone back into her bag, making a show of rooting around. Was she avoiding eye contact with Seth?“I… uh… heard through the grapevine that Madame Zenda was going to contact Jedediah Biddeford’s ghost. That’s big news.”

Through the grapevine? More like through my open window. But was that really the reason Anita was here? I could tell by the skeptical look on Seth Chamberlain’s face he might be wondering the same thing. Did Anita and Madame Zenda have some sort of arrangement and if so, was Madame’s death a benefit or a hindrance to Anita?

Seth glanced back at the body.“You don’t really think a ghost did this, do you?”

“Well, sure, who else would do it?” Anita asked.

Good question. I looked at the group of people—Anita, Victor, Esther. Apparently, the scream had brought them out from the guesthouse just like it had brought Mom, Millie and me, but was one of them the killer? And why hadn’t it summoned Gail? I would’ve been able to contemplate that more deeply if Myron wasn’t standing beside me, wringing his hands and nattering on about having a bad feeling about this.

He leaned over and whispered in my ear.“This is not good for the guesthouse, you mark my words.”

“Myron, what are you even doing here at this time of night?” I asked.

“I bet he came to ask you to dinner,” Mom whispered.

Myron straightened, his cheeks flaming as if he’d overheard my mother and was embarrassed. “I came to check up on my investment. I heard Madame Zenda talking about her supposed meeting this evening and figured I’d better stop by and see for myself exactly what kinds of shenanigans were going on here. Guess it was a good thing I did.” Helet his gaze rest on Anita. “My suggestion is that you may want to get rid of those psychics right away. Bad publicity travels fast.”

I wondered if that really was the reason, or if he had been about to ask me to dinner. Good thing none of us had an appetite anymore—hopefully the dead body would keep him from asking me out. Luckily, he didn’t have a chance to because apparently something else traveled fast too—Myron’s voice.

Seth snapped his head around and looked at Myron.“Get rid of them? I don’t think so. Everyone here needs to be questioned.” Seth waved his hand to indicate all the people who had gathered. “These folks are potential suspects. No one is allowed to leave town.”

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Nero stared at the body. The coppery smell of the blood made his whiskers twitch uncomfortably. He glanced sideways at Jed.“I thought you said you didn’t talk to any of them.”

Jed spread his hands out.“I didn’t, I swear.”

“Anita Pendragon seems pretty sure you’re the killer,” Marlowe said to Jed. The way that Jed was swirling and bobbing made it obvious that he was agitated. “Nah. Wasn’t me. I can barely push a small item off a table. How could I stab someone? And why would I?”

Nero studied the ghost. He seemed sincere, but then again, ghosts could be wily. And Jed had disappeared abruptly during their previous conversation. Nero hadn’t seen him since. He could have snuck out and murdered Madame Zenda and his claim that he could only push small objects could be a lie. Had he made a big show of it earlier just because he wanted an excuse as to why he couldn’t be the killer? But why would he care about appearing innocent in front of the cats? He was beyond any punishment from the humans.

“What about the curse?” Marlowe asked. “Maybe you wanted to prove the curse was real.”

“That was just hot air to keep people away. Besides, the curse was about someone messing with my treasure and I know the treasure wasn’t here in the cemetery.” Jed swirled over to inspect the body. It was obvious that none of the humans could see him. He passed by Victor and right in front ofEsther. Anita shivered when he went right through her, but the others seemed oblivious. Of course, Nero couldn’t tell if Madame Zenda could have seen him. She was beyond that. Maybe her ghost would pop up and enlighten them.

Jed’s ghost bent down to inspect the note, then he hovered over the buckle. “No way I could do all this. I don’t even write like that. That buckle does look familiar though. I think I might have had one like that on my going-to-church shoes.”

“You mean that exact buckle or just one that looks like it?” Nero asked. Probably a replica. Because how would Jed’s actual shoe buckle get on the body? Had someone been in the attic where Jed said his things were? Ed had mentioned he thought that he had heard someone up there, but as far as Nero knew the door was locked. Nero mentally added exploring the attic as the first item on his agenda for this investigation. It would be easy for him to get into the attic through the small crack in a door that led from one of the old servants’ rooms on that floor.

Naturally, the cats would be doing a thorough investigation. Nero felt it was his duty to protect the guesthouse and Josie. As cat caretaker of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, the responsibility to keep it running weighed heavy. Three murders in a row could be a major deterrent to guests.

“Why would someone want to kill Madame Zenda and leave this note if it wasn’t you?” Marlowe looked up at Jed with intelligent, calculating eyes. Good, the young cat was also thinking along the lines of investigating and shared Nero’s suspicions of the ghost.

“Beats me. Looks like someone wants them to think it was me. But why would I kill her? I don’t stand to gain anything,” Jed said.

Marlowe glanced at Nero and Nero nodded sagely as if he had some inner wisdom that validated Jed’s words. He didn’t but, since he was the mentor and Marlowe the mentee, he liked to put forth the appropriate impression of being wise.

“We’ll investigate all options. But one thing is for sure. If it wasn’t Jed, then we may have someone very dangerous on our hands.” Nero glanced over at the body, where the police were busy photographing and cataloging, and made a mental note to be very careful around Jed. The ghost seemed sincere in his insistence that he wasn’t the killer, but one could never be too careful. “Because whoever did this, definitely has a motive powerful enough to kill for.”

Eight

“Maybe Madame Zenda was a little bit psychic after all,” Millie said as we sat in the kitchen waiting for the police to finish with the crime scene.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Well, she predicted a death in her tarot reading. Too bad it was her own death.” Millie rummaged in the fridge, coming up with an apple, left over from the sausages, which she proceeded to crunch into.

“I don’t buy that,” Mom said. “If she was any good, she would have been able to see her own death and therefore avoid it.”

Millie chewed the apple and glanced out the window.“Funny how Anita was already there when we got there.”

“And how Esther, Myron and Victor showed up so soon after,” Mom added.

“I guess the screams brought Esther and Victor to the scene, just like us,” I said. “But I wonder why Gail didn’t come running out.”

Mom’s brows shot up. “Maybe because she already knew what was out there.”

Millie shook her head.“No, I think the most suspicious ones are Anita and Victor. And just what was Myron doing here, anyway?”

I filled them in on Myron’s worries about all the ghost talk. “I think he’s having second thoughts about investing in the guesthouse.” I fiddled nervously with the silver salt-and-pepper shakers on the table.

“Don’t worry about Myron, Josie.” Millie patted me on the shoulder as if reading my mind. “He’s all bark and no bite.”

Mom nodded.“And besides, he has a crush on you. He’s not gonna take the loan away.”

“I know what will take your mind off of it.” Millie rummaged in the cabinets. “We’ll fix some nice lemon muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. They’ll go fabulously with the sausage. What else are you going to make?”

I shrugged. I’d gotten so used to Millie coming over and helping I wasn’t quite used to planning the breakfast. “Maybe some scrambled eggs? I’ll heat up the sausage to go with it and then a fruit bowl.”

“That sounds perfect. The muffins will round it out.” Millie opened the fridge and gathered a lemon, eggs, milk and butter and placed them on the counter.

“So, we have another dead body and a slew of suspects. But I wonder… you don’t think Jed’s ghost really did kill Madame Zenda, do you?” Mom stood over at the bookshelf running her finger along the spines of the cookbooks. She stopped at the one that had fallen out onto the floor earlier.

Millie waved her hand.“Course not. There’s no such thing as ghosts, right, Josie?”

“Right.” I pulled out the new silicone muffin liners that Millie had suggested I splurge on and started lining them up on a pan. It would be convenient to think maybe Jed’s ghost did kill Madame Zenda, but I didn’t believe in ghosts. Someone more earthly had committed the murder and writtenthat note. “But why leave the note and the buckle?”

“It certainly was dramatic,” Mom said.

“Overly dramatic, but I suppose that was on purpose.” Millie measured out the flour carefully.

“You mean someone is making it look like a bigger story than it is?” Mom said.

My thoughts raced to Anita Pendragon. Clearly Madame Zenda had known she was lurking around outside and wanted her to overhear the announcement about her meeting with Jed, but why was Anita lurking here in the first place? Had Madame Zenda tipped her off or had she just known psychics would be at the guesthouse and thought she could dig up a good story? What lengths would Anita go to to turn a good story into agreatstory? One can’t be too hasty when trying to figure out a motive for murder though, and sprucing up a story so that it gets a lot of media attention wasn’t the only reason I could think of to kill.

“The killer could also be trying to muddy the waters and use misdirection to distract us with the note and buckle, when the real reason for the murder is that it is about a past experience with Madame Zenda,” I said.

“You mean like revenge or blackmail?” Mom’s eyes lit up. “Esther did seem to know Madame Zenda from before. She must’ve been close to her in the past if she knew her real name was Betty Sue.”

Millie turned to face us as she licked some batter off a spoon.“One of the last things Madame Zenda did was to make it very clear that she was going to talk to Jed’s ghost. Seems logical to me that either someone didn’t want her to talk to the ghost because he might tell her where the treasure is and she might get it first, or they didn’t want her to get the fame that might come from an article. Unless the murderer is trying to make us think that is the motive, as Josie suggested.”

“We can’t rule out Anita Pendragon. She knew Madame Zenda was going to talk to the ghost and, according to her, she was skulking around trying to witness their communication. Maybe she figured out Madame Zenda was a fake and killed her to make the article more interesting,” Mom said.

I was skeptical.“Would someone really kill over a newspaper article? I mean, it doesn’t seem like that would be worth much. Too much risk for too little reward.”

“But let’s not forget, we must investigate all angles,” Millie said. “Seems like there are quite a few motives for Madame Zenda’s murder.”

“Did you notice the murder weapon?” Mom avoided eye contact.

“Yes. My letter opener. But I keep that at the front desk and anyone could have taken it. The guests would have access and the front door is open during the day, so anyone could have come in and nabbed it,” I said.

“Even Anita Pendragon,” Millie added.

“Ed did say he thought she might have snuck in here,” I said.

“Hmm, when did you last see it?” Mom asked.

I tried to remember the last time I’d seen the letter opener. I was sure it had been in the house last week but that didn’t help. “I have no idea, with everything being electronic these days, I don’t get much mail.”

“It makes a good weapon, apparently,” Mom said.

I crossed my arms and leaned back against the counter as Millie poured the batter into muffin liners. It wasn’t a surprise that Millie and my mother were automatically jumping into a new investigation. Whatwas a surprise was that I’d followed right along with them. Apparently investigating the last two murders had fostered some sort of detecting skill I didn’t know I’d had.

Of course, the idea that a killer was running around loose wasn’t very appealing. Nor was the idea that it could affect my bookings or my loan. Seth Chamberlain wasn’t what I’d call a crack investigator. He did the best he could, but the town of Oyster Cove didn’t normally have any murders and he just didn’t have the experience. If Mom, Millie and I needed to do a little detecting on the side to catch a killer, then so be it.

“It’s getting late. I think we need to sleep on it and come up with a game plan first thing tomorrow,” Millie said as she shoved the muffins in the oven.

“I already have one. Or at least the start of one,” Mom said.

Millie shut the oven door, straightened and turned to look at my mother.“What is it?”

“Someone went to a lot of trouble to dress up the murder scene. We don’t know their exact purpose for that yet, but we do know one thing.” Mom’s eyes glittered with excitement. “Someone had to get an old buckle similar to what Jed would have worn. Do you remember seeing a buckle like thatin here, Millie?”

Millie shook her head.“No. The stuff from Jed’s time is way back in the attic and I’ve never looked in there. I suppose there could be such a buckle, but how would someone get it? You still keep the door locked, don’t you, Josie?”

“I do. Can’t have guests getting hurt up there.”

Millie pressed her lips together.“Seems like a lot of trouble for someone to search the house.”

“Yeah, there are easier ways to find old buckles or buckles that look like they are old,” Mom said. “In fact, I think I’ve seen them at the fabric store.”

“Ones that look like the one on the body?” Millie asked. “It would make more sense that someone just got a replica.”

Mom frowned.“I don’t remember exactly what they looked like, but it behooves us to go downtown and check it out. If we can find who recently acquired such a buckle, then we just may have our killer.”

Nine

Nero and Marlowe had spent a restless night at the foot of Josie’s bed. It was no easy task sleeping with a human. You had to be vigilant so you could judge the right time to inch your way up to the top of the bed and curl up around their nice warm heads while they were sleeping without getting swatted away too many times. And then there was the pressure of waking up early—a necessity if you wanted to lay on their chest and stare at them as they woke. Nero always got a kick out of Josie’s wide-eyed reaction when her eyes fluttered open and she saw his face inches from hers.

While Josie was in the kitchen getting the breakfast ready for the guests, the cats did a cursory inspection of the rest of the house, which would be followed by their plan to search the attic. They found Flora in the dining room setting the table and they trotted in to rub against her saggy panty-hose covered legs to get their morning petting, before heading to the parlor where they could catch some rays from the morning sun.

To their dismay, the parlor was not unoccupied. Esther stood in front of the table where Madame Zenda’s tarot cards were still laid out. She was studying the cards with a pensive look on her face.

“She reads cards too?” Marlowe asked.

“Maybe she’s thinking about taking over now that Zenda is out of the picture,” Nero said.

But Esther wasn’t actually reading the cards. She picked them up one by one, placing them gently in a pile and then sighed as she put them off to the side. “Poor Betty Sue.”

Noticing the cats’ presence, her face cracked into a smile. She sat in the chair in front of her crystal ball and motioned for them to come to her.

“I don’t think Esther can be the killer,” Marlowe said as she trotted over and accepted a tuna-flavored treat that Esther had pulled out of her pocket. “She’s nice and has delicious treats.”

“Sometimes it’s the nice ones that you have to watch out for.” Nero felt it was prudent to exercise more caution in his assessments. He’d been around longer than Marlowe and had witnessed how humans often were not what they seemed.

Jed’s ghost swirled into view. “Have you guys been up in the attic recently?”

“I caught a delicious mouse up there last week.” Marlowe smacked her lips.

“Have you been way in the back where my stuff is? Who else goes up there?” Jed asked.

“As far as we know no one goes up there. That place is crammed full and it’s hard to get around, for humans at least. I don’t even think Josie has been through the whole attic yet,” Marlowe said. “But we were just about to go up.”

“Millie went up there when she was younger but, as far as I know, she hasn’t been up there in decades. She’s probably forgotten about everything up there as it is,” Nero added. “It’s all just a bunch of cast-offs and junk.”

“Yeah well someone’s been up there.” Jed fisted his hands on his hips. “I took a look through the trunk with my things in it and my good dress shoes are missing.”

Nero made a face and thought back to what the skeleton had had on for footwear. What was left of the clothing indicated that Jed hadn’t been dressed up and Nero distinctly remembered the shoes didn’t have fancy buckles like the one on Madame Zenda. “Well youhavebeen dead for three hundred years. I suppose in that time someone could’ve gone up there and rearranged things. Or even borrowed your shoes.”

Jed pursed his lips, apparently contemplating Nero’s words. “I suppose. But the dress shoes that are missing had buckles similar to that found on the body.”

This piqued Nero’s interest. Their first clue! “You don’t say? Maybe we better head up into the attic and see what we can find out.”

“Yes, we need to figure out what is going on around here. I don’t like that people are bandying about the idea that I could’ve killed that woman. I’m no killer. In fact, I was a murder victim myself,” Jed said.

“Are you sure? You don’t seem to remember things like where the treasure is.” Marlowe slitted her eyes. “Maybe with your ghostly amnesia you don’t know what you did last night. Have you blacked out or anything?”

“Certainly not. And I didn’t forget where the treasure is. It’s just that the landmarks have changed and I need to do some looking around to find the spot. I tell you, I’m no killer!” Jed’s voice rose in outrage. “You ask me, it was one of these psychics. Probably jealous that Madame Zenda said she could talk to me.”

Nero glanced sideways at Esther. She was gazing into her crystal ball intently, her kind face a study in concentration. Was she hiding something beneath that pleasant exterior?“Maybe we should do some investigating into each one of them.”

“My money is on that blowhard, Victor,” Jed said. “He’s been running all around the estate trying to conjure me up with some lame chants and incantations.”

“You haven’t tried talking to him?” Marlowe asked.

“No. I haven’t actually triedtoo hard to talk to any of them and even if I did, it wouldn’t be Victor. I wouldn’t give him the time of day.” Jed glanced over at Esther and his face softened. “If I was going to talk to anyone, it would be someone pretty. Like maybe that young filly over there.”

Nero followed Jed’s gaze. He wasn’t sure what Jed was seeing but Nero only saw an old lady with white hair and a network of wrinkles. “Young?”

Jed laughed.“Well, Iamthree hundred years old, so she’s young to me.”

“Okay then, so back to the shoes. We’ll go take a look. See if we can sniff out any nefarious human activity. But I don’t think anyone has been to that part of the attic in decades.” Nero wasn’t sure if he wanted Jed to fixate on Esther. He was getting the same moon-eyed look that he got when he looked at Josie. Apparently the ghost was looking for love and Nero didn’t want to encourage that. He wanted Jed to drift away to the afterlife and not linger in the guesthouse because he had a crush on some human. Then again, maybe if he set his intentions on Esther, he’d leave the guesthouse when she did and they could be done with him.

“I hope it was someone in this century.” Jed’s expression turned somber. “Though I suppose it could be the person who killed me—they were very expensive shoes. Or maybe it was my wife. She was mad that I went off to Europe for so long and there’s no telling what kind of revenge she’d want to enact. Could have taken it out on my shoes.”

Nero mulled this over. Could Jed’s wife’s vengeful ghost be lurking about in the guesthouse? The odds of two ghosts running around were practically nil, besides Nero’s fine senses would have picked up on a second ghostly presence. It made more sense that the shoes had been taken a long time ago, which made them irrelevant to the current happenings. But then how did one explain the buckle?

“Are you sure that buckle was from your shoes?” Nero asked. “I mean, there must be plenty of similar buckles around.”

“That one was old. Back in my day things were handmade so very few of the same thing existed. Sure looked like the buckle I had,” Jed said.

“Too bad the police have taken it for evidence, otherwise I could try to sniff out the age,” Marlowe said.

Nero’s tail twitched in approval. The young cat was coming along nicely in figuring out how to use her superior senses to aid in their investigations. She did have a ways to go in knowing how to use their extensive network of feline detectives though.

Nero turned to her.“Good observation. But even if we cannot apply our noses to the buckle, we do have an informant who can.”

Marlowe’s green eyes widened. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? We can ask Louie Two Paws!”

Louie was a polydactyl Siamese that hung around at the police station. He often came in handy when the cats wanted insider information on cases. Marlowe jumped down from the arm of the chair where she’d been perched and started out of the room. “Come on! Let’s go downtown. We can visit Louie and consult with the gang first, then we’ll check out the attic when we come back.”

“The gang” was a group of cats that all helped to solve the various mysteries that cropped up around town. Unbeknownst to the humans, the cats had been doing this for decades. They wanted to keep the quaint ambiance of the town of Oyster Cove and having killers and thieves running around wouldn’t do. Of course, the cats couldn’t let on to the humans that they were the real masterminds behind solving the crimes, they had to make it look like it was all the humans’ doing. It took a bit of cleverness to accomplish that, as humans could be rather dense when presented with clues, but Nero prided himself on the fact that they had a perfect record and no one suspected their involvement.

Nero was about to trot after Marlowe when he caught a whiff of spicy sausage.“We’ll leave momentarily. But first, we might as well slip into the dining room and fortify ourselves with some sustenance. We’ll need energy for the trip downtown. I’m sure Esther will slip us some treats and if we skulk along the edges and then hide under the tablecloths, Josie will neversuspect we are in there.”

Nero trotted off toward the dining room. His stomach growled in anticipation and he was only the slightest bit worried that he could be eager to accept treats from a cold-blooded killer.

Ten

Breakfast was a somewhat solemn affair. Esther, Victor and Gail sat together at one table. I hadn’t seen them sit together before and didn’t know if they were clustered together for comfort or to keep their enemies close, each being afraid the other had murdered Madame Zenda.

The smell of sausage and coffee lured me closer to the buffet server and I picked at a lemon muffin as I eavesdropped on their conversation.

“I just can’t believe Madame Zenda was murdered right under our noses!” Gail wailed into her napkin.

“Speaking of which.” Victor narrowed his gaze on her. “Where were you? That scream roused me out of a deep meditation. It was loud enough to wake the dead.”

Gail sniffled and reached for her tea. She turned to Victor, a wan smile on her face, but not before I noticed a hint of malice in her eye. Was it simply that she didn’t like the guy? I couldn’t say I blamed her there, he was annoying. Or was she angry he called the fact she didn’t come running last night to everyone’s attention?

“I’m hard of hearing.” Gail pointed to her right ear. “I drank some chamomile tea and was out like a light. With my hearing problems, I never heard a thing. When I got up, the police were here wanting to question everyone. Imagine my shock when I found out why.”

Guess she hadn’t seen the murder in her tea leaves. A movement under the table caught my eye and I tilted my head just in time to see a ginger-and-black tail disappear under the tablecloth. Marlowe. I was sure Nero wasn’t far behind. Or probably in the lead. He seemed to be the instigator. I watched as Esther broke off a teeny piece of sausage and slipped it unobtrusively under the table.

There was no point in shooing the cats away. I didn’t want to call attention to them in case the other guests hadn’t noticed their presence. I’d also learned that telling them not to do something only made them do it more. Best to let them skulk around unnoticed. They seemed to be able to pick out the guests who didn’t mind having cats in the dining room and were able to hide their presence from those who did, so there was no harm.

“You ask me, it could be that reporter. She discovered the body.” Esther glanced out the window as if expecting to see Anita skulking around.

“But why would a reporter want to kill Madame Zenda?” Victor asked.

Esther shrugged.“Maybe Madame Zenda wouldn’t give her an exclusive.”

“Oh, did Anita ask you for an exclusive too?” Gail asked Esther.

Esther’s eyes dropped to her plate and she got busy eating the rest of her breakfast. “Maybe.”

Gail turned to Victor.“What about you? You’ve been awfully quiet with all your meditation. Did you talk to the reporter too?”

“I’m not quiet, I just don’t associate much with beings on this earthly plane. I prefer to spend my time on spiritual endeavors. I’m perfectly happy to wait for Jedediah to contact me as I’m sure he intends to do,” Victor said, avoiding the question.

Gail took a sip of tea, then looked down in the mug. Was she looking for something in the tea leaves?“But he was already going to talk to Madame Zenda. Why talk to the rest of us too?”

“Pffft… I doubt Biddeford’s ghost was going to contact Madame Zenda, as she has no psychic talent. She was probably making that up for the benefit of the reporter. If such an article got picked up for syndication it could have helped her flagging career.” Victor fluffed his napkin onto his lap with an exaggerated flourish. “You ask me, we should all be wary. There’s a killer on the loose.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure that Madame Zenda didn’t have any psychic talent. She did predict a death… too bad it was her own,” Esther said, echoing Mom’s words from last night.

Just then, the phone in the foyer shrilled. Darn it! I wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop anymore.

I rushed to the foyer and plucked the wireless phone off its cradle.“Oyster Cove Guesthouse!” I chirped in my most pleasant tone. No need to sound somber as if a murder had just happened the day before, that wouldn’t encourage potential guests to reserve rooms.

“Hi, this is Dolores Johnson.”

I hesitated, the name was familiar.

The person on the other end continued,“I had a reservation for next week.”

“Of course! Good to hear from you Mrs. Johnson. How can I help you?”

“Well, I hate to say it, but I have to cancel.”

My spirits fell.“Cancel. But why?”

“Ummm… you see… we’ve decided to go somewhere else on vacation. I read on your website that you can cancel up to seventy-two hours in advance and get a refund, is that correct?”

“That’s correct. So you’re sure you want a refund? I can’t guarantee the room will still be available if you change your mind again.” The guesthouse wasn’t fully booked, but you never knew when new reservations would come so it wasn’t a total lie.

“Oh, I’m sure. Thank you.”

I hung up the phone and stood there. Taking a vacation somewhere else? It was more likely word of the murdering ghost had gotten out. Maybe Myron was actually more perceptive than he let on. If news was spreading and people were afraid to come here, then I had to put a stop to it, and I knew of only one way—catch the real killer and then the newspapers would move on to more interesting stories.

I heard footsteps on the stairs and turned around to see Flora coming down. She had the big pink feather duster in her hand and was running it over the banister as she descended. She glanced down at me, the magnification of her large glasses exaggerated at that angle.“Something wrong?”

I sighed.“I just got a cancellation. I’m afraid all this ghost and murder business might be scaring people off.”

“Darn, that’s too bad.” Flora swished the duster in the air and a shower of dust rained out of it. “I don’t like that one bit. Of course, fewer guests mean less work for me but more guests mean job security and that’s more important. Guess I was right in shooing that reporter off then.”

“You mean Anita Pendragon? The one who has been hanging around outside?”

Flora descended so that we were at eye level, which meant that she was standing about four steps up.“Yeah, I caught her around the kitchen door looking like she was trying to get in.”

“When was this?”

“Couple of nights ago. Though I shouldn’t be surprised with all the goings-on around here. Tarot readings. Crystal balls. You ask me, all these people here are a bunch of weirdos. You should get a better clientele.” She fluffed the air with her duster one more time, then shuffled off toward the front parlor muttering under her breath, “No wonder murders happen here so often.”

I stood in the hallway a few minutes longer, thinking about what Flora had just told me about Anita. Why would she be trying to get in the back door and did that have anything to do with Madame Zenda’s murder?

I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it because just then I saw Millie’s decades-old Dodge Dart drive in. Mom and Millie jumped out and hurried to the front door, stopping short when they saw me standing in the hallway.

“Oh good, you’re ready,” Millie said. “We’re going down to Felicity’s Fabrics. They have the largest selection of buckles in town.”

I was momentarily confused.“Buckles?”

“Yeah, you know, like they found on the body.” Mom lowered her voice. “If we figure out who bought the buckle, we figure out who the killer is.”

“Speaking of which,” Millie said. “Do you still have that book with the historical etchings and photos of the guesthouse in it? I think there might be one we can use to validate whether or not that buckle really is Jed’s.”

Millie had left lots of things in the guesthouse. Furniture, doilies, plates, glasses and books, including a history of Oyster Cove that featured historical photos, etchings and drawings of the guesthouse. It hadn’t always been a guesthouse; initially it had been built by Jedediah Biddeford as a family estate, then over the years it had been expanded and eventually turned into an inn. I remembered one of the earlier etchings featured Jed and his family sitting in front of the house all dressed up. Apparently, Millie wanted to scrutinize it and see if we could match the buckle.

“It’s in the kitchen.”

Mom and Millie followed me into the kitchen where I plucked the book out of the bookshelf and handed it to Millie. Nero and Marlowe must have had their fill of breakfast treats because they trotted in and begged Millie for attention, which she had no trouble providing. After petting the cats for several minutes, she flipped through the book, stopping on the page with the drawing of Jed’s family. Jed sat in a chair, a small child on his knee and older children beside him. A dour-looking woman in a voluminous black dress, who I assumed was his wife, stood behind him. Off to the side several servants were lined up.

Millie whipped out her cell phone and zoomed in on Jed’s shoe. “Look at this! The artist must have been very good, it looks so realistic. Almost like a photo. And look at his shoes! Does this look like the buckle we found on the body?”

I peered over her shoulder. My memory of the buckle on the body was fuzzy, but it looked similar.“Hard to tell, that drawing might not be exactly accurate. Looks like it could be, but I’m sure the buckle on Madame Zenda wasn’t an actual buckle from Jed.”

“Yeah but why would someone go to the trouble of getting a buckle that looked like that?” Mom asked.

Millie snapped a photo.“Probably because they just wanted it to look like it could be Jed’s. Maybe I can persuade Seth Chamberlain to tell me if the buckle is a replica or not.”

Mom and I remained silent. Millie had a way of“persuading” Seth to tell her things about the investigation that he wouldn’t normally tell a civilian. Neither one of us wanted to know exactly what she did to get that information.

“So far the only thing I’ve been able to get out of him is that the note wasn’t real blood and the murder weapon was wiped clean.” Millie shoved the cell phone into her large purse. “Come on, girls. All we need to do is show the picture of that buckle to Felicity and find out who bought asimilar buckle and we can solve this case.”

Eleven

Felicity’s Fabrics was crammed with bolts of cloth—cotton, linen, taffeta, silk—in a rainbow of colors and patterns. Felicity, a woman in her sixties who had owned the store ever since I was a kid, sat at the register, her glasses perched on her nose and a colorful beaded eyeglass holder looped behind her neck.

“Millie! So good to see you again.” She leaned across the counter. “Are you here for more sheer fabric for another nightgown?”

Mom and I glanced at Millie, who at least had the modesty to blush.

“No. I’m here with a question.” She whipped out her phone and showed Felicity the picture of the buckle. “Do you have any buckles that look like this?”

Felicity pushed the glasses up her nose and scrunched up her face as she picked up the phone and held it at arm’s length from her face. “This looks like an antique.”

“Yes, but you have antique replicas here,” Millie said.

“Not like this.” Felicity handed the phone back to her.

“Are you sure? Has anyone been in asking about replicas of old buckles?” Millie persisted.

“Nope. Sorry.”

“And you’re absolutely sure?”

Felicity gestured to the side of the store where little cards hung in dozens of rows.“Look for yourself. These are all the buckles I have. You will find nothing that resembles the buckle on your phone.”

Millie bustled off toward the buckles and Mom and I followed. I shot a“thank you” over my shoulder at Felicity. A few minutes of studying the buckles proved that Felicity was correct. Nothing even close to the buckle that had been on Madame Zenda’s body was on display.

“Well, how do you like that, I thought we’d have this case solved by noon and could celebrate at the Marinara Mariner for lunch.” Millie’s shoulders slumped, the wind taken out of her sails.

Mom snapped her fingers.“Wait a minute. All is not lost. What about the antique store? I bet they have a lot of old buckles.”

Felicity nodded.“Sure they do. Lots of old stuff over there. And Agnes is doing some restoration and repurposing work, maybe she restored your buckle.”

We hustled toward the door, Millie stopping to admire a see-through pink polka-dot sheer fabric on display. I didn’t even want to try to imagine what she would make out of it. Some things were just better not to think about.

Withington’s Antique Store was across the street. Traffic was always light in Oyster Cove, so we sauntered across, admiring the colorful barrels of flowers and cheerful store awnings. The town had made sure that everything was in tip-top shape for the two hundred and fiftieth celebration a few weeks ago and the streets practically gleamed. Store windows sparkled; the cafe had put out several scrolly wrought-iron tables and chairs; and the whole thing was reminiscent of a Parisian sidewalk.

It was picturesque, especially with the cats that were trotting into the alley between the cafe and Withington’s. Wait… that looked like Nero and Marlowe. As I watched, Nero glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes catching mine. I could have sworn he nodded before turning back and continuing on his way. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen the cats downtown and it made me wonder how they even got down here. Was there some secret shortcut? If there was, I wouldn’t mind finding out so I could use it myself.

Withington’s Antiques smelled like old furniture and lemon pledge. It was crammed to the gills with oak servers, mahogany dining-room sets, crystal chandeliers and lighted glass cases full of vintage jewelry and knick-knacks. Agnes Withington had run the shop since I’d been in diapers and she had to be ninety years old. She sat behind the counter on a stool, a petite thing with a shrewd gaze.

She smiled as she recognized Mom and Millie.“Millie and Rose, what a pleasant surprise!” Her inquisitive gaze drifted to me.

Mom gestured to me.“Agnes, this is my daughter, Josie.”

Her smile widened.“Of course, she looks just like you. I heard you came back and bought the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. Plenty happening up there since you took over.”

You could say that again.

Millie whipped out her phone and slid it across the counter to Agnes.“Actually, that’s why we’re here. You might have heard there was an incident up there yesterday and we’re looking for someone who would have purchased a buckle like this.” Agnes squinted, then reached under the counter, producing a lighted magnifying glass, which she turned on to magnify the image on Millie’s phone.

While she was squinting at it and moving the magnifying glass closer and further away, Mom drifted over to a display of beautiful old pens that sat at the end of the counter. They were fountain pens and each sat in a little holder, their golden nibs pointing toward the ceiling.“These are quite unusual,” Mom said.

Agnes looked up from the photo, squinting for a few seconds as her eyes adjusted.“Oh yes, they are, aren’t they? It’s a new venture of mine. I repurpose old quill pens into newer fountain pens. Of course, I can make them into rollerball pens too, but those aren’t nearly as much fun as a good old fountain pen.”

“Nifty.” Millie tapped her finger on the phone bringing Agnes’ attention back to the buckle.

“Do you have an old pen you need repurposed? I’m having a sale. Lots of people are taking advantage of it,” Agnes said. “I’m turning Anita Pendragon’s great-great-great-grandfather’s sterling silver quill pen into a fountain pen and Leslie Bruber’s motherin-law is having me retrofit her grandmother’s old mother of pearl pen, too.”

“No, thanks,” Millie said.

“Oh and I repurpose old buckles and buttons into jewelry as well.” Agnes beamed with pride. “I could show you some if you’d like.”

“We’d love to,” Millie said. “But not today. Today we’d like to know aboutthis buckle. Perhaps you worked on it recently, restored it for someone, maybe?”

As Agnes stared down at the buckle again I looked at the pens. They appeared to be ancient. A few were made of horn, one looked like etched silver. My gaze fell on a purple card sticking out from the bottom of the display. It had a crystal ball on it with a Milky Way of stars swirling around it. I pulled it out further to see the name. Esther Hill! Had she been here for a buckle?

“That’s an old buckle,” Agnes said. “But this is a drawing, not a photograph, they didn’t have them back then.”

“Yes, we know.” Millie sounded impatient. “But the drawing is so realistic, we figure the artist drew the buckle exactly.”

“My guess is the buckle is from the early seventeen hundreds. You know they handmade them back then. Usually out of brass, then they would plate them with silver or gilt them with gold. This image is fuzzy and it’s hard to see the fine details, but you can see the intricate work on the top,” Agnes said.

“Yeah, we already figured all that. What we want to know is if anyone came in here and bought a buckle that looked like this,” said Millie.

Agnes put her magnifying glass down.“Nope.”

“You sound awfully certain. Don’t you want to think about it, maybe check some records?” Millie said.

“Don’t have to. I just thought about this the other day.”

“You did?”

“Yep. Anita Pendragon was in here asking all about Jedediah Biddeford and his treasure. Luckily, I already had a lot of information out on him from a few weeks ago when the skeleton was found.” Agnes pointed to a pile of papers and a book. “So, it’s fresh in my brain and I would’ve remembered if someone bought buckles just like this.”

“Anita was here asking about Jedediah?” Mom asked, her eyes widening as she nodded at Millie. Clearly this moved Anita up the suspect list.

Agnes pushed the phone toward Millie and bent down to store the magnifying glass back under the shelf.“Yeah, probably had something to do with that television producer.”

“Television producer.” This was the first I’d heard of that and the notion set my mind spinning.

Agnes nodded.“I don’t remember his name. Some muckety-muck in a suit. He came in and wanted to know about Jedediah Biddeford, too. Asked all about the Oyster Cove Guesthouse. Wanted to know all about the skeleton. He even bought a pen for my trouble. Good thing too, it’s important that these high falutin’ types realize information isn’t free.”

“He asked about the guesthouse?” This did not bode well. A movie about murders at the guesthouse would hardly bring in more guests. Or would it? One thing it would do is generate a lot of money for someone… maybe for the psychic who could talk to Jed. Had Madame Zenda known about the movie? Clearly Anita had.

“Yep, sounded like he was fixing to make a movie or a TV show or something. Kept asking about all this ghost business that you have going on over there with those psychics.”

The mention of the psychics reminded me that Esther had been here. She hadn’t been looking for a buckle, unless Agnes was lying or her memory was off, but did she know about the movie producer? I slid her card out from under the pen display and held it up. “And Esther Hill, what was she doing here?”

Agnes frowned and snatched the card out of my hand.“That there is confidential information. I don’t tell on my clients. You should know that, missy.”

All-righty then.

Mom gave me an I-raised-you-better-than-that scowl.

“Right. I was just wondering if maybe she overheard the movie producer asking about Jed’s ghost.”

Agnes shoved the card under the table.“Hard telling. Lots of people were here when that producer fellow came in and later on he was over at Annie’s clam shack making a big deal about how important he was. Half the town heard him then.” She paused for a few beats. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No. Thanks for the information.” Millie turned and we followed her out.

Outside in the street, Mom turned to us.“Do you really think someone is considering making the story about the skeleton into a movie? That could be quite lucrative and might even be good for business.”

Millie nodded.“And we all know that money is a prime motive for murder, but the question is… who knew about the movie?”

“Anita Pendragon did. Agnes said she was in the shop, she might have overheard and she was first on the scene with the body. She’s a reporter too and would know how to cover things up and make it look like she only discovered the body when she’s really the killer,” Mom said.

Millie started walking toward the car.“That’s probably why she was hanging around the guesthouse so she could be the first to scoop a story when one of them talked to Jed. Then she could partner with the movie producer and get her ten minutes of fame.”

“Esther knew too,” I said. “Or at least she could have known. Her card was at the antique store and Agnes was quite secretive about why it was there.”

“I still say that Pendragon and Madame Zenda were in cahoots,” Millie said. “That’s why Zenda was yelling out the window about her meeting with Jed.”

Mom nodded.“Probably knew about the movie and wanted to make sure Anita covered it so that word would get back to the producer.”

“I just hope that sourpuss Myron Remington doesn’t think the publicity would put people off from booking a room at the guesthouse,” Millie said.

I cringed.“Unfortunately Myron might be right. I got a cancellation just this morning.”

Millie stopped in her tracks.“You did? Did they say why? Maybe it had nothing to do with all the murders.”

“They didn’t say specifically but it sounded like they were making up an excuse.”

Mom patted my arm.“Don’t worry, dear. Once word gets out about a movie, people will be flocking to stay at the guesthouse. People like to see where a movie took place.”

I hoped she was right, but something in my gut said otherwise.“We don’t even know if there will be a movie and in the meantime I’ve had three murders this summer. No wonder people are getting nervous. We need to figure out who killed Madame Zenda ASAP so we can get this whole thing out of the headlines.”

“Good point,” Mom said. “People have short memories. Once this is all over then it won’t take them long to forget. Unless of course the movie producer wants to use the guesthouse as a movie set.”

What were the odds of that? Slim, I’d say. I was still hoping for a quick resolution and things to go back to pre-murder normal.

“I say the buckle is the key.” Millie walked down the sidewalk at a snail’s pace as we talked.

“Yeah, but no one was looking for a buckle,” Mom said.

Millie stopped in front of the candy store and turned to face Mom and me.“Not that we’ve foundso far.” Millie’s face took on a look of determination. “We’ll just have to keep looking. Meanwhile, I think we’d better take a closer look at our suspects and figure out who had the strongest motive to kill Madame Zenda.”

Twelve

“What do you think Josie is doing in the antique store?” Marlowe asked as they turned down a side alley that led to the docks and their ultimate destination of the bait wharf, where they would meet with the rest of the Oyster Cove cats. By now the cats would have heard about the murder and be working on the case. Nero figured Harry would bring Louie Two Paws, the Siamese cat that hung out at the police station. They were hoping to get a scoop on what the police knew about the investigation so far.

Nero glanced back over his shoulder. Catching Josie’s eye, he gave her a slight nod. “Must be about the buckle.”

“Looks like Josie’s catching on to this investigating thing. Maybe she won’t need our help after all,” Marlowe said.

Nero glanced at Marlowe, thinking she couldn’t possibly be serious, before the two cats let out a string of meows that indicated how hilarious the notion was. “Imagine that, the humans not needing our help!”

The cats turned down Ocean Avenue and then took another alley to the bait wharf. It was mid-morning, so most of the fishermen were out in their boats and the wharf was quiet, except for the slapping of waves against the side of the wooden docks and the cawing of gulls. Nero was trying to avoid the gulls. He glanced up to make sure one wasn’t swooping down on him as the delicious smell of rotting fish drew the two cats closer to their favorite secluded spot behind the large tuna scale that hung from a tall post.

The rest of the cats were already there. Juliette, the gray cat with a white diamond on her forehead, sat atop a stack of lobster traps, her fluffy gray tail dangling over the edge. Below her, Poe with his bright green eyes was finishing off the tail of a fish—haddock it looked like to Nero. Boots sat on another lobster trap, watching them approach with his usual superior manner. Truth be told, Boots and Nero had a bit of a rivalry going on, as they were both black with white markings. Nero, however, had the white tuxedo on his chest and Boots only had white on his paws. Nero figured that Boots felt inferior because of this and that’s why he acted so obnoxious.

Stubbs, the ginger cat, wiggled his stub of a tail and nodded at Nero and Marlowe. Beside him, Harry, the fluffy Maine Coon, picked a burr off his tail. Fluffy tails were nice for show, but they did tend to collect all kinds of burrs and twigs and could easily become painfully matted.

Louie Two Paws, a sleek seal-point Siamese, lounged in a patch of sun. His paws were splayed out in front of him and the extra toes made it look like he was wearing furry mittens. The velvety brown points of his ears matched the mask on his face, which highlighted his extraordinary sapphire blue eyes.

“Hey, Louie, how’s it going?” Nero asked as he plopped down beside Stubbs.

“Going pretty good.” Louie licked one of his paws. He was always doing that to call attention to their uniqueness. Apparently this impressed the female felines. “I was just telling the others that I got into the evidence room and sniffed the evidence. The murder weapon didn’t have any unique identifying scents on it, but that buckle was interesting.”

“How so?” Nero asked.

“That thing is old as the hills.”

“So it’s not a replica that someone picked up to make it seem like it was Jed’s?” Marlowe asked.

Louie shook his head.“Nope. That thing has to be about three hundred years old. It smells like antique molasses and old regrets. No fingerprints on the murder weapon. The note, of course, was not blood. Drippy red ink.”

“Of course,” Nero said. He’d thought he’d smelled as much on the body, but couldn’t be sure with the actual blood smell from the wound.

“And what information doyou have?” Poe preened his long curly whiskers fastidiously as he addressed Nero. “Have you set your superior intellect into figuring out if the killer is one of the guests at the guesthouse?”

“Yeah, seems like one of those kooky guests would be the perp.” Harry liked to use old detective slang. His human was an older gentleman and liked to read Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler aloud to the cat. Apparently he’d picked up the lingo.

“Well, they sure are kooky.” Nero couldn’t argue with the other cat’s assessment.

“And they did seem to be in competition to see who could talk to Jed’s ghost. However, we have an inside scoop about that.” Marlowe puffed up proudly.

Juliette raised a brow.“Do tell.”

Marlowe’s tail swished back and forth and her tone took on an air of importance. “We talked to Jedediah Biddeford’s ghost himself. Turns out he hasn’t spoken to any of them.”

“Not even Madame Zenda?” Poe asked.

“Nope, she made it up.”

“Humans always confound me,” Harry said. “Why would anyone lie about talking to a ghost?”

Juliette hopped down from the lobster trap, her pads making a soft thud as she landed on the wharf. Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she causally said,“Maybe it has something to do with the movie.”

“Movie?” Boots must have been surprised at that news because he lost his grip on the whiskers he’d been grooming and they sprung back into a tight curl. He quickly set about smoothing them again.

Juliette fluffed her tail.“Yes, a producer was in to talk with Father Tim about a movie he wants to produce about Jed’s ghost and the treasure. He wanted to set some of the scenes in the church and cemetery.”

“Why would they set scenes in the church?” Stubbs asked.

Juliette shrugged.“Who knows? At first, Father Tim didn’t like the whole idea. He felt it was sacrilegious, but then the producer mentioned the donation to St. Michael’s could be quite hefty. Apparently a movie like this would make a lot of money.”

“Ahhh, money.” Boots started pacing. “It’s usually the root of the crime. That explains why all these psychics are really here. They must have gotten wind of the movie and wanted to reap the rewards. Madame Zenda lied so she could be the one in the spotlight.”

“And someone else wanted to make sure she didn’t get it, so they offed her,” Stubbs said.

“But it might not be one of the guests,” Nero pointed out. “Anita Pendragon has been lurking around the place too.”

“And she was the first one to discover the body,” Marlowe added.

“The director did say it could make any of the people involved very famous.” Juliet trotted over to a lobster trap and poked around inside for any scraps of bait that might be left.

“People?” Marlowe’s eyes narrowed. “What about cats? We’re the ones that Jed is actually talking to!”

“Don’t be silly, cats never get credit. But if they did have cats they would use feline actors just like they use human actors for people.” Juliette fluffed up her tail to its fullest. Nero thought it looked like a long gray toilet brush, but Juliette claimed that her fluffy tail was a sign of delicate beauty. “They try to choose cats that have a certain aesthetic appeal. I was thinking I could play Nero if I get discovered. I tried to call attention to myself by jumping on the producer’s lap and fluffing my tail in his face but all he did was sneeze and shoo me away.”

Boots preened his whiskers.“Just as well. I think I would be a better choice. They need a cat with brains.”

Nero scowled at Boots.Was that a compliment or an insult?

Boots continued,“Hopefully they’d pick actors that look better than the actual people, too. Take that Victor with his odd mustache. He won’t look good on the big screen.” Boots patted his mustache with his paw as if to highlight how much better looking his mustache was.

“Your mustache is much nicer than that Victor’s,” Juliet said.

The other cats rolled their eyes, echoing Nero’s thoughts that Juliette didn’t need to inflate Boots’ ego any more than it already was.

“You’ve seen Victor?” Harry asked. Good point. When had the other cats seen Victor?

“Yes. Father Tim and the producer were talking on the church steps and I was trying to highlight my acting abilities by skulking in the bushes when I startled a man who appeared to be lurking around the corner of the church. I thought he was eavesdropping, but then he came right over to Father Tim and introduced himself.”

“Did he say why he was there?” Harry asked.

“Not really. He had on the most luxurious velvet jogging suit in a deep plum. I couldn’t help but run my paws over it.” Juliette sighed and looked off into the distance as if remembering the soft feel of the velvet. “I think he was hinting around at playing the lead in the movie though.”

Nero’s whiskers twitched. “Victor was at the church? Was this before or after Madame Zenda was murdered?”

“Oh, it was before. That very morning, in fact,” Juliette said.

Nero glanced at Marlowe. Victor knew about the movie. Funny though, Nero hadn’t heard Victor mention that to the others. Which made him wonder just how far Victor would go to make sure he got the lead.

Thirteen

On the walk to the car, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw my daughter’s name on the display. “Oh, it’s Emma. I’m going to take this.”

My mom’s eyes lit up and she yelled into the phone as I was answering, “Hi, honey! Hope you’re having a good time.”

“Was that Grandma?” Emma asked as I pressed the phone to my ear and sidled away from my mother.

“Yep, we’re downtown shopping.” I moved further away because my mother looked as if she was going to grab the phone. Mom was in the habit of blurting out all kinds of things to Emma that I really wished she wouldn’t. Like things about dead bodies in the guesthouse and my non-existent love life.

“I talked to her earlier. I hear you have another dead body, another murder,” Emma said.

See what I mean?

“Oh that? It’s nothing to worry about. The police have it under control.” I glanced back at Mom and Millie who were obviously listening in. The raised brow look they shared didn’t escape me and I moved further away.

“Well, if you say so, Mom. I guess by now you know how to handle them.” Emma laughed. “I just wanted to check in and make sure you were okay.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I was touched that my grown daughter, who now worked for the FBI, was checking in on me. “I’m fine!” I hoped my forced, chipper tone didn’t come across as sounding false. “You know me, steady as she goes. Same old, same old.”

“Uh-huh. So things are going good at the guesthouse? You’re getting a lot of bookings?”

My stomach churned remembering the cancellation this morning.“Yes, it’s going really well. The renovations are on track and pretty soon I’ll have made back my investment and be sitting pretty.” A slight lie depending on one’s definitions ofpretty soon andsitting pretty.

“That’s great, Mom.”

“How are things going with you?” I steered the conversation to her, which was much more interesting for me anyway.

“Work is going great! I’m getting a vacation in a couple of months and I thought I’d come out and visit.”

Panic shot through me. What would happen when she came to visit? Would there be a dead body? Would she and my mother gang up on me about Mike? I took a deep breath. She’d said a couple of months. No need to panic now. Besides, my desire to see my daughter outweighed everything else. “That would be great.”

“Okay. Good. We’ll make plans later on. Gotta run, break time is over.” She clicked off and I put the phone back in my pocket.

“Emma is doing good, it seems,” Mom said.

“Yes, she is.” I knew Mom wanted to know more about the conversation, but I wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction. Besides, she’d already overheard everything on my end.

Millie had wandered down two stores and was gesturing toward the window.“Boodles is having a huge purse sale!”

Mom rushed over and I followed at a more sedate pace. The store was a cute boutique with a pink-and-yellow striped awning and displays of designer purses in the window. A little red leather clutch with a studded butterfly design caught my eye, but the last thing I could afford was to buy a purse—especially now that someone had cancelled.

“You guys go ahead and shop. I’m going to visit with Jen at the post office.”

“Okay, dear, we’ll meet you there in a half hour,” Millie called over her shoulder, as she disappeared into the store.

Jen Summers had been my best friend all through school. Even when I’d moved away, we’d kept in touch. One of the positive things about moving back was reconnecting with her and it was as if the decades in between had never happened.

Jen was the postmistress for Oyster Cove, and I have to admit that did come in handy when investigating a murder, as I’d found myself doing all too often this summer. The post office was the grapevine for the town and if there was anything to be learned about this movie producer or the murder at the guesthouse, I’d hear it there.

As I opened the door to the old brick post office, Mrs. Pennyfeather was leaving. I held the door and she scooted as far away from me as she could, crossed herself and rushed out into the street.

Jen was behind the counter.

“What’s with Mrs. Pennyfeather?”

Jen’s left brow quirked up. “Words gotten out you had another murder and something about a ghost. I think she’s a little worried you might be the devil.”

“Great. Is that what people are saying?” I crossed the old black-and-white marble floors to the counter. The Oyster Cove post office was a wonderful throwback to the 1930s, with its oak-paneled doors, wainscoting, brass fixtures, gold stenciling and frosted glass. It even had the vanilla-tingedscent of old paper.

Jen was replacing the roll of labels in the machine that printed out priority mail stickers.“It’s no secret that you have all those psychics and mediums up at your place. They’ve been running around town telling fortunes and offering to contact deceased relatives.”

“Yeah. But no ghost.”

“So you say. People seem to think there really is one, though. What happened?”

I told her all about my unusual guests and included the details of how we’d found Madame Zenda with the note and buckle.

“Agnes Withington just told us that a television producer is in town asking about the guesthouse. I think it’s weird timing, especially with Anita Pendragon lurking around outside the mansion.” I picked a chocolate kiss out of the bowl Jen kept on the counter. Today she had the ones with the almonds inside. I like the solid chocolate better, but beggars can’t be choosers.

“What was she doing there?” Jen squinted into the machine and pulled out a ripped piece of sticker backing.

“At first I assumed she was trying to get information for a story. The psychic guests came because of the discovery of Jed’s skeleton. They’re attempting to communicate with him and find out where the treasure is.” I popped another kiss into my mouth. “But seeing as she’s the one that found Madame Zenda’s body and claims not to have seen anyone else around…”

Jen glanced up at me from the machine.“You think she could’ve killed her? Why? Seems like she’d want to keep her alive so she could get the story from Jed.”

Jen had a point. If Anita thought there really was a ghost and she killed off Madame Zenda, she’d be killing off the cash cow. “I think all this ghost business is malarkey. Someone is just hyping it up for their own purposes. What if Anita found out Madame Zenda was a fake? She saw all her hopes for an exclusive article and possibly selling the rights to the movie producer go out the window, so she killed her and staged it so she could make up some story about how the ghost killed Madame Zenda.”

Jen pointed to theOyster Cove Gazette on the counter.“She’s already published the story. Front page, too.”

I glanced over to see the headline:Ghostly Murder at Oyster Cove Guesthouse.That was sure to go over great with Myron and any potential guests.

Jen slammed the machine shut and pressed a button. The stickers advanced and she ripped off the first one and then leaned against the counter opposite me.“What are the police saying?”

“Millie hasn’t been able to get anything out of Seth thus far.”

“Maybe Millie needs to ramp up her efforts to extract information from him.” Jen was quite familiar with the methods Millie used to get information out of Seth and we both made a face. Neither one of us needed that visualization.

“I just hope it gets solved quickly. Myron seems very nervous about the loan. He’s afraid that it’ll hurt business at the guesthouse and I won’t be able to make the monthly payments.”

“Myron’s annoying. Maybe it will help business.”

“I don’t know. Someone did cancel this morning.”

“Maybe they were sick or getting a divorce or had some other reason to cancel.” Jen’s gaze drifted over my shoulder and the lines around her lips tightened. “Crap. Here he comes now.”

“Who?” I turned around just as Myron opened the door and trotted in, trailing an air of importance behind him.

“Josie! I’m glad I’ve caught you here,” Myron said.

“Me too,” I lied.

“I need to talk to you about this business at the guesthouse. I’m very worried.”

“There’s nothing to worry about, Myron. It’s just a simple murder. I mean, it’s highly unlikely word would get out to anyone coming here to stay. Most of the guests are from out of town.” I leaned my arm on the paper to cover up the headline just in case he hadn’t seen it yet and conveniently didn’t mention the cancellation from that morning.

Myron scowled.“Be that as it may, it’s no good having those people in the guesthouse. You don’t know what they’re going to do next. Maybe even something ungodly like a seance. I say you need to get rid of them before something else happens.”

“What could possibly happen that’s worse than a murder?” I asked.

Myron shuddered.“Who knows with that ghost running about and all that.”

“Myron, you don’t actually believe in ghosts, do you?” Jen asked.

Myron straightened his blue silk paisley tie and pursed his lips together.“Of course not, but something’s going on up there and it’s not good.” He turned to me. “Anyway, I need to stop by later. I left my pen and notebook there and I need my notes.”

“Okay, I’m heading back soon.” The thought of seeing Myron twice in one day was not appealing; maybe I could just put his pen and notebook in the foyer.

The door opened and Mom and Millie bustled in, narrowing their eyes at Myron.

“Myron.” Millie nodded at him, then turned to me. “Josie, it’s time to go now. Are you ready?”

“Definitely.” I waved at Jen and let them pull me away. When I got to the door, I looked over my shoulder at Myron. “Stop by anytime. I’m headed home now.”

Outside Millie let go of my elbow.“He’s stopping by? Told you he had a crush.”

“Never mind Myron. Did you find anything out from Jen?” Mom asked.

“I didn’t find out much. Except that the murder and the ghost made the headlines. And it appears that Myron is getting more nervous about the loan he gave me.”

Fourteen

Nero usually didn’t spend much time in the attic unless he was hunting for mice. The small dormer windows didn’t let in enough sun for his liking and the smorgasbord of smells from the generations of people who had cast away their belongings was distracting.

The space was packed with broken old furniture, old clothing and various household items. Had no one who lived in this house ever thrown anything away? And the dust! It lay thick like a carpet on the floor, especially in the back area where the oldest items were. Nero had to tread carefully so as not to stir up too much of it. He didn’t want to get dirt on his pristine, white tuxedo chest.

“Seems like you’re getting kind of famous around town,” Marlowe said as she detoured over to sniff a pile of books. On their way back to the guesthouse, the cats had heard the townspeople gossiping about Jed’s ghost and the recent murder. Some were even talking about the treasure again, butno one seemed eager to look for it, thinking that Jed’s ghost was out to kill anyone who did.

“Someone is even talking about making a movie,” Nero added. Jed’s swirling form jerked in dismay. “I don’t think I want to be famous. I’m getting a bit tired of this old place now. I think I want to move on to whatever one moves on to.”

“Well then, why are you still here?” Marlowe asked.

“Good question. I feel like I’m stuck here for some reason,” Jed said.

“Unresolved issue,” Nero said. “There was only one reason for ghosts to hang around and that was an unresolved issue. In Jed’s case it made perfect sense because he’d been murdered. “Probably you want your killer named. You have no idea who it is?”

Jed shook his head.“None at all. I vaguely remember returning from Europe. I had that treasure, you know. But I didn’t trust too many people, so I buried it before anyone knew I was back in town. I had to keep it all a secret because I knew people were watching me.”

Marlowe’s eyes grew large. “They were? Who?”

Jed glanced around uneasily as if those people were still around watching him.“People in my own household.”

“You don’t say,” Nero said. They’d come to the very end of the attic where the light from the east filtered in through a perfectly formed spider web in the round window at the peak of the eaves. Here, the cast-offs were older and much more worn. Newspapers as brittle as dried leaves were piled in one corner. Wooden chairs hung from hooks on the wall, the wicker caning in the seats and backs broken and hanging down. An old steamer trunk sat in the corner practically disintegrating.

“Oh, it’s true.” Jed stood up straighter. “Course, I knew Helena—that’s my wife—might’ve been up to something while I was gone. She was none too happy about my trip to Europe.”

“Do you think she killed you?” Marlowe’s tail swished, sending particles from a patch of dust on the floor into the air.

Jed pondered that for a few seconds and Nero wondered what kind of woman his wife had been. Had she been mad enough to kill? And what happened to her after Jed’s death? Judging by the way the trunk had been shoved in the corner she might have packed up his things and forgotten about him. But that had nothing to do with the current happenings at the guesthouse… or did it?

“Don’t rightly know.” Jed glanced at the trunk. “I was shut up in that wall until now so I don’t know what became of her. I don’t think she had the skills to plaster a body inside a wall though.”

“She might have had an accomplice,” Marlowe suggested.

“If that’s true, they probably took the treasure,” Nero said. He was certain there was no buried treasure on the property as he would have sniffed it out by now. Treasure had a certain hopeful smell to it.

Jed swirled over to the trunk and sat on top of it.“Course that doesn’t explain why someone took my best pair of shoes.”

Nero thought about the buckle.“You mean the fancy ones with the buckle on them?”

“Yep.”

“And they were in this trunk?” Nero inspected the latches. They were broken so someone could get in easily, the only problem was he didn’t see or smell any recent sign of humans. If someone took Jed’s shoes to plant the buckle on Madame Zenda, then wouldn’t there be some sign? And how would they even know the shoes were in there?

Jed looked down at the trunk.“You can see all my good clothes are in there, but no shoes.”

“Actually, we can’t see.” Marlowe gestured toward the trunk. “It’s closed.”

Jed stood and the three of them pushed on the top of the trunk. It was heavy and Nero was careful to keep his claws in lest he break a nail on the old wood. Beside him Jed grunted and struggled, beads of ectoplasmic sweat dripping from his brow. How had Jed gotten the trunk open all by himself before?

Finally, the hinges creaked and the trunk opened. Jed pointed to the deteriorating contents.“See? No shoes.”

Nero and Marlowe hopped inside, carefully pawing through the musty old fabric. The clothing had been chewed by moths and was frayed at the edges, but Nero could see it had once been good quality. A suit, a silk robe and something that looked like a white linen slip. He slid his paw over it and glanced at Jed with his brow raised.

“What?” Jed’s eyes flicked from Nero to the white linen. “That’s my night shirt.”

Nero wasted no time getting out of the trunk. It had been stifling inside there. After a fit of sneezing he looked up at Jed.“You’re right. No shoes. I guess we should close it.”

“Yep. Leave it the way it was,” Jed agreed, but didn’t make any effort to close the lid.

“Can you do it?” Nero asked, not because he was too lazy to help but because he wondered how Jed could have gotten it open and closed when he could barely push salt-and-pepper shakers off the table.

Jed pushed on the top of the trunk, but it only budged a few inches then fell back open.“Guess I need help.”

Nero and Marlowe trotted over to the other side and between the three of them they pushed it closed with a loud thud that Nero was sure Josie could hear downstairs.“It took all three of us to close it,” Nero said.

“Yeah. So?” Jed sat back down on the top of the trunk.

“If it took all three of us to open and all three of us to close it, then how did you know the shoes were missing?” Nero gave Jed one of his unblinking stares. “You wouldn’t have been able to open the trunk.”

Jed didn’t even hesitate before answering. “Easy, I can just pass through to get inside.”

“You can?” Marlowe batted at Jed’s ankle, her paw passing right through the apparition. “Guess you aren’t solid so that makes sense.” Marlowe shrugged at Nero and then hopped up on top of a stack of old newspapers and proceeded to preen her tail.

“How do you think I get into rooms with closed doors? I can go pretty much anywhere it seems. Lucky thing too or I’d be stuck in that old ballroom and it’s mighty boring in there,” Jed said. He had a point. Jed had been going in and out of the west wing and the door to that wing was always closed. Plus he’d gotten into the locked attic with ease. Apparently he was telling the truth.

“Then how come you were stuck inside the wall all this time?” Nero asked. “If you can go through things, why not just come out?”

“I didn’t know any better,” Jed said. “I wish I had, but all I knew was I was in a dark place. Spent most of my time in limbo. It’s kind of fun over there.”

Nero supposed that could be true. Jed sure did look like he was telling the truth, but he cautioned himself. Ghosts were known to be sneaky.

“So, what did this buckle look like? Similar to the one found on Madame Zenda?” If no one had been here recently, had the shoes been taken long ago by Jed’s wife? Was her ghost around trying to eke out some kind of revenge on Jed? Perhaps by killing Madame Zenda and trying to frame him by using the buckle. No. It was ludicrous. How could a ghost save a buckle for three hundred years?

Jed squinted, apparently thinking back to the buckle they’d found on the body. “Yep, near as I remember it was almost exact.”

Marlowe stopped mid-preen. She’d had her leg lifted to get at the underside of her striped tail and was now staring down at the newspapers upon which she was perched. “Hey, are these the shoes here?”

Jed bent down, his face inches from the paper, to look at the paper. On the front page was an etching. It was the one Nero had seen in the town history book depicting the Oyster Cove Guesthouse back in Jed’s day when it was a smaller family estate. Jed sat outside with his wife, children and some servants. It looked like he was wearing the outfit they’d seen in the trunk, though it was in much better shape.

“Yep, those are my good dress shoes. Only had one pair.” Jed smiled. “I remember when that was drawn. The artist was quite good, captured everything perfectly. We had to sit still for a long time. Was hard on the children.”

Nero summoned his cat-like powers of vision. The picture was grainy, but his super senses allowed him to see much clearer.“Yep, that’s identical to the buckle we found on Madame Zenda.”

“And Louie Two Paws said that buckle was three hundred years old,” Marlowe said. “That means it could be Jed’s actual buckle. I guess that’s good. We know where the buckle came from.”

Nero glanced back at the trunk.“But that doesn’t bring us any closer to the most important questions. How did the killer get Jed’s buckle and why did they put it on Madame Zenda’s body?”

“True dat.” Marlowe jumped down and padded off toward the stairs. “Only one way to find out. We need to get Josie up here so she can figure out the buckle came from Jed’s trunk herself.”

Fifteen

I filled in Mom and Millie on what I’d found out at the post office on our way back to the guesthouse.

“You’d think if they were real psychics they’d know who killed Madame Zenda,” Millie said as we let ourselves in through the back door in the kitchen.

“Good point,” Mom said. “Kinda proves they’re fakes.”

“Which means the killer wasn’t a ghost,” I added.

Thud!

We all looked up at the ceiling.“Did that come from the attic?” Mom asked.

“Don’t think so. Kind of loud.” Millie walked around the kitchen, her eyes still glued to the ceiling. “I’d be surprised if we could hear something from the attic two floors below.”

“Must be the cats,” Mom said.

Of course it was the cats, you never knew what they would be getting up to, though usually they were a lot more silent and sneaky.

“Probably knocked something over.” Millie turned her attention away from the ceiling, opened the fridge and started to rummage around. “Have you thought about what you’ll serve for breakfast tomorrow? Even with all this going on the guesthouse has to keep its reputation for fine breakfasts.We don’t need to have another reason for people to think about canceling.”

Shoot! I’d completely forgotten about that. My mind raced to think up the quickest and easiest meal, but I didn’t want Millie to know I was thinking ‘quick and easy’. “I was thinking we should go with something that I can heat up in the morning, like a frittata. And then I could make some wafflestoo. The sugar will set off those feel-good endorphins and they won’t be worried about the fact that one of them could get murdered next.”

Millie scowled at me.“Do you really think someone else might get murdered? It looked like Madame Zenda’s murder had a specific purpose.”

“Yeah,” Mom chimed in. “I don’t think anyone else is in danger.”

“Probably not, but I can whip up the batter in the morning and cook them hot in the waffle maker for them. I have some spinach I need to use up, I can put that in the eggs.” No sense in wasting food, and I needed to be frugal, just in case.

“Sounds good.” Millie disappeared into the fridge and came out with the ingredients for the frittata.

Mom pushed in beside Millie and pulled out some string cheese.“That’s smart thinking,” she said as she pulled off a string from the cheese and dangled it into her mouth. “Everyone loves a sweet and savory combo and maybe that will have them raving about the breakfast and talking about the dead body not so much.”

Millie put the spinach, eggs, milk and cheese on the counter and preheated the oven.

The cats appeared in the kitchen and trotted over to sniff at the oven, then fixed me with their intelligent eyes. I was relieved to see that Nero had dust on his whiskers, indicating that it had probably been them that caused the thud. It looked like theyhad been in the attic. I knew it was dusty in there. Not that I was worried about it being a ghost or anything, more like a nosey guest. Or Anita Pendragon. How the cats had gotten in there, I had no idea. Maybe there was a secret passage or something. Come to think of it, one of those old servants’ rooms had a door with a crack in it that led straight to the attic, the cats could probably fit through that.

Millie bent down to pet them, but they had another agenda.

Meow. Nero glanced at me, then trotted over to the narrow servants’ stairs that led to the attic.

Meroop. Marlowe was right behind him, her tail fluffed up as she trotted ahead of Nero, then looked back as if to see if we were following.

Nero kept giving me the eye. I thought back to the previous murders. Each time someone had been murdered the cats had seemed to be suggesting things to me. I could have sworn they’d helped me out of a few scrapes, maybe even saved my life. I was starting to believe that what Millie had said about cats being smarter than humans was true. Maybe I should take their advice under consideration. And right now, it looked as if they wanted me to follow them upstairs.

I was just starting toward the stairs when Myron’s voice bellowed from the foyer. “Josie! I’m here for my notebook.”

Millie’s face scrunched up. “Is that Myron Remington?”

“Yeah, he mentioned he had left his notebook and pen here.” I reluctantly turned away from the stairs, ignoring the protesting meows and exasperated looks from the cats.

“Can’t he get a new notebook?” Mom asked. “Such a cheapskate.”

“Well he does like the finer things. Did you see his notebook has a leather cover and that pen looks very old and expensive.” Millie focused on beating the eggs and I left the two of them in the kitchen and headed to the foyer to meet Myron.

“I see a murder hasn’t scared these people off yet,” Myron said when he saw me coming down the hall. Unfortunately, he said it loud enough for the people in the parlor to hear him.

Victor called out from his spot next to the fireplace where he was sitting in a chair swinging some sort of talisman in the air.“Scare us off? No way. Now more than ever I know that I’ll be able to communicate with Jed and solve the mystery not only of his death and where the treasure is buried, but also who killed Madame Zenda or Betty Sue or whatever her name was.”

“What do you mean?” Gail asked. “I thought Jed killed Madame Zenda.”

Victor waved his hand in the air.“I doubt it, but if he did I suppose he will confess to me.”

Esther had been sitting over by the table with her crystal ball in front of her. The cats must’ve followed me into the hallway because they were now both sitting in her lap. She was petting and cooing to them.

She eyed her crystal ball and softly said,“Don’t think that you’re the only one who can talk to Jed. You might be surprised at who else has psychic abilities.”

Victor jerked his head in her direction.“I’m not worried about you wannabes. I know I’m the only real psychic and so does everyone else.”

He glanced out the window and I followed his gaze and saw a swirl of pink. Anita Pendragon? I’d have thought the murder would have scared her off. Especially if she was the killer. But apparently the chance of getting a story scoop that could be made into a movie was too enticing.

I also noticed the window was open again, even though Flora and I had been making sure we kept them closed. Did Anita have a cohort inside that left it open so that she could overhear our conversations? For all I knew she was taping everything we said.

“So no one is leaving then?” Myron asked.

They all shook their heads.

Myron glanced at me and I smiled. This was good. Now that Myron knew that the guests weren’t scared off, maybe he’d curtail any thoughts about canceling the loan. I didn’t need to mention the cancellation I’d already gotten. That was probably a fluke.

“The only thing that would get us to leave is if the real ghost was here trying to kill off another one of us.” Gail frowned down into her mug, apparently reading something she didn’t like in the tea leaves.

Millie had come down the hall and was standing next to me. Mom was right behind her.“Good thing that so far he doesn’t seem interested in killing anyone.”

Thunk!

Another candlestick fell off the mantle and we all looked at it suspiciously. Even the cats seemed distrustful of the fallen object.

Gail picked it up and put it back.“Weird.”

I could practically see thoughts of hauntings whirling in Myron’s head. Luckily there had been no other signs of a ghost—like eerie moans or lights flickering. At least I had that on my side.

Victor stared at the candlestick.“Say, is anything in here an item that belonged to Jed? I can speak to the departed more easily if I am holding one of their objects, you know. Preferably something he favored.”

I looked around the room. Most of the belongings had come with the sale. I glanced at Millie.

“Not anything in here. These things belonged to my family,” she said.

Victor looked disappointed. Myron was staring at him with a mixture of dread and suspicion.

“So, Myron. You’re probably in a hurry, I know how busy you are. I’ll walk with you to the west wing to get your notebook and pen. You can see how nicely Ed is progressing with the work.” I quickly ushered him down the hall. The less time Myron spent in the guesthouse the better as you never knew when the next weird thing was going to happen.

Myron’s notepad and pen were right where he’d left them in the ballroom. Ed didn’t appear to be keen on seeing Myron again, muttering something about Myron leaving them on purpose so he could have an excuse to come back and see me. I hoped he wasn’t going to start leaving things around just so he could stop by. He’d been here enough in the past week already.

I tried to ignore Ed’s mutterings as I shoved the pen and notepad into Myron’s hand and then rushed him out the front door before anyone could say anything that might make him even more nervous about the financial situation at the guesthouse. I wanted him to leave on a high note thinking things weren’t so bad. If the current guests weren’t considering defecting from the guesthouse and staying at the Smugglers Cove Inn down the road, then it wouldn’t harm future guests and therefore my loan.

When I returned to the kitchen Millie and Mom were getting ready to leave.

“We gotta run, Josie. It’s bingo night tonight. I think you can handle the clean-up.” Mom gestured to the countertop now littered with food scraps, dirty bowls and utensils. “The frittata is in the oven, don’t forget to cover it when you reheat it tomorrow otherwise it will be too dry.”

“Yep, no problem.” I wondered if I could get Flora to do the dishes. Probably not. I’d heard her vacuuming upstairs earlier and I was sure she’d claim to be exhausted.

I set to work cleaning up, periodically checking the dish in the oven. I’d had a little bit of a problem with burning baked goods a few weeks ago and was extra cautious with cooking time as a result.

The clean-up gave me time to think. If these incidents were not due to a ghost—and I was sure they weren’t because there was no such thing as ghosts—thensomeone had killed Madame Zenda. Would that person stop at one person? Was Madame Zenda killed because the person believed she could talk to Jed and wanted to stop her? Or was there some other reason that the murderer wanted her dead?

Maybe Madame Zenda knew something about one of them that the other person wanted to keep secret. Esther knew her real name, did someone else have a relationship with Madame Zenda that I didn’t know about? I made a mental note to dig around on the Internet and see if I could find such a connection.

I knew one thing, the murder wasn’t random. The note and the buckle proved that the killer had a specific reason to want her dead. Hopefully the killer would have no reason to strike again. Still, I was glad I had a double lock on my owner’s quarters.

I was bent down peering into the oven for the umpteenth time when I heard the back door open. I whirled around, heart pounding. Apparently this murder business had me more nervous than I thought.

“Whoa, Sunshine. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Mike sauntered in, the lazy smile on his handsome face holding a hint of amusement at the way I’d jumped. My heart started beating even faster, but not because I thought he was the killer.

“You startled me.” Nothing like stating the obvious.

His face immediately took on a look of concern.“Are you worried because of the murder? Do you not feel safe here? I could come and stay here if you want—”

I raised my palms in front of me and cut him off.“No. I’m not worried. I just wasn’t expecting anyone to sneak up on me.” I pulled the frittata out of the oven and set it on the counter.

“I wasn’t sneaking up.” His eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute… are you not worried because someone else is staying here?”

Now it was my turn to narrow my eyes.“What do you mean? There’s a lot of people staying here. It’s a guesthouse.”

“Not them. I saw Myron leaving when I came in. He’s been here a lot lately.”

I made a face. Did Mike think I had something going on with Myron? Was he jealous? For some reason that amused me. I waved my hand dismissively as if Myron’s presence was of no consequence. Which it was. “Oh yeah. He left his notepad and pen here and came to pick it up.”

“Ummm… hmmm… I bet he did.” Mike said it with the same hint of sarcasm in his voice that Ed had done when I brought Myron into the ballroom to retrieve his items.

“Did you want something?” I asked as Mike sauntered over to the counter and started picking at one of the leftover lemon muffins. I slapped his wrist. “Those are for guests.”

“Mmmm… this is good. Your cooking has really improved.”

I took a minute to bask in his compliment.“Thanks.”

“I have some new information on the case.”

I composed my face into a blank look and stared at him. I didn’t fool him though because he said, “Forget playing dumb, Sunshine. I know that you, your mom and Aunt Millie are investigating.”

I simply raised my brows. Mike had been an investigator in the navy and had gotten all bossy and protective when we’d tried to investigate the last two murders. Maybe he was getting used to the idea that when someone was killed on my property I looked into it. Good. Any help we could get would be welcome and Mike knew how to investigate, plus his office was in the town hall and he could have access to insiderinformation.

“So, what did you find out?” I asked after trying to wait him out.

“Turns out that buckle really was old,” Mike said.

I frowned.“You mean like as old as Jed?” I glanced over at the stairs to the attic, remembering how the cats had been trying to lure me up there.

“Yep. Of course, it’s probably not his, they have old buckles in antique stores and you can buy them on the Internet from eBay.”

Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of that? But if the killer got the buckle from eBay, then they would have had to purchase it way before the murder, as they would have had to have it shipped. Which meant that the murder might not have been because Madame Zenda said she was going to talk to Jed. It would have been planned before that.

Esther bubbled up to the top of my mental suspect list, but I cautioned myself not to jump the gun. Just because Esther had a prior connection to Madame Zenda didn’t mean that she had a reason to kill her. Nor did it mean that the others didn’t have prior connections. Hadn’t Victor mentioned something about how her readings were never accurate? That seemed to indicate he was familiar with her work. And what about Gail? She’d been very quiet about herpast and when I’d asked her once, she’d brushed me off. Besides, if Esther had murdered Madame Zenda because of some prior connection, wouldn’t she have tried to hide the fact that she knew her?

“So the murder could have been planned for some time. If someone had researched Jed and his treasure and planned it out, maybe they had time to find a similar buckle.”

Something outside the window caught my eye. Nero and Marlowe were slinking along the side of one of the old barns. Stalking mice? Or something else? Up ahead of them, I saw a flutter of purple fabric. Anita Pendragon? No. It was Esther Hill. She was dodging from shrubbery to shrubbery. What wasshe up to?

“Josie?” Mike’s question tugged my attention from the window.

“Huh?”

“I just said I think you should try to be careful here.”

“Of course. I’m always careful.”

Mike popped the last of the muffin into his mouth and brushed his hands together.“Okay, then. I guess I’ll go see Ed.”

“Ed?”

“Yeah, I came to inspect the ballroom. He’s ready to start the electrics and I need to make sure the framing is right.” His left brow quirked up. “Why did you think I was here?”

“Oh, I knew that was why, of course.” With all the excitement, I’d forgotten about the planned inspection. I didn’t want to explore the fact that I hadn’t thought it odd that Mike had come, that it almost felt normal for him to just walk into the kitchen. With his connection to Millie andthe guesthouse, it was natural he’d feel right at home.

He left and I returned my attention to the window. I couldn’t see Esther or the cats anymore, but I couldn’t help but wonder just what the three of them were up to out there.

Sixteen

Nero stared down into the empty hole in the ground.“Guess someone did take the treasure just like you thought.”

Jed swirled beside him, his ghostly form tinged red with anger.

“Do you think it was one of the psychics?” Marlowe moved closer and sniffed, then shook her head. “No, can’t be. The treasure scent in here is old, but the disappointment scent is new.”

Nero agreed. As he had suspected all along, the treasure was long gone. They’d seen Esther dig the hole, so they knew she hadn’t taken anything out, but even before that the ground had been packed down, the grass grown solid over the top. No one had dug here in many decades.

“Are you sure you told her the right location?” Nero glanced up at Jed cautiously. Jed had claimed that he’d successfully communicated with Esther through her crystal ball. He must have been telling the truth because Esther had come here and dug.

Jed scowled down at him.“Of course I know the right place. Sure, it took me a while to figure it out because the layout of the property has changed, but once I found the old outhouse, I paced it off and this is the spot. The big oak tree is gone, but you can see where it stood.” Jed pointed to a round sunken depression in the ground. “This here is thirty paces northeast.”

Nero and Marlowe nodded. Though the treasure was long gone, it could have been worse. Someone could have bought this old property and put up a strip mall and the hiding spot would be located under a parking lot. At least now they knew for sure that the treasure was gone.

Jed plopped down on the ground. Nero felt sorry for the ghost, he looked deflated.“Darn. I was hoping that pretty little Esther would dig the big treasure up.”

“So you really did talk to Esther?” Nero said.

Jed nodded.“But she’s the only one. I didn’t talk to that loudmouth Victor. I wouldn’t give him the time of day.”

“Huh, then I wonder why he said you were talking to him,” Marlowe said.

“Clearly it was for the television producer,” Nero said. “That newspaper reporter has been hanging around outside and you know she’s going to report back to him. Like Juliette said, Victor is setting himself up to be the star of the TV show.” Nero was sure of it.

“Which makes me wonder how badly he wants that,” Marlowe said.

Nero nodded.“Bad enough to kill.”

“Exactly.” Marlowe started pushing the dirt back into the hole with her paws and Nero joined her. They didn’t want anyone to know that someone had been digging. Especially not that nosey Myron Remington who they’d seen traipsing all over the property. Nero didn’t trust him one bit.

“Never mind that, we need to find out who killedme,” Jed said. “I’m getting tired of hanging around here and something tells me I’m tied to this property until I figure that out.”

“How do you expect us to figure out who killed you?” Marlowe said. “That was three hundred years ago.”

“I don’t know, but clearly someone killed me and took the treasure and given that some of my stuff is missing from the attic, I feel like the answer must be up there.”

“I think that points to someone in your family.” Nero thought about Jed’s earlier accusation that his wife hadn’t been happy with him. Had she killed him? How could they prove that?

Nero didn’t mind putting some effort into that investigation, but his first priority was figuring out who had killed Madame Zenda. Could the two murders be related? Impossible, one had happened three hundred years ago… unless Jed’s wife was really steamed at him and had waited three hundred years to get an even bigger revenge.

Nero closed his eyes and focused. He sniffed the air and waited for that twinge of the whiskers that told him something other-worldly was present. Nothing extra came through, just the vibrations from Jed.

“What on earth are you doing?” Marlowe asked. “We need to get Josie up into the attic so she can help us with the case. We can only do so much as cats. I know she was about to follow us up before Myron interrupted her.”

The shadows were getting longer and Nero glanced to the west where the sun was just dipping below the horizon.

“Good thinking. But not tonight. It’s almost dark and the attic is no place to be without the light of day to illuminate things.” Nero didn’t think Josie would like all those creepy shadows and dark corners. “I think our time is better spent searching the guests’ rooms before they come back from dinner. First thing tomorrow, we will get Josie to the attic.”

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My favorite time of day was suppertime, mostly because I didn’t have to serve it. The guests usually went out to eat and the giant mansion was quiet. Today was no exception and I was doubly glad because it gave me a chance to investigate the guests’ prior connections to Madame Zenda.

For once, the cats weren’t getting in the way. Usually they lay on my keyboard or stuck their tails in my face when I tried to use the computer, but tonight they were nowhere to be found. I wasn’t sure what they were up to, but I could hear soft noises on the floors above as I sat in the back parlor, feet up on the coffee table and my laptop on my lap.

Up in the attic, perhaps? I remembered how they’d seemed to want me to follow them up there earlier in the day, and I had a vague notion that I should check the place out, but it was getting dark and I didn’t know what the lighting situation was up there, so now wasn’t a great time. Besides, something told me that I had to wait for the cats. If they had something to show me then they needed to lead the way.

Information on the guests was surprisingly easy to obtain, simply by googling. I guess when you are in a profession that depends on clients you have all your info out there. It wasn’t much different for the Oyster Cove Guesthouse; I needed an Internet presence so people could find me. Apparently psychics needed that too.

As I’d already known, Madame Zenda and Esther had worked together a few times. Not that that should make me suspicious because Esther wasn’t trying to hide the fact. She’d mentioned it right off. Except it hadn’t beenright off. It had only been after the murder. Initially the two of them had acted as if they barely knew each other and had exhibited the same undercurrent of animosity that I’d felt between all of the guests. Had Esther realized that the police would find the connection and made sure to mention it right away so as not to appear as if she was hiding something?

From what I could find on the Internet, they’d been crossing paths for over twenty years. Appearing on telethons together, local television shows and even a circus stint. I didn’t find any bad press about either one of them.

Victor, on the other hand, had a more checkered past. I found the article from theDayton Ohio Examiner about the scam that had been referred to earlier. Apparently, he’d been a personal psychic to a rich widow, Mary Chambers. He’d told her he was communicating with her dead husband. The widow’s family had claimed he was a fraud and made a lot of commotion in the papers. There was talk of a lawsuit since Mary had paid him thousands. Mary passed away of natural causes and a lawsuit was never filed and nothing had ever happened to him, except a bunch of bad press.

According to the article, Victor had met the widow on a Dreams Divinity seven-day cruise. I’d never heard of them but apparently there were cruises that featured psychics. They gave group readings and passengers could hire them for private readings as well. Sounded like a perfect place to find a mark that would willingly spend money thinking you were letting them talk to their dead loved one.

A quick glance at some press for that particular cruise told me that Madame Zenda, Esther Hill and Victor Merino were listed among the featured mediums. Not Gail though. Interesting. Was it possible that Madame Zenda knew something about Victor’s scam with the woman and Victor didn’t want her to tell anyone? But why spill the beans now, when it was all in the past? A picture of some of the mediums and passengers on the cruise showed Victor smiling like the cat that ate the canary, his mustache even larger than it was now. Was he smiling because his plan to scam rich widows was well under way?

I googled Gail Weathers but couldn’t find a thing. Odd… then again, Victor had alluded to her being an unknown. Maybe she was just starting out? She certainly did drink a lot of tea, so maybe she needed the practice.

Thud.

I jumped as a Murano glass paperweight rolled across the green-and-gold oriental rug. Must have toppled off of the side table. Instinctively I looked for the cats, but they weren’t here. A cold chill crept up my spine, then I laughed. All this ghost talk was getting to me. Clearly the paperweight had just rolled off. Flora must have put it on its rounded side instead of on the flat bottom when she’d dusted.

I shut the laptop and headed to the kitchen to check that everything was in order for breakfast. I whipped up some waffle batter and put it in the fridge. I wanted to get the breakfast set up quickly the next morning so I could be ready to test out my suspicions that the cats really were trying to show me something in the attic.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

“There’s nothing in here but tea.” Marlowe backed out from under the bed and sneezed. Nero glanced around the room. The other cat wasn’t kidding; the place was loaded with tea tins. White, black, green, herbal. You name it and Gail had it in her room. It made him wonder why Gail was often seen in the kitchen pantry taking Josie’s Earl Grey. Maybe she was just cheap.

“Well, that about does it. We’ve scoured all of the guests’ rooms and haven’t found one thing.” Nero was disappointed. It wasn’t as if he’d expected to find a smoking gun or anything, but if the killer was one of the guests wouldn’t they have had paper that matched the note or a bigred pen? Though a crafty killer would have thrown those things out…

Marlowe turned up her nose.“Other than that noxious cologne in Victor’s room.”

“That did smell horrid, but his velour lounging suits are soft to the touch.” The velour was so soft, it must have been very high quality—clearly Victor Merino was a human that liked the finer things. Everything in his room had been top-notch, from the offending cologne to the expensive luggage to the clothing.

“So, what now?” Marlowe sat and looked at Nero with her head tilted to the side quizzically.

Nero glanced out the window. The moon had risen and cast a soft glow over the landscape. The guests weren’t back yet, but he’d heard Josie knocking something over in the back parlor earlier and she was now rattling around in the kitchen. The guests would return any minute and it would only be a few hours before Josie went to bed, which meant they had a little time to go down to the bait wharf and meet with the other cats to find out if any of them had discovered anything.

“We meet the others.” Nero headed toward the cat door that Millie had installed for them in the old storeroom on the first floor.

Nighttime was Nero’s favorite time to visit the bait wharf. He loved the play of the moonlight on the waves and the fact that the gulls were all tucked in their nests—or wherever they went at night—and wouldn’t be rudely swooping down on them.

When they arrived on the docks, Harry was sticking his paw in the water trying to skewer a fish with his sharpened claws. He did this all the time, although Nero didn’t know why. It had only worked once and even then Harry had been so surprised that he fumbled the fish and it slipped back into the water with nary a backwards glance.

The gang was all there. Juliette lounged on the concrete slab under the tuna scale. It was probably still warm from the sun beating on it all day. Stubbs was curled up on top of a lobster trap, his tail around his nose. One green eye slid open as Nero and Marlowe approached. Poe and Boots had been batting around a piece of rope and they stopped and turned to Nero.

“Anymore news about that movie producer?” Nero asked.

Stubbs yawned and sat up.“I put a tail on that nosey dame reporter, Anita Pendragon. She met with that movie mogul. She’s involved in something.”

Nero nodded. No surprise there.“Has anyone picked up any other clues about the murder?”

Boots bestowed his look of superiority on them.“I have heard that it is someone closely tied to the guesthouse.”

Marlowe practically rolled her eyes.“No one else in town knew her, so that’s kind of a given.”

Boots looked down his nose at Marlowe.“Are you sure about that?”

Marlowe frowned and glanced at Nero who nodded his head slightly. It was most likely that the killer knew Madame Zenda and he was certain she didn’t know anyone in town.

“What about the buckle?” Nero asked.

“Nothing new on that,” Harry said. “I talked to Louie Two Paws earlier today. The police haven’t made much progress. They are checking out all those guests at the guesthouse. Seems that some of them have a shady past. But nothing new on the buckle.”

Shady past. Nero wasn’t surprised at that either. Judging by the way they acted so secretive amongst each other at the guesthouse, he knew they were the type that would often be up to something.

“What about you?” Juliette purred. “You’re in the guesthouse with all of the suspects. Surely you have found out something by now? And have you followed up on my clue about your velvety jogging-suit wearing guest and the movie producer?”

“We didn’t find anything in his room, but we do have something on the buckle that might be of interest,” Marlowe said.

Poe turned to look at her.“Do tell.”

“Jed’s ghost verified that his shoes are missing from a trunk in the attic. The shoes with the buckle,” Marlowe said. “Jed’s suit is in there and all his other things, but no shoes.”

“So someone has been in the attic,” Stubbs said.

“Looks that way,” Nero said. “Though I don’t see how. Josie keeps it locked.”

“And the buckle on Madame Zenda really was Jed’s buckle?” Poe asked.

“Most likely,” Nero said.

“Points to one of those guests even more,” Juliette said. “But you found no indication in their rooms that they were the culprit? No drippy red pens or smells of old buckles?”

“No,” Nero admitted. “But we have made another enlightening discovery.”

The other cats stilled and looked at him in anticipation. He drew the moment out for a few seconds basking in the attention, then continued.“We know for sure that the treasure is long gone.”

Boots frowned.“The ghost told you that?”

“Sort of. He suspected such and once he remembered exactly where he had buried it, he had one of the guests dig it up. Marlowe and I inspected the hole ourselves and it’s been empty for centuries.” Nero felt a bit sad about that. Josie could have used the money to complete renovations on the guesthouse. If she had treasure, she could get out from under Myron’s thumb.

Juliette looked at him curiously.“So Jedis talking to the guests. They’re not all frauds?”

“Nope. Turns out at least one, Esther Hill, really can talk to ghosts. Jed has been communicating with her through her crystal ball,” Marlowe said.

“Is that so?” Boots tugged on his long whisker, curling it up at the ends in that showy way he preferred. “Well then, surely this Esther Hill has made it known that she can communicate with Jed? After all, that seems to be the reason they are all at the guesthouse, so they can earn their way to fame in the movie.”

Nero and Marlowe exchanged a glance. Esther had been very quiet about her communications with Jed. She hadn’t bragged once about talking to the ghost. “No, actually I don’t think she has.”

“Well, maybe not to anyone at the guesthouse,” Marlowe said. “We don’t know if she has mentioned it to Anita Pendragon. She might not want the others to know that she can talk to Jed because… well… look what happened to Madame Zenda after she announced that she was going to talk to him.”

Nero nodded enthusiastically. He could have kicked himself for not thinking of that but was proud that Marlowe had.“Yeah. Good point.”

Stubbs poked around in one of the lobster traps.“If Esther is keeping quiet because she’s afraid the killer will target her next, then that meansshe isn’t the killer.”

“There’s something else that may be in play here.” Poe paced the outskirts of the group, his tail swishing, head down, apparently deep in thought.

“What?” they all asked.

He stopped and faced them.“Thus far, we’ve been assuming that Madame Zenda was killed because she said she could talk to Jed’s ghost. Whoever killed her didn’t want her talking to the ghost because they wanted the fame. A movie deal would be quite lucrative. Or that someone had a vendetta against her.”

“We did determine that most of them have crossed paths before,” Nero said.

“Yeah, Esther knew her real name,” Marlowe added.

“And a movie deal could make them a lot of money.” Juliette preened behind her ears. “Don’t forget I did find the clue about Victor talking to the movie producer.”

“How could we forget?” Poe asked. “But let us consider another reason. What if the murder wasn’t about Madame Zenda at all? What if it was about the guesthouse?”

Nero didn’t like the way that sounded. “What do you mean?”

“The body was found with the buckle and a warning to stay away from the guesthouse. Maybe that’s what the killer really wanted—for people to stay away—and Madame Zenda just happened to be a convenient target.”

“Why would someone want to scare people away from the guesthouse?” Marlowe asked.

Poe shrugged.“Beats me. But if I’m right, then whoever it is has a reason worth killing for.”

Seventeen

The next morning breakfast went off without a hitch. The waffles came out golden brown and the guests slathered them in maple syrup and piled them on their plates. The frittata was cooked to perfection and not dry. I might be getting the hang of this cooking business after all…

I had a little bit of a scare when the cats started meowing in that way they do when something is wrong—like, for example, there’s a dead body on the property—but thankfully everyone was accounted for and near as I could tell no bodies littered the grounds.

I hadn’t forgotten about how the cats had tried to lure me to the attic, but they’d scattered after breakfast, so I decided to clean up while I waited for them to come back. I felt very strongly that wandering around up there by myself would be a waste of time. If the cats really did have something to show me, they’d be back.

Mom and Millie turned up while I was loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. It was a mystery to me as to how they usually ended up walking through the door just as I put the last dish in. They did have impeccable timing. I was too eager to tell them about my research from the night before and how I’d seen Esther sneaking around the property to marvel at how they always managed to get out of cleaning up. Maybe Flora had learned it from them.

“At least we know that Victor and Madame Zenda knew each other, but I suppose that’s no big surprise. Why do you think Esther would be sneaking around?” Millie whispered after I told them about the cruise that Madame Zenda, Esther and Victor were on and how I’d seen Esther outside. “Maybeshe was just out for a walk.”

“Nope. She was definitely sneaking. Skulking along the shrubs and looking behind her,” I said. “Looking for the trea—”

“Shhh!” Mom’s eyes were wide and she was gesturing not so subtly over my shoulder. I turned to see Esther in the doorway.

“Well, I’m just irate!” Esther hadn’t seemed to notice we’d been huddled in a group whispering.

“You are? Why?” I imagined all sorts of reasons she could be mad, ranging from the breakfast making her sick to Flora not cleaning her room properly to stumbling over another dead body. I prayed it wasn’t the latter.

“That banker guy… Marvin somebody—” Esther said.

“Myron Remington,” Mom said.

“Yeah, whoever. Short guy, owns the bank? I heard downtown at the post office that he’s been badgering you.” Esther turned kind eyes on me. She really did seem concerned about me and mad at Myron. Who could blame her? He did have a way about him that made people angry.

Millie didn’t see Esther in the same light as I did, if her narrowed eyes and accusatory tone were any indication. “Just what were you doing at the post office?”

Esther blinked.“Mailing postcards. I always do that when I visit a new town.”

“Oh.” Millie looked disappointed that her question hadn’t tripped up Esther, but I could see that she was assessing her to determine if she was lying about the postcards.

“Anyway, this place is so lovely I hate to think that nasty little man is being so controlling with the money. This magnificent house deserves to be restored.” She lowered her voice. “I heard he was making noises about taking back your loan.”

My heart twisted. Had that rumor been going around town? Esther could have easily heard it at the post office since that’s where most rumors were spread.

“Well, I hope he isn’t serious about that,” I managed to squeak out.

“Me too. This place has great spirit vibes. Intelligent ghosts. Wonderful history.” Esther’s eyes sparkled.

Millie perked up. She always did when someone complimented the guesthouse.“It is a special place. And not just the inside, either. The grounds are lovely.” Millie glanced out the window at the overgrown garden. “Well, the yard needs some work. Have you been out in the grounds at all?”

Esther looked down at her shoes.“Not really. I mean, I was out at Betty Sue’s body and I’ve sat on the porch.”

Maybe Millie was right to be suspicious because that was one whopper of a lie.

“What about the old buildings on the property? Some of them have great history.” I gave her a chance to fess up. Maybe she just hadn’t mentioned it or had forgotten.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t go near any of those old buildings. Nope. Never ventured far from the house. Well, except when we found Betty Sue, of course.” Esther cocked her head to the side as if listening to something in the hall. She seemed nervous. “I think I hear Victor. I better get back there.Wouldn’t want him to get a leg up on talking to Jed’s ghost. Good luck with your renovations.”

Millie’s brows shot up as Esther hurried out of the room. “Well, if that don’t beat all. I say that woman has something to hide.”

“She did seem genuinely concerned about the guesthouse.” I really did think she was sincere about that.

“Probably a ploy to throw us off track,” Mom said.

Meow!

Nero and Marlowe were sitting at the bottom of the back stairs; their unblinking gaze reminded me that I still hadn’t had a chance to get up into the attic.

Millie rushed over to pet them, but apparently they had other things on their minds. They accepted a few quick pets on the head but then started to meow and pace around, putting one foot on the stairs and then glancing at us.

“I think they want to show us something,” I said.

Mom looked at me funny, but Millie didn’t seem the least bit fazed. “It’s about time you started to understand their subtle communications. Hmmm… now let me see. It’s the attic, right?” She addressed her question to Nero, who meowed loudly and started up the stairs.

We followed the cats up the narrow creaky stairs. No wonder I never took these things; the ceiling was low, the walls closed in. It was claustrophobic. I got a little winded by the second floor but Mom and Millie practically ran up and I didn’t want to seem like a wimp, so I pressed on, even though the increase in temperature as we ascended caused sweat to drip down my back.

When we got to the top of the stairs I unlocked the door with the old skeleton key that I’d grabbed from the butler’s pantry, and the door opened with an ominous creak.

I’d only been up in the attic once, when I had looked over the place to buy it, and then I’d only peeked in. Even though I’d spent a lot of time at the guesthouse as a little girl, the attic had held no interest for me and now I could see why. It was dusty and full of cobwebs. Big cobwebs. I looked around for the spiders that lived in them, but they must have all scurried to dark corners.

There must have been a dozen generations’ cast-offs up here. During the negotiations to purchase the place, Millie had vaguely mentioned it came with all sorts of antiques and things I could use for the guesthouse. She’d made it sound like a bonus, but I’d been skeptical. Turns out I was right, the place was crammed full of things that needed some sort of repair and a good clean.

Nero and Marlowe led us on a path between old pieces of furniture, lamps and boxes. They trotted straight to the oldest part of the house. I sneezed a dozen times as our footsteps kicked up dust from the thick layer that was on the floor. It was so thick that the cats’ paws had made little prints in it as they’d walked ahead. I could see they’d been here a couple of times judging by the number of paw prints.

Up ahead, the cats were perched on an ancient trunk, their eyes tracking us as we approached.

“This is all the old stuff that was here when I was a little girl.” Millie looked around at the piled-up junk. This section did appear to have items that were much older… and much more deteriorated.

“The trunk looks ancient.” The cats hopped off as I approached. They stood at my feet, looking up at me as if encouraging me to open it. If I had any doubts before that the cats were trying to communicate, I didn’t now.

“That’s a steamer trunk,” Mom said. “For going on ships. Very old.”

“It must have belonged to Jedediah Biddeford!” Millie lifted the top. It creaked and groaned as she pulled it up gently.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Mom said as she peered in.

“The old buckle.” Millie reached in and started pushing the items aside. The smell of mildew wafted up and I sneezed again.

The trunk contained old clothing and personal items. Mom gingerly held up the shoulders of a disintegrating tweed suit.“This looks like the suit Jed was wearing in that drawing. You know, the one in the Oyster Cove history book.”

Millie glanced at the suit.“It sure does. And if that’s in here, maybe those shoes are in here. And if the shoes are in here… are the buckles with them or is one missing?”

We carefully moved the items aside. No shoes.

“No shoes. No buckles.” Millie looked excited. “Do you think this is where the killer got the buckle from?”

“Who had been up here?” Mom asked.

“Ed said he heard someone and thought it was Anita Pendragon.” I glanced around at the dusty attic floor. “But…”

“Any of the guests could have snuck up here, though,” Millie said.

“Wait, something isn’t right.” I swiped my finger through the thick layer of dust on an oak table that sat beside the trunk. “The floor was covered in dust when we came up. The only thing disturbing the path to this trunk was the cats’ paw prints. I remember looking at them.”

We all looked back toward the path, which of course was now marred with our own footprints.“There’s another path from the corner there.” Millie pointed to a row of furniture and boxes, which had been pushed aside to form a narrow path, but it had a layer of undisturbed dust. “Hmmm, no footprints there. So how would someone have gotten to the trunk?”

“They couldn’t. Not unless they hopped across the furniture,” I said.

“Or floated over like a ghost.” Mom glanced around the room as if expecting one.

“There is no ghost.” Millie closed the trunk. “The shoes and buckle were probably never in here. We don’t know for sure that the buckle on Madame Zenda was actually Jed’s. I’m sure there are other old buckles that look like his. Now let’s get a move on, we have suspects to scrutinize.This buckle angle is a dead end.”

Meow!Nero hopped up on the trunk and cast an accusatory glare at Millie.

Meroo!Marlowe weaved on the path in front of us.

“I know you guys mean well.” Millie picked up steam as we neared the attic door. “But I’m not sure what you wanted to tell us. We already know this is all about the psychics pretending they are talking to Jed. Is that what you were trying to tell us?”

Meoooo.

Meope.

Millie ignored the cats’ meows as we funneled out onto the second-floor landing. Flora was there, dusting a bench that sat underneath the window. She gave our dusty clothes a look of disapproval and then tried to dust Mom off with her feather duster.

“What have you people been doing up in the attic? It’s dirty up there and I have enough work as it is,” Flora said.

“We were just looking for something.” Millie pushed the duster away as Flora turned it on her.

“Well, I hope you don’t expect me to clean up there. I don’t do attics. Hard enough to keep the regular house clean. And I hope you don’t expect me to be cleaning the outbuildings either,” Flora huffed.

“Outbuildings?” I asked.

Flora nodded.“And don’t you listen to any of those crazy guests either. I keep the bathrooms clean as a whistle. I don’t know why that crystal ball lady thinks she needed to resort to using the outhouse.”

“Esther? You saw her in the outhouse?” Mom raised her brows at me. “Is that where you saw her, Josie?”

“No, I saw her near the barn. That’s pretty far away.” I turned to Flora. “Are you sure you saw her in there?”

“Do you think I’m blind?” Flora pushed the thick glasses up on her nose. “Just because I wear these doesn’t mean I can’t see. Like right now, I can see Myron Remington as plain as day.”

We all swiveled to look out the window. Flora was right. Myron was standing by the side of an old shed. He was looking around as if assessing the grounds. My gut clenched. Why would he be doing that? It was almost as if he were scoping out the place, trying to figure out what he would do with the property when he seized it for non-payment of the loan. I could just imagine visions of condos or a strip mall dancing through his head.

Mom, Millie and I clustered around the small window, watching as he looked out toward the ocean, then back at the shed. We jumped back when his gaze drifted to the house.

“What is he doing out there?” Mom asked.

“Looks like he’s checking out the grounds. Maybe he thinks you need to get the landscaping done, Josie,” Millie said.

“Maybe.” I hoped that was all it was, but the way he was looking around I didn’t think so.

“Well, I don’t like him showing up here all the time. I mean, it’s not like he bought the place, he just gave you a loan. I have a good mind to run down there and tell him so.”

Millie started toward the door, but I put my hand on her arm to hold her back.

“Maybe it’s better if we just let him go about his business. This will all blow over after the killer is caught and these guests figure out they can’t talk to Jed.” I hoped.

Millie sighed.“Fine. I suppose you’re right. All the more reason for us to figure out who the killer is before Myron comes up with a reason to renege on the loan.”

“Don’t let him get mud in here.” Flora’s glasses reflected light from the window as she turned to me. “I just spent a good hour cleaning up the mud one of them traipsed in. It’s enough cleaning up after the guests, but you need to do something about keeping the whole town from traipsingin!”

The whole town?“I’m sorry about that, but Myron did give me a loan and I want to stay on his good side.”

“Yeah him too, but he’s not the one who traipsed mud in the back entry. That was a mess to clean up,” Flora said.

“Well then who did?” Millie asked.

“Anita Pendragon. You ask me, that nosey reporter is up to something.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Marlowe rolled her eyes at the backs of Josie, Rose and Millie as they exited the attic.“I guess they didn’t get our drift.”

“Don’t be too harsh,” Nero said. “Josie did understand we wanted her up here. They just didn’t get the part about the shoes being missing.”

Marlowe sighed.“I suppose we can’t expect too much. They don’t have our superior skills of deduction so wouldn’t know the shoes had been there.”

“To be fair, we did have Jed to tell us that. I’m not sure we would have figured that out on our own, either.” Nero secretly enjoyed putting Marlowe in her place sometimes, but fair was fair.He might have been able to sniff out the fact that the shoes had once been in there, but he was sure Marlowe wouldn’t have. But without Jed to lead them up here and tell them about the shoes, he was certain that he wouldn’t have even thought of it.

“I don’t know about that Josie. She seems a little dense.” Jed tapped the side of his head. “Doesn’t catch on fast and she didn’t even lock the door when they left. Not like my girl, Esther. Now that one’s a keeper. Much nicer than that shrew I married.”

Jed’s face got all pinched, apparently with memories of his dead wife. Was he wondering if the shrew had killed him? If she had, could Nero prove that somehow? He glanced around at the stacks of boxes and papers. Maybe the murder weapon was in one of these boxes and he could sniff it out. Or there might be an article in one of the papers showing Helena Biddeford unusually happy after her husband’s death.

“It’s still a bust. As Josie said, there were no footprints going to the trunk, so who could have taken the shoes?” Marlowe’s words dragged Nero back to the present. They had a more important murder to solve right now. Jed’s murder could wait.

“Maybe they were clever enough not to leave footprints.” Nero studied the furniture in the attic. Someonecouldhave traversed a path to the trunk without leaving footprints, he supposed.

“The guests hereare a sneaky bunch. I think we have a bit more investigating to do. The buckle is a dead end.” Marlowe fluffed her tail. “Get it?Dead end.”

“But how would they do that? Levitate?” Nero had heard of things like levitation and astral projection and he’d seen Victor meditating, but his butt had always been planted firmly on the chair.

“Guess we need to find that out,” Marlowe said.

Jed had swirled over to the window and was dripping ectoplasm on the floor.“I saw that mean banker skulking around out there. I don’t much like him. He worries Josie and I don’t want her to worry. Maybe I should haunt him.”

“Not a bad idea.” Nero smiled at the thought of Myron being haunted, especially since Myron seemed to be getting worked up about all the ghost talk.

Jed tapped his fingers on his lips.“I think I have an idea that can help out Josie, and my beautiful Esther, plus give Myron the shaft.”

Nero perked up.“I like that idea. Will it help find the killer?”

“Whose? Mine or that tarot reader’s?”

“Either.”

“Maybe not. But I’m not really all that keen on finding my killer anymore. Since I’ve been communicating with Esther my feelings about moving on to the afterlife have changed.” Jed got all dreamy looking and his normally white ghostly image turned pink.

“Yech,” Marlowe said.

Nero agreed, but at least Jed wasn’t fixated on Josie anymore. If he attached himself to Esther and wanted to stay on the earthly plane, then he’d be leaving when Esther did and that was just fine with Nero.

“So, what are you going to do that will help Josie and Esther and annoy Myron?” Marlowe asked.

“Not sure exactly yet. I’m working on a plan, though,” Jed said.

“Speaking of annoying Myron and working on a plan, we need to do both.” Nero hopped down from the old Eastlake bureau he’d been sitting on so he could look out the window. “I say we start with annoying Myron. He hates getting cat hair on his nice slacks. Let’s go find him before he leavesand rub up against the bottom of his pants.”

Eighteen

Mom and Millie headed off to the police station to try to wheedle some more information out of Seth Chamberlain. I stayed behind to catch up on household chores. I kept an eye out the window for Anita Pendragon. She was up to something and I wanted to catch her in the act. It took a few hours, but luck was with me. I was at the kitchen sink washing dishes when I saw her peeking out from behind a lilac bush. I hurried out to catch her at whatever it was she was up to.

I picked my way along the side of the house, my back pressed to the paint-peeling clapboards as I used the house for cover. I was at the back of the building and hadn’t gotten around to scraping and painting the exterior here yet since it wasn’t visible to the guests.

I came to the corner and quickly darted over, taking refuge behind a giant rhododendron. Peering out from behind the glossy leaves, I watched Anita as the floral smell of summer flowers wafted over. Out here in back of the house only the hum of buzzing bees broke the silence.

Anita appeared to be scoping out the grounds. What on earth was she doing? I had news for her too, her lime-green-and-turquoise shirt did little to camouflage her behind the dark green shrub.

I snuck up behind her very quietly and when I was within two feet I said,“Aha!”

Anita whirled around dropping her navy-blue tote bag as her hands flew to her heart. Once she recognized me her eyes narrowed to slits.“Josie… Waters… what in the world are you doing… scaring me like that!”

The nerve of her yelling at me!“What are you doing lurking in my bushes?”

Anita recovered from her scare. Now she looked angry instead of startled. Smoothing down the bottom of her shirt, she said,“It’s a free country.”

“Not quite, this is private property.”

“Okay, fine. I’m here doing investigatory journalism. There was a murder here, you know. And a ghost is running about. The people have a right to know.”

“Why does that necessitate lurking around in my yard?”

She leaned toward me, lowering her voice.“Your guests aren’t the most innocent of people. They’re suspects, you know. And besides, they get up to some strange things. Seances in outhouses and convening with spirits in gazebos.”

I had seen some of the guests skulking around in the yard, but seances and spirit communications?“Are you sure they’ve been doing that?”

“I’m not sure what they’re up to, but whatever it is, I’m getting the scoop.” Anita crossed her arms over her chest and adopted a bit of attitude. “You might thank me for that. It’s down to my investigating out here that I found Madame Zenda’s body. If I hadn’t come by, there’s no telling how long she would have been moldering out there.”

Found her there orput her there? I didn’t want to rile Anita up any more than she already was so I kept silent, scowling at her with my hand on my hips. I figured I’d let her talk and maybe she’d incriminate herself.

My silence must have unnerved her. She looked away.“Mark my words, someone in this guesthouse is up to something.”

“Yeah and I think it’syou.”

Anita jerked back.“Me? What are you talking about? I’m just reporting what people need to know and if it happens to be a good story that sells, well then, what’s wrong with that?” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t see why you’re so upset about it. Unless you have something to hide, like the fact that you’re a killer.”

Now it was my turn to get upset.“Why would I kill Madame Zenda?”

“It would make for good publicity. Come to think of it, you’ve had a couple of murders here. And didn’t the discovery of the skeleton bring you the guests you have now? This would make a good story. The black-widow guesthouse owner who kills her guests.”

“Now wait just a minute, I didn’t kill anyone! I helped catch the first two killers and now I’m going to catch this one. Which brings me to my question: Why did you break into the guesthouse?”

“Break in? What are you talking about?” She looked away. “I’ve never been in there.”

Now I knew she was lying. Could she really be the killer? And if so, maybe it was dangerous to confront her like this. But my brain must have been a few seconds behind my mouth because the words came out before I stopped to think about the safest course of action.“Ed saw you peeking in the window and said you might have been in the house, and Flora said you tracked mud into the back foyer. Now, why would you lie about that if you weren’t the killer?” I got my cell phone out of my pocket. “I’m calling Sheriff Chamberlain.”

“No wait!” She shifted on her feet, her eyes darting from the house to me. “Okay. Fine. Iwas in the guesthouse but not because I’m the killer. As I’ve told you, I’m working on a story. There might be a movie deal and… well… I needed an insider so I could get a scoop on what was really going on.”

“Madame Zenda?”

“Yeah, at first. She was my contact.”

That explained the open windows.

“That’s why I was the one who found her. She was going to talk to Jedediah Biddeford that night.” Anita chewed her bottom lip. “Though to tell the truth, I think she might have been a fraud. Anyway, she wouldn’t tell me exactly where and I was trying to figure that out so I could see the communication, but instead I saw her body. She was dead when I got there.”

“And you didn’t see the killer leaving or hear anything?” I was dubious.

She shook her head.“I wish. That would have made a great headline. ‘Reporter Captures Killer.’ But I didn’t see a thing. Of course, I was a bit freaked out, what with her lying there. I didn’t kill her though. Why would I? She was my contact.”

Anita’s explanation made sense and, given that she was calmly discussing this instead of trying to kill me, my feeling that she was the killer was waning. But Flora had said she’d been in the houseafterMadame Zenda was killed. If Zenda was her contact, then what was she doing in there? Hiding evidence?

“Then why were you in the guesthouse after she was killed?”

Anita sighed.“Fine. I’ll tell you. I was meeting Victor Merino.”

My left brow quirked up.“Why?”

“I’ve sort of teamed up with him for the story. There’s a lot riding on it.”

“So, let me get this straight. You were teamed up with Madame Zenda and then, after she died, you teamed up with Victor. How? Did you already know him?” What if Victor had killed Madame Zenda because he wanted the fame and knew that Anita could help him get it?

She shook her head.“I didn’t know him. He saw me talking to that movie producer downtown and asked me all sorts of questions. I guess he already knew about the movie. Anyway, he suggested we combine forces.”

“Combine forces? How?”

“He was going to feed me information. That’s why I met him in the foyer the other day and why I’m here now. He said something is about to happen.” Anita glanced out over the yard. “But I’m not so sure I believe him.”

“Did he saywhat was going to happen?” I didn’t like the ominous way that sounded, but then Victor did seem to be overly dramatic. “I think sometimes he exaggerates.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m out here to follow him, just in case.”

I peered into the dense overgrowth of the yard.“He’s out here?”

“No. The only one I’ve seen is that weird tea-leaf reader.”

“Gail? Why do you say she’s weird?” I thought she was weird too, but wanted to know Anita’s reasons.

“No background.” At my curious look Anita stood straighter. “I’ve done background checks on all these people. They’re all mediums who have businesses and a history. All except Gail. Not even a classified ad back in her paper in Ohio. And the other day when I was talking to the movie producer and ran into Victor, guess who I saw watching us?”

“Gail?”

“Yep.”

I’d seen Gail watching Victor too. At least that’s what I thought she’d been doing when I’d run into her looking for tea in the pantry. But why watch Victor? If she’d seen him with the movie producer, then she knew about the potential movie. Was she trying to steal the limelight from Victor somehow? But why not just claim she could talk to Jed herself? If she did that, then the attention would be on her. Instead, she was hiding and following people.

“What do you think she’s up to?” I asked.

“Beats me.” Anita bent down to pick up the tote bag she’d dropped when I’d startled her. The bag spilled over and a copy of the early etching of the guesthouse with Jed Biddeford and family tumbled out.

My eyes went right to the buckle on his shoes. Anita knew about the buckle. My eyes flicked to hers, a shiver running through me. I grabbed the paper, noticing another one behind it. This other one was of Jedediah Biddeford signing something. He had a fancy carved-ivory quill pen in his hand. Why did she have these drawings of Jed? Was she scoping out Jed’s belongings? Maybe planning to leave another piece of memorabilia on her next body?

“Aha! You have a photograph of the drawing of Jed’s buckle!” I pointed to the shoe in the photo.

Anita tried to snatch the papers away, but I pulled them out of her hands. She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.“Of course I have images of Jed. Like I just told you, I do my research. I looked up all kinds of things about the family.”

“Why would you need to do that? Seems like a lot of work,” I said.

“Not really. They have all this stuff down at the bank. There’s a whole display of Remington memorabilia and since the Biddefords were big in town back then, there’s a lot of images of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse and Jedediah Biddeford too.”

I usually did my banking online but now I remembered the display down at the bank. It was off to one side and included all kinds of things like the bank’s first coin, etchings of the original bank—an old shack complete with iron bars—various old desk implements, pens, bank notes and so on.

“Do they have personal items there?” I was thinking about the shoes.

Anita grabbed for the papers again and this time I let her take them. They crinkled as she shoved them in her tote bag.“Personal items? I’m not sure. I mean, they have an old inkwell and a desk blotter that they first used in the bank. It’s kind of like a mini museum.”

It was probably a long shot, but what if the killer got the buckle from the bank? Some of it was locked up, some of it was out in the open. If the shoes with the buckle had been there, would the killer have been able to swipe it without anyone noticing? This didn’t let Anita off the hook, she’d been there and knew what was in the collection. Would she be dumb enough to admit that to me now, though? Probably not.

Suddenly I had the urge to make a deposit at the bank. I wanted to see exactly what was in that display… or, more importantly, to see if anything was missing.

Nineteen

I rushed in the back door and down the hallway on the way to my car, which was parked out front. I didn’t make it to the door though because a heated argument was brewing in the parlor.

“I call foul on that! If you talked to Jedediah Biddeford, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.” Esther’s voice reached me in the hallway and I looked into the parlor to see her looking down at Victor, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

“I’m telling you the truth!” Victor was wearing a gray velour jogging suit. He patted his mustache and looked up at Esther innocently. “Jed will talk to me tonight. We’ll find the treasure and he will give me a unique clue to solve his murder.”

“Ha! That’s how I know you’re lying.” Esther leaned down toward Victor. “There is no treasure.”

“How do you know that?” Victor fixed her with a shrewd gaze.

Esther frowned.“I… Umm… Well, after all these years it’s doubtful. And I read that there was a big treasure hunt here a few weeks ago. Nothing was found.”

“We’ll see about that.” Victor shifted in his chair, noticing me in the doorway. “Your guesthouse will be famous. Especially when they make the movie.”

“Movie?” Gail, who was on the sofa and had been gazing into a dainty floral teacup looked up at him. “What movie?”

“Yeah, what movie?” Esther echoed.

Victor made a face at Esther.“Don’t give me that. I saw you in town. You know that there is a movie producer sniffing around the story of Jedediah Biddeford’s skeleton. And he is well aware that I am the only real psychic here.”

“Madame Zenda claimed that she was going to talk to Jed’s ghost too and look what happened to her,” Gail said.

Something flickered across Victor’s face. Guilt over killing Madame Zenda or fear that the same thing would happen to him?

Esther spun on her heel and went to sit in front of her crystal ball. It was on the table next to the window and the sunlight filtering in made the ball glow with an eerie light. She passed her hands over it and closed her eyes.“I don’t think Jed would like having his story sensationalized in a movie and I doubt he has any good clues as to who his killer is. And good luck with that treasure!”

Victor waved a hand at her.“We’ll see tonight. I think I will pick an interesting setting. Like maybe the old family graveyard or that spooky gazebo. It’s important to set the ambiance, you know how movie people are all about that sort of thing.”

Esther glared at him. Gail went back to gazing at her teacup. I turned and left to go to the bank.

I didn’t know whether or not Victor was really going to talk to Jed, but he was right about one thing.Something was going to happen tonight. I hoped there would be a clue to this whole thing at the bank.

Because if Victor was the killer, I had no intention of letting him get a movie deal with his fake communication with Jed. And if he wasn’t the killer… then I was afraid he might be the next victim.

It was late afternoon when I got to the bank. The free cookies at the teller window reminded me that I had to start thinking about tomorrow’s breakfast. Millie would have a fit if I didn’t have something in mind. I grabbed a cookie—chocolate chip—and headed toward the back of the bank where the display was located.

The area wasn’t large, just a case built in to the wall and a roped-off area where an old oak rolltop desk sat. On top of the desk was a brass lamp with a green shade, an inkwell and an old silver pen atop a desk blotter. An antique brass-and-black-enamel sign for the teller window sat off to one side, along with the old-fashioned window complete with iron bars and frosted glass.

The locked case had interesting old coins, many of which weren’t even used for currency today. Myron sold old silver dollars and other old and rare coins at the bank, but the ones in the case were much older.

The wall beside the case had a pictorial display of town history. The etching of Jed that Anita had was there, along with other drawings and old grainy photos of the bank along with the changes to the building over the centuries. On the end was a copy of the old etching of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse highlighting the connection between the Remingtons and the Biddefords and Thomas Remington’s humble beginnings as Jed’s butler. I turned away, depressed. There were no old clothes. Maybe another cookie would perk me up.

But before I could make another trip past the plate of cookies, Myron stepped in my path. Perfect, as if the trip wasn’t a downer before, now I had to deal with him.

“Josie, what brings you here? Your loan payment isn’t due until the thirtieth.” Myron smiled at me, but I could tell it was fake.

“I know. I was just… um… checking my balance.” I certainly didn’t want him to know about my suspicions. He was already acting strangely enough as it was, no need to remind him of the unsavory happenings at the guesthouse.

Myron’s brows tugged together. “Don’t you do that online?”

“Sometimes. Hey, speaking of wondering why someone is at a certain place, why were you at the guesthouse earlier today?”

Myron looked taken aback.“What are you talking about? I didn’t see you at the guesthouse earlier.”

“You were out on the grounds. Near the barn and overgrown gardens.”

Myron glanced around the lobby, probably making sure no one overheard the awkward conversation. He was all about keeping up appearances, which was probably the reason why he was so bothered by the ghost business at the guesthouse. And the murders… though I suppose anyone would be bothered by that.

“Not sure what you’re talking about,” Myron said.

I looked down to see cat hair on the cuffs of his pants. There were little black ones mixed with brown and white. Nero and Marlowe? Usually Myron was very fastidious about his appearance, so if the cats had rubbed against him when he’d been there earlier, surely he would have cleaned the hairs off by now. The cats couldn’t possibly be in the bank, could they?

“Speaking of the grounds.” Myron lowered his voice. “I spoke with Mike Sullivan about the gazebo and you’ll have to watch out that people don’t go out to that ramshackle thing before it’s fixed properly. Wouldn’t want a lawsuit. That would be grounds to terminate the loan. I may have to inspect that thing myself when Mike takes a look at it later.”

Ed would start work on the gazebo shortly and I vaguely remembered Mike saying something about coming out to inspect the gazebo for the permit. Had Mike said something about it to Myron? I was skeptical, as I was pretty sure that if something was wrong, Mike would have mentioned it to me first. I didn’t think guests were in the habit of going to the gazebo anyway, but even so, Myron was probably making something out of nothing. Which made me wonder if that was why he’d been out there earlier in the first place. Was he looking for a reason to call in the loan?

I was about to ask when Rita Fortin came into the lobby. She was from a wealthy family and liked to flaunt it with designer outfits and purses that cost as much as a compact car. Today was no exception. She scanned the lobby from behind overly large sunglasses, her gaze stopping when it fell on Myron. Always one to follow the money, Myron immediately hurried over to suck up to her without so much as a goodbye to me.

It was just as well, what I had been about to say to him wasn’t very nice. Better to have some time to cool off before I got Myron riled up. After all, he did hold my future in his hands.

As Myron ushered Rita into his office, Belinda May, one of the tellers, started toward me, shooting looks over her shoulder at Myron to make sure he didn’t notice.

“Hey, Josie, I have this for one of your guests. I was wondering if you could take it back for them. I was supposed to meet them later today, but my grandmother is ill and I can’t.” She held a plain A4 manila envelope out to me.

“You want me to give this to Victor?” I mean, I assumed it was him since he was the one with an agenda. The envelope had no name on it.

“No. Esther. That nice crystal-ball lady.”

“She was here?” I looked back at the display area then down at the envelope, remembering how upset Esther had been at Victor’s pronouncement.

Belinda glanced around as if to make sure no one could overhear.“She was looking at the memorabilia area, then she gave me a lovely reading with her crystal ball. Of course, Myron wasn’t here then. I do hope her readings are true. She said a silver-haired fox would sweep me off my feet.”

“She did, did she?” I shook the envelope. Nothing rattled. “So, what’s in the envelope?”

“Oh, just some information about the bank’s history.”

“Why would she want that?” I felt along the envelope, expecting to feel the bulk of a buckle or button or something, but it was flat. Just paper.

Belinda shrugged.“I guess she found it interesting. Don’t worry, it’s nothing confidential. I mean, I’m sure it’s okay to give out, but you know how Myron can be… speaking of that, I need to get back to my station.”

She rushed off, leaving me staring at the envelope. I was dying to know what was in it and why Esther would want information on the bank’s history, but it was sealed. Did I dare open it? I wasn’t sure I wanted to tip off Esther to the fact that I’d seen the contents. Which left me wondering… what in the world was Esther up to?

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero sniffed the contents of the Styrofoam container that Harry had pilfered from the dumpster of the Marinara Mariner. Red sauce, linguini… ahhh… there was a morsel of succulent shrimp. Nero gobbled it up and then licked his paws, washing his white tuxedo to remove any evidence of sauce.

“No squid-ink dish today.” Juliette hopped down from the rim of the dumpster and eyed the container in front of Nero. “The only thing in here is common food, unfortunately.”

“Indeed.” Boots sniffed the air with disdain.

Nero had to admit, it was smelly here in the alley beside the restaurant. But sometimes Tony left good scraps for them and it was worth a try. Besides, they had an ulterior motive to meet there, it was across from the bank and they’d been watching Myron ever since Marlowe and Nero had seen him at the guesthouse.

“Myron hasn’t left the bank since we started the stakeout.” Stubbs’ voice wafted up from the dumpster. “Speaking of which, I wish Tony had put some steak out.”

“What’s going on with the police?” Nero asked Harry.

“According to Louie, Millie and Rose came to the station and tried to get information out of Seth but he clammed up,” Harry said.

“Clam sauce? Don’t think so. I don’t smell any in here!” Stubbs yelled from the dumpster.

Harry gave the dumpster the side-eye.“Would you come out of there, there’s nothing good inside.”

“Fine.” Stubbs appeared on the rim, then jumped down shaking the dumpster debris off his orange coat.

“So, as I was saying,” Harry continued, “Seth didn’t tell much to Rose and Millie, but Louie said that they are narrowing things down to one suspect.”

“Who?” Juliette asked.

“He didn’t know. They are being very hush-hush.”

“I bet it’s that guy with the mustache.” Boots glanced over at the bank. “He was in the bank earlier.”

“You mean the man with the soft suits who is staying at the guesthouse? The one who came to the rectory?” Juliette asked.

Boots nodded.

“Victor,” Nero said. “Did he do anything suspicious?”

“He came out of the bank with a burlap bag. He was glancing all around and then hopped into an Uber.”

“What was in the bag?” Marlowe asked.

“How big was it?” Stubbs added.

“No idea what was in it,” Boots said. “It was about the size of an old bag of marbles and looked like it had something of heft and weight in it.”

“Why would Victor want marbles?” Harry asked.

“I didn’t say itwas marbles.” Boots narrowed his eyes and looked toward the bank as if trying to visualize Victor and the burlap bag. “Just looked like something heavy.”

“Huh, well that bears investigating.” Nero looked at Marlowe. “Perhaps we should head back to the guesthouse and see what our velour-wearing guest is up to.”

“You might want to hurry.” Juliette swished her tail ominously. “That movie producer came to visit Father Tim again and he’s leaving town tomorrow. If the reason for the murder was to gain fame with a movie, whoever is behind it might be trying to step up their game.”

Twenty

I found Esther in the front parlor. Good thing she was alone, maybe I could get her to tell me what the contents of the envelope were. Then again, maybe it wasn’t a good thing to be alone with her if she was the killer.

Nero and Marlowe were sitting on her lap. As I got closer, I could see she was feeding them some kind of treat. They didn’t seem bothered at all that she might be a killer, I could hear their purrs out in the hallway. Those furry little traitors would go to anyone for treats, yet when I put their dishes down with their nutritious cat food in it, they circled, sniffed and looked at me suspiciously as if I was tryingto poison them.

Esther and the cats looked up as I approached. I gave Nero and Marlowe the stink-eye but they both just blinked at me with blank expressions.

I thrust the envelope out at her.“Just what is this?”

Meow.Nero sniffed the envelope and then squinted at me.

“You tell me.” She took the envelope cautiously. Playing dumb, was she? “Where did you get this?”

I fisted my hands on my hips.“Belinda at the bank gave it to me.”

Marlowe hopped on the table and stretched out to head-butt my hand. I relaxed and petted her soft head. At least there was one cat who knew which side to be on. Nero remained in Esther’s lap.

“Oh…” Esther put the envelope aside. “That Belinda sure is nice. This is just some research I had her do for me.”

“Research? On what?”

She glanced at the crystal ball and it sparked, attracting the cats’ attention. They batted it gently with their paws.

“You’ll have to wait and see about that. I can tell you one thing, that Victor isn’t going to get away with stealing the show this time.”

I didn’t know what to make of this. Esther was acting more like a kindly old lady than a killer, but maybe she was good at pretending. I was mulling over how to approach my interrogation when the sound of tires on the driveway caught my attention.

Mom and Millie were pulling to a stop and right behind them was Mike and then behind him was Myron.

Ughh. What was Myron doing here? It wasn’t even an hour ago that he’d been schmoozing with Rita Fortin at the bank. Maybe he was coming to scope out a location for the pool for the condos he’d build once he foreclosed on the loan? I know he’d said he was going to have Mike show him the gazebo at some point, but this soon? I wondered if he had ulterior motives. At least now I’d have backup if Esther tried anything. Though she didn’t seem like she was going to attack. She was simply sitting calmly in her chair, the cats back in her lap as if she had nothing to hide.

I stepped out into the foyer as Mom and Millie came through the door. Flora was dusting the Tiffany glass lamp on the round mahogany table, apparently oblivious to our new arrivals.

“Oh, Josie, there you are. We just came from the sheriff’s office,” Millie said, glancing behind her as Mike and then Myron piled into the foyer.

“And?” I asked.

Millie looked deflated.“Nothing new on the case, but we ran into Mike there. He was coming here anyway so he followed us.”

Mike smiled.“Hey, Sunshine.”

“Hi. What brings you here?” Mike and Myron were starting to frequent the guesthouse as much as Millie and Mom did.

He held up the clipboard that was in his hand and tapped it with a pencil.“Permit for the gazebo, remember?”

I glanced at Myron at the mention of the gazebo. Mike had issued the permit so that was a good thing, right?

“I came because of the gazebo, too,” Myron said.

Mike frowned at him.“I hardly think that’s necessary. I wasn’t talking about much of anything, anyway. Ed can move forward with the work.” He raised a brow at me and handed me the permit.

Millie leveled a look at Myron.“Now, Myron, don’t you think you are getting a little too involved in the business here? Why, barely a day passes when you don’t stop by.”

Myron looked affronted.“Well, itis my investment.”

Mom clacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.“Myron, look here. I know you have a crush on Josie but really your excuses to come here are growing quite thin.”

“And of no use,” Esther piped in from the parlor. “Remember, the ball showed tall, dark and handsome.” She shot me a knowing glance before casting an approving look in Mike’s direction.

Myron straightened the cuffs of his expensive gray suit.“As charming as Josie is, she isnot the reason I come here. She’s a client, nothing more. It’s just that the bank wants to foster community ties. And with the Oyster Cove Guesthouse being such an important part of Oyster Cove history, I feel I have a duty to see it restored back to its former glory.” He leaned in and lowered his voice, although why he felt like he had to do that was beyond me, it wasn’t like there was anyone else in the foyer. “It’s good for business if the customers know that you have pride in your own community.”

“If you’ve come for the show, you’re all too early. That won’t be until ten p.m.” Victor strode down the hall. This time he was wearing a white golf shirt and tan khaki pants. I had to do a double take as I’d never seen him in anything but his velour jogging suits. “It seems ghosts like to operate under the cover of darkness.”

“Show?” Mike shot me a quizzical look.

Esther pushed up from the table, dislodging the cats who thudded to the floor.“Mr. Big Shot thinks that he’s going to talk to Jedediah Biddeford, but I have it on good authority that Jed won’t be speaking to him. And there is no treasure. Jed doesn’t need anyone making a mockery of him. But if his killer can be found, then I will be the one to do that, not Victor.”

“We’ll see about that.” Victor puffed up, his tone imbued with the utmost confidence. “I think the discovery of the treasure might make me famous.”

Millie huffed.“Good luck with that. The previous guests dug up the yard looking, along with half the town. Besides, there is no ghost.”

Thud!

We whirled around to see a Staffordshire figurine of a shepherdess with a baby lamb had fallen off the table. Lucky thing it had landed on the red-and-navy oriental carpet or it would have been in pieces. The cats were circling it sniffing and looking up at the table.

“That’s odd.” Millie picked it up and inspected it for damage. “I wonder how that—”

“WOOOOHOOOOAAAANNN…”

The eerie sound drifted through the air, freezing us all in our tracks. Even the cats seemed startled, cocking their heads to one side as if to try to determine what the strange noise was.

“OOOOHGAAAAAAAHHHH…”

“What the heck is that?” Mike asked.

“Is it the pipes?” I ventured, because what else could be making that ungodly noise?

“Sorry, Sunshine, that’s not the sound of any pipes I’ve ever heard.”

We were all silent, waiting to hear more, but not a sound came. I thought I could hear Myron whimpering behind Mom and Millie.

“You don’t think it really could be a ghost?” Mom asked.

Flora, who had been dusting the top of the newel post, turned around, holding the duster feather side up.“If you’ve got a ghost, I hope you don’t expect me to clean up after it. I don’t do ectoplasmic goo. That stuff is hard to get out of linens.”

“Don’t be silly. There must be a reasonable explanation…” Millie glanced up at the ceiling as if expecting to see a ghost floating around up there.

Esther crossed her arms over her chest and turned to Victor.“Maybe it’s Jed. Perhaps he’d like to speak to you now. Go ahead, talk to him. Enlighten us as to what he wants.”

“Uhh… that wasn’t the plan. I’m sure it’s not Jed.” Victor sounded nervous.

“You mean there might be two ghosts?” Mom asked. Surely she was joking. She didn’t really believe there was a ghost in the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, let alone two of them?

Myron peeked out from behind Mom and Millie. His eyes were as big as the old silver dollars he sold for a premium down at the bank, his shoulders were rounded and his hands stuffed in his pockets as if he were trying to become even smaller than he already was. He was probably hoping the ghost wouldn’t notice him and pick on one of us instead.

“A real ghost…” he managed to utter as he glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. “Hmmm, look at the time. Guess I can’t go look at the gazebo after all. Gotta run!”

We all watched as he dashed out the door.

Ghost or not, Myron was spooked. This did not bode well for the guesthouse at all.

Twenty-One

Nero eyed Jed.“Really, don’t you think the ghostly moans are a bit much?”

“I beg your pardon.” Jed swirled indignantly. “That wasn’t me. You think I’d stoop to those sorts of theatrics, do you? No self-respecting ghost would make noises like that.”

“You did push the figurine off. I saw you,” Marlowe said.

Jed crossed his arms over his chest.“That’s because that pompous bore Victor was arguing with my Esther.”

“Your Esther?” Maybe Jed was getting a little too attached to Esther. “Well, I don’t want to presume, but we have had some lovely conversations through her crystal ball. I think she really cares for me.” Jed got all moony-eyed and Nero tried to steer the conversation in a more productive direction.

“If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”

“Probably that fraud Victor trying to sensationalize things for that producer. He was out by the gazebo earlier.” Jed’s expression turned pensive. “Is that where the sound came from? Maybe he was hiding something out there that could produce sound? I know you have all sorts of devices in this day and age and I’ve heard sound come out of that small box Josie always seems to have in her hand.”

“Her phone?” Nero asked.

“If that’s what you call it,” Jed said. “Anyway, wouldn’t be hard to have something make those sounds. Someone should tell the person that ghosts don’t actually sound like that, though.”

“So it’s not another ghost?” Marlowe sounded relieved.

“Of course not. If another ghost were here, I’d know,” Jed said.

“What about your wife?” Nero asked. He hadn’t fully dismissed the idea that she might have come here for some sort of revenge on Jed, but it didn’t really add up. Why would she wait all this time and why try to frame him for killing Madame Zenda? He was already dead so nothing would happen to him. No, it was more likely the culprit was of the human form.

“My wife?” Jed ducked behind a chair. “You haven’t seen her here, have you? I don’t want to run into her.”

“Haven’t seen her,” Nero said. “Thought maybe you could sense her.”

“Thankfully not. That woman might have done me in. Though I think we’ll find out about that soon.”

“We will?” Marlowe asked.

Jed looked uncertain.“Maybe. Then again, maybe I don’t want to know who killed me. I might just want to stick around on this plane.” Jed sent a lovesick glance at Esther who was walking back to the table with her crystal ball. The group of humans were splitting up. Victor was heading upstairs to his room and Rose, Millie, Josie and Mike looked to be heading to the kitchen. It appeared as if everyone in the house was going about their business, despite the ghostly sounds. Wait… not everyone. Someone was missing.

“Where is Gail Weathers?” Nero asked.

“The tea-leaf lady?” Marlowe glanced around. “Don’t know. She wasn’t here when we heard the sounds.”

Nero looked at Jed.“You haven’t seen her around the place in your ghostly travels, have you?”

Jed shook his head.“Nope. Been busy watching over Esther. She’s getting my communication nicely now and let’s just say she might scratch my back if I’ll scratch hers.”

“Ohh, that sounds lovely.” Marlowe scratched at her ear. “Summertime can be very itchy, what with the pesky gnats and all.”

Nero didn’t take Jed’s words so literally. It sounded like Jed was up to something and Nero wasn’t sure he would like it. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t you go getting your whiskers in a bunch. Josie will benefit from it too,” Jed said. “Now, about that Gail Weathers. Isn’t she the one who always has a cup in her hand? I did see her out at the gazebo earlier today, shortly after Victor made that ridiculous announcement.”

Nero and Marlowe exchanged a glance.

“Do you think the noises could have come from the gazebo?” Marlowe asked.

Nero bestowed a fond look on the young cat. She might be prone to jumping to conclusions, like thinking there was a second ghost, but she was picking up the clues nicely.“I do think it could have. Looks like we better get out there and investigate.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Millie’s ample back end stuck out of the fridge as she rummaged for food. “If I was going to fake a ghost, I’d do a much better job than that clich?d moaning.”

“Well, it scared Myron. He ran out of here like his pants were on fire.” Mom pulled a box of crackers out of the cabinet. “Come to think of it, that might not have been such a bad thing if his pants did burn. Did you see all the cat hair on his cuffs?”

The fact that Myron had run out like that made me nervous. Apparently he was terrified of ghosts. Now it made sense that he’d been making a big deal about the ghost affecting the financial future of the guesthouse. “I just hope he didn’t run straight to the bank to rip up my loan papers.”

Millie backed out of the fridge with a handful of various cheeses.“Now, don’t you worry about him. I know his grandmother and if he does anything to hurt the guesthouse I’ll have her give him a talking to.”

I doubted Myron would keep the loan on his grandmother’s say-so, but at least that was something.

“He wouldn’t take the loan away, would he?” Mike’s velvety eyes were oozing with sympathy, which made me feel all funny inside.

I looked away.“I don’t know, but if he does I’m in a bit of trouble.”

“Not to worry.” Millie pulled a cheese knife out of the drawer and started cutting. “Once we find the killer and prove this ghost business is a hoax, Myron will forget all about this.”

“Don’t be too sure about that, he’s stubborn and he’s been threatening Josie.” Mom brought the cheese tray to the table and we all sat down.

“Speaking of which.” I turned to Mike who had sat beside me. “What exactly did you tell him about the gazebo? He mentioned something about it when I saw him at the bank earlier and he did not seem happy.”

Mike blushed.“Yeah, sorry about that. Anita Pendragon was nosing into the building permits and she saw my notes about the gazebo not being safe and making sure guests knew it was off limits. I guess he overheard us talking. I didn’t realize he’d think it was a big deal, because it’s not.”

Millie waved her hand dismissively, the chunk of cheese atop her cracker wobbling precariously as she did so.“Of course it’s not a big deal. Anyone can see the place is falling down so anyone with half a brain would steer clear.”

“Yeah, except I saw footprints near there. The ground is a little muddy and the mud was tracked onto the boards. So, it appears someone was there recently,” Mike said.

“Victor mentioned something about talking to Jed at the gazebo. Maybe he was scoping the place out,” I said.

“Probably trying to make sure the setting was dramatic enough. Wouldn’t put it past him to be the one that made the fake ghost noises. You know, to set the stage, so to speak,” Millie said.

As if on cue, Nero and Marlowe appeared, circling us like vultures waiting for a morsel of cheese to drop. Mom snuck a pinch of Gouda to them.

Mike shoved a cracker in his mouth.“Sothat’s why Anita was so interested in the gazebo. I’m sure she’s planning on trying to get a scoop.”

“She mentioned that she was in cahoots with Victor,” I said.

Millie’s left brow quirked up. “They’re working together?”

I nodded.“To get in on this movie deal apparently.”

“Ha!” Mom said. “I don’t trust either one of them. I once heard Anita say she’d kill for a big scoop and I wouldn’t put anything past Victor.”

“I don’t think Anita killed Madame Zenda though, because they were working together in the beginning. She was Anita’s ticket to the big scoop.” I reached down to pet Nero, who was tapping at my ankle. He dodged my hand and trotted toward the back door. Just like him to pretend like he wanted something, then walk away when you gave it to him.

Millie snorted.“So Anitasays…”

“Let’s consider this logically,” Mike said. Mom and Millie looked surprised at his words. It almost sounded like he wanted to help us investigate. Odd, because the last two times there was a murder he seemed against our involvement. Maybe he was mellowing. “Who are your suspects and what are their motives?”

“Well, there’s Anita because she wants a big story,” Mom said.

Meow.

Meroo.

The cats were meowing at the door so Millie got up to let them out.“And Victor, of course. He wants a movie deal or something.”

“And let’s not forget Esther,” I said, glancing out the window to see the cats sitting in the yard staring at me. “She seems nice, but she also seems very competitive with Victor about talking to Jed’s ghost.”

“So you think the motive is this movie?” Mike pressed his lips together. “Seems kind of far-fetched, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not even a done deal. Murder is pretty extreme.”

“You might be right,” Mom said. “Didn’t all these people know each other before? Esther knew Madame Zenda’s name was really Betty Sue Lipowitz.”

Mike nodded.“Ahhh so a previous connection. Maybe the death had more to do with that. Some kind of revenge?”

Meroooolow…

The cats muted meows filtered through the window and I saw them pacing back and forth near the overgrown grass at the edge of the lawn.“But she’s not the only one who knew her. Look.” I got my laptop from where I’d stashed it on the counter in the butler’s pantry. The picture of the cruise was still up on the screen. “This cruise was a few years ago. You can see in the picture right up front, the featured psychics are Madame Zenda, Esther Hill and Victor Merino.”

“Huh, how about that.”

“Yeah, and Esther was at the bank. Did you know they have a display of older items there? It’s bank history and such.”

“You mean like buckles?” Millie asked.

“No buckles, but Belinda May gave me an envelope for Esther.” My attention was drawn to the window again. Now the cats were twitching their tails and looking over their shoulders at me. I had the feeling I should go out there but not until we were done going over the clues.

Millie’s brows shot up. “What was in it? Buckles?”

“No, just paper. I’m not sure exactly what was on it though because I was trying to get that out of Esther when the ghostly moans happened.”

“Speaking of which.” Mom stuck a slice of Swiss on a round cracker and then topped it off with another cracker. “Where did the ghostly noise come from?”

“Sounded like it was from outside. In the back,” Mike said.

“How would someone do that? We were all in the foyer.” Mom bit into the cracker sandwich.

“Remote control?” Millie turned to Mike. “Is that possible?”

“Yeah, sure. Lots of things are possible these days. There’d have to be a speaker of some sort though, to allow the noise to carry.”

“That sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, and how would they work the remote without us seeing them?” Millie asked.

“Maybe they put it on a timer?” Mom suggested.

Millie squinted at the picture on my laptop.“So Esther and Victor knew Zenda…”

“And that tea-leaf lady, Gail.” Mom pointed to a face in the back row of the picture and Millie squinted even harder. It was Gail.

“I didn’t even notice her!” I said. “I was so focused on the names of the other psychics listed on the bill and she isn’t one of them.”

“Yeah, what is she doing lurking in the back there?” Mom asked.

Speaking of lurking, she’d been doing that in the butler’s pantry too. She’d said she was looking for tea, but now I wondered. “She seems to lurk a lot. And Anita thought it was suspicious that she didn’t have much of a history as a psychic.”

“Thatis a bit odd. Maybe she’s new? I mean, people have to start out somewhere. Look at Millie and me. We weren’t ace detectives last year. We had to learn the ropes.” Mom chewed a piece of cheese thoughtfully. “Then again, Gail was the only one who wasn’t in the foyer when the ghostly noises happened.”

Millie, Mike and I stared at her. She was right. I glanced out the window to see the cats trotting down the path that led to the gazebo.

“Maybe she wasn’t there because she was at the gazebo orchestrating the noises.” I pushed up from the table and headed toward the door. “And if she was, she might have left some evidence!”

Twenty-Two

“We better hurry, it’s getting dark,” Millie said as we followed the cats down the narrow path that led to the gazebo. It was still daylight, but the sun was starting to dip below the trees behind us as we picked our way through the overgrown grass, saplings and small shrubs.

It only took about five minutes to get to the gazebo. It stood on a highpoint of land and had a view of Smugglers Cove in the distance. The ocean was a hazy light blue, the sky pink with the reflection of the setting sun behind us.

The gazebo had seen better days. To say it was dilapidated was an understatement, though I’m sure it was once beautiful. I could see evidence of gingerbread molding in the corners, fancy lattice underneath and copper flashing on the roof, but all of that was now hidden beneath rotting boards and peeling paint. Grass and shrubs had grown up along the sides, vines wound around the railings and a thin tree had sprouted on one of the benches and grown through a hole in the roof.

It wouldn’t be this unsightly for long though. Ed would start work soon and it would be grand again… if my loan held out.

A flock of pigeons flapped out of the crumblingcupola noisily as we approached. Millie stopped a few feet from the structure.“Look! Footprints!” She pointed to the mud where various partial impressions of shoes could be seen. I tried to make out what types of shoes. Surely that would help us figure out who had been here? The work boots were probably from Mike and Ed. There were others too, which looked like some sortof soft-soled tennis shoes. Millie took out her cell phone and snapped off a few pictures.

The cats had trotted off to the side and were sniffing around under the stump of a large oak tree. Nero glanced back, catching my eye. Was there something of interest over there? But no sooner did I wonder that than the cats came trotting back and sat down next to me, staring at the footprints as if they, too, were considering them as evidence.

Mike pressed his lips together as we all studied the prints.“There are more prints than when I was here before.”

“Someone else has been here!” Mom said, as if she wasn’t stating the obvious.

We’d seen Myron lurking near the barn from the upstairs window. I turned to survey the landscape, I could barely see the barn roof through the overgrowth, it wasn’t close, but if Myron wanted to see the property up close he might have walked here from there or been here first. “Maybe Myron?”

Mike squatted down to look closer at the prints.“I don’t think so. He wears dress shoes all the time and I don’t see a print that matches that. Looks like work boots and some kind of tennis shoe or sneakers. Small size, so probably a woman.”

Exactly what I had concluded. Too bad I hadn’t said that out loud, I could have shown him that you don’t need to have a past as a navy investigator to make logical deductions.

Merooooo. Nero and Marlowe hopped up onto what was left of the gazebo railing and sat, their tails twitching as they looked down at us.

Millie squinted up at them, then her gaze fell on the stairs.“Look there’s mud on the stairs. You were right, Mike, someone has been in the gazebo.”

Mike smiled indulgently at his aunt.

“But why?” Mom gave the structure a critical look. “The place is falling apart. Why would someone risk getting hurt by going in there? I mean, you could get splintered, or lockjaw or a broken leg.”

“Must be something of interest in there.” Millie gingerly picked her way up the broken steps. “And there’s only one way to find out what that is.”

Mereee!

Nero and Marlowe jumped down from the railing and headed to the other side of the gazebo, scurrying under one of the built-in benches that lined the walls.

“Better not go up there…” Mike’s warning was too late, Millie was already at the top step.

“I think the cats are trying to tell us something.” Millie rushed over to the other side where the cats were now waiting.

Mike sighed and started up the steps.

“Yep, footprints over here too!” Millie yelled. Her knees popped as she crouched down beside the cats. They were zigzagging back and forth, their interest centered on something beneath the bench.

“Better not mess around up there, Aunt Millie. It’s not safe!” Mike probably knew she wouldn’t listen to him. I mean, even I knew that when Millie was hot on the trail of something she didn’t stop for anything.

“Oh, it will be fine.” Millie’s voice was muffled because she had her head under the bench. “Besides, the cats want to show me something.”

Not wanting to be left out, Mom and I scurried up behind Mike. The first thing I noticed was muddy footprints and they weren’t ours because the mud had dried. The second thing I noticed was that the cats were pacing back and forth atop the bench that Millie had her head under.

The third thing I noticed was that Mom had joined Millie and now both of them had their heads under the bench. There must have been a hole in the floor because Millie’s right arm was digging around for something.

“I think I see something shiny under here,” Millie said. “Do you see it, Rose?”

Mom stuck her head further under to the sounds of more joints creaking. She was practically lying down trying to get a good look into the opening.“There it is! To your left.”

Mike and I exchanged exasperated looks.

Mike bent down and tugged at Millie’s left arm. “Here let me do that. You shouldn’t be doing this at your age.”

Uh oh… that comment was going to backfire on him. Millie sprung up, hands fisted on her hips. Mom backed out of the hole and looked up at Mike incredulously.

“I thought I raised you better than that! Talking about a lady’s age. And besides, I am not old!”

Mom jumped up and brushed the dirt off her pants.“Yeah, we aren’t old! I’m surprised at you, Michael Sullivan.” Mom reverting to using Mike’s full name was not a good thing.

Mike didn’t seem fazed. He crouched down and felt around under the bench. At least his remark had done the job of getting them off the floor. Perhaps Mike was more clever than I thought.

Mike pulled a small black-and-chrome device out from under the bench.“Huh, looks like a tape recorder.”

“Aha!” Millie grabbed for it. “This must be what made the ghostly noises!”

“Someone hid it under that bench,” Mom said.

Mike took it back from Millie and looked it over. To me it looked just like a small black box with some switches, like a cell phone.

“Let’s see if you’re right,” Mike said. “This is a pretty simple device, looks like it just records and then plays back.” He glanced toward the house. From here you could just see the top of the roof. “But I don’t think the sound would carry all the way to the foyer of the guesthouse.”

“Poppycock. It has to!” Millie grabbed for it again, but Mike pulled it back. “Let’s hear what’s on it.”

Mike fiddled with the switches and studied the display. Finally, he pressed a button but all that came out was a repeat of the conversation we’d just had.

“You must have messed with it and put it on record. You have to rewind it.” Millie grabbed it out of his hand and fiddled for a few minutes, but still the only thing it had on it was our conversation.

“Maybe we recorded over it, or the perpetrator set it to automatically erase the sounds after it played,” Mom said. “You know, destroy the evidence like how the secret message would self-destruct in that movieGet Smart.”

“Maybe.” Mike didn’t look convinced. “At any rate, someone did put it here for a reason. Unless it fell out of a pocket or something. Maybe we should call Seth Chamberlain.”

“And what? Tell him we found a tape recorder with nothing on it?” Millie asked. “I’m sure he’ll rush right over.”

Meow! Nero was at the top of the steps, looking over his shoulder at us. Clearly he wanted us to head back to the guesthouse with the evidence. Marlowe was already halfway down the path.

“See? Nero has the right idea. We need to confront the perp with this. We’ll pretend like the evidence is still on there and get a confession.” Millie headed down the steps.

“I don’t think—” Mike’s sentence was interrupted by an alarm on his phone. He dug it out and looked at the display. “Shoot. I have an appointment for an inspection over on Glendale. I have to go.”

“Darn. That’s too bad.” Mom hurried down the steps after Millie. “You’re going to miss all the fun.”

“Hey, wait up!” Mike jogged to catch up to Millie and I followed behind. I hoped he wasn’t going to give us his lecture about not investigating. “Aunt Millie, don’t forget the person who hid this might be dangerous. Don’t do anything rash on your own,” Mike said.

Millie stopped and turned faux-innocent eyes on her nephew.“Oh don’t worry, we won’t do anything rash without you.”

He looked at her skeptically, and with good reason, as from where I was standing I could see she had her fingers crossed behind her back. I purposely avoided eye contact with him.

Mike sighed.“Hey, you’re grown women.”

“That’s right,” Mom said. “We can handle ourselves. Now you run along and we’ll just take this tape recorder inside for safekeeping.”

Twenty-Three

As soon as Mike walked away, Millie charged towards the kitchen door.“Any idea where we could find Gail this time of day?”

“Why are you so sure the recorder is from her?” Mom asked.

“I’m not, but she’s the only one who wasn’t in the foyer when the noises were made and she’s mysterious. No background in the business and lurking behind Madame Zenda in that cruise photo. I say we question her first.”

Mom hesitated at the door.“You did tell Mike—”

Millie cut her off.“I told him we wouldn’t do anything rash. This isn’t rash. This is calculated. And besides, there are three of us and only one of her.”

We checked around the house and found Gail in the back parlor staring into a dainty blue teacup. She must have gotten that one out of the china cabinet, another one of the items that had come from Millie’s family and been included with the sale of the guesthouse. I hoped Millie wouldn’t be mad that the guests were helping themselves to the use of her family heirlooms.

Gail looked up, her eyes wary as we approached. Maybe she sensed our purpose, or perhaps the tea leaves had warned her.

Mom was making pointed glances at Gail’s shoes and I looked down to see that the white fabric of her tennis shoes was stained dark from mud. Gail had been at the gazebo. I looked around the room for a weapon, just in case.

She smiled nervously and held the teacup in front of her as if for protection as we each took a seat. Mom sat on the sofa next to her and Millie and I each took one of the wingback chairs across from the sofa.

“Good afternoon, ladies.” Gail glanced out the window. A gray twilight had descended and she amended her greeting. “Or should I say good evening.”

“Evening.” Millie was sitting so that the tape recorder was hidden. Probably saving it so as to have the element of surprise. It seemed quite obvious to me that she was taking pains to hide something and it must have been obvious to Gail too, if the way her eyes kept flicking to Millie’s sidewere any indication. “I suppose you heard about the excitement.”

“Esther told me about the ghostly moans.” Gail huffed. “Probably that pompous clown Victor staged it as more drama to his big announcement.”

Though I wouldn’t put it past Victor to do that, I’d seen the look on his face in the foyer and he had appeared genuinely frightened. Of course, that could all just be part of his act.

“Yeah, funny thing though,” Mom said. “We were wonderinghow he did that.”

Gail shrugged.“Who knows? They have all kinds of gadgets these days that can produce such sounds.”

“You should know about that, dear,” Millie said.

At Gail’s confused look, Millie whipped out the recorder and shoved it in front of her face.

Gail took a nervous sip of her tea.“That one doesn’t seem suitable for the noise that I heard described.”

“Ha! You would say that.” Mom leaned closer to Gail. “That device is yours. Admit it!”

“Well… I don’t know that it’s mine… I do have one similar.”

I was surprised at her curious reaction. I’d expected extreme denial or some kind of fight. Maybe she was thinking she could outwit us. I guess she didn’t know Mom and Millie very well.

Millie leaned closer to Gail, she was practically out of her seat. Gail shrunk back into the couch, her eyes darting between Mom leaning close on one side and Millie leaning close on the other.

“Fess up. We know you were the only one not in the foyer when we heard the noises, and we found this recorder in the gazebo,” Millie said.

“And you have mud stains on your shoes.” Mom pointed at Gail’s feet. “I bet that’s the same mud that’s out near the gazebo.”

“And we know you were on that cruise with Madame Zenda. You have a previous connection!” Millie said.

“Yeah, one that might hide a motive for murder,” Mom added, with a knowing nod.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Gail said. “Esther and Victor were on that cruise too.”

“But you are the only one who wasn’t upfront about your purpose there. We saw a photo, and Esther and Victor were front and center as featured mediums and you were lurking in the background,” Millie said.

Gail fidgeted.“I’m not hiding anything. I wasn’t a medium on that cruise.”

Millie tapped the recorder.“So you’re saying you didn’t hide this in the gazebo?”

Gail was silent, her eyes darting between the three of us as she gnawed her bottom lip. Finally, Gail slumped back on the sofa.“You’re right. I am hiding something.”

“I knew it!” Millie whipped out her cell phone. “I’ll just call the sheriff now. Won’t he be surprised to find that we’ve gotten the confession from Madame Zenda’s killer!”

“Confession? No!” Gail put her cup down on the coffee table and I quickly shoved a coaster under it. Not for nothing, because the coffee table was antique mahogany and it was almost impossible to get those white rings out. I’d heard Flora complain about that plenty of times.

Gail continued,“I didn’t kill Madame Zenda. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because of Victor.”

“You were planning to kill Victor?” Mom must have taken a dim view of Victor, because she looked as if she was considering letting Gail go.

“No. I was here to prove he was a fraud. That’s why I put the recorder in the gazebo.” Gail gestured toward the device in Millie’s hand. “I didn’t put it in there toplayghostly noises, I put it in there torecord Victor.”

Millie raised a brow at her.“You did?”

“Take a look at it. You’ll see it’s onrecord. And it’s blank, so you won’t find any ghostly noises.”

Millie, Mom and I looked at each other. We’d already messed up the original setting, but that would explain why all that was on it was the recording of our conversation.

“But what were you going to record?” Millie asked.

“I was going to prove once and for all that Victor was a fraud. He said he’d talk to Jed’s ghost and mentioned the gazebo and the cemetery. I put recorders in both places hoping I could pick up something that proved he was a phoney. They are voice activated,” Gail said.

“So you have a beef with Victor. I admit he is obnoxious. And those stupid velour suits. But what about the cruise?” Mom asked.

“And why is there no record of you being a psychic?” I gestured toward the teacup. “Most everyone has a website or some kind of ad, but you have nothing.”

Gail looked down at the floor.“I’m not really a tea-leaf reader. I came out here on that pretense to trap Victor. Mary Chambers was my best friend. We were on that Dreams Divinity cruise together. That’s where she met Victor.”

It all clicked. I should have realized it before. Anita had said Gail was from Ohio and so was Mary.“Mary was the woman that Victor bilked out of money, claiming he could talk to her dead husband, wasn’t she?”

Gail nodded, her eyes moist.“Yes. She was a lovely person and sheso wanted to talk to her husband again. She died broken-hearted when her daughter convinced her that Victor was cheating her and she hadn’t really been talking to her husband.”

That explained why I’d seen her staring out the window at Victor and why Anita had seen her following them when they’d talked to the movie producer. If Gail’s story was true, she’d been looking for dirt on Victor all along.

“Well then, who killed Madame Zenda and made the ghostly noises?” Mom asked. “Someone had to hide something somewhere to make them. Unless there really is a ghost.”

Millie gave Mom an annoyed look at her suggestion that there might actually be a real ghost, then narrowed her gaze at Gail.“Maybe you killed Zenda by mistake, thinking she was Victor?”

“Hardly. There was no mistaking one for the other, and besides, I wasn’t going to kill Victor, just prove he was a fraud so the whole world would know.” Gail tapped her fingers on her lips. “But I did see one person doing something odd on the grounds when I was putting the tape recorder in the gazebo. I was sneaking around so no one would see me and so was the other person.”

“We know all about Anita Pendragon lurking around,” I said.

Gail shook her head.“No, it wasn’t her. I hate to even mention it because she seems like such a nice person, but she really was acting odd.” Gail looked up at us.

“Who?” I prompted.

“It was Esther Hill and she was messing around in that old outhouse. I have no idea what she was doing, but she was in there for quite some time.”

Twenty-Four

“It’s always the nice ones who have dark secrets,” Millie said as we headed toward the outhouse, flashlights in hand. Now that the sun had set, the dark shadows of twilight loomed around us and the hooting of owls and scurrying of squirrels and chipmunks in the leaves took an ominous tone.

“I should have connected the dots earlier,” I said. “Flora said Esther was at the outhouse, remember? I thought she was just doing her usual complaining about cleaning, so when the ghostly noises happened I didn’t put two and two together, but the noise came from that direction and it wouldbe a great place to hide something.”

“Easy to see how you would think that. She does complain a lot.” Millie flicked her light at the shabby structure as we approached.

The outhouse was fairly large and it wasn’t in very good shape. It was listing to one side, the wood gray and rotting. Grass and weeds had grown up knee high around the outside. The door had a crescent moon cut out, but it was too dark in there to see inside. We creaked the door open slowly.

Nero and Marlowe pushed through ahead of me. The moonlight slanted in from the door opening and reflected off the cats’ eyes as they sat blinking at us from the darkness inside.

“Well don’t just stand there, let’s go inside.” Mom aimed her light at the interior and pushed in front of me.

“What do you think Esther was doing in here?” I asked as I pointed the beam of my light around. The flashlights were all small pen-sized lights that sent out a narrow beam that didn’t reach far. Probably not that great for the job but, seeing as I hadn’t anticipated skulking around in outhouses in the middle of the night, they were all I had on short notice.

“Hiding the speaker that made the ghost noises, of course.” Millie shot me a look that said “duh”.

“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there is another reason she was here.” I pointed my light at one of the holes. Nothing but a black pit. I dared not look too closely, that hole led to things I didn’t want to think about. “Maybe she thought being here would bring her closer to Jed.I mean, he probably spent a lot of time in here and I do remember someone mentioning that being close to places or things that someone spent a lot of time near when living could help raise their ghost.”

“This is an odd place to hide the recorder,” Mom said. “Maybe Gail was lying to us. If I were the killer I’d lie to us.”

“But Flora saw Esther here, too,” I reminded them.

“And the recorder that Gail had didn’t have ghostly noises on it,” Millie said. “Her claims about the real reason she is here do make sense. We know Victor scammed that woman from the cruise. We should find a way to verify that she really was that woman’s friend though.”

“Even so, she could still be the killer.” Mom seemed reluctant to let go of that theory as she ran her light over the three holes. “Sure glad we don’t have to use this thing. Did you have to when you were a kid, Millie?”

Millie snorted.“I’m not that old! We had indoor plumbing. This old thing hasn’t been used since my grandfather’s time.”

Meow!

Nero was walking along the“seat” part, which was just a long board with three large holes in it. “Don’t fall in there, because I’m not going in after you.” I used my sternest tone, but Nero just blinked at me and continued walking along, balancing precariously on the edges of the holes as if challenging me.

When Nero moved, my light picked out a spot in the wood that looked like it had fresh scratch marks.“Look at this, looks like someone pried this open.”

“A hidden compartment, maybe?” Millie put her flashlight in her mouth and reached over toward the wood. She tugged and pulled and finally a small section slid back revealing a dark hole.

“What’s in it?” Mom asked.

We all shone our lights into the dark section.“Can’t see. The compartment goes behind the board.” Millie angled the light and craned her neck to see inside. “Darn. It’s too dark in there.”

“Reach in with your hand,” Mom suggested.

“I’m not reaching in with my hand,youdo it.” Millie stepped back from the hole and gestured for my mother to step up.

Mom looked at the hole uncertainly.“I’m not doing it. Josie, you do it. You’re younger and if something bites you, you have a much higher chance of recovery.” Mom pushed me toward the hole.

Visions of nests of spiders, centipedes or worse ran though my head as I aimed my flashlight inside. Someone had to reach in though, and I didn’t want Mom or Millie to get hurt. Guess it was up to me.

I slowly put my hand in, tentatively feeling the sides and bottom of the compartment, my heart thudding with the expectation of feeling the creepy sensation of insect legs at any moment. Thankfully I didn’t, but I also didn’t feel anything of interest. Satisfied that I’d explored the entire compartment, I withdrew my hand as quickly as possible. “It’s empty.”

“Darn!” Mom said.

Millie shone the beam of her flashlight over the interior of the outhouse again. Probably looking for more secret compartments.“Esther must have come in and gotten the recorder after the noises played. She’d have had plenty of time and we wouldn’t have seen her because we were busy with Gail.”

“But how would she know there was a secret compartment in the first place?” I asked. Still not convinced, I shone my light on the scratches again. The scratched wood was light, almost white in color. Surely it had been done recently.

“Good question,” Mom said. “Maybe it wasn’t Esther. Maybe it was Jed’s ghost. He’d know about the hiding place I bet.”

“Rose, there’s no such thing as ghosts!” Millie who had had her back to us, turned quickly, the flashlight under her chin lighting her face in a ghastly way.

Mom screamed and jumped back.

I did too.

Nero and Marlowe practically fell into the holes they were circling.

Millie cackled, then lowered the flashlight and rolled her eyes.“Come on, let’s look the rest of the place over. It’s pretty obvious someone has been in that hidden compartment, but there might be another clue and we might as well look while we are in here.”

We searched for a few minutes but found nothing else. The cats weren’t much help, they were more interested in sniffing the holes. Yech.

“Well, I guess that’s that. We need to confront Esther.” Millie brushed the dirt off her hands and started for the crescent-moon door.

Merooo!Nero sounded like he wasn’t too keen on confronting Esther. It was no wonder, she’d given the cats a lot of treats and they were probably reluctant to think she could be a killer.

“She did seem to get really mad when Victor claimed he was talking to Jed tonight,” I said.

Merope! Marlowe added her two cents as I ushered them out of the outhouse and shut the door.

“And she got that mysterious envelope,” Mom added. “We need to see what’s in there.”

“Yeah.” Millie picked up the pace and was practically jogging toward the guesthouse. I wasn’t sure if it was because it had gotten even darker and a little scary outside or if she was excited about facing Esther. “The contents of that envelope could be the key. I have a feeling that the sooner we find out what it is, the sooner we can catch our killer.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

“I haven’t seen Millie move this fast in years,” Nero said as they trotted along beside the humans. Moonlight lit the path, but the humans had their flashlights bobbing in front of them like oversized fireflies. Blades of tall grass whipped Nero in the face every so often when he strayed too close to the edge.

“She seems eager to get on with her interrogation.” Marlowe glanced back longingly at the outhouse. “It’s a shame because there were lots of lovely smells in there and I hated to leave.”

“They didn’t even notice that someone had been digging at the gazebo,” Nero said.

“We did all we could to alert them, but once they found the recorder they were focused on that.”

Nero shook his head.“Just like humans not to consider there might be another thing to investigate.”

“At least they got it half right. Gail did put the recorder there,” Marlowe said.

“But who did the digging?” Nero asked.

“It could have been Gail. She was there.”

“No, I think it was someone else. Perhaps Victor. He was missing from the guesthouse this afternoon.”

Marlowe glanced at Nero.“Before or after the noises? Maybe he was the one hiding the recorder. It would make sense because he wants everyone to think he is talking to Jed.”

“Indeed. I wonder if, perhaps, he was burying the recorder so as not to be found with the evidence.”

“Or maybe he really did talk to Jed and was digging up the treasure,” Marlowe suggested.

“There is no buried treasure!” Jed’s voice boomed from beside Nero, making him jump sideways in the air like a frightened kitten. He then leaped and pivoted, trying to pretend he did that on purpose.

“Thought I saw a snake,” Nero said at Marlowe’s amused expression.

Marlowe turned to Jed.“You keep saying there is no treasure, but your memory doesn’t appear to be very good. Maybe you are mistaken. I mean, you couldn’t remember where you had buried it.”

“That was just a momentary confusion on account of the property being so different from my time. Now that I have my bearings, I know exactly where I put things.”

“And Esther tried to dig it up, but nothing was there,” Nero added. They were almost at the house now and he wondered what Millie was going to do. At the rate she was moving she planned to go in all guns blazing and accuse Esther. That might not be the best course of action, especially since hehad his doubts as to whether Esther was the killer.

“It wouldn’t be there.” Jed floated along keeping pace beside them. “I remember that old oak tree. There was no gazebo at the time, but the view of the cove is very pretty from that spot so everyone used to go there. I wouldn’t be so stupid as to bury treasure there where anyone could stumble across it.”

“So what was the digging at the gazebo about?” Marlowe asked.

Nero shrugged.“Another mystery to be solved.”

“So you say that Millie and the gang think Esther is mixed up in the murder now?” Jed asked.

“Shewas in the outhouse for suspicious reasons,” Nero said.

Jed stopped abruptly. He looked quite disturbed.“She may have had very good reasons. After all, I spent a lot of time in there.”

“Umm… Okay. So she wanted to be close to you in an outhouse?” Marlowe’s whiskers twitched. “Yech.”

“The fact remains that someone took something out of that old compartment.” Nero turned to Jed. “Did you know about that?”

Jed swirled and dipped.“I might have had a little secret stash to hide some hooch from the missus back then.”

Nero exchanged a glance with Marlowe.“So you knew it was there, and you’re in communication with Esther… so…”

“No! It’s not like that. Esther is no killer, I swear to that!”

Poor Jed, he had it bad for Esther. Nero had never seen a ghost so smitten. Was Jed so gullible that Esther had him doing her dirty work? How far would he go for her?

“I don’t think she’s the killer, either,” Marlowe said.

Nero glanced at the younger cat.“Is there concrete evidence which has caused you to reach this conclusion or do you just favor her because she gives us treats?”

Marlowe’s steps faltered. “I… well… She seems so nice, I can’t imagine her killing anyone.”

“In our line of work, we can’t go with how we feel, we have to make conclusions based on evidence.” Nero tried to keep the exasperation out of his tone. One minute Marlowe seemed as if she was making great progress in the ways of becoming a cat detective and other times it was as if she’d taken two steps backwards. Oh well, not every feline could be a great detective like he was, he had to remember to be patient with his prot?g?e.

Jed swirled to Esther’s defense. “She is nice. And kind. She wants justice. Have you not considered that there may be another reason for her activities?”

They reached the house and Millie ripped the door open and ran inside with the other humans quickly following. Jed held back and Nero paused, waiting for him to fill them in.

“Well, what is her other reason?” Nero said finally.

Jed looked a bit unsure of himself.“I’m not sure exactly what Esther has in mind. Wait, it can’t be…” He paused and looked off in the distance, then said very softly, almost as if to himself, “ Yes… Yes… it all makes sense now. This goes back much deeper than either you or the humans think and I bet I know who is behind all of it.”

Twenty-Five

Millie skidded to a halt in the kitchen and we all piled in behind her. The door banged shut, leaving the cats outside. They wasted no time in meowing their displeasure and I opened it to let them in. The five of us stood around catching our breath.

“What’s your plan?” I asked Millie.

“I do think we need to proceed with caution. We could be dealing with a killer,” Millie said.

“Maybe weshould call Seth,” Mom suggested.

Millie pressed her lips together.“No time for that, if Esther is the killer we need to act fast. Victor is planning something and I’m sure Esther means to stop him.”

Meooow.Nero blinked up at us as if contributing to the conversation.

I looked down at him.“I know you like her, but this is bigger than cat treats.”

Nero seemed affronted. He yowled, turned his back end toward us and flicked his tail at me.

Millie frowned at him.“Anyway. I’m sure she is still in the house, probably waiting to make a move on Victor. I think the key is to catch her alone.”

“Good plan. Even if she tries something, it is three against one.” I pointed to Mom, Millie and then myself.

“And two cats,” Mom added.

“Right,” Millie said. “I think we should get her to show us what was in that envelope and potentially use that to get a confession. I have Seth on speed dial so we can call him in once we have solid evidence.”

“Good thinking. We wouldn’t want to call him prematurely lest we ruin our reputation,” Mom said.

Millie nodded.“We have to be very careful about our credibility. We’ve called him in on a few false leads before. Won’t make that mistake again.”

They were worried about theircredibility? I was more worried about another murder at the guesthouse.

Millie put her fingers to her lips with a shushing noise. Someone was rustling around in the butler’s pantry. We crept over to see Gail looking out the window.

Gail turned to us.“Shh… he’s out there. I saw him.”

“Who?” Mom asked, ducking down and then peeking up over the countertop to look out the window.

“Victor.” From the tone of Gail’s voice, she might as well have been telling us the devil was out there. I guess she did see him as such. I really hoped he was the killer, he seemed like a jerk, but the evidence we had pointed to Esther.

“What’s he doing?” Millie asked.

“Getting ready for his fake talk with Jed, I assume. He called in that reporter,” Gail whispered.

Anita Pendragon was out there too? I leaned closer to the glass but it was dark out and I couldn’t see a thing.

“Tonight is Victor’s last chance. I heard Anita saying the movie producer called her about the story. Nothing sensational has happened, so he’s moving on. Victor will have to up his game.” Gail turned to us, her eyes deadly serious and maybe a little crazy. “He may do something drastic. Maybe even murder.”

“You think he’s the killer?” Mom asked.

Gail turned back to the window and murmured,“I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Mom, Millie and I exchanged looks.Should we try to follow him?

“Here he comes!” Gail whispered as I saw a figure emerge from the shadows and head toward the back foyer.

We all ducked.

“What do you think he’s up to?” Mom whispered.

“Not sure.” Gail peeked up over the counter. “He must be setting things up for his big chance. Anita is out there too. I saw another shadowy figure over by the conservatory and it wasn’t Victor.”

The door to the foyer opened and we heard someone slip in. Sounded like they were trying to be quiet. Gail turned to us.“Are you going to catch him?”

Millie thought about that.“If he’s the killer we will. But first things first, these things must be done in a methodical manner. Do you know where Esther is?”

Gail cocked her ear toward the ceiling. We could hear Victor going up the stairs. The second-floor landing creaked but he kept going. Was he going to the attic? I’d locked the door, hadn’t I?

Gail didn’t look away from the ceiling as she spoke. “Esther’s in the front parlor gazing into that crystal ball of hers.”

Millie jerked her head in the direction of the front parlor and said,“Come on, ladies. We have no time to waste!”

Esther was in the front parlor just as Gail had said. She was seated at the oak table next to the window, her gaze fixated on the crystal ball, which was practically glowing atop the purple velvet cloth she’d laid on the table’s surface. I wondered if the cloth was part of her act or if she’d done that so as not to scratch the antique table. If it was the latter, I made a note to make sure to let her know I appreciated that… after we got a confession out of her, of course.

The cats were already there. They must have come in when we were talking to Gail. Marlowe was curled up on Esther’s lap and Nero was sitting on the corner of the table, his gaze fixed out the window.

Esther looked up at us, her eyes cloudy as if she were somewhere else entirely. Slowly her gaze cleared and her face registered surprise.

“Oh, hello.” Her voice sounded uncertain. I suppose it was a bit intimidating to look up and see the three of us looming over her.

Mew.Nero blinked at us. I sensed disapproval in his demeanor. Marlowe let out a snore from the comfort of Esther’s lap. I envied Marlowe’s ability to lapse into a catnap quickly and at any time, she was clearly oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

“Hi, Esther.” Millie’s tone was friendly as she sat down across from her.

“Would you like a reading?” Esther waved her hands over the crystal ball.

“No. We’d actually like to talk to you about something much more important.”

“Oh?” Esther’s gaze flicked between the three of us. “Yes. Those ghostly noises we heard earlier.”

Millie sat back in her chair and studied Esther.

“Those were dreadful, weren’t they?” Esther shivered.

“We think whoever is responsible must have hidden a device outside on the grounds,” Millie said.

“Oh? I hadn’t thought much about that.” Esther was a good liar. She really did look as if she hadn’t thought much about it. “I suppose they did. My guess is it was Victor.”

Millie drummed her fingers on the table, the sound muted by the purple cloth.“Maybe, but you were also seen outside in a very odd place.”

Meow!Marlowe stirred in Esther’s lap and something crinkled. The envelope from the bank? I looked over but she had a flowy caftan on that hid whatever was crinkling.

Marlowe glared at Millie, then stretched and jumped up onto the table next to Nero and followed his gaze out the window.

“Me?” Esther averted her gaze, focusing on the crystal ball. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Millie glanced up at me with a triumphant look. Esther was clearly lying and to Millie that meant she was the guilty party.

Mom leaned over the table.“Give it up, Esther. We know you’re hiding something.”

Mew!Nero’s tone held a warning, but it wasn’t directed at my mother. His gaze was steady out the window and… wait… someone was out there! I leaned forward to get a better look.

“I’m not hiding anything!” Esther was indignant.

“No? Then explain what you were doing in the outhouse!” Millie demanded.

“I had my reasons, which are none of your business,” Esther said quietly.

Outside something was moving. A shadow. I leaned even closer. It was Anita Pendragon! I could make out the shape of her hair and it looked like she was wearing a trench coat. Rather dramatic if you ask me. What in the world was she up to?

Muffled creaking came from above. With a sinking sensation, I realized that Ihad left the door unlocked. Had Victor really gone into the attic and if so, what was he doing?

“I think you have way too many secrets.” Millie leaned across the table. “Is one of those secrets the fact that you killed Madame Zenda?”

“What? No. I did not kill her.” Esther’s hands fell from the table to her lap.

“Well then, you won’t mind explaining why you lied about being at the antiques store,” Millie said.

“And what you purchased while you were there,” Mom added.

“Or what is in that envelope that you got from the bank.” I nodded toward her lap.

More crinkling. We had her now, she seemed rather nervous, her eyes darting to the crystal ball as if seeking advice from it.

“It’s not anything to do with the murder. Well, at least not Madame Zenda’s murder.” She clutched the envelope to her chest.

“Let us see it, then.” Mom grabbed a corner and tugged.

Esther tugged back.“It’s just information from the bank.”

“Good. Then you won’t mind if we look at it.” Mom tugged harder and Esther pulled back harder.

Something fell from Esther’s lap to the floor and rolled under the table. The hardwood floors in the guesthouse were quite old and things had sagged a bit. Anything that fell on the floor eventually rolled to the middle. Nero and Marlowe were on it like alley cats on mice, their paws batting it to and fro.

I was hoping to see an old buckle, but no dice. It was a pen. I picked it up. It had a modern pen tip, but looked quite old, similar to the one I’d seen in the picture at the bank where Jed was signing something. Esther must have had Agnes Withington retrofit it.

“Aha!” Millie pointed at the pen.

“So youwere at the antiques store,” Mom said.

“So what if I was?” Esther tugged the envelope back into her possession.

“You lied about it andthat means that you have something to hide,” Millie said.

“I didn’t have anything to hide. Agnes didn’t want me to tell anyone.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I gave her a reading.” Esther gestured toward the crystal ball. “Some people are funny about that. We traded services, I did a reading and she made an old fountain pen I had from my mother into a more useable product.”

I looked at the pen in my hand.“And you didn’t buy an old buckle?”

“No.” She sat straighter in her chair. “Now, if you are done interrogating me, I have much to do before Victor puts on his little show.”

“I bet you do.” Millie nodded knowingly. “Like making sure he doesn’t have a chance to do it at all!”

“You have it all wrong!” Esther’s voice quivered slightly.

Meow!

Nero and Marlowe scrambled up onto the table as another shadow passed. We were all looking out the window when creaking from overhead drew our attention to the ceiling. Mom seized the opportunity to reach over and grab the envelope, Esther tried to snatch it back, but she didn’t quite make it and the contents spilled out over the antique Persian rug.

I snatched up the papers. Surely this was the clue to it all? But it wasn’t, it was exactly as Esther had said—just old papers about the bank.

Esther shot up from her chair and shoved her hand in my face.“Give those back, they’re nothing to you.”

“Still feigning innocence. You might as well confess now. Josie will prove you’re the killer with what is on those papers.” Mom looked back at me with the utmost confidence. “Won’t you, Josie?”

I barely glanced up at my mother. I was too busy trying to figure out just what it was about the papers that tugged at my memory.

The first paper was the early history of the bank. It was a photocopy of an old piece of paper where someone had scrawled in blotchy ink a timeline of the first several months. I looked up at the top to see a date. I guess that must have been a diary of some sort, written by the bank’s founder, Thomas Remington, judging by the signature at the bottom. It detailed the money he’d used to start the bank and the small building he’d rented from which to do business.

“Well?” Millie looked at me expectantly.

“I’m not sure. This is a photocopy of an old journal from when the bank was founded.” I glanced over at Esther. She seemed resigned now, sitting back in her seat, no longer trying to get the papers back. Apparently she was too dignified to run now that we were about to prove why she’d kill Madame Zenda. If only I could figure out what this paper had to do with her plan and tie it into the murder…

I handed the paper to Millie and looked at the next one. It was a list of old coins similar to the ones I’d seen at the bank display. It was also in Thomas Remington’s hand and there was quite an extensive list. The bank sold antique coins, but I doubted they would part with any of the original coins Thomas had brought. Did the coins somehow figure into the murder?

“Ha! Look at that. I guess old Thomas Remington had perfect timing.” Millie glanced up from the first paper as I handed her the second.

“Why is that?” Mom had come to stand behind Millie and was looking over her shoulder. Esther was still seated but now she was looking into her crystal ball as if mesmerized. The cats were sitting on the table watching us.

I was barely listening to Mom and Millie’s conversation, my brain busy trying to make sense of all this as I scanned the third sheet, which appeared to be an accounting of old Remington family heirlooms and their value. It was almost like a receipt.

“Well, he opened the bank the same year Jedediah Biddeford was determined to be missing in Europe. He would have been out of a job if he hadn’t done that.” Millie reached for the next sheet and I handed it over.

The final sheet was the etching of the Oyster Cove guesthouse with Jed. He was wearing the shoes with the buckle. His wife stood next to him and children and staff to the side. Now why did that keep cropping up? I looked up at Esther, our eyes locking. Suddenly I knew what Esther had been up to. We’d made a huge mistake.

Millie snatched the last piece of paper out of my hand, pointed to it and addressed Esther.“Now there! This proves you’re the killer!”

“Yeah!” Mom agreed, then frowned and looked at me. “Err… could you explain just how it does that?”

“It doesn’t—”

Thunk!

A heavy onyx bookend toppled to the floor from the second shelf of the bookcase cutting off my words. Good thing it landed on the rug, might have made a dent in the floor otherwise.

“What?” Millie wore an expression of quizzical disappointment.

Meooo!

Merooolow!

Meruuuus!

The cats screeched as they bolted into the hallway. I could hear their footsteps racing up the stairs.

Realizing they were headed to the attic, I shot out of my seat.“I know who killed Madame Zenda and it wasn’t Esther. We better hurry or there may be another murder!”

We’d reached the doorway when the lights went out, stopping us cold. That was odd, there was no storm, why would the power go out?

Of course! It was the killer. We’d left our flashlights in the kitchen. Did we have time to get them?

And that’s when we heard the scream.

Twenty-Six

The scream left no doubt that there was no time to fumble around for the flashlights we’d left in the kitchen, so we headed straight for the stairs. By now my eyes had become accustomed somewhat to the dark and the moon shining through the windows helped, not to mention the meows of the cats who were just ahead of us. Lucky thing I didn’t have to try to fit the key into the lock.Then again, if I’d locked the door like I was meant to, I supposed we wouldn’t be running up here to stop a murder.

As we rushed up the stairs, noises from above quickened our steps. The moonlight had splashed in through the windows in the main house, but windows were sparse in the attic, so it was nearly pitch black. Muffled sounds came from the very far end where I’d seen Jedediah Biddeford’s trunk.

“Ooof… Arghhh…”

Not ghostly noises this time, these were coming from a human.

Mew. Nero’s meow was soft but insistent, as if he knew it was urgent for us to move toward the sounds but that we might not want to let the killer know we were there.

I focused on the direction of the noise, I was sure it was the back corner now, but getting there was another story. The attic was full of piled up cast-offs and it was too dark for me to see the path. Taking the wrong one might be off course and I’d be too late.

I started in one direction, but then felt a cold resistance and backtracked.

“Oghhhh…”

Oh no, that didn’t sound good. We were making slow progress; a few times I’d taken a step down the wrong path but had felt an odd cold resistance blocking me and then turned around.

Meroo!Marlowe didn’t need to tell me we were almost there, I could see the dark shadow of a person moving about as if wrestling something that was on the floor below them. Then a sickening thud. “Aghshhhh…”

“Hold it right there. We have you covered!” Millie shouted from behind me.

“Look out… gaghhh… gun!” A man’s voice came from the floor. Was he warning us or was this some kind of trick?

Esther trotted up behind us catching her breath beside me.“Wait, that sounded like Victor. I thought he was the killer!”

“No, it must be Anita!” Mom said. “I knew she was up to no good.”

They were both wrong.“I’m afraid not, it’s—”

“Shut up or I’ll shoot!” a voice shouted. “It’s unfortunate you’re all here. Now I’ll need to think up a new plan.”

“Guess it’s not Anita. Is there really a gun?” Mom whispered. “Maybe they’re bluffing.”

“And what is Victor doing on the floor?” Esther asked.

“I think he’s tied up,” Mom said.

“I wish I could see.” Millie craned her neck forward beside me. “We need to surround him then someone can get him from behind.”

Millie’s idea about surrounding the killer was a good one, but now that my eyes were getting used to the low level of light, I could see that wouldn’t be possible. He was in the corner, backed up against a tall bureau that had boxes piled high. Beside that, other pieces of furniture were jammed in all the way to the walls. There would be no way to get behind there easily.

“Maybe someone should go down and get the flashlights,” Mom whispered. “I can sneak back without him noticing in the dark.”

“Quiet, all of you!” The killer waved something in the air. A gun, or was it a bluff? “Get up against those bureaus, spread out so I can see all of you. Wouldn’t do to have one of you sneaking off now.”

My mind was racing—we had to come up with a way to distract him so we could overpower him. Maybe if I got him talking, he’d get distracted and it would give me time to think. “You won’t get way with this, M—”

Zzzzpt!

The lights came on, temporarily blinding me. I blinked, trying to keep my eyes on the gun. Maybe now I could rush the killer and…

“Myron Remington!” Millie gasped, looking from Myron to me. “Did you know it was him, Josie?”

Well, at least I was right about that. Myronwas the killer. Too bad Victor was also right… Myron had a gun and it was pointed at us.

Myron looked dazed and a little spooked.“Who turned the lights on?” He glanced around the room as if expecting some sort of specter to appear. Too bad he didn’t loosen his grip on the gun.

On the floor in front of Myron lay Victor. He was tied up and he must have passed out… at least I hoped he was only passed out and not dead. The sound of someone gasping behind us drew our attention.

Gail stood behind Millie, looking over her shoulder at Victor on the floor.“I heard the noises up here. Did you capture Victor?”

“No, silly.” Mom turned her so she could see Myron with his gun. “Myron did. He’s the killer.”

Gail frowned.“Victor doesn’t look dead.”

“He’s not,” Myron snapped. “At least not yet. I guess you can all go together now. I won’t say I regret that. You’re all too nosey for your own good.”

Merooo!Nero sounded indignant on our behalf.

Mewooo! Marlowe agreed.

The cats were pacing around in front of Myron. I wasn’t sure if they had a plan, but I certainly hoped so.

“You might as well give up now, Myron. There are many of us and just one of you.” I gestured to our little group now huddled against a large mahogany server pushed against the wall.

“Yeah but I have the gun.” Myron’s lips curved in a sinister smile. Apparently he’d recovered from his shock of the lights coming on. I would have preferred they stayed out, at least that way some of us would have a chance of getting away, but now he could clearly see all of us.

I barely heard what Myron was saying as I was busy wondering how we could get around behind him. Maybe Victor would wake up and trip him? I couldn’t count on that and now with the lights on he’d see if one of us broke from the group and tried to slip between the furniture to the back. Where was Flora when you needed her? Last time we’d gotten ourselves into a predicament like this, she’d snuck up from behind and clobbered the killer.

“Okay then, a little change in plans might be good.” Myron looked confident in his new plan. “Hmm… I think I’ll use Gail’s vendetta against Victor here.” Myron kicked Victor who let out a miserable groan.

“What do you mean?” Gail asked.

“Don’t think I don’t know about that,” Myron said. “It’s too bad that everyone will think that you became so obsessed with him that you burned down the guesthouse.”

Millie’s hands flew to her face and she gasped. The cats meowed. I felt a little disturbed at the prospect myself. Not just that it was my home and how I made my living, I was getting quite attached to the place.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Myron continued. “It won’t be a total loss… except for all of you perishing during the fire. I’ll put a nice big hotel or some condos here. I did notice a good spot for a pool where that old barn is.”

So hehad been scoping out the grounds! Though I guessed that was only a secondary reason for him being out in the yard earlier.“But that’s not what you were doing outside earlier today, is it?”

Myron nodded at me as if approving of my skills of deduction.“Nah. I guess I can tell you now since you won’t be able to tell anyone. I was hiding the speakers that made the ghostly noises.”

“Why?” Millie asked. “I thought you didn’t want ghosts to be associated with the guesthouse?”

Myron narrowed his gaze on Millie.“Ha! That’s where you got it wrong. I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

Esther stepped out of our little circle toward Myron.“It won’t work, Myron… I told the police the truth.”

Myron stared at her as if trying to decide whether or not to believe her.

“That’s right. I have the proof of what really happened, and I got it from your very own bank.” She stood a few feet from him, hands on her hips. Apparently she didn’t care that the gun was pointed directly at her. “I did it for Jed.”

The cats seemed agitated at this pronouncement and paced around her feet as if trying to protect her.

“Liar!” The gun wavered in Myron’s hand. “The bank tellers only said that Victor was there getting old coins. He was planning on putting on quite a show.”

“Figures,” Gail muttered.

Esther shook her head.“Nope. I was there too and now I know the truth.”

“I doubt that,” Myron scoffed, but he was starting to look nervous.

“What truth?” Millie whispered. “How is Myron mixed up in this?”

“The papers…” I whispered to Mom and Millie.

“Papers?” Millie asked.

“The ones Esther had from the bank. You gave me the clue, Millie. You said it was a good thing that Thomas Remington opened the bank when he did because he would have been out of a job with Jed’s death.”

“Yeah, but how could a butler afford—” Millie’s eyes widened. “Oh… the treasure!”

“What are you whispering about back there?” Myron demanded.

“Esther’s right,” I said. “We know the truth about the bank. It’s no use. Let us go and the police will go easier on you.” I wasn’t really sure if that was true. In fact, I hoped they wouldn’t go easier on him, but I always heard them say that on TV and it sounded good.

Myron made a face.“I was afraid this would happen. You and your mother and Millie are so nosey. What papers are you talking about?”

“Turns out your pride was your downfall,” Millie said. “You had to display all the history of the bank and old Thomas’ journal papers. That’s how I figured it out. The timing wasn’t right for him to raise that much money!”

I frowned at Millie. Did she just say thatshe’d figured it out? I guess it wouldn’t matter much who actually figured it out if we didn’t find a way to get out of this.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Myron asked. “Those papers don’t prove anything and, since no one else will think to look at them, I don’t think anyone else will put two and two together.”

“Not just the papers,” I said. I didn’t want Myron getting any more confident than he already was. The best course of action was to get him feeling uncertain and then he’d be distracted and we could use that to our advantage. “It was also that pen.”

He turned the gun toward me.“Pen?”

“Yeah, the carved ivory pen you left here that day you viewed Ed’s work on the ballroom. You had it retrofitted for modern use by Agnes Withington, didn’t you?”

“It’s an antique and I wanted it to be of use. So what?”

“Yes, it is an antique. In fact, I saw it in an old etching, but it wasn’t Thomas Remington who was using it. It was Jedediah Biddeford. So it made me wonder… how did the pen come into your possession?”

“Thomas must have stolen it!” Mom said.

“Yep, and if he stole that, he probably stole Jed’s fancy shoes with the buckles too. Isn’t that right, Myron.”

Myron’s confidence was faltering. This was my chance! Millie could take it from here, so I whispered in her ear. “Cover me and keep him talking.”

Millie maneuvered herself in front of me and I backed up, slowly receding into the dim shadows. Myron was too distracted to notice when I slipped behind the server, crouching low so he wouldn’t see me making my way to circle around behind him.

“So what if Thomas stole some things from Jed? He deserved them, working as a butler all those years for a pittance. He didn’t have any nice clothes and he needed to look presentable when he opened the bank.”

“So you put the buckle and the note on Madame Zenda to scare people off.” Mom paused, then added. “But why use the Oyster Cove Guesthouse letter opener?”

“To scare people off, of course.” Myron wiggled the fingers of his free hand in the air. “Make people think the ghost did it because he didn’t want anyone in his house.”

“That’s why you kept coming over,” Millie said. “You weren’t checking on the progress of the renovations, you were checking to see if anyone had figured out the real truth. And maybe you were a little afraid that someone really had been talking to Jed’s ghost.”

“Ha! I ain’t afraid of no ghost. But I did have to make sure no one found out the truth,” Myron said.

“So you tried to scare us off with those ghost noises,” Mom said. “How did you do that?”

“Remote.” Myron sounded pleased with himself.

A large box blocked my path and I moved it slowly so as to make no sound as I thought back to when we’d heard the noises. Myron had seemed frightened, ducking behind Mom and Millie… or so I’d thought. Now I realized he’d actually been hiding back there so no one would see him work the remote.

“But where did you put the recorder that made the noises? We looked everywhere,” Millie said.

“Oh, I bet that’s what he was doing out by the barn!” Mom answered.

“That’s right, too bad you figured it out too late.” Myron’s voice took on a sinister tone and my heart pounded as I wedged myself in between a marble-topped bureau and a Victorian sofa with most of the horsehair stuffing exposed.

“But why?” Mom asked. “Everything happened three hundred years ago.”

“Because if they knew the bank was started with stolen money they could take it away. The heirs, those cheesy guests you had here a few weeks ago, might try to get the money back. I couldn’t risk anyone finding out the real truth…” Myron was starting to sound manic.

I quickly pushed another box out of the way and suppressed a sneeze. My quest was stirring up a lot of dust and I wasn’t making much progress, I just hoped I’d get behind Myron in time to do something.

“The real truth?” Millie sounded confused.

“That’s right, its worse than stolen money!” Esther’s voice had a triumphant ring to it and I popped my head up over a cherry Chippendale server to see that she’d broken from the group and was standing a few feet from Myron, her hands fisted on her hips. She looked round at the corners ofthe ceiling and projected her voice as if speaking to someone other than those of us present in the room. “Myron’s ancestor, Thomas Remington, killed Jed and put him in the wall. Then he dug up Jed’s treasure and used it to start the bank.”

“Oh, you don’t say,” Mom said.

“And that’s why Myron had to stop Madame Zenda… and now Victor… from telling the truth. He’s the killer!” Esther yelled.

“Fine, it’s true! And since my ancestor is a killer, then a few more dead bodies won’t matter!” Myron grabbed Esther and pulled her in front of him, pressing the gun to her temple.

Esther cried out.

The cats wailed.

I froze in place, not sure what to do. I was too far away to get behind Myron in time! Then I saw something strange. The bureau behind Myron started to shake, the boxes on top wobbled and then they started to topple, one by one as if an unseen hand was pushing them over.

Thunk!

Thunk!

Thunk!

The boxes hit Myron on the head, causing him to let go of Esther. He batted at them as they fell. Millie and Mom rushed toward him and my heart leapt. The boxes weren’t enough to render him unconscious and he still had the gun. What if one of them got shot?

The boxes had fallen around Myron, their contents spilling out on the floor. He was dazed but not out. Then the bureau gave one last wobble. A heavy, peacock-shaped alabaster lamp flew off and hit Myron square on the back of the head.

He crumpled to the ground and Mom, Millie and Esther dived on top. The cats joined them, Nero sitting on Myron’s backside and Marlowe on his ankles.

I rushed behind the bureau expecting to see Flora, just like the last time we caught a killer, but no one was there. It was empty except for a cold breeze and a few droplets of moisture on the edge of the bureau. I made a mental note to have Ed check the roof for leaks. Looking down, I saw the only footprints in the thick dust were mine. I would have suspected the cats, but not even a paw print could be seen, and I could have sworn they’d been in front of Esther when the boxes fell.

I glanced over the top of the bureau to see that Mom, Millie and Esther had taken the gun. Myron was out cold. Victor had woken up and was looking around, confused. Gail was standing over him and I do believe she was thinking about giving him a swift kick.

The bureau lurched to one side and I noticed the front leg was broken. Is that what had caused all the toppling? Either that was a lucky coincidence or, perhaps, other forces were at work. I didn’t have much time to think about it because just then I heard footsteps running in our direction. Anita Pendragon burst out from between a gilt-decorated armoire and a tall pine hutch.

She surveyed the scene, catching her breath. Her eyes went from Victor tied up to Myron lying on the floor. She whipped out her camera and started snapping pictures.

“I don’t know what the heck you people are up to here, but it looks like I finally got myself a scoop!”

Twenty-Seven

Four days later….

The scent of molasses and cinnamon filled the Oyster Cove Guesthouse kitchen. Millie’s Aunt Gertie’s famous molasses cookies were in the oven, but they weren’t for guests this time. All the guests had left, so the baked goods were just for Mom, Millie, Mike and me as we sat around the old kitchen table discussing the strange turn of events over the past week.

Nero and Marlowe were at their stainless-steel bowls in the butler’s pantry enjoying a treat of salmon and looking quite pleased with themselves. They deserved the treat as we all felt they’d tried to help capture Myron.

“Hard to believe that Myron went to such lengths to cover up the original murder of Jedediah Biddeford.” Millie stood by the counter with an oven mitt on her right hand, ready to grab the cookies as soon as they were done.

“He had to, otherwise the bank could be in trouble because the initial funds were from ill-gotten gains,” Mike said. “He confessed to everything.”

“He sure went to a lot of trouble. Imagine killing someone and leaving that note and buckle!” Mom said.

“And using the Oyster Cove Guesthouse letter opener as the murder weapon to scare people off. He must have nabbed that on one of his visits,” I added. “He thought it through.”

“Yep,” Mike said. “He’ll be going away for a long time. I heard the Biddefords are suing the bank to get the original value of Jed’s treasure plus interest.”

“Oh dear,” Millie said. “I hope that doesn’t affect Josie’s loan on the guesthouse repairs.”

“I think the bank will be okay,” Mike said. “The Biddefords will settle for enough to get their cheese-sculpting business on track and make improvements. Plenty of money will be left. Myron’s cousin is taking over bank operations, I’m sure he’ll honor the loan.”

“Actually, I’m not worried about that. I got a little windfall from Esther.” I tapped the large manila envelope that sat in the middle of the table. I’d received it earlier that morning and was quite shocked at the contents.

Mew!Nero and Marlowe trotted over at the sound of Esther’s name. The cats had meowed at the window for twenty minutes when she left three days ago. She’d turned and waved goodbye to them, then studied the house for a few seconds before getting into the airport shuttle. She’d said something funny to me about “not worrying about the grand old house” right before she went out the door, but I hadn’t paid it much attention until the envelope arrived.

“What’s in it?” Mom asked.

I tipped the envelope and a pile of hundred-dollar bills slid out, along with a note.

Mom gasped.

Millie dropped the oven mitt.

Mike frowned.

“Where in the world did that come from?” Millie asked.

“Remember the secret hiding spot in the outhouse?” I asked.

Mom and Millie nodded.

“Well, turns out Estherwas in there. Somehow she’d figured out that there was a secret hiding spot in there and she found a bunch of old coins. I guess she didn’t feel right keeping them and she sold them for modern currency and sent it to me to help with the repairs on the guesthouse.” I pulled a note out from under the bills. “In her note it says that she fell in love with the house and hopes the money will go a long way to helping restore it to its former glory.”

Mike angled his head sideways to read the note.“Huh. So, I guess she onlyseemed suspicious because she was looking for clues to the identity of Jed’s killer the whole time.”

“Yep,” I said.

“Interesting. I wonder why she was so keen on figuring out who Jed’s killer was and not as interested in Madame Zenda’s killer?” Mike asked.

I shrugged.“It turned out that one led to the other, so it all came out in the end.”

“Fantastic!” Millie bent down to pick up the oven mitt. “I knew that she wasn’t the killer all along.”

Now I was the one frowning. I seemed to recall that she was almost certain Esther was the killer, if the interrogation she was subjecting her to prior to us rushing up to the attic was any indication.

Mom was frowning at her, too.“But Millie, you said—”

Millie interrupted her with a wave of the oven mitt.“That’s all water under the bridge now. Seth did commend us for catching Myron. Of course, he claimed he was just about to wrap up the case with his own evidence, but there’s nothing like catching the killer with a gun in his hand pointed at the potential next victim.”

“Speaking of which, I think Victor got off a little too easy,” Mom said. “I was rooting for him as the killer.”

The oven timer went off and Millie took the cookies out, talking to us over her shoulder as she scraped the cookies off the baking sheet with a spatula.“Gail was too. I know she was disappointed Victor didn’t get arrested, but he didn’t do anything. Victor did seem very upset by the whole thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if he walked the straight and narrow from now on.”

“I don’t know about that. He did try to fake the whole communicating with Jed thing and even buried a cache of coins in a burlap sack near the gazebo so he could dig it up later and pretend he’d discovered the treasure!” Mom said.

“Ironically, he’d purchased the coins at Myron’s own bank,” Mike said. “He blurted that all out to Sheriff Chamberlain without prompting. I don’t think he’d make a very good criminal. And burying the coins wasn’t illegal, so I guess he goes free.”

“Well, hopefully that will be the last we see of him. I would like to see Gail get her revenge for him causing such sorrow to her friend, but I suppose everyone can’t get what they want. Karma will get him in the end.” Mom tapped the town newspaper that had been sitting on the table. “Anitacame out ahead, though. She did get her scoop—though it wasn’t really the one she expected.”

The front page of the paper had the large image of Myron lying in the attic surrounded by the boxes and the various items that had fallen out of them. The cats were sitting on his backside and it almost looked like they were posing for the camera. Underneath a large caption read:Local Banker Thwarted by Ghost.

Anita had told us afterwards that she’d seen a shadowy figure—which we realized was Myron—lurking over by the side of the house just before the lights went out. She figured it wasn’t a power outage and went to the main electrical box, which was still located in its original position outside on the corner of the house, to investigate. It took her a while, but she figured out the circuits had been flipped and she turned the lights back on.

“Funny, though, it seems it took Anita a while to get up to the attic after turning the lights back on.” Millie took a large crystal plate down from the cabinet and started arranging the cookies on it. “And whatwas she doing lurking around here anyway?”

“She was meeting Victor. She said he had told her something big was going to happen and she might want to cover it.” I repeated what Anita had told me. “She claims she didn’t know he was planning on faking everyone out with those buried coins. She said she turned the lights on and then cameinside as it all seemed suspicious. She heard the noises, but it took her a while to figure out we were in the attic.”

“Probably took some time to snoop around.” Millie placed the plate of cookies on the table and we all took one.

“I see she’s still working the ghost angle.” Mike pointed to the headline.

“Yeah.” Millie broke off a piece of her cookie and nibbled on it. “But the producer is no longer interested, seems he has a more interesting story developing in some little town called Mystic Notch over in the White Mountains.”

“Well, it’s all for the best, because Anita doesn’t really have a ghost story here.” I was sure there was no ghost at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.

“Yes, but how did those boxes fall on Myron?” Mom bit into her cookie.

“The bureau leg was broken. I guess it must have been ready to let go and the added weight of all of us up there on those old floors must have shifted things in such a way that the leg buckled and the boxes toppled at exactly the right time.” The timingwas suspicious, but that was my story and I was sticking to it.

“Maybe the cats had something to do with it,” Millie suggested. “If they jumped on the bureau, that could have been enough to cause the leg to break.”

Meow. Nero blinked up at us with his intelligent golden eyes. I was certain the cats were at Esther’s feet when the boxes toppled, but I didn’t say anything.

“Funny that Myron faked all that ghost business the whole time. He must have really wanted to scare people off.” Mom took a second cookie then paused with it halfway to her mouth. “Odd though, I wonder how he got things to keep falling off mantles and tables, even when he wasn’t here.”

I’d wondered about that too. “The house is old and settling and I think those things might have just fallen because things are uneven. Remember how Esther’s pen rolled toward the center of the room the night we caught Myron? It’s natural in an old house that things are uneven, right, Mike?”

“Sure, to some degree.” Mike didn’t seem as convinced at my explanation, but what else could it be?

“Of course that must be it,” Millie said. “And I’m glad this business is over. No more talk of murders or ghosts. I could use a little break from investigating.”

Mom scowled.“Well, I don’t know about taking a break from investigating, but I’m glad there’s a reasonable explanation for everything. After all, there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

Meow!

Thud!

The rolling pin, which had been on the counter, hit the floor. We watched in silence as it rolled toward the kitchen door.

“Well now.” Millie got up, gingerly retrieved the rolling pin and put it on the counter. “I guess that proves Josie’s theory about the house settling. As you can see, it rolled right toward the door. The counters must be a bit off level too. Maybe you should look into that, Mike.”

“Maybe I will. I’d love to have an excuse to spend more time here.” Mike’s pointed look made my cheeks heat and I ignored him, focusing on the tangy sweetness of the molasses cookie. “Or maybe you’d like to get away from Millie’s cooking and have dinner some time.”

I almost choked on the cookie.“Maybe.” I glanced at my mother. If she thought I was going on a date with Mike, she’d never let me live it down. But she wasn’t paying attention to our conversation, she was busy frowning at the rolling pin that was now innocently sitting on the counter.

Mom shoved the rest of her cookie in her mouth, tilted her head and looked at the ceiling.“Yes, I’m sure that’s it. The house is sagging. Has to be, since we all know there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Nero pulled his tail in, out of the way of the rolling pin, which was picking up speed as it rolled toward the door. He glanced up at Jed.“Did you really need to do that?”

Jed smiled.“Sorry, just wanted to pull their legs one last time.”

“Onelast time?” A hopeful tone crept into Nero’s voice. Though he liked Jed well enough, he’d been secretly hoping the ghost wouldn’t stick around.

“Yeah, now that I’m free I’ve decided to hang around with Esther. I’m meeting her out at an event at some haunted house in Noquitt, Maine.” Jed winked at Nero. “Ha! We’ll show them what a real haunted house is like!”

“I have to admit that was quite a feat you pulled off in the attic.” Marlowe positioned herself at Mike’s feet and stared up at him adoringly. She knew he couldn’t resist that look and it usually resulted in a nice treat being handed under the table. “And here we thought you could only move small objects.”

“I thought that too! But when my Esther was threatened, I found the strength. I just couldn’t let that nasty banker hurt her! And to think Esther did all that and risked her life just to figure out who my killer was.” Jed beamed with pride.

“For a while I thought the killer might have been your wife’s ghost,” Nero said.

Jed ducked behind Millie’s chair. “Where?”

“I didn’t say I saw her, I just thought maybe all these shenanigans were her doing. You did say she couldn’t be trusted.” Nero put his paw on Rose’s knee and was rewarded with a tiny piece of muffin.

“Seriously?” Jed glanced around the room. “I mean, I’m not afraid of ghosts or anything, but I am afraid of my wife…”

“Nah, she’s not here.” Nero glanced around, his senses on high alert just to be certain. Nope. No ghostly vibes other than Jed’s.

“Oh, phew.” Jed came out from behind the chair. “Yes, she might have been in on it with Remington. And to think my trusted butler did me in and if it wasn’t enough to kill me and stick me in a wall, he stole my pen and my good shoes!”

“And the treasure,” Marlowe said. “At least now everyone knows that treasure is long gone and people will stop coming here looking for it.”

“Good thing Victor didn’t get to pull off his little stunt of digging up the coins he’d buried.” Nero hopped up on the bookcase and looked out the window. “The whole state would be here looking for more.”

“That was clever of you to send Esther for your little stash that was hidden in the outhouse. Good thing no one else discovered it all these years,” Marlowe said. “You could have told us it was there though.”

“Sorry I didn’t tell you. I was saving that for someone special. I’d hidden the coins there the night I buried the bulk of the treasure in the yard. I wanted to be able to get at some of my treasure. Couldn’t go digging the main stash up every time I wanted some extra coin. Course, I never got to even use any of it myself. I meant for Esther to keep that money, but she said it didn’t rightly belong to her. She loved this old house and wanted to see it fixed up like it was back when I lived here.” Jed looked at Josie. “We trust Josie to do that.”

Nero felt a rush of pride in his human. Josie might not be so swift in the area of cat-human communication, but she could definitely be trusted and Nero knew she was growing very fond of the guesthouse and would do right by it.

“So now that your killer has been named, you’re free to go to the other side.” Marlowe looked at Jed curiously. “But you choose to stay here.”

“Indeed. There’s nothing for me over there. But Esther and I have worked out a nice system of communication through her crystal ball.” Jed checked the clock on the stove. “Speaking of which, I have to sail off now. Gotta meet my lady. It’s been nice working with you cats. Perhaps we will meet again someday.”

And with that Jed slowly dissipated, leaving no evidence that he’d ever been there except for a slight mist on the floor.

The humans were cleaning up the dishes and Nero and Marlowe trotted to the front parlor. They were in dire need of a catnap. All this investigating was tiring.

“At least one of the guests here really could communicate with ghosts,” Marlowe said as she curled up in the blue velvet chair.

“I always knew Esther wasn’t the killer. She was too nice to us.” Nero chose a spot on the corner of the sofa. Resisting the urge to run his claws through the brocade fabric, he turned a circle, settling in with his tail wrapped around his nose.

“Yeah, but did you know who the killer was beforehand?” Marlowe asked.

“I suspected Myron,” Nero said. “But of course I didn’t want to say anything out loud. I mean, can you imagine if I’d suggested the whole thing stemmed from the fact that the butler did it? How clich?d! If on the off-chance I was wrong, I’d have been the laughing stock of the cat community.”

Marlowe slitted an eye open and looked at Nero, then sighed and snuggled deeper into the chair.“I’m glad both cases are solved. I’m looking forward to long restful days spent catnapping and chasing mice.”

“Me too,” Nero mumbled, already drifting off to sleep. “Hopefully it will be a good long while before another murder happens at the Oyster Cove Guesthouse.”

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Лейганн Доббс A Twist In The Tail. A Whisker In The Dark. A Purrfect Alibi