Лейганн Доббс - A Purrfect Alibi

“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.”

“That is 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 crumbling cupola 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 sort of 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?”