Лейганн Доббс - A Whisker In The Dark

“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.”

“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.