Лейганн Доббс - A Whisker In The Dark

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 be happy 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.

“Not you .” 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 was not 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’t want 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 from The 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 I was 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?”