Лейганн Доббс - A Twist In The Tail

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.