Лейганн Доббс - A Twist In The Tail

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 move back 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.