Лейганн Доббс - A Twist In The Tail

She looked at me skeptically then went back to stamping. ‘Just because you were married to a jerk, shouldn’t sour you on men. Look at all the jerks I dated before I found the right guy.’

Jen wasn’t joking, she had dated a lot of jerks, but now she was with her soulmate. I was a little envious of their wedded bliss, but also doubtful that would happen for me. I was no spring chicken. ‘I don’t think I’m ready for dating.’

‘Ohhh so there’s a chance you might be someday. Good, I’ll keep that in mind.’

‘Great. So back to the case...’

‘Right’ She made a face as if trying to remember the specifics. ‘What about the sabotage? Could Ron have done that?’

I’d wondered that myself, but it wasn’t like it took a lot of strength or skill to do that sawing. One would have to know just where to make the cuts, but it wasn’t rocket science. ‘Maybe Ron was a carpenter before. I mean he certainly could have sabotaged the room and he made a remark about small-town police not following up thoroughly, so I wonder if he was banking on the fact that Seth Chamberlain might not even notice the sabotage and rule it an accident.’

Jen stopped stamping and thought about it. ‘I guess that is a lot of counts against them. I just can’t believe those nice people could be killers. The Wessons were so nice.’

‘Wessons? You mean Weatherbys.’

She scrunched her face up. ‘No. Wesson. They came in to pick up a package the other day and I’m certain that was the name on it.’

‘No. They signed in as Weatherby. It was on his license.’

Jen’s brows shot up. ‘What if they have a fake identity? If they are the killers, they might be pretending to be someone else.’

‘Why? I doubt they came here knowing they would kill someone.’ Then again, if they came knowing they were going to poison the gulls, maybe they did use a fake identity.

‘Serial seagull killers? Who knows. With fake names they can kill off whole colonies of gulls and then disappear and no one can trace it back to them.’

That made sense to me. ‘You could be on to something. There is definitely something suspicious about the old couple.’

‘There’s only one way to find out what it is.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Follow them around and see what they do. If they killed Charles because he discovered they were doing something shady, and they didn’t leave town right away, then chances are they are still doing it.’

Seventeen

Nero shrunk back into the doorway of the bookstore as Josie came out of the Post Office. ‘Get back! She’ll see us!’

Marlowe crouched low beside him. Juliette, Boots and Harry just looked at him.

‘So what if she sees you?’ Stubbs asked.

‘We don’t want her to think we’re following her.’

‘Ahh... Still playing aloof?’ Juliette preened.

‘Yep. Plus we don’t want her to try to lock us up inside or anything. We need to be free to protect her,’ Marlowe said.

All the cats shuddered at the thought of being shut up inside. Sure, many humans tried to curtail their outdoor activities thinking it was in their best interest and it likely was for regular cats. But Nero and his gang were special and needed to be free to roam around. How else would they solve mysteries?

‘Especially since I feel she may be barking up the wrong tree.’ Nero peeked out from his hiding spot. Josie was almost a block away. He slipped out and trotted a few stores down, taking care to stick close to the edge of the building and duck into doorways when possible. The others followed.

‘Barking up the wrong tree?’ Juliette asked. ‘Sounds like something that Mrs. Peterson’s chihuahua would do.’

‘I’ve seen him do that a few times,’ Harry said.

‘Very funny,’ Boots ran his paw the length of his long whisker, curling it up at the end with a flourish. ‘Nero means that he thinks Josie is on the wrong track. Why don’t you fill us in Nero?’

‘There was an incident at the guesthouse last night that eliminated some of the suspects.’ Nero told them how Tony had come to the Guesthouse and what happened after. Admittedly, he might have embellished the whole confrontation part a little bit to make it seem like he and Marlowe had stopped Tony from harming Josie, but since Marlowe didn’t disagree he felt like he was within his rights. He certainly would have if it came to that.

‘Darn. I thought that clog print was a sure-fire clue and Tony would take the rap. So now what?’ Stubbs asked.

‘Once Tony was cleared, we knew Josie had to go back to the earlier clue. The note.’ Nero ducked quickly behind a tree when Josie turned around. ‘Holy Hiss, did she see us?’

Marlowe, who had ducked right behind him, peered out. ‘I don’t think so. Looks like she’s getting into her car.’

‘Hmm… I wish I knew where she was going.’ Nero narrowed his gaze at Josie, who was settling in behind the wheel of her twelve-year-old Dodge sedan.

‘Hopefully back to the guesthouse,’ Harry said.

‘We can take the shortcut back there,’ Nero suggested.

‘Did you convince her to look at the note? I thought the police had it,’ Boots said.

Marlowe nodded. ‘It took quite a bit of effort, but she finally got the hint. Luckily she had a picture of it on her phone.’

‘So what happened? Don’t tell me the note was a bum steer,’ Stubbs said, using his hard-boiled detective lingo again.

‘She puzzled out the potential meanings of the letters,’ Nero said.

‘Josie seems quite adept at word puzzles and games. I’ve seen her do the crosswords before,’ Marlowe added.

‘She discovered something?’ Juliette asked.

‘Now she suspects the Weatherbys. I feel she might be getting into dangerous territory though and want to keep her close.’ Josie’s car pulled onto the road and Nero dove under a shrub, scaring the bejesus out of a sparrow who burst out the other side like he’d been shot from a canon.

‘Are you sure she’s correct in suspecting the Weatherbys?’ Boots asked. ‘My whiskers are tingling at the thought and not in a good way.’

‘There are some clues. We saw gull feathers and nesting material in their room,’ Marlowe said.

‘And I saw them near the gulls’ nests,’ Juliette added.

‘They do seem overly interested in the gulls and Josie thought the note might be a blackmail note because Charles caught someone messing around with the gulls somehow.’

‘You mean this all has to do with what is happening to the gulls?’ Harry asked.

‘It’s a possibility.’ Nero scrambled out from under the bush and shook errant leaves off his coat, then started to groom off any dirt that might have gotten on the white patch of his chest. ‘Whatever the real reason is, Josie is determined to find the killer. Her reputation is on the line, after all.’

‘Of course. And we must assist like we always do.’

‘Great. Well, we gotta run.’ Nero trotted off in the direction of the shortcut that led to the guesthouse. ‘I’ll keep you all posted.’

‘Let us know if we can do anything else!’ Poe yelled after him.

‘You know where to find us!’ Harry added.

‘I’ll be watching the cliff from the Belfry!’ Juliette purred.

Nero broke into a full run, Marlowe at his tail. If they hurried they could get back to the guesthouse before Josie did something that might put herself in danger.

I waited almost all day for the Weatherbys to make a move. I hovered around the front rooms with my duster, trying to look busy. I wanted to stay near the foyer so I could catch them if they left, but there was only so much dusting and straightening one could do in the front rooms.

I felt a little like a creep. Was I doing the right thing? If they were innocent, I’d simply see them taking pictures of birds. But if not…