A Twist In The Tail

Nero and Marlowe were at the far wall. Thankfully they seemed unharmed and I wondered if all the incessant meowing was simply because they were admiring themselves in the few shards left of the wall-length mirror that still clung to the wall. Right now it reflected the dilapidated room, but I imagined guests in ball gowns and elbow length gloves waltzing around on the dance floor, their images reflected in the gigantic mirror, making the room look twice as large and the crowd twice as big.

‘This place is in bad shape.’ Mike stood in the middle of the room surveying its entirety. I doubted he was picturing ballroom dancers. He might have been picturing a ball, but it was probably more like a wrecking ball.

Meow! Nero’s cry was insistent, as if we weren’t paying enough attention.

‘It looks like they’re fine,’ I said. Though I didn’t like the way Marlowe was scratching at the wall and then looking back at me. It was almost the same way she’d looked back at me when we’d discovered Charles. But that was crazy, there was clearly no dead body in this room.

‘You’ll need to make sure you shore up these joists before you do any work here. This room is big and that’s a load bearing wall over there. You’ll want to submit plans and get the proper inspections before you mess around with it,’ Mike said.

Now he was really starting to bug me. ‘I think I can handle it and Ed knows what he’s doing. Besides the renovations here aren’t your business anymore and I sincerely doubt you’ll be coming around much anyway, right?’ Maybe I sounded a little too hopeful with that last part because Mike’s eyes darkened with disappointment for a second before returning to their devilish twinkle.

‘Sorry, Sunshine, that’s where you’re wrong.’

Somehow those six little words were more disturbing than the prospect of the cats finding another dead body inside the guesthouse.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked cautiously.

Mike’s smile widened. ‘Haven’t you heard? What goes on here is going to be very much my business from here on out. I’m taking over as building inspector, at least until they find someone else to take Barbara’s place. So, you see, I’ll be coming around here a lot more –especially considering all the work you have going on and the decrepit state of this part of the mansion. Why, you might even see me more than you did when I worked here.’

Nero’s despairing cry echoed my thoughts. I gaped at Mike, remembering how Barbara would just waltz in unannounced all the time. Was he planning to do the same?

But Mike was no longer paying attention to me. He was over near the cats, bent down petting them. They butted their furry heads against his hand and purred. Clearly they wouldn’t mind him coming around all the time. Traitors.

‘What have you got here?’ Mike bent closer to the wall where the cats had been pawing and scratching. He poked at it with his finger, sniffed, then looked up at me. ‘Looks like you might have a problem with rot here, maybe even mold.’

Perfect. ‘I’m sure Ed will address it when he gets to this part. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we follow proper inspection procedures.’

Meow! Nero clawed at the wall.

Meroo! Marlowe butted his head against it.

‘Yes, I heard him, Marlowe. The wall needs attention. Don’t worry I’ll see to it that everything gets fixed properly.’ I didn’t relish the idea of Mike hanging around inspecting all the renovations, but I was glad that the cats weren’t hurt and all they were crying about was some rotted boards. After all, I’d dealt with a dead body here at the guesthouse, how hard could it be to tackle a little bit of rot and mold?

Nero rolled his eyes and scratched at the wall again. Josie just wasn’t getting it. And here he’d thought she was starting to clue in to their attempts at communication.

‘I don’t think she’s on the same page as us,’ Marlowe purred as Mike scratched the top of her head.

‘No kidding. She’s no Millie, that’s for sure.’ Nero’s whiskers twitched and he held back a sneeze. The moldy smell emitting from the wall was ten times stronger than it was to the humans due to his highly developed senses. And, he was incredibly allergic to mold. But the mold and rot weren’t the only scents coming from the wall, not that Josie was noticing. She was too busy pretending not to act nonchalant around Mike.

‘Ahh Millie. I wish she hadn’t left the guesthouse to us. It’s such a huge responsibility.’ Marlowe licked his paw and pushed it behind her ear. ‘But at least we redeemed ourselves for not preventing Charles Prescott’s murder.’ Marlowe glanced at Nero out of the corner of her eye hopefully.

‘Indeed. I do think we did. We led Josie to many of the clues and if not for our fancy footwork Barbara might not have been safely dispatched into the cellar where she could do no harm.’

‘Not that we got a lot of credit for either of those things.’ Marlowe stretched against the wall, running her front claws down it, creating an annoying sound.