A Whisker In The Dark

“Because last night when we were digging, I saw Carla coming from the gazebo. Now we know Jedediah wouldn’t bury treasure there because there was nothing there in his day. No trees, no landmarks, nothing, and everyone knows, when you bury treasure, you need a landmark so you can locate it later.”

I thought about that. Why would Carla be digging in a place unlikely to have treasure? Did she know something the others didn’t? The gazebo wasn’t near the pond, but could she have killed Bob at the pond, then taken a long route to get away? Maybe she’d gotten lost in the overgrown bushes and grasses and found her way out at the gazebo.

A ruckus in the hallway interrupted my thoughts.

“That’s preposterous. Who would wear fine Italian leather shoes to go digging in the yard?” It was Earl. Millie had obviously talked to Seth, who was questioning him about the shoes.

“Who knows what people wear to dig? Now answer the question. Do you have Ferragamo shoes?” Seth said.

“Yes, but I was wearing Nikes,” Earl said, “and I can prove it.”

Doris and I went into the hallway in time to see Earl stomping up the stairs. We heard him rip open his door, then slam it shut loudly.

We all stood around looking at each other.

“What’s this about?” Doris asked.

“Your daughter Paula seems to think she saw fancy Ferragamo shoes when she was passed out on the bench before Flora ran past,” Millie said.

Doris scrunched up her face. “Are you people colluding? Trying to get my daughter to say something that she didn’t really see? I mean, you know she’s not that reliable.” Doris made nip-tipping gestures with her thumb and forefinger against her lips.

“I’m just being thorough,” Seth assured her. He narrowed his eyes at Millie. “We won’t be playing favorites here.”

After what seemed like ages, Earl came running down the stairs with a pair of white Nikes in his hand. He threw them down on the round table in the foyer so hard that the Tiffany bird lamp with the delicate stained-glass shade wobbled precariously. I cringed as I pictured the dirt in between the treads caking off onto Millie’s grandmother’s hand-tatted white doily.

“See?” Earl pointed at the mud caked on the side of his shoes. “Those are the shoes I was wearing last night, so if my sister claims she saw someone with Ferragamo shoes walking past her, then it wasn’t me.”

Fourteen

The pungent smell of dead fish tickled Nero’s nostrils as he came around the side of the harbormaster’s station.

“Ah, we’re in luck. They’ve got fish scraps.” Marlowe picked up speed. Likely, she wanted to get to the others before the scraps were gone.

The other cats were already hunkered down near the lobster traps. Poe was chowing down on a halibut head. Juliette was finishing off a haddock tail. Stubbs was industriously picking clean the bones of a cod. Boots must have just finished eating and was now fastidiously preening his whiskers.

As Nero approached, a gull swooped down and attempted to steal a piece of fish away from Harry. Harry hung on with one claw. “Hey, give it back.”

Caw!

The gull flapped its wings with its beak deep into the morsel of fish.

Harry tugged. The gull pulled back.

“That’s mine, go get your own.” Harry tried to grab at the fish with both paws but the gull was stronger. He ripped the meat out of Harry’s paw and flew off. Nero could have sworn the gull’s cry sounded like “ha ha!”

“Stupid gulls. They’re a nuisance.” Harry sat back on his haunches and preened.

“I agree.” Juliette pushed a piece of her haddock over to Harry.

Stubbs finished picking the last bit off the bones of his cod and tossed a perfectly formed fish skeleton into the water, then looked at Nero. “So, what’s going on? You guys figure out who plugged the vic?”

“He wasn’t plugged,” Nero said. “He was bludgeoned with a shovel.”

“Hit from behind,” Marlowe added.

“From behind? So it wasn’t a fight, then?” Boots’s green eyes brimmed with curiosity. “Do you think they got him by surprise?”

“Good question. Someone could have snuck up on him, I suppose, or maybe he knew the person and wasn’t afraid to turn his back. I don’t see how that narrows it down much though.”

“It could have been one of his siblings, he was on the outs with all of them,” Marlowe said.

“Have you located the shovel that was used as the murder weapon yet?” Harry asked.

Nero shook his head. “It could be anywhere.”

“That makes our job harder. Almost everyone in town was out there last night with a shovel.” Boots tugged at his whiskers. “But you said you heard the victim argue with someone?”

“Several people,” Nero said. “Marlowe and I heard him argue with Earl.”

“And Josie heard him arguing with Carla. Josie claims that Carla even made a threatening comment about him,” Marlowe added.

“And Millie heard him arguing with Paula,” Nero said.

“What were they arguing about?” Juliette asked.

“Seems like it all stems from their cheese-sculpting business. It’s not doing well. It seems Bob had made threats to each of them.”

“What kind of threats?” Stubbs asked.