A Whisker In The Dark

“Lordy! It’s Jedediah Biddeford! He’s come back to enact the curse just like he said he would!” Doris dropped the hand and the bones clattered as she shot up to a standing position.

Ed raised his brows at me.

The cats sniffed the ring.

“Wait a minute? What curse?” Arlene’s gaze shifted between Doris, Earl and the skeleton.

“You didn’t tell her about the curse?” Doris shot a look at Earl.

Earl shrugged. “It’s just a stupid old wives’ tale.”

Carla gestured toward the skeleton. “Apparently not. I mean he is here.”

Earl scowled. “He is not here. That’s just a skeleton. It’s not like it’s his ghost or anything.” He turned to his wife. “There’s an old family legend about an ancestor who will come back and haunt anyone who digs up his treasure.”

Carla frowned. “Hey, wait. Does that mean someone dug up treasure?”

Doris’s dark eyes scanned the faces of her children. “Well, did anyone?”

They shook their heads.

“I doubt there is an actual treasure…” Bob said slowly. He looked distracted, as if he was wondering if there really was a treasure and, if so, where it might be.

“We don’t even know that this is Jedediah,” I said. I’d heard about the curse from Millie. Millie’s family had bought the guesthouse from Jedediah’s family back in the day. Apparently old Jedediah Biddeford had issued some curse meant to warn anyone away from the treasure he was planning on bringing back from Europe. He claimed he’d come back and haunt whoever messed with his treasure.

“That’s his ring.” Doris pointed toward the hand. “I saw an old picture of it once. My granddaddy said Jed always wore it. Never took it off.”

“But Jedediah never came back from Europe. So that can’t possibly be him in there.” At least that’s what I’d been told.

Doris looked at me like I had five heads. “Don’t you know? He always said he’d return. And this is the form he’s taken. And if he’s back you know what that means?” She looked around at her kids like a lady who was sure she had the winning lottery ticket. “The treasure came back too.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Paula had dug out another nip. She raised the Jack Daniel’s in the air then threw her head back and chugged it down.

Ed scowled at Doris. “Lady. This isn’t a ghost. This is a skeleton. He hasn’t come back.” Ed poked at the femur bone with a long old-fashioned oak folding ruler. “This guy’s been in here for a couple hundred years.”

“What the—”

I turned to see the guesthouse maid, Flora, in the doorway. Flora had sort of come with the place. Millie had assured me she did a great job. At what, I had no idea because for most of the tasks I gave her, she simply claimed she didn’t “do” that sort of work. I did see her dusting sometimes, but mostly she could be found watching the new TV in the parlor. She must have been on a commercial break and come to check out the ruckus.

Flora was a tiny thing with a shock of white hair and round glasses that made her eyes look gigantic. I had no idea how old Flora was but if I had to guess I’d say she was about as old as the guesthouse itself. Probably knew Jedediah Biddeford personally.

She narrowed her gaze at the skeleton. “What’s that?”

“Jedediah Biddeford,” Doris said.

Flora’s brows shot up. “You mean the guy who buried the treasure? He really did come back from Europe?”

Great. Even Flora believed in the curse. That’s all I needed, a bunch of treasure hunters digging up the place.

Doris nodded. “Yep.”

“I doubt it’s him,” Ed reiterated.

“Did he really bury treasure?” Henry seemed interested in something for the first time since he’d arrived.

“Doubt it.” Earl didn’t sound convinced.

“Stranger things have happened.” Paula leaned against the wall, probably to keep from falling down.

“It’s nonsense,” Ed said, waving his hand dismissively. “Old rumors probably got all misconstrued over the years. I’d be more concerned about how the guy got here. Someone stuffed him in and closed up the wall. That’s no curse. That’s murder.”

The room fell silent as we all let Ed’s words sink in.

Flora broke the silence. “I don’t know who he is, if he buried treasure or who put him in there, but I do know that I’m not cleaning this mess up. I don’t do skeletons.” She gave me a pointed look and then turned and shuffled off toward the hallway.

Ed had a point. Whoever the skeleton was, he didn’t get into that wall on his own. And while I didn’t believe in curses and I was darn sure there was no treasure buried at the guesthouse, I did know one thing. This discovery was a police matter.

I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed the sheriff.

Nero sat off to the side, preening his sleek black fur as he watched the humans inspect the skeleton. Of course, he and Marlowe had known the skeleton was in the wall for quite some time now, but Josie hadn’t heeded the many warnings they’d given her.