A Whisker In The Dark

“Familiar?” Paula stumbled to her feet and glanced around behind us. “If there’s no tickets I’m just going to—”

“Take another look, Paula,” Millie said. “I think these might be the shoes that woke you up the night Bob was murdered.”

Paula’s eyes widened. She bent down again to look at the shoes. She scrunched up her face, closed her eyes and then opened them one at a time. “Well, they are fine Italian leather like the ones I saw. Very similar. Let me see the backs. I mostly saw the backs as the person was running away.”

“I certainly will not.” Myron looked at Seth. “Do I have to?”

Seth shrugged. “What’s the harm? Unless you have something to hide.”

Myron marched out from behind the table and spun around.

Paula nodded. “Yep very similar to the shoes I saw.”

“Similar? Or are they exactly the shoes?” Seth asked.

“Well, I can’t say for sure. I mean I was just waking up and my memory is fuzzy. There are a lot of fancy shoes like these, in fact I saw a woman wearing similar shoes earlier.” Paula glanced in the direction that Annabel had gone.

“She’s not a reliable witness. I heard that she’s drunk all the time!” Myron said.

“I’m not drunk all the time.” Paula crossed her arms over her chest.

“I demand to know what this is about.” Myron looked at Seth.

“Paula saw someone running from where the murder happened and they wore expensive shoes,” Seth said. “Apparently Millie here is playing amateur detective and thinks Paula might recognize the shoes as yours.”

“Running from where the murder happened? But that was centuries ago, why I couldn’t…” Myron’s face relaxed a little. “Oh! You mean the recent murder, not the skeleton they found in the wall.”

“Of course. That’s what we’re investigating. Can’t really investigate a murder from three centuries ago.”

Myron blew out a breath. “Well that’s ridiculous. Why would I kill one of the Biddefords?”

“You have a family connection to the Biddefords,” Mom said.

Myron made a face. “Yeah, about three hundred years back. What would that have to do with anything recent?”

“There was treasure rumored to be buried there,” Millie said. “Maybe one of your ancestors knew where it was and when you went to dig it up Bob had gotten there first.”

Myron laughed. “You believe that treasure rumor? What would I want with some old moldy treasure chest that probably doesn’t have anything of modern value in it? I have plenty of money. I own a bank. And besides, I wouldn’t waste my time. That treasure doesn’t even exist according to my family lore.”

Did Myron have some family intel about the treasure or was he just saying that as a cover?

“Why did you lie about being there then?” I asked.

Myron turned sheepish. He glanced around to make sure none of the other people in the tent were listening. “I had a good reason—that stupid treasure hunt actually messed it up. I was there, but not because of the treasure.” He glanced at Seth. “I have proof. Normally I’d make you get a search warrant, but I’m not guilty and I want you to stop accusing me and find the real killer, so I’d be happy to show it to you.”

Millie looked skeptical. “You would? That’s a little fishy. If you really have a reason, seems like you’d be more irate about being accused.”

“Oh, I am. But I don’t want to ruin the bank’s reputation, which would happen if a crowd witnessed you accusing me, or worse, hauling me off in cuffs.”

“Okay, let me see this proof,” Seth said.

“Me too,” Millie added.

“Not you.” Myron glared at Millie. “You’re just a civilian and it’s none of your business. Just the sheriff.”

Paula crossed her arms over her chest and pouted at Millie. “You said we were going to get free beer at the beer tent.”

“I’ll take you,” Mom said, and headed off with Paula.

Seth leveled a look at me and Millie. “Well, you heard the man. We don’t need civilians seeing someone’s private business.”

“Come on, Josie, let’s go look over there at the Frobusher’s local honey display.” She shot a coquettish glance at Seth and batted her eyelashes before pulling me aside and whispering in my ear. “I’ll get it out of him later, but for now let’s just let Myron show it to him.”

We wandered away, both keeping an eye on Seth and Myron. Myron showed him something on his cell phone and Seth nodded approvingly. Darn! Whatever Myron was showing him must’ve satisfied Seth.

Seth started walking away and Millie did an about-face. “Yoo-hoo, Sethy!” She summoned him over in her most provocative manner. “Now, I know it’s probably a big secret and all, but I don’t think it would hurt if you could tell us what Myron showed you.”

She walked her fingers up his arm playfully. Seth smiled but took her hand away gently.