A Whisker In The Dark

“But we weren’t. Flora was the real hero anyway. She clonked him over the head and saved the day!” Millie turned to Seth. “And to think, you suspected her.”

“Nah… I knew she wasn’t the real killer and that the truth would come out in the end,” Seth said.

Millie scrunched up her face. “You expect us to believe that? You said you were going to bring her in for questioning. Why, I bet you were about to arrest her when we called telling you we’d caught the real killer. Without us you might have arrested the wrong person for the murder.”

“Yeah,” my mother said. “You needed us to put it all together for you. We don’t mind doing it this time, but next time I hope you’ll be able to do some of the work yourself. I mean, you can’t expect us to solve all the murders that happen in this town, can he, Josie?”

“I’m sure Sheriff Chamberlain can do just fine without our help.”

Seth was taking it all in his stride. A movement behind him caught my eye. Nero and Marlowe were skulking around the edges of the tent, heading toward the town docks.

It had been kind of fun figuring out who had killed Bob, but I hoped we wouldn’t have another murder in town anytime soon. We hadn’t totally figured it all out on our own, either. I was starting to realize that we’d had a little non-human help. As if sensing my thoughts, Nero turned and looked right at me.

Yep, I was sure we’d gotten more than a little help from the cats. But I couldn’t very well tell anyone that, now could I?

“Too bad the humans will never realize the key role we played in helping them find the killer,” Nero said as they trotted past the tents on their way to the bait wharf.

“I don’t know, I think Josie has an idea. I mean, she must have figured out that I was hanging on to Earl’s leg for a reason,” Marlowe said. “But I suppose she can’t very well go around telling people that her cats helped her solve a murder.”

They rounded the side of the harbormaster’s station and proceeded straight to the bait wharf. All the other cats were lounging around by the lobster traps. No fish scraps this time, Nero noted with disappointment. Maybe they could persuade Josie and Millie to give them some morsels from the cheese sculpture later.

“Louie Two Paws tells me the case against Earl is pretty much tied up,” Harry said. His police informant—a double-pawed Siamese—always had interesting and invaluable information from the station.

“Yep. I think we did well,” Nero said as he hopped onto a lobster trap.

“And finally Josie is starting to realize that it pays to listen to us,” Marlowe noted, flopping down in the sun.

“And the confession I overheard?” Juliette asked.

“That was Carla. She wanted to cleanse her soul in regards to her sneaky plan to take over the company,” Nero said.

“But it’s all worked out because now Doris, Carla and Paula will run the company. Since Earl was embezzling most of the money, the company’s financial situation isn’t as dire as they thought,” Marlowe said.

“They can get the company back on track and it’s all thanks to us,” Boots preened.

“Right,” Stubbs said. “By catching Earl, we exposed his embezzling and saved the company.”

“And we cleared Flora,” Nero said. “You know, I knew her shoes smelled like something burnt. At first I suspected it had something to do with all the breads Josie was burning. Turns out she was rooting around in Earl’s fireplace for what she thought was a treasure map.”

“Who knew she was actually listening to the argument we overheard between Bob and Earl that day in the hallway? I thought she was dusting,” Marlowe said.

“Sometimes things are not always as you think,” Nero said wisely. The truth was that he also had thought Flora was just dusting but he wanted to make it seem like he knew more.

“And that also explains why the dirt on the table in the foyer smelled so familiar,” Marlowe said.

Juliette frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Earl claimed he wasn’t wearing the Ferragamo shoes that Paula saw the night of the murder. He produced a pair of mud-caked Nikes to prove it.”

“But it turned out the dirt on the Nikes was from the pot of the ficus tree in the conservatory,” Nero added. “When Earl was accused, he snuck down to the conservatory and dirtied his sneakers. The dirt was still on the table in the foyer where he’d presented them to Sheriff Chamberlain. I just wish we’d sniffed that one out sooner. Could have cracked the case earlier.”

“Well, the important thing is that we did crack the case,” Poe said.

“Yep. And Josie even has a full house of guests next week and more money for renovations.” Nero watched a lobster boat motoring out of the narrow mouth of the cove on its way to the open ocean. “There is something odd about the new guests.”

Juliette sat up, her interest piqued. “Odd? How?”

“They seemed unusually interested in assuring themselves that the Oyster Cove Guesthouse was the guesthouse where Jedediah’s skeleton was found,” Nero said.

“Why would they want to do that?” Stubbs asked.

“One reason,” Harry said. “They’re interested in ghosts.”