Jed scratched his chin. “If that treasure is still out there, maybe we could get her to dig it up? She could use the money for the repairs on the guesthouse.”
Marlowe’s ears perked up. “You mean you might have some idea of where it is?”
“Well maybe, but…” Jed’s voice trailed off.
“But what?” Marlowe asked.
“Well, I’m not sure, but I think my killer may have taken it. Or someone could have dug it up after all these years.”
“Where did you bury it?” Nero asked.
Jed swirled over to the window. “Hard to tell after all these centuries. The land doesn’t look the same. Judging by the view of the cove, seems like we’re standing in the barn so I might have my landmarks mixed up. I’ll have to look around out there—truth be told, I haven’t been concerned about the treasure. Don’t have a need for it now. I was more drawn to my old things in the attic. As a spirit, I find that haunting the most familiar places feels comforting. But if it can help Josie, maybe I’ll widen my horizons and see if I can locate the area. Course if I do find it, I can’t dig it up.”
Nero flexed his claws. “How deep is it?”
“About two feet.”
“We can probably bring Josie over and give her a hint,” Marlowe said.
“That’s if we can find it.” Nero wasn’t convinced the treasure was still there or that Jed would even remember the location. The grounds had changed a lot over the last several decades, never mind over several generations.
“I can’t make any promises, but if I can find it, I might have an idea as to how we can get it dug up. First though, I need to go up and look the place over from the attic window to get my bearings. I’ll be in touch.”
And with that Jed disappeared leaving only a few drops of spirit dew on the floor.
“What do you think of his idea?” Marlowe asked, her gaze trained on the spot where Jed had just been as if trying to figure out how she could do a similar disappearing act.
“I don’t know. It would be nice if Josie got the treasure, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. If Jed even remembers where the treasure was, it will likely come to nothing. I think we should focus our energies on Madame Zenda’s pronouncement. It seems to have disturbed the other guests and I sense foul play may be afoot.”
Marlowe’s ears perked up. “You don’t say. I’ve noticed they are not a very trusting crew and I think some of them may be spying on the others.”
“Indeed. And that Anita Pendragon hanging around does not bode well.”
“Yes, I saw her lurking in the lilacs earlier this morning.”
“Yesterday she was hiding in the hydrangeas.” Beneath the hydrangeas was one of Nero’s favorite napping spots and he’d been put out that he couldn’t have his afternoon snooze because the nosey reporter was crouched down behind the bushes watching the house.
“And she was being furtive in the forsythia, too,” Marlowe added. “I say we put a tail on her and see what she’s up to.”
Nero liked the way the young cat was thinking. As an older feline, he took his responsibilities to mentor Marlowe in the ways of cat detecting and human training very seriously.
“We need to follow all of them, something is fishy around here.” Nero sniffed the air, the scent of salmon-flavored kibble causing his stomach to growl. Josie had finally left the kitchen after shooting a few concerned looks at their full bowls. Nero knew that she wanted them to eat and that, plus the fact that they’d been talking to Jed, had held him back from digging in. He didn’t want Josie to think they would trot over and start eating at her command. But right now, she wasn’t in the kitchen. “Let’s eat first, though. We might need the energy to figure out what these humans are up to.”
With the sausage all cooked and stored in the fridge for the next day’s breakfast, I set to my cleaning tasks. Flora was dusting so I spent the next several hours doing laundry and vacuuming.
I couldn’t help it if doing the tasks allowed me to sneak around the nooks and crannies of the guesthouse unobtrusively. It was part of my goal to make myself invisible so as not to disrupt anyone. I’d noticed with the last few batches of guests, being “invisible” allowed me to overhear some juicy stuff. I’d hoped to hear more about Madame Zenda’s plan to talk to Jed’s ghost, but today my guests were silent. Madame Zenda was in her room preparing for her ghostly meeting, according to Esther who I’d crossed paths with in the foyer. Esther had called an Uber and was on her way downtown. She was very tight-lipped when I asked her opinion about Madame Zenda’s proclamation. She was also tight-lipped about why she was going into town, but maybe she just figured it was none of my business.
I was on my way to the back hallway to put the vacuum away when I spotted movement outside through the back parlor window. Anita Pendragon? Peering through the blinds I was surprised to see it was Victor Merino. He was skulking along the side of the house looking suspicious. Was he meeting with Anita? Trying to find a hiding place so he could follow Madame Zenda? He moved out of view and I scurried across the hallway to the butler’s pantry. The window in there would allow me to spy on him without anyone seeing. Or so I thought. Someone else was already in there. Gail, who had her face pressed to the window, spun around looking guilty, which was good because if she was guilty then she wouldn’t notice I’d been sneaking in here to spy on Victor.
“I was looking for some tea.” She held up the ever-present mug as if to prove it.
“It’s in the cabinet, same spot as always.” I glanced out the window trying to see what she’d been looking at. I didn’t see anything unusual unless you consider Victor tiptoeing through the overgrown gardens unusual.
“The tea leaves have told me to be aware of what’s outside.”
Something in her manner set me on edge. Now that I thought about it, Gail didn’t seem to be a very good tea-leaf reader. Her readings were always very vague. At least Esther had come up with the tall, dark and handsome routine. And Madame Zenda had produced the death card. Madame Zenda claimed to be a medium, Esther could summon spirits in her crystal ball, Victor claimed he talked to those from the afterlife in his meditations, but, as far as I knew, Gail only read tea leaves. That seemed like a one-way conversation to me.
I pulled some Earl Grey out of the cabinet and handed it to her. Her gaze had drifted out the window again and she jerked her attention back to me and took the tin.
“I was wondering, how will you be able to communicate with Jed using just tea leaves?” I asked.
She looked confused. “What? Oh, well… the leaves don’t actually help me talk to him directly. Not the way you think. But I see things in the leaves. Answers to questions. So I focus on a question and the answer is supplied.”
I craned my neck to peer into her mug where a clump of crushed-up leaves sat on the bottom. It looked just like a regular bunch of tea leaves to me but who knew, maybe the arrangement of the leaves had some meaning for her. “Have you gotten any answers?”
“Unfortunately I haven’t gotten anything from Jed.” Her eyes were drawn back to the window as if magnets were attached.
“If Madame Zenda isn’t full of hot air, he must be around. Maybe he doesn’t like tea,” I suggested.
“Maybe.” Gail’s gaze dropped to the tea mug and I sensed she had something to add but she remained silent.
“So what have you seen in the tea leaves?” I asked.
“Oh… A few things about the guesthouse. Nothing important.”
“Things about the guesthouse? Like what?”
Gail’s gaze dropped to the mug. “I see lots of renovations.” She frowned. “And maybe some problems with completing them.”
My left brow ticked up. You didn’t need to be a psychic to see that I was doing a lot of renovations. “You don’t say.”
“Oh.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I know you have renovations going on, but this is more than that.” Then she glanced down again, a frown spreading on her face. “Of course, I also see something
disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” What could be more disturbing than a bunch of psychics trying to talk to the ghost of the guy I’d found inside the wall? I leaned over to look into the mug again.
Her face darkened further as Victor passed by the window, ducking and weaving in the shrubs. What was he doing? Trying to figure out Madame Zenda’s location?
“Yes, you’d better be careful,” she whispered, then tore her gaze from the window and forced a laugh. “Listen to me being all dark and ominous. Nothing bad is coming, just be careful around that Myron guy. And don’t take what you hear from the guests too seriously. Everyone might not be on the up and up here.” With that she raised her mug at me and turned to leave. “Thanks for the tea.”
The conversation was a little unsettling, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. I also didn’t have time to think about it because two dark-clad figures lurking by the side of the house caught my attention. I pressed my face to the window. First Anita Pendragon, then Victor, and now this. How many people were skulking around in my yard and what did they want?
The two strangers resembled small, white-haired ninjas. Except they weren’t strangers. It was Mom and Millie and they were heading for the kitchen door.
Six
I got to the kitchen just as Mom and Millie came through the door. They were wearing identical plain black T-shirts. Their white, spider-veined legs called for attention beneath the hems of their black shorts. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the white pompom-backed Peds and tennis shoes sort of ruined the look.
Millie went straight to the fridge, presumably to inspect the sausages. “Oh good, I see you browned them. Very nice.”
“What do you think?” Mom gestured to the outfits. “We’re going incognito tonight so we can find out what Madame Zenda is up to without being seen.”
“It’s not incognito, Rose,” Millie said. “It’s undercover.”
“No, not really undercover… invisible, like a stealth bomber,” Mom said.
Nero and Marlowe trotted in from the pantry and looked Mom and Millie over, then glanced at each other as if wondering what the two senior citizens were up to. Mew. Nero looked up at me. If a cat could roll its eyes, I swear he would have done it right then.
I noticed their bowls were empty. So, they had rushed over to scarf down their food as soon as I’d left the kitchen. They didn’t fool me, I knew they liked to be ornery but I also knew they liked to eat.
“So you’re going to hide in the bushes and follow Madame Zenda?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Millie whipped out a copy of the Farmers’ Almanac. “This here says the moon will rise in forty minutes. We better be on high alert.”
Mom went to the kitchen window and cupped her hands around her eyes, peering out. It was dusk and the trees cast shadows in the dim light. In the distance, the ocean looked dark and ominous.
“We need to ascertain Madame Zenda’s whereabouts.” Mom sounded like she’d been brushing up on police lingo. Probably from one of the TV cop shows she and Millie liked to watch.
“Do you have an idea as to her whereabouts, Josie?” Millie asked.
“Last I knew she was in her room, but I really haven’t been keeping tabs on her.”
I knew Esther had come back and Victor was outside somewhere still. Gail had retreated to the back parlor with her tea. Had Madame Zenda already gone out to make her way to her meeting with Jed? Millie pressed her lips together and looked out the window. “I think we need to secure the perimeter.”
“Where should we start?” Mom asked. “I mean, what’s her most likely ETA and location.”
“She mentioned the moon kissing the ocean,” I said.
“Yes, but you can see that from anywhere,” Millie said. “Most of the property has a view of the cove and I don’t think she necessarily meant it would be in view. She was referring to the time she would meet with him.”
“Funny thing,” Mom said. “Why wouldn’t she keep that a secret? It seems like she wouldn’t want all the other psychics barging in on her meeting.”
“That supports my theory that she is up to something. Probably wanted everyone to know.” Millie nodded sagely. “Especially Anita Pendragon.”
“So you’re going with the theory that getting publicity about being the one who talked to Jed would boost her career?” I asked.
Millie nodded. “Yep, and she’s lying about really being able to communicate with him.”
Mom narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like liars.”
“Me neither, and that’s why I want to catch her. If we can figure out where she is, then we can observe her and see if she is faking,” Millie said.
“If we could figure out where she was going, we could get there ahead of time and stake the place out,” Mom said.
“In our undercover outfits, we’ll blend right in to the shadows.” Millie looked thoughtful. “Did she give any clues as to where she might be meeting him?”
I thought back to her pronouncement. “No. She only mentioned the moon.”
“True, but everyone knows that spirits like to haunt familiar places.” Millie glanced around.
“Well that doesn’t eliminate much. Wouldn’t this whole place be familiar to him?” Mom asked.
“Not the whole place. Remember, most of this wasn’t around in Jed’s time.” I turned to Millie. “Do you remember which sections existed back then?”
“Well, the main part of the house was in the west wing. And there were barns on the property that no longer exist. There is a part of the attic that I think has some old belongings of the Biddeford family and, of course, there is the three-seater.”
“Three-seater?” I asked.
“The old outhouse. Three people could go at one time,” Mom informed me.
“Well, if Jed’s anything like my late husband, he’d be really familiar with that, maybe we should start there,” Millie said.
“No. We have to think like Madame Zenda. What would she know about Jed?” Mom asked. “Everyone knows his skeleton was found in the wall in the ballroom, so maybe that’s where she will go.”
Millie shook her head. “That’s not secluded enough. But didn’t Ed say he heard someone on the third floor? He thought it might be Anita Pendragon, but maybe it was Madame Zenda scoping out a good place for her fake meeting. The attic would be ideal, and no one would know it was locked until they went up to check it.”
I thought about Victor outside and Gail’s frequent glances out the window. They’d probably been trying to figure out where Madame Zenda would go, same as Mom and Millie. “I don’t think she’d do it in the house. I think all the others are trying to figure out where she is supposedly meeting Jed and the house is just too easy for them to find her. I saw Victor and Gail looking around outside. I’m not sure about Esther, she went into town, but she could have been waiting for Madame Zenda to get up from her nap so she could follow her.”
“Well there’s one place Madame Zenda might think would be familiar to Jed and it would make a perfectly eerie backdrop for her fake meeting,” Millie said.
“Where’s that?” Mom asked.
“The cemetery.”
“But Jed isn’t even buried there,” I said.
There was an old family cemetery on the property and when Jed’s skeleton had been found, his descendants had asked about burying him there but apparently it took an act of congress for that sort of thing to happen these days. And besides, the cemetery was overgrown and it would have been hard to even get the right equipment in there.
“Yeah but Madame Zenda might not know that. I’m certain she isn’t speaking to his ghost and she is very dramatic. What better setting than the cemetery? It’s creepy there,” Mom pointed out.
Millie scrunched up her face. “I don’t know. She might also be in the gazebo. That wasn’t around in Jed’s time but she might not know that either. You can see the cove from there and—”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
A blood-curdling scream split the
air.
We jolted up from the table and ran towards the sound of the scream.
Seven
The scream had come from the northeast part of the property where the old family cemetery was. We dodged branches and fought through overgrown shrubs, my stomach sinking as we grew closer to the noise, which was now a low sobbing sound. Was it part of Madame Zenda’s act or had something happened to her?
Millie reached the cemetery first and paused just inside the broken wrought-iron gate. The moon had risen, and the slab headstones cast eerie shadows on the scene. Something lay on the ground next to a triangular monument with a weeping willow etched on it. Anita Pendragon stood over it.
Anita looked at us, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water gasping for oxygen. She pointed at the body. Madame Zenda. Millie crouched down beside the body, which was no pretty sight. Madame Zenda had been stabbed in the chest. Blood soaked the front of her white caftan. The weapon looked familiar. I leaned closer and recognized the Oyster Bay Guesthouse logo on the handle. Anyone could have nabbed that at any time. But that wasn’t the worst part of the scene. The worst part was the note on her chest that looked like it was written in blood. Get out. Leave me alone.
“What’s that?” Mom bent down and jabbed her finger toward an old rusty buckle that lay beside the note. I was getting a little concerned that finding dead bodies didn’t seem to faze my mother and Millie anymore. It wasn’t such a big deal for me because I’d been going to school to be a medical examiner before my career was derailed with marriage and a daughter. I was used to seeing dead bodies and it wasn’t just because this was the third one that had shown up at my guesthouse.
“Looks like an old buckle.” Millie glanced up at Anita. “Did you kill her and leave this note and buckle?”
A Purrfect Alibi: A pawsitively gripping cozy mystery (The Oyster Cove Guesthouse Book 3) Page 4