A Whisker in the Dark

by Leighann Dobbs

  The pond was on the west edge of the property, too far to be visible from the house. Mike led us down a brambly path to the small muddy body of water. I supposed it had once been a lovely pond. Now, the rotted remnants of a wooden bench with a bush growing through it marred its appearance. The body, laying face down at the water’s edge with the shovel beside it, was a bit of a detractor as well. Even though he was face down, I was certain that it was Bob Biddeford.

  Nestled into the overgrowth on the other side of the pond were Nero and Marlowe. They weren’t alone. Several other cats were crouched near them. A lovely fluffy Maine Coon that looked like it needed brushing, the gray cat with white on its forehead that I recognized as Father Timothy’s, an orange-striped one with a stubby tail, another gray cat, this one with shorter fur, and a black cat with white paws that had a know-it-all look on its face.

  To my relief, Marlowe and Nero looked fine. Their alarming cries must have been to alert us to the body. This was the second time they’d done that. I guess I’d have to pay more attention to their meows in the future.

  Doris’s hands flew up to her face. “No! Is that Bobby?”

  Paula went over to look at the body, her heel getting stuck in the mud and causing her to stumble a bit. She crouched down, peering at the body but staying a distance away. She sucked in a breath then turned a sad face to her mother. “I’m afraid so.”

  I glanced over at Mike. I figured he wouldn’t let anyone get too close. Rule No. 1 at a crime scene was don’t mess with it.

  Before Mike could say anything, though, Earl rushed over and grabbed onto Bob’s ankle, trying to pull him out of the water even though we all knew it was too late.

  Mike lunged for Earl and pulled him back. “Don’t touch him. This is a crime scene. We need to leave it just like this for the police.”

  As if on cue, the sound of sirens split the air.

  “Crime scene? Maybe he just fell in,” Carla said. She’d gone over to console Doris and she, Doris and Paula stood in a circle, their arms around each other. Arlene stood off to the side appearing to be disinterested. Henry stood back, his arms over his chest, watching the family.

  “Maybe it was the ghost,” Doris said.

  Earl jerked his head in her direction. “Ghost? You don’t really think…” He swiveled his head back to look at Bob, his expression pensive as if he were considering the possibility that Jed’s ghost had killed his brother. It was doubtful. I didn’t know of any ghosts that could bash someone’s head in, which is what had clearly happened to Bob.

  “What do you suppose he was doing over here?” Carla asked.

  “Looking for treasure like the rest of us, of course,” Doris said.

  Mike frowned down at the body. “Yeah and I wonder if he found it and that’s how he ended up in the pond.”

  “Maybe he just tripped and fell in by accident?” Henry said hopefully.

  Mike glanced at me. Judging by the way the back of Bob’s head was flattened, it didn’t seem like he had fallen in by accident. And besides, who could drown in only a few inches of water without help? Unless he’d been getting into Paula’s nips, he would’ve just picked himself up, brushed himself off and continued along the way.

  I glanced at the cats. It was clear by the way Nero was looking at me that he didn’t think it was an accident either.

  The grass rustled behind us and we all turned to see my mother and Millie bursting out of the narrow path that led to the pond.

  “See, what did I tell you, Josie’s got another body!” Millie sounded almost excited. Then she looked around at the Biddefords, her face dropping. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is it one of the guests?”

  Nero and Marlowe sprang into action upon seeing Millie and darted over to rub against her ankles. The other cats pulled back further into the overgrowth, satisfied that they’d seen all there was to see.

  “It’s Bob Biddeford,” I said.

  Millie eyed the Biddefords suspiciously and whispered. “Huh, really? Family dispute?”

  “I have no idea,” I whispered back.

  “I heard they didn’t get along very good,” Mom said.

  “Well you were both here last night, did you see anything?”

  Mom and Millie shook their heads. “We didn’t think the treasure would be around here. We focused our efforts on the older side of the property.”

  More rustling from the path and Sheriff Seth Chamberlain and his deputies, Johnnie Sanders and Sheila Watts, came rushing into the clearing, cutting off any other queries I had with Mom and Millie.

  “What happened?” Seth asked as they started getting out their crime-scene paraphernalia.

  “Mike found him down by the pond,” Millie said.

  Seth turned to Mike. “What were you doing down here, Mike?”

  Mike pointed toward the old toolshed, barely visible through the tall grass. “I came to inspect that. Josie had Ed do some repairs on it and it’s on my inspection list.”

  Seth nodded, his eyes drifting back to the body. “Any ID on him?”

  “It’s my Bobby.” Doris’s voice cracked and she dissolved into tears.

  Millie hustled over to her, put her arm around her and patted her shoulder soothingly. “Now, now, dear, it’s going to be okay.”

  “My guess is it has something to do with this treasure, Sheriff,” Johnnie said.

  Seth nodded. “Good guess. Let’s say this Bob character found the treasure and someone saw him, then clonked him over the head and took it from him.” Seth glanced around at the ground as if looking for the hole the treasure might’ve come out of.

  “Who would do that?” Carla asked.

  I didn’t say a word, but the way I looked over the Biddeford family might have given away my suspicions. Seth wasn’t privy to their family dynamics though. I’d have to let him find out for himself. But even though they argued a lot, killing your own brother—or son—was a whole different matter. Surely none of the Biddefords would stoop to murder?

  “Just about anyone in town,” Sheila shot over her shoulder from where she was crouched down in the muck beside the body taking pictures.

  Seth nodded. “I heard a lot of people were out here last night. That true, Josie?”

  “Well, I didn’t see everyone who was out here, but there were a lot of flashlights,” I said.

  “Really?” Seth raised a brow at me. “And where were you?”

  “I was inside preparing the breakfast for this morning,” I said.

  “And what about all your guests?”

  “They were outside digging for treasure,” I said. “Along with the rest of the town.”

  “It was dark, Sheriff, and hard to see who was who,” Johnnie said. “There were people all over the place.”

  “Is that so? How would you know that, Johnnie?”

  Johnnie’s expression turned sheepish. “Well, I might’ve come here. The wife dragged me along.”

  Seth pressed his lips together. “Kinda odd. Two dead bodies here in two days. That seems a little suspicious to me, Josie.”

  Millie fisted her hands on her hips. “Now that’s technically not true. The first one was a skeleton and he was put in there years ago, nothing to do with any of us here. If you keep twisting the truth like that, Seth Chamberlain, I won’t bake you that apple pie I promised for the town celebration.”

  Seth’s eyes twinkled and he looked at Millie fondly, but I could tell the threat of her withholding the apple pie was real. “You might be right, but still that doesn’t negate the fact that bodies seem to keep showing up at the guesthouse ever since you sold it to Josie.”

  Meow!

  Nero, who had trotted over to join us earlier, voiced his disagreement. Good kitty. He and Marlowe were now sitting on their haunches in our circle and it appeared as if they were listening intently to everything we were saying.

  “All right, I guess we will have to talk to each one of you and see if I can piece together Bob’s activities last night.” Seth walked over to take a c
loser look at the body. “Josie, you didn’t notice that he didn’t come in? Looks like he’s been here all night.”

  “No, like I said, I was preparing the breakfast and then I went to bed early. I don’t know what time people came and went.”

  Seth glanced over at the Biddefords. “Anyone see Bob last night?”

  “Bob’s an adult. We don’t keep track of him,” Carla said.

  “Besides, we were all too busy minding our own business and looking for our own treasure,” Arlene added.

  “I might’ve seen something.” Hiccup. Paula weaved on her feet.

  Seth turned to face her. The look on his face told me he wasn’t going to put much stock into what she had to say and, frankly, I couldn’t blame him. I mean I had seen her sleeping in the bushes yesterday so she must have been soused.

  “What did you see?” Seth asked.

  She fidgeted. “Well, from the angle I was positioned in, it’s kind of hard to say.”

  “Angle? Where were you?”

  Her cheeks flushed and she pointed back toward the trail. “I was tired, so I took a little rest on that stone bench at the beginning of the trail that leads down here.”

  “On the bench?” Arlene snorted. “I think I saw you under the bench.”

  Paula straightened. “I might’ve taken a little nap but that doesn’t mean I didn’t see anything. You can see things from laying on the ground as easy as you can from sitting on the bench.”

  “Okay so out with it. What did you see?” asked Seth.

  “Well, I mean, it woke me up. I was a little groggy and down at that level you see different things.” She glanced over at the body. “My memory is fuzzy but I’m sure I saw someone coming from the direction of the pond.”

  “Who?” Doris asked as the Biddefords eyed each other with suspicion.

  Paula paused dramatically. I think she was enjoying the attention. Given the fact that she was probably drunk most of the time this might have been one of the few occasions anyone paid any notice to what she had to say. “That maid. You know, the one who doesn’t really clean anything.”

  “Flora?” Millie looked at her incredulously. “Little short thing with round glasses?”

  Paula crossed her arms over her chest and nodded emphatically. “Yep, that’s the one. I saw her coming right down this path and she was walking pretty fast as if she was rushing away from the scene of a crime.”

  Twelve

  Seth made everyone go back to the house. The Biddefords settled into the parlor and I brought them some tea and cookies. The Biddeford siblings didn’t appear overly upset seeing as they’d just lost their brother. Doris, on the other hand, was appropriately distraught. She kept wringing her hands and wailing about her baby. Paula did her best to comfort her mother.

  Mom and Millie hung out in the kitchen with Mike. Millie was irate that Seth would even consider suspecting Flora. Speaking of which, where was Flora? I hadn’t seen her all morning.

  The cats had followed us into the house and were settled in Millie and Mike’s laps.

  “Sunshine, are you okay?” Mike placed Marlowe down on the floor much to the chagrin of the cat and came over to stand next to me.

  “Of course I’m okay. I’m not some delicate flower like Stella Dumont who needs a man to coddle me.” Maybe my words came out a little sharper than I meant them, but I was a grown woman who had already proven that she was self-sufficient. And truth was I was still upset over how Mike had insisted I shouldn’t investigate the last time we found a body. It was as if he thought I wasn’t competent. Well, the joke was on him because I’d figured out who the killer was last time and I could do it again.

  “Now I know what you girls are thinking.” He looked over at Mom and Millie then glanced back at me. “There’s no sense for you to go investigating this on your own. Murderers are dangerous.”

  See? I knew he was going to say that! Mom and I exchanged an eye-roll.

  “Dangerous schmangerous.” Millie jumped up from her seat. “Someone has accused Flora and I won’t stand for it. She’s practically family and has been here as long as I can remember. And she’s a good, hard-working woman with dozens of grandchildren!”

  Mike glanced at me as if looking for help. I shook my head. “If I feel like investigating, I’m going to.”

  “I’m a trained investigator, guys,” Mike said. “If you want to investigate something you can ask me to do it for you. But we really should all leave the investigating to the police.”

  “I don’t think we need you to do our dirty work for us.” I glanced at Mom and Millie, who nodded.

  “We’ve investigated plenty,” Mom said.

  “Yeah, what do you think we were doing while you were still in the navy?” Millie asked. “Got a pretty good track record, too, don’t we, Rose?”

  “Yeah, we know what we’re doing. Josie here is the amateur,” Mom said.

  “Hey!” I bristled at her comment. Had she forgotten that I’d figured out who killed the last guest who had turned up dead? Sometimes nothing I did was good enough for my mother.

  Seth appeared in the doorway and Millie scowled at him, taking the tray of cookies she had brought over from the counter and putting them away for emphasis.

  “Have you seen Flora?” Seth asked.

  “She’s probably cleaning, as is her duty.” Millie’s posture was stiff and she avoided eye contact. “Now you know that nice little old lady couldn’t have killed anyone.”

  Seth appeared visibly upset that Millie was cross with him. His sad gaze flicked to the cookies. His voice softened. “Now, Millie, you know I need to follow all the rules. I just want to question her.”

  “Question who?” Flora appeared in the doorway that led up the back stairs with a mop in her hand.

  “I was just looking for you, Flora,” Seth said.

  “Oh really? What for Sheriff?” She looked around, noticing the grim looks on our faces. “What’s going on?”

  “Someone was killed on the grounds last night,” Millie said.

  Flora’s brows shot up, her eyes getting even bigger behind her round glasses. She looked genuinely surprised, not that I had suspected her for a minute. “Really? Again?”

  “I’m afraid so. Whacked over the head.” Mom’s comment earned a look of reproach from both Millie and Seth.

  “I didn’t see nothing.” Flora opened the closet to put the mop away.

  “Where were you last night?” Seth asked.

  Flora turned and scowled at him. “What do you mean? I was at home.”

  “Are you sure you weren’t here… Maybe digging for treasure?”

  Flora’s eyes flicked from Seth to Mom to Millie.

  “Digging? I already told you I didn’t see anything, what does it matter where I was?” She thrust her scrawny left arm, bent it at the elbow to make a muscle, and pointed to it with her right hand. “Does this look like an arm that could hit someone over the head hard enough to kill them?”

  Seth looked at Flora uneasily. “Well, it’s hard to say.”

  Flora rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for this.” She looked at Mike. “Surely you don’t think I killed someone, do you Mr. Mike?”

  As if to show their support, the cats ran over to Flora. She bent down to pet them, her knees popping and creaking. They sniffed her shoes gingerly, then rubbed their faces against her old wrinkled hands.

  “Of course not, Flora. They don’t have any concrete evidence against you, do you, Sheriff?” asked Mike.

  Seth sighed. “No evidence. Just that someone saw her there.”

  “And who might that be?” Flora demanded.

  “I can’t really give out my sources,” Seth stammered.

  “Oh, come on. We all heard her say it.” Millie turned to Flora. “It was Paula.”

  “The lush?” Flora waved her hand in the air. “She’s not reliable. I’ve got things to clean. When you guys have something concrete then maybe you could come and arrest me, Seth. But don’t forget I us
ed to change your diapers and I’ve got stories to tell.” Flora grabbed a roll of paper towels from under the sink and shuffled off upstairs.

  I remembered Arlene’s comments about the cleaning, so I called after her, “Could you double back into Earl and Arlene’s room and make sure it’s extra clean?”

  She whirled around and scowled at me. I figured she was going to say she doesn’t clean rooms, but instead she said, “What do you mean double back? Isn’t that the green room?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, for your information, I haven’t cleaned that one yet. If I had, it would be clean. I can only do one or two rooms a day, so I haven’t gotten to the green room yet. But I will.” She turned and we heard the stairs creaking as she went up.

  “There you have it, Seth. Are you satisfied? Flora didn’t do it. Now why don’t you go try to dig up a real suspect,” Millie said.

  Seth stared at Millie with his sad eyes for a second, then he turned to Mike. “I’m ready to take your statement.” As he and Mike started out of the room, Seth glanced over his shoulder at us. “Don’t run off. I’ll take all your statements but Mike’s first. I’m sure he has to get back to work.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he does have to get back to work. He doesn’t need to hang around here and help us,” I said.

  “Nope we can help ourselves,” Millie added, then under her breath. “And find the real killer even if the cops can’t.”

  Mike shook his head and followed Seth out of the room.

  Millie watched them leave then she opened the box of cookies and put them in front of us. We all took one. Snickerdoodles. “I had just baked these at home when I heard the police call on my scanner app. Lucky thing I thought to bring them. We might need them for sustenance. We need to get on top of this investigation before Flora gets into trouble.” She glanced at the doorway. “Those men think they know everything. We’ll show them.”

  I bit into my cookie. “Yeah, we’re good at investigating. Do you think it has something to do with the treasure? Maybe Bob really did find it and someone killed him to take it away.” Had there been a treasure buried in this yard the whole time I’d been struggling to pay bills?