A Twist In The Tail

Boots huffed and groomed his long whiskers. ‘I don’t think her not having a dog comes into play. We’ve already determined the victim was up on the cliffs near both the gulls and the lousewort. That could explain both smells. We should be careful about jumping to conclusions at this early date.’

‘Yeah,’ Harry said. ‘We need a motive. Find the motive and it’s easy to find the killer.’

‘And we need to evaluate all the clues thoroughly,’ Nero added. ‘Like the footprint in the mulch Marlowe and I discovered outside the window of the crime scene.’

‘A footprint? Do tell.’ Boots ran his paw along his long whiskers, making sure to twist so the whiskers curled up at the ends.

‘It was a chef’s clog print,’ Marlowe said proudly.

Everyone looked toward Stella and Josie.

Poe’s green eyes narrowed. ‘Stella Dumont is not wearing chef’s clogs, but Josie is.’

‘Perhaps we should take a closer look at Josie. I have an informant down at the Police Station. You know him, Stubbs. It’s Louie Two Paws, the Siamese with the double paws. Anyway, he said that the victim was killed because of a bad review. That doesn’t look good for Josie.’

Nero huffed. ‘The police found a small scrap of paper in Charles’ room. It’s inconclusive as to what it really says. And besides, the review could have been about anyone, even Stella Dumont. Charles Prescott wasn’t confined to the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, he ate at other establishments. The police are making assumptions based on the one piece of evidence that their inferior investigative skills have unearthed. Whereas we have found a chef’s clog footprint, a clandestine affair and a missing cookbook.’

Boots nodded. ‘I suppose you are right. We must look at all the clues and let our superior brains determine who the appropriate suspects are.’

‘Well, I hate to say it,’ Stubbs said. ‘But Josie is a good prime suspect at least from the police’s point of view. She had motive if the review is about the guesthouse, she had means because she lives right there, and she had opportunity to kill the victim any time during the night and no one would think it was unusual that she was lurking around.’

‘No it can’t be Josie,’ Nero felt instantly protective of Josie, though he wasn’t sure why. Surely he wasn’t that attached to her. He’d only known her a few weeks. It was probably displaced loyalty for the Oyster Cove Guesthouse which had been his home for several lives now. Millie had left the guesthouse to him and Marlowe, and they’d messed up by letting a murder happen in the first place. He had to make sure that whomever he accused was actually the right person.

Poe raised a brow. ‘Oh, so you are bonding with your new human, then.’

‘Maybe. Sort of. I mean she still needs a lot of work but it doesn’t make sense that Josie would be the killer. Why would she kill him right in the guesthouse? That’s sure to raise suspicion on herself. Not to mention that it’s bad for business.’

‘And she is also looking for the killer. That’s what it sounded like when we were in the living room earlier,’ Marlowe added. ‘And why else would she be at Smugglers Bay? She also suspects Stella.’

Nero nodded. ‘Yes. Flora told her that Stella has been lurking around.’

‘But also, Mike said someone rigged the murder scene so that it would look like it was an accident.’

‘You don’t say? A setup? Trying to make Josie the fall guy perhaps?’ Stubbs asked.

Harry gave him a knowing, skeptical look. ‘Or the sabotage could point even more toward Josie. Who else would have opportunity to be inside the guesthouse messing around with the murder scene without anyone thinking it was odd?’

‘Right,’ Poe added. ‘Whatever was done to the scene probably took time and if it was not someone who was supposed to be there, questions would be raised.’

‘Not really,’ Nero said. ‘That part of the guesthouse is closed off. No one would be in there.’

‘Again, it all comes down to motive,’ Harry said.

‘In my experience, the most predominant reason people get iced is one of two things: money or love.’ Stubbs shook his head as if to indicate his disappointment with petty human motives.

‘That’s the problem,’ Nero said. ‘We have both. We have the missing cookbook that one of his associates said could be worth a lot of money and we have heard tale that he was having an affair with someone at the guesthouse.’

Poe frowned. ‘Someone at the guesthouse? Who?’

‘The blonde girl, Tina, or so Josie said,’ Nero said.

The male cats all nodded knowingly.

Juliette frowned at them disdainfully. ‘That doesn’t make very much sense. If it was someone at the guesthouse then why would they go out the window and leave the footprint?’

‘Yeah, that’s a good question. Why?’ Marlowe asked.