A Twist In The Tail

I gnawed my bottom lip. It seemed like Tony might be telling the truth about that. Maybe my mom had been right about the love triangle. ‘All right, maybe that review was not the reason why you killed him. Maybe you killed Charles Prescott because of the love triangle!’

The stairs creaked and we looked up to see Tina standing there, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open as she stared at Tony. ‘You killed Charles?’

Tony’s brow furrowed. ‘What? No. I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t mad about that review.’

‘Not the review,’ I said. ‘You were jealous because you had to share Tina with him!’

Tina gasped. Tony’s gaze jerked to Tina’s face. He looked like he was ready to cry. ‘You were having an affair with this Charles guy?’

Tina’s eyes were about as big as Floras. ‘No. I swear!’ She rushed down the stairs to Tony’s side. ‘You’re the only one I’m having an affair with.’

Tony looked dubious. He turned to me. ‘What do you know about this affair?’

I crossed my arms over my chest, mostly because my right arm was aching from holding up the rolling pin. ‘One of our other guests saw Tina sneaking out of Charles’s room.’

Tony looked at Tina, crestfallen. ‘Is that true? You were cheating on me?’

Tina glared at me. ‘No, it is not true. Well it’s partly true. I was in Charles’s room.’

‘Aha!’ I said.

Meow. The cats obviously agreed.

‘But not because I was having an affair with him,’ Tina added.

Tony still looked dubious. ‘Why were you in there then?’

Now that his attention was on Tina, I thought it might be a good time to do something to detain him for the police. I needed to know what he had for a weapon first. I tried to peek behind his back, but all I saw was what looked like a plastic bag. Had he brought the cleaver in a bag? I supposed it would raise suspicion if he walked around holding it in his hand.

Tina sighed and looked down at the floor. She shuffled her feet, then she said, ‘I was in his room looking for his recipe book.’

‘Aha!’ I said again. My vocabulary had apparently diminished during the conversation.

‘A recipe book?’ Tony looked like he wanted to believe her but wasn’t sure.

‘Charles was supposed to be writing a book with unique recipes. It was going to be a hit. And… well… my food column isn’t going very well and I just thought if I got a peek at the recipes maybe I could re-create some and write a book too.’ She whipped out a tissue and sniffled, tears welling up in her big blue eyes. I could tell by the look on Tony’s face that the tears had softened him.

‘Wait a minute, so you’re the one who took his cookbook?’ I asked.

Tina nodded, dabbing her eyes with the tissue. ‘It’s in my room. But I swear he wasn’t there. I had seen him that night up on the cliffs and I knew it would be a long time before he could make it back, so I figured that was my chance to get in his room and look for it.’

‘Let me get this straight. You weren’t mad about the lemon meringue pie review, the two of you are having an affair, but Tina wasn’t also having an affair with Charles?’

They both glanced at each other and nodded. That explained why Tony’s wife was acting like he was a cheater. He was. But was he a killer too? If Tina wasn’t having an affair with Charles, then there would be no motive for Tony to kill him. The affair could also explain why Stella had seen Tina out at the Timber Me Motel.

‘Did you guys meet at the Timber Me Motel?’

Tony’s eyes widened. ‘Yeah, how do you know about that?’

‘I have my sources.’ I turned to Tina. ‘But you weren’t having an affair with Charles?’

She shook her head.

‘And you were seen coming out of his room because you stole the cookbook?’

She nodded vigorously. ‘Yeah and I can prove it too. It’s in my room upstairs. I’ll get it.’

Before either of us could answer, she ran up the stairs.

I turned to Tony. There were still unanswered questions, not the least of which was why he’d snuck in here carrying a weapon in a bag. ‘Well then, if you and Tina had your affair at the Timber Me Motel, why did you sneak out the window in the West wing?’

His eyes widened. ‘How did you know I did that? Do you have cameras in this place? Do you have cameras in the rooms? You watching what’s going on?’

‘No. We saw a footprint in the bark mulch outside the very room Charles Prescott was killed in.’ I glanced down at his feet. ‘It was a chef’s clog and the sides had extensive wear on them, as if the owner walked on the sides of his feet.’

Tony backed up. I was a little nervous because he was still holding his left hand behind his back. What did he have back there? ‘I didn’t kill Charles. But I did sneak out that window. I came here one night to meet Tina when she first arrived in town. But then that busybody old lady saw us. I panicked and wanted to get out without being seen. I was afraid word would get back to my wife. Tina knew that section of the guesthouse was closed off so we went down there and I went out the window.’

‘What night was that?’