A Twist In The Tail

Iona glared at me. No longer did she look like a sweet old lady. ‘Looks like you didn’t rush home to feed the cats like you said you were going to do when we saw you out in the woods. This one appears to be starving.’

‘Oh, them.’ I waved my hand dismissively at the cats. ‘They beg for food all the time.’

I inched toward the doorway. Maybe I could rush Ron and knock him over? I hated to knock over a senior citizen, but he was a killer.

‘No sense in lying, Josie. We know what you were up to out in the woods,’ Ron said.

So they knew I was on to them. Fine! I’d get myself out of this somehow.

Mew!

Nero jumped up on the dresser and sniffed.

Iona snatched up the bag. ‘I don’t think fried clams are good for cats.’

Lovely, a senior citizen killer who cared about cat nutrition.

‘That’s right. I’ll just take them downstairs for some properly formulated cat food.’ I glanced at Nero and Marlowe. Not sure what I was expecting. Maybe for them to distract the Weatherbys while I made a break for it? But they were more interested in the takeout bag because now they were sitting at Iona’s feet practically begging like dogs.

‘Nice try, Josie. You might as was well confess. We aren’t letting you go.’ Ron stood firmly in front of the door.

Images of my body at the bottom of the stairs in the West wing bubbled up. I hadn’t heard any other cars pull in, so it was likely no one else was home. Why hadn’t I listened to Mike? I decided to buy some time.

I crossed my arms over my chest. ‘You confess first. I know what you’ve been up to.’

Ron and Iona glanced at each other. ‘You do? How did you find out?’

‘Process of elimination,’ I said proudly. But not too proudly, lest it anger them and make their killing method more painful.

Meroo…

Nero tore his attention from the bag long enough to blink at me. Was that some kind of signal? Too bad I didn’t understand cat-blink.

I moved toward the door another inch. Maybe it was best to let them take me to the West wing. That way I’d have more opportunities to escape. Or maybe I should try to reason with them? Convince them to give themselves up.

‘What are you going to do? Push me down the stairs and try to make it look like an accident? I don’t think the police will fall for that again.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Iona looked confused.

‘Don’t play dumb. I know the truth and what you’ve been up to. But you can’t kill me like you did Charles. It won’t work. Might be easier to give yourselves up. I’m sure it was an accident. The cops will go easy, but if you kill me too… not so much.’

‘What are you talking about? Why would we kill Charles?’

‘To cover up the fact that you were messing with the gulls, of course.’

Ron and Iona looked nervous. Clearly I’d hit a nerve. They hadn’t figured that I’d discovered their secret about the gulls.

Meroo!

Marlowe and Nero sat at Iona’s feet, tails swishing back and forth anxiously. Eyes focused on the bag of clams. Fine friends they were. Here I was about to be murdered and all they could think about was clams.

‘Oh, for crying out loud, give them a clam.’ Ron took a step toward me, and I backed up. ‘Now Josie, I see what you are trying to do but it won’t work.’

Darn! He was onto my ploy to keep them talking and try to hedge toward the door. Now what? I glanced back at the window, but we were on the second floor. Maybe I could lock myself in the bathroom?

‘You’re not going to get away with murder. Think about it.’

‘Why do you keep saying that?’ Iona had taken a clam out of the bag, picked off the coating and was feeding little pieces to the cats. They were lapping it up, not paying any attention to the dire circumstances going on around them. ‘It’s no use trying to cover up what you’ve been doing.’

I frowned. ‘What I’ve been doing?’

‘Yes dear,’ Ron managed to look fatherly. ‘It’s quite obvious that you’re the one who has been killing the gulls. Earlier when we caught you in the woods, we know you were going to the nests, but turned back because you ran into us. I don’t know what happened with that Charles fellow but if you just confess, I think we can convince the authorities to go easy on you.’

‘What I don’t understand is why you would do it… were the gulls hurting business at the guesthouse?’ Iona tossed a tiny clam morsel to Nero, who caught it mid-air like a dog.

This was confusing. What was their angle? Would they try to blame me for their crime? Maybe they were trying to force a confession like I was doing to them. I fisted my hands on my hips and stood my ground. ‘I had nothing to do with the gulls. They aren’t hurting business at all. They don’t even come here.’ I gestured toward the window where a few evening gulls were circling far over the water, as if to prove my point.

Iona popped a clam in her mouth and exchanged a confused look with Ron. ‘Well then, why harm them?’

‘It’s not me, it’s you!’

Ron shook his head and gave me a sad look of pity, then reached in the bag for a clam. ‘Think about it, this has been happening long before we came. It’s not us.’