A Twist In The Tail

That sounded like Nero out in the parlor. Not sure what he was meowing about but apparently he hadn’t figured out that all the action was going on here in the kitchen.

Stella made a face. ‘I’m not poisoning the gulls. Who told you that?’

‘No one told me. It’s as plain as day that they are affecting your business.’ I gestured in the direction of her inn.

Meow.

Was that Marlowe? It sounded like she was near the front stairway.

‘They are not. I admit it’s hard to keep up with cleaning the gull poop off the deck, but tourists love to go and feed the gulls. In fact, I have special ‘gull food’ canisters now that I sell them specifically for feeding the birds.’ Stella shrugged at our disbelieving looks. ‘It’s just stale bread but hey, if life gives you lemons you make lemonade.’

I glanced at Ron. He was stroking his chin and studying Stella. ‘Then why did you break in here tonight if not to get the evidence before it was given to the police?’

Stella sighed and pointed at the scrap of paper on the floor. ‘Okay, I admit it. I wasn’t borrowing a recipe. I was returning one.’

‘Returning?’ I bent down to pick the paper up.

‘Yes, it’s Millie’s sour cream coffee cake recipe. It’s really delicious, so I stole it to make for the cooking contest. I wanted to sneak in and return it sooner but after you came over and started asking all the questions about why I was hanging around the Guesthouse, I didn’t dare. So when I heard you wouldn’t be here and the place would be unlocked, I figured it was a perfect time to return it.’

I stared at the paper in my hand. Handwritten on a blue lined index card and smudged with an old butter stain was Millie’s distinctive handwriting in a faded blue pen. It was the missing Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe. Had Stella really broken in just to return it or was this some clever trick to use as an excuse to be here because she really was breaking in to get the trumped-up evidence?

‘But it has to be you,’ I said.

Meroo!

That one came from the hallway, probably the cats were just figuring out we had the killer cornered in the kitchen. But now, looking at the recipe I had to wonder if we’d made a mistake.

‘Why does it have to be me? I'm not the only one who could poison the gulls. Why don’t you ask Barbara Littlefield? She's the one who was conspiring with Charles up on the cliff.’

Now I knew she was lying. ‘But Barbara said she never met Charles and she—’

A gruff voice in the doorway cut off my words. ‘That's right. I said what I had to say to stop you from nosing around.’

We turned in the direction of the voice to see Barbara Littlefield standing in the doorway with a gun pointed directly at us.

Twenty-Two

I’d been so focused on getting Stella to confess that I never heard Barbara coming in.

Meow!

Nero and Marlowe appeared behind her, blinking at me as if I was the dumbest human on earth. I guess that’s what they’d been meowing about. They’d been trying to warn me.

‘Aren’t you the building inspector?’ Ron asked.

‘Yeah, what of it?’ Barbara glared at him.

‘What do you have to do with all this?’ Ron looked genuinely perplexed and for good reason. Why would Barbara kill Charles? Was she the one poisoning the gulls? Even Stella seemed confused as she glanced from the small silver gun Barbara was waving around to Ron to me.

‘Did you know Charles from before?’ I asked. Maybe she had a grudge? Maybe she’d been one of the many he’d had an affair with and was out for revenge.

‘No. That dimwit thought he could outsmart me though. Ha!’ Barbara jerked the gun toward the door to the basement. ‘Now all three of you shuffle over toward the cellar nice and slow.’

I glanced at the door and shivered. I’d only been down in the basement once and that was plenty for me. It was an old house and the basement was dark, dank and full of spiders the size of kittens.

Meow.

Nero rubbed up against Barbara’s ankle.

She shook her foot to push him away.

‘Get lost, Kitty.’ Her face twisted even more. ‘I thought I told you not to have cats in the kitchen. It’s a code violation. I’d write you up, but after I burn the place you won’t even have a kitchen.’

‘But why would Charles blackmail you?’ Ron asked.

Barbara gestured with the gun again and we all shuffled a bit closer to the door. ‘He shouldn’t have been up on the cliff. I mean what kind of a stupid cookbook uses flockenberries? They don’t taste that good, you know.’

‘The gulls seem to like them,’ Stella said.

‘Yeah. Unfortunately. That’s how he found out.’ Barbara gestured with the gun again and we moved another half inch.

Meow!

Marlowe scratched Barbara’s ankle.

Barbara lashed out with her foot. Luckily, she missed the cat. Unluckily she kept her grip on the gun and her eyes on us. I had to wonder if the cats were trying to distract her.

‘Found out about what?’ I prompted. Maybe if she got talkative one of the others would come back and save us.