A Purrfect Alibi: A pawsitively gripping cozy mystery (The Oyster Cove Guesthouse Book 3)

by Leighann Dobbs

  Exactly what I had concluded. Too bad I hadn’t said that out loud, I could have shown him that you don’t need to have a past as a navy investigator to made logical deductions.

  Merooooo. Nero and Marlowe hopped up onto what was left of the gazebo railing and sat, their tails twitching as they looked down at us.

  Millie squinted up at them, then her gaze fell on the stairs. “Look there’s mud on the stairs. You were right, Mike, someone has been in the gazebo.”

  Mike smiled indulgently at his aunt.

  “But why?” Mom gave the structure a critical look. “The place is falling apart. Why would someone risk getting hurt by going in there? I mean, you could get splintered, or lockjaw or a broken leg.”

  “Must be something of interest in there.” Millie gingerly picked her way up the broken steps. “And there’s only one way to find out what that is.”

  Mereee!

  Nero and Marlowe jumped down from the railing and headed to the other side of the gazebo, scurrying under one of the built-in benches that lined the walls.

  “Better not go up there…” Mike’s warning was too late, Millie was already at the top step.

  “I think the cats are trying to tell us something.” Millie rushed over to the other side where the cats were now waiting.

  Mike sighed and started up the steps.

  “Yep, footprints over here too!” Millie yelled. Her knees popped as she crouched down beside the cats. They were zigzagging back and forth, their interest centered on something beneath the bench.

  “Better not mess around up there, Aunt Millie. It’s not safe!” Mike probably knew she wouldn’t listen to him. I mean, even I knew that when Millie was hot on the trail of something she didn’t stop for anything.

  “Oh, it will be fine.” Millie’s voice was muffled because she had her head under the bench. “Besides, the cats want to show me something.”

  Not wanting to be left out, Mom and I scurried up behind Mike. The first thing I noticed was muddy footprints and they weren’t ours because the mud had dried. The second thing I noticed was that the cats were pacing back and forth atop the bench that Millie had her head under.

  The third thing I noticed was that Mom had joined Millie and now both of them had their heads under the bench. There must have been a hole in the floor because Millie’s right arm was digging around for something.

  “I think I see something shiny under here,” Millie said. “Do you see it, Rose?”

  Mom stuck her head further under to the sounds of more joints creaking. She was practically lying down trying to get a good look into the opening. “There it is! To your left.”

  Mike and I exchanged exasperated looks.

  Mike bent down and tugged at Millie’s left arm. “Here let me do that. You shouldn’t be doing this at your age.”

  Uh oh… that comment was going to backfire on him. Millie sprung up, hands fisted on her hips. Mom backed out of the hole and looked up at Mike incredulously.

  “I thought I raised you better than that! Talking about a lady’s age. And besides, I am not old!”

  Mom jumped up and brushed the dirt off her pants. “Yeah, we aren’t old! I’m surprised at you, Michael Sullivan.” Mom reverting to using Mike’s full name was not a good thing.

  Mike didn’t seem fazed. He crouched down and felt around under the bench. At least his remark had done the job of getting them off the floor. Perhaps Mike was more clever than I thought.

  Mike pulled a small black-and-chrome device out from under the bench. “Huh, looks like a tape recorder.”

  “Aha!” Millie grabbed for it. “This must be what made the ghostly noises!”

  “Someone hid it under that bench,” Mom said.

  Mike took it back from Millie and looked it over. To me it looked just like a small black box with some switches, like a cell phone.

  “Let’s see if you’re right,” Mike said. “This is a pretty simple device, looks like it just records and then plays back.” He glanced toward the house. From here you could just see the top of the roof. “But I don’t think the sound would carry all the way to the foyer of the guesthouse.”

  “Poppycock. It has to!” Millie grabbed for it again, but Mike pulled it back. “Let’s hear what’s on it.”

  Mike fiddled with the switches and studied the display. Finally, he pressed a button but all that came out was a repeat of the conversation we’d just had.

  “You must have messed with it and put it on record. You have to rewind it.” Millie grabbed it out of his hand and fiddled for a few minutes, but still the only thing it had on it was our conversation.

  “Maybe we recorded over it, or the perpetrator set it to automatically erase the sounds after it played,” Mom said. “You know, destroy the evidence like how the secret message would self-destruct in that movie Get Smart.”

  “Maybe.” Mike didn’t look convinced. “At any rate, someone did put it here for a reason. Unless it fell out of a pocket or something. Maybe we should call Seth Chamberlain.”

  “And what? Tell him we found a tape recorder with nothing on it?” Millie asked. “I’m sure he’ll rush right over.”

  Meow! Nero was at the top of the steps, looking over his shoulder at us. Clearly he wanted us to head back to the guesthouse with the evidence. Marlowe was already halfway down the path.

  “See? Nero has the right idea. We need to confront the perp with this. We’ll pretend like the evidence is still on there and get a confession.” Millie headed down the steps.

  “I don’t think—” Mike’s sentence was interrupted by an alarm on his phone. He dug it out and looked at the display. “Shoot. I have an appointment for an inspection over on Glendale. I have to go.”

  “Darn. That’s too bad.” Mom hurried down the steps after Millie. “You’re going to miss all the fun.”

  “Hey, wait up!” Mike jogged to catch up to Millie and I followed behind. I hoped he wasn’t going to give us his lecture about not investigating. “Aunt Millie, don’t forget the person who hid this might be dangerous. Don’t do anything rash on your own,” Mike said.

  Millie stopped and turned faux-innocent eyes on her nephew. “Oh don’t worry, we won’t do anything rash without you.”

  He looked at her skeptically, and with good reason, as from where I was standing I could see she had her fingers crossed behind her back. I purposely avoided eye contact with him.

  Mike sighed. “Hey, you’re grown women.”

  “That’s right,” Mom said. “We can handle ourselves. Now you run along and we’ll just take this tape recorder inside for safekeeping.”

  Twenty-Three

  As soon as Mike walked away, Millie charged towards the kitchen door. “Any idea where we could find Gail this time of day?”

  “Why are you so sure the recorder is from her?” Mom asked.

  “I’m not, but she’s the only one who wasn’t in the foyer when the noises were made and she’s mysterious. No background in the business and lurking behind Madame Zenda in that cruise photo. I say we question her first.”

  Mom hesitated at the door. “You did tell Mike—”

  Millie cut her off. “I told him we wouldn’t do anything rash. This isn’t rash. This is calculated. And besides, there are three of us and only one of her.”

  We checked around the house and found Gail in the back parlor staring into a dainty blue teacup. She must have gotten that one out of the china cabinet, another one of the items that had come from Millie’s family and been included with the sale of the guesthouse. I hoped Millie wouldn’t be mad that the guests were helping themselves to the use of her family heirlooms.

  Gail looked up, her eyes wary as we approached. Maybe she sensed our purpose, or perhaps the tea leaves had warned her.

  Mom was making pointed glances at Gail’s shoes and I looked down to see that the white fabric of her tennis shoes was stained dark from mud. Gail had been at the gazebo. I looked around the room for a weapon, just in case.

  She sm
iled nervously and held the teacup in front of her as if for protection as we each took a seat. Mom sat on the sofa next to her and Millie and I each took one of the wingback chairs across from the sofa.

  “Good afternoon, ladies.” Gail glanced out the window. A gray twilight had descended and she amended her greeting. “Or should I say good evening.”

  “Evening.” Millie was sitting so that the tape recorder was hidden. Probably saving it so as to have the element of surprise. It seemed quite obvious to me that she was taking pains to hide something and it must have been obvious to Gail too, if the way her eyes kept flicking to Millie’s side were any indication. “I suppose you heard about the excitement.”

  “Esther told me about the ghostly moans.” Gail huffed. “Probably that pompous clown Victor staged it as more drama to his big announcement.”

  Though I wouldn’t put it past Victor to do that, I’d seen the look on his face in the foyer and he had appeared genuinely frightened. Of course, that could all just be part of his act.

  “Yeah, funny thing though,” Mom said. “We were wondering how he did that.”

  Gail shrugged. “Who knows? They have all kinds of gadgets these days that can produce such sounds.”

  “You should know about that, dear,” Millie said.

  At Gail’s confused look, Millie whipped out the recorder and shoved it in front of her face.

  Gail took a nervous sip of her tea. “That one doesn’t seem suitable for the noise that I heard described.”

  “Ha! You would say that.” Mom leaned closer to Gail. “That device is yours. Admit it!”

  “Well… I don’t know that it’s mine… I do have one similar.”

  I was surprised at her curious reaction. I’d expected extreme denial or some kind of fight. Maybe she was thinking she could outwit us. I guess she didn’t know Mom and Millie very well.

  Millie leaned closer to Gail, she was practically out of her seat. Gail shrunk back into the couch, her eyes darting between Mom leaning close on one side and Millie leaning close on the other.

  “Fess up. We know you were the only one not in the foyer when we heard the noises, and we found this recorder in the gazebo,” Millie said.

  “And you have mud stains on your shoes.” Mom pointed at Gail’s feet. “I bet that’s the same mud that’s out near the gazebo.”

  “And we know you were on that cruise with Madame Zenda. You have a previous connection!” Millie said.

  “Yeah, one that might hide a motive for murder,” Mom added, with a knowing nod.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” Gail said. “Esther and Victor were on that cruise too.”

  “But you are the only one who wasn’t upfront about your purpose there. We saw a photo, and Esther and Victor were front and center as featured mediums and you were lurking in the background,” Millie said.

  Gail fidgeted. “I’m not hiding anything. I wasn’t a medium on that cruise.”

  Millie tapped the recorder. “So you’re saying you didn’t hide this in the gazebo?”

  Gail was silent, her eyes darting between the three of us as she gnawed her bottom lip. Finally, Gail slumped back on the sofa. “You’re right. I am hiding something.”

  “I knew it!” Millie whipped out her cell phone. “I’ll just call the sheriff now. Won’t he be surprised to find that we’ve gotten the confession from Madame Zenda’s killer!”

  “Confession? No!” Gail put her cup down on the coffee table and I quickly shoved a coaster under it. Not for nothing, because the coffee table was antique mahogany and it was almost impossible to get those white rings out. I’d heard Flora complain about that plenty of times.

  Gail continued, “I didn’t kill Madame Zenda. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because of Victor.”

  “You were planning to kill Victor?” Mom must have taken a dim view of Victor, because she looked as if she was considering letting Gail go.

  “No. I was here to prove he was a fraud. That’s why I put the recorder in the gazebo.” Gail gestured toward the device in Millie’s hand. “I didn’t put it in there to play ghostly noises, I put it in there to record Victor.”

  Millie raised a brow at her. “You did?”

  “Take a look at it. You’ll see it’s on record. And it’s blank, so you won’t find any ghostly noises.”

  Millie, Mom and I looked at each other. We’d already messed up the original setting, but that would explain why all that was on it was the recording of our conversation.

  “But what were you going to record?” Millie asked.

  “I was going to prove once and for all that Victor was a fraud. He said he’d talk to Jed’s ghost and mentioned the gazebo and the cemetery. I put recorders in both places hoping I could pick up something that proved he was a phoney. They are voice activated,” Gail said.

  “So you have a beef with Victor. I admit he is obnoxious. And those stupid velour suits. But what about the cruise?” Mom asked.

  “And why is there no record of you being a psychic?” I gestured toward the teacup. “Most everyone has a website or some kind of ad, but you have nothing.”

  Gail looked down at the floor. “I’m not really a tea-leaf reader. I came out here on that pretense to trap Victor. Mary Chambers was my best friend. We were on that Dreams Divinity cruise together. That’s where she met Victor.”

  It all clicked. I should have realized it before. Anita had said Gail was from Ohio and so was Mary. “Mary was the woman that Victor bilked out of money, claiming he could talk to her dead husband, wasn’t she?”

  Gail nodded, her eyes moist. “Yes. She was a lovely person and she so wanted to talk to her husband again. She died broken-hearted when her daughter convinced her that Victor was cheating her and she hadn’t really been talking to her husband.”

  That explained why I’d seen her staring out the window at Victor and why Anita had seen her following them when they’d talked to the movie producer. If Gail’s story was true, she’d been looking for dirt on Victor all along.

  “Well then, who killed Madame Zenda and made the ghostly noises?” Mom asked. “Someone had to hide something somewhere to make them. Unless there really is a ghost.”

  Millie gave Mom an annoyed look at her suggestion that there might actually be a real ghost, then narrowed her gaze at Gail. “Maybe you killed Zenda by mistake, thinking she was Victor?”

  “Hardly. There was no mistaking one for the other, and besides, I wasn’t going to kill Victor, just prove he was a fraud so the whole world would know.” Gail tapped her fingers on her lips. “But I did see one person doing something odd on the grounds when I was putting the tape recorder in the gazebo. I was sneaking around so no one would see me and so was the other person.”

  “We know all about Anita Pendragon lurking around,” I said.

  Gail shook her head. “No, it wasn’t her. I hate to even mention it because she seems like such a nice person, but she really was acting odd.” Gail looked up at us.

  “Who?” I prompted.

  “It was Esther Hill and she was messing around in that old outhouse. I have no idea what she was doing, but she was in there for quite some time.”

  Twenty-Four

  “It’s always the nice ones who have dark secrets,” Millie said as we headed toward the outhouse, flashlights in hand. Now that the sun had set, the dark shadows of twilight loomed around us and the hooting of owls and scurrying of squirrels and chipmunks in the leaves took an ominous tone.

  “I should have connected the dots earlier,” I said. “Flora said Esther was at the outhouse, remember? I thought she was just doing her usual complaining about cleaning, so when the ghostly noises happened I didn’t put two and two together, but the noise came from that direction and it would be a great place to hide something.”

  “Easy to see how you would think that. She does complain a lot.” Millie flicked her light at the shabby structure as we approached.

  The outhouse was fairly large and it wasn’t in very good shape.
It was listing to one side, the wood gray and rotting. Grass and weeds had grown up knee high around the outside. The door had a crescent moon cut out, but it was too dark in there to see inside. We creaked the door open slowly.

  Nero and Marlowe pushed through ahead of me. The moonlight slanted in from the door opening and reflected off the cats’ eyes as they sat blinking at us from the darkness inside.

  “Well don’t just stand there, let’s go inside.” Mom aimed her light at the interior and pushed in front of me.

  “What do you think Esther was doing in here?” I asked as I pointed the beam of my light around. The flashlights were all small pen-sized lights that sent out a narrow beam that didn’t reach far. Probably not that great for the job but, seeing as I hadn’t anticipated skulking around in outhouses in the middle of the night, they were all I had on short notice.

  “Hiding the speaker that made the ghost noises, of course.” Millie shot me a look that said “duh”.

  “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there is another reason she was here.” I pointed my light at one of the holes. Nothing but a black pit. I dared not look too closely, that hole led to things I didn’t want to think about. “Maybe she thought being here would bring her closer to Jed. I mean, he probably spent a lot of time in here and I do remember someone mentioning that being close to places or things that someone spent a lot of time near when living could help raise their ghost.”

  “This is an odd place to hide the recorder,” Mom said. “Maybe Gail was lying to us. If I were the killer I’d lie to us.”

  “But Flora saw Esther here, too,” I reminded them.

  “And the recorder that Gail had didn’t have ghostly noises on it,” Millie said. “Her claims about the real reason she is here do make sense. We know Victor scammed that woman from the cruise. We should find a way to verify that she really was that woman’s friend though.”

  “Even so, she could still be the killer.” Mom seemed reluctant to let go of that theory as she ran her light over the three holes. “Sure glad we don’t have to use this thing. Did you have to when you were a kid, Millie?”