A Purrfect Alibi

I frowned at Millie. Did she just say that she’d figured it out? I guess it wouldn’t matter much who actually figured it out if we didn’t find a way to get out of this.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Myron asked. “Those papers don’t prove anything and, since no one else will think to look at them, I don’t think anyone else will put two and two together.”

“Not just the papers,” I said. I didn’t want Myron getting any more confident than he already was. The best course of action was to get him feeling uncertain and then he’d be distracted and we could use that to our advantage. “It was also that pen.”

He turned the gun toward me. “Pen?”

“Yeah, the carved ivory pen you left here that day you viewed Ed’s work on the ballroom. You had it retrofitted for modern use by Agnes Withington, didn’t you?”

“It’s an antique and I wanted it to be of use. So what?”

“Yes, it is an antique. In fact, I saw it in an old etching, but it wasn’t Thomas Remington who was using it. It was Jedediah Biddeford. So it made me wonder… how did the pen come into your possession?”

“Thomas must have stolen it!” Mom said.

“Yep, and if he stole that, he probably stole Jed’s fancy shoes with the buckles too. Isn’t that right, Myron.”

Myron’s confidence was faltering. This was my chance! Millie could take it from here, so I whispered in her ear. “Cover me and keep him talking.”

Millie maneuvered herself in front of me and I backed up, slowly receding into the dim shadows. Myron was too distracted to notice when I slipped behind the server, crouching low so he wouldn’t see me making my way to circle around behind him.

“So what if Thomas stole some things from Jed? He deserved them, working as a butler all those years for a pittance. He didn’t have any nice clothes and he needed to look presentable when he opened the bank.”

“So you put the buckle and the note on Madame Zenda to scare people off.” Mom paused, then added. “But why use the Oyster Cove Guesthouse letter opener?”

“To scare people off, of course.” Myron wiggled the fingers of his free hand in the air. “Make people think the ghost did it because he didn’t want anyone in his house.”

“That’s why you kept coming over,” Millie said. “You weren’t checking on the progress of the renovations, you were checking to see if anyone had figured out the real truth. And maybe you were a little afraid that someone really had been talking to Jed’s ghost.”

“Ha! I ain’t afraid of no ghost. But I did have to make sure no one found out the truth,” Myron said.

“So you tried to scare us off with those ghost noises,” Mom said. “How did you do that?”

“Remote.” Myron sounded pleased with himself.

A large box blocked my path and I moved it slowly so as to make no sound as I thought back to when we’d heard the noises. Myron had seemed frightened, ducking behind Mom and Millie… or so I’d thought. Now I realized he’d actually been hiding back there so no one would see him work the remote.

“But where did you put the recorder that made the noises? We looked everywhere,” Millie said.

“Oh, I bet that’s what he was doing out by the barn!” Mom answered.

“That’s right, too bad you figured it out too late.” Myron’s voice took on a sinister tone and my heart pounded as I wedged myself in between a marble-topped bureau and a Victorian sofa with most of the horsehair stuffing exposed.

“But why?” Mom asked. “Everything happened three hundred years ago.”

“Because if they knew the bank was started with stolen money they could take it away. The heirs, those cheesy guests you had here a few weeks ago, might try to get the money back. I couldn’t risk anyone finding out the real truth…” Myron was starting to sound manic.

I quickly pushed another box out of the way and suppressed a sneeze. My quest was stirring up a lot of dust and I wasn’t making much progress, I just hoped I’d get behind Myron in time to do something.

“The real truth?” Millie sounded confused.

“That’s right, its worse than stolen money!” Esther’s voice had a triumphant ring to it and I popped my head up over a cherry Chippendale server to see that she’d broken from the group and was standing a few feet from Myron, her hands fisted on her hips. She looked round at the corners of the ceiling and projected her voice as if speaking to someone other than those of us present in the room. “Myron’s ancestor, Thomas Remington, killed Jed and put him in the wall. Then he dug up Jed’s treasure and used it to start the bank.”

“Oh, you don’t say,” Mom said.

“And that’s why Myron had to stop Madame Zenda… and now Victor… from telling the truth. He’s the killer!” Esther yelled.

“Fine, it’s true! And since my ancestor is a killer, then a few more dead bodies won’t matter!” Myron grabbed Esther and pulled her in front of him, pressing the gun to her temple.

Esther cried out.

The cats wailed.