Meroeeow!
Never mind that the cats’ cries sounded eerily similar to the tone and insistency they’d had when they’d alerted me to Charles’ body. I was more worried about what Mike had just said. Why would anything at the Guesthouse be important to him? If he thought he was going to make it a habit to pop over all the time I’d have to set him straight.
I followed him to the room. Millie had said that it had once been a small ballroom. Remnants of black and white marble tile dotted the floor, water-stained floral wallpaper peeled from the walls, and the ceiling still had chunks of plaster medallions that once surrounded grand chandeliers. I wasn’t going to restore it to a ballroom, as there was little interest in balls these days. My plan was to make it into a game room. Judging by the clouds of dust in the air, the cobwebs in the corners and the smell of decades’ old dry wood, that was going to take a lot of work.
Mew!
Nero and Marlowe were at the far wall. Thankfully they seemed unharmed and I wondered if all the incessant meowing was simply because they were admiring themselves in the few shards left of the wall-length mirror that still clung to the wall. Right now it reflected the dilapidated room, but I imagined guests in ball gowns and elbow length gloves waltzing around on the dance floor, their images reflected in the gigantic mirror, making the room look twice as large and the crowd twice as big.
‘This place is in bad shape.’ Mike stood in the middle of the room surveying its entirety. I doubted he was picturing ballroom dancers. He might have been picturing a ball, but it was probably more like a wrecking ball.
Meow! Nero’s cry was insistent, as if we weren’t paying enough attention.
‘It looks like they’re fine,’ I said. Though I didn’t like the way Marlowe was scratching at the wall and then looking back at me. It was almost the same way she’d looked back at me when we’d discovered Charles. But that was crazy, there was clearly no dead body in this room.
‘You’ll need to make sure you shore up these joists before you do any work here. This room is big and that’s a load bearing wall over there. You’ll want to submit plans and get the proper inspections before you mess around with it,’ Mike said.
Now he was really starting to bug me.‘I think I can handle it and Ed knows what he’s doing. Besides the renovations here aren’t your business anymore and I sincerely doubt you’ll be coming around much anyway, right?’ Maybe I sounded a little too hopeful with that last part because Mike’s eyes darkened with disappointment for a second before returning to their devilish twinkle.
‘Sorry, Sunshine, that’s where you’re wrong.’
Somehow those six little words were more disturbing than the prospect of the cats finding another dead body inside the guesthouse.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked cautiously.
Mike’s smile widened. ‘Haven’t you heard? What goes on here is going to be very much my business from here on out. I’m taking over as building inspector, at least until they find someone else to take Barbara’s place. So, you see, I’ll be coming around here a lot more –especially considering all the work you have going on and the decrepit state of this part of the mansion. Why, you might even see me more than you did when I worked here.’
Nero’s despairing cry echoed my thoughts. I gaped at Mike, remembering how Barbara would just waltz in unannounced all the time. Was he planning to do the same?
But Mike was no longer paying attention to me. He was over near the cats, bent down petting them. They butted their furry heads against his hand and purred. Clearlythey wouldn’t mind him coming around all the time. Traitors.
‘What have you got here?’ Mike bent closer to the wall where the cats had been pawing and scratching. He poked at it with his finger, sniffed, then looked up at me. ‘Looks like you might have a problem with rot here, maybe even mold.’
Perfect.‘I’m sure Ed will address it when he gets to this part. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we follow proper inspection procedures.’
Meow!Nero clawed at the wall.
Meroo!Marlowe butted his head against it.
‘Yes, I heard him, Marlowe. The wall needs attention. Don’t worry I’ll see to it that everything gets fixed properly.’ I didn’t relish the idea of Mike hanging around inspecting all the renovations, but I was glad that the cats weren’t hurt and all they were crying about was some rottedboards. After all, I’d dealt with a dead body here at the guesthouse, how hard could it be to tackle a little bit of rot and mold?
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Nero rolled his eyes and scratched at the wall again. Josie just wasn’t getting it. And here he’d thought she was starting to clue in to their attempts at communication.
‘I don’t think she’s on the same page as us,’ Marlowe purred as Mike scratched the top of her head.
‘No kidding. She’s no Millie, that’s for sure.’ Nero’s whiskers twitched and he held back a sneeze. The moldy smell emitting from the wall was ten times stronger than it was to the humans due to his highly developed senses. And, he was incredibly allergic to mold. But the mold and rot weren’t the only scents coming from the wall, not that Josie was noticing. She was too busy pretending not to act nonchalant around Mike.
‘Ahh Millie. I wish she hadn’t left the guesthouse to us. It’s such a huge responsibility.’ Marlowe licked his paw and pushed it behind her ear. ‘But at least we redeemed ourselves for not preventing Charles Prescott’s murder.’ Marlowe glanced at Nero out of the corner of her eye hopefully.
‘Indeed. I do think we did. We led Josie to many of the clues and if not for our fancy footwork Barbara might not have been safely dispatched into the cellar where she could do no harm.’
‘Not that we got a lot of credit for either of those things.’ Marlowe stretched against the wall, running her front claws down it, creating an annoying sound.
‘Ahh, but that is for the best. Their fragile egos couldn’t take it if they knew most of the detecting was done by us and our feline friends.’ Nero glanced up at Josie. She wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to them or to the wall or the scratches Marlowe had just made in the remnantsof wallpaper left on it. She was busy scowling at Mike. Judging by the snatches of conversation, they were arguing about how often Mike, as the building inspector, could come by unannounced. Nero didn’t see what the problem was. Mike gave good belly rubs and always treated the cats kindly. Maybe Josie should let him give her a belly rub and she’d be more accommodating to his visits?
‘I suppose you are right. They are a strange breed, but we need to keep them happy, otherwise who will buy the treats and gravy-laden cat food from the store for us?’ Marlowe said.
‘Exactly. Make them think they are the brains of the operation.’ Nero smiled at the younger cat. She was coming along splendidly and Nero was pleased with the way she’d caught on to some of the clues in the investigation. It would be a long time before she was as good as Nero himself was, butshe was showing promise. At least Marlowe was trainable. Josie on the other hand… well, Nero was a little worried about whether or not she would ever come up to speed.
The two humans left the room, still arguing, and Nero waited a few beats so they wouldn’t think he was trotting after them obediently or anything – that type of behavior was for dogs.
‘Well, we’ve done our best to alert Josie,’ Nero said after he heard the lock on the door click shut. It didn’t bother him that they were locked into the West wing. He knew dozens of secret exits and entrances into many of the rooms in the mansion. ‘Let’s go see if Millie is still in the kitchen and try to finagle some of those bacon-flavored cat treats while we contemplate how to better communicate with our resident human.’