“You already gave him the shovel? When?” I didn’t see how she could have possibly done that in between the time we saw Seth at the town celebration and now, especially since she’d been here cleaning the whole time and Seth hadn’t stopped by. But at the celebration Seth still suspected her, so he must not have had it yet.
“Give it to him? No. I saw him take it. I put it in the carriage house with the rest of the shovels. That’s where you said you wanted people to put them.”
My brows knit together.“You did? But Sheriff Chamberlain only found six shovels, one for each of the Biddefords, besides Bob. His shovel was at the murder scene.”
Mom jumped out of her chair.“Seth just assumed all those belonged to the Biddefords, but if one of the shovels was Flora’s then that means one of the Biddefords’ shovels is missing. My guess is that is the murder weapon!”
“Which means that Flora is cleared because Seth himself said none of those shovels were the murder weapon,” Millie said.
“And that also means that one of the Biddefords really is the killer,” I said. Or could it still be Annabel? But if it was her, why would one of the Biddefords’ shovels be missing?
“But which one?” Mom asked.
“I hate to say it, but Doris said she’d do anything to get the company back on track and she also lied about them all being together that night,” I said.
“Bob argued with Carla but she seems to have an alibi,” Mom said.
“Paula also argued with Bob,” Millie pointed out. “And Paula has been trying to frame quite a few people. Flora and then Myron with the shoes. Maybe she’s the real killer.”
“I heard someone else argue with Bob,” Flora said.
We swiveled our heads in her direction.“Who?”
“Earl,” she said.
“What did they argue about?” I asked.
“It’s not like I was trying to eavesdrop. You were out shopping and I was cleaning the hallway when Bob burst into Earl’s room. They had a little bit of a tiff. I couldn’t hear too good but it sounded like something about a secret book and rubble. I figured the rubble had to do with digging, that’s why I…”
Flora’s voice trailed off and she got more fidgety with the feather duster and glanced around the room.
“You what?” I prompted.
“Okay, okay! I’ll admit it. I was lying about one thing. I didn’t clean Earl and Arlene’s room that day, but Iwas in there.”
“What were you doing?” Millie asked.
Flora glanced around to make sure no one else was about, then continued,“When I heard the argument about the secret book I assumed it was something about a treasure map. You know, maybe an old family book or something? I figured it wouldn’t do any harm to go in there and while I was cleaning maybe I could find this book.” Flora glanced out the window. “But whenI went in it was pretty obvious where the treasure map was.”
“Wait, there really is a map?” I could practically see my mom thinking about rushing home to get a shovel. News of the map plus Millie’s coffee had sobered her up.
“Well, therewas. Problem is Earl had burned most of it in the fireplace in his room. I could make out nothing but a few lines of longitude and latitude.” Flora’s expression turned sheepish. “I lied because I didn’t want you to think I stole from the room.”
“Really? If Earl knew where the treasure was, then did he dig it up?” Millie said.
“If Bob and Earl argued over it maybe only Bob knew where it was,” Mom said. “Maybe that’s why it was burned.”
“Wait a minute. I want to see this map. Do you still have it?” I asked.
Flora blanched.“It wasn’t really stealing, honest. I mean it was in the fireplace so technically it was trash and I was just taking out the trash.”
“Of course. I’m not mad you took it, but I would like to look at it,” I said.
“It’s right here in my pocket.” Flora produced a wrinkled, charred piece of paper. “It won’t do you any good though. The map wasn’t for anything on this property. I think Jedediah might’ve buried his treasure at sea.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked. Millie and Mom had come to stand behind me so they could look over my shoulder.
“I went down to the travel agency lady to find out where these longitude and latitude would be. But this stupid map isn’t for this property—she said it was for somewhere in the Caribbean Ocean!”
Millie glanced at me.“Annabel wasn’t lying. Flora really was there, she just assumed she was looking to take a vacation because of the longitude and latitude.”
“But why would Jed bury the treasure in the middle of the ocean?” Mom’s eyes narrowed. “What if Annabel really did lie? What if she lied to Flora about the coordinates?”
“What do you mean?” Flora asked.
Mom leaned forward in her seat.“What if Annabel recognized the numbers for what they were—a map to the treasure. And what if she didn’t want anyone else to know the location. She might have given Flora false information about what the longitude and latitude really meant so that she could dig up the treasure herself!”
Millie pressed her lips together.“Hmmm… she did have those fancy shoes and she is expanding her business which means she got an influx of money.”
I stared down at the paper. It was a column of numbers that reminded me of the unbalanced accounting ledger I had for the guesthouse.“Are you sure these are longitude and latitude? Because they don’t look like it to me.”
“They don’t? Well I just assumed they were. I mean, why talk about a secret book and then burn the paper?” Flora asked.
Something else tickled the back of my brain. I was on to something, but had one more question.“Flora, did you clean Millie’s grandmother’s doily in the parlor the morning that Sheriff Chamberlain interviewed all of us?”
“No, I actually didn’t clean that. I know I should have corrected you when you thanked me for cleaning it before, but I figured what the heck, if you thought I did extra work who am I to set you straight? Besides, after Sheriff Chamberlain interrogated me I had to go to my friend’s house to bake cookies for the great-grandmothers of twins’ table at the town celebration.”
If Flora didn’t clean the doily, then why had it been clean when there were clumps of dirt on the table? Of course! It was all coming together. “I think I know who the killer is and if we can just find that missing shovel, we can prove—”
Meroowl!
At the panicked sound of a cat’s cry, we whipped our heads around to see Nero standing in the doorway. His fur was puffed and his tail stood straight up as his large golden eyes beseeched us.
Millie frowned.“I never see Nero alone. Nero, where is Marlowe?”
Nero gave an ungodly cry, spun around and raced out of the room.
Millie, Mom and I were on our feet in a second, following the cat. It was clear by the way Nero was acting that something was dreadfully wrong.
Twenty-Five
Millie was the first through the kitchen door, with my mother and me close behind. Who knew Millie could move so fast? I had to hand it to Mom too, she was managing to keep up despite the afternoon in the beer tent with Paula.
“Marlowe must be in trouble!” Millie yelled as we watched Nero’s tail disappear down the path that led to the old gardening shed. My mind conjured up all the bad things that could happen to a cat out there. Had she fallen through old rotted boards? Cut herself on a rusty tool? Gotten stuck insome old animal trap? Fallen into an abandoned well? The thought of poor Marlowe hurt was crushing.
As we headed deeper into the overgrown area, I glanced behind me. Flora was making a good effort to keep up but had barely made it down the back steps. She waved me on and I turned forward, running to catch up to Mom and Millie.
Branches whipped in our faces as we jumped over gnarled roots sticking up out of the ground and sidestepped fallen branches. We heard a voice ahead.