“Myron Remington!” Millie gasped, looking from Myron to me. “Did you know it was him, Josie?”
Well, at least I was right about that. Myronwas the killer. Too bad Victor was also right… Myron had a gun and it was pointed at us.
Myron looked dazed and a little spooked.“Who turned the lights on?” He glanced around the room as if expecting some sort of specter to appear. Too bad he didn’t loosen his grip on the gun.
On the floor in front of Myron lay Victor. He was tied up and he must have passed out… at least I hoped he was only passed out and not dead. The sound of someone gasping behind us drew our attention.
Gail stood behind Millie, looking over her shoulder at Victor on the floor.“I heard the noises up here. Did you capture Victor?”
“No, silly.” Mom turned her so she could see Myron with his gun. “Myron did. He’s the killer.”
Gail frowned.“Victor doesn’t look dead.”
“He’s not,” Myron snapped. “At least not yet. I guess you can all go together now. I won’t say I regret that. You’re all too nosey for your own good.”
Merooo!Nero sounded indignant on our behalf.
Mewooo! Marlowe agreed.
The cats were pacing around in front of Myron. I wasn’t sure if they had a plan, but I certainly hoped so.
“You might as well give up now, Myron. There are many of us and just one of you.” I gestured to our little group now huddled against a large mahogany server pushed against the wall.
“Yeah but I have the gun.” Myron’s lips curved in a sinister smile. Apparently he’d recovered from his shock of the lights coming on. I would have preferred they stayed out, at least that way some of us would have a chance of getting away, but now he could clearly see all of us.
I barely heard what Myron was saying as I was busy wondering how we could get around behind him. Maybe Victor would wake up and trip him? I couldn’t count on that and now with the lights on he’d see if one of us broke from the group and tried to slip between the furniture to the back. Where was Flora when you needed her? Last time we’d gotten ourselves into a predicament like this, she’d snuck up from behind and clobbered the killer.
“Okay then, a little change in plans might be good.” Myron looked confident in his new plan. “Hmm… I think I’ll use Gail’s vendetta against Victor here.” Myron kicked Victor who let out a miserable groan.
“What do you mean?” Gail asked.
“Don’t think I don’t know about that,” Myron said. “It’s too bad that everyone will think that you became so obsessed with him that you burned down the guesthouse.”
Millie’s hands flew to her face and she gasped. The cats meowed. I felt a little disturbed at the prospect myself. Not just that it was my home and how I made my living, I was getting quite attached to the place.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Myron continued. “It won’t be a total loss… except for all of you perishing during the fire. I’ll put a nice big hotel or some condos here. I did notice a good spot for a pool where that old barn is.”
So hehad been scoping out the grounds! Though I guessed that was only a secondary reason for him being out in the yard earlier.“But that’s not what you were doing outside earlier today, is it?”
Myron nodded at me as if approving of my skills of deduction.“Nah. I guess I can tell you now since you won’t be able to tell anyone. I was hiding the speakers that made the ghostly noises.”
“Why?” Millie asked. “I thought you didn’t want ghosts to be associated with the guesthouse?”
Myron narrowed his gaze on Millie.“Ha! That’s where you got it wrong. I’m not afraid of ghosts.”
Esther stepped out of our little circle toward Myron.“It won’t work, Myron… I told the police the truth.”
Myron stared at her as if trying to decide whether or not to believe her.
“That’s right. I have the proof of what really happened, and I got it from your very own bank.” She stood a few feet from him, hands on her hips. Apparently she didn’t care that the gun was pointed directly at her. “I did it for Jed.”
The cats seemed agitated at this pronouncement and paced around her feet as if trying to protect her.
“Liar!” The gun wavered in Myron’s hand. “The bank tellers only said that Victor was there getting old coins. He was planning on putting on quite a show.”
“Figures,” Gail muttered.
Esther shook her head.“Nope. I was there too and now I know the truth.”
“I doubt that,” Myron scoffed, but he was starting to look nervous.
“What truth?” Millie whispered. “How is Myron mixed up in this?”
“The papers…” I whispered to Mom and Millie.
“Papers?” Millie asked.
“The ones Esther had from the bank. You gave me the clue, Millie. You said it was a good thing that Thomas Remington opened the bank when he did because he would have been out of a job with Jed’s death.”
“Yeah, but how could a butler afford—” Millie’s eyes widened. “Oh… the treasure!”
“What are you whispering about back there?” Myron demanded.
“Esther’s right,” I said. “We know the truth about the bank. It’s no use. Let us go and the police will go easier on you.” I wasn’t really sure if that was true. In fact, I hoped they wouldn’t go easier on him, but I always heard them say that on TV and it sounded good.
Myron made a face.“I was afraid this would happen. You and your mother and Millie are so nosey. What papers are you talking about?”
“Turns out your pride was your downfall,” Millie said. “You had to display all the history of the bank and old Thomas’ journal papers. That’s how I figured it out. The timing wasn’t right for him to raise that much money!”
I frowned at Millie. Did she just say thatshe’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.”