I supposed that Charles could have been on the cliff when Barbara wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time tending to the lousewort, but she couldn’t possibly be up there every minute. And, if the Weatherbys were up to something suspicious, wouldn’t they make sure they were alone? Unfortunately my whole trip had been a waste, but just because Barbara hadn’t seenanyone, didn’t mean that they hadn’t been there.
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Barbara hadn’t been a wealth of information, so I left her office disappointed. I had been hoping she could corroborate my theory about the Weatherbys and had seen them doing something suspicious.
Since I was in town, I figured it was only fitting that I pop in and visit Jen. Seeing her always lifted my spirits and I could use someone to bounce my theories off of and help me figure out what to do next. Mom and Millie were fine to investigate with, but I needed another opinion.
As I started down Main Street toward the post office, my phone pinged. It was Emma.
Just checking in. How you doing?
How nice was that? My daughter was taking the time out of her busy day to check up on me. Then I frowned. Maybe she’d been talking to mom again and had gotten an earful of information about dead bodies and potential suspects.
I’m great. Don’t listen to anything grandma tells you.
It took a few seconds for her reply.
Lol. I just want you to be safe. Remember, don’t jump to conclusions without the proper evidence. That’s what I learned in school.
How the tables had turned. When Emma was a teenager, I’d texted her advice trying to keep her out of trouble, now she was texting it to me. But she had a point. Did I have the proper evidence to suspect the Weatherby’s or was I jumping to conclusions?
I won’t, don’t worry. I’m too busy running the guesthouse for that.
Okay so it was a little white lie. Probably no worse than some of the things she’d texted me when she was young. Of course, her reply speared me with guilt.
Okay, Mom. Gotta run. Love you!
Love you too.
I put my phone in my pocket and continued on to the post office, my thoughts swirling about the Weatherbys. I was starting to second guess myself. What did I really have on the Weatherbys? The fact that they didn’t know technical information about cameras and had straw and feathers in their room? Flimsy at best.
I held the door for two senior citizens who were leaving as I exited. Their smiles faded as they recognized me, and they sidled away as if I was contagious.
‘Morning Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Newhart,’ I said pleasantly.
Mrs. Newhart narrowed her eyes and nodded.
Mrs. Fisher grabbed Newhart’s arm and hauled her down the street
They shuffled off, heads bent together, hose wrinkled around their ankles. I thought I heard some words drift over to me‘…heard she was involved in a murder…’
Oh no. The Oyster Cove rumor mill was in full force and I was the subject. I shouldn’t have been surprised, I knew from past experience that all the good gossip was gleaned down at the post office. All the more reason to help Sheriff Chamberlain along with his investigation. I strode into the post office with dogged determination.
Inside, Jen was standing at the counter, a two-foot-high pile of envelopes on her left, a large round stamper on her right and an angry look on her face.
Stamp. Stamp. Stamp.
She plucked envelopes from the top of the stack and hammered the stamper down on them, then piled them on her right.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked.
She blew a bang out of her eyes.‘Stupid postmarking machine broke. I have to do these by hand.’
‘Can I help?’
She paused the stamping and smiled at me.‘No. Thanks for the offer, but I only have one stamper. I could use the company though, this is boring.’
Stamp. Stamp.
‘I have some news that will liven things up.’
She looked up at me, barely stopping the stamping rhythm.‘Oh? Did you figure out who the killer is?’
‘Sort of. Remember how I told you about the footprint and the bad review that Charles wrote on the Marinara Mariner?’
‘Yep.’ Stamp. Stamp.
‘Well, I was partially right.’
The stamping stopped and she looked up at me.‘Tony really was the killer?’
‘No. But it was his footprint.’
The stamping resumed.‘But he wasn’t the killer? What was he doing there?’
I told her about Tony’s visit and his and Tina’s confession. ‘I have new suspects now though. I think it might be the old couple staying at the guesthouse,’ I said.
‘The birdwatchers? Why?’
‘According to Flora, they had feathers and straw all over the room. You know. like from birds’ nests,’ I said.
Stamp.
‘Flora doesn’t see too well and she’s been known to exaggerate.’ Jen punctuated her words with more stamping.
‘Well, they were seen up at the gulls’ nests.’
‘Why is that unusual? They are birdwatchers, right?’
Stamp. Stamp.
Hmm… she had a point. Maybe I was seeing malice where there was none. But they were my only suspects. ‘Mike said they didn’t know the details about one of the cameras they used. That seems odd to me if they are such avid bird watchers.’
Jen stopped stamping and looked up at me with a sly smile.‘So youare hanging around with Mike.’
‘No!’ Judging by the knowing look Jen gave me, the protest might have been too forceful. I tempered my voice and said matter of factly, ‘He only saw the camera because he’s working there and hopefully not for long.’
‘Uh-huh. Come on, I know you were crushing on him in high school. Admit it. You like having him around.’
‘That was more than twenty years ago. I’ve been married since. Who lingers on their high school crush anyway?’
She looked at me skeptically then went back to stamping.‘Just because you were married to a jerk, shouldn’t sour you on men. Look at all the jerks I dated before I found the right guy.’
Jen wasn’t joking, she had dated a lot of jerks, but now she was with her soulmate. I was a little envious of their wedded bliss, but also doubtful that would happen for me. I was no spring chicken. ‘I don’t think I’m ready for dating.’
‘Ohhh so there’s a chance you might be someday. Good, I’ll keep that in mind.’
‘Great. So back to the case…’
‘Right’ She made a face as if trying to remember the specifics. ‘What about the sabotage? Could Ron have done that?’
I’d wondered that myself, but it wasn’t like it took a lot of strength or skill to do that sawing. One would have to know just where to make the cuts, but it wasn’t rocket science. ‘Maybe Ron was a carpenter before. I mean he certainly could have sabotaged the roomand he made a remark about small-town police not following up thoroughly, so I wonder if he was banking on the fact that Seth Chamberlain might not even notice the sabotage and rule it an accident.’
Jen stopped stamping and thought about it.‘I guess that is a lot of counts against them. I just can’t believe those nice people could be killers. The Wessons were so nice.’
‘Wessons? You mean Weatherbys.’
She scrunched her face up.‘No. Wesson. They came in to pick up a package the other day and I’m certain that was the name on it.’
‘No. They signed in as Weatherby. It was on his license.’
Jen’s brows shot up. ‘What if they have a fake identity? If they are the killers, they might be pretending to be someone else.’
‘Why? I doubt they came here knowing they would kill someone.’ Then again, if they came knowing they were going to poison the gulls, maybe they did use a fake identity.
‘Serial seagull killers? Who knows. With fake names they can kill off whole colonies of gulls and then disappear and no one can trace it back to them.’
That made sense to me.‘You could be on to something. There is definitely something suspicious about the old couple.’