A Purrfect Alibi

Six

I got to the kitchen just as Mom and Millie came through the door. They were wearing identical plain black T-shirts. Their white, spider-veined legs called for attention beneath the hems of their black shorts. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the white pompom-backed Peds and tennis shoes sort of ruined the look.

Millie went straight to the fridge, presumably to inspect the sausages. “Oh good, I see you browned them. Very nice.”

“What do you think?” Mom gestured to the outfits. “We’re going incognito tonight so we can find out what Madame Zenda is up to without being seen.”

“It’s not incognito, Rose,” Millie said. “It’s undercover.”

“No, not really undercover… invisible, like a stealth bomber,” Mom said.

Nero and Marlowe trotted in from the pantry and looked Mom and Millie over, then glanced at each other as if wondering what the two senior citizens were up to. Mew. Nero looked up at me. If a cat could roll its eyes, I swear he would have done it right then.

I noticed their bowls were empty. So, they had rushed over to scarf down their food as soon as I’d left the kitchen. They didn’t fool me, I knew they liked to be ornery but I also knew they liked to eat.

“So you’re going to hide in the bushes and follow Madame Zenda?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Millie whipped out a copy of the Farmers’ Almanac. “This here says the moon will rise in forty minutes. We better be on high alert.”

Mom went to the kitchen window and cupped her hands around her eyes, peering out. It was dusk and the trees cast shadows in the dim light. In the distance, the ocean looked dark and ominous.

“We need to ascertain Madame Zenda’s whereabouts.” Mom sounded like she’d been brushing up on police lingo. Probably from one of the TV cop shows she and Millie liked to watch.

“Do you have an idea as to her whereabouts, Josie?” Millie asked.

“Last I knew she was in her room, but I really haven’t been keeping tabs on her.”

I knew Esther had come back and Victor was outside somewhere still. Gail had retreated to the back parlor with her tea. Had Madame Zenda already gone out to make her way to her meeting with Jed? Millie pressed her lips together and looked out the window. “I think we need to secure the perimeter.”

“Where should we start?” Mom asked. “I mean, what’s her most likely ETA and location.”

“She mentioned the moon kissing the ocean,” I said.

“Yes, but you can see that from anywhere,” Millie said. “Most of the property has a view of the cove and I don’t think she necessarily meant it would be in view. She was referring to the time she would meet with him.”

“Funny thing,” Mom said. “Why wouldn’t she keep that a secret? It seems like she wouldn’t want all the other psychics barging in on her meeting.”

“That supports my theory that she is up to something. Probably wanted everyone to know.” Millie nodded sagely. “Especially Anita Pendragon.”

“So you’re going with the theory that getting publicity about being the one who talked to Jed would boost her career?” I asked.

Millie nodded. “Yep, and she’s lying about really being able to communicate with him.”

Mom narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like liars.”

“Me neither, and that’s why I want to catch her. If we can figure out where she is, then we can observe her and see if she is faking,” Millie said.

“If we could figure out where she was going, we could get there ahead of time and stake the place out,” Mom said.

“In our undercover outfits, we’ll blend right in to the shadows.” Millie looked thoughtful. “Did she give any clues as to where she might be meeting him?”

I thought back to her pronouncement. “No. She only mentioned the moon.”

“True, but everyone knows that spirits like to haunt familiar places.” Millie glanced around.

“Well that doesn’t eliminate much. Wouldn’t this whole place be familiar to him?” Mom asked.

“Not the whole place. Remember, most of this wasn’t around in Jed’s time.” I turned to Millie. “Do you remember which sections existed back then?”

“Well, the main part of the house was in the west wing. And there were barns on the property that no longer exist. There is a part of the attic that I think has some old belongings of the Biddeford family and, of course, there is the three-seater.”

“Three-seater?” I asked.

“The old outhouse. Three people could go at one time,” Mom informed me.

“Well, if Jed’s anything like my late husband, he’d be really familiar with that, maybe we should start there,” Millie said.

“No. We have to think like Madame Zenda. What would she know about Jed?” Mom asked. “Everyone knows his skeleton was found in the wall in the ballroom, so maybe that’s where she will go.”

Millie shook her head. “That’s not secluded enough. But didn’t Ed say he heard someone on the third floor? He thought it might be Anita Pendragon, but maybe it was Madame Zenda scoping out a good place for her fake meeting. The attic would be ideal, and no one would know it was locked until they went up to check it.”

I thought about Victor outside and Gail’s frequent glances out the window. They’d probably been trying to figure out where Madame Zenda would go, same as Mom and Millie. “I don’t think she’d do it in the house. I think all the others are trying to figure out where she is supposedly meeting Jed and the house is just too easy for them to find her. I saw Victor and Gail looking around outside. I’m not sure about Esther, she went into town, but she could have been waiting for Madame Zenda to get up from her nap so she could follow her.”

“Well there’s one place Madame Zenda might think would be familiar to Jed and it would make a perfectly eerie backdrop for her fake meeting,” Millie said.

“Where’s that?” Mom asked.

“The cemetery.”

“But Jed isn’t even buried there,” I said.

There was an old family cemetery on the property and when Jed’s skeleton had been found, his descendants had asked about burying him there but apparently it took an act of congress for that sort of thing to happen these days. And besides, the cemetery was overgrown and it would have been hard to even get the right equipment in there.

“Yeah but Madame Zenda might not know that. I’m certain she isn’t speaking to his ghost and she is very dramatic. What better setting than the cemetery? It’s creepy there,” Mom pointed out.

Millie scrunched up her face. “I don’t know. She might also be in the gazebo. That wasn’t around in Jed’s time but she might not know that either. You can see the cove from there and—”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

A blood-curdling scream split the air.

We jolted up from the table and ran towards the sound of the scream.