A Whisker In The Dark

Earl leaned forward, getting into Bob’s face. He was blissfully oblivious to the potential hidden meaning of the caterwauling. “What are you talking about?”

Bob shoved another piece of pancake in. “I think you know.”

Meroogh!

“What is with those cats?” Doris asked, ignoring the ridiculous pancake argument.

“I’m not sure. They might be hungry.” Yeah, that was probably it. Even though it sounded like they were in the west wing, they were probably near their food bowls in the kitchen. Sound tended to get distorted and carry from strange places in this old house. I started in that direction when….

Crash!

That came from the west wing.

Mewooo!

Mewargh!

“Josie!” Ed’s voice, loud but shaky, echoed through the house. “You’d better come see this.”

Two

“You stay here and enjoy your breakfast. I’m sure it’s nothing. Ed tends to get overly excited,” I reassured my guests, who were all staring at me.

I dashed off toward the west wing. Judging by the thunder of footsteps behind me, they didn’t stay put as I’d suggested. Darn it! The last thing I needed was some sort of disaster to make them want to check out of the guesthouse early with an unpaid bill. My mind reeled. What could it be? Was it the mold? I’d been told one of the walls was rotting and likely had mold inside. That might put guests off, even though I was fixing it. Maybe it was something else. Ed could have been hurt. Or the cats. Though judging by their meows no damage had been done to their vocal cords.

I really didn’t want the Biddefords to follow me, but they seemed determined. And besides, I would just have to go back in the dining room and explain whatever it was that Ed was yelling about to them anyway. I forged ahead full speed with the whole family on my heels. As I reached the door I glanced over my shoulder. Doris was right behind me. Who knew the old girl could run so fast?

Of course, the door to the west wing was locked, just as I’d been instructed by our new building inspector to do, so I had to detour into the kitchen and grab the key out of the drawer. When I came back, I had to clear the Biddefords away from the door to open it. Doris had been bent down peeking through the keyhole.

I unlocked the door, and it swung open. My gaze went immediately to the stairway on the right. That’s where the body had been just a few weeks ago. Today, though, there was only some dust. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Merooo! Nero ran over to me and then trotted back to the doorway that led to the room where Ed was. He stopped and looked over his shoulder as if waiting for me to follow. All sounds of hammering and sawing had stopped.

“Ed, are you okay?” I yelled. Ed was elderly, maybe he’d had a heart attack or something.

“I’m fine but I don’t think this guy is…”

This guy? I steeled myself as I entered the other room.

The room Ed was working in had been a ballroom at one time. It wasn’t gigantic but it wasn’t tiny either. It was in quite a state of disrepair; water-stained ceiling, wallpaper coming off in strips. Remnants of the original black-and-white marble-tile flooring were chipped and cracked, and most of the windows were boarded up. I was planning on turning it into a game room. Ed had been replacing the old plaster walls first since we already knew there was water damage.

He was standing in front of the worst damaged section of the wall. He’d made good progress and a large section of the old horsehair plaster had been removed to reveal the inside of the wall. The demolition had created a dusty pile of rubble, and I could see the slats inside the wall. Too bad I could also see something else. A skeleton.

A human skeleton.

“Talk about skeletons in your closet.” Bob came up beside me and leaned forward to peer at the bones.

Human bones didn’t faze me in the least. I’d been in the middle of training as a medical examiner before giving up my career to raise a family. I immediately took note of the appearance of the bones. They looked dry, brittle. No tendons or flesh stuck to them. The skeleton had been in there for a long time. What was it doing inside the wall? Had it been buried in the wall when the place was built or put in sometime later? And why had no one noticed? Seems like a dead body would have smelled, unless already a skeleton when it was shoved in there.

Paula dug a nip out of her purse and I recognized the black-and-white label of Jack Daniel’s. Guess discovering a skeleton called for the hard stuff.

“This calls for a drink!” She downed it in one quick swig to the disapproving glare of her siblings.

Doris didn’t admonish Paula. She was busy staring at the skeleton. Her face was pinched, her eyes narrowed. She swayed a bit and I was worried she might faint, but it turned out she was just trying to get a closer look. Before I knew it, she was crouched down beside the skeleton, lifting up its hand. It was wearing a ring—gold with an oval carnelian signet.