Count Catula (Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery Book 9) by Kathi Daley Page B

just behind the girls that would eliminate them having their back to either the sea or the rocky outcropping that bordered the water to the left.
    I turned around with my back to the sea and looked at the landscape. It was flat, with a dense forest. I stood in the clearing where the house once had stood and turned slowly around in a circle. I didn’t see a hill in any direction. Could the ritual have taken place elsewhere? If so, why hide the evidence on Dracon’s property? Maybe the hillside I could make out in the background of the photos was nearby.
    The forest was so dense on this part of the island that it was difficult to see very far into the distance. I supposed I could take a walk around, but I didn’t have much time before I had to head back into town for work.
    I looked at the photos again, trying to find any sort of a landmark that would definitively point to where they were taken, but nothing was standing out, so I took one last look around before heading back to town. I called to Max, who came running immediately, but I didn’t see Renfield.
    “Renfield,” I called. Maybe bringing the cat had been a bad idea after all.
    Max barked once and then headed toward a wooded area just beyond the house. At the edge of it was a trail that led down to the beach. The tide was out, but based on my calculations this particular part of the beach would be underwater for most of the day, possibly even much of the month.
    I doubted the cat had gone down there, but Max took off down the trail, so I decided to follow. If Renfield had gone down to the beach I’d need to find him and return to higher ground before the tide came in and covered it.
    By the time I got to the bottom of the trail I could see the tide was beginning to start back in. I called Renfield and was heartened to hear his cry from a hole in the cliff face that looked as if it might lead to a small cave.
    “Renfield. Here, kitty. We need to go if we don’t want to get wet.”
    Max thought this game of find the kitty was the best thing that had happened to him that day. He bounced around the beach, panting and barking, as I tried to locate the cat I could hear but not see.
    The hole in the cliff face was large enough for me to squeeze through, although I didn’t have a flashlight, so if this was a cave, and Renfield had traveled too deeply inside it, we were both in trouble.
    “Renfield?” I said to the cat, who I saw was sitting maybe ten yards inside the opening. Max had followed behind me, but I told him to stay as I carefully made my way toward the cat. I could see there was something just behind him, although it was dark. When I got close enough to make out the features of the object in the dim light I could see it was a skeleton. A human skeleton.
     
    By the time I got back to my car and to the phone I had left in my backpack, the tide had returned and the opening was all but underwater. The deputy had made it sound as if I was a suspect in the death of the man I thought was probably Dracon Moon, which irritated me quite a lot. Of course my explanation of how I was able to find a body after so many years was that a cat had led me to it, and that seemed lame even to me. After I reminded Deputy Holden that if the skeleton did end up being Dracon Moon I’d only been eleven when he died, he agreed to let me go with a warning not to leave the island. Finn couldn’t get home too fast for me. I mean really, being treated like a common criminal wasn’t a pleasant experience at all.
    The very highlight of my morning turned out to be a message from Siobhan, letting me know that Finn had managed to catch an earlier flight and would be home by dinnertime that evening.
    I went back to my cabin to take yet another shower and change into clean, dry clothes. Cody was waiting in my kitchen when I came downstairs.
    “I heard you had an exciting morning.”
    “Finding the body was somewhat exciting, sparring with that deputy, not so much. I’m glad you’re