THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT SUNSETS that makes humans quiet down a little, a good thing in my opinion. We have good sunset views from the patio, which was where we all gathered at the end of that busy day. By we, I mean me, Mom, Harmony, Bro, Miranda, Randa Bea, and Sheriff McKnight, a bandage on his forehead. And Arthur. There’s no leaving out Arthur. That was clear to me now.

The talk was all about the case, and the case was all about me, specifically my beauty. I knew all there was to know about my beauty, so only tuned in from time to time.

“Pamela made a full confession,” the sheriff said. He faced Randa Bea. “She claims that when she met your—when she met Marlon, he told her you were already divorced. By the time she learned the truth she was, quote, too far gone.”

“Uh-huh,” said Randa Bea.

“It was Pamela who found out about this scientist named Dr. Park,” the sheriff continued. “He’s overseas somewhere, possibly in an uncooperative country. At this point it’s not clear what we could even charge him with, supposing we could find him and bring him here. He’s a biological researcher of some sort, supposedly brilliant, and he’s developed some new techniques for cloning on a huge scale. Kind of like genetic mass production.”

“He wanted to make millions of Queenies?” Harmony said.

“Maybe not millions, but many,” the sheriff said. “But first he had to find the perfect candidate.”

“Queenie,” said Bro.

Millions of Queenies? What a terrible idea! There is only one.

“Apparently the initial animal doesn’t survive the process,” the sheriff went on. “Pamela heard about Queenie from someone at the magazine and Marlon came in the spring to check her out.”

“May eighth—it’s in the register,” Mom said. “Is that the reason for the disguise?”

The sheriff nodded. “As for Cuthbert, Pamela says Marlon never intended to hurt him. He tried to give him some knockout drops—evidently the same kind he injected Queenie with—but they got into a struggle and … and Marlon picked up whatever was handy, which happened to be the wrench. I don’t believe that part, since the attack took place in Cuthbert’s trailer and we’ve got a scan of a receipt showing Marlon bought the wrench in Sarasota, Florida, last March, meaning he had it on him when they met. Marlon assumed Cuthbert was dead and hit upon the idea of hiding the body in the old well. All this is from Pamela. Marlon’s not talking.”

Bertha came out with sandwiches and drinks plus yet another sausage for Arthur. He’d been snacking pretty much nonstop for hours.

“Miranda?” Harmony said. “Feel like a bike ride?”

Miranda, who’d been staring down at the patio floor, said, “That would be nice, but I don’t have a bike.”

“You can ride on my handlebars,” Bro said.

“Yeah?”

“No problem,” said Bro. “I rerigged them.”

“Kinda,” Harmony said.

They laughed, first just Bro and Harmony, and then Miranda joined in. They went off and not long after that I spotted them biking across the meadow, black silhouettes against the fiery sky, Miranda’s silhouette perched up high on the handlebars.

Randa Bea went inside to make some calls. That left me, Mom, and the sheriff. Plus Arthur, lying on one of the padded chaises.

The sheriff looked at Mom. “Is there anywhere we could go to talk about Arthur out of his hearing?”

Mom laughed. “How about a little walk?”

They went for a little walk, side by side, in the direction of the herb garden. Just before they rounded the corner of the house and vanished from view, their hands almost touched. Hand-holding is one of the very best things humans do. Were Mom and the sheriff about to hold hands? They rounded the corner, so I couldn’t tell you.

Right after that, the phone rang inside the inn. No one picked up. Then came a voicemail-type voice.

“Mrs. Reddy? Is the sheriff there? This is Dr. Adomakoh down at the ICU. Please tell him the patient is awake and breathing on his own.” Click.

I walked over to the padded chaise, glided up, and lay down between Arthur’s paws. One of his eyes opened. Did he look alarmed? I had no problem with that.