Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(June 2008) |
This story occurs during Pickax's[ clarification needed ] 150th anniversary celebration. Qwilleran's barn is going to be sketched by an architectural student named Harvey Ledfield, nephew of Nathan and Doris Ledfield. Harvey brings along his fiancée Clarissa Moore, who is a journalism student. When they arrive, Harvey begins sketching but the cat Koko drops on his head.
Clarissa breaks up with Harvey after they return Down Below,[ clarification needed ] but she returns to Pickax looking for a job at The Moose County Something. She confesses to Qwilleran she never was really engaged to Harvey. As they are childless, he hopes they will support his plans.
During the Pickax Now celebrations, Qwilleran attends the Ogilvie-Fugtree reunion.[ clarification needed ] Two cousins go out rabbit hunting, and only one returns. Both were set to receive a large sum of money from a rich uncle. The other rabbit hunter is indeed found dead, so the first is arrested. However, he is later released because of a lack of evidence.
In the meantime, Nathan and Doris Ledfield have come down with allergies. Harvey never got Clarissa a ring, so Doris gave her one before she knew the engagement was a ruse. Clarissa wanted to give it back, but she could not get the Ledfields on the phone nor was she allowed to go in their house. Qwilleran calls the Ledfields’ doctor, who says she too was considering calling in an allergy specialist. Both the Ledfields die from respiratory complications.
Clarissa brings her friend Vicky to Pickax to participate in a kitten auction for charity and to watch the Labor Day Pickax Now parade. She leaves before she has a chance to speak to Qwilleran, but she leaves a letter for him. Apparently Harvey had come up to Moose County not too long ago. But the Ledfields are unwilling to give money to such a venture. Clarissa informs Harvey, Vicky and Vicky's boyfriend about deadly mold, which she wrote a report on for journalism school, and Vicky's boyfriend, a construction specialist, said that it could be found in the closets of old houses. Clarissa tells Vicky how Harvey became furious when the Ledfields would not fund the ski lodge even though it seemed he would be entering college and he had a fiancée. He even refused to go to church that morning, and Vicky suspected he had used the time to put mold in the ventilation shafts of the Ledfields' bedroom.
Qwilleran shares this with the police, and Harvey is arrested. In the meantime, the Ledfields' wills is opened, revealing that the Ledfields left their collection of mounted animals to the city and funded the creation of a music center in Pickax and a museum in their old home. They also gave funds for a massive music foundation that would make the Ledfield name famous worldwide, to be set up in a city with a population of one million or more. Shortly after the mystery is solved, a tragic accident at the ill-fated Black Creek bridge takes the life of Qwill's long-time eccentric friend, Elizabeth Hart, the owner of the Grist Mill fine restaurant. In honor of her, the Black Creek Bridge is set to be repaired so that no more deaths occur.