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Where We Left Off:
The Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency tackled a peculiar death involving a vampire critter.
This case file contains the investigation into the real death of a blue jay. Most of the photos are not graphic. Others have been pixelated.
Jealousy:
The morning of Sunday May 10, 2026 was a pleasant, sunny, 50-degree Fahrenheit day! It was what Gus and I consider perfect weather for outdoor adventures and investigations. We were pretty surprised when Ollie was eager to go out, but his Butler was working that day so things were easier. In fact, on most Sundays, I’ve been working in the garage with a contractor. The Butler has been in charge of both cat detectives until I’m done. However, May 10th was Mother’s Day so we had the day off from our massive reorganization and cleaning project.
Normally, Oliver partners with Butler Joe and I partner with Gus. During this patrol of the grounds, at some point we switched. Ollie knows I usually have the treats. Before the switch, he and his Butler distributed some critter snacks along the fern garden wall which was when they made a shocking discovery.
“Stop the buggy!” Ollie yelled which he normally reserves for demanding attention or treats. Something serious had to be awry for him to react like that.
Gus and I were on the opposite border of the estate grounds. My phone dinged alerting me to a text message from the Butler. It was a photo letting me and Gus know that they had discovered a crime scene at the end of the garden wall. There in full color was a blue jay on the ground. Its eyes were closed and it looked like it had fall over peacefully asleep. We know that’s not where a blue jay would sleep though. One of them definitely would not be sleeping while seeds and peanuts were distributed to all the snack bars. They were the kind of creatures to get to the snacks first.
The team gathered together later to get the debriefing from The Butler. He said he left the corpse where he found it in case it can serve as a meal to one of the other creatures.
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “The foxes are here almost every night this month. There’s the mangy one and the healthy one. They seem to take turns.”
“Gus didn’t show much interest in it,” The Butler said. “I guess he had other priorities today.”
“He’s slacking,” Oliver said.
“I go where my nose leads me,” Gus said.
I loaded up the two different cat games for Ollie and Gus to claim their treats. Even when they work hard, they should have some brain stimulus to get their treats. I think their tube games are pretty easy. They’re also quiet except when Gus is extra demanding and begins attacking his game’s structure (usually followed by glass jars) to get attention. Maybe we could invest in The Pet Piano which I noticed Luna Wants Tuna playing, but all the humans would need to be prepared for that noise and the $199 price tag. Ollie’s game was free to make from toilet paper tubes.
Manner and Cause of Death Investigation
After the bickering and treats, we had to buckle down to talk about the dead Blue Jay in the fern garden. Looking at the photos, it honestly did appear to be healthy bird. There were no noticeable crush injuries, abrasions, punctures, or visibly broken bones coming through the body. Sure, all animals have a natural time to die.
Could that really be what happened? Could this Blue Jay have been in the evergreen branches above, died, and fell to the ground?
“Maybe he was poisoned?” Gus burst out.
“Are you quoting Christopher Lloyd in CLUE or being serious?” I had to know.
“Why not both?” my furry domino-patterned partner replied.
A bird of this size, small not like a large bird of prey, likely wouldn’t be the victim of lead poisoning from being shot. Again, this bird had no GSW signs anyway. Lead poisoning also happens when a large bird ingests a smaller animal that has lead poisoning. That too, seemed unlikely in this situation.
Household toxins could have been possible if the Blue Jay went into the hangar, landed on something filthy with a poisonous quality, then left. It would have had to preen itself, ingest the toxin, and then succumb to it. While not impossible, it’s not a theory that we would put at the top of our list.
We proceeded to rule out botulism and heavy metal poisoning the same way. We need to come to the most likely possibilities if this was a case of poisoning after all.
For a small bird species that is known to be omnivorous, that left rodent killers and pesticides. Both can be found here at the estate though not in large quantity. I doubt it would take much to kill a bird that weighed 2.5-3.5 oz (70-100 g). If our bird ingested that indirectly, we had our answer.
Was that what happened?
There’s a decent article at the Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE) that gave us excellent information on diagnosing if a bird has been poisoned. The problem is, this was not a pet bird that we had singled out and observed. We didn’t know him well enough to say if he’d been lethargic or suddenly experiencing leg paralysis. While it is most probable that our team had fed him before, there are a lot of Blue Jays in the gangs around here.
“Boys, do we have an accidental, self-inflicted poisoning?” I asked.
Gus left his game area and laid down in front of me on the floor. “I say we do more surveillance of the fern garden. Wait and see if anyone returns to the scene and how they behave.”
“I think you just want more time outside,” The Butler said.
I gave Gus skritches on his cheeks which he loves. “I know the fort would be closer the scene, but you and Ollie can go to the observation deck or the roof for surveillance.”
They weren’t thrilled at the limitations I put on them, but they got the job done. From the roof, Gus was able to see chipmunks running through Oliver’s patio. He relayed the information to the ginger who immediately went down to his suite. At the large doors, Ollie was able to talk to the chipmunks known as Rosemary and Thyme. They happen to be a young duo who fancy themselves as sleuths for hire. Ms. Thyme has a background with the Critter Constabulary. Ms. Rosemary’s expertise with plants is often useful in crime solving where plants can be used to determine location, grazing habits, and even as toxins.
Oliver’s interview with the chipmunks went far more smoothly than what usually happens if Gus is involved. Ollie was able to keep them calm and get answers. They were effective at being plugged in to all the happenings of the estate grounds which is a lot of area for little chipmunks to cover.
By this point, Gus, The Butler, and I had caught up to Ollie. We stood in the other room to listen without frightening the chipmunks. I had to hold Gus for this part. Soon, Ollie turned around and filled us in on all that he learned.
“We were on the right track after all,” Oliver began. “It was most likely a poisoning, but not from pesticide or rodenticide. They think our victim was killed by a plant toxin and that it was a deliberate murder!”
“Murder?” the rest of us said in unison.
“Oh no,” I had suddenly realized something important. “We left the body in the fern garden. If it’s been poisoned and a scavenger eats it, what will happen to it?”
Gus demanded that I release him to the floor. “The foxes here aren’t starving. They won’t eat something that doesn’t smell perfectly appealing to them—not when they have so many fresh, juicy rodents to catch living right there in the garden wall.”
More Questions
The next day, Gus and I found the tail, a wing, and various feathers on the ground. That was all that was left of the victim. We still had to identify him to understand why another creature would want to murder him. I learned that the black bridle around their upper chest, neck, and heads might be unique identifiers for the birds to recognize each other. I spent hours comparing photos from The Butler to ones I’ve taken of living blue jays. Oliver suggested his computer database and program might be far more efficient.
Of course, Ollie was right. In minutes, his program spat out several possible matches. This didn’t necessarily mean that we had identifications of all those birds, only that I had already taken photos of our bird before he became a victim. Part of that narrowing down also involved size, estimated age, and the color patterns besides the noted black bridle. Two were high up on our list of members of the Blue Jay Gang, a criminal organization that we’ve been keeping track of for many years. Those two notable birds: a bag man named Johnny Stool Pigeon and the big bird himself, Louie Eggs Consalvo.
Oliver swiped his paw across the tablet’s screen. “Nah. Not them. We know them really well.”
That left the following gang members as possible matches for our victim: Paulie “Knuckles,” Rudy “Tootsie,” and Joey “Pitts.”
My phone’s notification dinged alerting us that one of the cameras outside was triggered. The four of us went to the balcony (apologized to the House Finch mother flying off her nest because of our presence) and we looked north of Gnome Grove. There were three grey squirrels scrambling around. I grabbed binoculars from right inside the door and peered over by the fern garden.
“If that’s Silver Sable, I bet we could get information from her. She’s excellent at espionage.” I handed the binoculars over to The Butler for him to look.
“That means we do get a second patrol!” Gus left in a poof of shedded fur like a cartoon character. We caught up to him downstairs next to his selection of collars.
Oliver and The Butler packed a can of seeds and peanuts to be delivered to the three squirrels at the fern garden. At first, they ran away in different directions. Silver Sable came back when we rattled the can of delicious snacks. She made us put the snacks down at the end of the garden wall and back away. We obliged. I had to make sure there was adequate distance between her and Guster. The easiest thing to do was a direct approach. Oliver flat out asked our squirrel friend if she knew who the dead blue jay was.
“Yes, of course.” Silver reached out and took a peanut to nibble on. She removed the outer shell and held the peanuts in her adorable clawed hands. We had to wait for her to finish. Since we needed the information, we couldn’t be less than polite.
She shook the debris from her hands and filled us in. “Your guesses are close. One of the birds on your list is the victim—Paulie Knuckles.”
We also learned that around the fern garden, some of our old Chipmunk Mafia connections, Beeps and Peeps, were in cahoots with Knuckles. Poor Knuckles was the victim of a hit. Poisoning was an odd choice, but the perpetrator thought it would go unnoticed.
Victim Identification:
Name: Paulie Knuckles
Life stage: adult
Date of Death: 10 May, 2026
Manner of Death: homicide
Cause of Death: plant poisoning
Known Associates: Chipmunks from the original Cheeks Moretti criminal organization, Charlie Beeps and Frankie Peeps
Enemies: Sonja the Red Fox, Joe Vulpesci the Red Fox, Bleachy the Cat, Savile the Tuxedo Cat, Unnamed Tabby #1, Unnamed Tabby #2 (younger), Silvia DeCitta (another blue jay in a different branch of the organization), Remy the Red-Tailed Hawk
Who Did It?
Once we had the victim’s name, we knew there was only one real suspect. Most of the animals on the enemy list would have eaten Paulie Knuckles (and one of them did, but wasn’t the killer). Silvia DeCitta carries a lot more clout in the gang. She’s older. As an Underboss, Silvia is a real heavy hitter. She had her own reasons for murdering another blue jay that likely make perfect sense to her. Knuckles had a promising future in the gang and she saw that as a threat.
As for the beast who ate most of the evidence, that was Sonja the Red Fox. She was caught on camera right near where Paulie’s body was discovered.
Case Summary
An unexpected Mother’s Day gift arrived. The dead body of Blue Jay Gang member, Paulie Knuckles, was discovered at the end of the fern garden. The case was solved with help from sleuthing chipmunks, Rosemary and Thyme. Oliver’s programmed helped us narrow down the victim’s identity. Then Silver Sable, an Eastern grey squirrel, contributed more key information. Once dead, the body was scooped up by Sonja the Red Fox for an easy meal.
Case Status: Closed