Саманта Сильвер

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Barking up the Wrong Tree Willow Bay Witches #2

Samantha Silver

Blueberry Books

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Also by Samantha Silver

About the Author

Chapter 1

Standing in the middle of the entrance way to Healthy Paws Veterinary Clinic, the local vet clinic in Willow Bay that I ran, I couldn’t help but think this was hands down the most chaotic day of work I’d ever had. By a huge, margin.

It had all started early this morning, as soon as I’d come in to work. We weren’t even open yet when one of my regulars, the manager of the local hardware store, Mickey Kane, came in with his border collie Milo, who had gotten a huge splinter in his foot from a discarded log, and absolutely, positively didn’t want anybody touching his paw at all.

Sophie – my best friend and vet technician - and I instantly took Milo to the back, where it took me ten minutes of reasoning with the poor, panicked dog that letting us take the splinter out without complaining was going to be a lot nicer than having to put him in the muzzle and fighting him.

Being able to talk to animals has its plus sides when you’re a vet.

Oh yeah, I should mention: I’m a witch, and my special witchy superpower, that no other witches I know have, is the ability to talk to animals. It led to some crazy rumours when I was a kid, until I was old enough to understand that I shouldn’t do it around other people. Luckily, nowadays the people that knew me growing up just chalk it up to a very active imagination.

Of course, I don’t actually look like what you’d stereotypically expect a witch to look like: instead of warts and a crooked nose I have a nice button-shaped nose, a face that I’ve been told is pretty cute, framed by curly brown hair.

Sophie, on the other hand, is half Japanese, with a streak of bright purple hair among the rest of her straight black locks. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t get the witch gene from her mom, and so while she’s aware that I have magical powers and can talk to animals, she’s as human as they get.

Once the whole adventure with Milo was over and done with, Milo leaving with a pretty little blue bandage wrapped around his paw and antibiotics to avoid infection, I figured we were going to settle into a nice day of calm appointments and happy pets.

It was only 10:30 and any dream I had of that happening had long gone out the window.

The first few appointments were completely normal, but then we had to deal with Missy.

Missy was a little bit of an adventurer, even by kitten standards. Nineteen weeks old, pure black, with huge, curious looking blue eyes, I always joked with her owner Kate that she should have named her Columbo.

The appointment itself went completely fine. Missy was just in getting the last of her kitten vaccines, which she wasn’t a big fan of. Unfortunately, when Kate went to put her back in the carrier and opened the door, she didn’t quite close it properly, and Missy took full advantage. It took only a couple of seconds for everything to go from completely normal to fully chaotic.

“Oh no Missy, come back!” Kate cried out, but it was too late. Missy slipped out of the door before I managed to get it back closed, and ran to where all the action was: the lobby.

“Uh oh,” Sophie muttered, and a minute later, I knew why: a sudden cacophony of sound made its way back towards us: dogs barking, cats howling; it was like the world’s most annoying impromptu concert. I looked at Sophie.

“The Maynard dogs are here for their yearly booster and checkup, and one of them is getting spayed.”

“Ohhhhhh boy,” I replied. The Maynards were a family of incredibly nice people, with a farm on the outskirts of town, and they had six dogs who were normally very well trained, who helped them herd the sheep and cattle around, but who absolutely hated coming to the vet. Apparently seeing a loose cat in the lobby was setting them off completely.

“We have to go get Missy!!” Kate yelled, and the three of us ran back towards the lobby. I wasn’t especially worried for Missy’s safety; the kitten was far more agile than even the fastest dog, and as we ran out there she was scampering along the blinds rod, moving back and forth, taunting the barking dogs below who the Maynards, Jackson and Mollie, were desperately trying to keep a hold of.

Karen, my receptionist, was trying to help by moving a chair over towards the window to try and get Missy.

I grabbed one of the Maynard dogs and started taking it towards the exam rooms, hoping to be able to calm them down by moving them away from the cat. Sophie saw and did the same thing, but we both paused to watch as Karen reached over for Missy.

“Be careful, Karen,” I called out, not liking how far over the edge of the chair Karen had to reach to get at the cat. Still, it looked like it might actually work. Missy saw Karen coming and was now standing still, and Karen made one last effort to grab the loose kitten.

“I got this, don’t worry Angela,” Karen replied.

Like a blur, though, Missy leapt off the curtain rod, landing on Karen’s head, who let out a yelp as she began to fall off the chair. Missy jumped off Karen’s head and onto the main counter, right next to my cat Bee, who to her credit had done very little to add to the pandemonium by staying on her bed, where she’d been curled up in a little ball since 8 o’clock that morning. Bee opened one eye to look at the kitten, who scampered along the edge of the counter as Karen fell to the ground with a squeal, the thud of her body hitting the ground sickening.

“Oh! Karen!” I cried, everything snapping back to life.

I took the dog I had and moved him quickly into an exam room.

“It’ll be ok, I’ll be back in a minute,” I told him quickly as I rushed back out to find Karen on the ground, laughing. Thank God.

“Are you ok?” I asked, worry etched on my face.

“I’m totally fine,” Karen replied, accepting kisses from one of the Maynard dogs who was still running free. “I did so much gymnastics growing up, I know how to fall safely,” she replied, and I let out a huge sigh of relief. I’d forgotten that Karen had at one point been Willow Bay’s top gymnast. No wonder she felt comfortable getting up on the chair to try and catch Missy.

“I’m so glad to hear that, Karen,” I told her, and I absolutely meant it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I helped her to her feet.

“I think I should go to some adult classes though,” Karen replied as she helped me get the rest of the Maynard dogs into the exam room. “I probably shouldn’t have fallen in the first place.”

“Well,” Sophie replied, “I don’t think most gymnasts have to deal with a crazy kitten using their head as a launching pad.”

When all of the dogs were safely in the exam rooms, we found Kate cornering Missy in the little closet-sized room to the side of the lobby where we kept the scale to weigh the animals when they came in.

“Come on, Missy,” I told her. “It’s over. The dogs are gone, so you can stop taunting them. It’s time for you to get in your carrier so you can go home.”

“Absolutely not, I like being free,” Missy hissed at me in reply, and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t exactly have a conversation with her in front of Kate. One of the most important rules of being a witch was to make sure humans never found out that witches existed. Close family members excluded, of course, which is why Sophie was allowed to know: her mom was a witch.

“Fine, have it your way,” I muttered. “Guard the entrance,” I told Kate and Sophie, and I went into the room. Missy jumped onto the scale and tried to jump over me, but unfortunately she didn’t quite make it high enough. I grabbed her in mid-air and fought the scratches and howls coming my way, placing the kitten into the carrier that Kate had so nicely prepared for her; there was even a nice memory foam pillow on the bottom, in a case that I was pretty sure Kate had made herself.

When Missy was finally, safely in the carrier, I let out a huge sigh and leaned against the wall.

“Kittens are so undignified,” I heard Bee murmur from the bed she still hadn’t moved from. Sometimes my pretty little black cat liked being involved in the action, sometimes she just didn’t want anything to disturb her sleep. This was one of the latter days, apparently. Thankfully.

“Thank you so much,” Kate told me and Sophie. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe Missy did all that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told Kate, managing a smile. “That’s what kittens do, they get into trouble.”

“I’m starting to realize that,” Kate replied, laughing. “She just has so much energy.”

“Have you ever considered a second kitten?” I asked. “There’s a popular saying that if you’re going to get one kitten, get two. They’ll tire each other out.”

“Yeah, that’s what we need, is a second Missy,” Sophie muttered, and I stepped on her foot on purpose. “Ow!” she shot, giving me a glare.

Kate looked at my thoughtfully. “You know, I know the animal shelter still has two of her siblings up for adoption. You might be right, I think I’ll go over there today and see if I fall in love with one of them as well.”

I left Kate to settle up the bill with Karen, and Sophie and I went over to deal with the six dogs who needed shots, and the one who was going to stay overnight for a spaying as well. I was planning on doing the surgery that afternoon, when I had a few hours free.

“We are so stopping at the liquor store before going home,” Sophie told me as we headed towards the back. “I need a drink so bad right now, I’m pretty sure by tonight I’m going to need to be black-out drunk if this day keeps going the way it is.”

I laughed. “I know what you mean. Surely this day can’t get even more insane.”

Little did I know just how wrong I was.

Chapter 2

The one saving grace was that I’d planned on meeting my sister Charlotte for a late lunch at Betty’s Café, a cute little café/bakery a little ways down the main street of Willow Bay. Willow Bay was a small village on the Oregon coast, about an hour from Portland. We were definitely a tourist town, with one main street and about six thousand permanent residents. Every year, in summer especially, people flocked from Portland, the rest of Oregon, and even Washington and California to enjoy sitting on the beach under the willow trees, wiling the days away and sometimes even getting to see a few surfers on days with big surges. I’d grown up in Willow Bay, and while I went to veterinary school in Seattle, I had always planned on coming back, and I did. After all, Willow Bay was home. It might not have been perfect, but I absolutely loved it here.

Three hours after the adventure with Missy we had given all the Maynard dogs their vaccines, given X-rays to a black lab called Puffy who was what I liked to call an adventurous eater – this time the X-ray showed six whole extra-large muffins, paper wrapper included – and spayed Lottie, the youngest of the Maynard dog clan, who was happily resting and being checked on by Sophie.

I barely had the energy to change out of my scrubs and make my way down to Betty’s, but I did it, and when I got there I collapsed into the chair at the corner table across from where my sister Charlotte was sitting.

Charlotte was my little sister, but we looked nothing alike. She had beautiful blonde hair that reached her shoulders, with just a slight curl to it, and skin so pale she looked like an English rose. It would have been impossible from looking at her to guess that our mom had Italian roots.

Charlotte was also incredibly book smart. Currently finishing off her second year of medical school in Portland, an hour’s drive away from Willow Bay, she was most comfortable when researching things. She also wasn’t taking any time off; even in the summer semester she was taking classes, although she was “only” doing two of them.

I wasn’t a total idiot, after all they don’t give veterinary degrees to absolutely anyone who walks in off the street, but Charlotte was off-the-charts smart. And I loved her more than anything in the whole world.

When I was four years old and Charlotte was six months old, our parents were killed in a car accident coming back from an anniversary dinner. Their best friend, Lisa, who also happened to be Sophie’s mom, took us in and raised us as her own, but I still felt like it was my duty to take care of Charlotte, being her only biological family and all. We didn’t have anyone else.

“Fun day at the office?” Charlotte asked, raising an eyebrow as I struggled to move back into a socially acceptable seated position.

“Don’t even get me started,” I replied. “If I ever complain that Bee’s a little bit too crazy, please remind me that cats like Missy exist.”

Charlotte laughed. “Well, lucky for you I already ordered us BLTs, so you don’t need to go up to the counter and order.”

“Have I ever told you you’re my favourite person in the whole wide world?” I asked Charlotte, who grinned in reply.

“I know you said not to get me started, but I’m curious.”

I told Charlotte everything that had happened that morning, from Milo coming in with the injured paw to the adventure with Missy.

“Luckily everything after that went pretty smoothly, because I’m not sure how much more crazy I would be able to take today,” I finished.

“Wow. And here I was going to tell you about how some students managed to screw up a chemistry experiment. They accidentally set up the buret incorrectly and sent a whole bunch of hot liquid everywhere. I still think your story is better.”

I laughed. “Nope, that one’s pretty good,” I replied. I thought back to my own days of doing chemistry and how sometimes I thought it wouldn’t take much for something to go wrong. Nothing ever had while I was there, luckily.

“I’m not sure it’s better, but one of the guys had some land in his hair and it burnt it all down to his scalp. He had to use the emergency chemical burn tap and then got sent straight to the hospital.”

“Wow! That’s actually serious!” I said.

“Yeah, well, the professor said he’s probably not going to suffer any sort of long term damage, other than the psychological scarring that comes with learning chemistry safety lessons the hard way.”

“That’s good.”

“Definitely.”

Just then, Betty came over with our sandwiches and a side of fries. Betty McMahon was a kindly old woman in her 60s, who had decided that when she was finished teaching elementary school, rather than retire she would rather live out her dreams of running a little bakery. And oh boy was she ever good at it. Betty’s treats were known around the state, and people driving from Portland down south were known to detour well out of their way to stop in Willow Bay and get a taste of Betty’s amazing little treats.

And she also made BLTs that were to die for. Thick sourdough bread, fresh lettuce and tomato, thick cut bacon – she always made mine with a vegetarian version - and the perfect amount of slightly spicy mayonnaise, grilled to perfection. This was one of my favourite treats in the whole town. And of course, the thick cut fries were a nice bonus as well.

“Ohhhhh this is exactly what I need right now,” I said, picking up the sandwich and taking a huge bite.

“Be careful there, Angela,” Charlotte told me. “We don’t want to have a When Harry Met Sally moment right here in the café.”

I blushed at the insinuation.

“I’m not that bad,” I said. Charlotte laughed.

“I’m pretty sure you just made love to that first bite of the sandwich.”

“Fine, well, I’ve had a bad day. Don’t judge me.”

“Would some hot gossip make your day better?” Charlotte asked, and I looked up at her curiously. Charlotte wasn’t the type to gossip at all. Which is weird for someone who grew up in Willow Bay, the kind of place where gossiping about anything and everything is the number one pastime.

“It depends on what the gossip is,” I replied.

“Well, I was walking through Portland this morning, going to my car to come back here. And I walked past this cute little restaurant on Market Street, and I looked in, and guess who I saw?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Lisa,” Charlotte replied in a hushed whisper.

“So? Lisa’s allowed to go to Portland. She has clients there, remember?” Sophie’s mom Lisa, who raised us as her own, ran her own accountancy firm. It had started out small, with just a few local clients, but her reputation made its way around the state and now Lisa had opened up an office in Portland and Eugene as well.

“No, no. Not just Lisa by herself. Lisa with a man. And it definitely wasn’t a business meeting.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well as I walked by she was twirling her hair and he was holding her hand, and neither one of them were dressed for a business meeting, and neither one of them had folders or anything.”

“Well, just because she’s old doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to date anyone,” I replied, but at the same time, something about it felt weird.

Lisa had divorced Sophie’s father when Sophie was two years old. I’d known Sophie my whole life, and to date I had never known her to have a boyfriend. Ever.

“Isn’t it strange though?”

“Yeah, it is,” I replied. Why now? Why did she decide she needed someone in her life at this exact moment?

“I wonder why she didn’t tell us though.”

“Maybe because she thought we’d react like this,” I said, with a small smile. “After all, it sounds like neither one of us are totally thrilled about this new development.”

“Well no, but only because it’s so strange,” Charlotte replied. “Do you think we should tell Sophie?”

“You know damn well I’m going to have to tell Sophie. I can’t hide something like this from her.” Sophie was my best friend, but I’d grown up living in the same house as her. We were practically sisters.

“Fine. But you have to make her promise she’s not going to bring him up to her mom until her mom tells us about him. We need to respect her wishes, she’ll tell us about him when she’s ready.” Leave it to my sister to still be the mature one in this situation, despite being the youngest.

“Ok. I promise. We won’t ask her about him until she mentions him. Besides, you might have it all wrong anyway. It might be something totally different.”

“Maybe. But if you’d seen them, you’d be sure too.”

I took another big bite into my sandwich as the bell above the front door went off. Instinctively I looked to see who had come in, and saw it was Antonia deLucca, one of the local town gossips. She was in her late 60s now, I presumed, and spent her whole day sticking her extra big nose into other peoples’ business. And right now, she looked like the cat that had just caught the canary, and wanted to tell everyone about it.

She walked up to the counter, chest puffed out. I caught Charlotte’s eye and pointed subtly. Antonia looked like she had something juicy. But at the same time, her face was pale, and she actually looked older than usual, which was impressive, seeing as Antonia deLucca was pretty much ancient.

I wasn’t her biggest fan, especially after she started a rumour that I was involved in a murder a couple of months ago, when the victim had broken into my vet clinic to try and save himself.

“Betty, my dear,” Antonia told Betty behind the counter. “I’ve just come from the most interesting scene.”

“Oh yes, Antionia? And what might that be?” Betty asked, playing Antonia’s game.

“There’s been another murder in Willow Bay!”

At that, the whole café went completely silent. Even the fridge stopped humming. I felt my breath catch in my throat.

“Another murder?” Betty finally asked. “Are you sure?”

Antonia nodded, looking around the room at the ten or so people sitting at tables, enjoying their lunches.

“Yes! Another murder! Although Chief Gary won’t tell me that himself, it’s obvious that’s what it is.”

“Who is it?” I heard Charlotte ask.

“Poor old Andrea Dottory,” Antonia replied, shaking her head sadly and clucking her tongue. Charlotte and I looked at each other. If anyone in Willow Bay was a likely candidate to be murdered, it was Andrea.

Andrea Dottory was one of the other town gossips, but she was much more malicious than Antonia deLucca. She was in her mid-70s, and had lived in Willow Bay ever since she emigrated from Ireland in the early 50s. No one in town liked her, mainly because she had started nasty rumours about almost everyone, at some point. And she didn’t mind telling people about them to their faces, either.

I looked at Charlotte.

“Murder?”

Charlotte shrugged. “I mean, at 70 plus years old it’s less likely than other things.”

Antonia overheard us and came over to our table.

“No, no. It’s murder. Believe me, I know. Andrea told Patricia Wilson the other day she was going to be murdered soon, she could feel it.”

“Did she happen to tell you tell Patricia who was going to commit the murder?” I asked dryly.

“No. She didn’t.”

“Well, that would have been helpful.”

“It’s not like she died in her sleep. She was found lying in the middle of the road, around the corner from her house, and her head was bashed in!”

Charlotte and I looked at each other. Willow Bay had had its first murder since the 1910s just a couple of months ago. What on earth were the odds that we’d have two in two months?

Chapter 3

After we finished our sandwiches, Charlotte said she had to go home. I looked at my watch. There were still twenty minutes before I had to be back at the vet clinic, and I knew that Andrea Dorotty’s home was only a five minute walk away.

“Come on, Charlotte. Let’s go see if there’s anything we can do, at least,” I begged, trying to appease the part of Charlotte that was becoming a doctor to help people. My sister rolled her eyes, immediately seeing through my ruse.

“She’s dead, Angela. I don’t think there’s anything we can help with.”

“Sophie would totally want to come with me,” I whined.

“Well then invite her. I’m not going to join in the macabre spectacle of trying to see a body.”

Did I mention that Charlotte could be wound up pretty tight sometimes?

“I don’t want to see the body, I just…”

“You just what?” Charlotte asked, putting her hands on her hips. “And if you answer you just want to look for clues, I’m leaving, right now. You know what happened last time you got involved in a murder investigation.”

When Tony Nyman had been killed, and I had found his body in my vet clinic, Sophie, Charlotte and I had decided to investigate. It led to the three of us almost being killed by the head of a planned resort project in the middle of a forest.

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not going to try and solve the murder. We don’t even know if it was a murder. She was in her 70s and all our information comes from one of the least reliable sources in the whole town. I just want to see if she really was murdered. And no, I don’t want to wait for the paper tomorrow to find out.”

Charlotte sighed.

“Fine. But only if we’re quick.”

“I have to be back at the vet clinic in 20 minutes. We’ll be quick.”

Five minutes later we were standing on Oak street, adjacent to the street Andrea had lived on. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to go, it seemed like half the town had come out to see what was happening.

“So macabre,” I heard Charlotte mutter behind me, and I ignored her as I pushed my way towards the front of the crowd. A number of tarps had been set up surrounding the site, so nobody from the general public could actually see the body. A van from the county medical examiner’s office had pulled up behind the tarps, so I suspected they were likely going to be moving the body pretty soon.

“See? We can’t see anything. We might as well go,” Charlotte complained. I couldn’t help but think she was probably right. I wasn’t even sure why I’d come here, there was just something in my gut that told me it was a good idea. And as a witch, my gut was usually right.

“Give me a few minutes,” I begged Charlotte. I saw the police chief, Gary Wells, off to one side of the crime scene. I smiled at him, and he smiled back, then went back to his work, his face lined and worried looking. If this really was a murder, the pressure would be on.

After Zoe Wright was arrested for a number of crimes for which she was currently serving a 30-year sentence after a plea agreement with the district attorney, Chief Gary became an instant celebrity: the small town police chief who foiled a murder by the head of a major corporation. There were articles about him in The Washington Post, the New York Times, and every paper in Oregon as well. I had a feeling Chief Gary wanted absolutely no part of his newfound fame, and another body landing on his doorstep probably wasn’t going to be a good thing for him.

I looked around, trying to figure out why my brain insisted I be here. What was it that I was supposed to see? I could see absolutely nothing around the crime scene; that was covered by tarps. My eyes scanned the crowd. Everyone I could see was local, no one stood out or looked exceptionally suspicious. Still, I mentally gathered a note of everyone who was here. After all, you never knew if the criminal was going to return to the scene of the crime.

I focused on the houses around the scene. They were mainly small bungalows, modern enough, a nice little neighbourhood. A little Jack Russell terrier that I knew was excitedly barking at the window, wanting to be involved in the energy happening outside.

The dog.

Of course, that was it. Andrea Dottory had a little dog named Sprinkles, and I knew that she walked him every single day. Like clockwork. She told me about it whenever Sprinkles came in for his appointment; one walk in the morning, down to Main street, one walk in the late afternoon, when things cooled down a bit.

“Charlotte,” I said, looking around for my sister. I found her ten feet away, looking away from the crime scene, her arms crossed. She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she didn’t want to be here if she tried.

“Yes?” she asked. “Can we go yet?”

“No, Charlotte, I need to ask Chief Gary about Sprinkles.”

“Sprinkles?”

“Andrea’s dog. She would have been walking him. I want to know if they found him.”

“Fine, but then we go.”

“Deal.”

I made my way to the edge of the police cordon and leaned against the yellow rope. I caught the eye of a tall guy with ruffled blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes. It was Taylor Shaw, Sophie’s boyfriend, who worked as a cop, and motioned for him to come over.

“Hey, Taylor,” I greeted him. “Can you tell me if you guys found Sprinkles?”

“Sprinkles?”

“Andrea’s dog. She would have been walking him this morning.”

“Taylor looked thoughtful. “I haven’t heard anything about a dog. Stay here, let me go ask Chief Gary for you.”

I watched as Taylor went over to Chief Gary, spoke to him for a minute. I saw Chief Gary look over at me, and then he spoke to Taylor again, shaking his head. When Taylor came back, I already knew the answer.

“No, there was no dog here. Though Andrea had a couple dog poo bags in her pocket, so she must have been walking him. Do you know what Sprinkles looks like?”

I nodded. “He’s red and white, probably an Australian Shepherd mix. Andrea was never completely sure, she rescued him from a shelter in Portland a few years back. He’s extremely sweet, and should come when called, though he can also be pretty shy so it might help if you have treats. I can text you a picture when I get back to the office, I have one in his file.”

“That would be good, thanks. We’ll keep an eye out,” Taylor told me.

“Thanks,” I replied, turning around to find Charlotte, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. Sprinkles was the sweetest little dog, and I really, really hoped he was ok.

When I found Charlotte, she was hanging out at the edge of the crowd that had formed.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and I nodded. On the way back to the vet clinic, I told her about Sprinkles. Charlotte frowned.

“Do you think that dog’s at Andrea’s home?” she asked.

“I don’t think so. Surely the cops are there already, and so Chief Gary would have known about it. Plus I’m sure she was walking him.”

“That poor thing. I’ve seen Sprinkles once or twice, he’s a sweet dog.”

“He really is. I wonder what happened to him. I bet that when Andrea collapsed he got scared and ran off. After I’m done at the clinic I’m going to go look for him, if you want to help.”

Charlotte nodded. “Yeah. I don’t really have any plans for the afternoon, I was just going to do a bit of light studying. So I can actually start looking for him now, while you’re at work.”

I shot Charlotte a grateful look. “You’re my favourite sister, you know.”

Charlotte laughed. “That might mean something if I wasn’t your only sister.”

“But seriously, thank you,” I told her. I liked Sprinkles, but he never really gave off the impression of being able to handle himself alone in the woods. He was more the lying down at your feet getting rubs type of dog.

I gave Charlotte a quick hug, then headed back to the vet clinic, hoping Sprinkles would show up quickly.

Chapter 4

The afternoon at the vet clinic was hectic, but nothing compared to that morning. When we finally finished up and were all out the door at ten past five, I finally got my first chance of the afternoon to tell Sophie about Sprinkles, and Andrea Dottory.

“Awwwww, I love Sprinkles!” Sophie exclaimed. “Andrea, well, it’s sad when anyone dies, but let’s face it, she was a pretty terrible person.”

“I think there’s a saying about not speaking ill of the dead,” I told Sophie. “You’re gonna get some bad karma if you don’t watch out.”

Sophie shrugged. “What? It’s true. Just because someone’s dead we have to lie about how great a person they were?”

I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, Charlotte’s out looking for Sprinkles, and I’m going to go give her a hand. Wanna join?”

“Of course!” Sophie replied. “That poor little doggie, all alone out there. We only have a few hours before it’s going to get dark, so let’s get started!”

I smiled at my best friend. We were very different, but where it mattered we were pretty much exactly the same.

“Good. I’ll text Charlotte to see where she is.”

Ten minutes later we’d joined up with my sister.

“I’ve made posters and hung them up everywhere,” Charlotte told us as she waved at us from the street she was searching on. She had a handful of coloured sheets of paper in her hand and a stapler. “I’ve also called the animal shelter. They haven’t gotten any new animals today, and I’ve asked them to call me if they get any fitting Sprinkles’ description. Also, I’ve knocked on doors and handed flyers to the neighbours in a three block radius from Andrea’s home.”

I looked at Charlotte in appreciation. If there was one thing my sister had, it was work ethic. “Wow. Thanks, Charlotte, that’s great!”

“It’d be better if any of this led to anything, but we’ll have to see,” Charlotte said. “I’ve checked all the streets around here, and a few backyards, but I think he may have run into the woods behind this neighbourhood.

I sighed. “Ok. Let’s go in there and have a look, hopefully we’ll find him. We’ll look until it gets dark.”

There was a path near where we were that led into the forest straight into Railworkers Memorial Park, the main community gathering place in Willow Bay. We quickly decided that this was the best way to go, and headed for the entrance.

“Why don’t you guys do a spell to call him to you, or something?” Sophie asked when we were in the forest, well away from the prying eyes and ears of the citizens of Willow Bay.

“It’s too dangerous,” Charlotte replied. “The recall spell doesn’t account for anything being in the way between the witch and the object being called, so if we tried it and he was in the forest he’d likely be pulled straight into a tree and killed.”

“Damn. If only we lived in Nebraska,” Sophie muttered.

“Wow, I think that’s the first time in human history anyone has ever muttered that particular sentence,” I joked. Sophie giggled in appreciation.

“Nebraska still has corn fields, it would still be dangerous,” Charlotte argued.

“It was a joke, silly,” Sophie explained to her. “You can read about what a joke is in one of your books.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes and we kept going.

Every time I looked at Sophie I thought about her mom dating someone. It seemed so strange. So unlike Lisa. And every single ounce of my being wanted to tell her, but I’d promised Charlotte I wouldn’t. I really, really hoped no one would bring up Lisa, because I knew I was a terrible liar, and if we started talking about Sophie’s mom, there was no way Sophie wouldn’t know that I was hiding something.

Luckily, however, we spent the next fifteen minutes in relative silence, occasionally calling out Sprinkles’ name, and straining our ears in the hopes of being able to hear him running through the brush.

We failed, but we did get very adept at being able to tell the sound of squirrels and robins apart as they ran off whenever we came near.

When we finally arrived at Railworkers Memorial Park, we were absolutely no closer to finding Sprinkles. Sophie sighed as she sat on a picnic table and rested her hand in her chin.

“It breaks my heart to think of that poor little doggie having to spend the night alone in the woods,” she admitted, sighing.

“I know,” I replied. If anything, my feelings for Sprinkles were even stronger. After all, I’d had conversations with the dog. I’d spoken to him. It was rough; I wanted nothing more than to see his little tail wagging as he came towards us.”

“What if he still had his leash on and it got caught on something? What if he can’t get away?” Sophie asked, getting more and more upset.

“You can’t think about that sort of thing,” Charlotte scolded. “Come on. That’s not going to get anyone anywhere. We just have to keep going. We’ll find him.”

“Fine,” Sophie huffed, getting up off the picnic table. I didn’t want to say anything, but to be honest, I didn’t think we were going to find Sprinkles here in Railworkers Memorial Park. After all, there were always people around here; if Sprinkles had made his way here someone would have caught him and called animal control. After all, this was Willow Bay. Everyone knew Sprinkles belonged to Andrea Dottory, and by now everyone in town would have heard that she had died.

Before I had the chance to make my opinion known, though, I saw something else that made my breath catch in my throat.

On the other side of the park, sitting on a bench and people-watching, was Jason Black.

“Is that…” I asked the others, my voice trailing off as I looked in his direction. Charlotte and Sophie spun around to see what I’d been looking at.

“Yup. That’s him,” Sophie replied. “You should go say hi.”

“What? Why should I go say hi?”

“Because you think he’s hot, despite the fact that you thought he’d murdered someone, and he thinks you’re cute. And also he got shot while saving your life.”

“That’s ridiculous. I do not think he’s hot,” I protested, feeling the blush crawling up my face. Ok, so Jason Black wasn’t bad looking. Maybe he was even pretty good looking. But that didn’t mean I had to be the one to go say hi to him. And why on earth did Sophie say he thought I was cute? She had absolutely no way of knowing that.

“I wonder what he’s doing here,” Charlotte asked, thoughtfully.

When Tony Nyman had been murdered, it seemed like I saw Jason Black around every corner. It turned out he was actually Nyman’s son, and not his murderer, and in the end Jason had saved my life. I supposed it was true I still hadn’t gotten to thank him properly for that, as when his mom found out he’d been shot she wanted him to come home straight away.

“It looks like the decision’s out of our hands anyway,” Sophie said with a grin on her face, and I looked over. Jason Black was coming this way.

“Come on, Charlotte, we have to find Sprinkles,” Sophie told my sister, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away, leaving me standing there alone, looking like an idiot as Jason came over.

As he came closer, I really did have to admit it. Fine. He was hot. With black hair that seemed to constantly have that just-got-out-of-bed look to it, and eyes as dark as midnight, chiselled cheekbones and a few days’ worth of stubble, Jason Black looked like he belonged on the front page of a magazine, not some small town in Oregon. He was definitely good looking. It was too bad he was also completely infuriating.

“Hey, Angie,” he said as he came up to me, and I scowled.

“I thought I told you not to call me that.”

“That was back when you thought I was a murderer, I thought it’d be ok now,” he said, his eyes widening in fake shock.

“Fine,” I replied. “I suppose I should thank you, too. You know, for saving my life and all.”

Jason waved away my thanks.

“Right place, right time. You know. I’m just that awesome.”

“Right. That must be it,” I replied. “What are you doing back here in Willow Bay, anyway?”

“What, can’t a guy take a holiday in the town where his father ran away to then was brutally murdered in a couple months ago?”

“That would be pretty macabre. And also creepy.”

“You got me. Macabre and creepy. But seriously, I decided to come back because I like the town. I wanted to get away from New York and everything happening there, and I figured why not come to the place that my father liked so much after he left the big city as well.”

“Wait, so you live here now?” I asked. Jason nodded.

“Yeah. Moved here last week. After all, thanks to you, I’m a rich man now.”

“Wait, what?”

“The people at Ocean Mist’s head office decided that their publicity would end up being even worse if it turned out the man who technically owned some of the property they were going to build on and was murdered for it wasn’t properly compensated. And since I’m his son, and Zoe Wright burned his will, everything passed to me.”

“So now you’re basically Donald Trump,” I replied, crossing my arms.

“Hey, let’s not say things we can’t take back,” he laughed. “But basically, yes. Not quite that rich.”

“So you get to live a life of leisure now?”

“Oh hey, I didn’t say that. I can’t simply while the days away doing nothing. I’ve gotten myself a job.”

“And what kind of job did you get?” I asked curiously. I had to admit, I never really thought of Jason Black as having a real job.

“Believe it or not, I’m a qualified journalist. I can find out all your secrets,” he said salaciously, and I unconsciously felt a twitter of butterflies in my stomach. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Just because he wasn’t a murderer didn’t mean he wasn’t super annoying, and frustrating.

“Maybe I don’t have any secrets worth discovering,” I lied.

“Ohhh, I don’t think that’s true,” Jason replied, grinning. Why did his smile have to be so… perfect? “Anyway,” he continued, “I found out that the local paper was looking for a new journalist. In that, the only journalist quit, and the owner, who acts as the editor, doesn’t want to do the job themselves. He pretty much fell over his shoes asking me to join the paper when I mentioned I’d had some stuff published in the New York Times.”

“Wait, so you actually are a journalist?” I asked. “You didn’t just make that up?”

“There’s more to me than meets the eye,” Jason winked. “I am a journalist. I’ve been working as a freelancer in New York since graduating from journalism school. I have to say, it’ll be nice to get a steady paycheck for once.”

“You just said you don’t need the paycheck, you’re Donald Trump rich now,” I replied.

“Yeah, well, just because I have the money doesn’t mean I need to spend it all. A paycheck to live off is still nice. The one I’m getting from The Willow Bay Whistler isn’t enough to live off, but it’ll be nice all the same.”

“Well, I’m glad everything’s working out for you. If you happen to see a red and white dog who answers to the name of Sprinkles, give me a call, will you?” I asked, handing him one of Charlotte’s posters.

“That’s certainly a sly way to give me your phone number,” Jason told me, and I glared at him.

“It’s not my number, it’s my sister’s.”

“Well, can’t blame a man for trying. I’ll see you around town, Angie,” Jason replied, giving me a wink before walking back to his bench.

The man was infuriating. I could never figure him out. Not that I wanted to, of course.

Chapter 5

By the next morning there was still no sign of Sprinkles. I’d spent half the night in the backyard where we lived, taking care of the animals that lived in the little stables out the back of our place (currently: a doe with a broken leg that was just about ready to be released in the wild, an injured owl and two sheep whose owner we were looking for, that animal control weren’t set up to care for) in the hopes that Sprinkles might happen to find his way onto our property.

Finally, I gave up and went to bed, hoping the poor little guy would be ok spending the night out there alone.

I woke up so exhausted the next day that I ran to Betty’s café and begged her to make me a double shot vanilla latte before I had to open the vet clinic. It seemed to do the trick, and it had to: my first client of the day was a new guy in town, Gareth Sims, who brought in his German Shepherd Boss, who’d been poisoned.

“I’m not sure what he got himself into,” Gareth told me, looking worriedly at his dog. “We’ve only lived in the area for about three weeks, we came up from California. I’m afraid I might not have been looking at what he was doing when he was off-leash, and I don’t exactly know what to look for up here anyway.”

“Can you tell me what his symptoms have been?” I asked. Boss wasn’t really speaking, he was just lying on the examination table looking sad. When he’d come in he was stumbling slightly, and he threw up in the lobby.

“Yeah,” Garret told me, running a hand through his hair. He was in his early 30s, with brown hair and eyes and about a day’s worth of stubble. Basically, your average looking guy. “I took him for a walk around midnight last night. Couldn’t sleep, you know. Plus he normally has enough energy to go for as many walks as I can take him on. We walked around the block a few times, and he was totally fine. I took him down to that big park and let him off the leash and threw his ball around for him. He seemed fine. Went into the forest once or twice. Then after we got home, he started to look weird. He started stumbling around, and he threw up once or twice. When he wasn’t better this morning, I came here.”

“You did good to do that,” I said. I gave Boss a good look over, physically. The whole time, I still couldn’t get Sprinkles out of my head. I hoped the little doggie was ok. Boss physically seemed pretty normal, but his eyes were definitely dilated; I was fairly certain I knew what had caused the illness. “Unfortunately for some kids out there, I think they’re going to be disappointed when they find that their stash of plants has gone missing,” I told him. “I’m almost certain Boss is suffering from marijuana poisoning.”

“Damn… so you’re saying my dog is high?”

I nodded. “Yes. It’s not as uncommon as you might think, but it is relatively serious. However, I do want to keep Boss here for a few hours. We’ll give him some IV fluids, and some activated charcoal to try and absorb some of the toxins, but mainly I just want to make sure that he’s under watch while he sleeps it off, so to speak. He’ll almost certainly be fine,” I told Garret with a smile.

“Oh, thank God,” he replied. “Sure. Keep an eye on him for me, for sure. Thank you so much.”

“No problem at all,” I replied. “I’ll give you a call when he’s ready to be picked up, probably late this afternoon sometime. You did good to bring him in.”

A couple minutes later Sophie and I were leading Boss into a comfortable kennel.

“Come on buddy, you just gotta sleep it off,” Sophie was telling him. “You’re high as a kite right now, you gotta learn to pace yourself.”

I smiled as I set up the IV at the counter. “It’s going to be ok, Boss,” I told him. “You’re going to rest here for a few hours, then Garret’s going to come back this afternoon when you’re feeling better and take you home.”

“Thanks,” I heard Boss mumble slightly before he fell back asleep. Not all dogs got very lethargic when they got high, but some did, and Boss certainly fell into that category.

“It just goes to show how many dangerous things there are for dogs out there,” I said, almost to myself, and Sophie nodded.

“I know. I wish we could just leave and look for Sprinkles. I hope he made it through the night ok. I can’t help but worry that he got his leash caught on something and he’s trapped, or worse.

“We can’t think like that, Soph. Listen, let’s go out at lunch and look for him, ok? We’ll only have an hour, but it’s better than doing nothing, right?

“Definitely. Good plan,” Sophie told me, just as Karen came in to let us know our next patient was waiting for us in exam room two.

I could worry about Sprinkles later. Right now, my focus had to be on the dogs like Boss who needed medical help and that we had access to.

I checked my cell quickly for any messages before going in to see the next patient, just in case someone had found Sprinkles. Instead, I found a text from my sister.

Dinner tonight with Lisa. The diner. 7.

Oh boy.

Is this guy gonna be there? I replied.

How should I know? came the immediate response back.

Well should I tell Sophie? She doesn’t exactly do well with surprises.

You promised me you wouldn’t.

I sighed and put down the phone, ready to go see the next animal who needed my help. If Lisa had invited us all to dinner at her place and was going to introduce us to her new boyfriend without warning Sophie, I just knew all hell was going to break loose.

This was not going to be good.

Chapter 6

“Why does my mom want to have dinner with us at the diner anyway?” Sophie complained as she did her hair.

“Don’t ask me, all I know is we’re meeting her there,” I replied, hurrying out of the bathroom and back to my room to find a different top. I didn’t realize my old favourite had a mustard stain on it, so I tossed it into my laundry hamper as I picked out a simple, form fitting red tee to go with a pair of dark blue jeans and black flats. This was the Willow Bay equivalent of dressing up, and that was just the way I liked it.

“Don’t you dare tell her,” Charlotte hissed at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“Tell me what?” Sophie yelled from the bathroom. I held up my hands and gave Charlotte a look that screamed ‘you deal with it’ and went back to the living room.

“I don’t see why I can’t come to dinner,” Bee complained from her spot on the arm of the couch.

“You’ve had your dinner, that’s why,” I replied.

“That was canned food. I want real, fresh-cooked fish.”

“Well, if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll get you a sushi roll on the way back.”

A week earlier Charlotte had brought back some sushi for dinner – including some vegetarian ones for me (it’s a lot harder to eat animals when you can talk to them) – and after Bee nabbed one from Sophie’s plate she declared sushi to be her new favourite food, and that she wanted it for dinner every night.

Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but it was good to know a California roll was the best treat my cat could ask for.

I tried not to think about Sprinkles as we all piled up into Sophie’s car. I tried not to think about all the time we could spend looking for the poor thing instead of eating dinner. I had called Chief Gary earlier in the day, and he told me the dog hadn’t shown up yet. This was getting pretty worrying.

Charlotte had apparently invented some story, so Sophie still didn’t know about the mystery man when we got to the diner.

The Seaside Diner was right on the waterfront, and looked just like the stereotypical 50s hangout: red neon signs in the windows advertising Burgers, Fries, Milkshakes, black and white checkered floors, plush red booths and stools at the metallic curved counter with super bright lighting and cheery waitresses. Some people might think it was a bit kitschy, but I loved it. And the food was awesome. Great, stereotypically American fare. As soon as we walked in I saw Lisa sitting at a booth at the back. And sure enough, there was a man next to her.

Uh oh.

As soon as Lisa saw us she waved.

“This is what I wasn’t supposed to know about, wasn’t it?” Sophie hissed as we made our way down the aisle towards where Lisa was waiting. Lisa Mashito had brown hair and big round eyes, like a doe, which Sophie had inherited. Her face could look hard, but as soon as she smiled it always lit up gorgeously.

Charlotte ignored Sophie and instead burst into a huge smile. Leave it to my sister to be the most mature of the three of us, despite being the youngest.

“Lisa! How good to see you!” she exclaimed as she slid in the booth across from Sophie’s mom.

“You too, girls, I’m so glad you could all make dinner tonight.” She looked over at the man next to her, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she actually looked nervous. Lisa Mashito didn’t do nervous.

“I wanted to introduce you all to Austin Stark, my new boyfriend.” She paused for a split second before saying ‘boyfriend’, as if the word was all new to her.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Charlotte said, flashing him a smile. Austin Stark was exactly what I expected from someone who would date Lisa Mashito. She was the ultimate professional, and together they looked like they would make an incredible power couple. He wore a full suit, with expensive cufflinks and a haircut that probably cost more than my weekly salary.

“Nice to meet you too,” Austin replied, smiling. I shook his hand as well, but Sophie just sat at the booth and promptly ignored him.

“So what is it that you ladies do here in town?” Austin asked as the waitress brought us menus.

“I’m in medical school in Portland,” Charlotte offered first.

“And I run the vet clinic here in town. Sophie works there as well, she’s our vet tech,” I added, knowing that Sophie was absolutely not going to willingly offer anything constructive to this conversation. I knew not telling her about Austin beforehand had been a mistake. So far, Austin seemed pretty nice.

“How about you?” Charlotte asked politely. “How did you and Lisa meet?”

Austin looked over lovingly at Sophie’s mom, and I heard Sophie emit a low growl. I kicked her under the table. So much for giving people a chance before judging them.

Still, I had to admit, there was something about Austin that seemed a little bit… off. I didn’t know what it was, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I chalked it up to simply being uncomfortable with Lisa dating for the first time I could ever remember, it had to just be that.

“Lisa and I met through work,” Austin told us. “I run a real company, a distribution centre that supplies over a thousand stores throughout Oregon and Washington states.”

Excuse me? A real company? Was that a jab at my vet clinic?

“I can supply my foot up your ass,” I heard Sophie mutter so quietly next to me that only I could hear, and I had to admit, I had to struggle not to giggle. Still, maybe he didn’t mean anything by it.

“What was that, dear?” Lisa asked Sophie innocently. Oh, Lisa. For such a great mom, she really was clueless as to her daughter’s faults. Like her microscopically short fuse.

“Oh, nothing,” Sophie smiled overly sweetly.

The waitress came over to take our orders. The four of us ordered vegetarian; Charlotte, Lisa and Sophie were nice enough to (usually) eat vegetarian around me, although I knew and had no problem with the fact that when they were alone they were full carnivores.

“Is there a moratorium on meat or something?” Austin asked Lisa, looking at her curiously.

“Oh, Angela’s a vegetarian, so we always eat vegetarian around her. But you have what you want, don’t let us pressure you.”

“Well, as a full-fledged American, I’m going to have some meat. Specifically, the double double burger, with onion rings instead of fries,” he told the waitress as we handed over our menus.

Ok, that was enough. I might have been trying to fight my instincts, but the more Austin Stark opened his mouth, the less I liked him. Sophie had that fake smile that screamed ‘if I open my mouth I’m going to ruin this whole dinner so I’m just going to sit here looking like a happy idiot’, while Charlotte dutifully tried to make conversation with Austin. At least one of us was trying to keep the rapidly deteriorating peace.

“So how long have you and Lisa known each other?” Charlotte asked.

“Oh, about three months. We started dating two months ago, but to be honest, we weren’t sure how you’d react, so we decided to keep our relationship a little bit more secret for a while.”

I could feel Sophie using every ounce of energy she had not to bash her head against the table. How did neither Lisa or Austin realize that telling us about them ahead of time was surely a better idea than just showing up to dinner together one night?

I was worried that we’d quickly run out of things to talk about, but luckily, Sophie decided to pitch in at one point.

“Hey Austin, did you hear that today Willow Bay had its second murder in two months?”

“Sophie,” Lisa scolded. “That’s not exactly dinner conversation.”

“It’s fine,” Austin said, smiling. “I enjoy a little bit of local gossip here and there. Do they know who was killed?”

“A local gossip,” Sophie replied with a small smile. I couldn’t tell if she was ridiculously angry, enjoying herself, or both. Austin’s smile dropped slightly, but then he pasted it right back onto his face.

“Well, that’s quite sad. I heard you ladies had a little something to do with helping the police find the last killer,” he added.

“Yeah, we just helped,” I jumped in quickly, before either of the other two could reply. I was going to do my best to make sure this dinner didn’t devolve into total chaos, for Lisa’s sake. I might not like the guy, but if he made Lisa happy, wasn’t that what was important? After all, she’d raised Charlotte, Sophie and I as a single mother; the least we owed her was to be nice to her first boyfriend that we knew of since her divorce.

Just then the waitress came by with our meals – thank God – and the conversation was a lot slower as we all focused on our food.

We made it through the rest of the meal without anyone openly insulting anyone else, and when we finally parted ways, we decided that we’d just leave Lisa and Austin there and head straight back to the bungalow. Walking through the parking lot towards the car, I thought I heard a bang behind the restaurant.

“What was that?” I asked Charlotte and Sophie, and they shrugged. “Just someone throwing out some trash.”

“Maybe,” I replied, but something drove me to go have a look. Witch’s instinct? I wasn’t going to say no to that. “I’ll be right back.”

I made my way around the side of the diner building towards the back. Most of it consisted of windows, to let the guests see the view of the water, but the far end was just behind the kitchen. I made my way over there, certain that was where the sound came from.

I was suddenly extremely aware of the fact that I was alone, in the dark, at the back of a restaurant where I’d just heard a strange noise. My heart leapt into my throat as I heard something else, there was someone in the garbage at the back of the restaurant.

Moving ever so slowly, I made my way closer, and closer, until I saw what it was and let out a yelp.

Sophie and Charlotte came running over.

“What is it?” Sophie asked, as I came out holding a dirty, ragged, but still healthy looking red and white shepherd mix named Sprinkles.

“Sprinkles,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. We’d found him.

Chapter 7

“It’s ok, Sprinkles, it’s ok,” I repeated to the little dog over and over like a mantra as he sat in my lap on the way home. He’d been out looking in the restaurant garbage for any extra food to eat. Luckily, being a vet, I always had a reasonable store of dog food at home, and I knew that in less than five minutes he’d be able to eat to his heart’s content.

Well, ok, maybe not that much. Giving dogs free reign of the food bowl is rarely a good idea, unless you like vomit. But I was going to make sure Sprinkles didn’t go hungry again tonight.

He was shaking as he sat in my lap, and I patted him softly to try and calm him down.

“Is he ok?” Charlotte asked, concerned as she saw him shaking.

“I think so,” I replied as I gave Sprinkles the best physical exam I could while in the passenger seat of a moving car in the dark. “I think he might just be scared. Is that it, buddy?” I asked, but rather than reply, Sprinkles simply burrowed his face into the nook of my arm.

Charlotte gave me a concerned look. Poor Sprinkles. I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d seen his owner murdered, and if he could help find who did it.

If it was murder at all, of course. Either way, poor Sprinkles had likely seen his owner’s death, and that couldn’t be easy for anyone.

“Hey, can we stop by the sushi place and grab a small container to take away?” I asked Sophie. “I think Bee’s going to kill us if we bring back a dog and no sushi.”

She rolled her eyes, but made the quick detour to get Bee her treat. I was afraid to know what chaos was going to happen otherwise.

As soon as we walked through the door, Bee jumped up onto a side table and hissed at Sprinkles, who cowered behind me.

“Bee, absolutely not,” I scolded. “Be nice.”

“I will not be nice. How dare you bring a dog into my sacred home?”

“First of all, this is my house, so I can bring whoever I want into it. Secondly, if you’re not nice to Sprinkles, I’m not going to give you any sushi.”

Bee eyed up the dog, trying to decide which was more worth it: the promise of sushi, or the ability to torment a poor, scared little dog. Thankfully, she eventually settled on the sushi. Maybe she was more like a dog than she realized.

“Fine,” Bee eventually said, turning with her tail up so I could see her butthole. I rolled my eyes.

“Thank you, Bee. Sprinkles just lost his owner, and he’s been running loose outside for a few days. We’re just going to be taking care of him for a little bit,” I told my cat’s retreating form.

“Don’t care, dogs are awful, give me sushi,” Bee replied from the kitchen. I gave Sophie an exasperated look.

“Sometimes I know exactly what’s going on, even when I can only hear one side of the conversation,” she snickered, taking the box of sushi over to Bee.

“Just give her one roll, we’re probably going to need to bribe her with the others later on,” I warned Sophie as she headed off to appease my cat. At least the claws hadn’t come out yet.

“Now,” I said to Sprinkles, sitting down on the floor with the dog to get to his level. “Are you hungry?”

For a minute I didn’t think Sprinkles was going to answer me. He just looked at me sadly, then came out the saddest little sound from his mouth.

“Yes, I am,” he replied.

“Ok. I have some dog food here. When was the last time you ate?”

“I don’t remember. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok,” I told him gently. The poor dog was apologizing for not remembering when his last meal was. Sprinkles was just so sweet, I almost couldn’t handle it. “Let me get you a bowl of kibble, ok?”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem at all. I’m just glad we finally found you.”

I went into the kitchen, where Bee was happily munching on her sushi roll, and found a bag of kibble given to me for free by a major dog food company. It wasn’t the best quality food, which was why I just kept it at home, but it would do for a night.

Grabbing an extra dog bowl from a storage cupboard – it’s amazing the things you pick up in this job – I poured in two handfuls of kibble and brought it over to Sprinkles. I knew he’d eat it all straight away, but I didn’t want him eating so quickly he threw up.

As soon as I set down the bowl, Sprinkles’ instincts took over. I heard him muttering thank you after thank you in between bites, and in seconds, the whole bowl had been licked clean.

“Thank you so much,” he told me when he was finished, looking up from the bowl, unable to help himself and looking around to see if there was more.

“You’re very welcome, Sprinkles,” I told him. He was so sweet and polite. Which was ironic, given as his owner had been just the opposite. “I do have more food for you, but if you eat it now you’re just going to throw it up, so let’s wait a little bit before I give you some more, ok?”

“Whatever you say, ma’am,” Sprinkles replied.

“Oh, you can just call me Angela,” I told him with a smile. He had always called me ma’am, even when I spoke to him at vet appointments.

Charlotte came over and gave him a pat. He nestled his head into her hand and when she stopped, rested it on her knee.

“Awwwwww, you’re just the sweetest thing ever,” Charlotte muttered to Sprinkles, earning herself a glare from Bee that she didn’t see. If I wasn’t mistaken, I had a feeling my cat was actually jealous of the attention Sprinkles was getting!

“Would you mind if I gave you a bath before bed?” I asked Sprinkles. “I’d like to be able to make sure that you’re not hurt, and it’s a lot more difficult when you’re covered in mud.”

“That would be fine, thank you. I do feel quite dirty right now,” Sprinkles replied. I just couldn’t get over how polite he was.

“Ugh, willingly taking a bath? What kind of animal are you?” Bee shot at him from the kitchen, and I glared at her.

“Ok, come follow me Sprinkles, I’ll take you to the bathroom,” I told him. Five minutes later he was in the tub and I was hosing him down with the removable shower head.

“Ohhh that feels good,” Sprinkles muttered as I massaged his skin lightly with shampoo. I couldn’t help but smile. I was so glad we’d finally found him.

“Do you want to talk about what you’ve been through?” I asked him gently, and I saw a flash of fear cross through Sprinkles’ eyes.

“Talk? No. No, I can’t talk. Absolutely not. Can’t talk. Sorry.”

“It’s ok, it’s ok, you don’t need to talk,” I reassured him quickly. As soon as I’d mentioned talking about what had happened to him, Sprinkles was obviously agitated. If he had anything to tell us about what had happened to his owner, it certainly wasn’t going to be now.

When he finished his bath and I ascertained that Sprinkles had nothing more than just a couple of scrapes on him, I dried him off, wrapped him up in a towel and put him on a couple of pillows that I covered with an old blanket for him in the corner of my bedroom.

“There’ll be a good breakfast for you in the morning. You’re safe now, Sprinkles. You don’t need to worry anymore,” I told him, giving him a kiss on the head, but the poor creature was already asleep. I watched him doze for a minute, smiled, and went out into the kitchen.

“I can’t believe this! I’ve been betrayed!” Bee cried when I made my way in. I rolled my eyes.

“You have not been betrayed. We rescued a dog who’s been lost and by himself for days after seeing his owner die. We’re being nice to him.”

“I know what you’re doing. You say he’s not yours, but you’re just saying that. He’s going to live here for good, and I’m going to have to tell all my friends I live with a dog. I’ll be the laughing stock of the whole town!”

I rolled my eyes. “Bee, you see like one other cat a month, and all you do then is howl at it to get off your lawn. You and I both know that you’re not going to be the laughing stock of the town. Besides, Sprinkles isn’t staying for more than a few days.”

“You say that now, but I’ve seen how you humans work. It’s only a matter of time before poor Bee is left out on the streets to fend for herself.”

“Well, at least we know we’ll be able to find you near the sushi restaurant if we ever want you back,” I sighed, exhausted. I really didn’t want to deal with my cat’s hatred for dogs right now.

“SHE JOKES. You hear that, people? The woman jokes of my plight.”

“Bee, go to bed. You’re not going to be abandoned. You’re not going to be replaced. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“You say that now,” Bee muttered, but she slowly made her way towards the far corner of the couch and lay down in it in a little ball. Two minutes later she was fast asleep.

I sat down at a stool at the breakfast bar and put my head in my hands.

“Oh man, what an adventure today was,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m so glad we found Sprinkles,” Charlotte said quietly, glancing over to make sure Bee didn’t hear.

“I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me about Austin before dinner,” Sophie hissed.

“To be fair,” Charlotte replied, “I wasn’t actually sure your mom was dating anyone. I just kind of suspected.”

“Still. You’re the worst human being. Why would you not tell me? She’s my mom.”

“Because we knew you’d react the way you did.”

“And how was that?”

“You acted like a huge jerk.”

“Not before he did first.”

“No, he might have said a few things that weren’t the greatest, but you were a jerk right from the start.”

“Whatever. She’s my mom, I’m allowed to think what I want.”

I sat in the middle, completely exhausted, watching Sophie and Charlotte duke it out. I just didn’t have the energy to try and stop them anymore.

“What do you think, Angie?” Sophie asked, turning towards me, and I wanted nothing more than to melt into a pool of nothing in the tiles.

“I think we should worry more about Sprinkles and less about Austin,” I replied. “Who knows, they’ve only known each other for three months, it might not even last. I tried asking Sprinkles about what had happened to him in the bath, and he immediately had a little panic attack. I don’t think he’s going to be ready to tell us about what happened to him for a while.

“Awwwww, that poor little baby,” Sophie said. “He’s so sweet.”

“I thought I was going to melt when he rested his head on my knee,” Charlotte said. “I love him so much already. It’s so sad what he’s had to go through!”

I nodded. “I think I’ll wait at least a couple of days before I bring it up again. I’m going to let Chief Gary know that I found him in the morning, and then hopefully I can find out if it was murder or natural causes then. If it was natural, well then there’s nothing to be done about it. But if it was murder, there’s a chance that Sprinkles actually knows who killed Andrea Dottory.”

Chapter 8

The next morning I woke up to find Sprinkles still sleeping in his makeshift bed, but as soon as I got up and started moving around, even though I did it as quietly as I could, he began to stir. He opened his eyes and lifted his head, but didn’t make any move to get off the pillows.

“Hey, Sprinkles,” I greeted him, coming over and scratching him behind the ears. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m pretty tired, to be honest. Are you going to be taking me to the pound today?” Sprinkles asked, and the sadness he said that with broke my heart.

“No,” I told him. “No, you’re going to stay here with me. I’m going to go tell Chief Gary, and I’m sure he’ll say it’s fine. Then when you’re feeling up to it, we’re going to find you a new home, ok? But not before then.”

“I’m so glad you’re not taking me to the pound. I’ve heard stories. I don’t want to go there.”

My heart broke for Sprinkles. “You won’t. I promise you Sprinkles, you won’t.” I gave him a hug, then told him to sleep in my room in peace, that I’d come back when we left with food and water.

“Is this because of the cat?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah. It’s not her safety I’m worried about, it’s yours. She comes to work with me though, so when we leave I’ll give you free reign of the house, ok?”

“Can you tell her I’m sorry, I don’t mean to impose?”

“Of course I can,” I replied, smiling. I wished all dogs were as polite as Sprinkles. Every time he came in for a check-up at the vet clinic he just stood on the exam table and let me examine him. Of course, with his owner right there I couldn’t exactly have a conversation with him those times, but it was nice to see that he was the sweetest little dog ever.

He lay his head back down comfortably on the little bed of pillows as I softly closed the door to the bedroom and made my way into the kitchen to make my morning smoothie before work.

Charlotte was out back taking care of the animals living in the stables at the back of the property, and she came in at almost the same time as I did.

“Someone’s not happy this morning,” she said, nodding her head towards Bee, who was sitting on the bookshelf, her tail dropping down over the edge, her face burrowed into the corner.

“Awwwwww, Bee, what’s wrong,” I asked, going over to see the cat.

“You let him sleep with you. In your room.” Her voice was muffled against the sound of the bookcase, and I could see Sophie struggling not to laugh at just how much my cat was sulking.

“I did. Because I wanted him to feel safe. He’d been left outside in the cold for days, I wanted him to have a nice, warm bed for once, like you do every night.”

“I do not. I have a nice, warm, couch.”

“Only because you decided to play fetch with my toes at 2am one time too many,” I protested.

“Did he sleep on the bed with you?” she asked, and the level of hurt in her voice was so ridiculous I wasn’t sure if I should be heartbroken or burst out laughing.

“No. He slept on the floor.” Well, that wasn’t completely true. But I wasn’t exactly lying to Bee, Sprinkles hadn’t slept on the bed. Bee’s tail flickered once, and I wondered if maybe she was starting to forgive me.

“When is he going away?”

“I don’t know Bee. His owner died. He has nowhere to take care of him, so we’re going to handle that for a little while. Are you ok with that?”

“Absolutely not at all.”

I sighed. “Come on, Bee. Sprinkles wanted me to let you know he said thank you for letting him stay in your home for a while.”

“The dog can say what he wants. I don’t like him, and I don’t want him here.”

“Well Bee, we all have to put up with things we don’t like sometimes. Come on, I’ll give you another piece of sushi if you move on out of there, ok?”

The promise of her favourite treat placated Bee enough that she allowed herself to move to the kitchen.

“I’m not coming to the office today,” Bee announced as I was getting the sushi out of the fridge.

“You absolutely are.”

“No. I need to protect my territory.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bee, you’re coming to work today. You don’t need to protect your territory. Sprinkles knows this is your place. And I’m not giving you sushi if you’re going to be difficult.”

“Fine,” my cat muttered. I really, really hoped Bee would never get tired of sushi.

When we got to the vet clinic Karen told me I had a free half hour to start off the day. I thanked her, asked her how she was feeling after her fall (she was fine), and rushed out of the office to get to talk to Chief Gary before I had to start seeing patients.

I found him just leaving the police station, and walking towards his old Crown Victoria. It wasn’t decorated in Willow Bay Police decals, but you could still tell it was a cop car from a mile away.

“Chief Gary!” I called out, jogging towards him and waving my arms.

“Angela!” he greeted me with a smile. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. I just wanted to chat to you about Andrea Dottory.”

Chief Gary’s smile fell. “Of course. It’s so incredibly sad. It took a while, but I finally tracked down her closest living relative, a niece in Seattle.”

“Oh, well I’m glad she had someone, at least.” Chief Gary made an unscrutable sound in his throat, but I didn’t have time to ask what he meant by it.

“I just wanted you to know, I found Sprinkles last night out behind the diner. I don’t know if he’s important to your investigation or not, but he seems pretty shaken up. I was wondering if you’d mind if I took care of him for a while? Until we can find him a suitable home?”

“Of course. Thanks, Angela. You’re so good with animals, you always were. His face clouded over with pain.

“You know, one of those times when I first saw you after the accident, I found you in your room, telling your pet hamsters what had happened.”

“I did have a pretty active imagination back then,” I said, laughing it off, although the memory of my parents dying still did bring a tinge of sadness to my heart.

“So yes, I’m glad to know Sprinkles is safe, you can definitely take care of him.”

“So… was it murder, like everyone is saying?” I asked in a conspiratorial whisper. Chief Gary sighed.

“Yes. It’s murder. It seems as if someone hit her in the back of the head to make it look like she just fell and hit her head on the pavement. They might have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for the flecks of a metal crowbar the medical examiner found lodged in her skull.”

“Wow,” I muttered. “Two murders in two months here. That’s unheard of!”

“I know. I’m not looking forward to going through another murder investigation,” Chief Gary couldn’t help but mutter, and I gave him a sympathetic look. I knew he really wasn’t a fan of his newfound fame. “Now, you girls aren’t going to go around trying to find the murderer this time, are you?”

“No, no, of course not,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to make sure you knew Sprinkles was ok, and to let you know I’d take care of him until we can find him a suitable owner.” Of course, if Sprinkles led us straight to the murderer, that wasn’t my fault. And seeing as I was the only person in town who could do it, there was no way Chief Gary could find out the information from Sprinkles himself. So that was totally fine.

“Good. Because I know we caught Zoe Wright thanks to you last time, but you were almost killed. I don’t want that happening again.”

“It won’t, Chief. I promise.”

Chief Gary smiled at me. “Thanks, Angela. I just don’t want to have to worry about you too much.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Chief. Now I’ll let you get back to work, I have an angry cat with an infection who needs to be seen, anyway.”

The day passed relatively uneventfully, and when the three of us were home I caught Charlotte up on the fact that it turned out to have been a murder after all, having told Sophie earlier in the day at the clinic.

“I can’t believe it! And so soon after Nyman’s murder. This is insane. Who could have done this?”

I looked toward Sprinkles, who was lying down in the corner with his face in between his paws, getting stared down by Bee from her spot on top of the bookcase.

“I was thinking of maybe trying to ask him again tonight,” I said. “After all, it’s important. There is a murderer out there, and Sprinkles might know who it is.”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah. I agree. He’s such a little sweetie though, it’s so sad to think about what he’s gone through.”

It was funny, most of the town, it turned out, liked Sprinkles more than his owner. A few people in the clinic who found out I was taking care of him mentioned what a tragedy it was that he lost his owner, but nothing about the tragedy of a woman losing her life to a murderer who was out on the loose. Although, to be fair, that list bit was still just idle town gossip; I was fairly certain there were only a handful of people who actually knew it was murder.

I brought Sprinkles over a bowl of food, and put Bee’s dinner on the other side of the room, along with half a sushi roll as a bribe.

I sat next to Sprinkles as he ate his food. Most dogs disliked humans being nearby when they ate, but Sprinkles didn’t seem to mind at all. When he was finished, I patted him as he lay back down on the ground.

“Hey Sprinkles,” I told him, gently stroking his soft fur. I spoke softly, knowing how he reacted the night before to this kind of questioning. “Are you up for answering a few questions? It’s important.”

“If it’s important, I’ll try,” Sprinkles told me. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” I told him, smiling. “What can you tell me about when Andrea was… hurt?”

Sprinkles suddenly began to shake violently.

“No. No, no. No. I can’t. I can’t. I don’t know. I don’t remember. I can’t.”

“Ok, ok,” I told him, patting him again. “It’s ok, you don’t have to say anything. It’s ok.”

“I’m sorry,” Sprinkles told me, looking up at me with his big brown eyes. “I can’t. I can’t remember. All I remember is fear.”

“Ok, that’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” I told him with a smile. I looked up to where Sophie and Charlotte were working on dinner and shook my head. Sophie came over and started patting Sprinkles as well.

“You’re a good boy, aren’t you,” she asked him, earning a hiss from Bee on the other side of the room.

“You don’t even like Sophie,” I shot at my cat.

“Well that doesn’t mean she’s allowed to like dogs,” Bee replied, and I rolled my eyes.

“Angela?” Sprinkles asked, and I looked over at him. At least now he was calling me by my first name instead of ‘ma’am’.

“Yes, Sprinkles?”

“Would it be alright if I went to bed now? I’m still quite tired.”

“Of course!” I told him, and led him back into my room, settled him in on his temporary bed – I made a mental note to go to the pet shop a few towns over and get him a bed on my next day off – and told him to sleep tight as I closed the door behind him.

“He’s a little sweetie, isn’t he?” Sophie asked me as I came back into the kitchen and washed my hands before grabbing plates for the homemade veggie supreme pizza she and Charlotte had just made.

“I’m a little sweetie,” Bee complained as she jumped onto the counter, walking along the ledge.

“You are not in any way a little sweetie,” I replied, picking her up off the counter and setting her back down on the ground. “For one thing, you’ve known for years you’re not allowed up on the counter.”

“I’m acting out because I’m being replaced.”

“You are not being replaced. I love you, Bee. But I need to take care of Sprinkles too for a little while. Plus, Sprinkles might have information to help us catch a murderer. It’s important that he feel comfortable here.”

I turned to Sophie and Charlotte.

“I asked him, but he’s too scared. He says he doesn’t remember anything, only being scared. My guess is he’s repressed whatever happened.”

“Awwww, poor thing,” Sophie muttered. “Do you think he’ll remember with time?”

I shrugged. “I hope so. It certainly would help. I also think possibly telling him that whoever killed his owner has been arrested might help.”

“Oh no,” Charlotte said. “Absolutely not. The last time you decided to hunt down a murderer yourself you almost died.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t?” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “And we did catch the murderer. Zoe Wright’s going to be spending the next 30 years in jail thanks to us.”

“Was it really worth it though? What if this time we do die? What then?”

“Oh my God Charlotte, you’re such a baby,” Sophie chimed in.

“Of course you agree with her,” Charlotte said, crossing her arms. “You’re both insane.”

“Fine, well, you don’t have to have anything to do with it,” I told her.

“That’s ridiculous. If you’re doing this, I’m in too. One of us has to be smart enough to keep you from killing yourselves.”

“Well, we’re doing it. For Sprinkles,” Sophie said. “I don’t want that poor dog being so scared anymore. If we can use him to find the killer, great. If we can’t, well, we’ll find the killer on our own and hopefully that will help him heal. He’s too sweet a dog to go through this.”

Charlotte sighed. “I hate both of you.”

I supposed that meant she was in!

Chapter 9

The three of us were so busy the next couple of days that it wasn’t until Sunday, when the vet clinic was closed and Charlotte had no classes, that we really managed to start trying to figure out who could have killed Andrea Dottory.

It was a beautiful, sunny mid-June day, so we decided to settle ourselves on the deck overlooking the backyard. Sophie made fresh squeezed apple juice while I worked on some French toast and maple syrup while Charlotte attended to Bee and our canine visitor.

“You can come outside, Bee, but you have to promise you’re not going to catch any birds, mice, or any other living creatures. If you do, no more sushi, EVER.”

“Fine,” Bee muttered, and I opened the balcony door. She found a nice spot on the deck and curled up into a little ball, letting the rays of sunshine heat up her body.

Sprinkles, on the other hand, was almost afraid of the backyard. I supposed after his time in the woods, the backyard must have been a bit intimidating.

“You don’t have to come out,” I told him gently. “You can stay in the house if you feel more comfortable.”

“I think I might, thank you,” he replied, and walked back towards my bedroom.

“Such a sweetie,” Sophie said, a smile on her face as she piled maple syrup on her pancakes, then covered them with whipped cream and fresh strawberries I’d bought at the farmers market the previous afternoon.

“I’m like eighty percent sure you’re going to get diabetes from eating that,” Charlotte observed.

“Whatever, science will have cured that by the time I get it,” Sophie replied, and Charlotte just shook her head, looking exasperated.

I grabbed a couple slices of French toast myself, added the toppings, and dug in. It was a heavenly treat after what had been a pretty stressful week. So stressful that we hadn’t even really had an opportunity to complain about Lisa’s new boyfriend together; everything was about Sprinkles and the murder.

I took a long sip of the fresh squeezed orange juice and let the sun’s rays warm and heal my bones. No wonder Bee loved doing this so much. It felt like I was a character in a video game who’d just hit the magic potion to re-energize them completely. A couple squirrels were calling to each other in the trees, and birds sang in the woods around our property. This was truly the kind of Sunday morning I loved.

When we’d finally eaten all the French toast, Charlotte pulled out a notebook and pen, and opened it to the first page.

“Ok. Since we’re apparently doing this, I figured we should start off with a list of people who should be mad at Andrea Dottory. Anyone who might have a reason to kill her. Then we can organize it by likelihood of wanting to murder the woman, and then we can see if any of those people have alibis.”

“Leave it to Charlotte to do everything by the book and super logically,” Sophie teased.

“Do you have a better idea?” Charlotte asked, and Sophie was forced to admit she didn’t.

“Good. Then we’re going with this. Who had a reason to hate Andrea?”

I closed my eyes for a second. Was “virtually everyone in town” a good answer?

“Antonia deLucca, for one,” Sophie replied. “She and Andrea were really good friends for ages, and then they had that falling out and pretty much hated each other for years.”

“That’s right,” I said, remembering back. “And it wasn’t like either one of them were prone to keeping things a secret, so it must have been something big between them to never tell anyone. Plus Antonia didn’t exactly look upset when she came to Bella’s and announced that Andrea had been murdered.”

“Good. Antonia is the first on the list. Who else?”

“What about Andrew Powers?” I asked.

“Ohhh good one, I forgot about him,” Charlotte said. Andrew had been a professional here in town, he ran a small bookkeeping business, and Lisa had actually used him once or twice to do some work for her. When Andrea was audited by the IRS she blamed him, and spread a rumour around town that he was stealing from his clients. The rumour had no legs at all, but Andrew famously had a meltdown in the middle of Bella’s Café one day when someone asked about it, then moved out of town the next day and was never seen again, although it had been strongly suggested that he simply moved to Portland. Definitely close enough to drive back and murder someone.

Once the list began, the names kept flowing.

“Betty MacMahon, Andrea started that rumour her bakery was poisoning people.”

“Patricia Wilson, she told everyone her son was a drug addict.”

“Carson Summers, too.”

“And Henry Wright.”

“Don’t forget Kelsey Kolakawa.”

“And Sophie,” I added.

“Wait what? Why should I hate her?”

“Remember when she told everyone your dad was a spy for the Japanese in World War 2?”

“Ohhhh yeah! And I had to tell everyone my dad wasn’t even alive in World War 2.” That had happened when we were still in elementary school

“See? So you should go on the list.”

“Oh come on, I didn’t kill her.”

“We only have your word for that,” I teased, sticking my tongue out at Sophie, who reached over and hit me on the arm.

“Owwwwww. See? Propensity for violence!”

“I’m not putting Sophie’s name down on the list,” Charlotte finally said. “Do you have any more useful names to add?”

Charlotte scribbled down the names as quickly as we could come up with them, and when we were running out of names to add to the list fifteen minutes later, Charlotte threw down her pen and sighed.

“Who knew one person could make so many enemies?” she asked. “It’s going to take us weeks to get through this list.”

“Yeah, that’s a ridiculous number of people to make enemies of,” I said, looking at the list. There had to be fifty names on there, at least.

“So now we figure out who had the most reason to kill Andrea,” Charlotte said, ripping out the piece of paper with the names on it and putting it on the table in front of us. She sat, poised, pen at the ready with another sheet.

“I think it’s Andrew Powers, by a mile,” I said, scanning through the list. “Some of the other stuff is possibly worse – like whatever happened between her and Antonia deLucca, but most of the worse stuff seemed to have happened a long time ago. Like when she told Caroline Prust her husband was cheating on her and it broke up their marriage. That was over ten years ago now. But Andrew Powers… that was only what? Six months ago? And she fully drove him out of town. Six months isn’t a long time to get over something that big, especially since it was his business and his livelihood.”

“I agree,” Sophie replied. “Powers first for sure. You weren’t at the café when he had his meltdown like I was. He was full on insane. Like, I legitimately thought he was going to have an aneurism or something.”

“Wow, this is off to a good start, we all agree on something for once!” Charlotte joked. “I think Andrew Powers should be at the top of the list as well.”

“And Antonia deLucca should be second,” I added. “I don’t know why she and Andrea hated each other so much, but it was obviously something big.”

“Good. Let’s focus on them for now. We don’t want to make our list of suspects too big to be manageable,” Charlotte said.

“Maybe if Andrea Dottory had been a little bit more likeable, we wouldn’t have to,” Sophie muttered. I couldn’t disagree with her there.

“So who’s going to do the online stalking thing to try and find out where Andrew Powers lives now?” I asked. “After all, if it turns out he moved to London, there’s not really any point in considering him a suspect, is there?”

“I’ll do it,” Charlotte said. “I’m going to be spending most of the day on my computer anyway, I have an essay to write for a class.”

“Good. I’ll see if I can wrangle an alibi out of Antonia deLucca,” Sophie said.

“And I guess I’ll go down to Betty’s for lunch and see if I can get any more gossip that can help us out,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. To be honest, I was pretty glad to have a job without a set goal. I was feeling a little bit tired, and getting to enjoy one of Betty’s BLTs for lunch while idly gossiping with Willow Bay residents had just the right amount of eating and lack of movement I was hoping for in my role today.

“So now we have a game plan! Good work, team!” Charlotte exclaimed, and Sophie and I burst into giggles. Sometimes my sister could be the lamest person ever.

Chapter 10

I spent most of the rest of the morning and the early afternoon lying on the hammock on the balcony, reading an old Agatha Christie novel. Charlotte went back inside to study, and I heard Sophie playing with Sprinkles in the living room with a chew toy she’d bought him from the grocery store the day before.

Around one, when my stomach started grumbling and I’d finished my book, I got up off the hammock and decided to head down to Betty’s. I said goodbye to the others and started walking down, since it was such a nice day and Main Street was only about 20 minutes away from our house.

When I got to the café, everything was bustling and crazy. Early on a Sunday afternoon, this was prime gossiping territory for the town. As I looked around for a spare table, catching Betty’s eye and waving at her, I suddenly noticed Austin Stark, Lisa’s boyfriend, sitting at one of the stools at the counter.

Great. Just great.

I tried to sneak off towards an empty table to my left, but just then Austin turned around and noticed me.

“Hi! Angela, right?” he asked, smiling and motioning for me to take a seat at the empty stool next to him. I supposed I had no choice anymore.

“Hi, Austin,” I replied, plastering a fake smile on my face. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Lisa was going to have lunch with me, but then she had a client ‘emergency’,” he said, doing air quotes around emergency, “and so she recommended I come here for lunch. The coffee’s ok, but the BLT left a lot to be desired.”

Ohhh that was it. It was one thing to vaguely insult my business and my food choices at dinner the other night. He’d also just insulted his girlfriend. Lisa was a professional; if there was an emergency with a client, it was important. I knew that. But to insult the greatest food known to man, one of Betty’s BLTs (which she always made for me with vegetarian bacon), well, that was pure blasphemy! There was no coming back from that. I had it on good authority from both Lisa and Charlotte that the regular meat version of the sandwich was just as good, if not better, than my vegetarian version.

“Betty, I’ll have one of your amazing BLTs and a coke please,” I told her over the counter.

“For you Angela, anything,” Betty told me with a wink.

“It must be you the problem,” I told Austin. “Betty’s BLTs are the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”

Austin laughed. “I thought you were a vegetarian.”

“Oh, I am. Betty makes mine specially with vegetarian bacon.”

“Well it’s no wonder you think this is the best food ever, when you’re not experiencing the greatness of meat.”

Ok, this wasn’t a discussion I wanted to have, at all. I changed the subject as quickly as possible.

“So are you heading back up to Portland tonight?” I asked casually.

“What? Me, no. I’ve actually been spending most of my time in Willow Bay with Lisa these days. She’s great. I’m glad I met her. Makes the drive up to work completely worth it.”

“I’m glad, you seem to make each other very happy,” I managed. Just then, Betty came and placed my sandwich and coke in front of me with a smile.

“Thanks, Betty,” I told her. “You make the best BLTs in the country.”

“Awww well thanks Angela,” she told me. “You’re just too kind.”

“Have you heard anything about Andrea Dottory’s death?” I asked. This was Willow Bay, you didn’t have to be subtle when you were fishing for information.

“Well,” Betty told me, lowering her voice, as if she hadn’t already said this to everyone else who came in today, “I heard that it’s another murder! Apparently someone disguised it to look like she just fell, when really they killed her!”

So much for Chief Gary keeping that one a secret. I gasped and pretended to look shocked.

“No way! Not another one! Do they have any idea who did it yet?”

Betty shook her head. “Not that I know. But apparently they called Antonia in the other day for questioning. You know how her and Andrea were. They haven’t spoken in years.”

“I know, but I don’t know the story behind that. Do you know what happened between them? I think it was before my time,” I asked.

“Oh sweetie, you know, I wish I knew the details. All I know is it had something to do with Andrea’s husband. It was just before he died, I remember that. He was in the hospital, and Antonia and Andrea had a shouting match outside the hospital in Portland one morning. Rose from the library saw it all, she said Andrea was screaming about Antonia ruining her life, and Antonia yelled back that Andrea did it all herself. Andrea’s husband died a few days later. So sad, he was a good man. Very quiet,” she continued, shaking her head sadly. Obviously the saying opposites attract existed for a reason; I supposed Andrea’s husband had to be the quiet type so that Andrea had someone to talk to all the time. I had a vague memory of her husband, I knew him when I was a child, but I think I was about 12 when he died. He had been older than Andrea, and if I remembered right he was in his late 50s when a heart attack put him in the hospital, and a second one a few weeks later killed him.

“So no one in town knows the details of what happened between them?”

“Nope,” Betty said, moving to the coffee machine to start on a cappuccino for another customer. “I know, strange, huh? That never happens in Willow Bay. But so it goes, those two managed to keep whatever it was a secret for years.”

“Wow,” I muttered under my breath. That was impressive. I thought keeping the fact that we were witches hidden was the biggest secret in Willow Bay. And I supposed it still was; it was just strange for there to be something else so big that everyone knew had happened but no one knew the details about.

“For what it’s worth, I could see Antonia killing Andrea. She told me a few times that she wanted to kill her, and once told me she kept her son’s old baseball bat just so she could bash Andrea’s head in one day.”

“That’s… very specific,” I said, my eyes widening. I couldn’t help but remember that Chief Gary had told me Andrea’s head had been bashed in, as if to imitate a fall onto the concrete.

Betty nodded grimly. “I hope it wasn’t her. Antonia is nothing if not entertaining. Plus she’s such a pillar of the community. I don’t like to think of murders being committed by someone who’s from here.”

I nodded. “I know what you mean. At least Zoe Wright wasn’t from Willow Bay. It’s different when it’s an outsider. Although any murder here is never good.”

“Exactly.”

Just then the bell above the entrance door rang its sweet song.

“Oh,” Bella said, lowering her voice. “That’s Kelly Dottory, Andrea’s niece. The one from Seattle. I remember her from when she was a child here.”

“That’s the niece of the woman who was killed?” Austin asked next to me, and I nodded. He turned around completely unsubtly to stare, as I was sure half the café was doing, but I waited until she got up to the counter to discreetly have a look myself.

Kelly Dottory was dressed like she’d just stepped out of a magazine. In fact, I was pretty sure I’d seen Katy Perry wearing that exact same skin-tight red dress on the cover of a gossip magazine while standing in line at the grocery store a couple weeks earlier. She was tall, at least five foot eight, and looked like she subsisted off entirely off lettuce and celery. I was fairly certain that if she turned side on she would disappear; she was so thin she might actually be two-dimensional. Her blonde hair, with perfect highlights, was tousled into soft waves and her makeup was layered on so thick I wasn’t sure I was looking at her actual face. She rapped her nails along the counter as she ordered.

“I’ll have a latte, skim milk,” she told Betty. “To go.”

“Of course, Kelly,” Betty told her, smiling. “It’s been way too long! I remember you when you were just a little girl, visiting your aunt here. I’m so sorry about her death.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kelly replied with a bored expression on her face. Apparently it was too much to ask to even pretend that she was broken up about her aunt’s death. “Listen, I was told there’s a dog, and I wanna see how cute it is, because, like, I think having a dog would be super cool, and I can’t find it at the pound. Do you know where it is?”

Excuse me? Getting a dog because you think it “would be super cool” was the worst reason ever to get a dog. On top of that, Kelly Dottory just gave off that impression of not caring about anyone except herself. I wasn’t going to give Sprinkles to just anyone; whoever was going to take care of him in the future was going to be a good owner, not just inherit him.

Betty looked over at me, but before she could say anything, I spoke up. “I’m the one taking care of Sprinkles right now,” I told Kelly.

“Oh?” she said, looking me up and down with a sneer. “And who might you be?”

“Angela Martin,” I replied. “I run the vet clinic in town.”

“Well I want to see the dog. When can I come get him?”

“I’m afraid dogs aren’t something you can just inherit,” I told her. “I’m taking care of Sprinkles for now, and when things settle down a little bit I’ll be looking to find him a permanent home. You’re more than welcome to come by and meet him one day, but it’s going to be at least a little while before I send him off to a new family.”

“But I want my dog now,” Kelly whined, stamping one of her feet. I stared at her. Was she really having a tantrum like some kind of two year old? It was hard to tell under all the makeup but she seemed to be about my age. This wasn’t how people in their mid-20s acted.

“He’s not your dog,” I said firmly. And the more I got to see of her, the more I was certain he never would be.

“I’m going to go tell the police Chief. I have to go see him today anyway, it’s the only reason I came up to this hick town before the funeral.”

“Fine. Chief Gary gave me permission to take care of Sprinkles until a suitable home was found,” I replied, and I found myself folding my arms in front of me in satisfaction. I did not like this girl one bit.

“Ugh. I can’t wait to get my aunt’s money and leave this town forever. An ugly bitch like you would never make it in the city.”

Before I had a chance to reply, Austin stood up next to me.

“Alright, young lady, I think that’s quite enough out of you,” he told her as Betty slammed the latte down in front of her, having heard the whole conversation. “I think it’s about time you leave,” he told her, grabbing her forcefully by the elbow and leading her towards the door. The way he grabbed her was a little bit more forceful than I liked, and I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“Get off me,” Kelly whined, pulling away from Austin. She grabbed her latte and her purse, and turned off in a huff, muttering about idiots in this town as she left the room.

“Well, that girl’s a piece of work,” Austin said as he sat back down at the counter.

“Thanks,” I forced myself to mutter.

“She always was a spoiled one,” Betty told us, rolling her eyes. “Even when she was little.”

“You knew her?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” Betty nodded sagely. “Not well, of course. Her parents, Andrea’s brother and his wife, lived in Portland. But from time to time they would come here when she was little. Although over the course of the years they seemed to lose touch, I think the last time I saw Kelly she would have been eleven or twelve. And of course, her father passed on when she was eighteen or so.

I felt a sudden pang of sympathy for Kelly. She might have been vain and arrogant, but no one deserved to lose a parent so young.

Betty continued. “Her mother was always very high maintenance. It looks like she passed that down to her daughter, although while her father made a very good living, apparently he had no life insurance. And Rose Gelder’s daughter works at the bank in Portland where Kelly does her shopping. Apparently she’s racked up a lot of credit card debt,” she added in a hushed whisper. “For her, it’s really a godsend that she inherits her aunt’s money.”

“But wait, Andrea wouldn’t have been that well off, would she?” I asked. It wasn’t that she couldn’t have made any money, but Andrea Dottory owned a late 90s Toyota that made Charlotte’s car look healthy and new, and I’d never seen her wear any clothes that seemed like they’d been made after 1980.

“Oh, don’t let Andrea’s frugality fool you. The woman was great with money. She wasn’t rich, by any stretch of the imagination, but she invested every cent she had rather than spend it on herself. She liked investing, she treated it like a job. She didn’t necessarily care about having the money, she enjoyed the satisfaction of being able to make her numbers go up.” Betty sighed and stared off into the distance. “If she was born in another era, I think she would have been a much happier woman.”

I couldn’t help but ask myself if Kelly Dottory was the kind of woman who would kill for money. After all, she could have easily driven down to Willow Bay and then gone back to Seattle. It was only a few hours along I-5 between the two cities. Still, taking someone out with a crowbar seemed like an especially brutal way to kill someone. I wasn’t sure if that waif of a woman had it in her. But money, I reminded myself, made people do funny things.

I thanked Betty, said goodbye to Austin, and headed back home. We had another name to add to our already long list of suspects.

Chapter 11

The first thing I did when I left Betty’s was head back down to the police station. The more time passed between my interaction with Kelly, the angrier I got about it.

How dare she just demand that she get to take Sprinkles? How dare she call us a hick town? How dare she look at me like I was that far beneath her?

No, I already knew, I was never going to give Sprinkles to a woman like that. She was the type of person who only cared about herself. And I was absolutely going to make sure that I didn’t have to.

I walked into the police station, but Chief Gary’s door was closed. I asked the receptionist, Casey, if he was in, and she said he was, but that he was in a meeting and if I waited maybe twenty minutes he could see me then. I agreed, and thanked her. Maybe giving myself a little bit of time to cool off wasn’t a bad idea, anyway.

As I turned to sit in one of the waiting area chairs, I saw Jason Black already occupying one of them.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, sitting in a chair two down from him.

“What, no hello? How are you doing Jason? Thanks again for saving my life, Jason?” he teased, a smile on his face. Damn it, why did his smile have to be so good looking?

“I already thanked you for saving my life,” I replied.

“You do realize I’m not a murderer, right?” he asked. “I’m not just sitting here getting ready to confess.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I’m a reporter, remember? I’m writing a story about Andrea Dottory’s murder, since it’s a little bit more important than the news that the post office is repainting the front of the building before the summer rush, or that Betty MacMahon is adding cheesecake to her menu for the summer.”

“Oh man, cheesecake? That’s amazing. That one’s probably worth a headline.”

Jason laughed. “You should probably stick to healing animals. What are you doing here, anyway? You have way less of a reason than I do.”

“I have to see Chief Gary about Andrea’s dog.”

“Of course you are. Are you secretly trying to solve this case as well?” Jason’s brown eyes twinkled as he said it, and I felt a tickle in my stomach. Ugh. Why was my body always trying to betray me?

“I am not,” I replied indignantly. “I’m just making sure that stuck-up niece of Andrea’s doesn’t get to take Sprinkles until I can find him a good home.”

“Her stuck up niece?”

“Kelly. Believe me, when you see her, you’ll know.”

“I haven’t had the pleasure yet.”

“Neither have I,” I replied darkly. “I’ve met her, but it wasn’t a pleasure.”

Jason burst out laughing. “Now I want to. Although, I’m pretty sure you’d say that about me, too.”

“To be fair, I did think you were a murderer when I first met you.”

“And now?” Jason asked, his eyes twinkling once more.

“Now I just find you infuriating.”

“Infuriatingly awesome, I think you mean.”

I opened my mouth to send out a retort, but before I got the chance to the receptionist told me I could go in and see Chief Gary now.

“If it was anyone but you I’d complain that I was here first,” Jason told me as I got up.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was actually flirting with me! But there was no way. For one thing, I couldn’t stand Jason. Or so I kept telling myself. But the more I spent time with him after he saved my life, the more he seemed like a self confident guy, rather than an arrogant killer.

No, I reminded myself. No, he did save my life, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t arrogant. The way he sat there, with that cocky grin, the way his eyes twinkled when he teased me. Nope, there would definitely never be anything between Jason and I. I’d make sure of that.

I made my way into Chief Gary’s office. Chief Gary was the stereotypical looking small town police chief. With greying hair and a bit of a gut, he still had an honest, kind face. The kind of guy you want to have in charge of a small town’s police department. He’d never had the motivation to move to a bigger town, and to be honest, Willow Bay was pretty much perfect for him. He was a good policeman, and a good chief. We needed him here, and I was glad to have him. Right now, however, he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“What can I help you with, Angela?” he asked, smiling. Chief Gary had been the first responder on the scene of the accident that had killed my parents, and ever since that day he’d always been extra nice to me. A little bit protective, even.

“Hey Chief, I just saw Kelly Dottory, and I wanted you to know that she might mention that she wants Sprinkles when she comes in here to see you, but I really, really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Chief Gary laughed.

“I know. I know Kelly. Don’t worry about that. She’s coming in to see me in an hour, I’ll make sure she knows Sprinkles is your responsibility. Boy did I not expect that at all. Here I was thinking you were coming in here to see what kind of information about the murder you could pump out of me again.”

“Well since I’m here…” I started with a hopeful smile.

“Absolutely not, young lady. Besides, you promised me you weren’t looking into this murder.”

“I’m not,” I added hastily. “I was only kidding.” I threw a smile on my face and got up to leave. “Thanks, Chief,” I told him. “I know Sprinkles is a lot better off with me until we find him the right new owner.”

“You got it, kiddo,” Chief Gary replied, and I left the office with a small wave and a smile on my face. Sprinkles was in my care until I found someone suitable to care for him. No matter what Kelly Dottory wanted.

I was so happy I even gave Jason Black a wave as I left the police station, feeling his eyes follow me with an amused look as I practically skipped out the door. It was time to go home; I was going to get to tell Charlotte and Sophie everything I’d found out about the new potential murderer!

Chapter 12

After I got back and told Sophie and Charlotte what I’d found out, Sophie asked me if Sprinkles would want to go for a walk.

“I was just thinking, he’s been inside all the time since he came back, except to go do his business,” she was telling me. “It might be good for him to go out for a little bit.”

“I agree,” I told her. “I’ll ask him, if we promise not to go near Andrea’s house, he might be ok with it.”

I found Sprinkles lying down on the floor in my room, which he’d taken as a safe haven from Bee’s judgemental eyes. She still hadn’t quite forgiven me for bringing a dog into the house.

“Hey Sprinkles,” I told him, sitting down next to him. “Sophie and I were thinking, it might be good for you if you went for a short walk around the place. Would you like to do that? We won’t go anywhere near where Andrea was hurt. It’ll just be for a short while, and Sophie and I will take good care of you.”

Sprinkles thought about it for a moment.

“Ok,” he finally replied. “That would be nice, thank you. Although, could we please make it a short walk? I’m still a little bit nervous whenever I go outside.”

“Of course,” I told him. “Fifteen, twenty minutes at most. How does that sound?”

Sprinkles got up, and as he went to the door, I might have been mistaken but it seemed as if he had a little bit more energy about him. I nodded to Sophie, who grinned and went to grab her running shoes.

I took Sprinkle’s leash – which I’d run through the washing machine after he came home with us – and clipped him up to it. His tail even began to wag slightly as I reached for the door handle.

“Why don’t we turn right at the end of the driveway and head towards Main Street?” I asked Sprinkles. “We’ll turn back in about ten minutes or so. Would that be alright?”

“Ok, that’s good, thank you,” Sprinkles replied as Sophie came out of the house as well.

“I want to hold him!” she begged, and I handed her the leash as Sophie came out and gave him a pat.

“You’re really brave coming out with us today,” she told Sprinkles as she stood up and we started our walk. Sophie and I had a silent agreement not to talk about the murder; after all, with Sprinkles right there we didn’t want to talk so seemingly callously about the death of his owner. But Charlotte had added Kelly Dottory’s name to the list of suspects.

“It’s a gorgeous day out,” Sophie announced as Sprinkles sniffed a bush like his life depended on it.

“Yeah, if the weather this spring is an indication of things to come, this summer is going to be amazing,” I replied.

“I’m thinking of taking up paddleboarding,” Sophie told me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Really?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, but you have the balance and co-ordination of a drunk elephant,” I told her.

“Oh that’s so not fair.”

“Isn’t it? Because the other day I saw you fall over trying to put on a sock.”

“It got hooked on my little toe,” Sophie protested, but I saw the blush crawl up her face.

“Fine. I’ll come with you to some lessons if you want.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I not only think it’s a good idea, and it sounds like fun, but this way we’ll be able to record each other when we fall into the ocean.”

Sophie grinned. “Deal.”

Just then we saw Annalise come up the street with her dog, a little white schnauzer poodle cross named Strawberry, who barked in greeting as soon as he saw Sprinkles.

Sprinkles sprung forward on his leash; he obviously knew and liked Strawberry. Sophie ran forward with Sprinkles until the two dogs were close enough to say hi, and they started sniffing each other’s butts while their tails wagged wildly.

“Hey, Annalise,” I greeted her. “How are things?” Annalise was a customer at the vet clinic, and I saw her around town enough to say hi.

“Good, thanks Angela. How about you?”

“Yeah, not too bad. Taking care of poor Sprinkles here.”

“Oh the poor thing. Did you hear, Antonia deLucca’s being taken in for questioning at the police station. They spoke to her a few days ago, but they want to talk to her again. Apparently it looks like they’re coming close to arresting her for the murder.”

“Really?” I asked, looking surprised. We did have Antonia as one of the top suspects on our list, but I wanted to give the impression that this was shocking news.

“Yes. The police stopped by the café and were looking for her. She was doing her grocery shopping, and so they said they’d wait for her to go home and then bring her in when she’d packed them all away.”

“Wow, they must have some evidence against her then,” Sophie chimed in.

“Exactly. Apparently there was some feud between her and Andrea, something to do with Andrea’s husband. I’m not sure exactly what. Anyway, I’d better be on my way. Take care, girls!”

We said goodbye to Annalise, who went on her way. Sophie and I looked at each other. We definitely needed to find out what the police knew that led to them questioning Antonia deLucca twice about the murder. Or even better, we needed to be able to get into the room to hear the interrogation.

A few minutes later we turned back and headed home.

“Thank you for my walk,” Sprinkles told Sophie and I as we headed home. “The outside isn’t quite as scary as I remembered, and I liked seeing Strawberry.”

“No problem at all,” I replied, and passed the sentiment on to Sophie.

“Anytime, little buddy,” she told him, giving him a scratch between the ears. I had a feeling Sprinkles was growing on my best friend.

We let Sprinkles back into the house, but Sophie and I both stayed outside.

“I know you’re thinking what I’m thinking. We totally need to find out what the cops know and why they think Antonia was the one who murdered Andrea.”

I nodded. “Yup. Definitely.”

“But how are we going to get in there?” Sophie asked. “It’s not like we can barge in and just look around without anyone seeing us.”

I smiled coyly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

Sophie’s eyes widened as she realized what I meant. “Are you serious?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

“I am so in,” Sophie replied, as I glanced towards the house.

“Should we ask Charlotte? She might feel left out if she knew we were going to do this without telling her.”

“Nah. She’s got a bunch of work to do. Besides, all she’d do is complain about how we’re mis-using magic, and trespassing, and stuff.”

Sophie did have a point. We jumped into her car and parked out behind the vet clinic, so to any passers-by it would look like we were just doing some work on our day off. I unlocked the door and we went inside.

“Ok, so even though this spell should make us both invisible, it doesn’t make us like, ghosts. We can still touch things, obviously. So try not to run into anything, and for the love of God, don’t run into anyone.”

“Fine,” Sophie replied. “Can you just say the spell already?”

I focused on Sophie as hard as I could. “Nonvideroa,” I said in a low voice, pointing towards Sophie, and I felt the familiar jolt of energy shooting through me, pulsating through my whole body until it reached my fingertips and was expelled out of me. Sophie suddenly disappeared in front of me, and I smiled.

“Awesome,” I heard her voice say. “Now do you!”

I repeated the same process, focusing on myself, and a minute later I looked down, but couldn’t see anything else.

“Ok, now we have to go to the police station. Let’s go out the back door so no one sees the front door magically opening and closing,” I replied.

“Sure,” Sophie said.

“Wait, hold on!” I realized. “We should hang on to each other. After all, if we get separated, we can’t exactly call out to one another. If we do get split up for whatever reason, let’s meet back here in an hour.”

“Ok,” Sophie replied. “Where are you?”

“I’m over here.”

“Yeah but where’s your arm?”

A minute later we’d blindly managed to stumble into one another and held hands as we left the vet’s office. I looked around carefully to make sure there was no one around as I locked the door, then Sophie and I headed down the street towards the police station.

“How are we going to get in?” Sophie whispered as we got near. “It’s not like we can just walk over and open the door.”

“Shoot, I don’t know,” I replied. “Wait for someone to come in or leave?”

“Hold on, I got an idea,” Sophie whispered. A moment later, she dragged me right next to the front door of the police station. We waited there with bated breath for what felt like twenty minutes, but in reality was more like 45 seconds, when suddenly the front door opened. Taylor, Sophie’s boyfriend and a police officer here in Willow Bay, stood in the doorway and looked around for a minute, confused. Sophie dragged me into the police station behind him, both of us making sure not to brush past him by accident.

We stood in the corner and watched as Taylor eventually shrugged his shoulders and went back into the station. Sophie must have texted him to come out to the front of the station. That girl could be a genius sometimes, when she wanted to be.

Behind the receptionist’s desk was an open space for all the regular officers to work from. Taylor moved past us and sat down at one of the tables, and there was one other officer on duty as well. At the back of the room was Chief Gary’s office. The door was open, but there was no sign of him.

Sophie dragged me to the right, past the desks and past Chief Gary’s office. It seemed she knew the lay of the land here in the police station, much better than I did. I let her take me out to an area behind the offices. There was no one here, but there was a holding cell on the right and two doors on the left that I assumed led to interrogation rooms. I could tell from where she was that Sophie was peering into the interrogation rooms.

“She’s not here yet,” Sophie finally whispered.

“That must be where Chief Gary’s gone,” I replied.

“Let’s go look in his office, see what info he has,” Sophie said. I paused for a second. It felt like such a huge invasion of privacy to go wandering into Chief Gary’s office and looking at his things, but at the same time I also knew we had to find out as much as we could about the case. This was our chance.

“Ok,” I whispered. “But be careful! No one can know we’re here.”

Sophie and I raced back towards the office. Luckily, we didn’t see anyone, and in a minute we were in! Success!

Chief Gary’s desk was covered in papers. Seriously, I thought I was messy. I had nothing on Chief Gary. Sophie carefully shifted some papers around, looking for information, while I kept a lookout to make sure Chief Gary wasn’t on his way.

“Do you have to move the papers so much?” I asked at one point. “If anyone looks over here they’re going to know something’s up, and then we’re screwed.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not exactly the world’s most organized desk,” Sophie replied. “Hold up. There’s something here.”

“What is it?”

“An old arrest record. Wow! Antonia deLucca was arrested in 1989!”

“What for?”

“Ummm…” Sophie started, obviously scanning the old police report. Suddenly, I saw Chief Gary come in through the front door with Antonia.

“Shoot, they’re here.”

“Hold on,” Sophie hissed, and a second later I heard the snap of her phone camera. She had obviously just taken a picture of the report. I had to hand it to Sophie, she could think quickly on her feet sometimes.

“Come on,” I told Sophie. I kind of pulled her towards the door, and her hip hit the edge of the table. A whole bunch of papers went sliding off it and onto the floor.

“Shoot,” I muttered, looking around quickly. How on earth was this going to be explained away? I saw Chief Gary looking towards his office. He turned to tell Antonia to stay there, and that was when I saw my chance. I yanked Sophie towards me as I lunged towards the closed window and opened it. As I looked back, Chief Gary was turning and coming this way.

“Damn, why’d I leave my window open. Rebecca?” he called out to the receptionist when he saw what had happened to all his papers. “I have to interview Antonia here, do you mind picking these papers up and putting them back on my desk? I’ll organize them again later.”

Yeah, right. Those papers had never been organized in the first place.

We slipped out of Chief Gary’s office and followed him as he brought Antonia down to the area at the back and opened the door to one of the interview rooms. I sucked in my stomach as best I could as I slipped past Chief Gary, not daring to breathe.

Antonia sat down on a hard metal chair at the table, which was also made of metal, and bolted to the floor. This seemed excessive; after all, this was Willow Bay, not central Los Angeles. The walls were brick, painted in a blue-ish gray that I can only assume the police department got at a huge discount, because there was no reason anything should ever be painted in that color. It was fading and chipping away in parts; obviously it had been a long time since the room had been painted.

Sophie and I stood against the far wall as Chief Gary sat down in the chair across from Antonia and pulled out a notepad. What I wouldn’t give to see what he had written about this case! Still, I knew that literally reading over his shoulder was too big a risk. Way too big a risk.

Antonia had the look of someone who was absolutely not going to talk. With her head held high, she crossed her arms across her chest and glared at Chief Gary.

“So what was so important that you had to interrupt an old woman while she did her grocery shopping?” Antonia asked. She was spiteful and rude, but if I wasn’t mistaken, I did hear a little tinge of fear in her voice.

“I’m sorry, Antonia,” Chief Gary told her. “But we’ve come across some new information, and so I have some more questions for you.”

He waited for a minute, scribbling in his notepad, as if waiting for Antonia to give something up.

“Well?” she finally asked. I didn’t like Antonia deLucca, but I had to smile to myself. The old lady was the biggest gossip in town, especially with Andrea gone, but she was pretty good at keeping her mouth shut when the cops were around.

“We’ve come across an old police report from Las Vegas, from 1989.”

“Oh. Well, it took you long enough.”

“Would you like to explain what happened?”

“Not especially.” Antonia was making a show of looking bored, but I hadn’t missed that her eyes had widened slightly when Chief Gary mentioned the police report. She wasn’t expecting that.

“I have the police’s side of things. Would you like to tell me yours?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well in that case,” Chief Gary sighed, “I have to ask you for an alibi for the morning Andrea Dottory was murdered. Where were you that day at 11:30am?”

“Picking on an old woman like this. I’m in my seventies! It’s indecent,” she muttered.

“Antonia, I need an alibi, please.”

She stayed silent for so long that I wasn’t sure she was going to answer Chief Gary at all. Finally, she spoke.

“I was at Betty’s,” Antonia said. “Enjoying a cup of tea. Which is what I should be doing now. You can check with Betty. Now, if I’m not under arrest, I’m leaving.”

“Fine. But please, stay in town.”

Antonia laughed a shrill laugh as she left the room and I instinctively looked over at where Sophie was, even though we couldn’t see each other. If Antonia really was at Betty’s, then she had a rock solid alibi for the time of the murder.

We slipped back out through the door, and five minutes later were back in the empty vet clinic.

“Videroa,” I said, focusing on Sophie, and in an instant she reappeared in front of me. She looked at her hands, amazed, as I did the same for myself.

“That was so cool. We need to do that again sometime. Remind me to yell at my mom for not giving me the witch gene.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I haven’t done that sort of thing in a long, long time. It was pretty fun, except for that part where you knocked over all of Chief Gary’s papers.”

“That was your fault, for knocking me into the desk in the first place,” Sophie argued.

“It was partly my fault. I think we need to figure out a better system in the future.”

“Yeah, but that went pretty well for a first attempt, I think.”

“Definitely. Now let’s get back home and show Charlotte this police report!”

Chapter 13

“You did what, exactly?” Charlotte asked when we told her all about our little adventure at the police station.

“Relax, it wasn’t like it was dangerous or anything.”

“You broke into a police station, looked through the police chief’s office, and then spied on an interrogation. There are like, at least six laws you broke today.”

“Yeah, but no one would believe you if you went and tattled anyway,” I replied. “This is why we don’t tell you we’re doing things.”

“Oh, yeah, because it’s so inconvenient to have one person in the group who doesn’t believe in blatantly breaking a ton of laws.”

“Fine,” Sophie said with a grin. “I guess we just won’t tell you what we found out, seeing as you think it was so wrong that we got the info.”

Charlotte’s face fell. “Well, now that it’s done, I want to know what you got. I just don’t think you should have done it in the first place,” she added, crossing her arms.

Sophie passed her the phone. We’d looked at the photo of the police report from 1989 while we were still at the vet clinic. And it was juicy.

“Wow,” Charlotte said breathlessly as she read through it. “Is this real?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I mean, as far as we know. It was on Chief Gary’s desk.” Charlotte shot me a dirty look, obviously still not agreeing with what we did, then went back to the report.

“So if I’m reading this right, it looks like back in ’89 they were all in Vegas, along with Antonia’s husband, and a fight broke out and Antonia was arrested for breaking Andrea’s husband’s nose?”

“That’s definitely what it says,” Sophie replied. “Can you believe it?”

“And it looks like what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas,” I replied. “I’d never, ever heard about that at all. And I mean, this is Willow Bay! It must have been about something important if everyone kept it a secret for so long.”

“We should ask my mom,” Sophie said. “She was around then, if anything was mentioned she might remember it.”

“Your mom will want to know how we got the information though,” Charlotte argued. “And obviously we can’t tell her. That information just cannot leave this room at all.”

“We just have to tell her we heard something happened between them in the late 80s and ask if she knows anything about it. We’re the only people other than Chief Gary who know about that police report, so she won’t know why we care.”

“Ok. Definitely. But you said she has an alibi?”

“Apparently when Andrea Dottory was killed Antonia was at Betty’s,” Sophie told her.

“She must have left, found the crime scene and then come back,” I mused. “She wasn’t there when I got there, but she came in a little bit after to tell everyone about the body.”

“Well if she was there, then there was no way she could have killed Andrea,” Charlotte said. “So we have to find out from Betty if her alibi is real. And while you guys were out breaking the law, I did some cyber stalking and got some info about Andrew Powers.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked with interest.

“He lives in Portland, so he could have easily come back to Willow Bay to take out Andrea Dottory. Plus, I called his work and found out that he wasn’t actually at work that day, he had decided to take a personal day.”

Charlotte looked at us proudly, and I had to admit, I was impressed.

“How did you manage that, Char?” I asked.

“I called up the office where he’s working and asked the receptionist if she could remind me what time my appointment with him was, for my records. When I told her the date, she told me it couldn’t have been that day as he’d taken a personal day, and I apologized and told her I must have gotten myself confused and that I’d call back.”

“Wow,” Sophie said, looking at Charlotte appraisingly. “I didn’t think you actually had the ability to lie in you.”

Charlotte blushed. The funny thing was, even though she absolutely hated lying, Charlotte was actually very, very good at it.

“So how do we figure out how to tell if Andrew Powers was in Willow Bay a few days ago?” I asked. The silence I received in response made it obvious neither one of the other two had any idea yet either.

Suddenly, Sprinkles walked into the room, looking warily at Bee, but luckily my cat had fallen asleep on top of her scratcher, where the sunshine poured in. He settled down next to Sophie and let her pat him.

“Are you talking about Andrea?” Sprinkles asked.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Have you found out who hurt her yet?” he asked, his big eyes looking sadly at me.

I had to shake my head. “No. No, I don’t know. The police think it was Antonia deLucca.

Sprinkles let out a low growl, the first time I’d ever heard him do that. He was normally so polite.

“Antonia is not a good person,” Sprinkles told us. Suddenly it hit me. Sprinkles was too young to have been alive back when Andrea and Antonia were friends, but maybe he knew what had happened between them!

“Why not, Sprinkles?” I asked. “Why isn’t Antonia a good person?”

“Antonia made Andrea’s daughter go away.”

I looked up at the other two in shock.

“You can look at us like that, but we don’t know what he just said,” Sophie said.

“Oops,” I replied sheepishly, then quickly caught them up on the conversation.

“Hey Sprinkles,” Sophie asked him kindly. “Where did Antonia make Andrea’s daughter go away to?”

Could it possibly be true? Had Antonia deLucca killed Andrea’s daughter? I didn’t know she even had a daughter.

“To London,” Sprinkles replied.

“Wait, like, England?” I asked, surprised. That wasn’t exactly the answer I’d been expecting.

“Yes. England. Janice got mad at Andrea when Antonia told her the truth, and she moved to England.”

“But what did Antonia tell Janice to make her so mad?”

“She told her the truth: that her parents weren’t her real parents, that they stole her.”

My mouth dropped open at that revelation.

“Stole her?” I noticed Charlotte and Sophie looking both confused and expectant. They could only understand my half of the conversation, but my God was it ever something!

“Andrea told me the whole story one day, after Antonia visited her. She was crying. When she and her husband were young they found out they couldn’t have children. One day Andrea saw a girl at the mall when they were on holiday in Arizona. Her mom was hitting her. She told the woman to stop, and the woman told her to mind her own business. Andrea followed them. The mom kept hitting the poor little girl, and eventually Andrea decided the girl would have a better life with them. She took the little girl, admitted what she’d done to her husband, and they immediately drove back to Willow Bay with her. They told everyone that they had adopted her from a destitute cousin, and no one questioned it. Only Antonia knew the truth, because she was Andrea’s best friend. Andrea never told me why Antonia told her daughter the truth. But it was a long time ago. And Janice said she was leaving, and never coming back. And Andrea never saw her again, and it broke her heart. Andrea’s husband died about two months later.”

My mouth was completely agape when Sprinkles finished telling me this story. I passed it on to Charlotte and Sophie, and their reactions mirrored mine.

“I wonder if Antonia deciding to tell the truth had anything to do with what happened in Las Vegas?” Charlotte mused.

“Maybe. Or maybe Las Vegas was after Antonia told Janice,” Sophie offered, but Charlotte shook her head.

“No way. There’s no way Andrea would go to Vegas with Antonia after her daughter left. Definitely not. She would have hated Antonia then.” Charlotte had a good point.

“You know what? This is a problem that needs to be tackled with the help of some white cheddar popcorn,” I announced, getting up and making my way to the kitchen to grab the bag I’d bought the other day.

I was thankful that Sprinkles was finally starting to open up to us. Maybe with his help we’d have an easier time breaking this case open. But oh man, was that ever a bombshell of a revelation.

“But wait,” I realized after a minute. “I mean, this doesn’t mean Antonia had any reason to kill Andrea. In fact, it’s more the other way around. This gives Andrea a motive to kill Antonia, which she obviously didn’t do.”

“That’s true,” Charlotte said, slowly. “It’s not like Antonia would have been likely to grow a conscience and decide to do away with her former best friend over this, randomly, now, years and years after Janice left anyway.”

“Oh hell,” Sophie spat, crossing her arms. “I was really hoping that would have been a huge breakthrough for us.”

I sighed. To be honest, I’d been hoping for that as well. The deeper we delved, the more frustrating this case got.

Chapter 14

We continued to chat about the case for two hours, but didn’t come any closer to any solutions. Eventually, we decided to give up for now and see if a good night’s sleep gave any of us any better ideas. Besides, Monday was the day of Andrea’s funeral, and Sprinkles had asked us if we could go. We said yes, obviously. Besides, who knew? Maybe we’d find out something that we didn’t realize was important while we were there.

All dressed in black, we put a black bandana on Sprinkles and loaded him up into Sophie’s car with the three of us. We arrived at the church about twenty minutes before the ceremony was about to start, and as soon as we arrived everyone started fussing over Sprinkles.

“Oh the poor dear.”

“It’s so good of you to bring him here to say goodbye.”

“I hope you find him a good home, there’s no one better in town to take care of him right now.”

“What a sweet little dog.”

As everyone fawned over him, Sophie, who had been holding his leash, eventually got separated from Charlotte and I, and we began to wander through the throngs of people.

“I wonder how many people are here to pay their respects, and how many simply want to gossip?” Charlotte asked, looking around. It seemed as if the whole town had shown up. Andrea Dottory had never really been liked around town; she started too many spiteful rumours about people to really have any friends. And I was sure her popularity levels would drop even further if she’d heard what Sprinkles had told us last night. I figured Charlotte was right, most of the people here must have shown up just to be able to tell their friends that they were at the murdered woman’s funeral.

I sighed, watching from afar as Sprinkles got all the attention in the world. His tail wagged low and slowly as Sophie led him towards the entrance to the church. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind a dog being in there for the service.

Suddenly, I looked over and saw a familiar face coming over.

“Fancy seeing you two here,” Jason Black greeted Charlotte and I with that cocky little grin of his.

“Hi, Jason,” Charlotte said.

“So I guess you’re here covering the funeral?” I asked him. “Still more interesting than the post office’s new paint job?”

“Sure is!” he replied.

“That’s a little bit… macabre, don’t you think?”

“Well, I’m a journalist. Not all news is good news. Also, the post office paint job has been pushed back to being the third biggest news story this week!”

“Behind Betty adding cheesecake to the menu this summer?” I asked.

“Wait, Betty’s making cheesecake this summer?” Charlotte interrupted.

“Apparently,” I replied.

“Score!”

“No, I forgot about that story,” Jason grinned. “I’m also writing a story about catfishing people online. Although the editor told me he might not run it, he likes my enthusiasm for actually coming up with stories. But actually I have a source inside the police station that tells me they suspect a gang is using Willow Bay as a hideout to move drugs.”

“Seriously?”

Jason nodded. “Yes, catfishing is an important issue these days,” he said with a straight face. I could have punched him.

“Not that, no one cares about catfishing. The drug thing!”

Jason grinned. “Don’t tell anyone, it’s supposed to be secret until the new paper comes out on Wednesday. But yeah.”

“Just FYI, a “source inside the police station” in Willow Bay is like four people,” I told him. “Your sources may appreciate a broader description if you expect them to give you more info in the future.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like Jason’s face began to fall for just a split second before he laughed.

“Well, it looks like I still have a lot to learn about small towns. Good call, Angie, thanks,” he replied, winking at me. I felt a blush crawl up my face and wanted to curl up into a hole and die. Why did my face always have to betray me?

“Why is this gang using Willow Bay though? And is it pot they’re moving?”

Jason shook his head. “No, harder stuff. Although, presumably, they’re probably also moving some pot, since it’s so easy to get in Washington now. But from what I understand it’s mainly cocaine. They’re getting it from California, moving it up here to store it, and then shipping it out east somehow, without anyone noticing. I don’t know why they picked Willow Bay, honestly. It’s kind of far from the interstate, it’s small, but then again maybe that was the point, to get pretty rural. Who knows. Maybe my source will let me know when they catch them.”

I smiled slightly. “Who knew Willow Bay had such interesting things to write about after all? I’m starting to think it’s you.”

“I’m starting to think it’s me, too, honestly,” Jason laughed. “But seriously, not really. In case you were thinking of actually blaming that on me.”

This time it was my turn to laugh, despite myself. Fine, he was a little bit funny.

“Hey, Angela, I think the service is about to start,” Charlotte suddenly said, dragging me back towards the church. Was it bad that I’d completely forgotten my sister was even there? Oops.

We made our way to the entrance of the Willow Bay Church. Inside, I found Sophie standing against the wall, towards the front of the church, with Sprinkles next to her. Charlotte and I made our way over just as the pastor made his way to the front of the room to begin the service.

Sprinkles spent the whole service sitting at attention, his eyes focused on the pastor. I had to remind myself that even if Andrea Dottory wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, she had loved Sprinkles and taken good care of him, and he had loved her back. This must have been hard for him.

At one point I took a moment to look around the packed church. The only family Andrea had was her niece, sitting in the second row. She couldn’t have possibly looked more bored.

But then again, that matched everyone else in the room pretty well. I was pretty sure one guy in his late teens at the back of the church was actually playing Pokemon Go. Oh dear, buddy. There’s a time and a place, and this was neither.

When the ceremony was over, I took Sprinkles over to the casket for a minute while Charlotte and Sophie waited outside. I gave him a last moment alone with his human, who had raised and loved him, and then we went back outside. I saw Charlotte and Sophie and waved at them, but before I managed to walk over to them my path was blocked my Kelly Dottory.

I looked up at her in surprise. Her arms were crossed, she was obviously mad.

“Ummm, hi?” I tried.

“This is the dog, right?” Kelly said to me, pointing at Sprinkles. He lowered his ears when he heard the tone of Kelly’s voice, and I instinctively put a protective arm on him.

“This is Andrea’s dog, Sprinkles, that I’m taking care of, yes,” I replied cooly.

“He is cute. Really adorable. You need to give him to me, he’s mine.”

“We’ve been over this,” I explained calmly, secretly glad that I had witnesses. “I’m taking care of Sprinkles until I can find him a responsible home.”

“I am responsible,” Kelly whined, stamping her foot on the ground. It absolutely did not look adorable in a woman in her mid-20s.

“Well, I’m not taking applications yet,” I said, trying to placate her. I noticed people staring; she was causing a scene. Charlotte and Sophie moved back towards me.

“I don’t care! I’m Andrea’s heir, I get all her stuff, and I want a doggie to play with.”

“You can’t have him,” I told her firmly. Suddenly, with a quickness I didn’t think she had in her, Kelly reached forward and grabbed the leash. She pulled, and I yanked it back away from her, hard, making sure not to hurt Sprinkles.

When she opened her hands, Kelly let out a shriek. Her hands were red and raw where I’d pulled the leash away, I’d inadvertently given her rope burn. I hadn’t done it on purpose, but I also certainly wasn’t sad about it. How dare this woman come here and try to take Sprinkles by force?

“I’m done. We’re going home,” I said, turning around. Sprinkles began to follow me when suddenly I felt something grab my hair.

“No! You can’t do that! You BITCH!” Kelly screamed as she pulled my hair back. I yelled, off balance, and falling to the ground. Suddenly, I heard the sickening thud of bone on bone, and Kelly released my hair.

I was dazed for a split second until I realized what had happened. Looking up, Kelly was holding her mouth, screaming as blood poured out of the wound. Sophie stood between the two of us, a bit of blood on her fist.

“You don’t come near Angela again, you hear me?” Sophie told her. “Or Sprinkles. Or any of us.”

Had what I thought happened seriously just happened?

It certainly looked like it had. Sophie always had a temper, but damn. To actually punch a girl in the face, even if she had grabbed my hair and was pulling me down to the ground, that was hard! Even for Sophie!

“What’s going on here?” suddenly came a familiar, booming voice. I looked to where it came from and saw Chief Gary’s form making his way over.

“She punched me in the face,” Kelly sobbed, her voice muffled as she hid her face in her hands, nodding at Sophie.

“Is that true, Sophie?” Chief Gary asked, and she held out her hands.

“Yes, but only because she deserved it.”

“That’s not actually an excuse, you know. Officer Shaw, please arrest Sophie and take her in to the station.”

“What?” I cried out. “You can’t do that!”

“I’m sorry Angela, but I have to.”

I looked over at Taylor, who was awkwardly walking towards his girlfriend.

“It’s fine, it’s just a misunderstanding,” Sophie said to him, holding out her hands. I knew Taylor wouldn’t arrest Sophie if she put up a fight, and Sophie must have known that as well. Her capitulating was just her trying to save her boyfriend’s job. “Besides, I like the handcuffs,” I heard her whisper to Taylor, whose face went beet red. Even I had to grin.

“Excuse me, Chief Gary,” I heard a voice say. It was Jason.

“Yes, Jason?” Chief Gary replied, visibly annoyed. “I don’t have any comment right now, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, no, not at all. I just wanted to tell you, I took video of the whole thing. If you have a look, you’ll see that Sophie here was actually acting in defense of a third party, Angela, who was attacked first.”

Chief Gary looked suspiciously over at the phone Jason was handing him, then motioned for Taylor to wait a moment while he watched the video.

“Why isn’t it obvious? I’m here bleeding and she’s not! She attacked me!” Kelly cried, and the murmur of the crowd around us showed they disagreed.

“Only because you attacked me first,” I shot back.

“I did not!”

“Well there’s video of it, isn’t there?”

Chief Gary was intently looking at the video Jason had shot. I heard my shout, then the punch, then Kelly’s screams. The video suddenly stopped, and it seemed like every single person in earshot was solely focused on Chief Gary.

“The video makes it clear who the aggressor was. Shaw, uncuff Ms. Mashimoto please,” he ordered. “I’m sorry Sophie.”

“No problem,” Sophie replied casually. I knew this was far from the first time she’d ever gotten into trouble.

“As for you, Miss Dottory, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you were overcome with grief and made a bad decision.”

“Why aren’t you arresting her?” Kelly whined.

“You’re lucky I’m not arresting you,” Chief Gary shot back. “Angela here didn’t deserve to be attacked for taking care of a dog that’s in her care, and she may still choose to press charges.”

Kelly’s protests turned into no more than a whimper.

“Now, I suggest that everyone move on,” Chief Gary announced in a booming voice. Slowly the crowd that had gathered began to disperse, as the residents of Willow Bay muttered among themselves. We were absolutely going to be the talk of the town for the next day or so, no doubt about it.

“Son, I’m going to email myself this video from your phone,” Chief Gary told Jason.

“Sure thing, Chief,” Jason replied, winking at me. Chief Gary noticed it, and frowned, moving his focus to the small screen of Jason’s iPhone.

“Right. Angela, please come and see me sometime in the next few days if you want to press charges,” Chief Gary told me, but I could tell from the expression on his face and the weariness that just exuded off him that it was the last thing he wanted to deal with. Especially with the murder and the suspicion of gangs in town.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I told Chief Gary, with a smile. “I’m fine, I think we can just let it go.”

“Alright, thanks for letting me know so quickly, Angela,” Chief Gary replied, but I knew he was secretly thanking me for making that decision. I nodded, and a minute later he left.

“Seems like I’m always getting you guys out of trouble,” Jason said, a glimmer in his eye. I scowled at him.

“We were doing fine without you.”

“Really?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “If your best friend being taken away in handcuffs is your idea of ‘doing fine’, I’d hate to see what a bad day looks like.”

“That’d be me being taken away in handcuffs,” I joked, and earned a punch in the arm from Sophie for that one.

“That’s not funny.”

“I dunno, you didn’t seem to mind the handcuffs too much, at least not with Taylor putting them on you.”

Even Sophie couldn’t hide the blush that time, and I grinned.

“Anyway, thank you Jason,” Sophie told him. “Despite Angela’s claims to the contrary, I do appreciate you keeping me out of jail, and an assault charge.”

“Anything for a friend of Angie’s,” Jason replied.

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that,” I muttered, but really, it was only half-heartedly. To be honest, I was glad that Jason had stepped forward and stopped Sophie from being arrested.

“How come you videoed that, anyway?” I asked.

“I’m a journalist. Just because I live in Willow Bay doesn’t mean I shouldn’t expect interesting things to happen here or there. This one’s going on the paper’s Facebook page.”

“Wow, that’s more work than anyone’s put into the local paper since, well, forever,” I had to admit. Jason was nothing if not motivated.

“Yeah, well, it turns out there isn’t that much to do in Willow Bay. There’s only so much investigative journalism you can do about the post office getting a re-paint. The lady at the hardware store kindly told me exactly what shade of red they ordered. It’s the same as the last one.”

I snorted with laughter. I actually felt kind of sorry for Jason; coming from New York City to Willow Bay had to be a change.

“If you want to be really investigative, find out exactly what flavour cheesecake Betty’s making for the summer,” I offered. “That’s what the people really want.”

“Wait, Betty’s making cheesecake this summer?” Sophie asked.

“Why is that what everyone’s most excited about?” Jason asked. “I tell people about drug smuggling and they ask about the cheesecake.”

“Haven’t you tried Betty’s cakes?” I asked.

“Not really,” Jason replied, shrugging. “I haven’t exactly been here that long.”

“Well, the two of you should go get some one day,” Sophie broke in, and I gave her a look that I hoped would make her wither into the ground. If ever there was a reason to break the “no magic in front of normal humans” rule, putting a spell on her to make her stop talking right now was definitely up there.

Jason grinned. “Maybe one day, hey Angie?”

“Yeah, one day,” I mumbled, the blush crawling up my face once more. What the hell, Sophie? She was supposed to be my best friend.

“Anyway, I gotta run. Lots of investigative journalism to be done.” With a wink at me and a wave at Sophie and Charlotte, Jason was gone. And maybe, just maybe I couldn’t help myself from looking at his butt as he walked off. His cute, perky, perfectly formed butt.

Stop it, Angela, I scolded myself. Just, stop.

“You’re supposed to be my best friend,” I said to Sophie, glaring.

“One day you’ll realize that was the best thing I could have done for you,” Sophie replied, laughing. “I think I proved I was your best friend by saving you from that Kardashian wannabe anyway.”

“Yeah, thanks for that,” I told her, grinning.

“No problem, she deserved it. It would have fully been worth going to jail for.”

“Well, regardless, I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Me too, really. Though I’d get to see a lot of Taylor,” Sophie added with a grin, and I rolled my eyes.

“Well, that was enough adventure for me for one day,” Charlotte said. “Let’s go home.”

I hadn’t even noticed that Sprinkles was so tired he’d lay down at my feet and was now fast asleep.

“I think that’s a good idea,” I replied with a smile, looking down at the sweet little dog.

Chapter 15

“I’m telling you, I think she did it,” Sophie said adamantly when we were driving to the vet clinic the next day.

“Who did what?” Bee asked sleepily from her spot on my lap.

“Who killed Andrea Dottory,” I answered.

“Oh, easy. Everyone,” Bee answered, and I laughed. “I mean, I don’t disagree with you, Sophie,” I told my best friend. Sophie was now convinced that Kelly Dottory had killed her aunt for the money. “She obviously has a problem with impulse control, and she has an awesome motive. I just think that we should go check out Antonia’s alibi first. Then if it turns out she couldn’t have possibly committed the murder, we can look more closely at Kelly.”

“Fine,” Sophie replied. “We’ll go see Betty at lunch. But I’m telling you, that Kelly girl is the type that could kill, easily.”

I spent the morning diagnosing a dog with an infected tooth, scheduling the emergency removal, prescribing steroids for another dog who had summer allergies and getting puked on by a little kitten who hadn’t quite figured out how his digestive system was supposed to work yet. Finally, at 12:30, I put the “back in an hour” sign on the door, along with my cell number in case of emergencies, changed out of my scrubs, and Sophie and I went down to Betty’s for lunch while Karen went off to do some errands.

Luckily, there were two stools at the counter still available, and Sophie and I made a beeline for them. The counter was prime real estate for having a chat with Betty.

“Hi girls!” Betty greeted us. “How are you doing?”

“Good thanks, Betty,” I replied. “How about you?”

“Oh business has been booming! I’ve been rushed off my feet. All this talk about murder, I feel like this café is basically the town equivalent of the water cooler.”

I smiled. “Don’t say that too loudly, soon they’ll start suspecting you of murdering people just to bring in customers.”

Betty gave me a motherly glance that said she both disapproved of my comment, but also kind of found it funny. I was pretty sure I’d made the same joke when Tony Nyman had been killed, but luckily Betty didn’t point that out. “So what can I get for you girls?”

“A veggie BLT and a slice of apple pie, please,” I said. Lowering my voice, I added “A little birdie told me you’re adding cheesecake to the menu for the summer. Can I ask how much longer we have to wait before we get to enjoy it?”

Betty wagged the wooden spoon she was holding at me with a smile on her face.

“Someone’s been talking! Maybe I’ll be the one with some gossip to tell the others soon,” Betty teased, and I felt my face going red.

“Absolutely you will!” Sophie chimed in. “It’s only a matter of time before those two get together!”

“Oh stop it,” I scolded Sophie. “That is absolutely not in a million years going to happen.”

“Well I’m not going to lie, I care more about the answer to Angela’s cheesecake question than her love life,” Sophie replied, and we both looked at Betty expectantly, who sighed.

“Fine. You girls win. Come back a week from Friday. Strawberry, and chocolate pecan are the two flavours.”

Sophie and I looked at each other, eyes gleaming, barely able to contain our excitement. I was so going to gain like 20 pounds this summer, and it was going to be delicious.

Sophie ordered a club sandwich, then we settled in while Betty went to take the orders from a large group of Japanese tourists who had arrived and taken one of the corner tables.

“I’m going to be all over that chocolate pecan cheesecake,” Sophie told me, rubbing her hands together.

“Shh, keep your voice down,” I scolded. “No one else is supposed to know about that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, I wouldn’t want to get your boyfriend into trouble.”

I rolled my eyes while Sophie laughed at me.

“Oh no!” I said, keeping my eyes rolled. “I rolled my eyes at you so many times now they’re stuck! I guess my eyes are going to be like this forever. Thanks Sophie!”

This time it was her turn to roll her eyes. “You are the lamest person I have ever met, I don’t even know why I’m friends with you.”

Our bonding moment was interrupted by Bella coming back with our plates of food. I took the opportunity to ask her about Antonia.

“So I heard Antonia got taken in for questioning by the cops a second time,” I started as I picked up a fry and started munching on it. Betty leaned her arms on the counter.

“Yes, it’s unbelievable. I don’t think she could have done it. In fact, I know she couldn’t have.”

“Really? Why’s that?” Sophie asked. I couldn’t help but notice the gleam in her eye; Sophie was desperate to clear Antonia’s name so we could focus on Kelly.

“Well the police came in the other day and asked me about Antonia’s whereabouts the day of the murder. And you know, she was here! I remember it clearly, because she came in at around 10 and started telling everyone that she had it under good authority that the city was actually buying their paint to re-paint the post office from a box store in Portland instead of from the local hardware store. And I have tea with Patricia Wilson every week, and her nephew works at the hardware store, and he told her about the big order they got for the paint. So I told Antonia she was mistaken. She didn’t take too kindly to that and stormed off. I didn’t think much more of it until she came back an hour later an announced that Andrea had been killed.”

“So Antonia was definitely here when Andrea was killed. So she couldn’t have done it.”

“That’s what I told the police. Exactly.”

Betty went off to help other customers while Sophie and I ate our food. I smiled at Sophie, who was now free to explore the idea that Kelly was the murderer as much as she wanted. After all, the police’s prime suspect had been eliminated from the suspect pool.

Betty mentioning Jason reminded me of something he had said the other day, however, and I had suddenly gotten an idea of how I could figure out how exactly Andrew Powers had spent his day off. By tomorrow, I was hoping I would have either eliminated another major suspect, or confirmed that he was in Willow Bay. If I was lucky, that was.

Chapter 16

As soon as I got home that afternoon after work, I went into my bedroom to my desk where I kept my laptop. I created a new user in Chrome and made a fake gmail address. Then, I went to a stock photo site and started browsing pictures of girls who looked both provocative, but still pretty cute.

I ended up settling on a picture of a girl that looked a bit like a selfie taken in a park. The sun kissed her hair as she posed for the photo. The revealing top meant a bit of her cleavage was visible, and she was doing a duck face to the camera. Perfect for the reason I wanted it.

I smiled as I downloaded the picture, then opened up Facebook.

My fingers hovered over the keys for a minute. Was this really a good idea? I mean, it wasn’t like I was going to be doing this for any bad reason, I just wanted to see if there were any clues as to what Andrew Powers had really been up to the day of Andrea’s murder.

The rationalization helped steel my resolve, and a few minutes later I had a fake profile made. Maria Stevens lived in Portland, was twenty three years old, liked rock bands and cheesy movies. I liked a bunch of random pages, friended a bunch of random people Facebook recommended for Sophie when I chose her old high school, and twenty minutes later I had a few friends who had accepted my request (mainly male) and a pretty legitimate looking Facebook account.

I smiled to myself just a little bit. I felt like a bit of a hacker mastermind. Hitting up the search bar, I typed in “Andrew Powers”. His profile was the second one down, and I clicked it. He didn’t really have much information publically available; just his profile picture and cover image. I clicked to add friend.

If I was lucky, Andrew would be a frequent user of his Facebook account, and I wouldn’t have too long to wait. It had actually been Jason telling me about the article he was writing about catfishing people online - pretending to be someone you’re not to get someone to enter into a relationship with you on the internet – that gave me this idea to check on Andrew Powers’ day.

I had no intention of getting into a relationship with him, of course. I just wanted to see if he’d posted anything about his personal day.

After making the friend request, I found myself getting too edgy just sitting at the computer. It seemed like every two seconds my eyes went up to the little friend icon at the top of the screen, desperately waiting for Andrew Powers to accept my friend request. I went out to the living room and started helping to chop up some vegetables for the enchiladas Sophie was cooking up for dinner.

“Hey! Angela! Are you even listening to me?”

“What’s that? Sorry,” I said, giving my sister a sheepish look as she waved her hand in front of my face. “I’m just a little bit distracted, I’ve got a plan to hopefully find out what Andrew Powers was doing the day of the murder.”

“Well it had better not involve any magic,” my sister scolded. “And it had certainly better not involve breaking any laws.”

“It definitely doesn’t involve magic. And I’m pretty sure it’s not illegal,” I added hastily. Was pretending to be someone you’re not online illegal? Surely not. Hopefully not.

“Well as I was saying, I think we should look at Sophie’s idea that the niece is behind all this. I don’t like that Kelly girl. I get the feeling she’s the type who would do anything for money, and who loses her temper quickly when she doesn’t get what she wants.”

“I agree,” I replied. “I think she definitely could have done it. Though I think Sophie’s extra pissed at her because she almost got Sophie arrested.”

“I think Sophie almost got Sophie arrested,” I muttered.

“Fine, next time I won’t step in to defend you,” Sophie said, crossing her arms. I held up my hands in surrender.

“Hey, I’m grateful for that, don’t get me wrong! I knew she wasn’t the nicest person, but I never actually expected her to grab my hair and try and throw me to the ground.”

“And all because you wouldn’t give her Sprinkles,” Sophie said, looking over to the dog who was nicely sitting on the floor, looking up at the counter in case gravity decided to work in his favour. She reached down and gave him a pat on the head. “We’re never going to let that mean lady take you, are we? No we’re not! No we’re not,” she said, ruffling his fur. I smiled to myself. Sophie was definitely getting attached to Sprinkles. He normally liked her, though for the moment I could practically see him drooling. Humans came second to the idea of food, even if it was just vegetables.

Two hours later we’d eaten dinner while watching a couple old episodes of 30 Rock, my favourite comedy when I was a teenager. It was still definitely funny! When we were finished I took our plates to the kitchen and gave Bee some attention. She was finally coming around to Sprinkles living in her house; she’d taken to simply ignoring him rather than being openly hostile, which I thought was an improvement.

“I’ll be in my room,” I announced. “Hopefully in a little bit I’ll be able to tell you exactly what Andrew Powers was doing on his day off.”

I sat down at my laptop, thinking that Nancy Drew would have had to get into a lot fewer dangerous situations if the internet had been invented when she was around.

I refreshed the screen and my heart leapt into my throat when I saw the little red ‘1’ symbol next to the friends icon. I held my breath as I pressed it, and sure enough: “Andrew Powers has accepted your friend request.”

I fistpumped the air in celebration. I was in!

Of course, I still had no idea whether or not his profile had anything useful on it, but this was a step forward! My secret detective work was actually working.

I clicked over to Andrew Powers’ profile. He was the type that shared videos of environmental causes, political memes and, luckily for me, pictures of what he was doing basically every single day.

I scrolled past a whole bunch of stuff – stopping to watch a video on how to make the most amazing frozen fruit pops for summer for a minute – until I got to the right day. I crossed my fingers as I scrolled down, and there! There it was!

“Andrew Powers added eight photos to the album ‘Family’”

I clicked on the first picture. It was Andrew’s mom, after a hip replacement according to the caption. I recognized the rooms; she was at the main hospital in Portland. His mom was smiling and doing a thumbs up for the camera while holding flowers. This must have been what Andrew had taken the personal day for. He went to visit his mom after her surgery.

Still, I thought to myself, these could have been taken in the afternoon. He could have come to Willow Bay, killed Andrea Dottory, then gone to visit his mom in the hospital. That would be ice cold if he did that.

I scrolled through the photos, hoping one of them would give me a clue. Then, bingo! The last photo was taken from the side, and showed the clock on the wall. 11:03. Seeing as the sun was shining through the room from the window, it was obviously taken at 11 in the morning, and there was no way to get from Portland to Willow Bay in under half an hour, short of teleporting. And Andrew Powers had lived in Willow Bay for so long that if he was a wizard Lisa would have both known about it, and told us about it.

I continued to stare at the picture. That right there, that was the picture that meant Andrew Powers couldn’t have killed Andrea Dottory.

Sophie was going to be thrilled; Kelly Dottory was now our number one suspect.

Chapter 17

When Sophie came bursting through the door a little while later, Sprinkles in tow, she couldn’t have sounded more excited.

“You guys!” she announced when she came back in. “You won’t believe this!”

“Me first,” I ordered. “I want to say my thing, it’s important.”

“Not nearly as important as mine… I can prove that Kelly Dottory was not only in Willow Bay the morning Andrea was murdered, but,” she said, pausing for a minute for emphasis, “I have proof she was in Andrea’s neighbourhood at the time of the murder.”

“Ok, yeah, that’s bigger than my thing,” I replied, my mouth dropping open. “How on earth did you manage to find that out?”

Sophie sauntered into the kitchen and grabbed a fresh strawberry from the pile sitting on the counter, taking off the end and popping it into her mouth.

“Because I’m awesome, that’s how.”

“As true as that is, I think Angela was asking for a more practical explanation,” Charlotte said.

“Fine.” I was walking Sprinkles back towards his old neighbourhood, though we didn’t actually go to his place. Anyway, I ran into Elise Reeve, you know, the girl with those two little Yorkies?”

I nodded. Elise Reeve was in her late 60s, retired from her job at the post office that she’d held for years and years. She spent her days now doing yoga and taking care of her Yorkshire Terriers, sometimes combining both. Apparently ‘doga’ is a thing, now. She lived on Oak Street, the street where Andrea’s body had been found, but around two hundred yards further down the street from where the body was found.

“So,” Sophie continued, “I started talking to her while the dogs were saying hi, you know. And I mentioned casually that I didn’t trust Kelly Dottory, and Elise told me that she actually saw her when she was taking her dogs for a walk that morning. She was walking up the street towards Andrea’s house!”

“Did she tell you what time it was?”

“Yeah, that’s the thing. She said she walks her dogs like clockwork; it was eleven o’clock. Right on the dot.”

“Half an hour before the murder,” I said quietly, almost to myself.

“So you see?” Sophie said triumphantly. “It was that slimy little thing. She thinks she’s so perfect, strutting around in her expensive clothes, pretending like Seattle is the biggest city and she’s so much better than us. But she was here the morning of the murder, and she was going to her aunt’s house half an hour before she was murdered.”

“Well, I have to say,” Charlotte said, “I’m pretty convinced. I try not to be too prejudiced over the fact that she attacked Angela at the funeral, but even being as impartial as I can, I can absolutely see Kelly Dottory being responsible for the murder, and the evidence is definitely pointing that way.”

Charlotte looked at me, waiting for my thoughts.

“I have to agree,” I said, slowly. “Everything points towards her. She has the best motive out of everyone we have left, too, now that Andrew Powers is definitely innocent.”

“Wait, what?” Sophie asked. I quickly caught her up on the events of the evening.

“So that settles it. It has to be Kelly!” Sophie announced, and I couldn’t help but notice a bit of glee in her voice. Not that I could blame her; in fact it was taking everything in my being not to be secretly pleased that all the evidence was pointing that way as well.

“Maybe that’s why Sprinkles is so nervous and scared when he’s around her, too,” I added.

“Yes!” Sophie interrupted. “We always assumed that he looked sad and submissive because of how annoying and loud she was being, what if it was because he was scared of her? Because he knew that she was the one who hurt Andrea.” Sophie had lowered her voice for that last part, and she looked around, but it seemed as if Sprinkles had gone to lie down somewhere by himself.

“Now what do we do?” Charlotte asked. “We can’t exactly go up to her tomorrow and be like ‘hey we know you killed your aunt’. All that’ll do is make her leave town as quickly as possible.”

“I vote we go and tell Chief Gary tomorrow what Sophie found out. That way, it’ll also just seem like we just had a little bit of a chat with a neighbour, as opposed to actively trying to find out who killed Andrea, and we’ll look like good citizens,” I said. After all, if we had just possibly solved a murder case, at the very least we should get a couple kudos from the authorities for it. “But I was thinking,” I continued, “if Elise saw Kelly, maybe someone else did too. Maybe they’re afraid to talk about it, because they don’t want to be the next ones hit over the head. I mean, sure, it’s an isolated part of town, but it’s not completely deserted. There’s four other houses on that street. Maybe someone else saw something.”

“Yeah but one of those houses is abandoned,” Charlotte chimed in. “Remember? The one across the street?”

The house across the street from Andrea’s had been abandoned since before I was born. I had never remembered anyone living there before. There were all kinds of stories about the house that I heard growing up, and why it was abandoned. One rumour was that a man lived there with his girlfriend in the early 80s, and when he proposed to her and she said no, he killed himself, and no one wanted to live in that house since. We’d also heard it had been a crack den, where the local addicts went to shoot up, until the state took over the property and had it boarded up, but didn’t do anything with it afterwards. I’d also heard that ghosts live there, that everyone who had lived at that property was cursed, that it belonged to a soldier who was killed in World War 2, and basically every single other story you could possibly imagine.

“Fine. So three houses then. Still, that’s three neighbors.”

“What about the cops? Don’t you think they would have done that like, first thing? If there was anything important there we would have seen it when we were in the police station.”

“Yeah,” I argued, “but what if someone was too scared to talk to the cops? What if they were afraid they’d be next? You know there’s things we tell each other that we would never, ever tell the cops.”

“Like how you used to smoke weed in high school?” Sophie asked with a grin.

“You say that like you totally didn’t join me,” I replied, rolling my eyes. Sophie and I actually had a secret spot in the woods behind our property back in high school that only we knew about. It was just a couple plants, enough to supply the two of us and no one else. It had always been far enough away from the house that we could plausibly deny it was ours, especially since at that point we lived with Lisa, and not in the bungalow.

“You guys never told me that!” Charlotte said, her eyes wide and her mouth stern with the disapproval only a 4.0 GPA student can give.

“That’s because we knew you both wouldn’t approve and wouldn’t want to join in,” Sophie replied.

“Plus we knew you would so tell Lisa if you knew,” I added.

“I would not,” Charlotte said, jutting out her chin.

“In fact, I wouldn’t put it past you to still tell her now,” Sophie continued, and I laughed.

“Oh you guys are ridiculous.

“We are not, but we are getting off topic,” I replied. “I think we should go talk to the other people on that street. If someone else saw Kelly near Andrea’s place, or better yet, go inside it, then we’d have even stronger evidence against Kelly.”

“But if she went inside her house, wouldn’t it be easier to kill her there than wait for her to go out in broad daylight?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, yeah, but Andrea used to walk Sprinkles at the exact same time every single day. Seriously, those old ladies had a more precise schedule than we do, and they were all retired. If Kelly was at her place when it was time to walk Sprinkles, then she would have had to go with her aunt.”

I could see Sophie and Charlotte thinking.

“Fine,” Charlotte finally said. “There’s nothing to lose by doing it, anyway.”

“For sure.”

“Good. Because I want to go out tonight.”

“Really? But it’s almost nine,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah, but it’s summer, so it’s still pretty much light out. And I want to settle this. I’m sure Kelly did it, I want us to have as much proof as possible when we go see Chief Gary. Who’s coming with me? Sprinkles, do you want to go for a walk?” I called out, and the dog came bounding out like he was fresh as a daisy.

“I can’t,” Sophie said. “Taylor’s coming to pick me up in about half an hour, we’re going to go catch a late movie at the theatre.”

“And I have to be up at 5 tomorrow, since I have my stupid early class,” Charlotte said. “So I’m pretty much going to go to bed now, like an old person.”

“Fine. You guys suck, I guess it’s just Sprinkles and me,” I said.

“Yes! I am totally up for another walk,” Sprinkles announced. “You’re so nice! I love walking!”

“Awesome. It’s just you and me, little guy. Are you ok if we go see Andrea’s neighbors? I need to ask them important things.”

“Yes, that’s fine. I’m getting better at going to where she lived. It’s not as sad anymore. It’s still sad though.”

“I know, little buddy. I’m sorry,” I told him, giving him a scratch behind the ears. “But it’s important, to help find the person who hurt Andrea. If we go out tonight, we might just be able to solve this case.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help,” Sprinkles said. “I just can’t remember. I just remember being scared.”

“It’s ok,” I told him. He’d still repressed the memory. Poor Sprinkles.

I grabbed his leash and he jumped at the door as we went out into the evening.

Chapter 18

The evenings in June were my favourite time of the year. As the summer solstice approached the nights were so long, even though it was bordering on nine o’clock there was still some light in the sky. The air began to cool, but the heat from the pavement still kept everything warm enough to be comfortable. A light, warm breeze swept over my skin and gently rustled the leaves of the trees as I walked down the street with Sprinkles towards Andrea’s house.

Yup, this was basically the perfect evening. I made a mental note to take dinner to the barbeque outside for tomorrow, some grilled zucchini boats and fresh fruit would make for an amazing dinner on the balcony tomorrow night.

“What are you trying to find out?” Sprinkles asked as we walked down the street.

“I’m looking for anyone that lives on the same street that Andrea did,” I told him. “I want to ask them questions about who they saw there that morning.”

I desperately wanted to ask Sprinkles if he remembered anything at all from that morning, but the poor thing was so obviously traumatized, the last thing I wanted to do was pressure him and make things worse. Besides, the way things were going, it looked like the three of us had solved the mystery without Sprinkles having to spell it out for us anyway.

This was all about the details.

From the smell of barbeque wafting up from a house down the street, it was obvious that I wasn’t the only person who decided to spend this gorgeous evening outside, which made me hopeful that I’d find at least one or two people on Andrea’s street who may have seen something.

Sprinkles and I walked towards his old street. Pine Road was a short, straight road that backed onto a forest that led to the road leading out of Willow Bay towards the highway for Portland. To access it from the east you had to go up Oak Street, where Andrea’s body was found. For access from the west, which is where Sprinkles and I came from, you had to go up Birch Road. Whoever came up with the street names in that part of Willow Bay wasn’t exactly the most creative type.

Pine Road had four houses on it: Andrea’s was on the side closest to Birch Street, with the abandoned house right across from it. There were two more houses on the Oak Street side. They were right by the intersection with Oak Street, around 200 yards from Andrea’s house. These were the houses where I held the most hope that someone might have seen something. After all, Elise still lived quite a ways from where Andrea’s body was found; if someone closer to her home was around they may have seen something even more important.

Sprinkles sauntered along next to me as we made our way up Birch Road towards Pine. In the distance I could see one of the edges of the old abandoned house.

When we finally got to Pine Road, Sprinkles began to sniff in front of Andrea’s old place. I stopped to let him do what he wanted; after all, this used to be his home.

“You ok, Sprinkles?” I asked him as he moved along the fence at about half a mile an hour.

“Yes, sorry, I was just trying to remember what life was like here.”

“Ok, take your time. We’re not in a rush Sprinkles, so you take all the time you need here.”

“Thank you, Angela,” he replied. I let the leash slack and gazed around the street. Pine Road was such a rural part of town, and by Willow Bay standards, that definitely meant something. A squirrel scampered across the road with a pinecone in his mouth, and I could hear a few robins whistling their songs in the trees in the forest on the other side of the road. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a couple deer popping out of the forest, it was just that kind of place.

Suddenly, I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye, like there was some dry lightning or something. But no, that was impossible. And if I wasn’t mistaken, the flash came from the abandoned creepy house across the street.

No, that had to be wrong. That place was abandoned. It had been abandoned for as long as I could remember. But as I stared hard at the boarded up windows, I couldn’t help but feel like I should go and have a look. My witch’s intuition was almost always correct. There was something weird about that house, and I had to go see what it was.

“Hey Sprinkles,”I asked him. “What do you know about the house across the street?”

“Andrea says it is a bad house. A very bad house.”

“Anything more specific than that?”

“No. Just that it’s a bad house.”

I nodded. “Ok. I want to go check it out for a minute, if you don’t mind.”

“Ok, but be careful. Andrea says it’s a bad house.”

Trepidation filled me as I got closer and closer to the ‘bad house’. Suddenly, I began to wonder if maybe this was a bad idea. What if the house was haunted after all? Or cursed? No, if it was either of those things Lisa would have mentioned it. Right?

I took a deep breath as I reached the picket fence at the front that had once been white, but had now long since fallen into disrepair. Covered in mould and lichen, it could now kindly be described as a mixture of beige and puke green.

Touching as little of the latch as possible, while thinking that maybe I should go to the doctor and make sure I got a tetanus shot, I pushed the door in the fence forward. It squeaked so loudly I knew it must have been years and years since anyone had oiled it. Sprinkles resisted coming in for a split second, but a light tug on the leash and he followed.

It felt like the light level had just dropped about four levels. It no longer felt like evening; now it was well and truly night time.

“What is wrong with you? You’re afraid of the dark or something?” I asked, muttering to myself. For goodness sake, I was twenty seven years old. My days of being afraid of the dark were supposed to be over.

My resolve steeling after my self-talk, I walked forward towards the house. As I reached the front steps, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do. All the windows were boarded up, and had been for years. Surely the front door was going to be locked. I supposed I could use the spell to unlock it; there were no occupied houses in view, and the street looked deserted.

It was upon that realization, that if anything happened I was well and truly on my own, that my heart really began to pound. As I got closer to the front door, I could tell Sprinkles next to me was scared as well. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

I was about to turn back and head home, wrap myself under a blanket and try to sleep without having nightmares when the front door began to open.

My mouth dropped open as the old oak door squeaked open, and I found myself standing face to face with Gareth Sims, owner of Boss the German Shepherd. He was holding a gun, and had it pointed towards me. I dropped Sprinkles’ leash in surprise, and as soon as the dog saw Gareth he let out a whimper like someone had hit him, and ran off as fast as he could.

“Gareth?” I asked, barely believing what I was seeing. Why was he in this house? Why did he have a gun?

“Angela. Please, come in,” he said. My mind whirled with a thousand thoughts. Was Sprinkles going to be ok? Poor thing had run off again. How could I contact Sophie? Did anyone know I was here? No. They just knew I’d gone for a walk towards Pine Street. Oh God, this man had a gun trailed on me and there was no one coming to save me.

My heart plummeted to the bottom of my stomach. I was definitely in trouble here. But still, I had no choice. After all, Gareth had a gun. I followed him into the house, which was dark. There were no lights on at the front. He nudged me towards the living room at the back of the house, however, and there the lights were on.

What I saw stopped me in my tracks. There was no furniture in the room at all, except for a cheap plastic chair in one corner. But in the middle of the room was what I immediately recognized from years of watching bad action movies as bricks of cocaine. Boss was sitting in the corner, and he growled at me, but one look from Gareth and he stopped and sat down.

Oh boy. This was not good. Suddenly, everything started to make sense. Sprinkles calling it a ‘bad house’. Andrea living right across the street.

“She found out about your drug den, didn’t she?” I ventured to ask, trying not to look at the gun Gareth was holding. He nodded, and put it in the back of his pants. Evidently he didn’t think I was much of a threat in here, especially not with Boss around. And as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Gareth was a strong, young guy. He could easily overpower me, not to mention the dog.

“Nosy old lady. We were so careful, too. For six months we’ve been here, and no one has been the wiser. There wasn’t a single person in town who’d even guessed that we were running drugs through here.”

I thought about Jason Black and what he said about his source in the police department.

“That’s not true,” I replied. “The cops know. They don’t know where you are, but they know you’re here.”

Gareth scoffed. “Well what good is knowing we’re around if they can’t find us? That’s the beauty of Willow Bay. Everyone said I was a moron for doing this, but it’s perfect. No one suspects a dumb little tourist village, so far from the interstates, to house a drug running operation. After all, it’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone, right? Someone would notice, right?”

I nodded. “How come no one has noticed, except for Andrea? I mean, this house is rural, but its’ not that rural. There are two other houses on the street that aren’t Andrea’s, and a few others on the nearby streets. If you’re on Birch, the quickest way downtown is to pass through Pine. Why hasn’t the extra traffic been noticed?”

Gareth smiled at me, a cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Obviously that would be too conspicuous. No, we’ve done much better than that. You might see a small hole behind Boss, that leads into the crawl space under the house. We’ve built a tunnel there that leads into the forest. All we have to do is park our trucks on the side of the road, move the goods to the other end of the tunnel and load them up. No one drives on the roads around here at 3am, it’s such a deserted part of the world. Plus our trucks can pull off far enough that they’re almost impossible to see from the road. That way no one knows we’re here.”

“How long did it take? Building the tunnel, I mean.” A part of me was genuinely curious, but to be honest, I really just wanted to keep Gareth talking. I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like anyone knew I was here to rescue me. It would take at least another hour before Charlotte began to get worried, and then even if she did, what reason could she possibly have to think I was in the creepy house?

“About a month. GPS makes it a lot easier than it used to be.”

“But if you were so careful, how did Andrea find out about you? And I found out too, just now. Surely you can’t expect to continue this forever.”

“Andrea was too nosy for her own good. She would always be looking out her curtains at the street, glaring at this house, like she knew we were in it. Then one day she was walking past when Boss got scared and let out a bark. She came to the front of the house, and started looking inside the shutters. She went home, but I knew she wasn’t going to give up. I was going to take her out right then and there, but then that stupid niece of hers showed up. At least when the girl left I was able to follow Andrea by pretending to walk Boss. That was all the time I needed.”

So it hadn’t been Kelly after all. Sophie was going to be so disappointed. If she ever heard about this, that was.

“It’s just too bad you had to get involved too,” Gareth said.

“There are people who know I’m here,” I tried. “They’re waiting for me to come back home. When I don’t, they’re going to come looking for me.”

Gareth gave me that cold smile again. “Nice try, but I saw you coming. I know you weren’t planning on coming to this house, and why would you be in the creepy old house that no one ever goes to? No, they’ll narrow it down to this neighbourhood, but no one will ever find your body. Especially since it’s not going to leave by the front door.”

A shiver ran up my spine as Gareth spoke so casually about my death, like it was just another day in the life of the drug dealer. I had to keep him talking. My only chance was to distract him and try and run away. If I could make it out the front door, maybe I had a chance of screaming loudly enough to get the neighbours to notice. Although Boss would definitely be able to catch me in that time.

“Was Boss really poisoned in the park?” I asked. “Or was it here?”

“One of my idiot runners left his stash out and Boss got into it,” Gareth told me. “Now, come on. Get up. It’s time to go.”

“What are we doing?” I asked, my heartrate instantly flying up to a record high.

“You’re going to walk through the tunnel, and we’re going to meet a truck there. I’ve already texted a friend to meet us. It’ll be easier to kill you out there rather than have to drag your body through the tunnel.”

I felt like I was going to puke.

Chapter 19

Now I was well and truly out of options. It was one thing to be in the house near where I was supposed to be, it was entirely another to be taken through a tunnel to a highway half a mile away on the other side of a forest.

Gareth took the gun back out and motioned with it for me to get up. I did, slowly. I walked over towards the hole in the floor, where the floorboards had been removed. There was a small metal ladder leading down past the crawl space and into the underground tunnel. I began to walk down. After all, I didn’t have any other choice.

Gareth followed after me, and I couldn’t help but notice that he left Boss at the house. It was just me and him now. And the gun, of course.

When Gareth had originally mentioned a tunnel, I had imagined a small hole that a person could kind of crawl through on their hands and knees, an iphone flashlight lighting the way as the drug runners dragged along bags of cocaine to the waiting mule and his truck.

I was dead wrong.

The tunnel was easily five and a half feet tall, I only just barely had to stoop to fit under it. A diesel-powered generator hummed at the bottom, linked to a series of cheap lightbulbs that ran along the length of the ground, as well as up to the light in the house. This was actually a lot bigger, and a lot more sophisticated than I had expected. Even the walls were relatively evenly dug out. I looked around, trying to find something, anything, that might help me escape.

After all, this was my last chance. The further I went into the tunnel with Gareth, the worse my chances of coming out alive.

“Walk,” he ordered, and I slowly started to make my way through the tunnel. There was nothing else, just the dirt and the lights. I walked away from the lights and made my way towards the wall. The dirt was crumbly and loose. At least that was something. Maybe I could grab a handful and throw it in his face. But I knew that would only stop him for a second, and he had a gun. Although at this point, trying something and risking getting shot was almost certainly a better option than not doing anything and definitely getting shot.

Suddenly, a memory from my childhood came flooding back to me. It was Christmas, and Charlotte was trying to set up a string of cheap Christmas lights to put on the tree. Charlotte being Charlotte, she sat on the floor meticulously untangling the Gordian knot of strings that somehow developed from a year in storage. I was on the couch reading a book, when suddenly Sophie came rushing in, excited about something, I couldn’t remember what anymore. She paid so little attention to what she was doing that she ran over one of the lights, and as soon as she smashed the bulb, the whole string went out. Charlotte cried for about two hours, it seemed like.

I looked at the cord connecting the bulbs together. It looked cheap, flimsy. It looked like the type that might go out completely if I smashed a bulb.

We were about fifty yards away from the house now. I was all too aware that I had a very limited amount of time to make my move before it was going to be too late.

I counted down from ten to prepare myself.

Ten, nine, eight.

Oh God, this was dangerous.

Seven, six, five.

What if it doesn’t work? No, I couldn’t think about that.

Four, three, two, one.

Now.

In one fluid move I stomped on one of the lightbulbs, at the same time as I grabbed a handful of dirt from the wall and threw it into Gareth’s face. I heard him cry out, but I’d shoved my way past him and was headed back towards the entrance.

A shot rang out suddenly, and adrenaline pumped through my body even faster than before. A couple seconds later, when there was still no pain, I figured the bullet must have missed.

I was running back as fast as I could in the dark, one hand against the side of the wall to guide me, the other in front of me so I didn’t run headlong into the ladder when I got to it. I was too scared to listen to see if Gareth was coming behind me, but I assumed he was.

When my hand finally hit the cold metal of the ladder, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Now all I had to deal with was a one hundred pound German Shepherd. Easy, right?

Scampering up the ladder as fast as I could, I grabbed it and tried to hoist it up after me, but as I was pulling it up I felt something else tugging it back down. Damn, it must have been Gareth. I knew that was a fight I couldn’t win, and besides, with Boss somewhere, I didn’t want to hang around. I dropped the ladder and began to run, hearing a low growl coming from somewhere behind me.

I ran towards the front door, hoping against all hope that I wasn’t going to run headlong into a wall I couldn’t see and knock myself out. It had only been about thirty feet away when I had come in. I could make thirty feet before Boss found me.

Of course, what would happen when I got outside was a whole different story, but there was no time to think about that now.

When I reached forward and felt the door handle, I was so happy I could almost cry. I burst out the front door, slammed the door behind me, to the sound of ferocious barking from an angry dog behind it. I ran to the gate and darted out into the street before I noticed the sight in front of me.

Running up the street towards me, their guns drawn, were Chief Gary and Taylor, Sophie’s boyfriend. Sophie was coming up behind him with Sprinkles, looking anxious.

“He’s in there, he has a gun,” I managed to gasp before I collapsed to the ground, wishing for the second time in just a few months that I found the time to go running, occasionally. Having the cardio skills of an elephant felt like hell when you had to run for your life.

The two cops made their way towards the door at the same time as I heard sirens in the distance.

“He called for backup, that’ll be them,” Sophie said, looking anxiously over at her boyfriend who was heading towards the house with Chief Gary.

“Come out with your hands up!” Chief Gary ordered as they approached the fence. Suddenly, the door opened and Boss came flying out, barking like crazy. He was stopped by the fence.

“He’s going to go through the tunnel to escape!” I said. Sophie looked at me with a mixture of confusion and fear.

“Chief Gary!” I shouted. “He has a tunnel! It goes to the highway, that’s where he’s going.”

I heard Chief Gary immediately get on his radio.

He and Taylor moved back towards Sophie, Sprinkles and I as I was bent over, hands on my knees, still panting like I’d finished a marathon.

“Support’s coming, Angela. Don’t worry,” Chief Gary told me. “You’re safe now.”

As soon as Chief Gary said those words it was like it triggered a delayed reaction in my body, which was catching up on everything I’d just gone through. Suddenly, I began to sob. I sat down on the ground, letting the tears fall, as Sprinkles came up to me and rested his head on my knee.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” he told me. I couldn’t reply, I just gave him a bit of a scratch behind the ears as tears fell down my face.

Sophie sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around me. “Let it out, Angela,” she told me. “Let it all out.”

I had come so close to dying. Like, really, really close. Gareth Sims had shot a gun at me with the intention of killing me. If it wasn’t for remembering that thing about the cheap lights all going out, I might be lying dead on the back of a truck right now.

I knew I had just gone through something similar a few months ago. Zoe Wright had almost killed me as well. But it’s just not something you ever get used to. At least, I wasn’t used to it.

And this time, Gareth had shot at me. He actually pulled the trigger and tried to fire a bullet to kill me. Even the thought of it made bile rise in my throat.

I don’t know how long I sat there crying for, but eventually Charlotte arrived and sat down next to me as well, and a while later a bunch of cops arrived, and an ambulance. Sophie waved them over, and a group of three EMTs came by, carrying a stretcher.

“Ma’am, we’re going to take you to the hospital now,” one of them, a woman not much older than me said, placing a hand on my shoulder. Her touch was soft, almost loving.

“I don’t need a stretcher,” I managed to get out.

“It’s the rules, ma’am,” the lady said. “We’re going to give you something to sleep for a while,” she told me. Realizing they wanted to sedate me, I just didn’t have the energy to fight it. Besides, it would probably be good for me. Mutely, I nodded, and they loaded me up onto the stretcher and into the ambulance, where an IV was instantly expertly inserted into my arm.

The last thing I remember was Sophie arguing with the EMTs to let Sprinkles ride along as well.

“He saved her life. He should get to come!”

“Sprinkles,” I managed to mutter, looking over at the dog’s happy face, just as everything went black.

Chapter 20

For the second time in two months I woke up in a hospital bed in Portland. But this time, Charlotte was by herself, reading a book that probably weighed as much as I did. I stared at the title for a while. ‘Biomedicine, embryology and the gynaecology of the future’. Wow. That sure was a mouthful.

Suddenly, Charlotte noticed I was awake.

“Angela!” she said, dropping the book onto the chair next to her and getting up and giving me a hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe!”

“Me too, not gonna lie,” I replied, managing to crack a small smile. Charlotte beamed at me.

“I’m so glad you’re ok I’m not even going to berate you for going into that house all by yourself.”

“To be fair to me,” I said, “I didn’t actually go in the house willingly. I was outside it when Gareth pulled a gun on me and forced me inside.” I shuddered at the memory.

Charlotte’s face softened. “Oh, Angela. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok,” I replied, waving away her apology. “You had no way of knowing.”

“Still, I’m really glad you’re not hurt. When Sophie called me and said you were in trouble, I thought the worst. I was so worried, I didn’t want to lose my older sister.”

I smiled at Charlotte’s worried face, took her hand in mine and squeezed.

“Thanks, Char,” I told her. As much as we made fun of each other, I really, really loved my sister, and I knew the feeling was mutual.

Suddenly, Sophie came bursting in the door with Sprinkles.

“Ahhhh, you’re awake!” she said, practically jumping on the bed to give me a big hug.

“Sophie!” Charlotte scolded. “You’re not supposed to greet hospital patients like that.”

“It’s ok, it’s not like there’s anything really wrong with me,” I laughed, hugging Sophie back. “How did you know what was happening, though?”

Sophie looked at Sprinkles. “It’s funny. I was walking up to the movie theatre with Taylor. We saw Chief Gary, he was there with his wife, about ten yards in front of us. Not gonna lie, we were definitely hanging back so he wouldn’t see us. Then Sprinkles came running out of nowhere, with his leash hanging down, and I was like uh oh, this isn’t good.”

She ruffled his hair. “Then Sprinkles spoke to me.”

My mouth dropped open. “Like, you understood him?”

“Yeah. It was so weird. I had no idea at all what was happening. But he told me, clear as day, that the man who hurt Andrea had taken me and was going to hurt me too.”

“So you came to help.”

“Yeah.” Sophie laughed a little bit. “It’s funny, I kind of have a bit of an appreciation for what you go through now. I mean, I couldn’t exactly tell Taylor that the dog said my best friend had been kidnapped. So I told him that you were supposed to have him, and that you must be in trouble. I figured he’d take Sprinkles’ barking as a call for help. Taylor was amazing. He yelled at Chief Gary that there was a situation. Chief Gary’s car was like, thirty feet away, so we all hopped in and sped over.”

I shook my head. “I’m so glad. Thank you. And thank you, Sprinkles.”

I looked over at Charlotte. “Well, I think if any one of us knows why Sophie can magically talk to animals now, it’s going to be you.”

“That’s the thing,” Sophie continued. “It’s not all animals. I tried talking to some of the animals outside, but they just chirped back at me. It’s only Sprinkles.”

“Weird,” I said, looking over at Charlotte, who looked desperate to teach Sophie and I something.

“Magic isn’t this black and white thing,” Charlotte explained to us. “Especially in a case like Sophie’s, where her mom’s a full-on witch and her dad’s as human as they come. While we previously thought Sophie had no magical powers whatsoever, it seems that was wrong. But while Angela and I have the full spectrum of witch abilities, Sophie’s powers are quite a bit more limited. It seems a connection with her favourite dog was what was needed to trigger one of those abilities.”

“You are my favourite doggy, aren’t you Sprinkles? Yes you are!” Sophie said, scratching him behind the ears.

“Thank you, Sprinkles,” I told him, looking down at the happy dog. “You saved my life.”

“And you found the person who hurt Andrea,” Sprinkles told me. “I need to thank you for that.”

“Did you recognize him when he opened the door?”

“Yes. As soon as I saw the face, everything came flooding back. I ran out of fear, and then I remembered that Sophie was going to the movies, and I had to get her. I had to get her to save you.”

“And you did very well to do that,” Sophie said, gazing at him.

“Well, Kelly Dottory’s not going to be happy,” I said as I watched the two of them.

“Why’s that?” Sophie asked.

“Because it’s obvious who’s the best suited to adopt Sprinkles now, and it sure isn’t her!”

“You hear that Sprinkles? You’re going to live with us forever now!” Sophie announced, and Sprinkles nudged his head under her arm.

“I’m really, really glad,” Sprinkles said.

“Good. Bee, on the other hand, is not going to be happy,” I said, thinking of my already grouchy cat. I had a feeling I was going to have to start adding a line item for sushi in my monthly budget.

Charlotte looked over at us. “Now I know how Sophie’s felt all these years, I’m the only one who can’t understand Sprinkles. But all the same he’s wormed himself into my heart as well. I’m glad he’s going to be living with us for good. I had an inkling though, it was obvious from the start that Sophie had completely fallen in love with him.”

Sprinkles sat on the ground, wagging his tail along the floor, thrilled with all the attention he was getting, when a nurse came in, a bouncy blonde haired woman in her 40s who you just knew was the type who was still as friendly and amazing after a 20-hour shift than when she first got to work.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” she said, grabbing my chart off the front of the bed. “How are you feeling, Angela?” she asked.

“I’m alright,” I replied. “Just a little bit weary, I think. You know, the excitement of it all.”

“Of course, you poor dear. Well I’m glad to hear it. We ran a few tests just to make sure nothing was wrong. Your sister here’s going to make an excellent doctor,” she added, beaming at Charlotte, who smiled and blushed slightly. “You’ve got the all-clear, so we’re just going to keep you here overnight, just to be safe, and Charlotte and Sophie here can come and take you home tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thanks,” I told the nurse with a smile.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked me kindly as she re-adjusted my pillow. I shook my head.

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

“Alright! Well, I’ll just remind Sophie and Charlotte not to tire you out, so they should probably leave in the next half hour or so.”

“We will, thanks Nicky,” Charlotte told her, and she got another smile in reply.

When the nurse left, Charlotte grabbed my hand. “Everyone’s really worried about you. We should go though. As the nurse says, we don’t want to overstress you.”

“I’ll sneak you in some Chipotle before we go,” Sophie told me.

“Have I ever told you you’re my favourite person?” I asked her.

“A few times, but I never tire of hearing it.”

The two of them left to get me Chipotle, and after they snuck my veggie burrito bowl back into my room, I found myself alone with only my thoughts – and my phone – to entertain me.

I played Candy Crush for a while as I ate my food, and tried not to think too hard about what had happened. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hold off for too long, as I got a visit from Chief Gary about an hour after Sophie and Charlotte left.

“Hey, Chief Gary,” I said, greeting him with a smile.

“Hi, Angela. How are you feeling?”

“Great, thanks to you,” I replied. “Thanks for, you know, saving my life. I mean it.”

Chief Gary waved away my thanks, but I did notice a bit of a blush creeping up his face.

“Not a problem. All part of the job, after all. But speaking of the job, I do need to take your statement. Gareth Sims has lawyered up, one of those big cartel lawyers from LA, and I wanted to get your statement as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” I answered, although deep down my heart sunk a little bit. The last thing I wanted to do was relive that experience right now, but I knew it was what I had to do.

For forty minutes I told Chief Gary exactly what had happened and answered his numerous questions. When he was finished, which was helped along by Nicky coming back and shooing him out for tiring me out too much, I fell back into a deep, deep sleep which thankfully didn’t involve any dreams.

Chapter 21

When I woke up again, I saw Lisa and Ken sitting in the chairs next to my bed.

“Oh, Angela. I’m really glad you’re fine,” Lisa told me. “Ken and I had a date after work and we thought we’d stop by and see how you were doing.”

“Thanks, Lisa,” I told her. “And Ken. I appreciate you guys coming.”

“We won’t stay long,” Ken told me. “We got yelled at by a nurse saying that you needed rest, and there’s someone else waiting outside who wants to see you. I did bring you this though,” he told me, handing me over a small square package wrapped in wax paper. I didn’t get halfway through unwrapping it before the familiar smell wafted up to me, and I leaned back and inhaled.

“One of Betty’s veggie BLTs. Thank you, Ken.”

He smiled at me. “I might not appreciate them – or understand your vegetarianism – but I know you love them, so I snuck it in for you.”

“Thanks,” I said again, looking at him appreciatively. Ok, so maybe he wasn’t a total jerk.

“We’re going to get going,” Lisa said, standing up and kissing me on the cheek. “You take care of yourself, ok? I’m going to come over there tomorrow and make sure you girls have enough food.”

“It’s ok, Lisa, we’re almost thirty, we can make our own food.”

“I’ve seen your fridge, sweetie. I’m amazed you’re not skin and bones. Don’t argue, I am going to come over there, and I am going to make sure you don’t have to worry about anything for a while.”

I leaned back in the bed. “Ok, fine.”

“Good. Now you rest up. Take care of yourself.”

I said goodbye to Lisa and Ken, and waited to see who the person outside was. I expected to see Charlotte or Sophie back, but I was completely taken aback when instead, Antonia deLucca walked through the door.

“Hi,” I greeted her, looking a little bit confused. I wasn’t entire sure why she was here.

Antonia looked around, and then sat down gingerly on the chair next to my bed. She looked older somehow, like the last few weeks had aged her by ten years. She had always been quite sprightly for a woman of her age, but now she looked like, well, she looked her age.

“Hello, Angela,” she told me formally. I waited for her to continue, and after about a minute, she did. “I wanted to thank you for finding the person responsible for killing Andrea.”

I honestly had no idea what to say. “Thank you,” I finally started. “It was more of an accident than anything though. But, I thought you hated each other?”

Antonia shook her head.

“No. No, Andrea hated me. She hated me for what I did.”

“When you told her daughter her true origins?”

Antonia’s head snapped up. “How did you know about that?”

“I was sworn to secrecy by the person who told me, I’m sorry,” I replied. “But you don’t have to worry, the secret is safe with me.”

Antonia sighed. “What’s the point of secrets? I knew. I knew Janice had been kidnapped. And I argued with Andrea about whether or not to tell her. We argued about it for ages. She didn’t want the girl to know, and I thought she had to.”

“Was that why you were arrested in Las Vegas?” I asked. Antonia laughed, a cold, hard laugh.

“Why they should hire you down at the police station. You’re better than all those so-called detectives that barely look like they can shave yet. Yes, that was why. I got into an argument with Andrea after a few too many drinks on the strip. I tried to punch her, but her husband got in the way.”

“And yet you told Janice anyway.”

“I did. Eventually, I just couldn’t live with myself. I couldn’t live knowing that girl didn’t know her real family. I don’t know. Maybe I was wrong.” Antonia sighed. “Now Janice has no family. When I told her, she left Andrea and Robert. She just couldn’t handle it. I know she went to find her birth family, but it turned out her mother died of a heroin overdose when Janice was a teenager. So she moved to London, and she never came back. Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t ruin all those lives by telling her.”

“You were just trying to do the right thing,” I said softly. For the first time in my life, I actually felt bad for Antonia. It was obvious she harboured a lot of guilt.

“All the same. Although some good has come out of it, today was the will reading, and while everyone assumed that Andrea had left everything to her niece, it turned out Andrea was still a mother at heart, and left everything to her. I spoke to Janice this morning; she’s going to donate everything to the ASPCA.”

I smiled to myself. Sophie was going to be thrilled that Kelly Dottory wasn’t getting anything from that will. And I had to admit, I felt a bit of satisfaction knowing that as well.

“Oh,” I said. “That’s good.”

“It is good. I never liked that Kelly girl. Too big for her britches, that’s what she is. Anyway, I must be off. I just wanted to thank you.”

Antonia left the room quickly, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she wiped away a tear as she left. So that answered the question about why Antonia was arrested in Las Vegas. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the woman. She really did try and do what she thought was right.

I looked down at the half unwrapped BLT Ken had brought me. Suddenly, my stomach growled. I wasn’t sure how long I’d napped for, but I knew it couldn’t have been that long since my Chipotle. Still, I felt ravenously hungry. I unwrapped the sandwich and inhaled before taking a big, juicy bite of the world’s most perfect sandwich.

I had my mouth full of sandwich, barely able to close my mouth fully I’d taken such a big bite of the sandwich, when suddenly Jason Black walked in.

My eyes widened as I saw him, and I desperately started chewing. Why did he have to come in just then?

“Hoooovnnnnntyyeeerdanooookii?” I asked through the sandwich.

“I’m sorry,” Jason replied, a smile on his face. “I didn’t quite get that.” He sat down on the chair and waited while I finished chewing. It felt like I was taking an eternity. I knew I looked like a chipmunk. I was half tempted to just grab the sheet and pull it over my face so Jason didn’t see me like this.

Of course, while I looked like a gluttonous chipmunk in my sexy hospital gown, Jason was wearing slacks and a light blue polo shirt that was tight enough to make it obvious just how much time he must have spent at the gym. His hair had that just-got-out-of-bed look it always seemed to, and that casual attitude that was so infuriating just made him seem cooler.

Grrrrr.

Finally, I swallowed.

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” I tried again.

“I was like, eighty percent sure that at some point you were going to choke trying to swallow that bite,” Jason replied. “If you had, then I would have saved your life. Again.”

“Yeah, speaking of that, where were you this time?” I asked. Jason laughed.

“I guess I can’t really call myself a journalist when a vet cracked open the case I was working, can I?”

“What are you doing here, anyway?”

“Being a journalist. I love this state. In New York there’s no way they’d just let me in to see you just by asking and saying I was a friend.”

“Oh, so you’re here to grill me about what happened, then?” I asked.

“Well, not exactly. I was wondering if when you get out of here you wanted to tell me all about it – or about anything else – over dinner.”

Wait, was Jason Black seriously asking me out to dinner? Like, as in, on a date? But he was so… infuriating.

“Yes,” I heard my mouth say. “Yeah, sure.”

What on earth was wrong with me? I’d just agreed to go on a date with Jason Black. Oh, boy.

Also by Samantha Silver

First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading my book. I well and truly hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it.

If you did enjoy Barking up the Wrong Tree I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment and leave a review for the book on Amazon, to help other readers find the book as well.

The third book in the Willow Bay Witches is coming soon! Being released on September 30th, it’s now available for pre-order by clicking here now.

About the Author

Samantha Silver lives in Oregon with her long-time boyfriend, her Jack Russell terrier named Kilo, two cats who like to help her type by lying across the keyboard, and the occasional foster. When she’s not playing mom to all these animals, Samantha is either writing the mysteries she loves, volunteering at the local animal shelter, or watching Netflix.

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Саманта Сильвер Barking Up The Wrong Tree