Саманта Сильвер

Just Horsing Around

Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches 3)

Samantha Silver

Blueberry Books Press

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

Also by Samantha Silver

About the Author

Chapter 1

“But what if I trip coming back from the bathroom, faceplant straight into our table, knock everything off it, and come up with a plateful of spaghetti on my face?” I asked my best friend Sophie while I prepared the vaccines for the litter of kittens coming in for their first shots later on today.

“I think you should replay that sentence in your head and ask yourself if maybe, just maybe, you’re considering scenarios with a zero percent chance of actually playing out,” Sophie replied, helping me with the vaccines.

“There is so a chance of that happening,” I retorted.

“Seeing as the diner, which is where you’re going for dinner, doesn’t actually serve anything with spaghetti in it, no, there isn’t.”

Ok, fine, she had me there.

The reason for my slight panic attack was my first date in a long, long time. It had been a few years, at least. When I opened the Happy Paws vet clinic after graduating from veterinary school three years ago, it turned out that opening a business took up approximately 150 percent of my time. Unfortunately, that led to very little in terms of time for a personal life. Not to mention, Willow Bay isn’t exactly a thriving metropolis with thousands of potential fish in the sea. It’s more like a goldfish bowl.

But the real crazy part of this was my scheduled date was with none other than Jason Black, the infuriating but also super-hot journalist who’d recently moved to Willow Bay after his father’s murder. I’d actually spent most of that time thinking Jason was the murderer.

We clashed like crazy, but somehow, inexplicably, when Jason asked me out after I’d been kidnapped at gunpoint by a drug ring leader, I’d said yes. I still didn’t know why. Maybe it was that perfect smile of his.

And now I was definitely in panic mode.

“Can you call him and say I’ve disappeared?” I asked Sophie, who laughed.

“I’m so not doing that. Besides, you’re just panicking because you like him so much.”

“No, I’m panicking because I haven’t been on a date since forever and because I actually can’t stand Jason.”

“Please. You just pretend you can’t stand him because it’s easier than admitting you think he’s gorgeous and amazing, which, by the way, you are totally obvious about.”

I rolled my eyes as I filled another vial with one of the kitten vaccines.

“So not true,” I muttered as Sophie laughed.

“You could not be more obvious about it if you tried. Watching the two of you was like watching the first like four seasons of The Office where you just knew Jim and Pam were totally going to get together eventually, but you couldn’t do anything about it until it finally happened.”

I felt a bit of a blush creeping up my face, and hoped Sophie didn’t notice. “Besides,” she continued, “you deserve a chance to relax a bit. After all, you’re running a business at the same time as you’ve solved two murders on the side.”

I laughed hollowly. Sophie certainly wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t like it was a cakewalk. Three months ago Sophie, my sister Charlotte and I were almost killed by Zoe Wright, the head of a project to build a mega resort in Willow Bay. She’d killed a man named Tony Nyman, and decided we’d gotten too close to the truth for comfort, and that she had to do away with us as well.

It was only thanks to my cat, Bee, that the three of us survived.

Then a week earlier, when trying to solve another murder in town, I was kidnapped at gunpoint and only just managed to escape. I spent a couple days in hospital, despite not having many physical wounds from that encounter. But the day of rest did me good, knowing someone has shot a gun at you with the intention of ending your life is definitely the sort of thing that messes with your brain. Believe me.

It was then, when I was sitting in the hospital, that Jason asked me out. I still don’t know why I agreed. After all, while he was attractive, he was also so… frustrating. Jason had grown up in New York and had that confident, almost cocky feel about him. That idea that he was always right, and the ability to give back to me as much crap as I gave him. I’d never met any guy like him, and I’d actually convinced myself that I hated him.

And yet, when he asked me out, my mouth still agreed, while my brain was going ‘nope nope nope’.

Now my brain was still saying nope, but at a record speed. This was so a terrible idea. This date was going to go terribly.

“Remember though, you have to go up to Gibson Farm after this,” Sophie reminded me.

I sighed. I was going to spend most of the afternoon surrounded by horses, then have to make it home and shower in time for my date with Jason. Or maybe I shouldn’t shower, and show up smelling like a stable. At least that was one way to guarantee there was never going to be a second date.

“Yeah, I had forgotten about that,” I told Sophie.

“What’s a best friend for?” she replied as Karen, the receptionist, stuck her head in the room.

“Sorry to interrupt, but when you’re ready the kittens are in exam room 1, waiting for you.”

“Thanks,” I told her, shooting Karen a smile. She was a few years younger than Sophie and I, in her early 20s, but she was a hard worker and always dependable, and about a thousand times more organized than I was. If it wasn’t for Karen I knew Happy Paws wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it was becoming.

Sophie and I made our way to the exam room, where a nice young couple in their mid-20s had a crate with three little black kittens.

We introduced ourselves, then looked at the little darlings in the crate.

“We found them abandoned in a box outside of her work,” said Tom, a tall, lanky guy with an easy smile and friendly eyes.

“They were so small, and crying, they obviously missed their mom,” Cassie continued, her eyes looking down at the kittens sympathetically. “They would have died if I didn’t take them, so we brought them home and looked up how to take care of them.”

“We knew the odds weren’t good that they’d all survive, but they did, and now they’re old enough for their first shots.”

I smiled at Cassie and Tom. They had definitely saved the lives of the three little kittens.

“They’re definitely healthy looking at first glance,” I said as I let them out of the crate. Two of the cats came piling out, playing with each other, paws flying, while the third immediately jumped from the exam table onto the floor and began exploring, climbing onto the chair and then onto the counter where we kept the computer and the treats. I picked her up gently and got a loud meow in my ear for my troubles while Sophie set about separating the two playful boys.

Happy little kitties were definitely one of the best parts of being a vet.

Twenty minutes later, with the help of Cassie, Tom and Sophie and a handful of cat treats, all the kittens had gotten their shots and a basic checkup to find that they were perfectly healthy kittens, and directions to come back for their next set of shots in a few weeks. I told Karen to give them a discount for being awesome human beings (maybe it wasn’t good business, but I loved animals enough that a young couple who saved kittens from certain death deserved a break) and then got ready to make my way over to Gibson Farms.

“I love it when we get new kittens,” Sophie said as she helped clean the room when they left.

“Agreed,” I said, smiling.

“Now get out of here. I can handle cleaning, but you’ve got to be at Gibson Farms in a little bit, and I saw what they’re paying you. You absolutely don’t want to be late.”

I laughed. “Thanks, Sophie. You’re right, I’m going to head off now.”

Gibson Farms was actually one of the most famous farms in all of Oregon. They didn’t raise cattle or sheep or anything, they were a horse racing farm. The Gibson family, and especially the head of it, Caroline Gibson, were pretty much royalty in that sport. The Gibson family had owned the horse who won the Kentucky Derby last year, and they had even been featured in mainstream magazines like Time.

And yesterday they’d called me asking to come and look at one of their horses. This was definitely my highest-profile client ever. I left the room and grabbed my things, including a bowler bag filled with everything a vet in the field could need, telling Karen she and Sophie could lock up and go home as soon as Sophie was finished.

Chapter 2

The drive to Gibson farms took a little over twenty minutes; technically the farm wasn’t in Willow Bay, but just outside of it, down a nameless rural road surrounded by pine trees and forest so thick that the further I followed the instructions my phone’s map app was spitting out, the more I wondered if I wasn’t going to end up horribly lost.

But eventually I pulled in front of a small clearing, where an old-school wooden fence blocked the entrance, with a large wooden sign above announced that I was, in fact, at Gibson Farms. I pulled slowly up to the entrance and found an electronic communication system. I had barely rolled my window down before I heard a voice over the intercom.

“Please state your business at Gibson Farms,” ordered a female voice with a clipped English accent.

“Uh, yeah, hi, I’m Angela Wright, the vet that was called.”

There was a pause, then the wooden fence in front of me began to open automatically.

“Please drive to the main house and wait in the car, someone will be out to meet you momentarily,” came the instructions from the same efficient voice. I felt like this was the 1800s or something, that I had gone back in time. Was this really how the other half lived?

I pulled the car through and made my way up the driveway, which had to be at least a quarter mile long. It eventually ended in a big loop in front of a huge rancher, the biggest house I’d ever seen. It was modern, obviously built in the last fifteen years, made with light wooden logs, with stone hedges. The grounds were immaculately manicured; it felt like I was at a show home.

The grounds were enormous; it seemed like as far as the eye could see in any direction was part of the Gibson Farms estate. Yes, estate was really the only word that fit. As I drove up in my old Corolla, I felt so incredibly out of place, and briefly thought to myself that maybe I should have rented a Bentley just for this appointment.

I pulled up to the front of the house, and a woman who I assumed was the one on the intercom was standing at attention outside the door, waiting for me. Tall and thin, with blonde hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail and wearing a black suit with high heels, she looked like she belonged on Wall Street rather than a farm. She motioned for me to park in front of the house, and I did so, turned off the car, and grabbed my bag.

“Doctor Wright, welcome,” she told me, already standing next to me as I took my bag out. “My name is Susan, I’m the head of the household here at Gibson Farms.”

Head of the household? I thought to myself. Where was I, nineteenth century England?

“Before we continue, I need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement,” she said, handing me a contract on a clipboard. To be honest, I had kind of expect this part, at least. The Gibsons were one of the most famous families in the horse racing world, there was no way they were going to let me get close to their practically priceless horses without making me swear I wouldn’t tell. I glanced over the contract quickly, and signed it.

“Thank you,” Elizabeth replied, quickly taking a photo of the contract with her phone. “Now, follow me, and I will take you to see Touch of Frost.”

Despite myself, my heart began to skip a beat. Touch of Frost was the most famous racing horse in the world a few years ago. He’d won the Kentucky Derby four times, and had famously been retired after that final win, at seven years old. He was one of the most famous race horses in the country, and had even once been featured, along with his jockey, on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Everyone knew Touch of Frost, and when Karen told me that I’d been asked to do a house call at Gibson Farms, I immediately thought of Touch of Frost. But of course, I had never dreamed that I might actually get to treat that same horse.

“Caroline Gibson thanks you for coming on such short notice,” Susan told me as she led the way down a cobblestoned path that wound its way around the side of the enormous house. I waved away the thanks. After all, with what Karen told me they’d offered to pay, I probably would have cut off an arm to make this appointment. “We have two in-house vets, of course. But one of our horses became unexpectedly sick at Belmont, and they had to fly out to New York yesterday. Then of course, this morning there was a problem with Touch of Frost, and we had to make alternate arrangements. You must understand the need for secrecy. There are thousands of people who would give their lives to see this property and the happenings on it.”

“I can only imagine,” I replied. The Gibson horses were worth millions of dollars.

“We have taken precautions, of course. You were chosen as the vet since you’re local, and have been your whole life. Plus we asked around, and while you’re not a specialist in farm animals, we were told that you are the most capable vet in the area.”

“Oh, thank you,” I said, not expecting that kind of praise.

“The property is surrounded by ten foot high fences, and every inch of the fence is covered by CCTV footage, and there are motion sensors just inside the fence. It’s practically impossible for anyone to enter the property without us being made aware of it immediately. Plus, the stables are locked with a state-of-the-art fingerprinting system. The only two people on the planet who can enter are Caroline Gibson and the stable head, Cory.”

“Wow,” I said, duly impressed.

“The stables also have a custom sprinkler system set up in case of fire, and an individual alarm system in case of break in. And of course, there are some more security features that I’m not authorized to tell you about. In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve even been told what they all are, and I’ve been working for the Gibson family for nine years.”

“So what you’re telling me is access to Touch of Frost is harder than getting access to the President,” I joked, and Susan’s thin mouth dared curve into a small smile for the first time. Before she could reply, however, I heard a voice calling to her from the house.

“Susan! Wait there, Susan!” someone ordered. Susan froze in place, and the two of us turned to see a woman stomping towards us. She was short, probably just a shade over five feet tall, and squat enough that she gave the impression of looking a lot like Humpty Dumpty. Her brown hair was up in a bun, with wisps of hair having come loose. Wearing tight jeans and a blazer over a polo shirt, the woman looked like a walking plus-size Ralph Lauren catalogue.

Following after her, almost at a jog despite being taller and thinner, came a nervous looking girl who looked to be in her early 20s, with the exact same shade of brown hair as the other woman, and big brown doe eyes. Despite the size difference, there was absolutely no doubt. This was mother and daughter. And I’d seen the mother in countless articles in both newspapers and magazines before. This was Caroline Gibson.

She moved quickly for her size, and after a moment she stood directly in front of the two of us.

“Well?” the woman snapped. Susan rushed forward apologetically.

“My apologies, ma’am,” she replied. “Mrs. Gibson, please allow me to introduce Doctor Angela Wright, the local vet whom we have employed to look after Touch of Frost.”

I held out my hand, but instead of taking it, Caroline looked me up and down, just as her daughter caught up to us, out of breath.

“Goodness, Ellie,” Caroline chided. “You’d think you just ran a marathon. There are quadriplegics in better shape than you.”

“Sorry, mother,” the young lady panted meekly as I tried to hide my surprise at the comment. I knew Caroline Gibson had a reputation for being tough, but that comment was something else!

“I suppose you’ll do,” Caroline continued, turning back to me. “I’m told you know what you’re doing. That had better be true.”

“I am an excellent veterinarian,” I replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. Caroline Gibson snorted.

“Sure you are. No one under thirty is an excellent veterinarian. But I don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong with Touch of Frost, so even you should be able to do an adequate job.”

My face flushed with anger at the sheer rudeness of this woman. I forced myself to think of the mid-four figure fee I was getting for this callout though, and forced a smile on my face.

“I’m sure I will be able to help Touch of Frost.”

“Good. Go with her, Ellie. I want you to pay attention to what the woman does.” Caroline turned to me once more.

“Ellie’s a little bit slow when it comes to dealing with animals. She doesn’t have the natural instincts of a Gibson, so I’m working on training her into it. After all, I don’t want to leave everything to a total moron who’s going to run this farm into the ground.”

“Mom!” Ellie protested faintly.

“What?” her mother snarled, turning back to her daughter.

“Nothing,” the poor girl replied, looking like she wanted to sink into the ground at the sight of her mother. I was absolutely mortified. Poor Ellie! Caroline Gibson’s estimation in my mind dropped to rock bottom. The woman was a bully at best, an abuser at worst. I’d only known the woman for a couple of minutes, and I already hated her.

“Susan, when the vet is finished, tell Cory to come and find me, I want a report before she leaves.”

“Yes ma’am,” Susan replied instantly, and without a single word more, Caroline Gibson turned on her heel and headed back towards the house.

“Are you ok? I’m so sorry your mom said those things,” I told Ellie as soon as Caroline Gibson was out of hearing range. Ellie gave me a small smile in return.

“Oh it’s alright. She doesn’t really mean those things. She just thinks I need to be a little bit tougher.”

“Still, she could be a bit nicer about it,” I muttered.

“That’s just how mom is. I know deep down she really loves me,” the girl replied, and before I could say anything else, Susan coughed lightly.

“Follow me and we’ll continue,” she said, and the three of us made our way to the Gibson Stables.

Five minutes later I was standing in front of the biggest stable I had ever seen. It was nicer than most houses. Made of obviously good quality, thick wood, it had to be at least two thousand square feet. Just outside the stable was a big training paddock, where a mare and her foal were being casually watched by a man who seemed to be about my age, with rugged good looks and an easy smile. Wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, if you’d put a cowboy hat on him and given him a lasso he could have been the star of any western film, easily. His blue eyes stood out against his dark hair and stubble, and they flashed with an easy amusement that only those who were happy with life could pull off.

He had been sitting on the fence of the paddock, watching the two horses, when we arrived. As soon as he saw us the man turned and easily jumped down onto the ground.

“Ah, you must be Dr. Wright,” he said, shaking my hand happily.

“Please, call me Angela.”

“Hey Ellie,” he told her with a nod, and a blush crept up her face as she replied with a quick “hey,” in reply. Goodness. That poor girl was so under her mother’s thumb that she was nineteen and couldn’t even talk to guys.

“Alright Susan, thanks for bringing the ladies to me, I’ll take it from here. I’ll let you know when you come and grab Dr. Wright here later.”

With an crisp, efficient nod, Susan gave me a quick smile and turned and headed back the same way she came.

“I’m Corey, the head of the stables,” the man told me as he motioned for us to follow him towards the stable. When we reached the door he entered a passcode that I couldn’t see, then pressed his four fingers against a pad that scanned the print before unlocking the door. Susan was not joking about security here being tight. “Thanks for coming to have a look at Touch of Frost. For a day or so he’s been fairly lethargic, and he hasn’t been eating,” Corey told me as we entered the stables. “I immediately thought ticks, but I checked his mane and tail thoroughly, and didn’t find anything. I checked over the rest of him as well, just in case, but didn’t manage to find anything.”

Corey stopped in front of a stall holding a horse I’d seen in magazines and newspapers a dozen times, at least. Touch of Frost was just over sixteen hands, a perfect specimen of thoroughbred. Every single inch of him was a perfect chestnut brown; I’d never seen a horse with such a shiny coat. His brown eyes stared at me, sadly.

“Hi, Touch of Frost,” I said softly, holding out a hand. Normally I liked to bribe horses to like me with a piece of apple, but Corey had just said he wasn’t eating.

“Hi,” he replied heavily. This was a horse who wasn’t in a good way. He sighed heavily.

“I think he likes you,” Ellie said, smiling. “I’m going to head off, now that my mom’s gone. I have some things to do, despite her thinking my time is worthless.”

“Sure, of course,” I said, my heart sinking for the poor girl.

“It was nice to meet you, Angela,” she told me.

“You too,” I replied. With a shy smile at Corey, Ellie turned around and headed back out into the afternoon sun.

“I’m just going to come in here and have a look at you, alright?” I asked Touch of Frost cheerily as Corey opened the stall door for me. Touch of Frost didn’t even have the energy to reply.

I put my bag down on the floor of the stable and began to look him over.

“Has there been any change to his diet, or to his stools?” I asked Corey, who shook his head.

“No, everything’s been normal,” Corey replied, looking over at me anxiously. “Thanks for coming, I’m really worried about the poor guy. Our normal vets are both out with Touch of Class, his little brother who’s racing out east.”

“And has Touch of Frost travelled anywhere in the last week?”

Corey nodded. “He was in Phoenix for a sponsor event for about three days, we got back on Tuesday.”

So Touch of Frost had only been back for two days. The more Corey told me, the more the tick idea made sense. Suddenly, I remembered something I’d learned back in vet school about ticks in the southwest.

Moving over to Touch of Frost’s ears, I told him I was just going to have a look.

His left ear twitched once as I had a look, inspecting closely. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything.

When I moved to his right ear, however, I moved back a little tuft of hair and smiled.

“There we go!” I exclaimed, and Corey came over to have a look.

Hidden under the little tuft was a fat tick, happily sucking away on poor Touch of Frost. Corey let out a low whistle.

“Damn, I missed it completely.”

“It’s a spinous ear tick, pretty common in dry climates like Arizona.”

Suddenly, a small radio in Corey’s pocket went off.

“Corey, it’s Philippe. I need you in the paddock,” a voice said with a strong French accent.

“Sure, be right there,” Corey replied. He looked at me. “You ok here by yourself?”

I nodded.

“Cool. Make sure you never tell Caroline Gibson I left you in here, she’ll fire me for sure,” he said with a grin before heading out of the stables.

“Alright big guy,” I told Touch of Frost when I heard the stable door close behind Corey. “Let’s get this tick off you, hey?”

“Thank you,” he muttered tiredly.

“I’ll make sure you feel better in no time,” I murmured, stroking him softly. I went over and grabbed my bowler bag with all the necessities, and took out a pair of tweezers. Carefully moving the tuft of hair back, I gently pulled the tick out, making sure that the whole tick came out without leaving the body inside the ear.

“Good,” I told Touch of Frost, putting the body in an empty vial I would dispose of later, to make sure the tick didn’t re-attach itself to another horse. I stoked him carefully.

“You should be feeling better soon, little guy. Let me have another look at you, to make sure there aren’t any more of these little buggers hanging around, ok?”

He nodded his head at me slightly, and I spent ten minutes carefully going over every inch of Touch of Frost, making sure there weren’t any more ticks anywhere on him. Just as I was finishing up with, confident that there wasn’t a single other tick on the horse, Corey came back into the stables, breathing heavily.

“Hey,” he said, catching his breath back. “Thanks for that. Philippe’s one of the trainers, he was having problems with a horse and wanted my input.”

“No problem,” I replied. “I got the tick out, and gave Touch of Frost a pretty thorough going over. I’m pretty sure that was it.”

“Sweet.”

“I want him to get some prescription insecticide just in case,” I continued.

“Oh, no problem,” Corey said, motioning to the end of the stables. “I have access to all the stuff you need, the regular vet Dr. Williams keeps a permanent supply.”

We made our way over, had a look, and I pointed to one I thought was suitable. Telling Corey the dosage I wanted, he pulled out a notebook from a pocket and wrote down what I told him.

“I assume you’re going to check with Doctor Williams before you give Touch of Frost anything?”

Corey grinned. “You got it. Got nothing against you, myself. But Caroline Gibson, well, she’s a pretty exacting woman. I’m pretty sure she’d skin me alive if I didn’t.”

I laughed. “Yeah, she seems like a pretty hardcore person. The type who always gets what she wants.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, I thought a dark look passed through Corey’s eyes as I said that, but I must have imagined it, because a second later they were back to twinkling happily.

“You’re not wrong there, that’s for sure,” he said. “Caroline Gibson is tough. But she’s had to be, in a sport that’s been incredibly male dominated for centuries.”

“Mmmm,” I replied, noncommittally. I couldn’t forget how badly Caroline had treated her daughter outside; tough or not tough, there was no excuse for that.

“Anyway, I think we’re good!” Corey said. He pulled out a cheque and handed it to me. “This was the fee we agreed upon, I believe. Caroline gave it to me earlier. I’ll take you back out towards the house and get Susan to meet you.”

“Thanks,” I said as I took the cheque. Seven thousand dollars for just an hour or so of work. That was hands down the best fee I’d ever gotten. I slipped it carefully into my bowler bag, patted Touch of Frost one last time, and headed towards the door of the stable with Corey.

As soon as Corey opened the door to the stable, he gasped. I looked past him to see what he was looking at, and found myself looking at Caroline Gibson, lying on the ground in front of the stables, completely motionless.

Chapter 3

“Did she have a heart attack?” I asked, immediately pushing past Corey and leaning down over her. I pressed my fingers against her neck, and the lack of pulse told me that it was too late.

“I don’t think it was a heart attack,” Corey said weakly, motioning to my hands. I suddenly noticed what he meant. Her neck had a thick red mark around it; I’d seen enough episodes of CSI to know that she’d been strangled. No doubt about it.

Almost as if on autopilot, I pulled out my phone and dialled 9-1-1. I told them to come to Gibson Farms, that there was a body and a probable murder.

When I hung up, I saw Corey on his radio. He was telling Susan to expect the police to come, and to make sure she didn’t come to the stable, that Caroline was dead and he didn’t want her to see the body.

Corey and I looked at each other, grim-faced, neither one of us talking. This wasn’t the first body I’d ever come across, I’d found a man who had broken into my vet clinic to try and save himself before. But this wasn’t easier. It wasn’t the sort of thing that you got used to after doing it once.

Suddenly, I saw two men coming over from the paddock. One was obviously a jockey; he was shorter than me, and was dressed in riding gear. The other man was taller, but still not very tall, with an aquiline face, dark hair and eyes and a short beard. He looked to be in his early 50s. He had a serious face, but his clothes were casual: a polo shirt and jeans.

“Corey,” the jockey called out. “Is it true? Is she dead?”

Corey nodded as the men came near.

“Yes, Tony, it’s true.”

“Good,” the man replied, spitting on the ground to the side of the body. “Good riddance.”

I openly stared at the man. I mean, sure, Caroline Gibson wasn’t the nicest person I’d ever met, by far, but hadn’t he ever heard of not speaking ill of the dead? And at the very least, was spitting next to her body not an overreaction?

“We think she’s been murdered,” Corey said quietly, and the two men stared.

“Murder?” the other man asked, with the same voice and accent as I’d heard on the radio with Corey before. This must have been Philippe, the trainer.

Corey nodded, and motioned to her neck. The two men were careful not to touch the body as they looked. Finally, Tony, the jockey, let out a low whistle.

“Damn. I mean, the lady wasn’t exactly popular, but murder?”

“But who could have done it?” Philippe muttered almost under his breath.

Suddenly, we all looked at each other, all of us having the same thought, but none of us daring to actually say it out loud. Susan had told me all about the ultra security on the grounds. Only someone who was already in Gibson Farms could have killed Caroline Gibson.

Just then, Susan came rushing forward, followed by three policemen that I didn’t recognize. As soon as she saw Caroline’s body lying on the ground, from around 200 feet away, she stopped and put her hand to her mouth, motioning for the policemen to keep going.

I instantly knew which man was in charge. He was in his early 40s or so, enormously fat, with a dusting of what I was pretty sure was icing sugar on the front of his shirt. His badge was prominently displayed, clipped to his pocket, and he walked with a swagger that only a small-town police chief who thinks he’s much more important than he actually is can pull off.

“Daniels, Mahoney, seal off the crime scene. Kelly, take the witnesses into the house and separate them, along with anyone else on the property.”

“Yes, sir,” the three men replied, almost in unison.

“Um, excuse me?” I asked, “I’m wondering if you know how long this is going to take? I have plans for tonight,” I said, remembering the date with Jason.

The man turned and glared at me.

“Girly, this is a murder investigation, it’ll take as long as it’ll take. Now go to the house or I’ll arrest you for obstruction.”

What on earth? Overreaction, much? Too stunned to reply I let myself be led back to the house by the officer who must have been Kelly, a bald man who looked like he spent way too much time in both the gym and the kitchen. He was muscular, but also very much on the chubby side. None of us said anything as we were led back to the house.

I barely noticed the incredible opulence inside the Gibson home when I entered. Instead, I heard someone crying from one of the rooms off to the side, probably Ellie Gibson.

“There’s a bunch of rooms down that hallway,” Corey told the cop, who nodded briskly at him. We went down the hall Corey mentioned, and the first door opened led into a library.

“You,” the cop said, motioning to me. “You can wait here. Don’t leave.”

I went into the room, and the door was quickly shut behind me. I forced myself to steady my breathing. This was a lot to take in. Caroline Gibson had been killed, and probably by someone I’d met today. I wondered who else was on the property.

I also quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to make my date with Jason. But I could still make his night if I told him why; Jason was a journalist, and the local paper came out once a week, on Fridays. It was Thursday now, I wondered if he would have time to submit something to his editor and have it published in time. After all, the Willow Bay Weekly wasn’t exactly a high volume publication.

Hey, I have to cancel our date tonight. But I have a hot scoop for you. Caroline Gibson’s been murdered.

I barely had to wait thirty seconds for the reply.

Really? Are you ok?

I am, thanks. And it’s true. It looks like she was strangled, sometime in the last hour or so. I’m waiting to give my statement.

I guess that’s a legit excuse for cancelling our date if I’ve ever heard one. Thanks for the tip.

Knowing Jason would immediately be driving out here to try and get more information, or writing his article if he had the time, I didn’t reply. Instead, I put my phone down and tried not to think about the fact that I’d likely met a murderer this afternoon.

I got up and paced around the room. I really, really hoped this wasn’t going to take too long. I had nothing except my thoughts around, and the memory of Caroline Gibson’s body lying there on the ground, all the life gone out of her forever.

Wandering around the library for a while I looked at some books, tried reading a leather-bound copy of Pride and Prejudice, but found that I couldn’t focus on the words at all.

The sun was heading down to the horizon before the door finally opened and that same fat cop came in, his face now covered in a thin layer of sweat. He was beet red, and a vein was bulging from his head so far I wondered if he wasn’t about to have a heart attack.

“Alright, girly,” he told me. “Sit down, I gotta take your statement.”

I bristled at the use of the word “girly”. It was so patronizing, and I knew that was how he meant it. I made sure to wait a minute before sitting, and even then I placed myself on the edge of an armrest. It wasn’t that I hated cops; in fact I wondered why Chief Gary, the police chief in Willow Bay wasn’t here, it was just that I hated bullies, and I knew immediately that this man was a bully.

“Why isn’t Chief Gary here?” I asked before he got started.

The man grunted. “Mr. Bigshot is out of his jurisdiction here, this farm falls on the Wawnee Police Department. I’m the chief there, Chief Hawthorne. Speaking of, you’re the one who got kidnapped by the drug guy a week ago, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“And you were the one almost killed by Zoe Wright a few months ago?”

Again, I nodded.

“I need spoken words to my answers, missy.”

“Yes,” I replied. I wasn’t going to give this guy any more information than I had to, I had a bad feeling about him.

“So you’ve been involved in three murders now recently.”

Hawthorne looked at me expectantly. Finally, after about thirty seconds had passed, he said, “I told you I need spoken words to my answers. I won’t tell you again.”

“I didn’t hear a question, just a statement,” I replied. The vein in his head bulged, and I swear his face grew a shade more purple.

“Don’t get smart with me girly, or I’ll have you arrested.”

I definitely didn’t like this guy.

“Tell me what happened today.”

“I was called out to look at Touch of Frost, who was lethargic and not eating. I came to the farm, and Susan took me to Corey, who brought me into the stables. I looked over Touch of Frost with Corey, and found a tick that he must have gotten in Arizona a couple days ago. I got rid of the tick, and Corey and I headed out of the stables to take me back to my car. As soon as Corey opened the stable door we saw the body. I checked for a pulse, but she was obviously dead. I called 9-1-1, and then Corey told Susan to be ready for you on the radio. Philippe and Tony heard the radio call and came over, then a few minutes later you arrived.”

The whole time I spoke Hawthorne took down some notes.

“Were you alone at all during your time on the farm?”

“Yes. Corey got a call from Philippe that he needed a hand with one of the horses, so Corey went out there for about fifteen minutes.”

“So you were alone for fifteen minutes, is what you’re telling me,” he said, writing furiously.

“Y-yes,” I said, feeling my heart rate rise. Was this guy honestly thinking that I might have had something to do with the murder?

“Did you know Caroline Gibson at all?”

“I met her for about two minutes, as I was walking to the stables. She told her daughter to come with us, but Ellie left as soon as we reached the stables.”

“What did you think of the woman?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t really speak to her for long enough to make an impression,” I said. Sure, I was lying. But this guy already seemed to be thinking I might be responsible for the murder, and I didn’t want to give him even more ammunition. Plus, I really wanted to emphasize that I barely knew Caroline Gibson, which was completely true.

“Alright, missy. Since you don’t have an alibi for the time of the murder, I want you to know that you’re officially a person of interest in the crime, and you’re not to leave the state. I also need your contact information in case we need to speak to you again.”

Mutely, I handed over a business card. A person of interest? In a murder?

“I must say, I find it highly suspicious that you’ve now been involved in three murders in just a few months. What do you have to say about that?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Coincidence,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. Person of interest. I was a person of interest. Oh my God, how was this happening to me?

“I’ll stay in the state,” I said, getting up off the chair. I couldn’t wait to get out of this house and into the fresh air. I really needed some fresh air. This was not good. This was not good at all.

Three minutes later I was standing in front of my car, inhaling the night air. There were cops everywhere; there had to be at least seven or eight cars and vans with POLICE, MEDICAL EXAMINER, CRIME SCENE TECHNICIANS and other official sounding titles on the sides. I got into the car and left the property. I had a look for Jason’s car, but it wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

About a mile away from the house I pulled over to the side of the road, put my head on the steering wheel and started crying my eyes out. I’d seen a dead person today, and now I was a major suspect in her murder. They weren’t even tears of anything in particular, just the stress of the day.

After about five minutes I pulled myself together and continued the drive home.

Sophie and Charlotte, my sister, were expecting news about my date with Jason. Boy were they in for a surprise.

Chapter 4

I opened the front door and immediately heard a plate smash in the kitchen. Uh oh, what was going on? Rushing through to the kitchen, I found my sister Charlotte grabbing the broom while my best friend Sophie looked both sheepish and frustrated.

Sophie’s dog Sprinkles and my cat Bee were both in the living room, both of them watching what was happening over the top of the couch cushions, out of the line of fire of any spare glass. Sprinkles and Bee, together in harmony? Something was definitely going on here.

“Hey guys,” I greeted. “What are you doing?”

“They’ve decided to see if Sophie is actually a witch, and it’s not going well. Sprinkles and I are fearing for our lives. Our lives!” Bee howled from her spot on the couch, and I had to supress a smile. My little black domestic shorthair definitely had a flair for the dramatic. But at the same time, really?

“Seriously?” I asked Charlotte, who simply shrugged her shoulders.

“What?”

“Is Bee telling the truth? Are you trying to see if Sophie has magical powers?”

“Of course we are,” Charlotte replied. “After all, it’s obvious she does. She can talk to Sprinkles.”

“So what exactly was this?” I asked, motioning to the poor fragments of what had formerly been a desert plate, now lying shattered on the ground.

“Well I was trying to see if Sophie could do a simple floating spell,” Charlotte started.

“And?” I asked, actually curious about the result.

“Do you really need to ask that?” Sophie asked. “It failed, so Charlotte floated the plate in the air and tried to see if I could keep it hovering instead of having to start the spell from scratch.”

“And you can see how well it went for them,” Bee added unhelpfully from her spot on the couch.

“Wow. Well, I can honestly say that I was not expecting this when I came back here.”

“Our other option was to come and spy on you and Jason on your date, so you should probably be pretty thankful Charlotte came up with this idea,” Sophie offered, and I laughed hollowly.

“Well, you would have been disappointed,” I replied.

“No!” Sophie said. “Was it you? It’s always you. Oh my God, you two are perfect for each other, stop sabotaging everything good that ever happens to you.”

Did I mention that Sophie also had a flair for the dramatic? I laughed and shook my head.

“No. Nothing like that. Although I’m pretty sure I should be insulted. But the date didn’t happen at all.”

I explained my afternoon to Sophie and Charlotte and watched as their mouths dropped open more and more.

“I can’t believe you’re actually a suspect in a murder!” Sophie exclaimed. “What kind of moron would suspect you?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. I mean, I didn’t even know her!”

Charlotte shivered suddenly. “But so it means that someone who was on the property at the time of the murder is definitely the person who did it?”

“I mean, it has to be. Unless there was some super James Bond style plot to get onto the grounds undetected, but from what Susan told me, that would be pretty much impossible.”

Sophie grabbed her phone and started texting frantically.

“So chances are you’ve met who it is.”

I shrugged. “Well, maybe. I don’t know who else was on the property. But I imagine I met most of the people around.”

“You have got to stop getting into these situations, Angela,” Charlotte scolded suddenly, putting her hands on her hips. I threw my hands up in the air.

“Do you think I asked for this? I was just supposed to go in, take care of Touch of Frost, and get out, then go on my date with Jason. Which was cancelled while he desperately tries to get a story into the paper tomorrow, and I get interrogated by some cop.”

“And that cop is a class-A ass, apparently,” Sophie added, looking up from her phone. “I just asked Taylor about him.” Taylor Shaw was a police officer here in Willow Bay. Sophie had been dating him for a couple of months now, which by her standards made it one of her longer-term relationships. “Taylor can’t stand him. Says they guy’s full of himself, doesn’t listen to anyone else, and pretty much should have retired ages ago. But Wawnee can’t force him out. Taylor says if anyone’s going to screw up a murder investigation, it’s him.”

I put my head in my hands. “Great, this means I’m definitely going to jail. He’s going to think I did it for some dumb reason, and that’s going to be it for me.”

“Good,” said Bee from her spot on the couch. “You should be in jail, you lied to me about the dog staying here forever.” Apparently the truce between her and Sprinkles was over now that the magic experimentation had ended for the night.

“If I go to jail, Bee, then there won’t be anyone to feed you,” I retorted. “Then what will you do? You can’t operate the can opener on your own.”

“Charlotte won’t let me starve. Or I’ll find a different family. A better family, that doesn’t betray me by bringing a dog into the household.”

I rolled my eyes. “I told you, Bee, Sprinkles isn’t my dog. You’re still my pet, my only cat. Sprinkles is Sophie’s. And you’re lucky anyone wants you at all, you big drama queen.”

Bee replied by jumping onto the desk and knocking over a glass of water that had been sitting on it.

“Evaporao,”I said quickly, pointing at the water, focusing every ounce of mental power I had on the liquid falling towards the floor. In a flash, it disappeared. You learn to master the evaporation spell when you live with a cat. Bee glared at me, and I glared back at her.

“I’m so sorry to be a bother,” Sprinkles said shyly from his spot on the couch. “I don’t mean to intrude.” He was the sweetest dog on the planet.

“It’s alright, Sprinkles,” I told him, going over to the couch and giving him a pat. “You’re not intruding, Sophie invited you to live here with us, and you are very welcome here,” I told him. “No matter what someone else might tell you.”

Bee huffed her disapproval and went to hide inside the little box on top of her scratching post.

“Anyway, this isn’t about you,” I shot at her. “I’m the one in trouble here.”

Sophie came over and gave me a hug. “Don’t worry, Angie. You’re not going to jail. I won’t let him put you there. We can always poison him.”

I couldn’t keep myself from laughing at Sophie’s suggestion. She was always the type to go from zero to one hundred, with no in between.

“Or,” Charlotte added, “rather than actually committing murder, we can figure out who did it. After all, Angela’s getting pretty good at that sort of thing now.”

Sophie and I both looked up at Charlotte in surprise. Charlotte, actually suggesting that we investigate a crime? That was unheard of! Charlotte was the one who always thought Sophie and I were ridiculous, that we were putting ourselves in way too much danger.

“What?” Charlotte asked, noticing our looks of obvious disbelief.

“Well if you’re suggesting it, we definitely have to do it,” Sophie said.

“Yeah, for sure,” I agreed.

“I’m just looking at this logically,” Charlotte argued. “If there’s no way that police chief is going to figure it out on his own, and there’s a chance that Angela might get caught up in this when she’s completely innocent, well, the best way to fight is by finding out who the killer actually is.”

“We don’t disagree with you, Charlotte, we’re just surprised that you actually agree that this is the right course of action,” I told her. “Anyway, if you two don’t mind, I’m going to bed,” I said. “I’m way too tired to deal with anything right now. I’m starving and I don’t even have the energy to eat.”

I made it to my room, shut the door and was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

Chapter 5

I woke up the next day the way almost all cat owners do: with a pair of fuzzy paws booping my nose.

“Wake up, Angela, there’s an emergency!” Bee was screeching at me.

“Wuh… what?” I asked groggily, pushing the cat off the bed.

“You have to get up, now!”

I reached over for my phone and saw it was quarter to six. “What’s going on Bee?” I asked, my heart starting to pound in my chest as Bee’s calls for help started to make their way to my brain.

“I’m hungry, and no one’s awake to feed me!” my cat howled. I groaned, grabbed my pillow and threw it over my head.

“Bee, it’s not even six o’clock in the morning. I’ll feed you when I wake up.”

“But you’re awake now! I made sure of that,” Bee replied.

I closed my eyes in a desperate attempt to go back to sleep, but as soon as I felt the four little paws crawling up my back, I knew it was hopeless. Bee wasn’t going to let me sleep until she got fed.

Throwing the covers off me, I forced myself out of bed. “I hate you so much,” I muttered at my ingrate of a cat, who happily jumped off the bed and began pacing the floor as she waited for me to throw on some clothes and go to the kitchen.

Bee began to purr at me while doing figure eights between my legs while I opened the can of cat food, muttering angrily under my breath about being woken up so early just to feed the cat.

I was going to have to start locking my door at night, since Bee had evidently figured out how to open it on her own.

Of course, as soon as there was any kind of movement in the kitchen, Sprinkles was up too. Being a dog, his sixth sense was knowing instinctively whenever anything remotely relating to food was happening in the house. So I grabbed his food bowl off the ground and filled it up as well.

Just as I grabbed my phone to check the time, wondering if I could possibly grab a little bit more of a snooze before I actually had to get up and go to work, it buzzed with a text from a number I didn’t recognize.

Wawnee police chief here. Be at Wawnee Police Station 8am. More questions.

I sighed. This meant I was going to have to reschedule the first few appointments for the day, at the very least. Crawling back to bed I threw the covers over my head and went back to sleep, trying not to think about the nightmare of a day I was about to have.

When my alarm went off what felt like 30 seconds later, I already had the first inklings of a headache. I asked Sophie if she could go to work and deal with helping Karen reschedule appointments, and to my relief, she did.

“Take care of yourself, ok? You should probably get a lawyer.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s ok. I don’t think I need one, yet. I won’t answer anything I’m not comfortable answering, don’t worry. Besides, I didn’t do anything, remember?”

“Yeah, but people like that don’t always care about the truth,” Sophie told me, concern in her eyes. I smiled. Sophie and I might fight like children about 99 percent of the time, but it was when things got tough that I knew she always had my back. I reassured her that I’d be fine, and headed out the door to drive to Wawnee.

On the way I stopped by Betty’s Café to grab a vanilla latte to go. I was definitely going to need the energy today. I parked the car in front of the store, and as I opened the door I just about ran into a guy leaving.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!”

The guy managed to keep the two coffees and bag of cookies he was holding upright, then smiled at me. He was tall, with light brown hair and a clean shaven face, and strangely for Willow Bay, was wearing a full suit in the middle of summer. Willow Bay as a whole had a business-casual-at-most kind of dress code, even among professionals. This guy must have come down from Portland.

“No problem,” he told me, flashing me a smile. “Always good to get run into by a pretty lady first thing in the morning.”

Maybe it was because I was already in a bad mood, but I had absolutely no desire to be hit on by a random stranger this early in the morning, so I just smiled blankly back at him and went into the café.

“Hi, Angela,” Betty greeted me, far too cheerfully for this early in the morning. “What can I get you?”

“The biggest vanilla latte you can make me to go, please,” I ordered.

“That kind of day, is it?” Betty asked, stepping over to the coffee machine while I grabbed some cash out of my wallet.

“Definitely that kind of day.”

“Well, I hope it gets better for you,” Betty told me as I traded her my cash for the coffee. She handed me back my change and I said goodbye, heading back to my car, ready for the twenty minute drive to Wawnee for another interrogation.

When I got to the police station, I introduced myself to the bored-looking receptionist, who motioned for me to sit down on one of the plastic chairs on the other side of the room. I saw Ellie there, her eyes red, and her hand being held by someone I didn’t recognize. As soon as Ellie saw me, though, she gave me a small smile, motioning for me to come sit with her.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her. “I’m so sorry about your mom.”

“Thanks,” Ellie replied. “I’m doing ok. It’s hard though, you know? I mean, I knew her health wasn’t great, and I knew the doctor didn’t want her to keep eating the way she did, but at the same time, you’re never really prepared for this sort of thing.”

“I know,” I told her softly. “Believe me, I understand completely.” I was very young when my parents died, but the knowledge that they were ripped away from Charlotte and I so suddenly still stayed with me to this day.

“I just don’t know how to go on,” Ellie continued. “Mom did everything for me. I know it’s embarrassing to admit. After all, I’m nineteen years old. But she wouldn’t let me do a lot of things. I don’t even know how to do a load of laundry, for God’s sake, how am I supposed to go on?” Ellie started to cry, and the woman next to her stroked her hand while making soft, comforting noises.

“It’s ok Ellie, it’s going to be ok. I’ll help you get through this.”

“Thanks, Polly,” Ellie told the woman. Suddenly, she realized the two of us didn’t know each other.

“Oh, Angela, this is Polly. She was my mom’s best friend. She was at the house yesterday, too, but she stayed inside the whole time.”

I shook the lady’s hand. It was a soft handshake. Polly had a nice, slightly haggard face; she had obviously led a life of hard work with more than her fair share of disappointment, but I felt like despite all that she was still a happy person.

“It’s nice to meet you, Angela. You must be the vet that Caroline called in when Touch of Frost became ill.”

I nodded. “Yes, that was me. I came by yesterday afternoon. I met Caroline briefly. I never would have guessed…” my voice trailed off into nothingness.

“I know. It was such a shock. I know a lot of people didn’t get along with Caroline. She could be a tough one sometimes. But murder!” Polly shivered. “I’ve known Caroline since we were fourteen years old. Of course, she came from a line of horse racing royalty, essentially, whereas my father was a stablehand who had to beg his boss to let me keep a horse in the stables for free. But despite all that, we met at a riding meet, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I told Polly, feeling sorry for her. I might have thought Caroline Gibson was despicable, but it was obvious that there were at least two people in this world who cared for her.

“Thank you, dear,” Polly told me. “That’s nice of you to say. Listen, I imagine you don’t know very much about horse racing?”

I shook my head no.

“Well why don’t you come by my farm and I’ll show you around? I don’t have any horses as famous as Touch of Frost, obviously, but I can tell you all about it myself. I just love the sport, and the animals, so much. I’m sure as a vet you can understand the love for the animals, of course.”

I smiled. “I’d love to, thank you for the invitation,” I told Polly. It was true; I didn’t really know very much about horse racing at all. I knew about Touch of Frost, of course, but that was only really because everyone in the country had heard of the famous horse. And while to be honest, the idea of horse racing wasn’t my favourite (I was all too aware that a lot of horses in the industry were abused and mistreated), I thought that perhaps accepting the invitation might allow me to get a better insight into Caroline Gibson’s life, and help me discover who might have wanted her dead.

Just then, the receptionist called for Ellie to go in and see the police chief. Polly gave her hand another squeeze. “It’ll be fine, Ellie. Just tell the truth.” Ellie gave us both a small smile and went in. As soon as she left, Polly sighed.

“That poor girl. It’s so hard for her right now! She was never an independent spirit, and her mother’s sudden death has been so hard on her. I think Ellie just doesn’t know what she’s doing right now,” Polly said, shaking her head.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll figure it out,” I said encouragingly. “I can only imagine what she’s going through right now, but I’m sure she’ll get there.”

“Oh yes, absolutely,” Polly replied. “Especially with Corey around. He’ll take good care of her.”

“Was there something between the two of them?” I asked, remembering suddenly the way Ellie blushed whenever Corey looked at her when we were at the farm and putting that up to shyness.

Polly gave me a small smile. “Well, I think they would have liked for there to have been. Unfortunately, Caroline didn’t think Corey was good enough for her daughter, so it never developed into anything.”

“But Ellie’s a full grown woman!” I protested.

“You saw Caroline and Ellie together, right? Ellie would have never gone against her mother’s wishes, no matter how much she liked Corey. But I suppose if there’s one good thing to come of this it’s that now the two of them can be together.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, my mind whirring to life as it tried to absorb all this new information. While my brain was processing all of this, Polly got a text, her brow furrowing as she read it.

“Listen,” she asked me a moment later. “Something’s come up and I have to be back at my farm as soon as possible. Would it be alright if you drove Ellie home? I could order a taxi for her if you can’t, but I think right now someone she knows, even if she only met you once, would be better than a total stranger.”

“Sure, no problem,” I replied. After all, the more time I spent with Ellie, the more opportunity I had to learn about her and Corey.

“Thank you so much,” Polly replied, getting up. “I just came here today with Ellie, they didn’t want to talk to me.” She handed me a card. “Call me sometime, I’ll make sure to organize a tour for you around my stables.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

“No, thank you,” she replied, and with another sweet smile, Polly was gone.

I barely had a chance to think over what I’d just learned before I was called in to see Hawthorne. I told the receptionist to ask Ellie to stay there when she came out as I was driving her home, and then followed her into Hawthorne’s office.

Chapter 6

The man was just as disgusting today as yesterday, only this time he looked like he hadn’t slept a wink. There was a veritable bucket of coffee sitting in front of his desk, every inch of which was covered in papers strewn about any which way. A fly buzzed around an old box of donuts that had been discarded on top of a filing cabinet. The walls of Hawthorne’s office were covered with pictures of him with various guns, posing with deer he’d shot. I felt like I wanted to throw up.

I sat in the chair and waited for Hawthorne to start asking me questions. Instead, he just sat there, leering at me. I knew what he was doing; he was trying to get me to start talking first. Well, it wasn’t going to work.

The stand-off must have gone on for about three minutes before Hawthorne finally gave up.

“Alright, missy,” he said, grabbing a notebook off the desk with his grubby little fingers. “I just gotta go over what you told me yesterday.”

He flipped back through the pages.

“So you say you were hired to work as a vet, and you arrived yesterday afternoon, around 4?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“And you’d never met Caroline Gibson before then?”

“No.”

He scribbled something down in the notebook. “What do you think about the others who were at the house?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m not sure I know the whole list.”

Hawthorne grunted his annoyance, and flipped the pages once more before rattling off the list of names.

“Susan, the maid or whatever. Ellie, the daughter. Polly, the friend. Corey, the stable manager. Philippe, the French trainer. Damn foreigners taking American jobs. Tony, the jockey.”

“Well, to be honest, I don’t really know any of them. I didn’t meet Polly at all until today, I didn’t even know she was there.”

“What did you notice?”

I thought back. “If anyone stood out, it was Tony. He didn’t seem to be sad at all that Caroline had been killed. In fact, he seemed to openly think she deserved it.”

Hawthorne scribbled down what I said in the book.

“What about the others?”

I shrugged. “Susan seemed to me to be the prim and proper type. The kind who doesn’t take offense to much, and is efficient at her job. Corey seems nice, and so does Ellie. She was definitely under her mother’s wing all the time. I couldn’t say about the others, I didn’t meet them for long enough.”

“Did anyone strike you as acting strangely?”

“I couldn’t say, I don’t know what any of them were like otherwise.”

Hawthorne harrumphed his disapproval. Apparently my answers weren’t what he was after.

“And you’re sticking to the story that you didn’t know Caroline Gibson and had nothing against her?”

I felt a wave of anger coming up, but I quelled it down. “It’s not a story, it’s the truth,” I said, bringing my shoulders up. How dare he insinuate that I was lying?

“Whatever. Don’t leave the state, remember? You can go.”

I left the office muttering angrily to myself, wondering if I could get away with a curse to set the whole building on fire. I was so pissed off I almost forgot that I was supposed to drive Ellie Gibson back home, until I saw her sitting quietly in the waiting room, like a little mouse trying not to be noticed.

“Well, that was a giant waste of my time,” I muttered to myself as I smiled at Ellie. I imagined Hawthorne didn’t actually need any of the information I gave him today, he probably just wanted to rile me up and hope I’d confess, or something. What a terrible cop.

“Hey, Ellie,” I told her. “Polly asked me to take you home, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Ellie replied, and I noticed her eyes were tinged with red.

“Are you ok?” I asked softly, taking a tissue out of my purse and handing it to her. She nodded as we left the police station.

“I just feel like that man, he’s making me sound like such an awful person,” Ellie said as we walked towards my car. “I feel like he thinks I killed mom!”

I made soft noises as I ushered her into the car.

“I’m sure he doesn’t really think that Ellie,” I tried to reassure her. “It’s just his job to be suspicious of people, so he probably doesn’t really know how to be tactful about things.” At least that last part might have been true, Hawthorne didn’t seem like he had a single tactful bone in his whole body.

I didn’t know what Hawthorne was thinking, but surely he didn’t actually suspect Ellie of the crime. I mean, I knew she was on the grounds and was one of the people who could have killed Caroline Gibson, but she was so sweet, and so subservient to her mother. No, there was no way I could see her doing anything like that.

“Polly seems like a nice woman,” I said to Ellie as I pulled onto the road leading back to Ellie’ farm.

“She is, she really is,” Ellie said, getting a little bit of animation back into her. “I’ve known her my whole life. She was mom’s best friend since they were kids. Mom was so nice to her, when she had to move her horses from the old stable mom let her use one of the old stables on our property to keep her horses, and she only asked for all the stud payments in return.”

“That was really nice of her,” I said, thinking that surely stud payments would have been a lot.

“It was; Polly was really thankful. Polly isn’t as famous as my mom, of course, but she says she doesn’t need to be. She just needs her horses. And of course, now she has her own farm, and she’s really happy there. Her horses do alright, but they’re just not the same level as mom’s. I guess mom’s horses are mine now, though.”

“I guess they are. Have you thought about what you’re going to do with the farm at all?”

“I always figured I’d just keep it going. After all, I’ve been around horses my whole life, and I really love the ones we have. Touch of Frost is a stud now, so he’s bringing in a lot of money still, too. Actually, the mare he impregnated just had her first foal about a month ago,” Ellie said proudly, and I smiled.

“Awww, foals are adorable,” I said.

“Yeah, Touch of Midnight is adorable,” Ellie told me. “I saw him right when he was born. His owner is Friedrich Suter.”

“Ah,” I said, not knowing who Friedrich Suter was.

“Oh, sorry,” Ellie said, noting my lack of knowledge. “I’m so used to spending all my time around horse racing people that I forget that you might not know who he is. Suter is a businessman, he owns some giant bank in Switzerland, and some race cars, but his true passion is horses. He’s super reclusive though. His horses are amazing, but I’ve never met him. He’s one of those eccentric billionaire types. The kind who never gets his photo taken, never appears in public. As soon as Touch of Frost retired he gave my mom half a million dollars to stud Touch of Frost to one of his mares.”

I almost drove the car off the road at that comment. “A half a million dollars?” I practically squealed. “Seriously?” I knew there was a lot of money in horse racing but boy, that was some valuable sperm!

For the first time since I’d known her, Ellie actually giggled.

“Yes, half a million. The foal can be worth a lot more than that, so it’s a worthy gamble.”

“You know, if I could get paid half a million bucks for impregnating a horse, I think I’d definitely keep the farm too,” I said to Ellie as we pulled up to the driveway.

“Can you come in for a minute?” Ellie asked. “I know Susan was going to make some coffee.”

I checked my phone quickly and saw a text from Sophie. Rescheduled everything until 1. It was only 9:30; I had plenty of time.

“Sure,” I said with a smile. “That sounds great.”

As soon as I entered the house Ellie motioned for me to leave my purse and sunglasses on a table by the entrance. Already she seemed to be coming into her own a little bit; I wouldn’t have been surprised if Caroline Gibson had left explicit instructions for me to not be let into her home the day I came. Susan came out a minute later, like magic, with a couple cups of coffee. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her face seemed strained; the effect magnified by the tightness of her bun and her general demeanour. It seemed Susan hadn’t had a good evening, perhaps she was more sensitive than her professional demeanour made her seem.

“Why don’t you join us, Susan,” Ellie asked, and Susan looked like she’d never had such a shock in her life.

“Oh thank you,” she said in her high class British accent, “but I really have quite a lot of work to do today. There is a lot to deal with after your mother’s passing. The lawyers will be here at noon, if you will see them in the study then,” she added.

“Of course, thanks Susan,” Ellie replied, and the housekeeper turned on her heel and left as efficiently as she entered.

“I’m trying to make her feel more at home,” Ellie told me. “Mom was always so firm about not being friendly with the help, but I think that’s just a little bit rude. I don’t think Susan knows what to do about it, though.”

I smiled at Ellie. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her. “Has Susan worked here for long?”

“A little over a year. Her parents decided to retire to Portland; I think they had enough of England, and while America was different enough the Northwest has enough rainy weather to make them feel at home. So she decided to follow them, and got the job here. Mom thought her accent made her sound more distinguished, and it wasn’t her first job as a caretaker.”

I took a sip of coffee, slowly. I wondered why Susan seemed so haggard. Was it really just that this was her first experience with death? That it had happened so near? Perhaps. The fact that she had worked at the Gibson Farm for a little while seemed to work in her favour; from the little I had seen of Caroline Gibson I imagined anyone who would have wanted to strangle her to death after meeting her wouldn’t have had the patience to wait over a year to do it. Plus, as the housekeeper, there were probably a million other ways Susan could have gotten rid of her boss, none of which would have involved having to strangle a woman who weighed well over two hundred pounds. I suspected Susan didn’t weigh a lot more than half that.

“Are you sure you’re doing alright?” I asked Ellie as we finished off the coffee.

“I am, thanks. Thanks for spending time with me, too,” Ellie told me.

“No problem,” I replied. To be honest, I felt a bit bad for her. Ellie didn’t really seem to be the type of person to have a lot of friends, and I wondered if maybe she suddenly felt incredibly lonely without her mom, who I imagined was the major focal point of her life.

“Good luck at the vet today!” Ellie told me as she led me back towards the front of the house. I saw Corey walking through the entrance and he said a quick hi as I grabbed my purse. “Feel free to come by whenever,” Ellie told me. “I can show you how to ride horses.”

“Thanks, I’d like that,” I told her. I liked Ellie, she was very sweet. I hoped that over time, despite the tragedy of her mother’s death, she’d really come into her own.

It wasn’t until I was sitting in the front seat of my car that I realized I’d forgotten my sunglasses on the table inside.

“Shoot,” I muttered to myself. Thinking that I didn’t want to bother anyone, I went back up to the front door and carefully tried the handle; it was locked. Of course; this was Gibson Farms. Everything was always going to be locked.

I looked around carefully. There was a security camera, so I was going to have to do this on the sly. I pretended to look confused for a second while I whispered “recludaroa,” while focusing on the lock. I heard the latch turn, and I quickly tried the handle again, making a show of looking confused when it worked.

Darting inside I saw my sunglasses sitting on the table. I grabbed them and was about to make my way back out when I heard Corey talking to Ellie in the room next door.

“Look, what’s done is done. We can’t do anything about it now.” Corey’s voice was hushed, like he wanted to avoid being overheard.

“But what if she - ” Ellie started, but Corey cut her off.

“Do you think she’s going to haunt us from beyond the grave? No, Ellie. This is our chance. This is our time.”

I didn’t have a chance to hear what Ellie was going to reply, as suddenly I heard the click of Susan’s efficient high-heels coming towards me. I couldn’t be seen here, Corey and Ellie would know that I’d overheard their conversation. I grabbed the sunglasses and quickly stepped back outside, closing the door soundlessly behind me. I didn’t dare re-lock the door, I figured Susan would eventually see it and think she’d forgotten to lock it.

When I was finally back safely in my car and heading back away from the farm I realized just how strongly my heart was beating. I replayed the conversation over in my mind.

“What’s done is done. We can’t do anything about it now.” Was Corey talking about the murder? Was he talking about him having committed the murder? Did he and Ellie get together and plot to kill her mother so they could be together? Surely not. Ellie was way too sweet for that. But did Corey do it on his own, and then tell Ellie what he’d done?

There were just so many possibilities. My mind wound its way through the myriad of facts I’d discovered so far, trying to make sense of it all. Everything anyone who was at the house now seemed suspicious to me; any one of them could have killed Caroline Gibson, and despite all this new information, it felt like I was no closer to figuring out who it was.

Chapter 7

After stopping at home to grab a quick bite to eat, I made my way to the vet clinic around noon; I wanted a bit of time to personally call the patients I’d had to reschedule to apologize. People in Willow Bay tended to be understanding, especially with people like me who had lived here their whole lives, but I still felt bad that I had to reschedule so many appointments.

“Finally, I was wondering if you’d forgotten you work here,” Bee announced when I came in through the front door. I was the only person in the clinic, it seemed Sophie and Karen, the receptionist, had each gone out to get lunch before one.

“Oh can it,” I told my cat. “It’s not like I had any choice in the matter. Besides, what do you care? You just sit in that same spot and sleep every day.”

“I like to lord it over the pets that come in here that this is my territory, in a regal manner,” Bee replied. “How am I supposed to display my superiority when there isn’t a constant parade of peons coming past to be poked and prodded by you while I sit on my throne in peace, my sensitive bits unmolested?”

I rolled my eyes at my cat as I sat down and grabbed my appointment book.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that missing a half day of business was affecting you so negatively.”

“Apology accepted. Now when do I get to lord my presence over other animals again?” Bee asked as I dialled the first number on the list.

“In about forty minutes,” I replied, glancing at the clock, holding my hand over the mouthpiece as the phone began to ring.

“Good,” Bee replied, and five seconds later as Grace Montreuil answered the phone, I noticed my cat was already fast asleep.

Twenty minutes later Sophie came back into the office, with Karen only about two minutes behind her. I went into the back with Sophie to get some vaccines prepared for our afternoon patients, as well as the anaesthetic for a dog who was going to get surgery done that afternoon to remove a benign lump from his leg that had grown in an awkward place and was making it tough for him to walk.

As we went through the process I told Sophie exactly what had happened that morning, including the conversation I’d overheard between Corey and Ellie.

Sophie let out a low whistle. “Man, this case just gets weirder and weirder. Do you think the daughter could be in on it with Corey?”

I shook my head slowly. “No, I don’t think so. She doesn’t really seem to be the type. I think he could have done it on his own, but you didn’t see how dependent she was on her mom. I don’t think she would have done it.”

“Still, you said she owns the whole farm along with the horse with million dollar swimmers,” Sophie argued.

I giggled at her description, but I couldn’t ignore the truth in what Sophie was saying. Still, I shook my head.

“I know. She does inherit; she’s pretty much loaded now. But I still don’t think she did it. She’s just not the type.”

“Ok, fair enough. But this Corey guy might have?”

I shrugged. “I know he got called out of the stable when I was in there, and he was gone about fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. So he definitely had the opportunity. I didn’t notice anything weird or different about him when he got back, but then I also didn’t know I was potentially looking for a murderer at the time. If he was out of breath or whatever I might have just thought he jogged back to the stable or something and put it completely out of my head.”

“Plus you say he wanted to be in a relationship with Ellie but couldn’t because of her mom.”

“That’s what I heard from Polly, and it certainly sounded true given what I overheard between the two of them later.”

“So he had every reason to get her out of the way. What about the maid, Susan?”

I shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to have any reason to hate Caroline Gibson – not more than anyone else who worked for her, at first glance, but she seemed really upset this morning. I don’t know, maybe she’s just a sensitive person who puts on a stern face for her job, or something.”

“Why can’t we just get an easy-to-solve murder mystery for once?” Sophie complained as Karen came in and told us our next client was here.

“I know, right?” I told her as we made our way into the exam room.

We were met by a plump, short woman in her late fifties with a happy, round face and a very unhappy looking cat.

“Hi, I’m Angela, the vet here in town, and this is Sophie, my vet tech,” I introduced, holding out a hand.

“Lovely to meet you young ladies. I’m Gloria Patton, I just moved to Willow Bay from Seattle. I’m retired, see, I used to be a schoolteacher. But now in my old age I decided I just want to live in a small town, away from the city, but still close enough to see my grandchildren. This is Buster. He showed up on my doorstep one day weighing next to nothing. Poor thing. I’ve taken care of him ever since that day, about four years ago.”

“Hi Buster,” I said to the cat, and just got a snarl in return.

“So you don’t know exactly how old he is?” I asked, dreading the answer somewhat. Gloria Patton seemed like a talker, I was hoping by asking questions I wouldn’t end up with a ten minute long story.

“No, I’m afraid I don’t. I asked the girls that I used to hang around when I first got him, see. They thought he looked about 2-3 at the time. The old vet up in Seattle thought the same, so that would make him around six or seven now, if they were correct.”

I did a regular physical exam on Buster. Going by the state of his teeth, I thought that was accurate. I nodded. “Yes, that seems about right,” I said.

“Who cares how old I am anyway? All that happens is the woman chooses a made-up date as my “birthday” and makes me wear a dumb hat while she feeds me a sub-par cupcake made for cats. She tells me it’s a human cupcake but I’m not a moron, I know she’s lying to me. You’d think on my fake birthday of all days I’d be allowed a human cupcake,” Buster complained, and I was forced to hide a smile.

I gave Buster his yearly booster shots after the checkup, gave him a clean bill of health, and sent Gloria and Buster on their way. As they left, though, I thought I heard Bee talking, so I popped my head out to see what was happening: Bee never spoke to the pets in the hospital. She thought they were beneath her. At best, she ignored them. At worst, well, let’s just say a couple of times early on I had to threaten to leave her at home if she didn’t behave herself.

What I saw was the most surprising thing I’d ever seen in all my time working at the vet clinic.

Bee and Buster were sitting together on top of the cupboard at the back of the clinic, looking down on Karen and Gloria, seemingly both incredibly content.

“I can’t believe I had to go through this today,” Buster complained.

“Well, it could be worse, you could have to live with her,” Bee told him. “You know she let a dog live with us? It belongs to the other one, but it’s still in my home.”

“The one with that absolutely garish streak of purple hair? Does she think she’s a fifteen year old emo chick or something?” Buster replied.

“Thank you, I’m so glad someone else thinks it looks ridiculous,” Bee said. “Everyone’s always complimenting her on her individuality, and how good it looks. But it’s ridiculous. Anyway, Angela, the one who’s standing at the door glaring at us, she can understand us speaking. She’s a witch. But see, she’s not allowed to tell any of the humans she’s a witch, so she has to hide her powers. So as long as there’s normal humans around, we can say what we want and she can’t do anything about it.”

I seethed with rage as Bee said all of this while looking right at me. I knew exactly what she was doing, and the worst part was, she was right! I couldn’t do anything about it. Not right now, anyway.

Shaking my head I turned on my heel and headed back into the exam rooms.

“I think Bee’s made herself a friend,” I told Sophie, who was just finishing cleaning up the room for the next patient.

“Really? Bee?” Sophie asked, incredulous.

“Yeah, I know, I wasn’t expecting it either. But she and Buster are sitting on top of a cabinet, judging people.

Sophie howled with laughter. “Oh, finally, another cat that’s exactly like Bee.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Bee having a friend wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, I’d just never seen it before. And honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could handle there being two Bees in the same town. For another thing, I wasn’t sure Bee would be able to handle it either.

“Ah well,” I said. “It’s not like Bee’s going to see Buster again until next year, when he needs another booster shot, in all likelihood.”

“True,” Sophie said. “Listen, I’ve been thinking about the murder. It feels like right now we’re only getting bits and pieces of information. We need more. A lot more.”

I nodded. “I agree, completely.”

“I think Corey can be strongly considered our main suspect, especially after what you overheard. But how are we going to prove that he did it? We need some more info,” Sophie continued.

“Definitely.”

“So I was thinking about that invisibility spell. I think we should use it again, and sneak onto the grounds. That way we can have a look around and see if we can find any documents or overhear anything else that might give us a hint.”

I shook my head slowly. “I like the idea, but the invisibility spell won’t work. It only makes us invisible, and the way Susan told me there’s sensors on the grounds, and a huge fence, we won’t be able to scale it at all. We need a way to get onto the property without being noticed, but also without actually touching the ground.”

Cogs whirred in my brain as I went over all the magic I knew. When I finally arrived at a solution, I knew we were going to need some help.

“I know what we can do, but we’re going to have to get Charlotte to do the magic.”

“Oh no, she’s never going to want to help!”

“We’re going to have to convince her that we need to do this. After all, she seems more into helping us now that I’m an actual murder suspect.”

“What’s your plan, anyway?”

“Charlotte has to turn us into birds. We can fly over the fence, and just hang out around everyone. Since it’s a farm, most of the people work outside anyway.”

“Turn us into birds?” Sophie replied, her eyes widening. “Is that a thing you can do?”

“Well, I can’t do it,” I replied. “I’m almost certain Charlotte can though. She spent so much more time than me studying magic, she knows a ton of spells that are way more advanced than what I can do.”

“Ok, fine, we’ll tell her when we go home. That’s our new plan. We turn into birds and go spying. Because that’s a totally normal thing.”

I laughed as Karen knocked on the door to announce the arrival of our next patient.

Chapter 8

“Are you kidding me? That’s your plan?” Charlotte was evidently going to take a bit of convincing to get on board.

“What?” I asked innocently, shrugging my shoulders. As soon as Charlotte had come home from her classes that afternoon I asked her if she was willing to turn us all into birds for a couple of hours so we could go spy on the people at Gibson Farms.

“Well for one thing, you seem to think that high-level magic has no consequences. Do you know how hard it is to turn someone into a bird from human form?”

“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be asking you to do it for me,” I replied, and I heard Sophie snicker behind me.

“It’s so dangerous! Things can go wrong. Very, very wrong. What if I mess it up and you end up half-bird, half human? Or what if I can’t turn you back?”

“Charlotte, we all know that if anyone can pull off a high-level spell, it’s you.”

“But there’s still risks involved!”

“A bigger risk than the idea that I’m a suspect in a murder investigation?” I asked. That stopped Charlotte, she looked like she was definitely going to give in.

“Fine,” she sighed. “We’ll do it. But if this goes badly, I want it on the record that this was so not my idea, and that I am not enthusiastic about it.”

“That’s fine, we know you hate all the good ideas anyway,” Sophie replied, and Charlotte glared at her.

“When are you guys thinking of doing this, anyway?” Charlotte asked.

“How about tomorrow afternoon?” I offered. “You have no classes on Saturdays, and I looked at the appointment book before we left, and we should be done by two thirty.” It seemed most people didn’t want to spend their nice summer weekend days at the vet’s office.

“Fine,” Charlotte said, resigned to the idea. “Oh!” she suddenly exclaimed, remembering something. She went back to the front hall and came back with this week’s copy of The Willow Bay Whistler, the local paper Jason Black worked for. “I almost forgot! I grabbed this when I was going through town on the way home. I imagine neither one of you thought to get a copy yourselves.”

To be totally honest, in all the excitement of the day, I’d completely forgotten that the Whistler came out on Fridays, and that Jason’s article about the murder might have just made the deadline. Sure enough, this week’s headline screamed: “Gibson Farms Owner Found Strangled.”

Sophie and I pored over the article. I smiled to myself as I read the headline; I imagined Chief Hawthorne hadn’t released the manner of death late last night, and was going to be pissed that the information had been leaked so quickly. Good, he deserved it.

Jason had actually managed to write a pretty decent amount for how little info he must have actually gotten yesterday. He wrote up a small history of the Gibson family on the Oregon Coast, a little bit about their most popular horses – including Touch of Frost, of course – and mainly just the information that Caroline Gibson had been found strangled on her estate. There was a picture of police cars driving into the estate yesterday afternoon to accompany the photo. He had even managed to get an interview with Tony, the jockey, who described Caroline Gibson as a terrible boss who was impossible to work for – the same sorts of things I’d heard him say over the body the day before. I begrudgingly admitted that Jason Black actually seemed to be a pretty decent reporter. It was also a reminder that I had to re-schedule our date. I quickly put that thought out of my head.

“Well, it doesn’t exactly have any new information,” Sophie said.

“You can’t honestly expect to solve a crime based on information from a local weekly paper,” Charlotte told Sophie, who shrugged.

“You never know, it was worth a shot.”

“That’s true, it was. What do you think about the comments Tony Clegg made about Gibson?”

This time it was my turn to shrug. “I don’t know. I mean, he said those same things over the body right after we’d discovered she was murdered. You’d think an actual murderer wouldn’t be so obvious about their hatred, but then what if that’s what he wants us to think? I don’t know. I still think Corey’s a much better candidate. Besides, Tony might have been with that trainer Philippe the whole time anyway. I’m not sure. Obviously, I can’t just ask him.”

Sophie threw up her hands. “I really hope tomorrow reveals a lot more to us than what we know now. I’m taking Sprinkles for a walk, and then going to bed.”

Sprinkles jumped up enthusiastically at the mention of a walk, while Bee looked at him scornfully from her spot on the windowsill.

“Why does he always get taken for a walk?” she asked me from her perch.

“Because he enjoys walks. I tried putting you on a leash once, and you made me literally drag you down to the mailbox and back because you refused to walk,” I replied.

“I did not.”

“I took video of it with my phone, if you’re pretending to forget that ever happened. It got over 10,000 views on YouTube.”

“YOU POSTED MY HUMILIATION ON THE INTERNET???” Bee screeched, and I had to work hard to stop myself from laughing.

“Of course I did, it was hilarious.”

“TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN NOW! WHAT IF PEOPLE SEE?”

“Lots of people have seen, Bee. Ten thousand views, remember?”

“Ohhhhhh my life is over,” Bee cried dramatically, throwing her paws over her eyes and crawling behind some books, knocking them off the shelf and onto the ground.

Charlotte was obviously trying to hide a smile at my cat’s tantrum. I went over to the shelf and put the books back in place, then asked Bee calmly, “Would you like to go for a walk now then?”

“Not with the leash on!” Bee cried.

“Well then you’re not going at all.”

“Why can’t I go out for a walk without my leash?”

“Because I don’t trust you one bit.”

“You hear that? The lady doesn’t trust me! I’ve been her faithful cat for years, and she doesn’t trust me!”

To be honest, it wasn’t just the idea of letting Bee off-leash outside before. I’d made her promise not to chase birds outside before and she’d obeyed, mainly just choosing to sun herself on the back deck, but there was something about wanting to go for a walk outside off her leash that made me suspicious. My cat was up to something, and Bee being up to something never meant anything good.

I bribed Bee into submission with a small piece of sushi, her new favourite treat, and headed off to bed myself. After all, tomorrow was going to be a big day.

At a quarter to three the next day, Charlotte, Sophie and I were all sitting in the living room.

“Alright, you guys are sure you want to do this?” Charlotte asked, and Sophie and I nodded.

“Ok. Well, the spell will turn you into the bird that most resembles your personality. I’ve left the living room window open, so when we’re all in bird form, we’ll fly out of there and to the Gibson Farm. Because I won’t be able to reverse the spell as a bird, I’m going to have to set it on a time. We’ll have two hours from start to finish before we turn back into humans. If nothing else, make sure you’re on the ground when those two hours are up, or you’re going to have a nasty return to earth. Got it?”

Sophie and I nodded once more.

Charlotte closed her eyes and pointed at Sophie. I had to admit, my heart was pounding in my chest a little bit. I knew Charlotte was an incredible witch, but this was still some high level, dangerous magic.

“Reformaroa avem duo horoas.”

Sophie was suddenly surrounded by a light so bright that Charlotte and I had to avert our eyes. It lasted a little under a second, and when we looked once more, Sophie had disappeared, and instead there was a bald eagle, with a very light streak of purple through its feathers.

“Sophie?” I asked, and she laughed.

“Oh my God! I’m an eagle now, right?”

I nodded. “This is amazing!”

“Stop wasting time, we can all appreciate our bird forms in a minute, when we’re all birds,” Charlotte scolded, and I sat there waiting for my turn.

“Reformaroa avem duo horoas.”

I saw the bright light, and it felt like my insides were being turned inside out. Kind of like that feeling you get when you’re on a roller coaster, and it goes over a big dip, but a hundred times stronger. Then, suddenly, the feeling was gone. I was looking up at Charlotte now, instead of being the same height as her.

Sophie was laughing next to me, while Charlotte was getting ready to cast the spell on herself.

“What?” I asked Sophie.

“It’s so fitting!” she said through fits of laughter. “You’re the world’s most annoying bird!”

I flew up to the mirror to see a tuft of dark blue and black feathers, little black eyes and a black head. I was a Steller’s Jay.

“Steller’s Jays are incredibly intelligent, thank you very much,” I replied haughtily as Charlotte suddenly became encased in the bright light as well. A moment later, we were looking at an all-black crow.

“Well, I guess it could be worse,” I said.

“Crows are the smartest birds, we’re corvids,” Charlotte said. “You’d think as a vet you would know that.”

“Well I’m the symbol of America, which makes me the greatest bird of all!” Sophie bragged, and I tried (and failed) to roll my new bird eyes into the back of my head.

“Ok, let’s stop bickering about whose bird is better, and let’s go,” Charlotte said, flying to the open window.

“No! Stay! Play with me,” I heard Bee whine as we flew up to the window. I had warned her we were transforming into birds and that if she knew what was good for her she wouldn’t try and catch us once we’d transformed, and she seemed fairly sulky about it. A moment later we flew off into the bright sunshine of a beautiful Saturday. We had two hours. Two hours to get as much information as we could.

Chapter 9

The act of flying itself felt incredibly cool. The three of us floated over Willow Bay, a simple beating of the wings giving us some extra power to keep going. I looked down at the town I loved while I got used to the feeling of rhythmically beating my wings, enjoying the feeling of the warm air against my face. This was awesome.

“You’re going to have to guide us to the farm,” Charlotte told me, so I headed out in front of the group. Sophie would occasionally fly higher than Charlotte and I dared, and then come back afterwards. Because we could fly straight to the farm – I seemed to have this weird ability to know exactly where to go, instinctively – rather than having to follow the roads, it only took about ten minutes of flying before I saw the long, guarded fence.

“Here we are,” I said, landing towards the top of a big tree about fifty feet away from the fence. I easily landed on one of the branches, and Charlotte landed on the one next to me. Sophie attempted to land on the one just above, but because of her extra size, the branch bent dangerously low. She let out an inelegant squawk before flying down to a lower, thicker branch and looking up at us with a look that was obviously a glare.

“Haha!” I teased, “Sophie’s a big fatty.”

“Oh shut up, at least I don’t sound like an angry elephant whenever I open my mouth,” Sophie retorted, and Charlotte flapped her wings a couple times.

“Come on, guys, we don’t have time for this. We need to get as much information as we can.”

“Ok,” I said. “The house is over that way, you can see it there. The stables where Touch of Frost is kept is that big wooden building to my left. I don’t think Sophie will be able to get in there, the door at the front is super secure, and the windows up top seem pretty narrow. So it’d have to be me or Charlotte that go in there. Behind the stables, that big paddock, is where most of the training happens.”

“I want to go check out the house, anyway. I’m going to go pretend to hunt rich people from my perch on their roof,” Sophie announced.

“Maybe remember the reason we’re here is to eavesdrop and spy, not to terrorize the rich,” I reminded Sophie.

“I’ll go see if that Corey is in the stables,” Charlotte said.

“So I guess that leaves me to hang around the paddock,” I replied. “Don’t forget to move around from time to time, it’ll look suspicious if we just hang around the one place for like ninety minutes.”

“Fine, enough with the lesson, I’m out of here,” Sophie said, flying off towards the house.

“We meet back home before the two hours are up, remember that,” Charlotte told me before soaring off towards the stable. I followed her, flying over the paddock behind the stable and getting a bit of the lay of the land.

There were two horses out, with two different jockeys. I could tell from up here that one of them was Tony, although I didn’t recognize the other one. Philippe was walking along the edge of the paddock, obviously giving out instructions from time to time.

I circled up above, watching the horses as they went through their daily training routines. Finally, I circled slowly down and aimed for the fence right next to where Philippe was.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t quite mastered the art of landing properly yet. Maybe making it into that tree the first time was a fluke; either way, I flew a little bit too low towards the fence and flew directly into it, landing with an awkward thud on the ground below.

I groaned to myself as I hoisted myself up and shook my feathers. I flew up once more and tried again, this time managing to land gingerly on the fence where I’d originally been aiming. Luckily, it didn’t seem that anyone noticed anything. That was one advantage to being a bird: most people just ignored you completely.

Hopping along the fence carefully, I made my way a little bit closer to Philippe.

At the far end of the paddock was a steeplechase setup, a fence for the horses to practice jumping over, with a bit of a pool on the other side that the horse had to miss as well.

For a couple of minutes, I watched as Philippe barked out orders. Eventually Tony ran and attempted to jump over the steeple, but the horse’s rear legs clipped the bar and it fell down into the water below.

“Bah!” Philippe spat, obviously disgusted. Tony came over with his horse, while the other jockey continued to do laps down the other end of the large paddock.

“You call dat jumpeeng?” Philippe asked in his strong French accent.

“Damn it, man, I’m a frigging murder suspect, give a dude a break, will you? The last guy was so much nicer,” Tony said, taking off his helmet and shaking the sweat off his hair.

“We are all suspects,” Philippe replied. “But dere is nothing we can do about eet now.”

“Yeah, well, forgive me if I’m a little bit distracted.”

Philippe just shrugged. “You are one of the world’s top jockeys. You are not paid to be distracted. You are riding one of dee finest horses ever. Figure it out.”

“Aren’t you just a little bit worried? Like, at all?”

“I am not the one who cursed the dead over the body in front of other people, like some kind of idiot.”

A flash of anger passed past Tony’s eyes.

“Well how the hell do I know it wasn’t you? You French are shifty to begin with, and you said you were going down to the house to get some water. You could have easily done it then.”

“As easily as you could have, while I was gone,” Philippe replied, his tone icy. It seemed that perhaps Tony’s words were beginning to affect him. “Besides, everyone knows you hated the woman. Whereas to me, she was a boss. I have had worse. Much, much worse. As a young man, in Genf, I was beaten if I didn’t do the work properly. You tell me, did Caroline Gibson ever beat me? No. Did she ever beat you? No. She should have. I would have, if she had let me, with your impertinent mouth. You are lucky dat you are such a good jockey.”

“Yeah, well, this is America,” Tony replied arrogantly. “We have worker’s rights here. And just because she didn’t beat you didn’t make her a good boss.”

“Who do you think did it, den?” Philippe asked. “You think it was me? You tell big, fat policeman de foreigner did it?”

Tony laughed, a hollow, empty laugh. “No. I wouldn’t tell that fat moron anything even if I knew. Everyone in town knows Hawthorne has the IQ of a slug. Can’t trust the man with a simple robbery without him bungling it. Plus, I don’t know who did it. You ask me though, I say Corey did it, so he can finally bang that chick without Caroline getting all pissy about it.”

It sounded like Corey and Ellie wanting to be together was the worst kept secret on the farm.

“Perhaps. Nothing makes a man so crazy as the love of a woman.”

“Especially when that woman is the only heir to a multi-million dollar empire,” Tony added, putting his helmet back on and leading his horse back out to the paddock.

Tony went back to his work and a few minutes later, realizing I wasn’t going to be getting any more information about the murder from the two of them, I flew up and landed on top of the stables – making extra certain that I stuck the landing on the first try, this time.

I replayed the conversation over in my mind, trying to think. There really wasn’t that much information here, other than the fact that Philippe didn’t really seem to have much motive to kill Caroline, Tony openly hated her, and both men had been left alone around the time of the murder. Either one of them could have done it.

Great. If only Philippe hadn’t gotten thirsty – although that could have just been an excuse, I reminded myself – then Philippe and Tony could have been each other’s alibi, and that would have eliminated two people from the pool of suspects.

I decided to fly out towards the house and see if there was anything I could discover there. Landing on the roof, I hopped from window to window, peeking my head inside. I passed a bedroom that surely had to be Ellie’s – every inch of it was pink, covered in stuffed pink bears – and a matching bathroom. I passed another bedroom that looked unlived in, which must have been a guest room, and another room that was obviously used for storage. When I hopped past the next window, however, I stopped. Susan was rummaging through a desk, obviously looking for something. I definitely hadn’t been dreaming this morning, she looked haggard and worried. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was looking for in the room that was obviously Caroline Gibson’s office.

It was done up in a modern style, with white walls and furniture, and pictures of Caroline lined all the walls, including a giant oil painting of Caroline on top of a horse in a giant frame behind the desk. The painter had been very generous when it came to Caroline’s proportions, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the portrait of Ben Stiller’s character in the movie Dodgeball, one of my favourite comedies of all time.

After a minute, through the window, I heard someone calling from downstairs, and Susan’s face went white. She scrambled to quickly put everything back the way it should be, and then quickly ran out the door, closing it before she went.

I wondered how on earth I was going to manage to get in there. The window was closed, after all. I doubted if my magic would work while I was in bird form, but I had to give it a try, didn’t I?

“Apertoa,” I tried, focusing hard on the window as I pointed my beak and one wing towards it. I felt the familiar pulse of energy coursing through me and out of my feather towards the window, and it opened about three inches. Not as far as it would have if I’d done the spell in human form, but good enough for a Stellar Jay to get through.

I glided over to the desk and landed carefully – I was finally getting the hang of things – and started looking over the papers. I ignored the ones on the top; whatever Susan was looking for obviously wasn’t right there. Using my beak I pushed some papers onto the floor, thinking that whoever came in here next would blame a gust of wind from the open window, and started looking through the papers.

There was really nothing exciting at all. Just some bank statements that I wished were my bank statements, going by the balance, a few old bill stubs, some tax forms, that sort of thing.

I looked at the drawers underneath. Jumping onto the handle, I began to pump my wings away from the desk, hoping to be able to open the drawer just enough to get inside. Luckily, on the third attempt, I managed to pry the drawer open far enough to be able to see what was inside.

On the very top of the drawer was a letter addressed to Caroline. I carefully pried it open with my feet and my mouth – or more accurately, my beak – dropped open as I read it.

Caroline,

I know you and I disagree about your daughter. I love Ellie, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. You’re her mother, not her owner. She’s an adult, and she can make her own decisions. Stop trying to keep her away from me, or I promise you, you’ll be sorry.

Corey

The letter was dated five days ago. I sat there, reading and re-reading the letter over and over, wondering if I could take it back with me, then realizing that no, I absolutely should leave it here. I supposed the cops hadn’t come around and looked at everything yet; they were bound to find it for sure.

Was this what Susan was looking for so frantically? And if so, why? Was she going to hide it from the police for Corey? What reason could she possibly have for doing so? It was obvious Corey loved Ellie.

Suddenly, a grandfather clock downstairs began to ring half past four, and I realized that the two hours were almost up. I had to get back home, and fast.

I dropped the letter back in the desk, pushed it closed by flying into the drawer, then quickly left out the window and flew back towards our home in Willow Bay.

Pumping my wings as fast as I could, I knew I was going to be cutting it close. I didn’t know exactly what time was two hours from the start of the spell, but it couldn’t be far. It had to be around a quarter to five. That much, I knew. The sense of pure relief I felt when I finally saw the house was palpable, I could see the open window we’d flown out from. With a final pump of my wings I flew towards it, when I realized in horror that my insides were starting to swirl again, that same feeling as when I’d been transformed into the bird. With the bright light around, I wasn’t sure if I’d made it into the house or not.

When the light finally disappeared, I saw Sophie laughing at me, just as Charlotte, still in crow form, began to shine brightly as she too turned human again. It took me a second to figure out why Sophie was laughing: I’d transformed right in the middle of the window, and I was stuck. My body was inside the house, but my legs were still sticking outside, flailing aimlessly at the nothingness below the window.

“Yeah, that’s a way better reaction than coming over to help,” I complained grumpily as Charlotte reappeared in front of me, like magic. Well, I supposed it was magic.

“Maybe you should consider a diet,” Sophie laughed as she got up off the couch and hoisted me through the rest of the window, then closed it behind me. I fell to the floor with an inelegant thud, and a minute later Sprinkles was on top of me, taking advantage to give me as many kisses as possible.

“Hi, Sprinkles! I missed you too,” I said, patting him as I laughed. I was always ticklish when dogs decided to give me kisses.

“You’re back! You’re back!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, we are back,” I said.

“You have to go find the cat!”

“The cat?” I asked.

“Yes, she left right after you did and she’s not back yet.”

I sighed and sat up. Of course Bee was going to make today even harder.

Chapter 10

“Ok, we wait until we find Bee to talk about what we found out,” Sophie said. She could understand Sprinkles, but only Sprinkles.

“Bee!” Charlotte called out, but I shook my head.

“Sprinkles said she left out the window when we left, she’s gone outside.”

“I didn’t even think of having to close it for the cat,” Charlotte replied, her eyes widening.

“I know, me neither. To be honest, I never really expected her to do anything like that. She’s usually so lazy!”

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Sophie said as we headed to the front door. “Wanna go for a walk, Sprinkles? Come help find Bee?”

“Do I?” Sprinkles asked, bounding over the back of the couch to get to the front door as quickly as possible, his tail wagging at top speed as Sophie grabbed his leash.

The three of us went out, then decided to separate and meet back at the house in twenty minutes. I went towards downtown, calling out for my cat every few seconds.

“Bee! Bee!” I called, not caring about how foolish I felt. I had to admit, there was a tightness in my chest. I was definitely worried about my cat. I knew Bee was able to take care of herself, but at the same time, I also knew that the outdoors wasn’t necessarily a safe place for a cat.

I checked behind fences, asked the neighbors that I saw, but no one had seen any sign of Bee. Eventually, when the time was up, I headed back up to the house, dejected. I would put a piece of sushi out on the porch for her in the hopes that she’d smell it and come home, I thought to myself as I got back to the driveway. I met Charlotte about a hundred feet from home, and Sophie and Sprinkles were just walking up the driveway as we got there.

Suddenly, Sophie let out a yell. “Bee!”

I ran up past her, looking to what Sophie was looking at. Sure enough, sitting on the mat in front of the door was my little black cat, all curled up in a ball.

“Oh, Bee!” I said, running up and picking up the cat, and holding her close.

“What is it? What are you doing to me? Why are you holding me like that?” Bee asked grumpily.

“It’s called a hug, Bee. I’m so glad you’re ok!”

“Of course I’m ok. Why wouldn’t I be? Except you idiots closed the window so I couldn’t get inside.”

“Because the world is dangerous for a little kitty like you. Where were you, anyway?”

“What, a girl can’t go for a stroll without getting the third degree?”

“Not when that girl is a cat who’s never done it before!” My relief was turning into a motherly need to know exactly what my cat had snuck out to do.

“I wanted to just see the neighbourhood, since you wouldn’t take me for a walk earlier. Don’t worry, I didn’t kill anything. I just walked around.”

I narrowed my eyes at Bee, who jumped up onto the back of the couch as I opened the front door and started innocently licking her paw. Of course, the idea that she would sneak out just to get back at me for not taking her out earlier did in fact sound exactly like something Bee would do.

“Well, don’t do it again,” I warned, mentally thinking to myself that I was absolutely going to make sure my cat had zero ways to get out of the house without permission in the future. The kitty door she had installed and only ever used to get into the house when we came back from work was so getting taken out.

“Sure, whatever. Now where’s my dinner, I’m hungry.”

I rolled my eyes as I went to the cupboard and grabbed a tin of food.

“Well now that that emergency’s over, what did you guys find out at the farm?” I asked Sophie and Charlotte, who had settled themselves down on the couch. I put out Bee’s food, did the same for Sprinkles, then grabbed a bag of white cheddar popcorn and put it in between us as I joined the others on the couch.

“Honestly, I didn’t really find out a lot,” Charlotte said, sounding disappointed. “I saw Corey. He did a bunch of work, he was pretty rushed today. Apparently he spent the day at another farm, he was talking to Touch of Frost and told him that his son was doing really well. It was obvious he loves the horses. And then he went and saw Ellie. He kissed her, and told her that they could be together now. She told him that she wanted to wait a little while before they made their relationship public, to keep people from thinking he could have killed Caroline so they could be together. He said fine, but insinuated that they could keep meeting secretly. He also said he didn’t want to wait that long, that he had waited long enough to be able to be with her. So really, nothing we didn’t know.”

“I saw Susan, she looked strained. It seemed like every time there was the tiniest little sound she jumped about three feet. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she thought she was going to be murdered any second as well,” Sophie added. “I didn’t see her do anything incriminating though, I left just as she went up the stairs to do something to get back here in time.”

“Well I can tell you what she did do,” I added, and with that, I told Sophie and Charlotte about the letter I’d found, threatening Caroline.

“Wow,” Sophie whispered. “So that pretty much seals it. He had means, motive and opportunity. More than anyone else, at any rate.”

“But what can we do about it?” Charlotte asked. “I don’t trust that moron of a policeman to get there on his own.”

“We need to go over to see him and tell him we know,” I finally answered. “What I don’t understand is why do it when literally everyone knows about their relationship. I mean, Philippe and Tony were talking about it, too.”

“Sometimes love makes people do crazy things,” Sophie replied.

“I guess the girl who got arrested on a date for having sex at the top of the water tower would know,” I replied, and Sophie stuck her tongue out at me.

“That was a long time ago.”

Before I had a chance to retort, however, I got a text. I checked my phone and saw it was from Jason.

How about we try again for tomorrow night? He asked.

Sure, I replied. I knew if I didn’t agree soon, I was definitely going to get cold feet about the whole date thing. I still wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

“Ok. So we’re sure that Corey killed Caroline Gibson. Now, we have to go convince him to turn himself in.”

“What if he’s dangerous?” Charlotte asked, looking worried.

“There are three of us to one of him,” Sophie replied. “Besides, I’ll bring a knife.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal,” Charlotte replied.

“Would you rather be a dead law-abiding citizen, or a living lawbreaker?” Sophie asked, and for a moment I wasn’t actually sure what Charlotte was going to reply.

“Fine,” she finally said. “When do you guys want to go?”

“Definitely tonight,” I replied. “It’s still going to be light for a few hours, and since he works with horses Corey will be up super early tomorrow, and I have no intention of getting up at 4 on my day off.”

“Do you know where he lives?” Sophie asked, and I shook my head.

“Well that’s easily taken care of, I’ll be back in a minute,” Charlotte replied. She grabbed her phone and went into her room, and came back less than five minutes later.

“He lives in Wawnee, I have the address here,” she said when she came back out, waving a piece of paper in her hand.

“How on earth did you find that out so fast?” I asked, impressed.

“This is Willow Bay. You call the right people, you can get any information you want.”

That was true, I had to say. “Ok, let’s get going,” I encouraged, grabbing a jacket off the back of a chair and my phone. I got another text from Jason.

The pub, tomorrow at 7?

Sounds good, I replied as the three of us ran out the door. I briefly considered texting Jason where we were going just in case anything did happen to us, then figured I was overreacting. Nothing was going to happen, we were just going to talk to Corey and convince him to turn himself in. Or at least, get him to admit what he’d done.

As Sophie drove to his address I installed an app to record conversations on my phone. If at the very least we could get him to admit to us that he’d killed Caroline Gibson, the police could use that as evidence.

About fifteen minutes later – Sophie wasn’t a big fan of obeying things like speed limits – we pulled up in front of Corey’s home. It was a small, slightly run-down bungalow, a pretty decent bachelor pad. I had to admit, as the three of us started towards the front door, my heart began to pound in my chest. We were about to confront a murderer!

I had a feeling, given how slowly we were walking towards his door, that I wasn’t the only one who was suddenly riddled with doubts about what we were doing. Maybe we should just leave and call the police? Maybe we should wait for them to find the note and then let them come to this same conclusion?

Before I had a chance to back out, however, Sophie took a step forward and knocked confidently on the door.

As soon as her knuckle hit the wood, however, the door creaked open. The three of us looked at each other.

“What should we do?” Sophie hissed.

“Obviously we should go inside and make sure everything’s ok,” I said. “What if he’s hurt, or his place has been robbed, or something?”

“What if the robbers are still in there though?” Charlotte hissed.

“Does it look like anyone’s in there to you?” I asked, motioning at the still darkness inside.

“You never know! Why don’t we just leave and call the police?”

“Oh you’re such a baby,” Sophie said, pushing the door open and going in. “There. Now you can stay out here and call the cops, or you can come in too.”

I stepped over the doorway after Sophie and followed her in. I heard Charlotte sigh and follow in after me.

This was hands down the creepiest place I’d ever been to. It wasn’t that there was anything weird about it; actually it looked exactly how you’d expect the home of a single man in his early 30s to look. But it was just so dark and still. Something about it gave me the creeps.

Sophie quickly took out her phone and turned on the flashlight app. A blaze of light suddenly illuminated the room, which showed itself to be just an entry leading to a hallway up the end that went to the kitchen, and a living room to the right. We poked our heads into the living room and saw it was empty, other than a giant flat screen TV, an Xbox One and a handful of games to go with it.

The three of us made our way down the hallway, silently, huddled together. This place was Creepy with a capital ‘C’. As soon as we reached the kitchen, Sophie let out a small gasp. I looked past her and saw Corey lying on the ground, completely still.

Before I had a chance to do anything, Charlotte’s training as a doctor kicked in. She pushed her way past the two of us and immediately made her way to his body, while I grabbed my phone and dialled 9-1-1 for the second time in three days. While I was on the phone with the operator, Charlotte shook her head, her fingers on Corey’s neck, checking for a pulse. He was dead.

Chapter 11

When I got off the phone, the three of us stood there in silence. We knew not to touch anything.

“Do you think he was murdered?” Sophie finally asked. I nodded, motioning to where a tiny bit of blood had pooled behind his head.

“Yeah, look at that. Something hit him in the head, and if he just passed out and hit his head on the counter or something, that would be covered in blood. I’ve watched enough CSI to know that’s a murder.”

“Well I guess we can rule him out as Caroline Gibson’s murderer then,” Sophie said, slowly. “Although I’ll still wait for the actual professionals to declare it a murder, as much as I trust your credentials as a person who watches a lot of CSI.”

“I think we should go wait for the cops outside,” Charlotte finally said, and the three of us made our way onto the front porch. It was strange, going back out into the sunny world, knowing there was a dead body only a few feet away. And unlike when I’d found Tony Nyman’s body in my vet clinic a few months earlier, I had known Corey. I’d spent some time with him, and he was a nice guy, even though up until a few minutes ago I also thought he was a murderer.

I found myself strangely moved by his death, and I sat down on the porch steps to collect my thoughts while I waited for the cops to arrive. Sophie, noticing my melancholy, sat down next to me and draped her arm over my shoulder while we waited.

About ten minutes later an ambulance arrived, as did the coroner and Chief Hawthorne.

“Seems every time a body pops up around here you’re involved,” he said as he waddled up to where I was sitting.

“Yeah, she’s a master criminal who murdered a guy then called the cops herself. Great deduction there, Sherlock,” Sophie snapped at him, the filter on her mouth decidedly turned to “off” today.

“It’s ok, Sophie, relax,” I murmured as Hawthorne looked her up and down, leering at her in a way that made me want to throw up. Sophie, to her credit, just glared a look at Hawthorne that I didn’t want to be on the other end of.

“You better watch your mouth, girlie,” he told her, “Or I’m gonna have to arrest you, and believe me, I’d really enjoy putting handcuffs on you.”

Sophie shuddered in disgust. “I guess unwillingly is the only way you get girls to touch you,” she replied, and I closed my eyes and shook my head. Sophie really didn’t know when to stop.

Hawthorne grunted and looked like he was about to arrest her when one of his cops came running out of the house.

“Chief, where are you? We need you in here, this is almost certainly another murder.”

“I’ll be back, don’t you move from here,” Hawthorne grunted before following the other cop into the house.

“I knew you said he was disgusting, but boy was that a whole other level,” Sophie said, shaking her head.

“Seriously, you’re going to get arrested if you keep mouthing off to him,” I told her. “Just say as little to him as possible, I find that’s the best way to get away from him quickly.”

We looked over to where Charlotte was talking to one of the other officers. “Let’s go over there,” I continued. “If we can get someone else to take our statements, maybe we can get out of here before we have to see him again.”

Sure enough, the other police officer was taking Charlotte’s statement. “If the two of you want to speak to those two officers over there, they’ll be happy to take your statements as well,” he told us, motioning to two men who were busy setting up the yellow police tape cordon along the edge of the property.

“I get the one on the left,” Sophie said. “He’s hotter.”

“You have a boyfriend!” I reminded her.

“I’m just going to look at the goods, not sample them,” she replied, rolling her eyes. I sighed and went over to the other guy, one of those men that you just know coaches both his kids’ soccer teams, whose wife volunteers for everything, and whose kids are straight A students who play soccer, do gymnastics and swimming. He was in his late 30s, maybe early 40s, with just a sliver of grey beginning to show at his temples, and that authoritarian look that said he was stern, but also approachable. When he saw Sophie and I coming, he quickly finished up what he was doing and gave us his full attention.

“What can I help you with, ladies?” he asked.

“That man over there,” I said, motioning to the cop talking to Charlotte, “told us to come here and that you and your colleague could take our statements.”

“Of course,” he said. “Let me get out my notebook and I’ll be right with you.”

Sophie hung around the other guy, so that I ended up speaking with the firm but fair parent type.

We went through the usual introductions, I found out his name was Officer Lindmark, and he began to take down my account of what had happened that night.

About ten minutes in, however, a late-model white Lexus SUV pulled up in front of the house, tires squealing. I looked up in surprise and saw Ellie jump out of the drivers’ seat, practically screaming.

“No! No, you arrested him, didn’t you? You animals, Corey’s innocent! Corey! I love you! I know you didn’t do it!” she screamed as two other officers grabbed her before she reached the yellow cordon and took her aside. I didn’t hear them say the words, but I knew what she’d been told as soon as the wailing began.

“No! Corey! No, no, no! This can’t be happening. Corey, I love you so much! Come out here and see me, Corey! Come on out! Please! Come out and see your Ellie! Please!”

She broke down into incoherent sobbing and my heart went out to the poor girl who’d lost her mother and her boyfriend over the course of just a few days. Eventually the paramedics who had shown up took care of her, giving Ellie a sedative and loading her up into the ambulance; I figured she’d be spending the night at the hospital. Poor girl.

As we drove home, Charlotte said what I knew we were all thinking.

“So if Corey wasn’t the murderer, who was?”

Wasn’t that the million dollar question?

“I have no idea,” Sophie replied. “We’re really back to step one.”

“I agree,” I said. “I’d have to say Tony is the only other person who obviously had problems with Caroline Gibson, and seemed vocal about it.”

“Can we eliminate Ellie from suspicion now?” Sophie asked. “After all, I could see her wanting to whack her mom for stopping her from being with her boyfriend, but she had no reason to kill Corey whatsoever.”

I nodded. “For sure. I never liked Ellie as a suspect to begin with. She’s a very sweet girl. A little bit naïve, and immature for her age, but definitely a good kid. Plus, we all saw what she was like over there. She was totally distraught.”

“It could all be acting,” Charlotte offered, “but I tend to agree. I don’t think she’s the one who killed Corey, or her mother. For the same reason Sophie thinks. She might have had a motive to kill her mom, but now that motive has turned up dead. No, she wouldn’t have killed them both.”

“Who else are the suspects again?” Sophie asked. I rattled them off on my fingers.

“There’s Susan, the housekeeper. I honestly didn’t really think of her as a suspect. She seemed like just an efficient woman, but she definitely was different after Caroline Gibson was killed. I don’t know if she’s just sensitive or what, but she didn’t really give off that impression. So who knows. Then there’s Philippe, the trainer. He seems to really not care about Caroline Gibson one way or the other. Said he’s had way worse bosses than her, and given what I’ve heard about horse racing people, I can definitely believe it. There’s also Tony, the jockey. He definitely hated Caroline. Granted, I haven’t exactly seen a lot of murder victims, but he was downright mean to her while standing over her corpse. It takes a certain kind of person to do that; I didn’t like her at all but even I would have never, ever said anything like what he did, especially not while standing over her body. And then there’s Polly, Caroline Gibson’s best friend. I get the feeling she’s the type who’s always happy playing second fiddle to the star, who in this case was Caroline. The type of friend whose generosity is taken advantage of, but who doesn’t really mind. I can’t really see her killing Caroline, to be honest. It was obvious when I met her that they were really good friends, and as far as I know she was in the house when Caroline was killed.”

“I think we should focus on Tony,” Sophie announced. “None of the others seem to really have anything against Caroline. That’s what made me so sure it had been Corey; he really had a reason to dislike her.”

“Agreed,” I replied as we pulled into our home back in Willow Bay. “I think he’s now the strongest suspect.”

“We have to figure out where he was last night, that’ll be the best way to figure out if he did it. If he has a good alibi, well, we know it wasn’t him. If he doesn’t, well we can keep investigating.”

“Ok, but can we get started on that tomorrow?” Charlotte asked. “This has been a pretty big day, and I am dead tired. I’m going to bed.”

As she yawned loudly, I realized just how exhausted I was as well. Who knew spending the afternoon as a bird and finding a dead body in the evening could be so tiring?

Chapter 12

As the next day dawned, I realized that I had way more important things to deal with than a murderer on the loose. Namely, the fact that I had a date with Jason Black that night.

“Ugh, I’m going to text him and cancel,” I said that morning as Sophie made pancakes, covering my face with a pillow.

“You are so not doing that,” Sophie said. “Besides, I knew you were going to threaten that, so I already took your phone and hid it. You’re going on that date.”

“That’s so unfair. I hate you so much.”

“Yeah, well, too bad. It’s for your own good.”

“Gee, thanks mom,” I replied sarcastically.

“Now remember, do as little talking as possible. Men like to talk about themselves, and you are quite frankly horrendous at flirting.”

“Oh my God! I might not be the best at it, but I’m not that bad.”

“You really are. Remember in middle school when you decided you had a crush on Kevin Maroney? You ended up joining band just to hang out with him, and then you hit him with your tuba and knocked him out.”

“It was an accident!” I protested.

“Yeah, that’s the point of the story.”

“I’m an adult now, anyway.”

“I know, but you have so little experience with men that I just always feel like you’re going to screw things up completely,” Sophie replied.

“Well thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We can’t all go around sampling the goods until we find one we like.”

“Are you calling me a slut?” Sophie asked, hands on her hips.

“I am.”

“Well I guess that’s probably pretty accurate,” she replied with mock outrage, collapsing into a fit of giggles. “I’m taken for good now, though. Taylor and I are serious.”

“Good, he’s the best guy you’ve dated, well, ever,” I replied, stealing a pancake off the plate and shoving it whole into my mouth.

“Things you probably shouldn’t do tonight include eating food like that, Liz Lemon,” Sophie scolded, and I laughed with my mouth full. 30 Rock was still one of my favourite comedies of all time.

“I’m going to go ride my bike around town, since it’s such a nice day,” I told Sophie.

“Good plan. I’m taking Sprinkles with Taylor and we’re going to go down to the beach.”

“Are we? I love the beach! I love it so much! You’re the best!” Sprinkles said, shooting up from where he was lying on his bed.

“Ugh, he’s so enthusiastic about everything, that dog disgusts me,” Bee said, and I chose to ignore her complaining. Bee was not on my good side after her adventures last night.

An hour later I’d taken out my mountain bike, made sure it was still in good working order, and headed off to some of the easy trails around Willow Bay.

One of the amazing things about this area is that there are so many things to do. Around the town is a network of around 70 miles of mountain bike trails, everything from easy to expert. Of course, I was decidedly not an expert mountain biker, but I could definitely handle the easy, doubletrack trails that were more designed for families and people looking for an easy ride. There was one trail in particular that went from near our house, behind Willow Bay and made its way ten miles out to a beautiful scenic point overlooking the town from the other side of the bay. I decided I was going to tackle this trail today.

I grabbed a water bottle, changed into my workout clothes and got ready for my ride. The first few miles were in thick forest, which was nice. I could hear the birds singing their morning song, and even saw a doe with her little foal crossing the path in front of me. Eventually, the path opened up on the right to give a beautiful view of the water below, and about an hour later I was at the lookout point. I rested my bike against the back of a bench while I sat in and enjoyed the view. Listening to the sound of the waves rhythmically pounding the shore, the warm summer sun on my face, a soft breeze blowing against my slightly sweaty skin, I thought about how perfect this morning really was.

I hadn’t been on my bike in almost a year, and it felt really, really good. After about half an hour of lazing around on the bench, I headed back into town. At the last second I took a different fork at the end of the path that led me to downtown Willow Bay. I was going to stop at Betty’s Café for some takeaway lunch! After all, I’d just biked twenty miles, if anyone deserved a veggie BLT right now, it was me.

I locked up my bike against a lightpost outside the café, knowing full well that my old, beat up mountain bike wasn’t worth anything, and most bike thieves from Portland never bothered to come down to Willow Bay anyway, but you could never be too safe.

To my surprise, when I opened the door to the café, that same guy in the suit that I’d run into the other day was standing at the counter, grabbing a coffee.

“Imagine seeing you again, it must be fate,” he said with a smile.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied, not really thinking about it.

“I’m Matt, by the way,” he told me, holding out a hand.

“Angela,” I replied, not wanting to be rude by refusing to talk to him. I wasn’t a fan of his fairly obvious flirting, and I really just wanted to eat my BLT in peace.

“Are you from around here?” he asked.

“I own the vet clinic down the street.”

“Oh, nice!” he replied, obviously impressed. Or at least pretending to be. “Well, I’ve got to go. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other,” he replied, grabbing his coffee and heading off. I didn’t reply and looked after him, slightly confused.

“What did he mean by ‘We’ll be seeing more of each other?’” I asked, half to myself, half to Betty behind the counter. Her face was grim.

“Haven’t you heard?” she asked.

“Heard what?”

“Matt Smith is some fancy businessman from Portland. Got his MBA from Wharton or something, thinks he knows everything about everything. He wants to buy up a chunk of Main Street and modernize it, bring Willow Bay to the 21st century or something.”

“Seriously? Does he not understand the concept of small-town charm? You turn downtown into a bunch of soulless white buildings and no one will come here anymore.”

“I know. I’ve told him that, but he’s convinced we’re small town morons who don’t understand how business works.”

Great. Another idiot from the big city who wanted to try and make a profit at our expense. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Luckily, so far Willow Bay had managed to avoid any kind of major changes to the town for a long time. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long before this Matt Smith realized how terrible an idea he had and left town for good; the people who tried these sorts of things never stayed long term.

I ordered one of my BLTs and a slice of Betty’s new chocolate pecan cheesecake – which the whole town had been clamouring for ever since Jason broke the news in the Whistler that she was going to be offering it – along with a coffee and sat down at a table in the corner by myself, deciding to spend my lunch people-watching.

A few minutes later Betty brought me my sandwich and coffee, promising to bring the cake along when I finished. It was obvious from looking around that tourist season was well and truly starting. At one of the tables in the other corner was a family whose son was wearing a Seattle Totems minor hockey jacket, a couple of young Japanese tourists were sitting by the window enjoying a slice of cake while comparing photos and a young mother wearing a Portland hotel work uniform was sitting at the counter with her baby, feeding him the occasional bit of the slice of cake she was eating.

Just as I was finished up my sandwich and Betty brought me my slice of cake, an elderly couple sat down next to me and began to speak in another language. They had their guide books out, and I vaguely began to pay attention as they stopped Betty on her way back to the coffee machine.

“Excuse me,” the man asked in halting English.

“Yes?” Betty asked, a smile on her face.

“Kalifornien. How far from here?”

“Where?” Betty asked, confusion forming on her face.

“Kalifornien.”

“California,” I offered helpfully, trying to hide my smile. Betty was the world’s nicest person, but I’d be surprised if she had ever gone further than Seattle before in her life, and she often had trouble with accents. I wasn’t surprised that someone using a foreign word for the state name, no matter how similar it was to the English version, confused her.

“Ah, thanks Angela,” she told me. “Yes, California is five hours by car to the border. San Francisco is ten hours away.”

“Thank you very much,” the woman replied, giving Betty and I both a smile.

“Where are you from, anyway?” Betty asked them kindly.

“We are from Sweden,” the man replied. “Our first trip to Amerikas.”

“Well, enjoy! Have fun,” Betty told them before heading back behind the counter. “Let me know if you have any other questions.” They thanked her profusely and then went back to their guide books as I finished my cake. This was the sort of thing that you couldn’t invent in a town like Willow Bay. Even though she barely understood them, I knew Betty would make every effort to help the Swedish couple figure out what they needed, if they asked her. That was the sort of thing people like Matt Smith didn’t understand: this town had soul. It had spirit. And trying to turn it into a whitewashed modern resort like the ones you saw on TV in places like Hawaii was just not what Willow Bay was about.

Finishing off my cake, I took the plate back to Betty and thanked her.

“No problem! Thanks for the help with that tourist couple.”

“Anytime, Betty. See you later!”

“For sure.”

Checking my watch, I noticed it was still early in the afternoon. I could go home and spend a little bit of time relaxing in front of the TV for a couple of hours before I had to get ready for my date with Jason. Because yeah, that was a thing that was still happening. I didn’t know if I was looking forward to it, or if I was dreading it more than anything I’d ever done. Possibly a little bit of both.

Chapter 13

“You’re wearing that?” Sophie asked as I came out of my bedroom.

“Seriously? What’s wrong with this?” I asked, looking incredulous.

“I’m with the dog owner on this one,” Bee added unhelpfully.

“What do cats even know about fashion?” I shot at her. I’d decided to go with something simple, but a little bit flirty. A nice pair of dark blue bootcut jeans, with a flowy, pink and flowery hippy top.

“Not slutty enough,” Sophie said. “You want to wear something that says ‘I’ll definitely give it up for you, and possibly tonight, but definitely by date three’.”

“That is not at all what I want my clothing choice to say.”

“Well it should be.”

“I knew there was a reason I didn’t ask you for your advice.”

“Yeah, well, one of us has a little bit more experience than the other in these sorts of things.”

“And one of us hasn’t dated anyone who turned out to be a criminal.”

“Yet! Remember, you thought Jason Black was a murderer.”

“It turned out he wasn’t. If he had been a murderer, I can say with confidence that I would not be going on this date. Which I wasn’t even looking forward to, until now, because at least leaving here means I can leave your judgemental ass behind,” I shot back at Sophie, who laughed.

“Fine, wear the prude outfit. You look good, seriously. You always look good Angela. Go out there and have some fun, ok? You of all people deserve it. And if he ends up being super weird or whatever, at least you’ll get a good story out of it.”

“A good story that I’m sure you’ll never let me forget for as long as I live.”

Sophie beamed. “Exactly.”

I shot Sophie a smile, gave me a quick pat on the head that earned me a scowl and a demand to bring home some Sushi when I was finished putting out, and I grabbed my purse and headed out the door to the first date I was going to have been on in a long, long time.

I got to the Seaside Pub right on time. Jason was already waiting for me; he’d scored a booth out towards the back. My stomach did a little flip-flop as soon as I saw him, which was incredibly annoying. It wasn’t my fault though; his hair had that same just-got-out-of-bed look it always had, and he was smiling, which made his chiselled cheekbones stand out. It wasn’t that I actually liked him, it was just that my body was betraying me in every single way. I made my way over to him, where he already had a beer sitting in front of him, and one for me as well.

“How did you know I liked beer?” I asked, taking a sip of what ended up being an awesome craft beer from Cascade Brewing Company up in Portland.

“I just kind of hoped,” he said, grinning, as the waitress brought over a couple menus. “So how are things going? Thanks for that tip on the murder, by the way.”

“Yeah, well, I really just hated the cop in charge and wanted to make his life a bit more hellish.”

Jason pretended he’d been stabbed in the heart. “And here I thought it was because you were so impressed with my journalistic integrity, you wanted me on the case.”

“Sure, that too,” I replied. “I liked your article though.”

My brain kept going stop talking about work. Stop talking about work and a murder case. Seriously, this is a date, murder is not a good first date subject, but I couldn’t stop.

“Thanks. I got some good props from my boss for it, we beat all the dailies in Portland to the scoop. But it still wasn’t worth missing this date with you,” he replied, and I could feel the redness crawling all the way up my face. I decided to bury it in the menu to hide my embarrassment. Plus, I just straight up had no idea what to reply, so I decided to let him comment hang there awkwardly between us instead. Way better.

“So, how are you liking Willow Bay?” I eventually asked. I knew it was lame, I just couldn’t think of anything else to say at all.

“It’s pretty cool here. I like it. Totally different from the big city, but in a good way. I can see why people come here on holidays.”

“So you’re not going to just pack up and leave anytime soon?” I asked, and Jason looked at me funny.

“No, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, that blush creeping back up my face, and Jason laughed.

“Are you this incredibly awkward with everyone you meet, or is it just me?”

“It’s mostly just you,” I had to admit.

“That’s ok, with my stunning good looks, I get that a lot,” he joked, and I just knew my face had reached a shade that could kindly be described as “tomato”.

“That’s so not it,” I stammered, just as the waitress came by to take our orders. She barely even glanced at me as I ordered a black bean burger with sweet potato fries. All her energy was focused on Jason, so much so that it was actually kind of comical. She made sure to ‘accidentally’ brush his arm as she went to grab the menus, too.

“There’s like an eighty percent chance I’m not going to get my burger at all,” I told him when she left. “And I have no idea if it’ll be on purpose to spite me, or if it’ll be because she legitimately didn’t notice I was here.”

Jason laughed. “Yeah, well, that’s just one of the downfalls of being on a date with me. I promise you can share my fish and chips if you don’t get any food.”

“As much as I’d love to, I’d have to stick to the chips. I’m a vegetarian,” I told him.

“Oh really? If I’d known I wouldn’t have ordered something with meat in it. My bad,” he told me, and I had to admit, despite the fact that Jason Black was infuriating, it was really nice of him to say that. Most people, when they found out I was vegetarian, still ate meat around me. And while I absolutely didn’t mind them doing that at all, I still appreciated the few people that did do it.

“It’s ok,” I told him with a smile. “Thanks, though.”

“Any specific reason you’re vegetarian? Health? Don’t like factory farming?”

I can speak to animals and I can’t stand eating the flesh of a being I’ve had conversations with was the truth. But of course, I was absolutely not allowed to say that to Jason.

“I don’t like the idea of feeding on meat when there are so many other options,” I told him. “I’m a vet, I’m supposed to help animals, not contribute to their deaths by eating them.”

“Cool. I grew up in an Italian family, despite the name, so meat wasn’t necessarily a big part of the diet. Like eighty percent of what I eat is carbs.”

“I wish I could do that and keep a figure.”

“I dunno, I think your figure’s not half bad.”

There was that blush again. Our food arrived just then, thankfully my burger did in fact, show up.

I poured ketchup onto it and took a big bite while Jason watched on in amusement.

“What?” I asked with my mouth full.

“Nothing, nothing,” he replied.

Ok, maybe Sophie had a point about me not having a ton of practice with dating.

“So are you trying to figure out who committed this murder, too?” Jason asked with a small smile on his face.

“What makes you think I’m trying to solve a murder?”

“Well for one thing, you pretty much solved the last two we had here. Willow Bay’s very own Sherlock Holmes. Plus my guess is you’re actually a suspect in this one.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely true.”

“I’ve asked around about Hawthorne, the Wawnee chief, and let’s just say people pretty universally think he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“What I don’t understand is how people like that manage to get a job like his!”

“People always rise to a level they can’t do. You promote people over and over, but you never demote them. So eventually, everyone ends up in a job that they’re in over their head in, but they can’t get out of it. Unless they really screw up, and then they get fired. But that often doesn’t happen, so you end up with people like that in a position of power instead of sitting behind a desk taking reports of teenagers smoking pot behind the high school on weekends, which is really what a person of his calibre should be spending his time doing.”

I laughed. Jason’s theory actually made a lot of sense. And he was funny! Who knew someone so infuriating and annoying could actually be funny, too.

Uh oh. I realized with a start that I was actually enjoying myself.

“Anyway, even if I was trying to figure out who murdered Caroline Gibson, I’d be pretty bad at it. Our prime suspect, Corey, the stable manager, was murdered last night.”

“Yeah, I saw that. I didn’t know he was your main suspect.”

“He was dating Caroline Gibson’s daughter, Ellie, but really secretly because she didn’t approve.” I started to almost tell him about the letter I’d found, but then I’d have to admit that I’d broken into Gibson Farms somehow, and that was one thing I really didn’t want to have to explain.

“What about the others?”

“To be honest,” I replied, dipping a fry in some ketchup and popping it into my mouth, “no one else really stands out. The jockey openly hated her, but he’s almost so vocal about it that it makes him less of a suspect somehow.”

It was funny, I found it really easy to talk to Jason. Before I knew it, two hours had passed, the waitress was giving me the stink eye every time she walked past our table, and the sun outside had well and truly dipped below the horizon.

We finally got up to leave, and Jason grinned.

“See? Going out with me wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“I’ve definitely had worse first dates.”

“Well, that’s about all I can hope for, isn’t it? How about another one sometime? Maybe catch up for lunch and a coffee one day when you’re free?”

“Sure,” I found myself answering, and for the first time since I’d known Jason, my brain didn’t start screaming at me, wondering what kind of crazy folly I’d just signed up for. Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad as I’d thought.

I went home, knowing I was going to get a barrage of “I told you so” from both Charlotte and Sophie, and I smiled. Totally worth it.

Chapter 14

The next day at the vet’s office was fairly uneventful, luckily. Just the usual – a lab that had eaten a plastic toy who was now on poop-watch to see if he’d manage to get rid of it himself, a puppy needing vaccinations, a sick cat who needed fluids and antibiotics and an old dog who came in for his yearly blood screening.

Thankful for at least one drama-free day, as soon as my phone buzzed, a little bit after five, I closed my eyes and hoped it wasn’t going to be Hawthorne. The last thing I wanted was to drive back out to Wawnee just to hear about how he thought I’d committed probably two murders now. But to my surprise, it wasn’t Hawthorne who texted, it was Ellie Gibson.

Hey, Angela. I’m just wondering if you could come over please? I just… I need someone to talk to, and I don’t know who else to ask.

To be totally honest, I’d kind of been looking forward to a night in with a glass of wine, a bowl of popcorn and an old episode of Orange is the New Black. But at the same time, I felt bad for Ellie, and I’d told her to call me if she ever needed anything. Besides, who knew, maybe she’d tell me something that would help me prove Tony was the killer. Or give him an alibi. Either way, I had no idea what kind of valuable information she might be able to provide.

Sure, I texted. I hitched a ride back with Sophie and Bee, but instead of going into the house I went to my own car and made my way down the now-familiar road to the Gibson Farm.

Ellie opened the front gate for me, and I pulled up to the house. I couldn’t help but notice that despite the huge size of the main house, there were only around three lights on. This was a big house for a girl who lived here by herself. I turned off the car and knocked on the front door.

“Oh Angela. I’m so glad you came. I’m sorry to ask you to come,” Ellie said as she opened the door. Her eyes were red, her makeup was smudged and her cheeks was puffy. This was not a girl who was in a good way.

“It’s ok,” I told her, stepping into the house. Ellie led me into a living room where she’d set herself up on the couch. Given the number of blankets, the pillows and the food, I had a sneaking suspicion that Ellie had spent most of the last twenty four hours on the couch, if not longer.

“Don’t mind the mess. I’m a wreck. Normally I’d talk to Corey about this. But, you know,” Ellie said sadly, and without warning burst into tears.

“Oh, there, there,” I soothed. “It’s alright. I know, it hurts like hell. I can only imagine. You’ve been through something no one should have to go through. But it’s going to be ok.”

I wondered if maybe a walk would help Ellie out.

“Why don’t we go out the back for a bit? Maybe some fresh air will help you feel better, hey?”

Ellie nodded mutely, tears still streaming silently down her face. I felt so bad for the poor girl. I was good with animals. I knew what animals needed, most of the time. Humans were a whole other story. But Ellie was too sweet to just let mope in her misery. She led me to the back door, put some slippers on, and we made our way silently out the back. Since it was June, even though it was now after six, the sun was still out and we could easily see as we walked along the path outside the house together.

“I just, I miss my mom,” Ellie finally managed. I didn’t say anything, I just waited for her to keep talking, I thought it would probably be good for her. “And normally, whenever I had a problem or something, I’d go to Corey. He was always so nice. He was so understanding. And now he’s gone too. I can’t believe I’m never going to see either one of them again.”

She began to cry once more, but this time instead of body-wracking sobs, a few tears just fell from her eyes as she looked at me.

“Have you ever lost someone close to you?”

“My parents both died when I was four. So I guess you could say yes. Luckily, maybe, I was so young that I barely remember them, though, so in another way I feel like I wasn’t close to them at all.”

When I thought about losing Lisa, Sophie’s mom who had raised Charlotte and I as our own, I felt tears threatening to sting my eyes. I imagined losing her would be a lot more painful than losing my own parents had been, as sad as that realization made me feel.

“Does it ever stop? The pain, I mean.”

“It never goes away completely,” I replied slowly. “But it dulls, eventually. You’ll eventually stop feeling like you want to crawl into a hole and die, and you’ll get back to things. You’ll never forget, though. You’ll never forget your mom. You’ll think of her every single day. And Corey too.”

I didn’t know exactly how close Corey and Ellie were when he was killed, so I hesitated slightly to put him on the same level as Ellie’s mom. I’d seen how they had interacted. I knew that Ellie was completely dependent on her mother, regardless of the fact that she was an adult.

“Thanks, Angela,” Ellie told me. She looked like she tried to manage a smile, but failed. “Do you want to go see the horses? I haven’t seen them in a few days, and I hope they’re doing ok. Philippe has been taking care of them, and the vet came back with our other horse today, so he’s been helping.”

“Sure,” I replied. I was always happy to see some animals, and I was glad to go see how Touch of Frost was doing. We walked up to the stable, where Ellie put her hand on the fingerprint pad and typed in the code, and a minute later we were inside.

We walked past two empty stalls to where Touch of Frost was. Once again I marvelled at his beauty; his coat was pure perfection, and he was evidently a horse in prime condition.

“You feeling better today?” I murmured as I held a hand out for him to sniff. He immediately stuck his nose under my hand, inviting me to stroke his face.

“I am, thank you very much,” he replied in a deep, slow voice. Horses had a tendency to be quiet, to be slow, despite their ability to be lightning quick. The way they spoke reminded me a little bit of the Ents in Lord of the Rings. “I appreciate the way you came and cared for me.”

“You’re looking great, I’m glad you’re on the mend,” I told him. With Ellie around, obviously I couldn’t have a real conversation with him.

“He’s a beauty, isn’t he? Thanks for fixing him,” Ellie told me. “Have you met our other horses?”

I shook my head no, and realized that when she was around the animals, Ellie almost seemed to forget her grief for a moment. I thought to myself how good it was that the farm was hers now; she could take care of these animals, and I had a feeling that would make her a very happy woman.

“Well come on down, we have four horses here now!”

I followed and was introduced to three other horses, all of whom were absolutely beautiful. There was a mare, who I was told was going to have Touch of Frost’s offspring next year, and two race horses, each as beautiful as the next. As we left the barn, I said goodbye to Touch of Frost once more, giving him another quick pat and a piece of carrot that Ellie handed to me from a bucket at the end of the stable before we headed off.

“You like him, don’t you?” Ellie asked me.

“Touch of Frost? Yeah, I do. He’s an absolutely gorgeous animal.”

“He is, isn’t he? And he’s the calmest horse, too. Some of the race horses are a little bit twitchy, but Touch of Frost is just perfect. You could put a child on him and trust that he wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

Yes, the way Ellie’s face lit up when she spoke about the horses, she was definitely an animal person more than a people person.

“Have you seen his foal?” Ellie asked me. I shook my head no.

“Oh, he’s adorable! Come here, I have some prints of him that my mom had taken.”

We went back towards the house. While Ellie still had that melancholy look that only recent grief can give, it was also obvious that having someone come over and speak with her for a little bit was helping her get out of her funk. When we got to the house, Ellie went into one of the side rooms. I followed her into what looked like a marketing office’s dream. There were large posters of Touch of Frost and the other horses, covered with sponsorship insignias. Prints with Caroline Gibson’s signature on the front, of various horses, were everywhere.

Before I got a chance to look further, though, Ellie let out a cry of triumph.

“Here they are!” she said, digging out a pile of 5x7 photos. She handed one to me. I looked down at a beautiful chestnut brown mare and an adorable black foal. The foal’s mother was completely brown, from head to toe. She was beautiful, and the foal was the cutest little thing.

“Awwww,” I said, smiling.

“Please, keep the photo,” Ellie told me when I tried handing it back to her. “It’s the least I can do, and we have a few of them. The head of the stables sent them over when Touch of Midnight was born, and I don’t know what to do with them.”

“Thanks,” I told her, tucking the picture into my purse. I liked putting pictures of my patients up on the wall of the vet clinic, and this was close enough. “Would you mind if I took one of these as well?” I asked, motioning to the pile of pictures of Touch of Frost. “For the wall of the vet clinic.”

“Of course! Help yourself! Mom hated it when people did that sort of thing, but…” Ellie’s voice trailed off into nothingness. “Thanks for coming. I’ve already taken up enough of your time.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” I told Ellie. “Where’s Susan, by the way?”

“Oh, she’s out tonight. I don’t want anyone around here seeing me like this, so I told her to just take the week off. Plus I think mom’s death, and now Corey’s, really affected her. She hasn’t been herself. But then, neither have I.”

She laughed, a hollow laugh that sounded almost manic. “I’m sorry. You go home. Thanks for talking to me, I really appreciate it.”

“You take care of yourself,” I told Ellie as we headed back towards the front of the house. “I know it hurts, but it will get better. I promise.”

Ellie nodded, a single tear streaking its way down her face. “I know. I keep telling myself that. This too shall pass. My mom always used to say that. This too shall pass.”

I gave Ellie a quick hug before heading home, a feeling of melancholy passing over me slightly. I thought of my own parents, the parents I never got to know well enough to really feel at their deaths. After all, to a four year old, what even is death? It’s an abstract concept. I didn’t know what Lisa meant when she said mommy and daddy had gone to heaven. I knew I was sad they weren’t coming back, but that was it. A little bit of sadness. Like when a client moves away and I know I won’t see their pet again. That was the kind of sadness I remembered feeling when I heard mommy and daddy weren’t coming back. I remembered it being more of a slow release, the grief, as I got older and began to understand that they really weren’t ever coming back. But the older I got, the less I remembered them.

I wiped a tear that I didn’t even realize was there off my cheek. I really needed that bottle of wine, now.

Chapter 15

The first thing I did when I got to work the next day was to put up the new photos I’d gotten from Ellie the day before. Behind Karen’s receptionist desk was a large corkboard where I put up any Christmas or thank you cards I got from clients, as well as pictures of their happy and healthy pets that they sent me. I grabbed a couple of thumbtacks and carefully put the picture of Touch of Frost up, along with the one of the mare and his foal. Sure, the latter two weren’t exactly clients, but I didn’t have any other horses whose pictures I could put up. It wasn’t like Touch of Midnight was recognizable yet, anyway. He was still a foal, he had a long way to go before he would reach the same fame as his father.

“First you abandon me for a dog, and now a horse. Why do you hate my species so much, you racist?” Bee asked. As soon as we got in that morning she immediately curled up into a little ball in her bed on the counter, but apparently wasn’t so tired that she couldn’t complain about Touch of Frost.

“First of all, I’m fairly certain the term racist doesn’t apply to inter-species dislike. And secondly, I haven’t abandoned you for a horse. Touch of Frost is a client. I put lots of client photos up here.”

“You don’t have photos of me up there.”

“That’s because you’re not a client, you’re my special little kitty-poo,” I told her, walking over to where she was and giving Bee a big, exaggerated hug that earned me a hiss in return.

“I still have my claws, and I will use them,” Bee muttered angrily, and I laughed as I stood up and left her in peace.

“You can’t complain that I don’t like you, and then complain when I give you affection,” I told my cat, glancing at her side-on.

“I can too. I want your love, but only when it suits me, and only a limited amount.”

I laughed as I saw Karen coming up the street and into the clinic.

“Oh, is that Touch of Frost?” she asked when saw the pictures, dropping her bag off on the little shelf under the receptionist desk.

“Yeah, it is,” I replied happily. “And his foal, Touch of Midnight.”

“What a little cutie patootie.”

“That little cutie cost his owner half a million bucks. Apparently that’s the going rate for Touch of Frost’s sperm these days.”

Karen’s mouth dropped open. “Wow! I guess that explains how they were able to pay you so much for a consult when he was sick.”

“Definitely. So who’s my first appointment for the day?”

Karen opened up the appointment program on the computer.

“You’ve got Natasha Klein, bringing in Deko. The little Jack Russel who broke his leg?”

“Awwww, I do. That little dude has so much energy, he just doesn’t know when to stop. He jumped out a second story window, onto the garage and then down onto the ground, right?”

Karen reviewed the notes and nodded. “Yeah. Luckily he landed in the garden and not on some concrete.”

“Good. He should be healed up by now so I’ll give him some X-rays to double check.”

“And then second you’ve got… oh, yeah. You remember Gloria, that talkative old lady with the cat that likes Bee?”

She didn’t make any other movement, but I could have sworn I saw Bee’s ear twitch when Karen said that.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“Well, it turns out he’s got a patch of fur missing, and he’s been licking at it for a bit. So she called yesterday afternoon and she’s the second appointment of the day.”

“Ok, perfect, thanks Karen,” I told her. A missing patch of fur and excessive licking was usually a sign of stress. We’d have to see, anyway. Maybe Buster wasn’t adjusting well to the move.

I didn’t have too long to think about it, because ten minutes later I heard the familiar yips of a certain overactive terrier who knew where his owner was taking him and wasn’t happy about it. I smiled to myself. Poor Deko. At least nothing bad was going to happen today, he was just going to get some X-rays and a checkup to make sure his leg was fine.

Forty-five minutes and a confirming X-Ray later, Deko was back out in the world with a completely healthy leg, ready to go out and create even more chaos. I was helping Sophie clean the exam room and get it ready for Buster when I heard Gloria’s voice out in the waiting area.

“Oh hello there Karen, how are you doing today? Isn’t the weather just lovely this time of year? I absolutely love it.”

I heard Karen reply. “If you want to go grab Buster I’ll bring up his profile,” I told Sophie, going over to the computer in the corner where we kept the files on all our animal clients. The program was slow to load, and by the time I finally got Buster’s chart up, about two minutes later, Sophie still wasn’t back.

“Uh, Angie?” Sophie said, coming back into the room. “I think you may want to come out here and see this.”

I followed Sophie out into the waiting area, where Bee and Buster had jumped on top of the tall cabinet at the back of the clinic where we stored all the specialized dog and cat food that we occasionally sold.

“Buster, get down from there!” Gloria was scolding, one hand on her hip.

“I’m not. You can’t make me.”

“We really need to put something on top of there,” I muttered to Sophie as I walked over to the bookcase.

“Bee, I don’t know what kind of dumb joke you’re doing, but you need to stop. Buster needs me to look at his leg. He’s licking at it.”

“You don’t need to look at his leg, he’s fine.”

I glared at my cat. Obviously in front of Gloria and Karen, I couldn’t reply.

“Come on. Come on down now, this isn’t funny.”

“We’re not coming down. Tell Gloria to come back later.”

I grabbed Karen’s chair in response and stood up on it, bringing me up to eye level with the two most mischievous cats in Willow Bay.

“I have just about had it with the both of you,” I muttered, and the two of them exchanged a look. As I reached for Buster he made a leap for it, hitting the corkboard with all the photos on it and making it crash to the floor with a loud bang, then bouncing off from there and landing on the counter before swiftly running along the back of the chairs in the waiting area and jumping on top of the door leading to the exam areas. It swung towards the wall from the force of his landing on it, but of course, being a cat, Buster kept his balance perfectly. A split second later Bee also tried to jump for it, but the difference was, I knew my cat too well. I knew exactly how she jumped, and I caught her in mid-air, resisting her swipes as she hissed at me. I carried her under the armpits, at arm’s length as she struggled. This was good, I had a hostage. I couldn’t believe I was actually to the point where I was holding my cat hostage.

“Now Buster, get down from there and go into the exam room, or Bee gets it,” I told him. What exactly “it” was, I hadn’t thought of yet. I thought Buster could probably tell, since he tilted his head to the side.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about little lady.”

“She’s bluffing!” Bee told him. “She’s just bluffing! Don’t let her win!”

“No sushi for Bee for a month if you don’t go into that room right now,” I finally threatened. Bee howled and struggled once more, trying desperately to get away. She managed to scratch me on the wrist, but I held strong. Finally, Buster sighed.

“Don’t do it!” Bee cried. “I can survive without the sushi! Don’t let the humans get away with this! Don’t negotiate with the terrorists!!”

Trying hard to resist rolling my eyes at Bee’s histrionics, I gave Buster a good, hard look.

“No, Bee, it’s not worth it. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I was the reason you didn’t get any sushi for the next month.” And with that, he hopped off the door frame and went into the exam room. Sophie rushed in behind and closed the door after him, locking him in there until we were ready to look at him.

“I’m so sorry!” Gloria said. “He’s always been a little bit of a bugger, but he’s never been this naughty before! You sure have a way with animals though, getting him to go in like that.”

“It’s alright, as you can see I also have a cat, and I understand that sometimes they can be a handful,” I told her as I went and helped Karen put the corkboard back up quickly. I grabbed some of the pictures and cards off the ground and put them on the counter. Suddenly, I saw something I hadn’t noticed on the photo of Touch of Midnight. His eyes seemed lighter than they should have been. I suddenly had the feeling that there was something about that, that my brain was trying to tell me something, but before I could figure out what it was, I had to go tend to Buster’s paw.

I followed Sophie into the room, with Gloria on our heels, where Buster was now sitting on the exam table, swishing his tail softly as if nothing had happened.

“Hello,” he greeted us chirpily as we entered the room.

“Alright, Buster,” I told him. “I hear you’ve got a bit of a licking issue.”

“Yes, it’s his front left paw, there,” Gloria told me, pointing out a little patch of raw skin. “He’s been licking at it like that for a few days, and the coat’s been wilting away there.”

I had a look at Buster’s paw. Sure enough, the skin was red with irritation where he’d been licking.

“Is he on flea medication?”

“Oh yes! Every month, like clockwork.”

“Do you give him drops, or a pill?”

“A pill, definitely. My old vet recommended it.”

“Your old vet was smart, pills are the best way to give pets their flea medication,” I told her with a smile. It was unlikely to be parasites, but I still ran my hands through Buster’s coat, giving it a careful look, just to be sure.

“Has he ever had any allergies to anything?”

Gloria shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I don’t understand why he’s doing this now. For the last three days Buster’s just been licking and licking, and I haven’t been able to stop him. And yet now, he’s just sitting there.”

“Kind of like how you take your car to the shop because it’s making a weird noise, then you get there and the noise stops,” I joked with a smile.

“Exactly like that!” Gloria said.

“Hey!” Buster protested, unhappy with my comparison.

I looked at Buster, and suddenly realized. I laughed out loud.

“I know exactly why he’s licking!” I said suddenly. “Buster wanted to come here to see his girlfriend!”

“What?” Gloria and Sophie asked at exactly the same time.

“The first time Buster came here, he and Bee were hanging out together, which Bee never does. And then today they were together again, and it wasn’t until I’d caught Bee that Buster calmly came in here. I bet you a few days ago when Bee ran away for a few hours she wasn’t out terrorizing wildlife like I’d thought, she went to find Buster.”

There was silence for a minute, and then Sophie burst out laughing. “That’s amazing! It makes perfect sense. So Buster licked himself so his fur would come off so Gloria would have no choice but to bring him back here to see Bee again!”

“Well aren’t you a cheeky little fellow,” Gloria said to Buster. “Is that true?” Buster meowed and gave his best kitten-eyes to Gloria.

I laughed. I was never, ever going to let Bee live this down.

“If you’d like, or if Buster would like, you’re welcome to stop by anytime,” I offered. “If you want to bring him in when you do your groceries, for example, then come pick him up on your way back, he’s more than welcome to hang out with Bee in our lobby.”

Buster’s ears perked up at that. “Really? Awesome!” he said, and I shot him a smile.

“Well, if Buster’s girlfriend lives here, I suppose coming over for a playdate a few times a week wouldn’t be trouble, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” I replied. After all, I made fun of Bee a lot, but if she legitimately had found herself a friend, well, I was happy for her. I was also going to tease her mercilessly about it, but I was definitely happy for her.

Chapter 16

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully. Bee was secretly thrilled that I was letting her boyfriend come by whenever to see her, even though she pretended she never cared about Buster. But by the time we finally closed the clinic doors I was exhausted, and I barely remembered to grab the picture of Touch of Midnight before we left. There was something there I wanted to check when we got home.

We stopped and grabbed a veggie supreme pizza on the way to have for dinner, and as soon as we got home I went into my room to use my computer. Looking carefully at the picture of Touch of Midnight, I confirmed that the picture definitely showed that his eyes looked fairly light. It was barely noticeable. In fact, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it wasn’t just a little bit of a glitch in the photo. But if I was right, then this could turn the whole murder case against Caroline Gibson and Corey on its face.

I looked up the name of the mare who had given birth to Touch of Midnight. Amazing Grace was her name, it turned out. Googling her, I looked at a half a dozen photos carefully. As far as I could tell, she was pure dark chestnut. Was that really enough though? I had to be sure before I said anything about my new suspicions.

Thinking back to Polly’s offer to show me around her stables, I grabbed my purse and rummaged around in it until I found the card she’d given me. I called the number and held my breath waiting for her to pick up.

“Hello?” came her chipper voice on the other end of the line.

“Hi, Polly?” I asked.

“Yes, speaking.”

“It’s Angela here, we spoke at the police station a few days ago.”

“Oh of course! Hi Angela, what can I do for you?”

“Well, this might sound kind of weird, but I’m wondering if it would be possible for you to organize for me to meet with Touch of Midnight. His father was just such an incredible race horse, and from a purely scientific point of view I’d love to be able to see his offspring, even if it’s just for a minute or two.”

“I understand completely, Angela. Once you start to learn about race horses, it’s hard to let go. I’m friends with the stable manager who runs Freidrich Suter’s horse business over here. Let me give him a call, and I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Polly. I really appreciate it,” I told her, and hung up the phone. I suddenly realized I was bursting with nervous energy. If this hunch was right, then I had maybe just uncovered one of the greatest scandals in horse racing in a long, long time. Polly called me back ten minutes later. I was welcome to join her at the stables the following day at 4:30, after the horses had finished their training for the day. Thanking her, I went out to enjoy some pizza. I couldn’t tell Sophie and Charlotte about my suspicions. Not yet, anyway. Not until I was sure. For now, we were going to have to settle for teasing Bee about her new boyfriend for a while.

The next day I told Sophie I had to head off on my own to check something out to do with the case.

“Where are you going?” Sophie asked.

“I’m going to see Touch of Midnight, the foal of Touch of Frost. I have this suspicion about his eyes, but I need to confirm it in person.”

“Really? What is it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to say until I’m sure. It’s probably nothing, but I want to check it out.”

“Oooooh, is it scandalous?” Sophie asked, her eyes widening in excitement.

“Pretty much, but I’m still not telling you,” I told Sophie, sticking my tongue out at her as I walked out the door to my car. I left my pouty best friend in the clinic to take Bee home while I focused on the directions Polly had given me.

Polly’s farm was an old-style home, painted in a dark blue colour, probably built in the 60s, with a lot more of a “real farm” look about it than the sanitized, super expensive Gibson Farms. There was a broken down tractor out to the side of the house, two chickens pecking at the dirt outside the front door, and grass that was perfectly mowed in spots and overgrown in others. This was definitely more what I thought of when I thought of farms. I went up to the front door and knocked, and Polly came out a minute later.

“Oh, fantastic, you’re here!” she said, dressed in jeans and a simple plaid blouse. “Let’s get going.”

The two of us got into her old Range Rover and Polly started driving south.

“They recently bought a small farm not far from here. The Pacific Northwest is growing in the horse racing world, since the weather here is so nice. It’s not too cold in the winter, but it’s also not too hot in the summer, like places like Phoenix are. I know a few major race horse owners who have recently bought places up here to train, mainly in the summer.”

“Interesting,” I said in reply. “And you’ve never met the owner of this place?”

Polly shook her head. “No, he’s definitely the reclusive type. I don’t know if he ever even leaves Switzerland. Me, I’m too much of a micromanager to be willing to leave an entire business on another continent in someone else’s hands, but what do I know?” she asked, laughing. “Maybe there’s a reason he’s the one with billions of dollars, and not me.”

We chatted a little bit more on the way, until finally we arrived at another farm, which much like the Gibson Farm, was perfectly manicured and taken care of. The house was a lot smaller, however; I imagined it was mainly used to house staff. It was still far more luxurious than nearly any house I’d ever seen. I imagined people must be clamouring to work here.

Polly parked the car in a little parking lot out by the front – yeah, this place had its own actual parking lot – and was quickly met by a guy who looked like he’d just stepped out a of a country music video. Cowboy hat, cowboy boots, dirty jeans, blue button-up shirt with a red bandana around his neck, this guy was the goods. He was in his late 30s, with tanned skin and a friendly smile.

“Hey ladies! Out here to look at our newest little family member?” he asked.

“Yes please! This is Angela Martin, the local vet in Willow Bay. Caroline hired her to take care of Touch of Frost when their vet was out of town, and she’s taken a bit of a liking to him. Wanted to get to know his son.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Martin,” the guy said, holding out a hand. “I’m Kevin. Kevin Drury.”

“Please, call me Angela,” I told him as we shook hands.

“Sure thing. Now of course, the only reason I’m letting you in here is because you’re a friend of Polly’s, and a vet. We aren’t showing Touch of Midnight to the public yet, he’s too young. There’s been a lot of interest in him though. It’s horse racing, it’s a small enough community that everyone knows everything, no matter what.”

I smiled slightly. I knew what that was like, living in Willow Bay.

“How old is he now?” I asked.

“Just over four months. We’re going to start weaning him in a few weeks.”

Kevin began to lead us towards a stable at the back of the farm. Like the Gibson stable, it had state-of-the-art security measures put in, including the fingerprint scanner.

“Amazing Grace is really good about people coming near her foal,” he told me. “There shouldn’t be any issues. I’ll give you some apple slices to bribe them with anyway, though.”

I thanked Kevin as he gave me the apples, and he led Polly and I down to a stall at the end of the stable. In there, eyeing us with a gentle curiosity, was Amazing Grace. She was tall, and obviously powerful. Her black coat shone even in the dull light, and I realized just how good of a match it was to have her be with Touch of Frost. Touch of Midnight was at the back of the stall, playing with a little bundle of hay.

“Hi there, new momma,” I told Amazing Grace, holding out one of the pieces of apple. “Do you mind if I just have a look at you and your little one for a few minutes?” I asked. “He’s really beautiful.”

Amazing Grace came over and ate the piece of apple. “That’s fine. He really is a beautiful boy. He’s really wonderful, although he’s getting a bit big.”

I smiled at her motherly love. Animals were animals; everyone just wanted the best for their young, human or not. I stroked her nose gently while I looked her over carefully. Every single inch of her was chestnut brown; she really was a beauty.

Glancing over at Touch of Midnight, I looked over at his eyes. From that distance though, I couldn’t tell what I was looking for.

“Hey, Touch of Midnight, want a piece of apple?” I asked with a smile, leaning over the fence to offer it to him. The promise of a treat brought him over, and I handed him the piece while looking carefully at his eyes, and at the same time, trying to look like I wasn’t looking at it at all. I didn’t want anyone to notice my suspicions. But yes, up close, it was obvious. Touch of Midnight had blue eyes.

“You’re a little cutie, aren’t you?” I asked him. I knew he’d be too young to answer; most animals didn’t figure out how to talk to me until after they were weaned. But that was ok. He happily let me stroke his mane a few times, then went back to his game.

“Thanks so much for letting me see him,” I said to Kevin. “And to you Polly, for inviting me.”

“No problem,” they both replied as we headed back to the car. My mind raced with excitement, and it took everything I had to contain it. I’d confirmed my theory, now I had to go back and tell Charlotte and Sophie as quickly as possible.

I still had no idea who had killed Corey, or Caroline Gibson. But I was fairly certain I’d just discovered a new, huge motive for someone.

Chapter 17

“You guys, I have the biggest news!” I exclaimed as soon as I got back into the house, a little after six.

“Oh sure, now you’re willing to share,” Sophie replied, sticking her tongue out at me. She was floating in the air in the middle of the living room. Sprinkles was whining at her feet, evidently not happy with this turn of events, while Bee was sitting on top of the bookshelf, watching, hoping for entertainment.

“What on earth?” I asked, looking over at Charlotte.

“Your sister seems to think that the best way to see if I actually have magical powers is to put me in strange situations and see if my body reacts. So far, it’s not working.”

“I can see that,” I replied. Charlotte had one of her giant spell books out, and was frantically scanning through the pages.

“You do realize that the witches and wizards that wrote those books were like, the biggest racists against non-witches ever, right?” I told Charlotte. “They were like, inches away from actually inventing slurs. They weren’t exactly into helping humans get magical powers.”

“I know that,” Charlotte replied. “But at the same time, there has to be something in here about finding out how your magical powers work.”

“Yeah, and it’s by trying spells and having them work.”

“Well obviously Sophie is different. She has the powers, she just hasn’t figured out how to unlock them yet.”

“And what if I don’t have the powers?” Sophie asked. “What then?”

“You’re the one who’s always complaining that she can’t be a witch like us,” Charlotte shot back.

“Well right now I’m complaining that you’re making me float in the middle of the living room like some kind of fake Aladdin without a magic carpet.”

Suddenly Sophie let out a squeal as she fell hard to the ground, hitting the rug on the floor with a thud.

“Ow! Why would you do that?” she cried out. “I think I’ve broken my leg! You’re supposed to be a doctor! What happened to ‘first do no harm’? This is the opposite of that!”

I knew I was this close to a bad case of the giggles as Sophie lay on the floor complaining. For someone who supposedly had a broken leg, she sure complained a lot. Sprinkles ran over to her, wagging his tail, helping out by giving Sophie as many kisses as he could.

“Oh, Sophie, it’s ok, I’ll take care of you if you’re hurt,” he told her. “Are you hurt? Is this going to affect our walking schedule?”

“No, no, Sprinkles, I think I might be alright. Despite Charlotte’s best efforts to kill me.”

“What?” Charlotte asked. “You said you were tired of floating there. Besides, I thought maybe if you didn’t see it coming, if you had any sort of magical powers, your body would use them automatically to save you from the fall.”

I had an intense suspicion that Charlotte was simply using these ‘tests’ to secretly torture Sophie for fun.

“Alright, well, I think we can now say with confidence that Sophie is not, in fact, a witch,” I said. “She can speak to Sprinkles, and let’s just assume that’s all she’ll ever be able to do.”

“But I want to be able to do the cool spells like you guys do,” Sophie muttered. “It’s so unfair that I can’t.”

“Yeah, well, do you want to do the cool spells more than you want my sister to drop you on your butt in the middle of the living room?” I asked. “Anyway, I’ve confirmed my hypothesis, and so I can share it now. And it’s a big one.”

“What is it?” Charlotte asked from where she was in the kitchen preparing what looked like an omelette for dinner.

“Ok. So basically, in horses, eye color is linked to coat color. They don’t have a separate gene for their eyes. And both Amazing Grace and Touch of Frost were pure black and chestnut. It’s obvious when you look at them that there aren’t any hidden white patches or anything on them. But Touch of Midnight has blue eyes, which in Thoroughbreds is most common when they have the gene known as ‘splashed white’, an overo coat pattern.”

“But neither one of the parents are white?” Charlotte asked.

“No. And granted, they don’t have to be. Sometimes the white on a splashed white horse can be tiny, especially if they’re heterozygous, which means they have one dominant gene and one recessive gene, instead of two dominant or two recessive genes.”

“But you said both parents were perfectly solid coloured, which means…” Sophie started, but Charlotte cut her off.

“One of Touch of Midnight’s parents isn’t his parent!”

“Exactly!” I said. “And it’s not the mare. She’s definitely his mother. Touch of Midnight had to get his blue eyes from the splashed white gene. And yet, seemingly neither one of his ‘parents’ have the gene.”

“So some guy spent half a million dollars on sperm that didn’t belong to Touch of Frost.”

“I think that’s a pretty good motive for murder, don’t you?” I said triumphantly.

“Wow,” Sophie said. “You were right, that is big.”

“So you think Caroline Gibson was killed because she sold the sperm of a different horse and passed it off as Touch Frost’s?”

“Yes. And Corey, too. He was the head of the stables. He definitely would have known what was going on. That must have been why he was murdered, too.”

“But then there’s a problem. The horse you saw, the one you gave medicine to. Was that Touch of Frost? Or was that the impostor? Because if it was Touch of Frost, then why not just give the real sperm?” Charlotte asked.

I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know for sure. All I know is that there’s no way Touch of Frost – the real one, wherever he is – is the sire of Touch of Midnight.”

“Do you have a guess?” Sophie asked.

“If I had to guess, I would say that for some reason, Touch of Frost is no longer available. I don’t know why. Maybe he got sick and passed away. That would be my best guess, but I honestly have no idea.”

“But if they have an impostor horse pretending to be Touch of Frost, how come no one has noticed he’s different? And why doesn’t he have the blue eyes or the white patches on him?”

“Well, despite the name, splashed white doesn’t necessarily mean the horse has to have a lot of white on him. In some cases, it can be as little as just a sliver of white on the nose, or something like that. If I had to guess, I’d say they found a horse that looked passably like Touch of Frost and dyed the white sliver on him black.”

“But hold on,” Sophie said. “We still run into a problem: no one who was on the farm that day would have been linked to Touch of Midnight’s people, right? You have the jockey, the trainer, the housekeeper, the daughter and the mom’s best friend.”

I threw myself back on the couch, somewhat dejected. Sprinkles, spotting the opportunity, jumped up onto me and happily licked my face while I scratched his back for a minute, before continuing to speak. “I know it has to be this, though. That was our problem before, we didn’t really have motive. Sure, Tony openly hated Caroline, but it’s still pretty rare for someone to just snap and murder their boss out of the blue like that. This is a real motive. It has to be one of them.”

“My money’s on that Susan girl, if it has to be one of them. She was so shaken up when we flew over to see them, I feel like it wasn’t natural,” Sophie volunteered.

“Maybe. She’s only been working there for a little while. Maybe she was a plant.”

“Well speaking of plants, how about Philippe? After all, you did say that the owner of Touch of Midnight was a reclusive Swiss billionaire, right?”

“Oh my God,” Charlotte said from her spot on the kitchen. “Please do not tell me that I have to explain to you that France and Switzerland are two different countries.”

“Well duh, but they’re right next to each other. And they speak the same language.”

“They do not. In Switzerland they speak German, French, Italian and Romansh.”

“I’m pretty sure I heard French in there.”

“You did, but you also heard the names of three other languages, smart-ass.”

Something in that conversation triggered the memory of Betty not understanding the Swedish couple in my brain. It was like my brain was trying to tell me something. Like it was this close to figuring out something that would break the whole case for me, but there was a single missing link.

Suddenly, I figured it out.

“Genf!” I cried out.

“What?” Charlotte and Sophie both asked at once.

“She’s lost it! She’s finally lost it completely!” Bee announced from where she’d been idly watching us, sitting on the back of the couch. “The idiot who didn’t realize Switzerland and France spoke different languages has finally broken her!”

“Quiet Bee,” I snapped at the cat. “I haven’t lost it. In fact, I’ve just got it.”

I jumped up and ran to my purse that I’d left by the door and grabbed my phone. Quickly opening up Google, I typed in “Genf”, hoping my memory wasn’t failing me.

As soon as I hit enter, I knew I had it.

“Nailed it!” I announced, fist bumping the air.

“Nailed what?” Charlotte asked. I took the phone over to her and showed her the results. The top result for Genf: Geneva – Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Genf was the German word for the Swiss city of Geneva.

“When I was listening in on Tony and Philippe’s conversation, he mentioned that he had a bad job in Genf. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, since there are a thousand cities in the world, and being French it wouldn’t be super weird for him to be working in Germany or Austria or somewhere, especially with the EU making that stuff so easy,” I said. Then I explained to them the conversation with the Swedish couple at the restaurant.

“That, combined with your talking about the one country having multiple languages made me think. Shouldn’t I at least look it up? What if Genf was a German name for another city. And of course it is.”

“But why is Genf important? As you say, he could be French and work in Geneva,” Sophie said, confused. Charlotte rolled her eyes.

“You know, for someone who was smart enough to be a vet tech, you sure can be dumb sometimes,” she shot at Sophie.

“Hey!” Sophie retorted back, but not before Charlotte continued.

“No French person would ever refer to Geneva by its German name. Especially since Geneva is in the French speaking part of Switzerland. If he really was French, he would have said Genève. So Philippe is lying about his nationality. If I had to guess, he’s Swiss German, working for the billionaire, and the man responsible for the deaths.”

“Exactly!” I said to Charlotte, who walked over and high-fived me.

“Great. So you guys solved the case. Now what do we do?”

“We have to call Chief Hawthorne,” I said. “We have to tell him straight away.”

“Yeah, you can call him. I’m not talking to that dude again ever, if I have my way,” Sophie said.

“Fine. I’ll call him and let him know.”

I took my phone into the other room. My heart was racing with adrenaline. We knew who the murderer was! Now the police could go over there and stop him. I dug the card with Chief Hawthorne’s number out of my purse. I was lucky; it had his cell phone number on it. I dialled and I recognized that wheezy, disgusting voice pick up on the third ring.

“Yeah?” came his greeting. I was fairly certain he was talking with his mouth full, and I cringed, despite not being able to see the man.

“Chief Hawthorne, it’s Angela Martin here.”

“Uhhhh ok.”

“You know? From the Caroline Gibson case?”

“Ah yeah. The vet or whatever. Sure missy, what do you want?”

“I know who the murder is.”

I spent five minutes explaining as succinctly and easily as possible exactly what Charlotte, Sophie and I had been discussing. I laid it all out for him, and when I was finally finished, there was silence on the line for about ten seconds. I expected him to thank me for helping out and telling me he’d go get a warrant or something to pick up Philippe straight away. I certainly didn’t expect what he replied with.

“Well girlie, that’s an awful nice theory and all, but why don’t you let the real detectives do this job?”

“What?” I practically shrieked into the phone. “I just told you exactly how and why he did it. How is that not enough for you?”

“Why don’t you let us policemen do our jobs. I promise you, we’re going to catch this killer.”

“You can catch the killer. I just told you who it is, and why he did it.”

“I’m sure you think that, but just because you watch a lot of CSI and think you know how crime works, doesn’t mean you’re going to be right about it. There’s a lot you don’t understand about things.”

“Oh what, you think my lady brain is going to get confused about all the things you big strong men have to think about?” I snapped, channelling my inner Sophie for a minute. This guy was infuriating.

“Now this is why girls don’t make good cops, you’re getting emotional here,” Chief Hawthorne told me.

“I’m going to emotional my foot up your ass,” I muttered to myself, realizing this conversation was getting nowhere. “That’s because I just handed you a murderer on a platter and you don’t believe me because I happened to be born with a vagina,” I replied.

“That’s not true at all. I don’t believe you because your theory doesn’t tie all the dots together.”

“Oh, really? What about it wasn’t clear?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you. You obviously don’t understand how police work works. I promise you, you don’t need to worry about more murders. We hope to have this case solved soon.”

It took every ounce of willpower in my soul not to throw the phone at the wall as hard as I could as soon as I hung up. How could one man be so pig-headed?

“What a fricking imbecile,” Sophie said when I went back out and told them what happened.

“So what do we do now?” Charlotte asked. “I mean, what do you do when you know there’s a murderer out there, and you know who it is, but the police don’t believe you?”

That was a really, really good question.

Chapter 18

“So, uh, what are we supposed to do now?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “Do we go and confront Philippe, like we were going to with Corey?”

I shook my head. “If he’s really close to that Swiss billionaire it won’t be easy to find out where he lives like it was with Corey. But I think you’re right, of course. We have to get him to admit it. That’s how it works in books, isn’t it? You confront the murderer with all the facts, and they admit to everything.”

“I have a feeling that just because that’s how it works in books doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how it works in real life,” Charlotte said, giving me a you-should-totally-know-better look.

“Yeah, well, have you got any better ideas?” I shot back.

“Why don’t you ask Chief Gary what you should do? If you lay it all out for him, I’m sure he’ll give you his honest opinion.”

Shoot. Of course Charlotte would end up having a perfectly reasonable idea, instead of Sophie and my plan to find out where Philippe lived and convince him to confess to two murders.

“He’ll just tell us the same thing as Chief Hawthorne, or say it’s not his jurisdiction,” I tried to argue, mainly for the sake of arguing. I knew Charlotte was right, and I knew that was what we’d end up doing.

“Maybe, maybe not. And we both know Chief Gary is a lot smarter a man than Hawthorne. It’s at least worth a shot.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “Tomorrow morning, first thing, I’ll go see Chief Gary, before the vet clinic opens.”

“Good,” Charlotte said, walking over and patting Bee, who purred contentedly. “I really think it’s the best thing to do.”

“Me too,” Bee murmured as she rolled over to get her belly scratched. I rolled my eyes at Bee and tried to put the whole murder case out of my head. After all, Charlotte was right. Chief Gary would know what to do. And in twelve hours, I was going to see him, and we’d have our answer.

I woke up the next day to Charlotte standing over my bed.

“Angela! Wake up!” she hissed.

“Wurrghhh?” I asked in reply, the perfect image of elegance. “Wattimeerrrssit?”

“It’s five thirty. Listen, are you awake? It’s important.”

“Sure,” I replied, mostly lying. It turns out when you’re aware of a murderer being on the loose and can’t do anything about it until morning, it’s pretty hard to sleep. I was tossing and turning until well after one in the morning, according to my phone, despite having gone to bed around eleven.

“I was thinking, why doesn’t Philippe just leave?”

“What?” I asked, totally not understanding. Philippe? Leave? What?

“Listen to me. Philippe is not American. He’s not under arrest. He can leave anytime he wants. All he has to do is say he had urgent business back in France, or something. Whatever lie he wants. So why stay here when he could be arrested at any moment?”

“I don’t know Charlotte,” I replied, wanting nothing more than to roll over, cover my face with the blanket and go back to sleep. “Why?”

“Because he’s not done killing people yet,” Charlotte finished. Well that certainly got my attention.

“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Think about it. He’s obviously not an American, and he’s killed two people. Why not just leave? He killed Corey a few days ago now. If he got on a flight back to Europe and just stayed there, there would be literally no way to build a case against him. There’s no way his fingerprints would be on file, or his DNA, since he’s not American, so even if they found that sort of thing, they’d have no way of confirming its his. And since he’s not under arrest, he can leave the country as he wants.”

“But wouldn’t it look suspicious?” I asked.

“Why would he care? They can’t prove he murdered anyone, especially if he’s not in the country, and Switzerland or France or whatever wouldn’t extradite someone without a warrant, just for questioning. Which means that if he’s stayed here, chances are he’s not done killing yet.”

“But who’s left to kill?” I asked.

“Think about it. He killed Caroline, the owner of the horse that was supposed to give the sperm, and Corey, the stable manager who would have likely collected the sperm and handed it over. Who else that was on the farm that day is likely to know what had happened?”

I gasped. “Ellie! She grew up with Touch of Frost, she would have recognized an impostor immediately! So she would have had to know, her mom would have told her.”

“Exactly! We have to tell Chief Gary, now! Philippe will probably kill her as soon as he gets a chance.”

“We have to tell Ellie first to be careful!” I cried. “You call Chief Gary, I’ll call Ellie.”

I grabbed my phone and realized I didn’t know Ellie’s cell number. I called the home, the number I had as the appointment reference for when I took care of Touch of Frost, but there was no answer. That wasn’t too surprising; it was probably too early for Susan to start work, and I knew horse people always had a ridiculously early start to the day, as did most farmers. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Ellie had already been working outside for half an hour already; she seemed a lot more hands-on than her mother.

Shoot.

I quickly grabbed my purse with my car keys in it and ran to the door. Charlotte came running out after me. “What are you doing?” she asked, putting her mouth over the microphone.

“Ellie’s not answering. I have to go over there to warn her.”

I saw Charlotte wavering for a minute, her need to always be the good girl fighting with her desire to do the right thing. “I’m coming too,” she finally said, following after me.

“Ok, you’ll do what you can? Thanks, Chief Gary,” I heard Charlotte say into the phone as we headed out towards the car. She hung up the phone and got into the passenger seat next to me. Getting a good look at Charlotte for the first time, I realized that while I was wearing black pyjamas with polka dots and an oversized t-shirt with a giant picture of Katy Perry on the front, Charlotte was already dressed in skinny jeans and a Ralph Lauren polo, with her hair tied back in a ponytail while mine stuck out at all angles from the back of my head. Who could possibly look that normal this early in the morning?

I stuck the car into drive and headed out towards Gibson Farms. Luckily it was early enough in the morning that there was no traffic on the roads, and Charlotte caught me up as I channelled my inner Sophie and more or less ignored the speed limits.

“So Chief Gary says that he’ll call up Hawthorne and try to convince him to come by, but he can’t really do more than that. Gibson Farms is out of his jurisdiction, and he’d be stepping on a lot of toes if he just acted rashly like that. But I have a feeling he’s going to get Hawthorne to go out straight away, we know what Chief Gary’s like.”

I nodded. Chief Gary was a good cop, and he could be convincing when he had to be. I had faith in him, but Charlotte and I had a head start. We had to make sure Ellie was safe.

As soon as we reached the front gate, I stopped.

“What do we do?” I asked. “We could just use an unlocking spell, but the cameras are pointed right at the door. It would look weird if no one let us in.”

“The reason you’re not a better witch, Angela, is that you have no creativity. It’s more than just about memorizing spells. You also have to figure out how to use them,” she told me. I rolled my eyes. It was just barely six in the morning, it was way too early for my little sister to be lecturing me about how much better of a witch she was.

“Electrum deficiroa,” Charlotte muttered, pointing at the fence. There was a buzz in the air, and I noticed my phone had turned itself off. Charlotte got out of the car and opened the fence which, thanks to the new power outage, was now easily opened manually. I drove past and stopped again to let her back in. I had to admit, that was good thinking. The power outage would also kill the security cameras, and we could simply say that when we got there the monitor to let us in didn’t work, and we tried the gate and it was open.

I drove up to the house, tires screeching. “Power should be out on the whole property, if I did the spell right,” Charlotte said, and I rolled my eyes. Of course Charlotte did the spell right, she always did. We ran up to the front door, and knocked loudly, thinking the power outage would have killed the doorbell. I hoped against all hope that Ellie was still in there, either sleeping in, or getting ready for the day, maybe just having missed the phone when I called earlier.

The door opened, and I held my breath, but instead of Ellie it was Susan standing there, looking slightly surprised, but ever the professional.

“Oh, hello Angela. I wasn’t expecting you today. What can I do for you?”

“I don’t have time to explain Susan, but you have to tell me where Ellie is. Where is she? Is she in there?”

“No, I’m afraid not. She’s gone out the back, Philippe requested her help with one of the horses; with Corey no longer being with us,” - she closed her eyes and seemed to mumble ‘God rest his soul’ – “he’s been doing a lot of the manager work until Ellie can find a suitable replacement. I believe they went to the stables.”

“We have to get to her!” I cried out. This had to be it, the moment Philippe was waiting for. He was going to kill a third person.

Chapter 19

“What’s going on, Angela? Why the emergency?” Susan called out, but I had already started running towards the side of the house. There was definitely no time to explain. Charlotte followed after me, as Susan continued to call out, confused.

“We have to get to the stable,” I said to Charlotte. I saw her look behind us quickly, to make sure Susan didn’t follow. “Celeroa,” she panted, and I felt the ground beneath my feet moving at a record pace. I began to run at a speed that made Usain Bolt look like a hippo. I was surprised at Charlotte’s daring to use a spell in public, even though she’d checked to make sure Susan hadn’t followed us. She must have understood just how dire the situation was.

We covered the couple hundred yards to the stables in just a few seconds. Stopping in front of the door, Charlotte quickly cancelled the speed spell. Suddenly, we heard a cry coming from inside the stall. Charlotte and I looked at each other quickly, and Charlotte quietly murmured the unlocking spell. The door to the stable shot open and we darted inside.

What I saw froze me to the core. At the far end of the stables, by Touch of Frost’s stall, Philippe was standing over Ellie, holding a piece of pipe. She was screaming, holding up her hands.

“Please! Please don’t kill me! I don’t want to die,” she begged through tears. Touch of Frost was neighing in his stall and pushing himself against it, evidently trying to break out. He must have understood that he had to help Ellie.

“I have no choice. I have to kill you,” Philippe said, raising the pipe and moving towards her.

“Wait!” I cried out as Philippe began to strike at Ellie. I knew with a pipe like that, a single blow to the head would be enough to kill her. Philippe turned suddenly and looked at Charlotte and I, the frown on his face so black I physically recoiled from horror. So much for the element of surprise.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled.

“Stopping you from murdering Ellie,” I replied with what I hoped sounded like more bravado than I felt. I could feel Charlotte shifting her weight nervously behind me, and I tried to block her from view. After all, I was the big sister. This was up to me to do, it wasn’t on her. I didn’t want Charlotte to get hurt, no matter what.

“Go,” I whispered to her. “Go now, and get help.”

“Not on your life. If anyone right now needs help, it’s you and Ellie.”

“I suppose dere is no difference between three murders and just dee one,” Philippe said. “I have my private jet ready to go in Portland, in two hours I will be gone from your terrible country.”

“In two hours you’ll be rotting in a jail cell, where you’ll be spending the rest of your life,” I replied, watching carefully as Philippe moved towards me with the pipe. I tried to motion for Ellie to run with my eyes, but she seemed rooted to the spot, paralyzed with fear.

I knew how she felt. With every step Philippe took towards Charlotte and I, I felt more and more rooted to the spot. I forced myself to breathe. I had to be quick here.

“Go right,” I whispered to Charlotte just before Philippe was onto us. “Dat is enough of you,” Philippe said as he swung the pipe upwards, then down, right towards my head. At the last second my body responded by darting over to the left. The pipe banged loudly against the floor, and Philippe yelled with rage.

“You come back here, silly girl. You cannot escape. I will kill you. I will kill all of you!”

I backed further away, back towards the door, as I tried not to watch Charlotte. She ran towards Ellie at the other side of the stable, and leaned over her while Philippe came after me.

He swung again, this time from the left side to the right, like he was swinging a baseball bat. I ducked at the last second, and kicked out, hoping to hit something – anything – that might put him out of sorts for a minute. I connected, and he let out a yelp of pain as he grabbed his knee and swore at me.

“You stupeed American! I will make sure you die!” He grabbed the pipe and swung at me again, but it was obvious he was weaker now. Charlotte had gotten Ellie to her feet, but she was holding Ellie up with her whole body weight. Charlotte wasn’t strong enough to drag her out of here, I knew that.

Touch of Frost was still pounding against the stall door.

I needed a split second to tell Charlotte what to do, but I wasn’t sure I had the time. Philippe swung at me again, and this time I felt the pipe graze my nose as I heaved myself backwards to avoid it. I ran back to the door, away from Philippe, as fast as I could.

“Dat is right, run away, little girl. But you cannot escape. You cannot run from me, no matter how much you try!” he said as he came after me once more. He was a few steps away, I had about a second to do what I needed.

I focused on Charlotte with all my might.

Let Touch of Frost out, I thought, using all the powers I could possibly muster. I felt a light wave of energy, and I opened my eyes just as Philippe was striking at me with the pipe again. This time, there was no chance that I’d be able to move out of the way in time. I let out a squeal as I raised my hands, trying to block the fall of the pipe on me. I halted it somewhat, and fell to the floor, which lessened the impact of the pipe even more as it hit my head.

I saw stars, and my vision in front of me began to tilt for a second, but I didn’t pass out. And what I saw behind me I knew wasn’t a hallucination either.

Touch of Frost – or whoever was pretending to be Touch of Frost – was now standing in the middle of the stable, all sixteen hands of him. He snorted loudly, and I hoped he’d act fast. After all, while I wasn’t unconscious, I knew I had no chance of moving out of the way of the next blow. Philippe raised the pipe once more, ready to send me to my grave, when he heard the snort.

He turned once more, and I heard him cry as he dropped the pipe. In an instant, Touch of Frost was on him. I had just enough time to get out of the way before the horse reared up, neighing loudly as he brought his front legs down firmly onto Philippe’s chest, knocking him back against the wall. The pipe fell from his hand and his head made a sickening thud as it hit the wall and he fell down to the ground, unconscious.

Touch of Frost immediately walked over to where I was sitting on the ground, dazed. He nuzzled my face, and I reached up and stroked him.

“You saved my life, thank you,” I told him, closing my eyes as I pressed my face against his. Touch of Frost or not, I liked this horse.

“You saved mine first. Just returning the favour. They built those stalls too well.”

I laughed softly as Charlotte left Ellie and went over to Philippe. She checked his pulse, then grabbed her phone out of her back pocket.

“It’s going to take a minute to turn on,” she told me before calling 9-1-1. We were going to have to add that number to our speed dial pretty soon, the way things were going.

Ellie came over to Touch of Frost.

“You saved us. You saved us, Frosty,” she told him, stroking the horse gently. He moved over to Ellie and nuzzled her as well. I smiled. It was obvious that no matter who he was, Ellie loved Touch of Frost, and he loved her too. He was going to be in good hands with Ellie in charge of Gibson Farms.

The ambulance was the first to arrive. They loaded up Philippe, and an EMT checked me over and told me I should go to a clinic later to be tested for a concussion. But, luckily, neither Charlotte, Ellie nor I needed to go to the hospital. The EMTs waited for the police to arrive, about three minutes later, so an officer could ride with them and arrest Philippe, although I overheard a couple of them saying they weren’t sure if he’d ever wake up.

For me, everything was still a bit of a daze. I felt like my brain was working at about 90 percent capacity, like it was taking me a split second to answer anything else than it should have. I spent most of the time while the EMTs were around sitting against the stall, letting Touch of Frost come over and nuzzle me from time to time.

As soon as Hawthorne walked in, with the strut of a man who knew he was going to get credit for doing absolutely nothing, I groaned. He was the last person I wanted to see today. Or ever, really. Except for maybe Philippe.

“Alright, ladies, I wanna know exactly what happened here,” he told Charlotte, Ellie and I. “I need statements, and I need them from you individually. You, the hot one. You first,” he said, pointing at Charlotte, who practically curled in on herself in revulsion.

She followed him out of the stable, leaving Ellie and I mostly alone with Touch of Frost, as the EMTs had left, and the crime scene unit from Portland hadn’t had time to arrive yet. If they were even coming, after all there had been no murder here today, just an accident with a horse. I knew there were a few cops outside, and that was about it. There was one cop at the far end of the stable looking around, but apart from that we were alone.

Ellie came and sat down next to me.

“How did you know to come find me?” she eventually asked. I explained everything to her, up to and including Charlotte figuring out this morning that Philippe was going to try and kill her.

“Did you know?” I asked her, lowering my voice. “That he wasn’t Touch of Frost?” I assumed that now the truth was going to have to come out, but as far as I was aware it was still a secret. Ellie nodded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. His name is really Black Envy. That’s why I call him Frosty now, it’s kind of close to Envy, his old name.”

“What happened?” I asked, and Ellie sighed.

“Just after we retired Touch of Frost, he caught the horse flu, when he was still on the road. Our regular vet did everything he could, but unfortunately Touch of Frost died. My mom was so mad. I’d never seen her so angry. She said he had only just started to live up to his earning potential now, and he was gone. She had already organized the sale of the sperm, and now he was dead. I didn’t care about the money. I was just sad Touch of Frost was gone. He was a really good horse. Then, two days later, our vet was killed in a car crash. He was speeding on the interstate and lost control, hitting a median. All of a sudden, my mom realized, the only people who knew Touch of Frost was dead were her, Corey and myself.”

Ellie sighed and waited a moment before continuing. “So my mom made a deal with Corey. If he found her another horse that looked just like Touch of Frost, and he kept up the ruse, she’d pay him a million bucks a year. Obviously Corey agreed. Corey found out that Touch of Frost had a half-brother who looked almost exactly like him. The only difference was he had a tiny sliver of white on his face. So Corey bought the horse, made the owner sign an NDA, dyed the patch of hair black and brought the new Touch of Frost home.”

“And so the three of you were the only ones who knew.”

“Yes. We hired a new vet. The jockeys didn’t know, obviously. If Tony had suspected he would have lorded it over my mom like nothing else. Susan obviously had no idea, she’d just been hired around then. Then, about four months ago our trainer disappeared. He just stopped showing up to work. That wasn’t exactly… a rare thing… with my mom around, so we never thought anything about it. Philippe applied for the job, and his references were amazing, and he obviously knew exactly what he was doing. Mom hired him straight away. Of course, if we’d known…”

Ellie trailed off and a tear began to streak down her face. I put an arm around her shoulder.

“You couldn’t have known,” I told her. “It’s not your fault.”

“Of course now, I know. He must have made sure the old trainer wouldn’t come back to work as soon as the foal was born. They would have noticed the blue eye immediately. But of course, they couldn’t come out with it publically. I mean, it would have ruined us completely, of course, but it would have meant Touch of Midnight would have been worth nothing. No one would have wanted the stud services of a stallion born to two nobodies. So he got his revenge another way. A quieter way.”

Ellie began to sob into her hands. I comforted her for a while, until Charlotte came back and Hawthorne asked for me. He wanted my statement.

Twenty disgusting minutes later Charlotte and I were free to go. I told Ellie I’d be in touch, and Charlotte and I headed back to the car.

It wasn’t even eight thirty yet. I’d have just enough time to get back to the vet clinic, change into the pair of scrubs I always had there, and brush my hair. It wasn’t exactly going to be the most glamorous day ever for me, but as long as I looked remotely presentable, it would probably be fine.

“Are you sure you want to go to work?” Charlotte asked. “I’m skipping my classes today. I wouldn’t be able to get there until late anyway, now.”

I shook my head. “No, I need to go. There’s no one who can cover for me, anyway.”

We got into the car, and I let Charlotte drive back. She drove slowly out of the driveway and back onto the road, and to my surprise, Jason Black was there snapping photos, being held back from entering the property by the cops. He smiled and winked at me as we drove past, and I rolled down the window. Charlotte stopped.

“Morning, sunshine!” Jason said, and I scowled.

“If you use that photo of me in your paper I’ll make sure you never, ever get to go on another date with me again,” I threatened, knowing just how terrible I looked right now.

“Ohhhh but my journalistic integrity!” Jason replied with a laugh, and I flipped him off as Charlotte drove off. I was so not in the mood.

Chapter 20

The rest of the day passed in quite a bit of a blur. I made my way to the vet clinic and saw my patients for the morning. Around ten, I got a text from Jason. It was a picture of me, scowling at him through the passenger side window of my car. My eyes were half closed, my hair was sticking out the back of my head, there was a piece of straw poking out of my hair, I had dirt on my face, and my oversized t-shirt gave me a real puffy look. All in all, not my greatest moment.

This one’s going on the front page came the caption a minute later.

If it does, there’ll be one more murder to report in Willow Bay I replied.

Alright, alright. Meet me for lunch at Betty’s tomorrow?

Only if you promise not to run any photos of me this morning.

Promise. When’s your lunch break?

One to two.

See you then

So I had to admit, I my heart skipped a little bit of a beat knowing that I was going to get to see Jason for lunch the next day. It made the day go by just a little bit faster, knowing I had that to look forward to.

Luckily, while all of Willow Bay was talking about the incident that occurred at Gibson Farms that morning – that was all anyone knew so far, that it was an “incident” – no one seemed to know or guess that I was involved, so I was spared the usual Willow Bay mobbing for information that usually accompanied anyone knowing anything that might be gossip worthy in town. I knew it would only be so long before people would find out that I was involved and my moments of peace would disappear.

As for Sophie, she wasn’t pleased that she didn’t get to come along and be involved in all of the excitement, but when I told her how early it was when Charlotte woke me up, she seemed far less enthusiastic about it.

“I need my beauty sleep, you know.”

“I’m glad you think sleeping in was more important than stopping a murder,” I teased in reply.

“That’s so not what I meant, and you know it. But you and Charlotte obviously had it all under control.”

I smiled to myself. That was Sophie. Willing to go head first into any situation, as long as it was after 8am.

At lunch time I grabbed a quick sandwich to go and made my way over to the Willow Bay police station. After all, I had to thank Chief Gary for his help that morning; I was fairly certain that the Wawnee police would have been a little bit later in arriving if it wasn’t for him. He was sitting in his office, eating a sandwich himself, when I walked through the door. He motioned for me to come straight in, so I smiled at Casey the receptionist and went straight through.

“You have got to stop getting yourself into situations like this,” Chief Gary scolded as soon as I sat down across from him, taking my own sandwich out.

“It wasn’t my fault!” I said. “I called Chief Hawthorne the night before and told him everything. He told me that I was just a little girl who should just keep to myself and leave the detective work to the people who know what they’re talking about.”

Chief Gary practically choked on the piece of sandwich he was eating.

“He said what?” Chief Gary scowled, his face darkening. “I knew he was an idiot, but that’s ridiculous.”

“I know. So this morning when Charlotte realized that Philippe wasn’t done killing, that’s why she called you instead of him.”

“She told me that. I didn’t realize just how badly you got the brush off. Well, I did come here to tell you not to do that again, but at the same time, I realize you did save a girl’s life, so I can’t be too harsh.”

“I promise I’ll try to never get into that situation again,” I replied solemnly, taking a bite out of my sandwich.

“I feel like you’ve promised me that a couple of times now, and it never really ends up working out.”

“Yeah, well, Willow Bay is a small place,” I said. “Surely there can’t be that many more murderers around.” Suddenly, I thought of something. “Hey, I meant to ask you, too,” I continued. “Did you find out anything about Susan, the housekeeper? She was acting really weird after the murders, like the murders hit her a lot harder than someone’s terrible boss being killed normally would have.”

Chief Gary smiled. “Ah, so you still do need the help of the police sometimes, do you?” he teased, leaning back in his chair. I smiled sheepishly at him.

“Always, Chief Gary. I don’t think you need reminding that you saved my life a few weeks ago.”

“No, but it’s nice to hear you and your little crew of private investigators couldn’t figure everything out on your own this time.”

I blushed as Chief Gary took another bite from his sandwich. “But yes, there was something about her. It turns out Susan Granger isn’t her real name. She was born Susan Montford, and she worked as a personal assistant for a wealthy man back in England. Some lord of some kind or something, you know how they are over there. A title makes you a celebrity. Anyway, the guy dropped dead one day, it turns out he was poisoned, and they never caught the person who did it. The news raked Susan over the coals, though. There were insinuations that they were having an affair, that sort of thing. So she moved over here at the same time as her parents, started going by the name Susan Granger instead of Montford, and started a new life for herself.”

“So when she had another boss who was murdered…” I ventured, and Chief Gary finished the sentence off for me.

“Exactly. She was terrified that her secret was going to come out, and that she’d immediately be suspected of the murder.”

“That explains that, then,” I murmured. I imagined Susan must have been looking for any forms Caroline might have had in her study that had her real name on them the day I found her rummaging through Caroline’s things. She would have wanted anything like that to disappear before the police found them. I thanked Chief Gary again, promised to do my best not to get involved in any more murders, and headed back out to the vet clinic to deal with my afternoon patients, making a mental note to ask Karen to schedule a doctor’s appointment for me as well, since I was relatively sure I had a mild concussion from the hit with the pipe.

When we got home from work that afternoon Charlotte was out. She came back a little while later with a veggie supreme pizza from our favourite place.

“I thought we should get a treat for not only solving the murder, but also to enjoy while watching the entertainment today,” she declared.

“What entertainment?” Sophie asked, shooing away Bee who had started pacing around the pizza box expectantly.

“The press conference Chief Hawthorne is scheduled to give in five minutes,” she replied, moving over to the TV and turning it onto the local news channel. I passed around some plates and we all served ourselves before the news anchor came back onto the screen.

“And now we go from the studio to Wawnee, where local police chief Anthony Hawthorne has a statement to make regarding an incident this morning at Gibson Farms.”

The camera cut to Chief Hawthorne, who was obviously in his element standing in front of the police station with a makeshift podium in front of him. He fingered the note cards he was holding as he began his speech.

“Thank you. This morning the Wawnee Police received a tip that there was an assault occurring at a property in Wawnee. We responded immediately. Being police chief, I immediately realized that this likely had to do with the recent murders in Wawnee - ”

Chief Hawthorne was cut off by an enormous farting noise that suddenly engulfed the room. A few of the reporters in the background could be heard giggling.

“Yes, erm, as I was saying,” Hawthorne continued, his face going red as Charlotte, Sophie and I burst into laughter. “We arrived on the scene and found that my main suspect in the murder cases was already incapacitated-”

“Pffffffffrrrrrtttttttttttttt,” interrupted a new farting sound, eliciting even greater laughs from the three of us as Hawthorne’s face went an even deeper shade of red.

“Oh my God!” I laughed, “Why is this happening?”

“I went to his office this afternoon and put a spell on him,” Charlotte answered, tears of laughter streaming down her face. “Every time he lies, he farts loudly.”

“I rescind Angela’s status as my best friend, and I give it to you, Charlotte,” Sophie practically cried. “You’re my spirit animal now.”

“As the head of the investigation, I was already well aware that the man calling himself Philippe Marceau was actually a Swiss citizen with a grudge against the people at Gibson Farms.”

Another giant stream of fart, this one lasting a good five seconds, threw the three of us into an even greater fit of laughter. Hawthorne’s face was practically purple now.

“I would like to say that the man is in police custody in hospital now, and he will be facing justice. Thank you,” Hawthorne finished as the reporters could barely contain their laughter. He practically sprinted off the stage.

“That’ll serve him right for trying to take credit for everything,” Sophie said into the pillow she was clutching. “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Me too,” I laughed. “You’re crazy, but awesome, Charlotte.” My sister blushed as she took in the praise.

I sincerely hoped that I was never going to have to deal with Hawthorne ever again. The man was an absolute animal, and thanks to him an innocent girl had almost been killed.

But for now, as I ate my pizza, I was thankful that despite probably having a mild concussion, I was alive and well. At one point this morning, it hadn’t quite looked like I was going to get another day in this world, and I was incredibly, incredibly happy that things weren’t over for me yet.

I had a date with Jason tomorrow, too. Things were definitely looking up for me right now. Now I just had to hope no more bodies landed on my doorstep.

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 Just Horsing Around 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.

Want to be the first to find out when Willow Bay Witches #4, Lipstick on a Pig, is released? Sign up for my newsletter by clicking here now.

Other Willow Bay Witches Mysteries:

The Purr-fect Crime (Willow Bay Witches #1)

Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)

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.

You can connect with Samantha online here:

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Саманта Сильвер Just Horsing Around