Саманта Сильвер

Busy As A Beaver

Busy as a Beaver Willow Bay Witches #8

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

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Epilogue

Also by Samantha Silver

About the Author

Chapter 1

“It’s like his butt turns into a water gun every time he farts.”

Yup, just another normal day at the vet clinic.

“How long has this been happening?”

The owner of the ‘water gun’ in question was a large black lab named Cheeseburger, though he went by ‘Burg’ most of the time, after his owner brought him home as a puppy and he promptly managed to climb onto a chair and grab a McDonald’s cheeseburger off the dining table and run off with it.

Now, however, Carol was worried. She was in her early fifties, with curly brown hair that was just starting to go gray, and her brown eyes were wide as she stroked Burg soothingly. “Since last night,” she replied.

“Come on, she could have described it a bit more elegantly than that,” Burg complained, and I smiled. Obviously, in front of their owners, I couldn’t reply to the animals. I figured it would lose me most of my clientele pretty quickly. Not to mention probably get me locked up in an asylum.

“Have you gone to the beach recently?”

“Yes, I was there all of yesterday morning with him picking up trash. So many people leave their junk everywhere these days. I thought I’d get rid of some of it and get some exercise in as well.”

“Good, thank you for doing that,” I replied. “Were you keeping a close eye on Burg? Was he in the water a lot?”

“She doesn’t need to keep an eye on me. I’m a grown dog, and I was having fun.”

Carol managed a grin. “He certainly was. He’s a lab, after all. Loves the water more than anything. So no, I wasn’t really watching him. I just let him off his leash and he more or less followed me the whole way along the water.”

“That’s because the water is way more interesting than the land,” Burg explained. “It moves!”

“So he probably drank a decent amount of it?”

“Almost certainly,” Carol said.

“Of course! It was there, why wouldn’t I?”

I nodded. “Alright. Well, he almost certainly drank way too much seawater.”

“Is that bad?”

“It’s not great, and in the future if you’re going to do the same thing again, I’d try to prevent him from actually drinking much water, if possible. He’s dehydrated, which is what’s causing the, um, squirting. Generally, excessive salt water intake causes diarrhea, so to be honest, it could be worse.”

Carol gave me an embarrassed look. “Thank you so much.”

“Not a problem. If you do take him back to the beach, make sure he’s not drinking too much salt water, and keep a fresh water bottle on hand as well so he stays hydrated, since he’s almost certainly going to get some salt water in his system. Make sure he’s drinking a lot of regular water and if he’s not better in forty-eight hours, please bring him back in.”

“Of course.” Carol nodded. “Thanks again.”

“And don’t worry. This is far from the most embarrassing case I’ve seen this week,” I assured Carol on her way out. She gave me a grateful smile as she made her way towards Karen, the receptionist.

“There’s an emergency patient for you in room two,” she said to me quietly as I slipped behind her to grab a patient file. I raised my eyebrows and went into the back area of the vet clinic, washing my hands quickly before seeing my emergency patient.

“Poor Burg,” Sophie, my vet assistant, laughed as she prepared some samples that were going to be picked up later and taken to the lab. “I heard he had the squirts.”

“Well, it could be worse,” I shrugged. “Generally, it comes out worse than just water when animals that have taken in too much seawater fart.”

“True,” Sophie replied solemnly. “What do you want me to do when I’ve finished up here?”

“I have an emergency in room two,” I said. “I might need you there, so I’ll call you. If not, can you get the back set up for my spay this afternoon?”

“Sure thing,” Sophie nodded. “Good luck in there.”

I nodded and steeled myself for what was about to come. Being a vet, I never knew what was going to greet me when I stepped through the door, and that uncertainty was even stronger when it was an emergency case.

“Gloria!” I exclaimed when I saw my patient. “And Buster. What’s wrong?”

Both of them honestly looked absolutely awful. Buster lay on the table, blood oozing from a wound in his side. Gloria herself had a black eye and a large red gash across her face, and her hair was completely mussed up, like she’d just gotten out of bed.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” Gloria said. “Take care of Buster. He saved my life.”

“Right,” I said, calling to the back for Sophie to come and help. “What happened to him?”

“There was an intruder in my home,” Gloria replied. “I was out getting groceries, and Buster had been outside all day. When I got home, he came up to the car, so I let him in as well. There was a man in there; he attacked me. Buster immediately went after him, and he did such a wonderful job of protecting me, but the man threw him against the side of a cabinet. I managed to scare the man off, but Buster’s hurt. Please, help him.”

“Of course,” I replied as Sophie came into the room. Always the professional, she didn’t react at all to seeing Bee’s best friend bundled up in here like this. She immediately jumped into action.

“I’ll get the X-ray machine ready,” she said, going straight back into the back of the clinic.

“Good,” I said with a nod as I examined Buster’s wounds. “We’re going to take him to the back, Gloria. Why don’t you go to the medical clinic, and when we’re finished with Buster he can stay here until you come back? You need to take care of yourself, too.”

“Not until I know my Buster’s ok,” Gloria replied.

I looked her up and down. She had obviously been hurt, and she needed to be taken care of.

“Look, why don’t I text you updates as I have them?” I said. “You seriously need to be looked at. Tell Karen to take my car and drive you to the clinic. Please.”

Gloria considered my words for a moment. “You’ll text me as soon as you know anything?”

“Of course. Straight away; you’ll be the first to know.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking a towel and carefully scooping Buster up. “We’re going to do everything we can for Buster. He’s basically family at this point.”

Gloria’s eyes welled up with tears as she thanked me and headed back out into the lobby. I couldn’t believe what had happened to her. A home invasion! Here in Willow Bay, of all places. It was absolutely unheard of.

But for now, I had a cat who was basically family to attend to.

“What happened?” Sophie asked as I brought Buster to the back area on a towel.

“Home invasion,” I replied. “Buster tried to stop the man from attacking Gloria and got thrown into a cabinet. Buster, can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Everywhere,” the cat replied in a piteous voice, and my heart broke for him. But I was a professional, and the best thing I could do for him now was find out why.

“Alright, does anywhere in particular hurt more?”

“My leg. My front right leg.”

“Ok, we’re going to X-ray the front right leg first,” I said to Sophie. “While you do that, I’m going to get him some painkillers.”

Sophie nodded and started instructing Buster to stay still while she got him into position. I made my way to the medicine cabinet, unlocked it, and pulled out some NSAIDs and opioids for cats. Buster was obviously in so much pain that opioids were definitely on the table, and by combining their use with NSAIDs I could use lower dosages for both painkillers, which was safer for cats.

Double-checking I had the dosages right—half a pill of one and a quarter pill of the other—I grabbed a couple of pill pockets, stuffed them with the medicine, and brought them over to Buster, who ate them happily.

“Ew, what did you put in that?” he asked, scrunching his little face as I heard the familiar beep of the X-ray machine.

“Medicine. It’ll make you feel better soon.”

“I can’t believe you’d betray me like that. Don’t you know I’m a hero?”

It was no wonder Bee and Buster were best friends. They were just like two peas in a pod.

“I know. And trust me, that was the best treat I could possibly give you. Come on, let me grab you a different one to get the taste out of your mouth.”

“I’d like some of those sushi treats Bee tells me you keep here,” he said weakly before putting his head back down, and I couldn’t help but smile. Even though he was in a ton of pain, he knew exactly what he wanted.

I made my way to the box of treats and got him out a few—KittiSushi was a Portland-based company that used the run-off from sushi restaurants, the stuff they would normally throw out, like fish skins, and dried them out to make cat treats. I took out a piece for Buster and brought it over to him, and he munched it up happily.

“That’s better,” he said softly, almost to himself.

“Good. Now stay there while I go have a look at your leg,” I said, making my way over to the machine. A quick look at the result told me everything I needed to know: Buster had a hairline fracture in his ulna. That was good news: as far as kitty ‘arm’ bones went, the ulna was less weight-bearing than the radius, which would have been a more difficult fracture to deal with. I knew I could try to put a cast on Buster, but in my experience, cats were incredibly skilled at getting out of casts, and he would need to be sedated to put one on. A splint was another option, but I figured that in this case, a prescription of bed rest for a few weeks while the bones healed was what was on the table.

Being an active cat, Buster wouldn’t be happy about it, but it would have to be done. I made my way back over to him to give him a more thorough examination. After all, while we had discovered one problem, that didn’t mean there weren’t more lurking inside of him. Hitting that cabinet had obviously been traumatic.

After a thorough inspection, including a full ultrasound to check for internal bleeding, I discovered that apart from the broken leg and the bleeding wound on his side, Buster was going to be ok. Sophie helped me bandage up his wound, and I went to text Gloria the results.

Thank you, dear. I’m at the clinic now. I should be released later to come and get him.

Sure thing. We’ll come and see you as soon as the clinic closes.

“How is mom doing?” Buster asked weakly as he saw me texting.

“She’s at the hospital. She’s going to be ok, and so are you,” I told him. “That was very brave, what you did to save her.”

“It didn’t work, though. He still hit her, and he was asking questions.”

“Like what?”

“‘Where is it?’ He kept asking that. ‘Where is it? Where’s the money?’”

My heart broke for Buster. “Did he find any?”

“No. Mom doesn’t keep money in the house. She does have jewelry, but I don’t know if he got to it or not. He kept hitting her, and that was when I jumped in. After he threw me against the cabinet, he looked around for the gun, and while he was going that, Mom just grabbed me and ran out the door as fast as she could.”

“Good,” I told Buster. “You may have saved Gloria’s life.”

“That sounds about right. I am descended from the ferocious hunters of old, after all.”

I neglected to point out that I had once seen Buster and Bee lying together in a ray of sunshine in the lobby for a full six hours without moving an inch.

“I’m glad you saved her, and I’m glad you’re both going to be ok,” I replied instead. After all, it was the truth. I gave him a few soft pats on the head before loading him up into one of the crates we kept animals in until Gloria could come back and get him.

Chapter 2

As soon as the vet clinic closed for the night, Sophie and I packed everything away, got ready for the next day, and decided to stop by the clinic to see how Gloria was doing.

“I’m going to keep you here for now,” I told Buster. “However, if it turns out Gloria’s spending the night in the clinic, I’m going to come back and take you home, ok?”

“Why can’t I come with you?” Buster whined.

“Cats aren’t allowed in the hospital.”

“Please. I’m cleaner than most humans.”

“That may be true, but some humans are allergic to you, and it’s not fair to bring a cat into a situation where they’re already not feeling their best.”

“Isn’t that what you call Darwinism? Anyone who’s allergic to such a majestic creature as myself should be considered inferior anyway.”

I smiled as I rolled my eyes. Cats certainly had an interesting way of viewing the world.

“Maybe, but I don’t plan on getting myself kicked out of there, either, for sneaking you in. So stay here and I’ll come back later, either with Gloria or to come and get you.”

“Fine, but I’m starving here.”

“You’ll get dinner after I get back.”

Buster stalked to the back of the cage he was in and turned his back to me, obviously unimpressed with this turn of events.

Well, he was going to have to get over it. As much as I wanted to sneak him in to see Gloria, I was all too aware that the rules were there for a reason.

Ten minutes later Sophie and I drove up to the Willow Bay Medical Centre. It wasn’t a full-sized hospital—our small town definitely didn’t warrant that kind of infrastructure—but because of the frequent surfing tourism in the region, and some mountain biking as well, we did have a bit of a miniature emergency room with ten beds, X-ray capabilities, and a CT machine. Anyone requiring more complex emergency care was taken by ambulance or helicopter to Portland, but basic emergency needs could be taken care of here.

We found Gloria in one of the emergency beds, having her blood pressure taken by a nurse. Her face was covered with a bandage but she smiled as soon as she saw us, her brown eyes shining with questions.

“How is my little Buster?” she asked as soon as Sophie and I made our way towards her.

“He’s doing great,” I said to her with a smile. “He’ll have to be kept inside with minimal exercise for at least a month, possibly longer. We’ll re-do the X-rays in three weeks to see how the fracture is healing. Other than that, just make sure to change the bandage on his side daily, and he’ll be fine. How about you? How are you holding up?”

“So much better now that I know he’s going to be alright,” Gloria said, leaning back into the pillows on the bed.

“Have you called the police yet?” Sophie asked.

“One of the nurses did, about ten minutes ago,” Gloria replied. “They wanted to make sure I was taken care of first, but it looks like I’m going to be fine. No broken bones for me, luckily, just a few scrapes and bruises and possibly a very minor concussion from where he hit me over the head.”

Right on cue, Chief Gary poked his head around the corner. “Hello, Gloria. I got a call that you needed to speak to me?” He glanced over at Sophie and me. “I hope these two haven’t been trying to get in on this investigation before I have.”

“Of course not,” Sophie replied. “We just came to update Gloria on Buster’s status. He’s got a broken leg, thanks to the monster who did this to her.”

“Did what to you, exactly?” Chief Gary asked Gloria, pulling out a notepad. “Would you like these two young ladies to leave?”

“No, it’s fine,” Gloria said. “I like having them around. After all, they’re the ones who saved my Buster. I went out to get groceries this morning, and when I left I let Buster into the yard. He didn’t seem to want to come to the vet clinic today, so I just let him hang around outside while I did my shopping. We do that a lot, after all. I came back around one in the afternoon, and as soon as he saw the car, Buster came running up to it. He was meowing at me, so he must have known something was wrong, but being the silly old woman I am, I just ignored him. As soon as I entered, I knew there was something wrong. I could feel a presence, but before I managed to run, the man came into the room and drew his gun on me. He asked me where it was, where the money was.”

“Do you keep any money in the house?” Chief Gary asked, and Gloria shook her head vehemently.

“No, absolutely not. I had a twenty in my purse, but that was it. So I offered that to him, and he called me an idiot and hit me across the face with the base of the gun. That’s what caused this,” she continued, bringing her fingers gingerly to the bandages that covered her face.

“He asked me again where the money was, and I told him I didn’t have any. He stood over me, and I could have sworn he was going to shoot me, and that was when Buster came flying out of nowhere. He clawed at the man and he shouted in surprise. He dropped his gun, and when he did it went off, but I don’t think the bullet hit anything. He also managed to get a hold of Buster eventually and threw him against the cabinet. When he was free, he looked around for the gun, and in the time it took him to find it, I got up, grabbed Buster, and ran out the door. I didn’t look to see if he came after me. I don’t know if he searched my house. I just took Buster straight over to Angela.”

“Can you describe the man for me?” Chief Gary asked, but Gloria shook her head.

“Not really, no. He was wearing a mask and gloves.”

“Was he tall, short?”

“A little bit on the taller side, I think,” Gloria mused. “It’s hard to tell, though. He certainly wasn’t short.”

“Do you remember what he was wearing?” I asked, earning myself a look from Chief Gary. Evidently, I was not invited to help out in this interview.

“A dark hoodie and jeans,” Gloria replied, nodding slowly as she thought back. “And he had on sneakers. Nikes, with a stripe and three stars across the front. I remember those, because when he hit me and I fell to the ground I fell forward and was looking right at them.”

“Was there anything about his voice that stood out to you?”

“Not especially,” Gloria said.

“Would you recognize it if you heard it again?”

“Maybe, but I can’t say for certain.”

“Alright, thanks, Gloria. I’m going to send a patrol car over to your house straightaway to take care of things.”

“Thank you, Chief Gary,” Gloria told him.

“And can I expect the two of you to stay out of this?” Chief Gary asked, turning to Sophie and me.

“Of course,” I replied. “We weren’t intending to get involved at all. We’re only here to update Gloria on Buster.”

“Good,” Chief Gary replied. “Whoever did this is obviously dangerous, and I don’t want to see the two of you playing detective once again.”

Sophie and I nodded. I wasn’t even lying to Chief Gary, for once. I had no intention of getting involved. I was just glad to see Gloria and Buster were both going to be ok; that experience had to have been absolutely terrifying for them.

A nurse came by a few minutes later. “Gloria’s going to need her rest, so if you ladies can wrap it up soon, please?”

“Of course,” I answered. “Will she be able to go home tonight? We need to know; I have her cat at the vet clinic, and if not, I’ll bring him home with me for the night.”

The nurse looked at Gloria, who nodded. “It’s fine. I’d like to know as well.”

“The doctor would like to keep you overnight for observation, just to make sure there’s no internal bleeding we haven’t found, and because of the suspected concussion,” the nurse answered.

“Alright, we’ll go back to the clinic and get Buster,” Sophie told Gloria. “Bee will be happy; she gets to have a sleepover with her best friend.”

“Thank you so much, to both of you,” Gloria said, taking me by the hand. “I do have one more thing to ask of you, though.”

“Of course, anything,” I replied.

“I’d like the two of you to look into who did this to me, and find them, please.”

Oh. I thought she was going to ask us to water her plants or something.

“We can absolutely do that for you,” Sophie replied instantly, glaring at me as I opened my mouth to protest. Could we do that?

“Oh, thank you girls so much. You know, I do have complete faith in Chief Gary, but I’m well aware the two of you have become quite the investigators yourselves, and I really wouldn’t mind an extra set of eyes on this case. Obviously, if you’re not comfortable doing it, that’s completely fine.”

“No, no, we’re happy to help,” Sophie said. “You rest up, and we’ll take care of it. Come and see us tomorrow when you get out of here. We’ll bring Buster back to the clinic tomorrow so you can come and get him as well.”

As Sophie and I left a few minutes later, I turned to her, incredulous. “Why on earth would you tell her we would do that? Chief Gary explicitly told us not to,” I hissed.

“Well, it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve lied to him. Besides, we weren’t lying at the time. And how could we possibly say no to a kindly old lady like Gloria, especially when whoever did this hurt Buster, too?”

I rolled my eyes. “You just want another case to solve.”

“Hey, what can I say? Willow Bay is more fun when there’s crime happening. Luckily, this time, no one was murdered.”

“Not yet, anyway,” I said ominously. “What if whoever decided to attack Gloria does it again, and this time the victim doesn’t get away?”

“Even more reason for us to find who did this. The more eyes on it, the better. So come on, are you in, or are you going to wuss out on me?”

I sighed. “Fine. But we’re staying out of Chief Gary’s way, and if we find out anything, we need to tell him as well.”

“Sure thing,” Sophie said. “I’m so glad we’re going to be investigating this together.”

“Right. We’ll talk about it in the morning. I’m going to go pick Buster up from the vet clinic. Are you going to come?”

“Nah, I’m like a five minute walk from home, I’ll just go straight there. See you in the morning.”

I said goodbye to Sophie and climbed back into the car, wondering what on earth I had just gotten myself into.

Chapter 3

As soon as I got back home, Buster in tow, I was hounded on by Bee.

“Buster! Are you staying the night? Great, now you have to see the hovel that Angela makes me live in.”

“Hovel? Excuse me?” I replied, hands on my hips. “You have a very good life here, thank you very much, missy.”

“Don’t call me missy,” Bee hissed at me as she sniffed Buster’s carrier, and I resisted the urge to laugh. Bee was snarky at the best of times, but she always felt like she had to take it up a notch when Buster was around.

“Why is he here, anyway?” Bee asked.

“Buster and Gloria were injured in a home invasion,” I replied. “Gloria is spending the night in the hospital, which means that Buster’s staying here.”

“Oooh,” Bee said as I let Buster out. “We’re going to have the most epic sleepover ever!”

“Alright, well, Buster is supposed to limit his movements, so don’t do anything too ridiculous,” I called after them as the two cats ran off together goodness knew where. If there was one thing Bee and Buster were good at, it was getting into trouble. “Buster, stay off that broken leg!”

“Gloria was the victim of a home invasion?” Charlotte asked as I made my way into the kitchen. “Did I hear that right?”

I nodded as I watched her cook up an omelet in the frying pan, with Jason, my boyfriend who lived with us now, sitting at the kitchen table doing a crossword puzzle. He perked up as soon as I came into the room.

“Home invasion? Here in Willow Bay?”

“Nice to see you too, honey,” I teased as I grabbed a seat, inhaling the aromas of the red peppers and onion sautéing away on the stove.

“Hey, the more big scoops I get, the better,” Jason replied with a grin.

“Anyway, yeah, Gloria came home from getting groceries this afternoon to find a stranger in her house. He pistol-whipped her, asked for money, and then when Buster attacked him Gloria took the opportunity to run. She and Buster are both going to be fine, but he has a hairline fracture in his ulna and a large cut on his side, and Gloria is spending the night in hospital just in case.”

“Wow, that’s terrifying,” Charlotte said, shaking her head. “I’m glad they’re both going to be ok.”

“Me too,” I nodded. “I can’t remember the last time that sort of thing happened here. I mean, burglaries, sure. But they’re almost always when the owner of the house isn’t home, or in the middle of the night, that sort of thing. For Gloria to actually be hurt in the middle of it is awful.”

“Absolutely,” Jason nodded. “It’s strange, too. I wonder why someone targeted her in particular?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, thinking over Jason’s words. “Sophie and I are looking into it, though.”

Charlotte gave me an incredulous look. “Seriously? Can the two of you just let the police do their job for once in your lives?”

“Well, I was going to, but then Gloria asked us to look into it. And we couldn’t just say no to her, lying in that hospital bed like that.”

“Oh, so now because someone asked you nicely, you’re going to start hunting an armed robber, is that it?”

“Hey, it’s better than the murderers she usually goes after, isn’t it, honey?” Jason asked me with a wink.

“That’s right,” I replied. “Besides, it’s not just Gloria. It’s Buster. Buster is basically family at this point, and this person broke his leg. He probably wouldn’t have cared if he’d killed him.”

“That still doesn’t make you the right person to try and hunt him down,” Charlotte pointed out. “You really should just leave this to the authorities.”

“I made a promise to Gloria, and I have no intention of breaking it. If Sophie and I discover anything, we’re going to go to Chief Gary and let him know about it. We’re going to be safe, don’t worry about us.”

“Sure, like all those other times you were ‘safe’ and almost ended up killed.”

“Almost being the key word there.”

“No, killed was definitely the key,” Charlotte replied, giving me a stare that had ‘are you freaking serious right now’ written all over it.

“Well, anyway, I’m doing this,” I said.

“Is there anything I can do to help? I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation at the office for getting exclusives,” Jason said with a grin.

“Exclusives that are more interesting than the fact that the local gym is getting a new set of spin bikes?” I teased. The Willow Bay Whistler was a great paper, but to be totally honest, it was somewhat rare for anything remotely interesting to happen here. Sure, there had been a handful of murders over the last year or so—a lot more than was normal for the town—but it was still overall a quiet, small town in every single way. Exhibit A was the front-page headline on the previous week’s paper: a deer had eaten all of a local resident’s birdseed when they hadn’t locked their shed properly.

Charlotte slid a plate of omelet in front of me and I happily dug in to the dinner, my worries about who had done this to Gloria and Buster temporarily forgotten.

I tossed and turned in bed for a while that night, completely unable to get to sleep. I couldn’t help but wonder how Gloria was doing. Buster seemed ok—I had checked on him and Bee after dinner to make sure they weren’t doing anything too active, and I found Buster telling Bee everything that had happened that day.

I turned over in my mind everything I had heard Gloria and Bee tell me about what had happened.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something about the whole thing felt off. Why had the thief waited for Gloria to come home? After all, wouldn’t it have been easier for the thief to search the house when no one was home?

Why would he search Gloria’s home for money? I mean, Gloria certainly wasn’t poor, but she also wasn’t rich. She had been a teacher up in Portland, and most of her income came from her pension, rather than from any sort of actual assets. I had been in Gloria’s home a few times, and there was absolutely no reason why someone should have thought she had a ton of money stashed away somewhere. After all, the woman still had one of those huge CRT televisions. That didn’t exactly scream ‘there’s money here’.

On top of that, Willow Bay might not have been Beverly Hills, but it remained a tourist destination all the same. There were a few houses that belonged to rich investors who kept them empty most of the year, except for when they came by for a couple weeks in the summer, as well as others that belonged to the small number of local businessmen who had done quite well for themselves. Surely, those would have made better targets for a home invasion than the simple home of a former teacher. Right?

No, none of this made any sense. There was something wrong here, and I had to find out what.

Grabbing my jacket—Halloween was only a couple weeks away—I slipped out the front door as quietly as possible so as to not wake anyone else in the house. I breathed in the crisp, cool night air as I stepped outside, listening to the breeze wisp between the leaves of the trees.

One of the things I loved about Willow Bay was how safe it was—even though my phone told me it was just after three in the morning, I had absolutely no qualms about walking through the streets at night. Besides, if anything did happen, I had my magic to protect me.

As I passed by row after row of houses, their exteriors dimly illuminated by the faint glow of the streetlights, I eventually made my way to Gloria’s house without seeing another soul. Yellow police tape was wrapped across the front door of the house, which had now been closed. I took a good look at the lock with the light from my phone: there was no sign of forced entry at all. If the person who had attacked Gloria had come in through the front door, they had been subtle about it.

Before entering the house, I crept along the side, making my way to the back door. I wanted to know how the attacker had gotten in. If they hadn’t used the front door, maybe they’d gone in through a window or the back.

I crept up to the back window and shone my light on the lock. There were a few scuff marks next to the lock—some awkwardness on Gloria’s part, or a sign that someone had come in that way?

Inwardly cursing myself for forgetting to bring a pair of gloves, I covered my hand with the sleeve of my jacket and gingerly turned the knob. It was open.

Stepping carefully inside, into the kitchen, I ignored the ominous creak of the door as I closed it behind me. Suddenly, a shadow came out of nowhere, holding something above its head.

I was being attacked.

Chapter 4

I darted out of the way as the shadow’s arms rose and came down to hit me. I was petrified but knew I only had a second or so to react. Instead of running away from the shadow, I ran straight towards whoever it was, grabbing them around the torso and taking us both to the ground.

The shadow yelped, and I stopped.

“Sophie?”

“Angela?”

“What on earth are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing!”

I found my phone, which was now lying face-down on the floor, the light still on. I shone it on my best friend, who had just tried to attack me in the dark.

“I thought you were the intruder, come back to finish the job or something,” Sophie said as she got up with a groan.

“Well, I didn’t even have time to consider who you might have been. I saw your shadow about to attack me and I just reacted,” I said as I shone the light around. “What were you going to hit me with, anyway?”

“A cookie jar I found on the counter,” Sophie admitted sheepishly. The jar lay on the floor now; thankfully, it was one of those super thick old ones, and so it hadn’t broken despite being dropped when I tackled Sophie.

“Ok, let’s put it back,” I said. “I don’t want anyone to know we were here.”

To my dismay, I realized Sophie had remembered to bring gloves, even though I hadn’t, as she grabbed the large container and put it back on the counter.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Sophie asked.

“I couldn’t sleep. Something isn’t right about this, and I wanted to kind of get a better idea of what, you know?”

“All too well,” Sophie agreed. “Same here. Taylor’s working the night shift tonight, so I’m on my own anyway, and I figured if I got caught it’d probably be pretty easy to sweet-talk my way out of going to jail.”

“So have you had a look around?”

“Not really. I only got here a few minutes ago. It looks like there was a bit of a struggle in the main room, and I made my way back to the kitchen.”

I shone my phone around the room, not wanting to turn on the lights for fear of arousing the neighbor’s suspicions and having the cops called on us. The kitchen wasn’t particularly messy; there were a few dishes in the sink, sure, but nothing that would have indicated that this place had been ransacked.

“I’m going to check out the living room,” I said, making my way to the front door.

“Sure. I’ll be upstairs,” Sophie replied. “Holler if you see anything.”

Gloria’s front door opened directly onto her living room. The bags of groceries she’d dropped upon entering still lay across the floor, a single orange having rolled across the room and settled against the TV stand against the far wall. A large cabinet near the front door on which sat a few cute porcelain figures had a little bit of blood on it, and I shook with rage as I thought of how much pain Buster had been in when he had come to the clinic.

Still, I had to put that out of my mind. What did I see? There were the groceries on the floor, sure. And there was a light smattering of black dust on almost every surface, but that was from the cops looking for fingerprints, surely. There were a few specks on the floor from what I assumed was blood, probably from the gash on Gloria’s face.

But to be honest, the rest of the room didn’t really look like someone was after valuables. In fact, there was still a large empty Michael Kors tote bag next to the couch. It might not have been a Balenciaga, but it could still definitely fetch a thief a hundred bucks or so on Craigslist. Maybe because the thief was male he hadn’t known the bag’s value? It had to have cost three hundred dollars new and was still in great condition.

A spot on the far wall attracted my attention, and as I made my way towards it, I realized this had been where the bullet fired from the intruder’s gun had hit. The hole it made was small, even after the bullet had been dug out from the wall by the police.

“Hey, Angela. Up here,” Sophie called out. I made my way up the stairs, following the sound of her voice. Something was off about this whole scene.

Sophie was in the master bedroom, where nothing looked like it had been touched.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“No, you don’t get it. I think that’s what we’re missing. It’s nothing. There’s nothing missing. There’s a watch on the dresser—sure, it’s not a Rolex or anything, but it’s still a watch, and there’s about twenty bucks’ worth of coins in a mason jar on the nightstand.”

“So the thief didn’t actually take anything,” I said. “He hadn’t even collected anything when Gloria got home.”

“I think that’s important.”

“Maybe he broke in right as she was coming back?”

Sophie shook her head. “Maybe, but it doesn’t really make sense. If you’re going to break and enter somewhere, you’re going to make sure that the person who lives there is at work. If they’re retired, then they’re almost certainly going to be home all day. And this is Willow Bay, everyone knows who lives in what house; if the person who did this was local, they knew this was Gloria’s place.”

“And it seems unlikely that someone would come here, specifically, to rob a place. There are plenty of way nicer houses up in Portland where someone could blend in more easily, what with it being a big city and all.”

“Exactly. So presumably our thief is someone from here. Which means they knew Gloria would have been here during the day, so they probably staked out somewhere and waited to see her leave before coming in.”

“Which means they would have had lots of time to rob the place before she came back,” I finished.

“So how come there’s been absolutely nothing taken?”

“And how come the thief hung around long enough for Gloria to return?”

“Exactly.”

Sophie and I looked at each other, the features of her face super pronounced in the thin light from the phone camera. Sophie was right: there was something weird going on.

“But we do know the thief was after money,” I said. “After all, he asked Gloria where it was and only attacked her when she wouldn’t tell him.”

“Yeah. And yet he left the money that was here. Something strange is going on with this case.”

“I don’t think we’re going to find any answers here,” I said, shaking my head. “Only more questions.”

“Yeah,” Sophie replied. “I agree. I mean, I was kind of tempted to say it was just some teenager with an IQ of a potato who thought he was being clever and got surprised, but idiot teenagers who break into homes don’t manage to get through back doors so cleanly.”

“Agreed,” I said with a nod. “Plus, there aren’t any real signs of him anywhere else in here.”

“True. Though the cops might have taken anything that he had left here.”

“You had better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

“That I should sweet-talk Taylor into telling me anything he knows about this case?” Sophie asked with a wink, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Good. I absolutely didn’t want to use my magic to break into the police station and check Chief Gary’s files. Again.”

Sophie grinned. “Plenty of time for that later in this investigation.”

Chapter 5

Sophie and I spent another twenty minutes in the house, just making sure we hadn’t missed anything, before we gave up and decided it was fruitless; the crime scene wasn’t going to give us any more information.

However, even though we had some more questions, I felt like it was a promising step. The more we discovered about the incident, the more we might be able to glean about the culprit.

When I got back home, exhaustion finally overtook me, and I fell into a deep sleep from which I was finally roused by Bee deciding she wanted breakfast twenty minutes before my alarm went off.

“We’re hungry, wake up,” Bee murmured, pawing at my face.

“Can you not wait twenty minutes?” I groaned, rolling over and covering my face with the pillow. Bee replied by jumping on my back and sticking her face under the pillow.

“No, we’re hungry now. If we were your human children, you wouldn’t let us starve.”

“Neither one of you is starving,” I muttered as I got out of bed. It was hopeless; now that Bee knew I was awake, nothing was going to stop her until I finally got out of bed.

“Text me if you find out anything juicy about your case,” Jason muttered sleepily as he turned over.

I grumbled at him and his ability to sleep in past six in the morning as I threw on some clothes and made my way into the kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee as I stifled a yawn. I definitely had not gotten enough sleep last night; this was going to be a long day.

Bee and Buster both sat in front of Bee’s food bowl and the extra bowl I had put out next to it for Buster. He was holding up his injured foot, looking up at me like a huge bowl of premium cat food was the only thing standing between him and unimaginable pain.

Right.

I managed to hide another tablet of painkillers in Buster’s food, this time sticking with the NSAID only. I watched with satisfaction as he and Bee both munched away, the pill eaten without being noticed. Thank goodness. There was nothing harder than trying to get a cat to eat a pill it knew you were trying to feed it, even if the pill was going to help.

“Are the two of you coming to the clinic today?” I asked. “Buster, you have to come, since Gloria’s going to come in at some point and take you home, but what about you, Bee?”

“Of course,” Bee replied, as if I should have known the entire time. “After all, Buster and I have to try and find out who did this to him and to Gloria.”

“Oh, the two of you are investigating, are you?” I asked, my eyebrows rising.

“Absolutely,” Bee bristled. “After all, a cat’s dignity is our most important feature. When Buster attempted to save Gloria’s life and didn’t manage to take down the criminal, well, we can’t let that kind of action stand. We’re going to find the man who did this, and we’re going to make him pay.”

“I assume your version of making him pay doesn’t involve simply calling the cops and letting them take care of it?”

“Cat justice is far more efficient than your silly method with trials and stuff,” Bee replied, showing me her claws.

“Alright, well, just make sure you don’t murder him if you find him,” I warned the two of them. “And let me know if the two of you actually come away with any decent information. We’re trying to find him as well, because unlike you, we can talk to humans, and we want to know if Gloria’s in any more danger or not.”

“Wait, you think Gloria might be in more danger?” Buster piped up.

“Well, we don’t know,” I replied. “It might be exactly what it looks like on the face of it—a home invasion gone wrong. But it might not be, either.”

I didn’t want to let the cats know that quite frankly, Sophie and I didn’t really have a clue what was going on with this.

“Alright, we’ll tell you what we find out,” Buster said, earning himself a glare from Bee. “What? I know it goes against Cat Law, but this is important. This is my mom we’re talking about. If telling them what we find out helps keep her safe, then I’m going to do it.”

“You’re betraying your species,” Bee muttered.

“And you know just as well as I do that Cat Law has an exception when it comes to helping save the life of your human.”

I had never heard of Cat Law before, and a part of me suspected it was something Bee and Buster had come up with on their own. I sort of wanted to know what the other “cat laws” were, but at the same time, I also just wanted to veer as far away from that ship as possible.

An hour later, after eating a quick bagel for breakfast, I drove down to the vet clinic along with the two cats, who insisted on being let out straightaway. I told them they could go out, so long as they came back to check in every hour in case Gloria came by to get Buster.

After barely acknowledging my orders they headed off, and I made my way to the back, where Sophie was getting everything ready for the day.

The bags under her eyes told me she’d slept just as little as I had.

“Do you mind going to Betty’s and grabbing me something with caffeine in it? Literally anything,” Sophie said, and I laughed.

“Sure. Want any food?”

“Always,” Sophie replied with a wink. I headed out, checking my watch—there were still about thirty-five minutes to go before our first patient of the day was due, which gave me plenty of time to grab Sophie and myself a couple of coffees and a breakfast burrito for her as well.

The instant I stepped into Betty’s café and the warm aroma of roasting coffee reached my nostrils, I felt reinvigorated, like the caffeine had seeped straight into me already. Betty McMahon waved at me from behind the coffee machine as she frothed some milk, the slight squeal of the steam wand adding to the atmosphere in the shop.

Even though it was just after seven-thirty in the morning, most of the tables were already taken up by people huddled around enjoying a morning delicacy before going to work, or simply retirees huddled together and having a chat.

I made my way up to the counter, my eyes falling on the slices of fresh pumpkin pie in the fridge. That would go perfectly with my lunch, after all.

“Did you hear about Gloria?” Betty said to me after she finished making the coffee and took my order.

“I did,” I replied. “I saw her yesterday. Buster got a bit banged up.”

“Oh, the poor dear,” Betty tutted, shaking her head. “I’m so glad she’s going to be alright. It’s terrifying, thinking about this sort of thing happening in Willow Bay.”

“I know,” I nodded. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?”

“That poor woman’s had a string of bad luck. What with her husband dying a couple of years ago, and now this?”

“Oh, I didn’t realize she was married.”

“Yes, I knew her husband. He grew up here, actually. They were both teachers up in Portland, although they worked at different schools. He taught high school and she taught middle school. I think that’s one of the reasons why Gloria retired here; when Francis Romano died she gave her notice at the school she worked at and moved here, because it reminded her of him.”

“Aww,” I said, feeling a pang of guilt. For as much as Buster spent a ton of time in the vet clinic and with Bee, I realized I didn’t really know all that much about Gloria herself. I really only saw her when she came to drop Buster off in the morning.

“I do hope the police find who did this to her soon,” Betty continued. “I’d hate to think this could become a regular thing. I can’t remember the last time we had a home invasion that put someone in the hospital here. The closest I can think of was back in the eighties when a couple of kids got drunk and tried to steal an ATV, and the owner came out in the middle of the night and chased them off. But that was quite a few years ago now, and no one got hurt then. This is just something else. I mean, Oregon has had its share of major crimes. There was the I-5 killer in the eighties, the Leather’s Oil Company murders in the nineties, that huge robbery at a credit union in Portland about a dozen years ago, the husband who ordered a hit on his wife and she killed the hitman around the same time, and that shooting at the community college three years back, in 2015. But nothing like that has ever happened here in Willow Bay.”

Betty shook her head sadly as she took the change I handed her. “At least Chief Gary is on the case. He’ll hopefully get to the bottom of it.”

“I hope so,” I replied. “In the meantime, I hope it was just a one-time thing.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Betty nodded in agreement. “I really hope you’re right.”

Before I had time to really think about the case too much, though, I ended up having to deal with my patients for the day.

The first was a cat named Gina who had been spayed three days earlier. Her owner, Sally, a young woman in her mid-twenties who I recognized as a cashier at the local grocery store, came in with her for a normal checkup.

“I’m really worried. I wasn’t sure if I should have called you as an emergency,” Sally said.

“Really? What’s wrong?” I asked, taking a look at the wound. The cat’s stitches seemed to be healing fine, and Sally had a cone on her, so she couldn’t get at them. “I don’t see any sign of infection.”

“Well, she’s been acting extremely lethargic. She won’t move, she won’t eat, she won’t drink, she won’t do anything except lie down. Last night I felt her stomach, and she was breathing super slowly. I think something is wrong. I think she might actually be dying.”

Tears welled in Sally’s eyes as she said this, and my brow furrowed. This definitely wasn’t good, but at the same time, there were no outward signs that might indicate anything was wrong. None that were visible, anyway. After surgery, infection was the most frequent complication. This was certainly strange.

“Has she been eating and drinking?”

“Not at all.”

“Any vomiting or diarrhea?”

“No. She just doesn’t do anything.”

“Are you doing alright, Gina? Are you going to tell us what’s wrong?” I asked as I grabbed my stethoscope, stroking her gently as I pretended to just be speaking with her like a normal human would.

Gina didn’t reply at all. That was definitely strange.

I checked her heart, and while her heartbeat might have been a little bit on the slower side, it certainly wasn’t within a range I would normally worry about.

“Hmm,” I muttered as I began a physical exam. She didn’t seem to have any pain in her body, and she let me touch her paws without a problem. I was very much perplexed.

“You don’t know what’s wrong, do you?” Sally said, biting her lip.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m not letting you leave here until I know what’s going on with Gina.”

I undid the wrapping around her cone and slipped it off her head; I wanted to get a better look at Gina’s face and ears. As soon as I did, she let out a meow and stood up with a stretch.

“Oh my God! She hasn’t moved that much in over twenty-four hours,” Sally said with a gasp.

“Ah, that’s much better,” Gina said, moving her head from side to side as if stretching it.

I couldn’t help but let a small smile creep to my face as Gina made her way towards Sally and rubbed herself against her.

“You fixed her!” Sally exclaimed. “But what did you do? What was wrong with her?”

“It appears she hated the cone of shame so much she pretended to be dying so that you’d take it off her.”

“Oh…OH!” Sally exclaimed as realization dawned on her. A blush crept up her face. “I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have brought her in for something so silly. I had no idea. I thought something was seriously wrong with her.”

“Not to worry,” I said with a laugh. “Animals can definitely be tricky little buggers. Anyway, she was due for me to look her over anyway, so it’s fine that you came in.”

“Thank you so much. I didn’t realize that was the whole problem.”

“Not to worry. Luckily, everything seems to be healing up nicely. If you could leave the cone on her when you leave for long periods of time, like when you go to work, that would be ideal. But when you’re home, as long as you can more or less keep an eye on her, I think you should be fine to leave the cone off, so long as she doesn’t bite at the stitches.” I leaned down to face Gina. “You hear that, missy? As long as you’re a good kitty and leave your stitches alone you don’t need the cone much anymore.”

“Fine,” Gina scowled at me.

“That’s right, if you’re naughty, the cone goes back on,” I said in my fake-happy voice that I always used in front of clients who couldn’t know their pet was actually speaking back to me. I handed Sally the cone and had her on her way. I could still hear her apologizing to Karen at the receptionist’s desk, as Karen calmed her down with the knowledge that she was definitely not the first person to come in with an uncooperative cat.

I made my way to the back room to find Sophie giggling. “I can’t believe Gina pretended she was dying so that Sally would take the cone off her.”

“Cats,” I replied with a small smile. They certainly had attitude.

Just as Sally stepped outside, I saw Gloria walking down the street towards us.

Chapter 6

“Gloria!” I exclaimed. “Come in, please.”

“Thank you, dear,” Gloria said to me with a smile. I couldn’t help but notice she walked with a bit of a limp.

“How are you feeling? Please, have a seat. Bee and Buster decided to go out this morning, but Buster ran off without using his injured paw, which was nice to see. I’m sure they’ll be back shortly.”

“A seat would be nice, actually,” Gloria said as she plopped herself down in one of the lobby chairs. “And don’t worry about Buster. In fact, I think a bit of a rest is just what I need.”

“If you’d like I can get Karen to drive you back home after the two cats get back.”

“Oh no, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”

“I’m happy to do it, ma’am,” Karen said cheerily from behind the counter. “It’s really no trouble at all. You’re only a couple minutes away. I’m glad to see you looking so much better.”

“It’s quite alright, really. The doctors told me I should try to do some light exercise anyway, that sitting around all day would only make things worse. Frankly, I’m more worried about the state of my home.”

“I’m sure it’s all fine,” I assured her, not letting Gloria know that I knew all too well what the inside of her home looked like. “Are you worried about staying in it alone? Is there anyone who can stay with you for a few days?”

Gloria waved a hand away. “Oh, I’m not calling my kids over to stay with me like some scared old woman. I’m sure whoever it was got the fright of his life thanks to Buster, and he won’t be back.”

“Well, good, that’s the right attitude,” Karen said with a smile.

“Is there anything you can think of that might have slipped your mind yesterday?” I asked Gloria quietly a couple of moments later. “Anything that might help give me an idea who did this to you?”

Gloria shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid not, Angela. I thought about it for quite a while yesterday after you left. I’m afraid you know everything I do.”

Slightly disappointed, I suddenly saw Bee and Buster making their way back towards the vet clinic. To my immense relief, Buster was still only using three paws, limping slightly but managing. I was glad; he seemed to understand the importance of staying off the one with the broken ulna.

Five minutes later Gloria and Buster had been reunited, Bee was sulking at the front now that her best friend had gone home, and I was in the back with Sophie as our next patient got settled in one of the exam rooms.

“So no new info, hey?” Sophie asked disappointedly.

“Nope,” I replied. “Honestly, I just don’t know what to do. It kind of feels like we’ve run out of leads before we even started.”

“I know what you mean,” Sophie agreed. “I just don’t know what we should do next.”

I sighed. Maybe we had bitten off more than we could chew this time around.

Jason texted me just after our last patient for the day went home.

Have you heard about the shooting in Portland?

My eyebrows rose when I read it, and my heart jumped in my chest. I hoped whatever it was that no one had gotten hurt. No. What happened?

Another home invasion, a couple hours ago. Only this time, the homeowner didn’t make it out alive.

Send me the address.

Two home invasions in broad daylight in two days? There was no way that could be a coincidence.

“We’re going on a road trip,” I announced to Sophie when I made my way back into the room. “There’s been another home invasion, in Portland this time, and this person didn’t have a cat to save them.”

“I’ll grab my jacket,” Sophie instantly replied. We grabbed Bee and took her home, despite her protests that she wanted to come along with us, and headed off.

As I drove down the highway towards Portland, Sophie had her phone out and was checking news sites like crazy.

“There’s no real information here,” she said. “Only that there was a shooting at a home in Mt. Tabor in the middle of the day.”

“Well, hopefully Jason will have more for us,” I said. “He’s going to meet us there.”

The address Jason had sent me was in Mt. Tabor, a pretty decent neighborhood on the east side of Portland. Winding my way through narrow residential streets, past houses that looked to have been built mainly in the fifties and sixties, I knew I was coming up to the right place when I reached the crowds of people huddled around yellow police tape.

There had to be about fifty locals all coming to have a look. Whether they were out walking the dog or had heard from nosy neighbors that disaster had struck here, they were pressed up against yellow crime scene tape while an officer held everyone back.

I managed to find a parking spot a couple of blocks away, and Sophie and I made our way towards the crime scene. I texted Jason to let him know we were coming, and as soon as he saw us he motioned for us to join him.

Jason had moved off to the far side of the house, a ways away from the crowd but still within sight of the crime scene.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked at the house and shivered. It wasn’t just the fact that the sun had almost completely set, bringing an extra chill down on the town. It was that I knew all too well this was how Gloria’s home invasion could have gone, and I wondered who the poor soul who hadn’t been so lucky was.

The crime scene was a bungalow that fit in with the rest of the homes on the street: low-rising, surrounded by shrubs, painted a rather ugly shade of green that looked like it needed a fresh coat fifteen years ago.

“They’ve just removed the body and taken it to the morgue about ten minutes ago,” Jason said. “The shooting took place a couple of hours ago, at two in the afternoon. I spoke to some neighbors who heard the shots and called 9-1-1, but it was too late.”

“Do you know who it was?” Sophie asked.

“I have a name. Michael Carlton. He was retired; worked as an accountant for the school board downtown until about five years ago when he took his pension. Never married, no kids.”

“Another retiree, another middle-of-the-day home invasion,” I muttered. “That can’t be a coincidence. Maybe in New York, but not here.”

“Hey, even in New York that would be considered pretty out of the ordinary,” Jason said, defending his hometown. “But I agree, and that’s why I texted you. I think there’s got to be a link between that invasion and this one, and I think they were both almost certainly committed by the same person.”

“Going from Willow Bay to northeastern Portland is a pretty long commute, don’t you think?” Sophie pointed out. “If you just wanted to do a smash-and-grab robbery, there have to be what, ten thousand homes between the two? What made the culprit decide to go from one place to the other?”

“That’s a good point,” I mused. Unfortunately, this case seemed to be all about more and more questions and fewer and fewer answers. I had absolutely no idea what the culprit’s reasoning could have been.

“Was there a link between Gloria and this Michael Carlton?” I asked Jason. “Did you find out anything?”

“Not as far as I can tell,” Jason said, shaking his head. “We should ask her when we get back to Willow Bay.”

As I looked towards the house, I suddenly saw a large, familiar figure come into view, his face lit up by the red and blue lights of one of the police cruisers.

“It looks like we’re not the only ones to have made this connection,” I said, motioning to Chief Gary, who made his way straight towards one of the uniformed officers on the other side of the police cordon.

“Great,” Sophie said, ducking behind Jason slightly. “We’re definitely going to get yelled at if he sees us here.”

“Let’s go back to the car and decide what to do next,” Jason suggested. “It’s getting cold out, and I haven’t seen anything in the last hour that could help us out.”

Chapter 7

Eventually, the three of us decided that it wasn’t worth trying to use my magic to get inside the house—with the whole place swimming with cops, the risk of accidentally running into one of them while trying to find some evidence just wasn’t worth it. Jason went back to his car, and I drove Sophie and myself back to Willow Bay, where we decided to stop by Gloria’s place to make sure she was doing alright, but also to ask about Michael Carlton.

“Come in, come in,” Gloria greeted us as soon as she opened the door. “Please. I apologize about the mess. I’m afraid the police left a whole bunch of fingerprint powder everywhere. Just when I think I’ve finally managed to clean it all up, I find some more somewhere.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said as we stepped inside. Buster came padding over, carefully walking on three paws.

“Have you found out who did it yet?” he asked.

“We don’t know who came here yesterday,” I said to Gloria, answering Buster’s question in the meantime. “However, we think there may be a link to your home invasion and one that happened in Portland earlier today.”

“Really?” Gloria asked. “Please, sit. Can I make you a cup of tea?”

“No, we’re good, thanks,” Sophie replied. “Do you know a man named Michael Carlton?”

Gloria’s brow furrowed. “The name doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Maybe he was someone you knew back in Portland?” I offered.

“I don’t think so,” Gloria said slowly. “It really doesn’t sound familiar at all.”

I frowned. There had to be a link of some sort between the two. There just had to be.

“He was an accountant, does that help?”

“Not really,” Gloria replied. “I always did my own taxes, and Francis’ as well. They weren’t especially complicated, since we were both teachers. We didn’t know any accountants.”

“Alright,” Sophie nodded, and the two of us made our way towards the door. “Well, we’ll keep you updated on anything we discover. Thanks, Gloria. Take care of yourself, and of Buster.”

“Thank you, ladies. Same to you,” Gloria said as we left. I shoved my hands deep in the pockets of my jacket as we made our way to the car.

“There has to be a link, right?” I asked Sophie. “I was sure she was going to tell us she knew Michael Carlton.”

“Absolutely,” Sophie said. “I mean, you saw Chief Gary there just as well as I did. We’re obviously not the only ones who think there was something going on.”

When we reached the car, there was a bit of an animal ruckus. I thought it was a couple of raccoons for a moment, until I got a better look at who was out there.

“Are those…” Sophie started, and I nodded.

“Beavers? Yup.”

“You,” one of the beavers said, a dark brown one who going by his size was probably male. “You’re the human we can talk to, right?” He spoke with a bit of a lisp, probably due to his oversized front teeth. There were five beavers in all—I assumed a mother, a father, two of the previous years’ litters and a newborn.

“That’s right,” I replied. “What can I do for you?”

“Someone has been messing with our lodge, and we want you to find out who it is.”

“Alright, where is your dam?”

“We can’t tell you. You’ll destroy it,” one of the other beavers piped up.

“Well, I can’t help you if I don’t know where you live,” I replied. “Besides, if you want my help, I need to go and see it, so that I can tell you what caused it.”

“I can tell you what caused it. It was one of you lot,” one of the other beavers said. “Saw him with my own eyes.”

“It’s too bad your eyesight is awful, Naba,” one of the other beavers said. Great. Beavers had pretty bad eyesight as it was; a beaver with bad eyesight was basically what I would consider blind.

“Oh, shut up, Lolo. You wouldn’t know a human if it swam straight into your den.”

“Hey, I knew how to find this one, didn’t I?”

“Can it, both of you,” the first beaver ordered. “Fine. We don’t like to give away the location of our lodges, but since you need it, seemingly for good reason, and because you come highly recommended from the local animal life, we will give you that information.”

“Alright, where is it?” I asked.

“Do you know the creek that runs parallel to the coast?” the beaver asked. “We call it the stream of the sea, as it leads to the ocean, but not until it reaches the large park you humans use.”

“Oh, yeah, Ripple Creek.” I nodded. “I know it.”

“If you go upstream from your human park around four hundred feet, you will find our lodge,” the beaver said. “It is our territory. There are no other lodges in that part of the creek.”

“Ok,” I told him. “I’ll do my best to leave no trace so no one else knows that your lodge is there.”

“Well, it’s too late for that, isn’t it?” one of the younger beavers said.

“Can I come by tomorrow during the day?”

“I suppose. We do prefer nighttime, but if it must be daylight, then so be it.”

“Unfortunately, being human, my eyesight is my best sense,” I explained to them. “I see best during the day, so I’ll try and come in the late afternoon, but it will be daytime.”

“I thought that might be the case, seeing as the other human came during the day,” the beaver named Lolo said. “At least one of us will be awake then.”

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” I told the beavers. As Sophie and I got into the car, she raised her eyebrows.

“Trouble in Beaverland?”

“Apparently, someone found their lodge and messed with it,” I explained.

“Oh, that’s not nice,” Sophie said. She frowned. “Who would do something like that?”

I shrugged. “Who knows? Teenagers looking to make trouble? Someone who liked having more water cross their property before the beavers built their dam? Honestly, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to find out who did it. But I’ll go over and have a look for them all the same. I hate it when people destroy nature. Beavers are majestic, and they worked hard to build that lodge. It’s not fair for someone to come over and destroy it.”

“Agreed,” Sophie nodded. “No one comes over and destroys our homes for no reason. We shouldn’t do it to animals, either.”

“And speaking of, I think we need to look into Michael Carlton’s life as much as possible.”

“Right. Should I come over to your place? After all, Jason will be there, and maybe he’s got some information as well.”

The two of us hopped into the car and headed home—making a pit stop for pizza on the way.

“Well, this just made my night of investigation a lot more palatable,” Jason grinned as Sophie and I walked in.

“Awwww, look how sweet he is,” Sophie said, but Jason shook his head.

“I meant the pizza.”

I stuck my tongue out at him as I placed the boxes on the kitchen counter and got out some plates. Charlotte came in from the next room at the aroma.

“It smelled way better than when you usually come home,” she said, and I pretended to be hurt.

“Does no one appreciate my presence here anymore?” I said, faking an overly dramatic pout.

“I appreciate you, because you’re the greatest human known to man, and you take such good care of your perfect and obedient cat,” Bee said, rubbing herself against my legs.

“You’ve overdone it,” I said to her. “Now I know you’re just trying to get some pizza yourself.”

“I knew calling you the greatest human known to man was just too unrealistic,” Bee muttered. “Can I at least get a slice for trying?”

“You can have a small piece,” I said with a stern look, and the contented look that appeared on my cat’s face let me know just how pleased she was with that decision. I made my way to the small dining table, on which sat Jason’s iPad.

“I wanted to look up Michael Carlton,” I said, pressing the home button.

“Oh, yeah, let me just look something up first real quick,” Jason said, grabbing the iPad out of my hand. That was definitely weird; he never seemed to care if I used his tablet without asking in the past.

He tapped away at a few things for a moment, then handed it back to me. “Sorry, I’m waiting on an important email from my boss about whether or not we’re running with the angle that there might be a link between Gloria and Michael Carlton.”

I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just use his phone for that, but what did I know?

What I did notice was that when I opened Facebook, Jason’s account—which he kept perpetually logged in because he constantly forgot his password—was logged out.

I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help worrying slightly as I logged into my own account to do the search for Michael.

“Why couldn’t our murder victim have a less common name?” I muttered as I did the search, Sophie poking her head over my shoulder as she took a huge bite of pizza and placed two slices of veggie supreme on a plate in front of me.

“I vaguely know what he looks like,” Jason said, coming over. “I got a picture of him from an old, un-updated page on the city’s website. That’s him, there.”

I clicked on the name, the profile picture a man with graying hair but a friendly face and mischievous eyes. He looked a lot like a kindly grandfather, but the kind who would get you candy and take you on adventures so long as you promised not to tell your parents about it.

“He doesn’t seem to have much on his personal profile,” Sophie pointed out. “He mainly shares memes and stuff.”

“Yeah,” I said, disappointed. “That’s too bad. I was hoping there would be more here to help us.”

“Did you two see Gloria and ask if she knew him?” Jason asked, and I nodded.

“We asked, but she didn’t know the name.”

“That’s too bad,” Jason mused. “You don’t think she’s lying about it, do you?”

“What reason could she possibly have for that?” Sophie asked. “No, I felt like she was telling the truth.”

“Well, you never know. It certainly sounds like something happened in here that links Michael Carlton to Gloria. We just need to find out what.”

“Maybe it has to do with their old jobs,” I said. “After all, Gloria worked as a teacher, and Michael was an accountant for the school board, right?”

“That could be it,” Jason mused. “I was going to spend tomorrow in Portland anyway. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Or you could, you know, let the police deal with it, seeing as now both the Willow Bay police and the Portland police are involved,” Charlotte suggested as she took a big bite of pizza.

“Absolutely no chance,” Sophie said. “This case gets more interesting by the day.”

I really hoped it wasn’t going to get any more interesting. One woman in the hospital and a man murdered was more than enough excitement for my liking.

Chapter 8

The next morning, I popped by Betty’s café once more.

“Do you know a Michael Carlton?” I asked when I got to the counter, and Betty gave me a knowing look.

“That wouldn’t happen to be the name of the man who was killed up in the city yesterday, would it?”

“Ah, so the rumor mill has already made its way through here, has it?” I laughed.

“To answer your question, though, no, I don’t know him.”

“I can’t find a link between him and Gloria. But there has to be one.”

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you there.”

“You don’t know of any shady happenings in Gloria’s past, do you?”

“Goodness, no. I actually barely know the woman at all. She comes in here every so often, but not that much, and she’s only lived in town for a couple of years.”

“Hm, ok, thanks,” I said. The next day was Monday, which meant the vet clinic was closed, save for any emergencies. That would give Sophie and me time to go up to Portland, since it looked like that was where we were most likely to find our answers.

After spending the day taking care of the local injured animals, I packed up my things, said goodbye to Sophie and Karen, and made my way out to the local beavers’ lodge that had been vandalized. After all, I had promised them I would come by, and I wanted to have a look before the sun set, which in the winter was pretty early.

I worried slightly that I wasn’t dressed quite warmly enough for an outdoor escapade, but my worries were soon put to rest when I realized just how hard it was to wander through the thick forest to try and find the beavers’ lodge.

After scrambling through some bushes, swearing more than just a few times, and coming out looking like I’d just lost a fight to Bee—when really I had lost a fight to a number of branches and twigs—I found what I was after. The beavers’ lodge was on the larger side compared to others I had seen, about ten feet long and four, maybe five feet wide, spanning the entire width of the creek. All around the lodge were the remains of trees, the marks on them making it obvious that they had been cut down by the local beaver family.

Around the lodge was an elaborate dam setup to deepen the water level; the stream was naturally only about a foot deep here, which I was well aware wasn’t deep enough for a proper beavers’ lodge. The extra wood, mud, and rocks had been put in place to deepen the water, and past the dam, only a small trickle continued onwards toward the ocean.

While the lodge looked like it had been rebuilt, there were signs that what the beavers had told me the night before about it being wrecked was true. The mud near the creek was covered with footprints, and there were bits of logs scattered haphazardly about, like someone had grabbed them from the lodge and thrown them around.

Making my way carefully to the water’s edge, I looked at the footprints. They were definitely made by a man’s boot, and they were large. Maybe a size ten? Possibly eleven? I took pictures with my phone; the tread marks were fairly distinctive. In fact, the star shape on the soles looked familiar. I made a mental note to check at home and see if I could narrow down the brand at all.

“Hey, beavers, it’s me. Are you guys ok out there?”

The main beaver that spoke to me yesterday popped his head out and waddled over towards me. I had to admit, it was pretty cute the way the beavers stumbled along on land.

“We are alright. Thank you for speaking; we were worried that you might have been the bad human come back.”

“So, tell me what it is he wrecked,” I said. “I saw his footprints on the ground by the lodge.”

“Yes, he did wreck some of the lodge, but he also tore down some of our dam. That was where most of the damage took place, which meant that the entrance to our lodge was no longer underwater, and it became an untenable situation for us.”

“Right, because without the lodge being underwater you’re more susceptible to attacks.” I nodded.

“Exactly. There are coyotes in these woods, after all. We have to be careful, and we have to protect ourselves.”

“Do any of you remember exactly what the man looked like? Or where he came from?”

The beaver shook his head. “No. He came during the day, and we were all asleep. We woke up from the ruckus he was making, but only Naba dared to poke her head out and see what was happening until he left. That was why she saw him, but she didn’t get a good look at him.”

“Did you hear anything?” I asked. Beavers had terrible eyesight, but their other senses were heightened compared to human ones to make up for it.

“There was some muttering of some sort. It referred to the dam a lot, and there were some other words that the humans call curses.”

Alright, that was definitely something. It was possible that the person was actually saying “damn” rather than referring to the beavers’ dam, which I found more likely, especially if they were cursing as well.

“Good, that’s good to know. So it sounds like he was angry?”

“Oh, definitely. He was mad about something.”

That ruled out teenagers who were bored and creating random mischief just because they could. It sounded like whoever had come over here to destroy the beavers’ habitat had done it with purpose.

“Have you rebuilt completely, then?” I asked, looking around. While it was obvious that this place had come under attack, at the same time, it did look like the beavers had put most of it back together.

“Yes, we spent almost the whole night downing new trees and putting what we could back in place. However, it is hard work. Only three of us are fit to do it; the other two kits are too young.”

“Of course.” There was a reason ‘busy as a beaver’ was a saying, and these guys were proof of it.

“So do you know who did this to us?”

“I don’t,” I replied slowly. “However, I have an idea.”

“Yes?”

“I want to come by tomorrow, or whenever I get a chance, and put some security cameras in here. That way, if whoever it was comes back, I’ll have his face on video, hopefully, and I’ll be able to track him down.”

“That’s too bad. I was hoping you would be able to tell us straightaway who it was. We heard from the other animals that you are quite skilled as an investigator; it’s why we came to you first.”

“Was the other part of that reason the fact that I’m the only human in the area who can talk to animals?” I asked with a smile.

“That factored in as well,” the beaver said. “However, we expected your work to be faster.”

“Unfortunately, detective work isn’t entirely about working hard; it’s also about getting lucky,” I replied.

“Well, here in the beaver world, it’s all about working hard. Luck doesn’t factor in; if you’re diligent in building your dams and lodges in time, then everything gets done.”

“Finding a vandal is a little bit more complex than building a lodge.”

“Please, like you could build anything remotely as complicated as this series of dams.”

“Ok, fine, complex was the wrong word. But it’s not a guarantee.”

“These sound like someone making excuses for failing to find the person who did this to us.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You know, seeing as I’m doing you a favor here, you could show just a little bit of gratitude.” I had no idea that beavers were so blunt.

“We do appreciate what you’re doing. We would just appreciate it more if your plan didn’t involve our lodge being attacked again at some point in the future.”

I thought about a solution for a minute. “Alright. Well, why don’t I put a protection spell on your lodge? That way, as long as your family stays in the lodge, nothing from the outside will be able to hurt you. It won’t protect the dam, but if he comes back he won’t be able to wreck your lodge, and he won’t be able to reach those of you who are inside. I can leave the spell on for as long as it takes, so if he comes back in a few days, you’ll be safe. Would that help?”

“You humans have that power?” the beaver asked, obviously impressed.

“Not all of us. Only those of us with magical powers, like me. The same magical powers that allow me to speak to you.”

“So with this spell, no matter what, so long as we are inside our lodge, we will be safe?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I’m going to the city tomorrow, so I can buy some security equipment then. I will come back tomorrow night and set it up, and then if he comes by and attacks your place again, I will be able to find him.”

“Good,” the beaver said, nodding. “That is acceptable to us.” His formal tone combined with his slight lisp from the size of his front teeth was kind of funny, but pretty adorable at the same time.

“I’ll come by tomorrow, then,” I said. “Now, let me cast the spell.”

I thought for a second about the proper spell to use, thinking that maybe it would be slightly different for a beavers’ lodge than for a normal human house, then settled on the words.

“Praesidioroa domum,” I said, pointing my finger towards the lodge. “There. It’s protected.”

“Are you sure?” the beaver said, giving me a skeptical look. “I didn’t see anything change.”

“I am sure.” I nodded, making my way to the lodge. “Watch.”

I went to grab a piece of wood from the pile, but it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard I pulled. It was like it had been embedded in concrete.

“Wow. That is impressive,” the beaver said as he waddled back towards the creek. “Maybe you do know what you’re doing after all.”

I hid a smile as I said goodbye to the beaver and struggled through the brush on my way back to the park. Who on earth would destroy a beautiful beavers’ dam and lodge like that? I knew they could be a little annoying sometimes, sure, but the beavers had just as much of a right to be there as we did.

Now I had two mysteries to solve. At least now the beavers would be safe, so long as they stayed in their lodge when the attacker came back. If it had been simple vandals, I wouldn’t have expected the attack to be repeated, but the fact that whoever had done this seemed to be in a rage made me think that maybe this wasn’t going to be a one-time thing.

I hoped I was wrong, but the way things were going, I had a feeling I wasn’t. At least the next time someone tried to attack the beavers, we would be prepared. I wasn’t going to let someone get away with hurting these animals and making them more at risk to predators.

Chapter 9

First thing the next morning, Sophie and I piled into my car and drove to Portland—I decided I was driving, since Sophie being behind the wheel always increased our risk of dying in a fiery crash hundreds of percentage points.

When I texted Jason if he wanted to come, he replied that he had a bunch of work to do on his article and was going to pass this time, but asked me if I’d send him along any pertinent information before his deadline later that afternoon.

“Please, tell him to do his own legwork,” Sophie said with a smile as she read out the text while I drove.

“Well, seeing as we didn’t even know Michael Carlton’s name before he gave it to us, I think we can give him a pass this time around,” I laughed.

“I was thinking last night about this trip. I think we need to investigate Michael Carlton’s murder separately from Gloria’s home invasion.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sophie said. “After all, think about it. We’re having so much trouble finding a link between the two of them, but really, right now, who cares? Let’s look for the person who did it, and from there we can find a motive. I think we need to really see the forest through the trees, and right now, we’re definitely focused on the trees.”

“Ok,” I said slowly, mulling over Sophie’s words. I had to admit, they did make sense in a way.

“I mean, we’re accepting that the person who killed Michael is probably the same person who broke into Gloria’s place. I don’t think that’s stretching it, especially since the cops obviously think the same way, otherwise we wouldn’t have seen Chief Gary at their crime scene yesterday.”

“I’m with you.”

“And we were both at Gloria’s place the other night. There’s, like, literally zero evidence there. If there was anything worth looking at, the cops would have taken it away already.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“So let’s look into Michael’s death, and only Michael’s, and once we find out who killed him, since hopefully there might be a bit more evidence there, we can link that person to Gloria’s house.”

“Alright, I’m in,” I said. “What do you think we should do first?”

“You’re going to love me,” Sophie replied with a grin. “I think we should check out the crime scene.”

“Oh, good, it’s not even nine in the morning and we’re already committing a felony.”

“Hey, at the speed you drive, by the time we get to Portland it’s going to be at least eleven.”

“It will be ten o’clock, tops, and we’re not going to be stopped by the cops for speeding or die in a ditch at the side of the road because we lost control of the car,” I replied. Charlotte’s and my parents had died in a car crash when we were quite young, and while the crash hadn’t been their fault, I had always been a rather defensive driver.

But then, compared to Sophie, Lewis Hamilton was a defensive driver.

Sure enough, at five minutes to ten, we found ourselves a few blocks away from Michael Carlton’s home—and in one piece, I might add.

“Alright,” I said. “Invisibility spell?”

Sophie nodded. “Absolutely.”

I cast the spell on her first, and then on me. The car looked completely empty now.

“Make sure there’s no one coming before you get out,” I told Sophie. “I don’t want my car impounded for being haunted.”

Sophie laughed, the sound coming from the passenger seat despite me not being able to see her body. Even though we had used this particular spell quite a few times in recent memory, it was still kind of strange to hear her without seeing her, despite knowing she was less than a foot away from me.

I had a look around, and as far as I could tell there was no one nearby—the advantage of being in a residential neighborhood in the middle of a weekday was the lack of snooping neighbors—so I slipped out of the car and closed the door quickly behind me.

“Ready?” Sophie’s voice asked a second later, and I nodded before realizing she couldn’t see me.

“Yup. Let’s go.”

We approached the house quietly, holding hands so as to know where the other person was at all times.

“I don’t see any cops,” Sophie whispered. “You?”

“None,” I replied, my eyes moving from the lawn to the windows. The whole yard was still roped off with yellow police tape and a couple idly curious neighbors were taking a suspiciously long time walking past the place, but as far as I could tell, all the cops were gone.

Sophie and I made our way towards the front door, but as soon as we reached it, I stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked.

“The seal on the door,” I replied. “How are we going to get past it without it breaking?”

“Can’t you put it back together?” Sophie asked. “What’s the point of being able to use magic if you can’t break in to a crime scene?”

“I can,” I replied. “The problem is, I can’t use magic to put it back together if I can’t see it. So once we’re inside with the door closed, we’d have to wait until we’re done to put it back.”

“And you’re worried a cop might come by in that time.”

“I mean, it’s a murder investigation, and it happened less than forty-eight hours ago. Yeah, I’m a bit worried.”

“Ok,” Sophie said. “Let’s go around the side and see if we can make our way in through a window or something.”

We walked around the side of the house, but unfortunately, we very quickly realized that the windows weren’t going to work. It wasn’t that we couldn’t unlock them—my magic took care of that really quickly. It was that we simply wouldn’t fit.

“I’m starting to really regret eating all that pizza over the last twenty-some years,” Sophie said despondently as the reality of our situation began to sink in.

“I’m not,” I replied. “If I had to choose between solving crimes and pizza, I’d choose pizza every day of the week.”

“This is why you’re a vet and not a detective,” Sophie muttered.

“Hey, you’re a vet tech and not a detective,” I replied. “Anyway, I have an idea.”

“Oh yeah?”

“We’re too big to get through the window, but what if we were smaller? And what if, as smaller creatures, we actually had better senses?”

“What are you thinking?”

“We’re going to turn into animals.”

“Ooh, do I get to be an eagle again?”

I thought about it for a second, then nodded. “That’s probably a good idea, actually. Eagles have insanely good eyesight, so you might be able to pick up on something that I can’t see.”

“What are you going to change into?”

“I’m thinking a squirrel,” I said, after a minute of consideration. “That way I’ll be able to reach the little corners, and it’ll be easy for me to open the window.”

“Right,” Sophie said. “I’ll stand right where I am now, if you want to do the spell.”

“Ok. I’ll make it last an hour,” I replied, pointing to where I knew my friend stood. “Reformaroa avem una horoa.”

There was a flash of white light where Sophie had been standing, and a second later a cawing sound indicated to me that the spell had worked. Perfect. For the next hour, Sophie was going to be a bald eagle.

“Reformaroa sciurus una horoa,” I said, pointing to myself. My body lurched forward involuntarily; it was like my insides were being turned inside and out. It was as though I was on a roller coaster, but the feeling was a hundred times stronger. Then, just as quickly as it had started, the feeling dissipated, and I looked around as I found myself standing in the middle of grass so long it almost reached my nose.

No, the grass hadn’t changed length at all. I was just four inches tall, now.

Alright. Sophie and I had an hour to look inside this place before we turned back into humans; we had to make the most of it.

Scrambling up the side cladding of the house like it was the most natural thing in the world, I reached the window, which I had unlocked earlier using a spell, and pushed it open. A squawk behind me let me know that Sophie was coming through, and I waited for the whoosh of wind from her wings to wash over me before I followed her inside.

While the exterior of Michael Carlton’s home had been relatively plain and unassuming, the interior was definitely that of a man who had money and wasn’t afraid to spend it. This was a much more obvious target for a home invader.

The window opened into the living room, which was dominated by a huge black leather sectional that took up most of the back wall. A sixty-inch flat screen was mounted on the far wall, and built-in surround-sound speakers lined the walls. A Nintendo Switch, a PlayStation, and more Blu-Ray DVDs than I had ever seen in one place filled a cabinet underneath the television.

Against the side wall was a large cabinet filled with alcohol—Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and others. This was not a cheap liquor cabinet.

What stood out to me, however, was that it was all still here. This had been exactly the situation at Gloria’s place. There were things worth stealing—heck, that bottle of scotch alone had to be worth $200—and yet nothing had been taken.

Had the thief panicked when he killed Michael Carlton? But then, these were the same questions we had asked ourselves the last time.

What on earth was the thief after if he wasn’t here to steal anything? Wasn’t that the million-dollar question?

I decided to move on. I wanted to find out more about Michael Carlton, like who he might have been close to, or better yet, who might have wanted him dead.

I darted around the living room, taking a good, close look at everything I could. It was so easy as a squirrel to scamper up the side of furniture, and my newfound keener eyesight meant everything I saw was perfectly in focus. My sense of smell had been improved as well; the metallic smell of blood reached my nostrils, as did the chemicals the crime scene workers had used, and the tangy scent of bleach.

The problem was basically anything that might have helped me figure out who had killed Michael Carlton had disappeared. The police had taken it all; there was no sign that a murder had happened here apart from a little bit of blood on the floor. And I already knew that blood had to belong to Michael.

Instead, I decided to focus on Michael’s life. Making my way over to her desk in the corner, scampering up the couch next to it and jumping onto it, I found a pile of mail and began sorting through it.

It turned out that it was incredibly difficult to sort through mail when you were about the size of a quarter sheet of letter paper. Still, I was going to be a squirrel for a little while longer yet, and I had no other choice.

The most promising piece of mail that I found initially was a bank statement from the previous month. It appeared Michael Carlton received a pension and had no other sources of income. He was definitely living paycheck to paycheck, which was basically the same as Gloria, as far as I could tell.

Weird.

There were a few more bills, most of them paid up but a couple maybe a month behind. Exactly what I would’ve expected from someone who was just scraping by.

There was a bunch of junk mail as well: an ad to preorder the new iPhone from Verizon, a series of coupons for the local McDonald’s, an ad for cheap apartments in George Town, specials on an Alaskan cruise, and that sort of thing. Nothing stood out in that group, obviously. While Michael Carlton had removed two of the McDonald’s coupons, I highly doubted they had anything to do with his death.

Underneath the bills, however, was a Post-it note with a date and time scribbled on it, followed by the name of a business: Two Sweets Bakery. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but the date was only three days before the murder. It was a long shot, but I made a mental note to check it out. After all, we didn’t really know anything about Michael Carlton yet, and maybe the people at the bakery would be able to give us a hint in the right direction.

After checking out the rest of the documents on the table, I glanced at the time, only to realize it was basically time to go. A squawk from near the window told me that Sophie thought the same thing, and just as I scrambled to get back out into the backyard, I turned back into a human. I found myself falling headfirst towards the ground rather than elegantly scaling the outside wall of Michael Carlton’s house.

“Ow,” I said as I hit the ground and rolled. Luckily, I didn’t hear anything crack, and nothing hurt too badly apart from my shoulder and my dignity.

“Did you find anything?” Sophie asked, evidently having turned back into a human herself.

“Yeah,” I said. “Although I’m not sure it’s worth my shoulder being this sore. I think I might’ve dislocated it.”

“Please. If you had dislocated your shoulder you would be in a lot more pain.”

“Maybe I’m just hiding the pain. I’m invisible, you can’t see how much pain I’m in.”

“Maybe not, but I know you. You stub your toe and you act like you’re dying.”

I stuck my tongue out at Sophie, realizing too late that she still couldn’t see me.

“Fine. Let’s meet at the car so nobody overhears us in the area, and we’ll compare notes about what we saw inside.”

Chapter 10

Five minutes later the two of us were sitting back in the car, I had reversed the spell, and Sophie sat before me once more.

“What happened to your hair?” I asked. Normally, Sophie’s straight black hair, with a single streak of purple in it, was sleek and perfect. I was totally jealous of it. Right now, however, it looked like Sophie had just gone for a spin in a laundry machine. Her hair was all over the place, like she’d just come in from a casual stroll in the middle of a hurricane.

“What?” Sophie asked, her hands moving to her head. She let out a groan as she realized what condition her hair was in.

“Great,” she said. “While I was flying around the house, I didn’t realize that someone had left one of the ceiling fans on in the master bedroom, and I may have gotten a little bit too close to it. After all, I’m not used to being that close to the ceiling when I move around.”

A little giggle escaped me as I imagined eagle-Sophie flying into a ceiling fan by accident.

“Do you have a brush, by any chance?” Sophie asked. “If I don’t get this under control now, my hair is going to be awful for the rest of the day.”

“No, but I need to head downtown to grab some video surveillance equipment anyway, so while I do that I can leave you at a Walgreens or something.”

I put the car into gear and began driving off towards downtown, summarizing what I had found in the house. Sophie grinned when I was finished.

“Well, that’s more than I’ve got. I looked in the kitchen and the master bedroom, mainly. The kitchen was a mess, and I suspect that was where the fight started. It looked like one of the men grabbed a knife and went at the other; there was actually quite a bit of blood on the ground there.”

“That’s interesting, because I could definitely smell some blood in the living room. It looks like neither home invasion went quite as smoothly as the culprit expected.”

“You know, to me, that indicates that whoever did this didn’t really know what they were doing. I mean, think about it. The first time he tries at Gloria’s house, he ends up being attacked by her cat and running off with nothing. The second time, maybe he did get what he wanted, but I don’t think he came away from it completely scot-free. I think at the very least he was cut somewhere. So, I mean, that really doesn’t scream someone who’s used to attacking people.”

“I think you’re right.” I nodded. “Hopefully that means the police will have some of the killer’s DNA that they can compare once they find him.”

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t think they will. Did you smell the bleach in there?”

“I did, yeah.”

“In the kitchen, right next to the sink, was an open bottle of bleach. I have a feeling that after the murderer killed Michael Carlton, he grabbed the bleach and poured it all over the blood. I mean, maybe the cops are going to get lucky and he’ll have missed a spot or something, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is no DNA evidence at all.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“On the bright side, it doesn’t actually affect our investigation at all, since it’s not like we had access to a lab that can analyze DNA anyway. I’m assuming that after you pick up the security equipment you want to check out that café where Carlton had a meeting with someone?”

“Yeah, I think that’s the right call.”

When we got downtown I pulled into a lot, paid for parking, and told Sophie I would meet her back there when I was finished.

“My phone says there’s a CVS just around the corner, so I should be pretty quick. I’ll come meet you at the security store when I’m done.”

Agreeing to this plan, I made my way to a tiny store that I had a sneaking suspicion used to be a RadioShack. Luckily for me, however, it had exactly what I needed.

Twenty minutes later, I walked out with a bag of small, battery-powered cameras that were triggered by motion sensor. I had two of them, so I could make sure the entire area around the beavers’ dam was covered.

As I made my way back to the car, I ran into Sophie, whose hair was back to normal—and had she done her makeup, too? The bag she was carrying definitely held more than just a hairbrush.

“Hey, sorry, I ended up getting distracted by a sale on basically everything in the makeup aisle.”

I laughed. “No problem. I thought you looked different.”

“I’ve been meaning to get a good matte lipstick for ages,” Sophie replied. “After all, if I’m going to search for a murderer, I’m going to look good doing it.”

We dropped off our purchases at the car, then made our way to the café, which was about twenty blocks away. Whatever—I definitely needed the exercise, and even though it was winter, the sun was out and I had a good jacket and gloves on, so the cold wasn’t too bad.

Two Sweets Bakery was a small place on the outskirts of downtown Portland, but it was quite cute. Set up in a cottage-like building, the exterior was painted white, with huge windows out the front that showed off the cute interior—small round tables were surrounded by white-and-pastel-pink chairs, and a large cabinet lined the entire right side of the store, displaying delicious cakes and pastries.

I was definitely going to have to try a slice of cake. For research purposes, of course.

Sophie and I stepped inside, our entrance announced by the light tinkle of a small bell above the door. The calming aroma of roasting coffee reached our nostrils, mingled with the sweet scent of baking sugar.

“I feel like we’re cheating on Betty just by being in here,” Sophie muttered. “And yet, I have no intention of leaving.”

I giggled slightly. “I know exactly how you feel. I think we need to have some food here though. You know, just to make sure that it’s not quite as good as Betty’s.”

“I totally agree,” Sophie nodded as we stepped into the line and waited our turn to order. It seemed as though the midmorning rush was just starting to die down, and by the time it was our turn to order, there was still no one in the line behind us. Good; this would give us the opportunity to ask the woman behind the counter a few questions.

“Hi there, how can I help you?” a perky blonde woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties asked Sophie and me.

Sophie ordered a hazelnut latte and a slice of bourbon pecan pie, while I decided to go with a red velvet cupcake and a mocha. As I handed some cash over to the lady at the counter, I leaned towards her slightly.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have been working four days ago, would you?”

“Thursday? Sure, I was here from open until two.”

Great. That fell right into the time period Michael Carlton should have been here.

“You wouldn’t happen to have seen this guy, would you?” Sophie asked. She pulled out her phone and showed it to the woman, who nodded sadly.

“Yeah, I saw that guy on the news this morning. He’s the one who was killed in that home invasion yesterday, right?”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed. “He would have been here Thursday just before noon.”

“I do remember him,” the woman said. “As soon as I saw his picture in the news this morning, I recognized him. He had coffee with Chuck. He’s a regular now, just moved to the area a couple months ago. I hadn’t seen that man before, though.”

“Do you know where Chuck works?” Sophie asked.

The woman shook her head no. “He usually comes in not too much later than this, though. Why are you asking about Chuck?”

“We think we know someone in Willow Bay who might know Michael, but we’re trying to figure out how. We were hoping to speak to someone who knows Michael, someone who could maybe give us a hint in the right direction.”

“Oh, ok. So you’re not reporters or anything?”

“Definitely not. Angela here is the vet in Willow Bay, and I’m her technician,” Sophie replied with a charming smile. I had to hand it to her, Sophie was really good at getting people to let their guards down.

“Alright. Well, I’ll let you know if he comes in.”

“Thanks,” I told her as Sophie and I made our way towards a small table in the far corner against the window, where we could both enjoy the sun’s rays and have a private conversation far away from eavesdropping ears.

About three minutes later, the waitress came by once more, this time bearing a tray laden with our coffee and treats. Sophie and I dug in, obviously only because we had nothing to do until Chuck showed up. I had to admit, while Betty’s would always hold a special place in my heart, the red velvet cupcake I had settled on was absolutely delicious. It might not have been quite as good as what Betty cooked up—after all, people drove in from all over the state just to get some of her pastries—but this was easily the best café I had ever been to in Portland.

“Is your pie as good as my cupcake?” I asked Sophie, who quickly took the plate and covered it with her hand, baring her teeth at me. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Seriously, though, have a piece,” Sophie offered, removing her hand and motioning to the pie with her fork.

“I’m a little bit afraid to,” I laughed, reaching over and taking a small bite. I motioned for Sophie to do the same with my cupcake as I moved the fork to my mouth, and I had to admit this was a pretty darn good pie as well. I made a mental note to ask Betty to add bourbon pecan to her menu.

“We need to tell Charlotte this place is here,” Sophie said. “After all, she spends so much time in Portland that she needs a good place for pastries when she can’t get Betty’s.”

I nodded in agreement and looked up as the waitress made her way back over towards us. “The man that just came in, he’s the one you’re looking for. That’s Chuck,” she told us in a quiet voice.

“Thank you so much,” Sophie said, beaming at her. As soon as she left I got a better look at the man. He looked to be in his late fifties, maybe early sixties. His hair was completely gray and beginning to thin at the top of his head. His clothes were worn, but obviously good quality. They were a little bit old-fashioned as well; I imagined this man must’ve bought them maybe fifteen years ago and didn’t feel the need to replace them with new ones until they were truly worn out.

As soon as the man paid, he made his way towards Sophie and me and grabbed a chair from a nearby table before sitting down at ours. “I hear you ladies want to speak to me about Michael Carlton,” he said.

“Yes, please,” I said, getting a closer look at the man. He might have been a bit older than I initially suspected, but his glistening blue eyes and kind face told me that despite his years, this man was still very active mentally, if not physically. He had, after all, a little bit of a limp as he made his way towards us.

“What can I answer for you two young ladies today?”

“How well did you know Michael?” Sophie asked. “We’re trying to find a link between him and a lady named Gloria Romano, who lives in Willow Bay.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t know him all that well,” Chuck replied. “I only moved to Portland recently, a couple of months ago.”

“Oh,” I said, my shoulders slumping slightly. I had really hoped Chuck would have been a childhood friend or something, someone who would have known all of Michael’s deepest secrets.

“I know he worked as an accountant here in town,” Chuck continued. “He was retired, though.”

“That’s right,” Sophie nodded. “How did the two of you meet?”

“We were both playing a round of golf at Rose City. Ran into each other in the clubhouse after, sparked up a conversation and went from there. We met a couple of times after that for golf and had a coffee here the other day. Just to chat.”

“Did Michael mention anyone who had something against him, by any chance?” I asked. “Anyone who might have wanted to hurt him?”

Chuck thought about it for a minute, then shook his head. “No, I can’t say he did. He mentioned that he has a brother who lives in California, but that was it.”

“What about the name Gloria Romano?” Sophie asked, and Chuck’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“No, that doesn’t ring a bell either.”

Great. We were getting precisely nowhere with this.

“Alright,” I said. “Thanks for your time.”

“Not a problem, ladies,” Chuck replied. “Always nice to have a bit of a chat. I hope you find the answers you’re looking for.”

Sophie and I left the café and made our way into the cold air, which reflected my mood perfectly.

“So where do we go from here?” Sophie asked.

Wasn’t that the million-dollar question?

Chapter 11

It turned out the answer was: back home. Sophie and I walked back to the car, but about ten blocks away from where we were parked, Sophie suddenly grabbed me by the arm.

“Hold on,” she hissed, pulling me into a doorway. “Isn’t that Jason?”

I turned to look in the direction Sophie had indicated. Sure enough, my boyfriend was rushing past on the other side of the street, his face buried in his phone.

That was certainly strange; he had planned on staying home that day to work on his article and get something in for the deadline.

“We should follow him,” Sophie said, but I put a hand on her arm.

“We absolutely are not doing that,” I said.

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m sure there’s absolutely nothing out of the ordinary with what he’s doing,” I replied, turning my head as he passed right across the street from where we were.

“If you’re so sure that there was a good reason for him being here, why were you hiding?” Sophie asked, her hands on her hips.

“Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll text him.”

Hey, where are you?

I pressed send and gave Sophie a smug look as my phone made the sound indicating the text had gone off.

When thirty seconds later I hadn’t received a reply, however, Sophie’s eyebrows rose and my smug expression turned into a bit of a frown. He had his face right in his phone; why didn’t he answer my text straightaway?

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I mumbled, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling of dread building in my stomach. Jason had never been the type to hide anything from me.

“Let’s go make sure it’s nothing,” Sophie said, poking her head back out into the street, but as I turned around to join her, she frowned. “Where did he go?”

Sure enough, Jason had disappeared somewhere in the twenty or so seconds that had passed since we’d last seen him. I had to admit, a part of me was pretty happy with that. No matter what he was doing, I really didn’t want to spy on my boyfriend. After all, I was supposed to trust him. And I did trust him. Even though deep down, I was pretty curious as to what he was doing here. Especially since he had told me he was spending the day in Willow Bay, and he still hadn’t answered my text.

“I’m sure he’ll tell me at home tonight,” I said, heading back out to the sidewalk and continuing back towards the car.

“I don’t know,” Sophie replied. “I’d like to think so, but you can’t really trust men.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Trouble in paradise between you and Taylor?”

“No, of course not. It’s just a general rule.”

“Well, if I had dated the train of absolute awful that you called boyfriends over the last few years, I suppose I wouldn’t be the most trusting either. Remember the guy who got drunk at a bar and called you to give him and the girl he picked up a ride back to her apartment?”

Sophie threw her head back in disgust while I laughed. “Ugh. I had almost managed to repress that memory. I think his name was Daryl or something.”

“Well, Jason isn’t at all like the train wreck that was your dating life before Taylor. So yes, I trust him. He can go to Portland if he wants. He’s a grown man and he doesn’t need me to peek over his shoulder at all hours.”

“Fine, well, if you change your mind, I’m happy to hunt him down for you,” Sophie said.

“I’m all good, thanks.”

I didn’t let Sophie know that deep down, however, my gut was starting to wonder if it was all good.

Two hours later we were back in Willow Bay, and I had dropped Sophie off at home with the promise that we would text each other if we found out anything important about the case. But for now, I had more important things to worry about.

I spent about an hour sitting at the kitchen table playing around with the new cameras that I had just bought. I eventually figured out how they worked, set them up, and made sure they were ready for my plan.

“What are you doing with those?” Bee asked, jumping up onto the dining room table and sniffing the cameras curiously.

“I’m going to help out the beavers,” I said. “Someone has been wrecking their dams, and it leaves their lodge vulnerable. This way, if whoever did it comes back, I’ll be able to track them down.”

“Why do you care about the stupid beavers anyway?” Bee replied. “They’re a little bit annoying, after all. Buster and I decided to go wandering over there one day a few months ago, and they got all accusatory, telling us we were in their territory. You don’t see me complaining whenever you bring another animal into this house.”

I shot Bee a look. “That is literally all you do. Remember when Sprinkles lived here?”

“That was different; he was a dog. It was an insult to my species to force me to live with the worst of the animals. He was always so happy, it was disgusting.”

I smiled. “You say that, but I remember that towards the end you and Sprinkles got along just fine.”

“Only because I was forced to, and because destroying a creature of such low intelligence with my wit and intellect felt like cheating.”

“Right. So how is that different from the beavers?”

“It was totally different! They were being territorial towards me!”

I laughed as I got up from the dining room table and got ready to go out. Throwing on a coat, I gave Bee a quick pat.

“I should be back soon,” I said. “I should beat Charlotte home, so if you’re lucky, I’ll stop by the Japanese restaurant and grab some sushi for dinner.”

Bee’s tail wagged appreciatively as I left the house and made my way back towards the beavers’ lodge.

Luckily for me, it was still only mid-afternoon, so not only was it a little bit warmer thanks to the sun still being up high in the sky, but there was more light to play with as well.

“Hello? It’s just me, Angela,” I called out towards the beavers’ lodge as I approached. Now that I had forged a little bit of a path to make my way towards their home, it had been much less of an adventure to get here. The beavers had obviously been busy; the parts of the dam that had been destroyed were now completely rebuilt, less than twenty-four hours after I had last been here.

“Why, hello there again,” I heard a voice say with a slight lisp. The beaver whose name I was fairly certain was Naba made her way out of the den towards me.

“I’ve brought the security camera equipment,” I told her. “Has anyone been back since I was here yesterday?”

“No, there have been no humans,” Naba said. “I’m quite glad, actually. Personally, I trusted your spell completely, but the little ones were scared all the same.”

“Well, I can say the spell worked, and that there is no way anyone can get into your lodge to attack you. And now, since I have the cameras to set up, if anyone comes by in the future, we will know.”

Naba crawled towards the bag I was carrying. I pulled out two GoPro-sized cameras and showed them to her.

“And those work?” Naba asked. “I don’t understand how something so small will be able to show you who is hurting us.”

“They do work,” I replied. “Let me set them up around here and a couple of different places, and I will show you.”

I set myself to work, with Naba watching carefully as I scouted the area. I eventually settled on placing the first camera hidden slightly behind a rather large bush near a tree, figuring that the leaves of the bushes would hide the camera from view better than most things. Managing to set up the camera and point it directly at the beavers’ lodge, I waved my hand in front of it and opened my phone, checking the corresponding app to see if the footage was recorded and sent.

Sure enough, it had worked.

“Here, come have a look at this,” I told Naba. “See? The little box there shows on my phone exactly what’s happening. The camera is motion-activated, so it will only run if someone comes in front of the camera’s screen.”

“Alright,” Naba said after spending about two solid minutes looking at my phone’s screen. I had a sneaking suspicion she could barely see what was on it, but that was fine. So long as the beavers trusted me, that was what was most important.

I moved over towards the dam and found a prime spot to set up the second camera. It was inside the dam, with the camera somewhat hidden inside the logs. This setup gave me a great view over the whole lodge from another angle completely, but also allowed me to see the entire dam setup as well. This way, even if the intruder came back and only wrecked the dams again instead of targeting the lodge as well, I would still hopefully get some footage.

After spending about ten minutes making sure the second camera was also placed in prime position and double-checking the footage on my phone, I was satisfied that this was as good as it was going to get.

“All done,” I told Naba. “You can tell your family that if the intruder comes back, to stay in the lodge. The spell is still active, but this time, I’ll be able to see them.”

“When will you come back?” Naba asked.

“In a few days, to replace the batteries on the camera. It depends on how often the motion sensor is triggered.”

“Alright. Thank you for the help. I do hope whoever did it doesn’t come back, but it is good to know that if they do you will be able to find them.”

“Hopefully,” I said. “There are no guarantees.”

“Right.”

With that, Naba turned and waddled back towards the lodge, diving into the water to access the entrance I knew would be hidden underneath.

I smiled and turned, heading back towards home. At least my spell would keep the beavers safe.

Chapter 12

I got home just as the sun began to set. I let my mind wander to what I was going to make for dinner—I kind of felt like pasta, maybe a fettucine and broccoli alfredo?—until I saw Jason sitting on the couch, looking through his notes, and I froze.

“Hey, how was your day?” he asked, getting up off the couch as soon as he saw me.

“Eh, it was ok,” I replied. “Sophie and I went to Portland, but I’m not sure how much we learned. How about yours?” I was almost scared of the answer.

Jason shrugged. “Sort of the same. I was just going to sit here and finish my article, but the words flowed pretty easily and I had it done by ten. I went up to Portland to speak to Michael Carlton’s old boss and coworkers, but I’m not sure I learned anything amazing from them.”

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, it was like a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders. Jason wasn’t hiding anything from me at all. He had probably just been preoccupied, which was why he hadn’t replied to my text. After all, he had just admitted to me straightaway that he’d gone to the city.

I couldn’t wait to tell Sophie she was all wrong about him. Petty? Definitely. But I wanted her to know that I trusted Jason, and that he was a trustworthy man.

“So what did you find out?” I asked as I made my way to the kitchen, grabbing a deep pot in which to cook the pasta.

“Not a whole lot. Michael Carlton retired three years ago after a career that was basically spent entirely within the Portland school district.”

“He was an accountant, right? So he wouldn’t have had anything to do with Gloria directly?”

“That’s right, as far as I could tell. I mean, he worked in the office building above the Oregon State Credit Union right downtown; I spoke to one of his coworkers from a few years back and he basically never went into schools individually. There was no reason for him to have had to.”

“Right, and Gloria worked at a school that was more out in the suburbs,” I frowned.

“Exactly. As far as I can tell, even though they both had the same employer, there was no reason for her to have ever gone to that office building.”

“What else was in that building?” I asked. “Other than school board employees, I mean.”

“It’s basically the administrative center,” Jason replied. “So not only was there everyone involved in financial services, but also IT, human resources, and the senior administrative staff.”

I frowned. Sure enough, none of that really sounded like any reason a regular teacher would have had to visit that building.

“What about you? What did you find?”

“Sophie and I went to Michael’s house, and we found out that he had a coffee date with a friend, but it turned out that the guy—Chuck—had only moved to Portland a few months earlier. He met Michael while playing golf and the two of them hit it off, but he didn’t seem to know very much about Michael or his life. So, overall, it was kind of a bust.”

“That’s too bad,” Jason frowned. “I was hoping at least one of us would have found a connection between Gloria and Michael, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.”

“The worst part is, I just don’t know where we go from here. I mean, I kind of feel like we’ve exhausted a whole bunch of avenues, and until we figure something out with the information we have, we’re not going to get anywhere.”

Jason nodded. “I agree.” Before he had a chance to continue, however, his phone began to ring. “It’s my boss; I have to take this.”

Jason answered the phone and started talking. My mind drifted while I stirred the pasta in the pot and began making the alfredo sauce. The sound of Charlotte’s car pulling into the driveway reached my ears, and I smiled. She was right on time for dinner.

And on that note, so was Bee, who began wrapping herself around my legs the instant I pulled the Parmesan cheese out from the fridge.

“I have to go,” Jason said as he hung up the phone. “There’s a problem with the printer, and seeing as we’re supposed to have this week’s issue out tomorrow, I have to go down and give them a hand. I’ll be back later.”

“Sounds good,” I replied. “I’ll keep you a bowl of pasta.”

Jason gave me a quick peck as he grabbed his jacket and was out the door, with Charlotte coming in just as he was leaving.

“Someone’s in a rush,” she commented, raising her eyebrows slightly. “Big news in town that we’re missing out on?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. Just a newspaper emergency with the printer.”

“That’s good,” Charlotte said. “Although I imagine if anything bad had happened, you would have been right behind him.”

I was going to argue, then realized Charlotte was absolutely correct. “Well, on a different note, you’re right on time for dinner,” I replied, motioning to the almost-ready food piling up around me.

“It smells nice, that’s for sure,” Charlotte said as she hung up her jacket. I doled out bowls of pasta and the two of us sat down at the dining table, not saying anything for a few minutes as we simply ate the food.

“I have something to tell you,” Charlotte said eventually, putting down her fork.

“Oh yeah?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“I’ve been offered a job.”

“Really? Congratulations,” I said, a grin spreading across my face. “That’s wonderful!” I had absolutely no doubt that Charlotte was going to get a position as a doctor when she graduated. After all, she was hands down the smartest person I knew, and she worked incredibly hard. If there was anybody I wanted to look after me when I was sick, it was Charlotte. Still, the fact that it had happened was absolutely wonderful.

“It’s in San Francisco.”

I paused. It was no wonder Charlotte had smiled when she told me the news. She looked down into her lap like she was embarrassed.

“So? What’s wrong with that?”

Charlotte looked up at me. “It means I’m going to have to move away from here.”

“And go have an adventure in California? This is wonderful news, Charlotte.”

“You’re not mad?”

My mouth dropped open. “Mad? Are you joking? I mean, yeah, of course I’m going to miss the hell out of you. And you have to promise to call me every single day. And you have to send me pictures on Snapchat, and I want to know everything about California. But seriously, if this is what you want, then it’s awesome news.”

Charlotte laughed. “Oh God, I’m so relieved. I was so worried that you’d be upset with me leaving, since I mean, we’ve lived together our whole lives. I didn’t want to let you down, but this is a super exciting opportunity at a teaching hospital, which also opens up some doors in the future if I want to teach classes.”

“What kind of sister would I be if I didn’t encourage you to follow your dreams? Of course I’m going to miss you. But it’s a big world out there, and we all need to find our place in it. Mine is in Willow Bay; going to medical school in Seattle proved that to me. And if your place is in San Francisco, well, at least technology makes it super easy for us to stay in touch these days.”

Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes, and I stood up from my chair and made my way over to her, enveloping her in a huge hug. Sometimes, with Charlotte being so smart and all, it was easy to forget that I was actually the older sister.

“I love you so much,” she whispered to me.

“I love you too. I always will, no matter where you live. Now, get your butt to California and show them all how amazing you are.”

Charlotte laughed through her tears. “Well, it’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow. I still have to officially finish my schooling here, which ends at the end of December. Then I’m going to take a month or so off, and I move in February, which is when I told them I’ll start.”

“You? Taking time off? Please, you’re going to get bored after like two days and start running up the walls,” I joked. I had to admit I was choking back tears somewhat. I loved Charlotte, and I loved having her here. Sure, she could be neurotic and a little bit naggy, and she wasn’t the biggest fan of when Sophie and I investigated crimes. But she helped where she could, and she was always fun to have around in her own nerdy kind of way. I was definitely going to miss her.

But at the same time, I was also insanely excited for her. After all, my little baby sister was finally going to go out and take on the world on her own terms. She was going to be amazing.

Chapter 13

I spent most of the rest of the night looking at my phone, checking the app that was linked to the camera to see if anybody had come by and annoyed the beavers yet or not. There were a few videos triggered by the motion sensors, but so far they had all been of the beavers themselves, wiggling around outside of their lodge.

I had to admit, the quality of the video, even at night, was extremely good. The man in the shop had sold me that model specifically because I asked for something that would work well at night, and he had delivered. Apparently, this camera shot at a higher ISO than most, and it showed. While it wasn’t high-def or anything like that, even in the pitch black I could make out the outline of what was very obviously a beaver waddling around on the land near the lodge.

Afterwards, I began to browse Pinterest, looking for gift ideas to order or make for Charlotte to take with her to San Francisco. I knew I still had a few months, but I wanted to make sure that she had something really special from me. After all, I was her sister. I needed Charlotte to know that no matter what, she was in my heart, and that if she ever needed anything, she could always call.

Jason returned home a few hours later, and I heard Charlotte giving him the news in the kitchen as well. I smiled as he congratulated her. He came over with a bowl full of pasta and sat down on the couch next to me.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m ok,” I said with a smile. “Is the emergency all solved?”

“It certainly is. There was an issue with one of the drivers that the computer through which the printing was done used, but I managed to find an update and apply it. So we’re all good.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to reading your article about the break-in at Gloria’s.”

Jason shrugged. “Unfortunately, it’s definitely very far from my best work. I just wish we had more to go on. But none of that is important compared to the news I’m sure you just heard from Charlotte as well. How are you holding up?”

I smiled. “I’m thrilled for her. I mean, of course I’d be really happy if she decided to stay in Willow Bay, or the Portland area. But at the same time, I’m also so excited for her to see more of the world. Oregon is just one small corner of it, and I think getting out there and exploring a little bit more is going to be a great thing for her.”

“At least it’s only a few hours away by car, too.”

“Exactly! Plus, I’ve always wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge, and now I have the perfect excuse.”

Jason wrapped his arm around me. “I’m glad you’re happy for her.”

“And I bet you’re glad that we’re finally going to get this house to ourselves,” I teased, poking him in the stomach.

Jason laughed. “I like having Charlotte around here. This way, whenever I’m sick and you take me to go to the doctor, I can just ask your sister what’s wrong with me and she always tells me. Now I’m going to have to actually leave the house whenever I have medical issues.”

This time it was my turn to laugh. Things were definitely changing, but I knew that in the long term it was going to be for the better.

I woke up early the next morning to find Bee insisting that she get to come to the vet clinic that day. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary about that; Bee often enjoyed spending her days lying down in her bed on top of the counter, making snarky remarks at or about the clientele. Besides, Buster often came in to spend time with her as well, and I had a sneaking suspicion that as she began to heal Gloria might try bringing him by a few times simply to get a little bit of a break. That was completely fine by me; whatever I could do to help her healing process, I would.

Bee trotted after me towards the car and hopped in, and five minutes later we made our way through the back entrance of the vet clinic. Sophie was already there, drinking a coffee and motioning to an extra take-out cup waiting for me on the counter.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I told her as I took a deep sip of the caramel latte. Yeah, as good as the café we had gone to yesterday in Portland was, there was still nothing quite like a good morning coffee from Betty’s.

“How do we solve a murder when we have exactly zero suspects?” I asked Sophie at the end of the day as we began packing up our things.

“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “Find a suspect?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Maybe we should get together and just try to pound it out. Want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“Sure,” Sophie replied. “I’ll make some cookies and we’ll get wine-drunk and regret everything in the morning, but hopefully we’ll be a bit closer to solving the case.”

“Sounds good,” I laughed.

Half an hour later we were home, full of wine and Indian food that we’d picked up on the way, and Sophie was in the kitchen making vanilla bean sugar cookies with salted caramel icing—perfect for these cold winter nights—while Jason and I sat at the dining table watching her as we worked our way through what we knew about the case so far.

“So we still don’t know what the link between Gloria and Michael Carlton is?” I asked as I watched Sophie pour flour in the bowl.

“That’s right, but I have a source at the police station who confirms that the two home invasions were committed by the same person,” Sophie said.

I gave her a sly look. “That person wouldn’t happen to be someone you’re sleeping with, would it?”

Sophie winked in reply. Sometimes it was handy having your best friend dating one of the local cops.

“It must have been the bullet that fired in Gloria’s home,” Jason mused. “I assume they would have compared it to the bullet that killed Michael Carlton and would have found that it matched.”

“That was it,” Sophie said. “Taylor texted me this afternoon to tell me; he knows that I’m curious about this investigation.”

“Just how much do you tell him about how involved you get in these murder cases?” I asked. After all, I was curious. Jason basically knew everything about my investigations, mainly because he often helped out, what with being an investigative journalist and all. But somehow, I had a feeling that Taylor, being an actual policeman, wouldn’t be quite so enthusiastic about Sophie’s involvement.

“Oh, he just thinks I’m one of those true crime junkies that’s curious about that sort of thing,” Sophie said with a smile. I laughed; that sounded about right.

“Anyway, the important thing here is that we now have confirmation that the same person committed both home invasions,” Jason said. “So there has to be a link between the two; it makes no sense for these to be unrelated events.”

“Sure, but I mean, what could the link be?” I asked. “Gloria says she’s never heard of Michael, and there was no reason for her to ever have gone to his work or met him in any way.”

“Maybe we’re thinking of the wrong link,” Sophie said. “What about Gloria’s husband?”

“Francis Romano?”

“Yeah, him. What if he knew Michael Carlton, and Gloria just didn’t know about it?”

“That’s an interesting thought,” Jason said, tapping his pen lightly against the desk.

“What do we know about him?”

I thought back to what Betty had told me a few days earlier at the café.

“Well, I know that he grew up here. In Willow Bay, I mean. He was a teacher, like Gloria, but he taught high school whereas she taught middle school. I believe he retired earlier than Gloria because of a scandal of some sort; apparently, one teacher accused him of yelling at her or something, and he decided that rather than fight for his side he would just take his retirement.”

“That’s quite interesting,” Jason said. “Although, I’m not sure how anything like that would have led to his knowing Michael Carlton. After all, the guy was still an accountant.”

My eyes lit up as I suddenly realized why they would have known each other.

“He was an accountant, yes, but he worked in the same building as all of the human resources people!”

Sophie stopped mixing the cookie dough and gaped at me with her mouth open. “Oh my God, that’s got to be it.”

Jason nodded. “It does make perfect sense. Something like that, I imagine Francis Romano would have found himself visiting the human resources department of the District at least a few times. It’s possible that at some point there the two of them met.”

“True,” I said. “Although that doesn’t necessarily make things add up. I mean, we both know all of each other’s friends. My best friend is standing ten feet away from you now, and I’ve met all of your friends, like Jack, Nate, and Mike.”

“That’s a good point,” Jason said. “Still, maybe things are different when you’ve been married for, like, thirty years. Maybe they stopped caring about each other’s friends because they didn’t think it was as important?”

“Maybe,” Sophie said. “Still, I think Angela is right. There’s something weird about them being friends and Gloria having never even heard the name.”

“At least now we’re one step closer,” I said. “We may have figured out what the connection between the two victims is: Michael Carlton may have known Francis Romano.”

“That’s true,” Jason said. “I think we need to work under the assumption that this is the case. Otherwise, we are still stuck where we were at the beginning of this case.”

We continued to chat for a couple of hours, but the deduction of what may have linked Michael Carlton and Gloria was the only real discovery we made that night. Eventually, Sophie went back home, carrying with her a few cookies on a plate for Taylor, and Jason and I went to bed feeling like even if we were a little bit closer to the truth, we were still light-years away from the ultimate answer.

Chapter 14

I woke up the next day, made my way to the kitchen, blended up a smoothie for breakfast, and checked my phone, looking over the previous night’s videos from the camera I had set up by the beavers’ lodge.

For the most part, I had expected the results to be pretty similar to the last time: the occasional video of a beaver coming out from his or her lodge, looking around, waddling out of sight from the camera, then eventually coming back, sometimes with a freshly chopped down piece of wood, and making their way back into the lodge.

I scrolled through the videos at double speed as I drank a smoothie, half wondering if I had time to make a pot of coffee before work or if I was going to have to stop at Betty’s, when I stopped suddenly.

Something completely different had popped up on the screen. There was motion, which had triggered the cameras to start recording, but it wasn’t beavers. It was a person.

Straightaway, I sat up taller in my chair and forgot about my smoothie, focusing on the video. I restarted it and watched as a human came in from the right-hand side—the opposite way from how I had accessed the area—and made his way towards the beavers’ lodge. It was definitely a man; I focused on the video to see if I could make out any identifying features.

The man was obviously angry: he stomped right over to where the beavers’ dam was set up and, grabbing a large piece of wood off the ground, began hacking at the setup near the lodge. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. After he had finished hacking away at the dam, the man made his way over to the lodge directly and began kicking at it. I held my breath; I knew that the lodge was still protected by my spell, but that didn’t make this any less terrifying. My heart went out to the beavers, who I knew must have been huddled inside their lodge, afraid of what was going to happen.

Luckily, my spell did hold up. The man kicked and kicked at the lodge, but no matter what, it didn’t budge. I could see his frustration growing, and eventually he simply grabbed the stick he had used to destroy the dam and threw it at the lodge as hard as he could before turning around and storming back off in the direction from which he had come.

As he turned, the man faced the camera I had set up absolutely perfectly, and I paused the app on that one frame, taking a quick screenshot for the future before zooming in with my fingers to get a closer look.

The man wore dark pants—they were probably jeans, but I couldn’t quite make them out in the dim light—and a light-colored jacket. Maybe it was a windbreaker? It was that sort of size, anyway. His hair was dark, and he had at least five days’ worth of stubble on his face. I squinted, but I wasn’t sure I recognized him. I made a mental note to ask Sophie when I saw her at the clinic. Maybe she knew who the man was?

Bee hopped into the car with me and the two of us drove down to the vet clinic. Looking at my watch as I dropped Bee off, I figured I had just enough time to go see the beavers this morning and make sure they were alright after the repeated attack from the night before.

Explaining the situation to Sophie, I darted off towards the park, which was only a couple of minutes’ walk away from downtown, and reached the beavers’ lodge shortly afterwards. They were all out of their lodge, in the woods nearby, rebuilding. I narrowly avoided being hit by a falling tree as Lolo called out an apology.

“I didn’t see you there, human!”

“It’s alright,” I said. “I came by to see if you’re all ok.”

The other beavers stopped what they were doing and made their way towards me. “Did the magic box work?” Naba asked. I nodded.

“It did, yes. I have a picture of the man who came here last night and attacked.”

“It was terrifying,” the youngest-looking beaver said. “I thought the lodge was going to come down.”

“Well, not to worry, it didn’t,” Naba told him reassuringly. “The human put a spell on it so that he couldn’t hurt us, and it worked.”

I nodded. “Yes, it did. I saw that, and I’m glad you’re all alright.”

“What are you going to do about this man?” the main beaver asked.

“I’m going to find out who he is, first. Did you hear anything he said?”

“He was complaining about our dam flooding his yard,” Lolo said. “He was hitting the dam and yelling about how us ‘stupid beavers’ were flooding the place.”

“Ok.” I nodded. That gave me a lot more to go on. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll go find him later this afternoon, hopefully, and I’ll see if we can’t solve this peacefully. In the meantime, I recommend you follow the same safety procedures as you have been: if you see anyone, go back into your lodge. They can’t hurt you in there.”

“Thank you,” the main beaver told me. “We appreciate that you are trying to solve this for us.”

By the time I was walking off, the beavers were all busily chopping down more trees to get their dam back into shape. They were definitely nothing if not hard workers.

Most of the morning was spent dealing with the morning’s animal issues—two separate sets of kittens came in for their initial shots, which was absolutely adorable and led to Bee complaining that I loved them more than her; one six-month-old Labrador came in because she had eaten her own collar; a sheltie had sprained her tail from wagging it too hard and whined in pain as she continued to wag; and another lab had eaten an entire bag of chocolate chips. Luckily, they were white chocolate, so I told the owner to watch out for some exciting bathroom times over the next few days but that otherwise he would be fine. It certainly was one of the more eventful days I’d had recently.

When Karen announced that I had a two-hour break for lunch before my next appointment, I decided I was going to try and take care of the beavers’ problem a bit earlier than I’d initially planned.

“Alright, I’ll be back,” I told her.

I decided to stop off at Betty’s first to grab a quick sandwich to go. Betty’s BLTs—made specially with vegetarian bacon for me—were absolutely my favorite meal on the planet, and I figured what better to fuel myself with than one of those?

After all, the morning had been interesting enough that I figured I’d earned one.

As I stepped into the shop, Betty wagged a finger at me with a smile. “I hear you’ve been cheating on me.”

I laughed. “Did Sophie tell you about our trip to the city?”

“She did,” Betty replied with a grin. “She said I should add bourbon pecan pie to my menu, since she’s certain mine would outshine the one at Two Sweets Bakery.”

“Well, I may have cheated on you once, but I always come back in the end,” I laughed as I got my wallet out from my purse. “Can I get a BLT and maybe a slice of brownie to go?”

“Sure thing,” Betty replied, tapping away at the cash register. “Long day ahead?”

“It’s already been a long day,” I laughed. “I’m not sure how the afternoon is going to go. But yeah, I have a few things on the schedule, so it’s going to have to be to go. Hey, do you have a minute to chat?” I figured if I was here, I might as well try and get some information about Francis Romano.

“Of course, let me just go drop your order off in the kitchen,” Betty said, grabbing the slip of paper and disappearing into the back for a minute before returning.

“What can I help you out with? Don’t tell me you’re still looking into that home invasion at Gloria’s. She was in here the other day, poor thing. She’s looking a bit better, but that guy sure did a number on her, didn’t he?”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “And yes, she did ask me to look into it, and I couldn’t say no to her. Not in that state. So I am doing it, but I’m going to tell Chief Gary anything really important that I find out.”

“Alright,” Betty said, a small smile playing on her lips. “What can I tell you, then? I told you, I don’t know Gloria all that well.”

“No, but you said you knew her husband.”

“Sure.” Betty nodded. “I grew up with Francis. He was a year ahead of me in school, but at that point Willow Bay was so small we were in the same class three quarters of the time anyway.”

“What can you tell me about him?”

Betty put a hand on her hip as she thought for a while. “He was always a bit of a troublemaker. To be honest, I was surprised to find out he became a teacher. I suppose we all had to grow up eventually, though. He probably would have actually been quite a good high school teacher. He was always very creative, and I imagine he would have made sure that the kids he taught found school fun for once.”

“What do you mean he was a troublemaker?”

“Well, you know, he was always the class clown. And he was always up for all sorts of adventures. Half the stories he told, I can’t imagine they were even remotely true. There was the time he claimed he came across the old abandoned cars from that train that derailed just outside of town back in the fifties, or when he claimed he found an underground bunker in the woods. There was also the time when he wrapped the school principal’s car in toilet paper during the day, and no one noticed. Yes, he definitely had stories to tell. Of course, the railcar story did end up being true.”

“You mean to tell me that Gloria’s husband was the one that found the old railcars in the forest?” I asked. I had never heard this story; there was a trail leading to the railcars now which was super popular among both tourists and locals, as the route was only about a mile long one way, fairly easy, and extremely scenic.

“Oh yes,” Betty said, nodding enthusiastically. “The day when it was officially announced that they were building a trail there was one of the best days of his life, I think. We were still in high school; it was about three years after he had initially discovered the cars. He was extremely excited, I think because it led everyone to believe that some of his other ridiculous adventures had actually happened as well.”

“Did they?” I asked with a smile. I was genuinely curious now. After all, I’d taken the trail to the railcars multiple times in my life.

Betty shrugged. “Who on earth knows? I suspect a lot of them were made up; why on earth would there be underground bunkers outside of Willow Bay? It just makes no sense. He claimed to have found a lot of things in the forest that simply should not have been there.”

“Did you know any of his friends as an adult?”

Betty shook her head no. “I’m afraid not. We lost touch completely after he moved out of town; we had never been close, so when he left I almost never saw him again. He did come back to town a few times, but not often. Last time I saw him would’ve been, oh, around twelve years ago. It was a few months after that woman up in the city strangled the hitman her husband hired to kill her. It was during the school year; I remember thinking that of course Francis couldn’t even take his holidays at the same time as normal people.”

“Right,” I said, nodding. “I’d forgotten about that.”

“That was the last time I saw him.” Betty shrugged. “Then a few years ago I found out he had died.”

“Do you know how it happened?”

“Heart attack,” Betty said. “Quite a sudden one, as well. Apparently, he just collapsed and never regained consciousness afterwards.”

I nodded. “So you’ve never heard the name Michael Carlton before?”

Betty shook her head. “Not in the context of anything to do with Francis. The first time I heard that name was a couple of days ago when it popped up in the papers.”

I frowned. While it was interesting to know Francis Romano’s background, it didn’t seem to be getting me anywhere when it came to a link between him and Michael Carlton. Another dead end. It seemed this case was full of them.

Betty came back with my sandwich and brownie a couple of minutes later, and I thanked her as I left, mulling over everything she’d told me.

Nope, for the life of me I couldn’t see how this could help me solve the case.

Chapter 15

Still, I knew that there was one case that I could solve right now. I dropped my food off at the vet clinic without eating it and made my way towards Sequoia Street. Looking at Google Maps, this was the street whose houses on the left-hand side backed onto the creek where the beavers lived.

The fact that the beavers had heard the man complaining that their dam was flooding his yard made me think that he almost certainly lived along here somewhere. Now all I had to do was start knocking on doors and hope that I recognized the man when he answered.

As I stood staring at the first house, I wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have brought Jason along with me. After all, whoever had done this to the beavers was obviously violent. Still, I didn’t intend to be super aggressive or anything like that; I just wanted to talk to the person who had done this and see if we couldn’t sort something out.

Of course, there was always my magic as well. Because I wasn’t allowed to use magic in front of regular humans, I pointed at myself and whispered the same spell that I had used to protect the beavers’ lodge.

“Praesidioroa.”

With a spell in place, I knew that even if the person who attacked the beavers came after me, I was still going to be safe.

I made my way towards the first house on the street, a slightly run-down rancher with an overgrown front lawn. A couple of moments after I knocked on the front door, an older woman who I didn’t recognize answered the door.

“I’m sorry, I’m not interested in buying anything,” she told me as soon as she saw me.

“Wait, I’m not selling—” I tried to reply, but before I got the words out she’d already slammed the door in my face. “Anything,” I finished saying to the large wooden door now only a few inches from my face.

I briefly considered trying again, then decided against it. I could try the rest of the houses on the street first, after all.

The next house looked quite a bit like the previous rancher, but at least this one looked like somebody had mowed the front lawn at some point in the last year. I made my way up to the house and knocked, smiling as I heard the bark of a dog. I knew exactly who lived here.

“Dr. Wilson!” a man in his thirties exclaimed when he came to the door, holding back a big yellow lab by the collar. “Is there something wrong with Eddie?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Sorry to bother you, Casey. I actually didn’t realize you lived here. Someone on your side of the street has been destroying the beavers’ dam further down the creek that runs behind your place, and I’m trying to figure out who it is. I’ve just been knocking on doors, hoping to find the person.”

“Oh, try two doors down from here. The man who lives there, Brett Jones, has a little bit of a temper, and he was complaining to me the other day about the extra water in his yard.”

“Has it been especially bad?” I asked.

Casey shrugged. “I dunno. Sure, the water level is a little bit higher than it normally is, but I figured it was just because of the extra snow in the mountains melting into the creek or something. I didn’t realize it was beavers. But you can’t buy a house that backs onto a creek and expect the water level to stay constant all the time.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

“No problem. Let me know if Brett gives you a hard time. I’ll keep an ear out just in case.”

“Thanks, Casey,” I said with a smile, and he nodded as he made his way back into his house.

I left and made my way towards the house Casey had directed me to. The exterior had been painted white with gray trimming that gave the whole place a nice, modern look. A fancy sports car out the front was obviously his pride and joy. I made my way up to the front door and knocked, not knowing exactly what to expect.

The man who answered the door was one hundred percent the man who had been destroying the beavers’ dam and lodge. As soon as I saw him, I knew. He had the same frame, the same dark hair, and the same way of moving.

“Yes?” he asked, his face a mixture of idle curiosity and light annoyance.

“Hi, I’m Angela Wilson, the local vet in town. I’m wondering if you have a few minutes to chat.”

“What about? I don’t have any pets,” the man said, crossing his arms.

“It’s actually about the beavers that live downstream from the creek that runs behind your house,” I said.

“Is the city finally going to get rid of those pieces of crap? Good. Let them go mess up someone else’s property.”

“Actually,” I said, “I was hoping that we could somehow come to an agreement that would result in you and the beavers being able to live peacefully together.”

“Not a chance in hell, lady. Thanks to them, the creek behind my place is flooding, and it’s messing with my lawn. I want them gone, and I don’t care what it takes.”

“Would it be alright if I come have a look?” I asked, and the man looked like he wanted to say no for a minute. Then, he changed his mind.

“Sure, let me just grab a jacket,” he said, reaching to the side and grabbing a small coat. He threw it on and came out the front with me and led me around the side of the house, through a large gate, and into the backyard.

The backyard was immaculately taken care of. The lawn was obviously healthy, and a shed along the other side of the yard was full of gardening equipment. Along the house were multiple flower and vegetable beds, and I imagined this man must live pretty well during the summer when they bore fruit.

“This is a really nice yard,” I commented, and for the first time, the man smiled.

“Thanks,” he said. “If only those bloody beavers weren’t ruining it for me.”

“Can you show me where it’s flooding?” I asked. He nodded briskly and led me towards the creek at the far end of the backyard. To be totally honest, when I saw it, I had no idea what the problem was. Sure, the water level had risen a bit, and I could see about a foot of manicured grass underneath the water, but that was it. As far as I could tell, there was nothing here to actually be angry about.

“That’s what’s been going on,” the man said. “Their stupid dam is flooding onto my yard, and I need it to stop.”

“I’m sorry for being dense,” I said cautiously, “but it looks to me as though the flooding is really quite minimal.”

“Yes, but the point is, it’s my land. Those stupid beavers have no right to block up the flow of water and have the creek level rise onto my property.”

Oh boy. This was definitely not going to be easy.

“Don’t you think the beavers have a right to live as well? Without the dam, they can’t get the water level high enough for their lodge, and it leaves them vulnerable to attacks from predators like coyotes.”

“Good—the sooner the coyotes get at them, the better. As far as I’m concerned, the beavers have no right to anything. They didn’t pay for the land that their lodge is sitting on like I did, and their actions are coming onto my property.”

“How about this? Why don’t I pay you for the portion of your property that’s covered by the extra water brought on by the beavers’ dam existing?” I offered. If all it took to end this dispute was me paying a little bit of money to allow the beavers to live comfortably where they wanted to, I was fully willing and able to do that. This guy might’ve been a bit crazy, but I really just wanted this fight to be over.

“Absolutely not,” the man said, crossing his arms. “I bought this house because of the property backing up onto the creek, and that’s that. Why do you care about the stupid beavers anyway?”

“I care about them because, like us, they’re animals just trying to do their best in this world. There is no reason to destroy their home just because it made the water creep up onto your property by an extra foot.”

“Spoken like somebody who isn’t inconvenienced by it herself,” the man said. “Now, I think I’ve shown you enough. I want you to leave now.”

Not wanting to cause a scene, I headed back towards the gate and the road. As the man headed back towards the front of his house, I stopped. “I do implore you to please just let the beavers be,” I called out after him.

“Not until they stop ruining my land,” the man shouted after me. I let out a sigh. This had definitely not gone nearly as well as I had hoped.

Chapter 16

That afternoon I only had a couple of patients, which were relatively painless to deal with. Just a couple of checkups of happy and healthy animals.

My mind was still preoccupied with the beaver problem. Beavers were important in Oregon, and they were actually somewhat protected by the law. If they caused significant issues, it was possible to trap and relocate them—some beavers had chosen unfortunate locations that led to houses being fully flooded by their dams—but that was definitely not the case here. This was a case of a man being angry that the size of his already large backyard had been reduced by a single foot, and he seemingly wasn’t willing to make any concessions.

By the end of the day, I knew what I was going to do.

In Oregon, the beaver was actually an important and celebrated animal. They were not only the official state animal, but in 1849, when the Oregon territory defied the federal government and created its own mint, the coins created by Oregon had featured a beaver on them. To this day, the state of Oregon still has a beaver on the state flag.

I was very aware that at the moment the US Wildlife Services was in the midst of a legal battle with a number of environmental protection groups when it came to what had to be done about beavers. However, I also knew someone at the Wildlife Services that I thought could help.

I gave her a call, and a few minutes later, I had a solution to my problem. One that was going to make everybody happy, I hoped.

I had received a text from Jason telling me that he was going to attend the local council meeting that night and asking me not to wait up for him. Sophie decided to come over for dinner once more, and as the two of us ate leftover pasta with some wine, we began to complain about just how hard it really was to solve this crime.

“I just don’t know where we can go from here,” I said, taking a big gulp of Chardonnay.

“I totally hear you,” Sophie said. “I spent half the day today when I was in the back trying to think about what we have to be missing, and I can’t think of anything.”

“I did speak to Betty at lunch,” I said. “She told me a lot about Francis as a boy, but I don’t think it’s anything that we can use, and she had definitely never heard the name Michael Carlton before he was killed.”

“Well, personally, I’m extremely disappointed in the both of you,” Bee said from her spot on top of the couch. “Buster is the world’s most important cat—well, next to me, of course—and I take your inability to find the person who attacked him as an immense failure in both your personalities.”

“Thanks for your input, Bee,” I said, giving my cat a sly glance. “I haven’t seen you throw out any miraculous suggestions.”

“Unlike you, I realize that my position as a cat means that detective work isn’t in the cards for me. My role is that of a motivator.”

“Yes, the promise that this is a failure of my personality is just super inspiring.”

“We all have our methods. I assume that you will be so devastated in failing me that you will redouble your efforts to find the person who attacked Buster.”

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I turned back to Sophie. “Betty says she hasn’t seen Francis Romano in about a dozen years. She says he was a bit of a troublemaker back when they were in school, but she thinks he would’ve been a good teacher.”

“That sucks,” Sophie said. “I seriously wish we knew why the killer thought Gloria, and presumably Michael, had any money. I think that’s the link we’re missing right now. Why would two retired public servants, a group of people known for being underpaid and overworked, have so much money?”

Suddenly, my eyes widened. Everything clicked. It all made sense.

“Hand me my iPad,” I said to Sophie, holding my hand out. She passed it over to me.

“What is it?”

I ignored her as I opened the screen and tapped away. “You know how Jason said the building underneath the school district workers’ building was a bank?”

“Yeah, Oregon People’s Credit Union,” Sophie nodded. “What about it?”

“Remember twelve years ago? What happened there?”

Sophie frowned. “Not really. But twelve years ago, we were in high school.”

“Right. And while you were busy partying every weekend and hooking up with the worst guys, I actually kept up with the news.”

“This story isn’t exactly making you out to be the coolest person ever.”

“Maybe not, but one of us remembers exactly what happened twelve years ago,” I said triumphantly as I opened up a news article from back then and handed the iPad over to Sophie.

“Arrest Made in Biggest Bank Robbery in Oregon History,” she read from the headline before scrolling down and continuing. “The Portland County District Attorney’s Office has released a statement confirming the arrest of Charles Green in the robbery of the Oregon People’s Credit Union two weeks ago. The brazen middle-of-the-night robbery allegedly committed by Mr. Green, a longtime resident of Portland, ended with the Oregon People’s Credit Union vault being robbed of over $5 million worth of cash.”

Sophie looked up at me and raised her eyebrows. “That’s not a small figure.”

“That’s for sure,” I nodded.

“What does that have to do with Michael Carlton, though? I mean, yeah, he worked above where that robbery took place, but presumably so did hundreds of other people. And how would Gloria’s husband have been involved?”

“If you keep reading, it says the police suspect Charles Green wasn’t working alone, but that he won’t tell police who his accomplices were.”

“Did Michael Carlton know Charles Green?”

“I think he did. And I think we do, too.”

Sophie’s eyes widened as she realized what I was talking about. “Chuck, the guy from the coffee shop who said he had moved away from Portland for a while.”

“Exactly. Who came back to town right when Charles Green was released from prison.”

“So he didn’t meet Michael Carlton while playing golf.”

“No, he didn’t. Thinking about it, there wasn’t anything in Michael Carlton’s house that indicated he played any sports at all. There certainly wasn’t any golf gear there.”

“Agreed,” Sophie said. “So Michael Carlton was Charles Green’s partner in crime.”

“And Francis Romano,” I added. “The three of them must have gotten together and committed the crime somehow.”

“We need to tell Chief Gary,” Sophie said, and I nodded in agreement.

“Absolutely.”

“I thought I told you girls to stay out of this,” Chief Gary said grumpily, obviously not happy to have been called into the station at eight p.m. on a Wednesday.

“I know, and we sort of did. We haven’t gone to see the guy himself,” Sophie said. “Besides, Gloria asked us to look into it. We couldn’t say no to her, not after everything she had gone through.”

“That’s no reason to get involved in yet another police investigation,” Chief Gary said, raising an eyebrow.

“Fine, well, we can always keep this information to ourselves and confront the suspect on our own,” Sophie said, crossing her arms. I hid a smile; I would have definitely not been nearly so aggressive with the Chief of Police in town. Sophie was acting like she’d forgotten this guy could throw her in jail for a while if he wanted to.

However, he obviously didn’t want to. Chief Gary sighed. “Fine. What do you know?”

Sophie and I explained everything we had figured out, and when we finished, he leaned back into his chair and sighed.

“You know, this isn’t nearly enough to go on.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Your reasoning might be sound, but there’s absolutely no proof. I need probable cause before I can get a warrant to search Charles Green’s home.”

My heart sunk in my chest. “So this is all for nothing?”

“Not at all,” Chief Gary replied. “You’ve certainly given those of us investigating these two incidents a lot to think about. And if you are right about all of this, well, it gives us an edge, because we know what to look for.”

“But you can’t do anything now,” Sophie finished.

“No,” Chief Gary said, shaking his head. “There’s just not enough hard evidence that Charles Green had anything to do with these murders yet. But thank you for bringing him to my attention.”

Sophie and I left a few minutes after, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit dejected at that reception.

“You know this means we have to go back and see Chuck tomorrow,” Sophie said as I drove her back home.

“I was worried you were going to say that,” I said with a small smile.

Chapter 17

The following day I told Karen to move all of my morning appointments to the afternoon if possible, and luckily all of my clients were more than accommodating. That gave Sophie and me the opportunity to drive back to Two Sweets Bakery in Portland in the hopes of coming across Chuck.

“Invisibility spell again?” Sophie asked when we were in the car. I nodded. It was definitely going to be the most handy of all the spells I knew when it came to following someone.

This time, we parked in front of the bakery and waited for Chuck to come by.

“Can’t we go in and get a slice of bourbon pecan pie?” Sophie complained. “I mean, it’s not like he suspects us or anything.”

“We told him we don’t live here, we were looking into a friend of his that we think he committed a bank robbery with, and now we show up out of the blue with no real reason to be here? No, if he sees us again he’s going to think it’s suspicious, and he might run off before we have a chance to see him. Is a slice of pie really worth the risk?”

Sophie muttered something under her breath that I was pretty sure was along the lines of well, I hadn’t tasted that particular pie, so I didn’t know what I was missing out on. I ignored her and looked at the inviting interior, even as the inside of the car got colder and colder.

“Fine,” I said eventually, with a dramatic sigh. “Let’s go in and get some pie. But we have to sit as far away from the door as possible, and we have to be subtle about it.”

“I thought you’d never come to your senses,” Sophie said, practically diving out of the car and making her way towards the shop’s entrance.

I, on the other hand, looked around carefully before I crossed the street to make sure I couldn’t see Chuck coming from anywhere. It was still a little bit earlier than the girl told us he usually arrived, so I figured the odds were pretty good he wasn’t going to be here straightaway, but still. I didn’t want to scare him off and lose our one chance of finding the person who might have been responsible for the attack on Gloria and for killing Michael Carlton.

Slipping into the bakery behind Sophie, I inhaled deeply to take in the delightful scent of cooked sugar and joined the other people in line with Sophie. Five minutes later we had ordered a couple of lattes, along with a slice of that pie for Sophie and a salted caramel bar for me. We made our way towards the very back of the shop and found a spare table in the corner. Luckily for us, the tables all around it had already been taken, so we were able to mostly stay out of sight. If Chuck came in right now, we would almost certainly notice him before he noticed us.

A couple of minutes later the waitress came by with our food and drinks and placed them in front of us.

“Did you hear that Charlotte is moving?” I asked Sophie as I took a scrumptious bite from the caramel slice.

“Really? Where to?”

“San Francisco. Probably early next year.”

“That’s awesome, good for her,” Sophie said. “I love your sister and all, but I feel like keeping her cooped up here in the Pacific Northwest is almost a waste of her talent. Like, if I knew anybody who would do really well as part of Doctors Without Borders or something, it’s her.”

“I agree.” I nodded. “I think it’ll be good for her. Hopefully she’ll like it.”

“Have you ever been there?”

I shook my head. “No. I’d like to; now at least I have a really good excuse to finally check it out.”

Suddenly, Sophie grabbed me by the arm and ducked her head slightly. “Don’t look now, but Chuck just came in.”

I nodded and buried my face in the last couple bites of my salted caramel bar. It took every ounce of my being not to look, but I knew it was important. If Chuck saw us, he might bolt, and if we lost him, there was no way for us to find him again.

Not easily, anyway.

“He’s in the line,” Sophie whispered. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t use magic right now. There are too many people around. We’re just going to have to hope he doesn’t see us.”

“Ok,” Sophie said, turning her head away from him slightly. I took out my phone and used the dark screen as a bit of a mirror. Sure enough, I could just make out Chuck’s form in front of the counter. Suddenly, he turned and left.

“Shoot, he’s leaving,” I muttered.

“We have to go after him!”

“He’s a murderer.”

“Exactly, and Chief Gary isn’t going to do anything about it!” Sophie said. “This is our chance to get the evidence the Chief needs to put him away, but we have to go now.”

“Fine,” I said, stuffing the last piece of salted caramel bar into my mouth and getting up while chewing rather inelegantly.

The two of us basically ran out of the store and stopped outside, looking around. Chuck was just rounding the corner to our left, and we took off after him. When we reached the corner, I peered around it; Chuck was walking down the street. He looked behind him, and I pulled my head back, hoping he hadn’t seen us.

“He knows we’re onto him,” I said. “Should we go invisible?”

“No,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “Let’s confront him. He’s an old guy, I’m pretty sure we can outrun him.”

With that decision made, the two of us took off after Chuck.

“Hey! Chuck!” Sophie called out when we found ourselves only about fifty feet behind the man. He turned to see us, looked away as if he considered making a run for it, then gave up and stopped as Sophie and I caught up to him.

I had to admit, I was embarrassingly out of breath. How many times had I sworn I was going to start going to the gym again and then never done it?

Looking around, we were definitely in a small residential neighborhood. I couldn’t see anyone else around. This wasn’t a perfect situation; I would have much preferred an encounter in the middle of a busy, public place.

Sophie already had her phone out, and I knew she was recording what was about to go down. After all, Oregon was a one-party state, so even if we didn’t tell Chuck that we were recording the conversation, it could still be used against him if he admitted to what he did.

“Why, hello there,” Chuck said with a smile as he moved towards us. “Fancy seeing you two again.”

Right. His innocence ploy wasn’t fooling either one of us. I was all too aware that this man had murdered Michael Carlton, and I had a sneaking suspicion he still had the gun somewhere.

“You stop right there,” Sophie said. “We figured it all out.”

“Oh, you did, did you?” Chuck asked.

“Yes. We know you’re actually Charles Green, the man who robbed that bank all those years ago along with Francis Romano and Michael Carlton.”

Chuck laughed, but this time it had none of the warmth he had shown when we’d had coffee with him the other day.

“So you figured it out, did you? Outsmarted both the Portland Police and the FBI on that one. They spent years trying to figure out who was in on it with me. They offered me everything to try and get me to spill. But I figured the other two may as well have enjoyed their money. It doesn’t look like they ever did, though. Mike at least spent a bit inside his house. I guess they were scared they were going to get found out if they started living like one of those tech entrepreneurs instead of teachers.”

“Why did you kill them, though?” I asked. “I mean, if you didn’t harbor any ill-will towards them, what was the point?”

“It was obvious right from the start that I was going to get caught. As soon as the cops came to question me the first time, I gave them my share of the cash. I told them to hide it, along with theirs. I told them I’d be back when I got out.”

“But in that time, Francis died.”

“And his stupid wife didn’t seem to have a clue what I was talking about. She just gaped at me.”

“I don’t think Francis told her about the money,” I said.

“That would be right. He seemed like the kind to hide it. Great. If only he’d died of cancer, something that would have given him enough time to let his wife know.”

“Did Michael tell you where he had hidden his share?”

Chuck shook his head. “No, I didn’t manage to get it out of him, either. The guy charged me with a knife, cut my arm a little. So I had no choice but to shoot him.”

“So you assaulted an old woman and killed a man all for nothing,” Sophie said, crossing her arms. “Great job.”

“Hey, if they’d just told me where my money was, there never would have been an issue,” Charles said.

There it was, the admission. That was all we needed. As long as Sophie had this all on tape, we could give it to Chief Gary, and Chuck would go to prison.

“Well, this certainly has been a nice chat,” Sophie said, obviously thinking exactly the same thing I was. “Now, if it’s all equal to you, I think we’re going to be heading on our way.”

“Did you honestly think I was going to admit all this to you and then just let you walk away?” Chuck laughed. “Please. In a few seconds, the two of you are going to forget this conversation even happened. Oblivascuturoa!”

Luckily, a childhood spent casting spells at Sophie meant that she had the reflexes of a cat when it came to avoiding them, and her instincts kicked in perfectly. Chuck had pointed his finger at her to try and do the memory-erasing spell, but she darted out of the way and behind a tree.

For a split second I didn’t understand what was happening, but then, like any good vet, I sprang into action. There was time to figure things out later.

“Nebularoa,” I called out, pointing at the ground between Sophie and me and Chuck. A mysterious fog enveloped all of us, and I made my way towards Sophie, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her away.

Chapter 18

“What the…you’re witches too?” Chuck called out. Great. This would have been a lot easier if Chuck hadn’t had magical powers.

“He’s a wizard too?” Sophie gasped as we ran along, darting into an alley between two buildings.

“I guess so,” I said, the two of us ducking behind an empty dumpster. “I had no idea.”

“Aren’t you supposed to have some sort of sixth sense about this sort of thing?”

“What? No, that’s just in the movies.”

“Well, it would have come in pretty handy right about now.”

I shushed her as Chuck began making his way towards us. The fact that he had his finger held out in front of him wasn’t good; I imagined he was using a honing spell to try and find us.

“I’m going to attack him with a spell, and I need you to run. Get out of here,” I said to Sophie.

“Not a chance. I’m not leaving you to take on this psycho on your own.”

“You’re at a huge disadvantage. I can’t fight him and keep you safe,” I hissed. Sophie looked like she wanted to argue, then nodded as she thought it through and realized the words I was saying made sense.

“Fine. I’ll go,” she said, just as Chuck turned and made his way down the alley towards us.

“Now,” I whispered to her as I stepped out from behind the dumpster. “Sopioroa,” I shouted as I pointed at Chuck, but my spell simply bounced off of him. Apparently, he had put up a protective spell. Shoot. I should have thought of that.

He laughed. “I didn’t realize you two were witches. It’s been quite a while since I met someone else with magical powers. Of course, it’s not been so long that I don’t remember the spell to protect myself from magic.”

I gritted my teeth as I tried to figure out what to do. Even if he was protected from my magic, that didn’t mean I couldn’t still stop him; it just meant I was going to have to be a bit more creative about it.

“Aquaroa,” I said, spinning a circle with my finger towards Chuck. Sure enough, a second later a moat formed itself around him, marooning him on a newly formed island.

“Do you really think that’s going to stop me?”

No, I knew it wasn’t. The water was deep, but it wasn’t very wide, and I knew with a simple spell Chuck could make the whole thing disappear. But at least it gave me a few seconds to think, because right now, I had absolutely no idea what to do.

“Ad conteram incantatores,” I tried, pointing straight at Chuck, who just laughed, pointed at the water, and with a quick spell of his own made it disappear as he stepped towards me. I wondered if my spell to break his protection spell had worked.

“Ignisoroa,” I yelled, pointing at him once more. It was an aggressive spell to use, but to be honest, I was scared, and panicking just a little bit. A stream of flames burst forth from my fingers and encompassed Chuck completely, but when they dissipated a moment later, he was still standing there.

“That spell to break mine didn’t work too well for you, did it?” he asked, raising a finger and pointing it towards me.

He called out a spell, but I didn’t hear what it was; I was too busy casting one of my own. “Protectoroa!” Six large knives appeared out of nowhere and began careening towards me, but as soon as they got about two feet away they all stopped and began vibrating, like they’d gotten caught in an invisible board.

At least my protection spell had worked as well. It didn’t take me long to realize that running was probably my best bet here, too. If I could just get back to the coffee shop, there would be people around, and then neither one of us would be allowed to use our magic, since it was forbidden to cast spells where humans could see. I imagined Chuck wasn’t going to risk the wrath of the magical council to stop me.

I just hoped Sophie had gotten far enough away. I cast a quick spell that sent sparks shooting towards Chuck and took the couple of seconds that earned me to run down the alley as fast as I could. I figured if I could make it out of the alley and back onto the street, that would get me a little bit more time.

Unfortunately, just as I was about to make my way out, it felt like something grabbed me by the ankle, and I was yanked upside down. I squirmed to see Chuck making his way towards me, then looked upwards. An invisible force had grabbed me and was holding me in place. I tried another spell, but again, it just bounced off Chuck like it was nothing.

As he got closer and closer to me, I knew the end was coming. I wasn’t going to be able to get away, and my magic wasn’t powerful enough to stop him. I only hoped that Sophie had gotten far enough away that she’d be able to get help and have him arrested before he was able to get to her.

Still, so long as I wasn’t dead, there were still things I could do. I launched another protective spell just as Chuck attacked me again. Once again, his spell was absorbed by the protective spell I had put up, and I could tell he was getting frustrated as he came closer and closer.

For a little while, the two of us basically played a game of cat and mouse. I was stuck, held in place by his spell which left me upside down, but I could still use my magic. A floating spell allowed me to rise up above one of his spells, and the protective spell helped me a few more times.

The problem was, with every spell that I used, I was becoming weaker and weaker. Magic wasn’t this infinite source of energy, and the more I used it, the more tiring it became. I hadn’t used this much magic in quite a long time, but Chuck seemed to be completely fine.

It was just about over for me. I could definitely tell that much.

As Chuck approached me, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see what was about to happen. All of a sudden, though, I heard a voice say something I absolutely wasn’t expecting.

“Get the hell away from her, you dumb creep,” Sophie said, and my eyes burst open just in time to see her whack Chuck across the head with a two-by-four. A disgusting thud resonated through the alley and Chuck’s eyes rolled into the back of his head for a second before he fell down, collapsing into a heap, no longer a threat.

Unfortunately for me, the instant Chuck found himself unconscious, the spell he had used to keep me hanging upside down was broken. I let out a yelp as my ankle was let go and I dropped to the ground, hitting the cement with a thud. Luckily, I thought to cover my head with my hands, and while a searing pain coursed through my left arm, my head was fine.

“Are you ok?” Sophie asked, rushing over to me. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“My arm hurts,” I whined. “I thought I told you to get out of here.”

“I know, but then I realized I couldn’t just leave you here. Then, when I saw that your spells weren’t doing anything against him, I figured he had put up some sort of magical barrier. So I thought I would see if he had protected himself against all attacks, or just magical ones.”

“I guess he thought we were both witches, and that we would only use magical attacks against him,” I mused.

“Joke was on him. The closest I ever came to magic was that one time when I was the best player on our soccer team growing up,” Sophie said, looking down at him.

“We need to call 9-1-1,” I said as I got up and scraped the gravel off of my knees.

Sophie nodded and pulled out her phone while I made my way over to Chuck and looked for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. Sophie had evidently done quite a number on him.

The important thing was he was going to go to jail for a very long time. He was never going to get to enjoy the fruits of his robbery all those years ago.

Chapter 19

The next six hours or so flew by like a blur. I had to call Karen and ask her to reschedule the afternoon’s appointments as well, as there was no way we were going to make it back to Willow Bay in time. Luckily, all of my patients were extremely understanding when they found out exactly why I had to push their appointments back.

After Sophie had called 911, an ambulance came by first, followed very shortly by a police cruiser whose cops came right up to us.

“Can you tell us what happened here?” one of them asked, flipping open a notebook.

“He tried to attack us,” Sophie said. “Luckily, there were two of us, and we managed to get the upper hand eventually.”

Everything we told the cops was accurate, except for the magic, which we obviously left out. We explained to them that we had found out Chuck was actually Charles Green, but that there had been no evidence that he had been the one to attack Gloria and kill Michael Carlton. We explained that we had gone to the coffee shop to try and talk to him in a public setting, but that he followed us out and tried to kill us.

Ok, so we lied a little bit. But it was mainly so that Chief Gary wouldn’t yell at us quite as much as we knew he would if we told the truth. After all, there was nothing wrong with us going to see the man in a public place; that was the safe way to do it.

Sophie played the recording of the conversation between us and Chuck for the cops, then emailed it to one of them so that they would have a copy.

We were interrupted by one of the EMTs who wanted to know if either one of us required medical attention as well. I shook my head; my arm was starting to feel better with every passing minute and I didn’t think it was the sort of thing that was going to require medical attention.

“Is he going to be ok?” I asked, motioning towards Chuck.

“It’s too early to say,” the EMT replied. “We’re getting him to the hospital right now.”

With that, she left me, closed the ambulance bay doors, and got into the driver’s side seconds before peeling off, lights and sirens blaring.

“Well, at least it’s over,” Sophie said to me quietly. “We figured it out, and Gloria is safe now.”

I nodded. It was over. We knew who had committed the crimes, and he was incapacitated. Even if for whatever reason he couldn’t be tried for Michael Carlton’s murder, there was at least a pretty open-and-shut case of attempted murder against Sophie and me.

The cops brought us coffee and asked us to wait for a few more minutes. That was totally fine with me; I was definitely ok with hanging out here, as I wasn’t sure I was really in a state to drive back to Willow Bay. My hands shook as I took the steaming cup of coffee, and I suddenly realized that Sophie might be doing even worse than I was.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her, leaning my head against her shoulder.

“I’m actually ok,” Sophie said. “Even if he dies, I know that I did it to save you, and since it came down to a choice between having him in the world and having you in the world, well, I definitely made the right call.”

“I love you so much,” I said to Sophie.

“Same here. You need to work on those magic skills; that dude should have never been able to out-magic you.”

“Hey, it’s not like I come across a murdering wizard every day,” I argued. “Who am I going to fight against? Charlotte? I’m pretty sure she would destroy me one hundred percent of the time.”

As I said the words and realized that in a few months I wasn’t going to be able to magic-fight Charlotte even if I wanted to, my heart dropped slightly. I had always taken it for granted that my sister was going to be around all the time, and it was going to take a little bit to get used to the idea that it wouldn’t always be the case.

“Do you think that weird magical court you had to visit a while back is going to go after Chuck?” Sophie asked.

I shrugged. “I doubt it. After all, there was no one non-magical around except you, and you’re allowed to know about magic since your mom’s a witch, so there were no magical rules broken. If he uses his magic to try and break out of human jail, he’ll get nailed by them, though.”

“Was that how he stole the money, do you think?” Sophie asked. “Using magic?”

I shook my head. “No, I doubt it. The magical council would have definitely gotten mad at him for doing that. Besides, if he had used magic, he wouldn’t have needed help from Michael and Francis.”

Just then, a familiar car pulled up to the front of the alley. Chief Gary got out of the driver’s side and started making his way towards us, but not before I spotted his passenger: Jason. He practically sprinted out of the car and made his way over to me, taking me into a huge bear hug.

“I’m so glad you’re ok, Angie,” he whispered in my ear as he held me close.

“Me too,” I whispered back.

“I know you’re glad Angela is safe, but if you don’t mind, I have a few questions to ask,” came Chief Gary’s gruff voice from behind us, and Jason and I separated. I looked over sheepishly at him; I wasn’t quite sure just how mad he was at us. Going by the look on his face, probably about a seven out of ten.

That was ok. I could handle a seven.

“Now, Angela, I need you and Sophie to tell me everything that happened here.”

Sophie and I recounted our story, making sure to emphasize the part where we met Chuck in public but he followed us afterwards.

When I finished off by telling Chief Gary and Jason how Sophie called 9-1-1 and we waited here for them to arrive, I held my breath, wondering just how much we were going to get yelled at.

“I cannot believe the two of you,” Chief Gary said, shaking his head.

“What? You told us we needed more evidence,” Sophie said.

“No. No, I specifically thanked you for the information, and said that the police could now focus their attention on Charles Green in order to find the evidence needed to prove he did those things.”

“He would have never admitted it to the police, though,” Sophie argued. “But to us, on the other hand, it was different. Plus, I recorded it, so now you have all the evidence you need to prove he was the one who attacked Gloria.”

“Yes, and then he proceeded by attacking the two of you. I’m thankful that you managed to overpower him, but the two of you are going to end up giving me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” I said. “We honestly didn’t think he was going to attack us. After all, he was just an old man.”

An old man with magical powers that were more powerful than my own.

“Well, I’m glad the two of you are safe,” he said gruffly, turning to speak with the officers that had been the first on the scene.

“I’m glad too,” Jason said, nodding to Sophie.

“She saved my life,” I told him.

“Thank you,” Jason told Sophie. “Seriously, thank you.”

“We didn’t tell Chief Gary this, but Chuck had magical powers,” Sophie whispered. “Angela was amazing. She got me to run away, since I was at such a huge disadvantage compared to the two of them. But I couldn’t run. So I came back, and I hit him over the head with the piece of wood.”

“Which ended up saving my life,” I replied. “He was more powerful than me; I couldn’t break his protection spell, so nothing I did could hurt him.”

“Geez,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I really wish you wouldn’t get into these kinds of situations, but I always relied on the fact that you had your magic. I never imagined that you would come across someone else with the same powers.”

“Same, to be honest,” I admitted. “After all, the magical population is pretty low. We’re the only ones in all of Willow Bay with magical powers. It has to be something like zero-point-two percent of the population or something.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re ok,” Jason said. “Really, really glad.”

“Me too.” I smiled. “Now, if you don’t mind, let’s see if we can head back. I want to check on the beavers.”

The three of us got up, got permission to leave from the cops, and headed back to my car, where I handed my keys to Jason, letting him drive. I still definitely wasn’t feeling up to it if I didn’t have to; I was still pretty shaken up.

But it was over. Charles Green was in custody. He couldn’t hurt us anymore. And we had gotten justice for Gloria and for Buster.

Chapter 20

As soon as we got back to Willow Bay, Jason dropped off Sophie at home, then turned to me.

“Where do you want me to drop you off?”

“Just in the park is good,” I replied. As soon as Jason stopped in the parking lot, he looked around.

“It’s getting late. I’m coming with you.”

“Ok, but I hope you’re not wearing a jacket you actually care about.”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Jason grumbled a few minutes later as he pulled a twig away from his face. “How on earth did someone get here to attack your beavers?”

“They came from the residential side.”

“Why didn’t we come from the residential side?”

“That involves trespassing.”

“Oh, like that’s ever stopped you.”

I made a rude gesture as we kept going, eventually reaching the clearing where the beavers had set up their lodge and dam.

“Stay back a bit,” I told him. “Beavers aren’t super trusting animals, they might not come out if they see you until I’ve introduced you.”

“Alright,” Jason said, moving towards the trees. I turned to him and laughed.

“Are you afraid of the beavers?”

“They have really big teeth, ok?” Jason half-whispered, and I giggled.

“They’re not going to hurt you.”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“You grew up in New York City the son of some major gangster. How on earth are you afraid of beavers?”

“We don’t have a lot of wildlife, ok? And the raccoons that live in the city would eat you if they got the opportunity. I figure beavers are the same.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I laughed as I made my way towards the lodge. Instead of going straight there, however, I made my way past the lodge and towards the dam at the far end of where the beavers had been building. I could just see the pipes that had been set up by the man I’d been connected with by my friend at Wildlife Services.

Because the owner of the property had refused to help, it had made the work a little bit more difficult for the wildlife worker, but it had gotten done.

The pipes were a relatively new system used to redirect troublesome flows caused by beavers. Although this wasn’t exactly a majorly disruptive beaver flow, I figured it was the best work-around to both keep the beavers safe and stop the owner of that property from continually coming to attack them. Thanks to the work-around, the pipes allowed water to flow more naturally until it reached the area before the dam, at which point the water accumulated once again. This resulted in both parties being happy: the beavers had all the water they needed to keep the entrance to their lodges underwater, and the creek was back to its normal level behind the houses.

“Hey, is anyone there?” I called out, and a few seconds later, Naba came waddling out.

“Hello, human. Has our problem been solved?”

“I think so.” I nodded. “It turned out it was the human who lives four houses up the creek. He was upset because your dam caused the water level on his property to rise, but I got a man to come in and do some work with pipes, and now everyone should be happy.”

“Oh, good. Thank you so much,” Naba said. “I can’t believe he was that upset. We were just trying to live here.”

“Yeah, I think he overreacted, personally.” I glanced over at Jason, wondering if I should introduce him, but he still seemed hesitant to come over and actually meet a beaver. Big city people were weird.

“We are used to humans not being kind to us, sadly,” Naba said. “It was nice of you to stick up for us.”

“Not a problem,” I replied with a smile. “I’m going to keep the cameras and the spell going until I’ve had a chance to speak with the guy, just in case.”

“Alright. Thank you again. The fourth house up, you said?”

“That’s right.” I nodded.

I said goodbye to Naba and made my way back to Jason.

“Come on. Let’s go back home.”

The next morning, before the vet clinic opened for the morning, I made my way back to the house where the owner who hated the beavers lived. I wanted to let him know that he wasn’t going to have any more issues with the water levels.

As I walked up the street, however, something seemed a little bit off. Was that a tree that had fallen over? I stopped, my mouth gaping open at what I saw. That shining sports car that had been sitting on the road in front of the house I was going to had been completely destroyed. The large tree in the front yard had mysteriously fallen directly on top of it.

And going by the teeth marks in the trunk, I knew exactly what had done it.

It looked like the beavers weren’t going to take the destruction of their property sitting down.

Great. If the guy came out and saw his car looking like that, and with beaver marks all over the tree that had taken it down, things were not going to end well for that little colony. I looked around carefully to make sure no one was peeking through the windows watching me, then pointed at the base of the tree.

“Fulgur percutiensroa,” I muttered. A bolt of lightning sprung from the tip of my finger and landed right at the base of the tree, where the beavers had broken it. Now, instead of it being obvious that the beavers had destroyed the car, it looked like an errant strike of lightning had hit the base of the tree instead.

Sure, it wasn’t super likely, and lightning didn’t exactly work that way, but no one would be able to argue that was what had happened. Not unless they believed in magic, that was.

Making my way up to the front door, I paused for a split second, and then knocked. I was met with a scowl from that same man a few minutes later.

“What do you want?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I had the man who works with the Wildlife Service re-route the creek further down, so it should be back to normal for you all the same.”

“Good.” The man scowled.

“Are you going to leave the beavers alone now?”

“So long as they don’t mess with my property,” the man muttered.

“Good. And if you do have any issues with them, come to me first,” I said. “I take the safety of the wildlife in this town very seriously, and believe me, if I find out that anything has happened to these beavers, I will make sure you’re punished.”

The man’s scowl grew. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll leave the dumb things alone, as long as that thing you did to keep the water level down worked.”

Good. That was the promise I wanted.

“Thank you,” I replied. “Now, when I came up here, I couldn’t help but notice…is that your car parked out front?”

“The Mustang? Yeah, that’s mine,” the man said. “Been working on her for ages.”

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but mother nature wasn’t a fan,” I said to him, motioning towards the car.

“What the—” the man cried out as he noticed the damage, rushing out past me in his bare feet. “Oh God, what happened?”

“It looks like a lightning strike,” I said with a shrug.

“Freaking mother nature,” the guy said, pacing around his car. He reached out to stroke the destroyed paneled siding.

“It was insured, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, but insurance doesn’t cover how much I loved this car,” he replied.

“Sorry,” I said awkwardly, heading off. I couldn’t help but think that he definitely deserved what he got, though. He tried to mess with the beavers’ home, so they messed with him. At least it sounded like the beavers could live in peace now.

Chapter 21

A few days later, Charles Green woke up, and he was officially arrested for the assault on Gloria and the murder of Michael Carlton. Bee and Buster were both incredibly upset that he couldn’t be charged with the assault on Buster and made sure I knew that they considered the human justice system to be incredibly biased and unfair, and that if they ever got their hands on Charles Green, he would know real cat justice.

As the cold days got even colder, the Christmas season fast approaching, I quickly found myself swamped with work. Not only did I have my regular patients to take care of, but on top of that I also ran an informal wildlife center out of my backyard, and in the winter I always had more injured animals who required longer care with me before being able to be re-released into the wild.

Luckily, however, a week before Christmas Jason promised me a nice weekend away, and after a long Friday spent taking care of a group of animals, I made my way home and got ready for the special trip.

To my surprise, Jason drove us straight from Willow Bay to the airport, and my mouth dropped open when I saw my boarding pass: Portland to Honolulu, direct flight. We were going to Hawaii.

“I haven’t packed a bathing suit,” I complained. “What with that whole ‘it’s December’ thing.”

“Don’t worry, I got Charlotte to pack a bunch of warm clothes for you one night when you were out,” Jason said with a grin. “That way you won’t look like a 30-year-old male picked out your clothes for the weekend.”

“I appreciate that,” I laughed. “Not that you dress badly, but I did catch you wearing socks with sandals that one time.”

“Hey, I was hungover that day,” Jason replied with a grin. “Now come on, let’s find some warm sun.”

Five hours later we landed in Honolulu, and I took in a deep breath as I stepped off the plane and was met with a burst of hot air. It felt like I hadn’t been warm in months, and I grinned at Jason as we made our way through the semi-open air space of Honolulu airport. Even though it was nearly nine o’clock at night – it was just about midnight back home – the temperatures had to be in the eighties.

Jason grabbed us an Uber, which took us to our hotel, right along the beach in Waikiki. I’d seen this view so many times while watching episodes of Hawaii Five-0, but I had never imagined I’d actually be here. Certainly not on such short notice, anyway.

While it was too dark to actually see the ocean, the rhythmic pounding of the waves against the shore reached my ears from the open balcony door as Jason and I fell asleep that first night, ready for the most amazing weekend away ever. Little did I know just how amazing it was going to be.

Jason and I woke up pretty early the next morning, thanks to the time zone shift, and found ourselves seated at an Oceanside table at Duke’s restaurant, featuring the best breakfast buffet I’d ever had in my life.

Between the freshly-squeezed orange juice, made-to-order omelette bar and the coconut bread pudding, I was completely and totally stuffed by the time we left.

“Let’s go walk along the beach,” I suggested. “Unless you had something else amazing planned.”

“No, I know how you eat at buffets,” Jason laughed.

“Like a bear preparing to hibernate for the winter?”

“Exactly. I figured you’d probably want to walk it off after.”

“You know me so well.”

I took off my shoes as the two of us walked along the beach hand-in-hand, the warm sand sinking beneath my toes.

“Hey, watch it!” I heard a tiny voice say, and managed to avoid stepping on a little crab who was busy scurrying out of the way.

“Whoops, sorry,” I said to him with a smile as Jason and I continued. “Have you ever been to Hawaii?

“No,” Jason answered. “When we went somewhere warm in the winter, it was always nearby. The Bahamas, Bermuda, that sort of thing.”

“Me neither,” I said. “To be honest, I’d never actually left the Pacific Northwest, except for a trip to New York I took one summer when I was in college.”

“This place is pretty amazing.”

“I agree,” I smiled. It was nice to be able to finally relax. There were no murders to solve. There hadn’t been any more issues between the beavers and the guy living by the creek. Charlotte was getting ready to move, and I was completely comfortable with it.

Yeah, life was pretty good right now.

Eventually, Jason and I settled on the beach and spent a few hours just lazing around in the sun. It was so nice, lying down in mid-December, with the warm rays beating down on me, warming me down to my bones and refreshing my soul.

This was definitely exactly what I needed.

By the time the sun began to make its way towards the horizon, my stomach began to grumble and Jason smiled. “What do you feel like for dinner?”

“I’ve heard Hawaii has amazing Japanese food,” I replied. “Let’s find something good.”

A quick search on my phone later and we found ourselves waiting in line with other people for udon noodles that were apparently the best in Hawaii. I was kind of worried that we weren’t going to get a table, but luckily, the turnover seemed to be pretty quick despite the line, and right as Jason and I grabbed our bowl of noodles along with some tempura vegetables, a couple got up to leave and we managed to snag their spot.

“So, there’s only one thing that I still wonder about,” I said to Jason as we were eating.

“Oh yeah?”

“Where did the money end up? After all, Chuck admitted that Michael never told him where the money was, and Gloria had absolutely no idea either. Presumably that secret went to the grave with Francis.”

Jason grinned. “Only you could be sitting here in Hawaii wanting to wrap up loose ends about the murder investigation.”

“I’m just curious,” I laughed. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on going treasure hunting.”

Because of the time difference, Jason and I woke up pretty early naturally, and took an Uber to the entrance to Diamond Head, where we arrived right as the gates opened at six in the morning. The climb was long, but not the most strenuous, and about forty-five minutes later we found ourselves at the top.

My mouth dropped open as I gaped at the view of the ocean and Waikiki as the first light of day began to creep up over the horizon. The orange glow grew deeper, giving the ocean a surreal look as the eastern side of the buildings all began to be covered in the light. The sun began to climb higher and higher and Jason and I watched in silence, his arm around me, as the sun rose over the horizon to the east and began to climb up towards us, on the far western side of Oahu.

When daylight finally appeared, I turned to comment on the beauty of the scene to Jason, but he wasn’t right beside me anymore. He had moved about two feet away, and he was down on one knee.

He was down on one knee.

My hands rose to my mouth as he held out a small, black box.

This couldn’t be happening. No way.

“Angela, will you do me the honor of marrying me?” Jason asked with a smile on his face.

“Oh my God, of course. Yes!” I practically squealed. I didn’t even have to think about the answer. Of course I was going to marry him. Jason’s smile turned into a huge grin as he stood up and placed the ring on my finger. A few other onlookers clapped for us as I admired the ring. It was gold, with a large princess-cut diamond in the middle, surrounded by two smaller diamonds on either side.

The first light of the sun hit the diamond and it glistened on my fingers, matching the tears that welled up in my eyes. I normally wasn’t the sort of person who cried when they got emotional, but this was definitely an exception.

“I love you so much,” Jason said. “I can’t imagine spending another day of my life without you.”

“I love you too,” I replied breathlessly. Was this seriously happening? I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Jason took me into his arms and kissed me; our first kiss as an engaged couple instead of just boyfriend and girlfriend.

“You have no idea the stress I’ve been under trying to get this ring done,” Jason laughed. “I saved a whole bunch of posts of diamonds on my Facebook account, so I’ve been keeping my account logged out, to avoid you accidentally coming across them, and I’ve had to reset my password about six times.”

“Oh,” I said with a laugh. That explained why his account had been logged out before.

“Then, when I actually went into town to pick up the ring, that was the day you texted me asking if I was home. I half freaked out, thinking you and Sophie must have known where I was, and that you would have figured out I was going to the jewelry store to pick up the ring.”

“Don’t worry, we had absolutely no idea,” I replied truthfully. I felt a little bit silly; while Sophie had been trying to convince me that Jason might have been doing something a bit untoward, she was completely wrong. Jason had been hiding something from me, that was true. It was just the greatest surprise ever.

The rest of the day absolutely flew by, and the next morning, as we flew back from Honolulu to Portland, I couldn’t help but think that while I didn’t want to leave, I was also really looking forward to celebrating with everyone.

Chapter 22

As soon as we finally got home and I stepped through the front door, my jaw dropped open in surprise. Rather than the empty house with a cat ready to complain that Charlotte never fed her anything and she was starving, I found myself facing a dozen or so of my family and friends. Sophie and Taylor were there, as was her mom Lisa and her boyfriend Austin. Karen and her husband stood by the entrance to the kitchen, and a huge cake sat on the kitchen counter.

“What is this?” I asked, looking around at everyone.

“Jason told us to hold a surprise party for you after your trip,” Sophie said. “But he wouldn’t say why.”

I held up my left hand and straight away the entire room burst into a cacophony of noise.

“Oh my God!”

“That’s amazing!”

“Let me see the ring!”

“When did he propose? Was it romantic?”

I laughed as I quickly found myself the center of attention, answering question after question about the proposal.

After a few minutes, I felt a furry presence against my leg. “Hi, Bee.”

“Yeah, like you care about me at all. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve eaten?”

“Oh, yeah, you definitely look like you’re starving. I’m sure Charlotte hasn’t given you anything to eat at all.”

“That’s right! Don’t ever leave me again. Also, if anyone was going to put a ring on that finger, I guess Jason is an ok human to do it.”

I smiled as Bee ran off straight after that last comment. That was definitely her way of congratulating me.

After eating some celebratory cake and entertaining partygoers, eventually everyone began to leave, until finally only Charlotte, Sophie, Jason, Taylor and I were left.

We sat around the table chatting about the trip. “It was amazing. Absolutely incredible,” I gushed. “The hotel room we stayed in literally looked exactly like a place from a brochure. Like, the view was actually even nicer than the ad for vacation rentals in Georgetown or wherever in Michael Carlton’s apartment.”

“Georgetown?” Charlotte repeated, and I nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Was it one word, or two?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Two, I guess. Why?”

Charlotte raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you know where George Town is?”

“No. The Caribbean somewhere?”

“Yes. Specifically, it’s the capital of the Cayman Islands.”

My eyes widened. “Isn’t that supposed to be some sort of major place where people hide money?”

“Like the proceeds of a bank robbery,” Sophie nodded.

“Would Michael Carlton have gotten ads from there even if he’d never been?” I asked nobody in particular, and Jason shook his head.

“I wouldn’t think so. More popular places, sure, maybe. But the Cayman Islands is kind of niche enough that I don’t think they would. Especially not here on the west coast.”

“So Michael’s half of the money is hidden in a bank in the Caymans somewhere,” I said.

“We’ll have to tell Chief Gary,” Charlotte said. “With him dead, maybe law enforcement can get some of that cash back.”

“That reward money should help pay for an epic wedding,” Sophie grinned. “I can’t believe you’re getting married. Well, I can. Maybe this will help Taylor get a move on and put a ring on my finger,” she said with a pointed look at her boyfriend.

“I’m just never sure I can tame such a free spirit as you,” Taylor teased.

“Trust me, if the diamond is big enough, I’ll do anything you want,” Sophie replied.

As we all laughed, I wondered if Charlotte was right. Maybe they were going to be able to uncover the lost money after all.

Lying in bed that night, I couldn’t sleep at all. It was no wonder; the last few days had been among the most hectic – both physically and emotionally – of my life. Was Charlotte right? Did Michael Carlton hide his money in the Cayman Islands? What about Francis? Where would his money be hidden? Had he also picked an overseas bank that couldn’t be traced?

Then, Betty’s words came flooding back to me. The last time she had seen Francis was when that woman killed the hitman her husband had hired. That was right around the same time as the bank robbery, right?

Why would Francis Romano pick that time specifically to come back to Willow Bay for a quick visit?

Obviously, the answer was he’d come back if he had a bunch of stolen cash he wanted to hide. But where would he hide it?

I sat up in bed as I began to think things over.

“Are you ok?” Jason murmured sleepily.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I think I know where Francis Romano might have hidden his cash.”

“Really?” Jason said, sitting up.

“Well, not exactly where. But I have an idea. You coming?”

“To go on a treasure hunt with my fiancé in the middle of the night? Absolutely.”

The two of us slipped on our clothes in silence and made our way to the front door.

“Where are you going? Can I come?” Bee asked.

“No, I need to talk to some animals to figure out where to go, and you always scare the birds away.”

“It’s not my fault I’m a ferocious predator descended from the jungle hunters of old.”

“Well, either way, I can’t have you scaring them off. Stay here, Bee, and I’ll take you to work in the morning.”

This was definitely going to be a day powered by coffee, seeing as I’d barely gotten a wink of sleep and it was already 4am.

As Jason and I left the house, he turned to me. “So what’s the plan?”

“We need to find the place Francis Romano found,” I said. “He said he had found some old bunkers in the woods, maybe from World War 2.

“Seriously?”

“It wouldn’t be super weird. They did do a bunch of training around here before shipping soldiers out to fight in the Pacific.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Do you know where the bunkers are?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I’m hoping the animals can help with that.”

The two of us walked down towards the park, but on the way there, I spotted an owl sitting on a lamppost, his keen eyes eagerly looking for his next meal.

“Excuse me, Mr. Owl,” I said, and the owl hooted at me.

“Well, if it isn’t the human with the ability to speak to animals. I have heard of your existence many a time, but I had quite believed you to be a myth.”

“I’m not a myth,” I said with a smile. “I’m very real.”

“So I see. I believe I owe my friend the doe an apology. Why is it that you are out in the middle of the night, when the rest of your kind are sleeping?”

“I’m looking for a place that another human might have found. It’s very important. Do you know of a human-built structure in the woods, one which no humans use anymore, which may be partially hidden in the ground?”

The owl tilted his head for a moment as he thought about my words.

“No, I don’t believe I know of such a place. But then, I spend most of my time in more open spaces. The deep forest is a more difficult hunting ground. However, let me go and find my friend the doe. She may be able to help you. Stay here, and I will return with her.”

“Alright,” I said. “Thank you.”

The owl flew off without another word, and I recanted his side of the conversation to Jason.

“You know, if you told me a few years ago I’d be out here at 4am waiting for a deer to come by and tell me where to find a hidden treasure, I’d have called you insane.”

“Life comes at you fast,” I joked, and a few minutes later, a gorgeous doe hopped over a fence and came towards me on the street.

“You are the human looking for the concrete home?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s us,” I said. Concrete home certainly sounded promising; that sounded like what I imagined a bunker would be.

“Come, follow me. I can take you to it.”

“Thank you so much,” I said, motioning for Jason to follow as the doe made her way down the street before crossing back into the woods.

“We have always wondered why the humans built a concrete home, only to never use it,” the doe told me as Jason and I scrambled through the bush to keep up with her. “It has been there since at least since the time of my mother’s mother’s mother.”

“Yes,” I replied. “It was built around seventy years ago, as far as I know. We humans had a war, and it was likely built to train humans to fight before they went to battle.”

“Oh, I really do hate fighting,” the doe replied. “I’m glad the war is over now.”

“So am I,” I replied as we made our way deeper and deeper into the woods. How on earth Francis had found this place – if we were going to the right place – was beyond me.

After about fifteen minutes of strenuous walking through the forest, with the doe leading almost effortlessly past us, we reached a small clearing. The full moon’s glow lit up just enough for me to see a small concrete bunker built into the ground against a hill.

“This is what you seek, I believe,” the doe said.

“Thank you so much for bringing us here,” I said. “Would you mind staying and taking us back to town afterwards? I’m not sure we can find our way back on our own.”

“Of course,” the doe replied. “I am at your service.”

“Thanks,” I told her with a smile as I made my way towards Jason, who was already at the entrance to the bunker. The concrete had been a little bit worn with age, but there was no graffiti or anything on it which would have indicated that anyone had found it since the second world war had ended.

At the far end was a door, a concrete door that looked like it was pretty solidly jammed into place. Jason looked at it skeptically. “Think we’re going to manage to open it?”

“No problem,” I grinned, pointing at the door. “Patefioroa.”

The concrete door creaked open, unveiling a large, black hole. Taking out my phone, I turned on the flashlight, and made my way towards it while Jason did the same.

“This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever done,” Jason admitted as we made our way inside the bunker. It was musty and smelled like no one had been here in a long time, but as I pointed my phone down at the ground, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the moss on the ground looked like it had been trampled on at some point.

Twelve years ago, probably.

“Look,” Jason said suddenly, grabbing me by the arm. I looked over to where his light shone, and it landed on a large hockey bag, sitting in the middle of the bunker about ten feet away. I wasn’t 100% sure, but I was fairly certain CCM wasn’t making modern-looking hockey bags back during WWII. This was definitely what we were after.

I strode forward and grabbed the bag, hoisting it over my shoulder and making my way back to Jason.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said. “This hole is creepy.”

“Agreed,” Jason nodded. We went back into the clearing, where I dropped the bag onto the ground and Jason reached down and opened it.

Inside were a whole bunch of wrapped black garbage bags, tied together with packing tape. Jason tore one of them open to reveal a pile of hundreds. This was definitely the missing money.

He looked at me and grinned. “Here’s our missing treasure.”

“Francis and Chuck’s half of it,” I nodded. “Wow.”

“Let’s get this home,” Jason said. “After all, I don’t think Chief Gary is going to want to come out here to have a look at it.”

I nodded and helped Jason back the bag back up before the doe led us back towards town, Jason hauling the bag on his shoulder.

“I assume the bag means you found what you were looking for?” the doe asked.

“Yes, definitely. We’ve finally solved the last piece of the puzzle in a twelve-year-old mystery.”

“Well, good for you, I’m glad to hear it,” the doe said. She led us right back to where we had started, and after thanking her again, Jason and I walked the rest of the way back home, leaving the bag of money in the garage. I figured Chief Gary would be ok with us waiting for a more reasonable hour before we called him.

As we stepped into the house, adrenaline coursed through my veins. We had done it. We found the lost money. We had gotten the killer. Buster and Gloria were safe now. And I was going to marry the man of my dreams.

Could life possibly get any better?

Epilogue

The discovery of the missing money launched us into the spotlight. Jason’s article about the case was rumored to be earning him a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. The FBI, thanks to our tip, managed to get the rest of the money from Michael Carlton’s account in the Cayman Islands, after the bank’s owners were alerted that the owner was dead and had died intestate with no heirs.

We were given the reward offered by the bank – $5 million – for leading the police to the man who had robbed them all those years ago, and for the recovery of the lost money. It was almost all there; Michael Carlton had used some of it to pay off his mortgage and buy some toys, but he’d barely spent 10% of the total. I assumed he was afraid of any red flags that might come from him spending far above what his means should have been.

In the end, the reward was split five ways – Jason got a fifth, I got a fifth, Sophie got a fifth, Charlotte got a fifth and we gave Gloria the other fifth. She wanted to refuse, but we insisted. After all, she had been a victim of Charles Green, and if her husband had told her about his secret hiding spot she would have gotten a lot more than a million dollars.

I was definitely going to spend my money helping animals. That was what I did, and what I was going to keep doing. One hundred percent.

Three weeks after it had all ended, and we’d been given the money, Jason and I were sitting at home, eating dinner by ourselves while Charlotte was down in San Francisco apartment hunting. Bee sat on the kitchen floor, happily munching away at a piece of sushi I’d brought home for her while Jason and I shared a veggie supreme pizza.

“You have some cheese on your nose,” Jason laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at him, then raised it to try and get at the cheese, making him laugh even harder.

“You know, some women can’t do that elegantly,” he teased.

“Careful, or I’ll steal some of your half of the pizza,” I retorted, leading to Jason covering up his plate with his arms to protect it.

“Never come between a man and his pizza!”

As I laughed, I couldn’t help but think that this was absolutely a perfect moment: my fiancé, my cat and I eating dinner, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. This was perfect. My life was perfect. And I couldn’t wait to see where life was going to take me from here.

Also by Samantha Silver

First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading this series. I absolutely loved writing it, and as my first ever series, it holds a really special place in my heart.

If you did enjoy Busy as a Beaver 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.

You can also sign up to my newsletter to receive an email every time I release a new book. To sign up for my newsletter, click here now.

While Angela’s story is now complete, I do have plenty of other paranormal (and non-paranormal) mystery series for you to read as well. Feel free to check out the list of all my books below, and as always, happy reading!

Other Willow Bay Witches Mysteries

Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)

Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches #3)

Lipstick on a Pig (Willow Bay Witches #4)

A Grizzly Discovery (Willow Bay Witches #5)

Sleeping with the Fishes (Willow Bay Witches #6)

Get your Ducks in a Row (Willow Bay Witches #7)

Western Woods Mysteries

Back to Spell One (Western Woods Mystery #1)

Two Peas in a Potion (Western Woods Mystery #2)

Three’s a Coven (Western Woods Mystery #3)

Magical Bookshop Mysteries

Alice in Murderland (Magical Bookshop Mystery #1)

Murder on the Oregon Express (Magical Bookshop Mystery #2)

The Very Killer Caterpillar (Magical Bookshop Mystery #3)

Death Quixote (Magical Bookshop Mystery #4)

Pride and Premeditation (Magical Bookshop Mystery #5)

Cassie Coburn Mysteries

Poison in Paddington (Cassie Coburn Mystery #1)

Bombing in Belgravia (Cassie Coburn Mystery #2)

Whacked in Whitechapel (Cassie Coburn Mystery #3)

Strangled in Soho (Cassie Coburn Mystery #4)

Stabbed in Shoreditch (Cassie Coburn Mystery #5)

Killed in King’s Cross (Cassie Coburn Mystery #6)

Ruby Bay Mysteries

Death Down Under (Ruby Bay Mystery #1)

Arson in Australia (Ruby Bay Mystery #2)

The Killer Kangaroo (Ruby Bay Mystery #3)

Moonlight Cove Mysteries

Witching Aint’s Easy (Moonlight Cove Mystery #1)

Witching for the Best (Moonlight Cove Mystery #2)

Thank your Lucky Spells (Moonlight Cove Mystery #3)

California Witching Mysteries

Witches and Wine (California Witching Mystery #1)

Poison and Pinot (California Witching Mystery #2)

Merlot and Murder (California Witching Mystery #3)

About the Author

Samantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and a little old doggie named Terra. She loves animals, skiing and of course, writing cozy mysteries.

You can connect with Samantha online here:

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