The Bark of the Town

by Stella St. Claire

  “What do you mean?” Griffin asked coyly. “They loved your presentation.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I had two options,” Griffin said. “They were coming to your gym anyway. I could either send Shelly home and lock the doors, let them wander around and get frustrated, and see if they ended up egging your house or something like that.”

  “Well, I didn’t see any egg splatter on the side of the house, so thank you for that.”

  “Or,” Griffin continued, “I could show them the presentation that you worked on. With your ideas for Lady Valkyrie’s tricks and the pictures and potential commercials. And they absolutely loved what you had.”

  “They did?”

  He nodded. “And I got them to firm up exactly what they were looking for from you creatively, so you’ll feel like you’re ready for your next meeting.”

  “This is incredible,” Willow said, realizing that her day had radically transformed from being the worst to being pretty darn good. “I’m so excited that this is still going forward, and I still have a meeting with them next week.”

  “They want Lady Valkyrie there too, so I said that you’d confirm a good time for both of you.”

  “Thank you, Griffin.”

  “I can go through everything we discussed in more detail later,” he said in between bites of pasta. “I took a lot of notes and then later I typed them all up. I think this ad campaign is going to wind up being something pretty fantastic.”

  Willow stopped eating. She couldn’t help it. She was becoming suspicious. Was Griffin trying to become a part of this now too? His talking to the dog food executives had saved her tail in one regard, but was he trying to edge her out now? She wouldn’t blame the dog food company for wanting to put his devilishly handsome blue eyes and strong arms (and all the rest of him too) on a billboard with a beautiful dog.

  “So, this meeting next week,” Willow said, “will you be coming to that too?”

  “Wills, what’s wrong?” he asked, setting down his fork.

  “Nothing really,” she admitted. “It’s just that you’re so good at everything you’ve been doing around the gym. You’re going above and beyond and everyone loves you.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “It is. It’s just that I’m not used to my partner being helpful just because he loves me. I keep thinking that you’re trying to take over.”

  “I’ve been doing this just to try and make you happy. I didn’t realize it was stressing you out. That’s defeating the purpose.”

  She laughed. “I knew it was irrational. But it still felt real. And now you’re doing so well with the dog food ad campaign. Well – I just need to remember that you’re you and you’re not trying to manipulate me.”

  “And if it helps, as soon as my shoulder is better, I’m leaving,” he said. “I can’t wait to get back to pouring cement and renovating rooms. I miss making houses look beautiful. I enjoyed working at the gym and playing with the dogs, but I’m not changing my career for it. That’s your thing. Not mine.”

  Willow loved him even more for that. She leaned over their dishes and gave him another kiss. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments. Then, Griffin looked away and tapped on his plate.

  “Though, I guess there is one more business thing that I need to update you on,” Griffin said. “If you think it’s overstepping, you don’t need to follow up on it. But a woman came in today looking for a job. Her name was Julie. Her resume seemed weak, but she seemed really desperate. I scheduled an interview with her tomorrow, but if you don’t trust me to do it, I could reschedule.”

  He twirled his pasta on his plate, waiting for her answer.

  “No,” Willow said, shaking her head. “It’s a good idea. Shelly mentioned that I might want to hire someone earlier than I planned and I would have gotten on that if it weren’t for the murder business and Wednesday becoming the prime suspect. It’s good that you’re bringing her in for an interview. We could use another hand and we might as well see someone who had the initiative to ask.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.” He smiled, pleased that he had done the right thing.

  “Do you remember her full name?” Willow asked.

  “Actually, yes. The contractor in me remembers her name well: Julie Hammer.”

  “Julie Hammer?” Willow repeated, wondering if this woman might be able to hammer home the case for her. “I’m really glad you’re bringing her in, but I think I’ll be the one to interview after all.”

  “Sure,” Griffin said. “If you don’t need to do anything for your investigation.”

  “It’ll be both,” Willow said with a smile. “Julie Hammer was one of the people Cassandra said that both Patricia and Becca used to torment. And since both of those women ended up dead, I think she sounds like a pretty good suspect.”

  Willow and Griffin finished their meal, enjoying each other’s company and the good food.

  Her evening had completely turned around. Not only had she gotten her wine, fixed her “I love you,” and found out that she hadn’t lost her ad after all, but she had also uncovered a new suspect.

  20

  The next morning, Willow was ready for her interview. She was excited to think that she might have finally gotten a break in the case and was looking forward to coming in to talk to her.

  She had felt like she had hit a dead end in the case for so long. She hadn’t heard any more from Hudson Wright and she thought that clue was lost forever. However, she had also cleared Daniel and Hudson as suspects because neither one of them would have been able to get to Patricia’s at the right time. One had been seen across town beforehand, and the other one was in jail.

  She had been overwhelmed with possible people who had been blackmailed or had rumors told about them, but didn’t have a good way of checking into all of them. Since Cassandra had mentioned Julie Hammer by name, it was clear that whatever Becca and Patricia had done to her it was something bad. Maybe it was even worse than the rumors they spread around town about Larissa’s pregnancy.

  Willow looked over Julie’s resume and saw that Griffin wasn’t lying about it being sparse. However, there was something interesting about it. Besides the gap in unemployment for almost the whole last year, Willow was interested in two of the places that Julie had worked. One was the nail salon Polished, and the other was Patricia’s maid service.

  She had worked for both of the victims! That couldn’t be a coincidence.

  Willow waited in the backroom of the dog gym, trying to figure out what questions to ask. They needed to sound like job interview questions and yet still related to the murder. Luckily, asking about her past work experience could relate to the case.

  A woman walked into the office. She looked like she was trying really hard to impress a potential new employer. She was wearing office clothes but had also put several pins on her jacket that looked like dogs. She was wearing sneakers and holding a dog leash. She also had a look on her face of hidden desperation.

  “Are you Willow Wells?”

  “Yes. Hello. Nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too,” she said, giving a very hearty handshake that lasted just a little too long as if she didn’t want to let go. “I’m Julie Hammer. I spoke to Griffin yesterday who said someone would interview me today. And then I was directed back here. It’s so exciting to talk to the boss directly. No middleman. That’s how I like it. We’re being direct.”

  “Yes. We are. And I’m very glad to talk to you today,” Willow said.

  “I think working at a dog gym would be a great experience. Maybe giving them little weights to pick up? Or put them on treadmills?”

  “It’s more that we just let them run around. They play fetch or run through the obstacle course too.”

  “That’s fantastic,” Julie said. “Even better. I’d love to play fetch or help with training.”

  “Do you have a dog?” Willow asked, pointing to the leash.

&nbs
p; “Well, no,” Julie said, looking down and embarrassed. “But I brought this in case you wanted me to do a sample walk or something. My son really wants a dog. I thought maybe after I got a stable job again, I might be able to get him one. Every boy deserves a dog, right?”

  “I’m certainly a fan of them.”

  “Oh, me too,” Julie said, gushing with enthusiasm. “I just love dogs. Their wet noses. And their paws. And their ears. They’re just great.”

  “So, is that what made you want to apply here?” Willow asked, deciding to get the real interview questions out first so Julie wouldn’t become suspicious.

  Julie nodded. “Yes. I think it could be really meaningful to work with animals. And when I popped in here to drop off a resume, everyone was so nice. And everyone looked so happy, and I thought that this would just be a great place to work. Though the truth is that I just really need a job right now. And so I’m willing to take any position. If you just need someone to clean up after the dogs I could. I wouldn’t mind. I used to work as a maid.”

  “I don’t have a position where it’s someone’s job just to clean up after the dogs. It’s divided up if it’s ever necessary, but most dogs come here for training so there aren’t many accidents on the floor,” Willow assured her. “But tell me about your time as a maid.”

  “Well, not too much to report there. I cleaned houses. I was part of a team. I can sweep or disinfect things. I can put things away in an orderly fashion.”

  “I notice on this form that it says that I can’t contact your employer,” Willow said, indicating the checked box on the application submitted with her resume.

  “Yes,” Julie said nervously. “I mean, I did work there, and I left because I didn’t care for the management. And so, I thought that it would probably be best if you didn’t contact her.”

  “Oh,” Willow said. “I had thought that maybe you checked that box because she’s deceased now. I read in the paper how she was murdered.”

  “Right,” Julie said. “Yeah. That’s really why I said you shouldn’t contact my old employer. I didn’t want you to waste your time.”

  “How considerate of you.”

  “And that’s why I checked the box for the other employer too. At the nail salon.”

  “It’s strange that both of your former employers were murdered,” Willow said as if the thought just occurred to her.

  “Yes and no,” Julie said before realizing she might not have meant to say that aloud.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, it’s certainly strange that two women were killed in a town like Pineview. And it does make it seem like it’s a bit of a small world when I realized that I worked for both of them,” Julie said, folding her hands. “But if you knew either of those women, then it’s not really that surprising that they were killed.”

  “They were bad people?”

  “I shouldn’t talk about this during an interview,” Julie said nervously.

  “Well, I’m very interested,” Willow said. “And I’d like to make sure that I won’t get murdered if I hire you.”

  “I assure you that won’t happen. Their deaths didn’t have anything to do with me. And I wasn’t working for either of them that recently. But they were awful people, and I’m sure that they both did something that warranted them getting knocked off. I know that sounds terrible to say, but they were making my life miserable too.”

  “While you worked for them?”

  “Well, while I worked for Patricia, she tried to get me to spy on people. And I didn’t feel too comfortable with that. I guess it was my fault that I got fired from Polished, but Becca kept scheduling me at nights when I’m supposed to be home with my son instead of during the day like I was told it would be when I was hired.”

  “Patricia wanted you to spy on people?”

  “That’s right,” Julie said. “That’s the type of person she was. She liked to collect dirt on people. And she was vindictive. They both were. They’ve been making it impossible for me to get another job. Every time I’d apply for something, they would bad mouth me to potential employers. That’s really why there’s such a gap on my resume.”

  “That must have been so hard for you.”

  “It is. I need a job to support my son. The fact is that if I don’t get a job soon, I might lose custody of him and I can’t let that happen.”

  Willow’s heart went out to her in that moment. It must have been terrible to be in that situation. However, this also was giving her a pretty good motive for the double homicide. It seemed even more so as she continued.

  “Honestly, the first thing I did when I heard that Patricia was dead was print up dozens of my resumes. I thought maybe I’d have a chance of getting a job if she wasn’t around to scare people off. I redoubled my efforts when I heard Becca was gone too.” Julie covered her mouth. “I shouldn’t have told you that. I do really want this particular job. You just have to understand that I need to keep my son.”

  “I do understand,” Willow said. She decided to see what else she could get the woman to admit. “And you know what, I think if I were in your shoes, I probably would have done something about those two women a long time ago. I can’t believe they tried to have you blacklisted in town when you have a child to support. I probably would have snapped.”

  “Well,” Julie said, seeming to think she’d found a kindred spirit to confide in, “I wasn’t taking it completely lying down.”

  “What did you do?” Willow asked, hoping she could get her to admit that it involved a wine bottle and a nail file.

  “It might have been taking the low road a little bit…”

  “Go on.”

  “But I realized that a lot of people in town might be interested in how Patricia was collecting files on them – both from cleaning their houses and from what she heard from Becca and her salon. I think they both could have lost a lot of business if people knew. And I was planning on making a stink about it. I just hadn’t finished figuring out my plan when it ended up being unnecessary.”

  “You mean they died before you could do it?” Willow asked.

  “Exactly. I couldn’t decide what would be better – asking for money or help to get a job. But I also really didn’t want to sink to their level. I guess it was good that I never had to make the decision.”

  “Still,” Willow said, thinking she’d press just a little more to make sure that Julie wasn’t hiding anything else about their deaths. “It’s a shame you never got your own revenge on them. After all they did to you.”

  “Well,” Julie said with a smile, “I did do something.”

  “What?”

  “There was this guy that they were both obsessed with. Since high school. Daniel Blakemore.” She said his name with relish. “And I’ve been dating him. And he was pretty handsome and all. A little dumb, but charming. But I was really just seeing him to get back at them. I enjoyed that a lot.”

  “I bet that did bother them.”

  “It did,” Julie said. “But not as much as it bothered that third friend of theirs.”

  “Cassandra?”

  “Do you know her? Be careful around her,” Julie said, leaning in and issuing a warning. “She’s dangerous. When she found out about me and Daniel, she threatened me.”

  “Really? Sweet Cassandra?”

  “She didn’t seem so sweet when she pulled a knife on me!”

  Willow was taken aback. The surprise must have been evident on her face.

  “She found out I had been texting Daniel, and she tracked me down and pulled out a knife,” Julie said, nodding. “Well, that was the end of my relationship with Daniel. Annoying my old bosses wasn’t worth having a nut job threaten me. And I didn’t want her anywhere near my son.”

  Willow nodded to indicate that she was absorbing the information, but she was already trying to make sense of it. She had considered Cassandra a possible victim before, but she hadn’t considered her a killer.

  “I’ll never forget what she
said when she pulled that knife,” Julie said with a shudder. “She said to back off because Daniel was hers. And she would do whatever it took to make sure it stayed that way.”

  21

  Willow had thanked Julie for coming in for the interview and promised she would let her know about her hiring decision soon. However, her thoughts were not focused on future employees but on a potential killer.

  Willow hurried to Belle Boutique, but before she entered the shop, she made sure that her cell phone was set to record her entire conversation. She couldn’t believe that she had never seriously considered Cassandra a suspect. Now that she thought about it, it seemed obvious. There had been three women vying for the same man and now only one of them remained.

  The only thing she didn’t completely understand was the timing. Was this all because of the robbery where Daniel had gotten caught? Had that been the tipping point?

  Willow took a deep breath. She knew that she needed to get Cassandra to confess to the murders. It was the only way that Detective McMillen would believe it and stop looking at Wednesday as the prime suspect.

  However, she had learned long ago that she couldn’t just tell someone she knew they were the killer and expect them to confess. She was going to have to finesse the situation.

  She entered the shop with a smile on her face.

  “Hello,” Willow said cheerfully. “I hope you don’t mind waiting on me again.”

  “Not at all,” Cassandra said, moving closer. “There’s no one else here right now anyway. I’d be happy to help. What are you looking for?”

  “Some more outfits for my meetings with the dog food executives,” Willow said, stating her cover story for coming. “I think it’s going to be a long relationship with them, and I want to make sure that my wardrobe is ready. My presentation went really well last night.”

  “It did?” Cassandra asked.

  “You seem surprised,” Willow noted.

  “I didn’t think you actually went to it.”

  Willow stared at her. Then it started to click into place. Cassandra didn’t think that she had the meeting because she had been spying on her. She was probably the one who had left the note supposedly from Hudson to send her on a wild goose chase. She must have been trying to undermine Willow’s investigation so the blame wouldn’t shift from Wednesday.