The Bark of the Town

by Stella St. Claire

  “Where did you hear that?” Willow asked.

  “Must have been through the town rumor mill,” Cassandra said with a shrug. “I guess it’s still going strong. Even without Becca and Patricia.”

  “I guess so,” Willow said, eyeing her. “But Griffin was able to make the presentation while I was out and it was well-received.”

  “That’s wonderful. Let’s find you some new outfits to celebrate.”

  “Thanks!”

  They looked at some outfits together while Willow waited for the right opportunity to bring up the murders. As she picked up some cute options, she couldn’t help thinking that Shelly would be disappointed when Cassandra was carted off to prison. Willow picked up a particularly adorable pair of pants. Actually, she might be disappointed too.

  They headed to the dressing rooms and Willow began talking.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about Larissa. And I think it’s possible that she might be the killer.”

  “Really?” Cassandra asked as she hung the clothes up on the door of the changing room.

  “Yes,” Willow said. “And honestly, that’s another reason why I came here today. I think you might be in danger. You were one of her bullies in high school, and I think she’s coming after them all now. It’s the pregnancy hormones.”

  “Goodness gracious,” Cassandra said. “I never would have expected it of her.”

  “Well, I think it had to be a woman who was the killer,” Willow said, keeping up her charade. “Becca had her table all set up to do someone’s nails. I think it was for her killer. Wednesday was going to come later, but the killer had already taken care of Becca.”

  “And Patricia?”

  “I think the murder weapon was a wine bottle.”

  “Why do you think that?” Cassandra asked as Willow emerged from the changing room and looked in the full mirrors. “Is that what the medical examiner said?”

  “He said it could have been. But I have another reason for thinking so. There were two wine glasses in her hands.”

  “But no bottle?”

  “You knew that?” Willow asked.

  “Just a guess,” Cassandra said, “based on what you were saying.”

  Willow saw Cassandra’s eyes in the mirror. She realized that Cassandra must know that she really thought it was her and not Larissa. However, she was going to keep playing with her. Cassandra must like playing the role of the sweet girl in her group.

  “Of course,” Willow said.

  Maybe she could still convince Cassandra that she hadn’t picked up on her realization and could still trick her. It was going to be difficult though. Very difficult.

  “So, you think that Larissa went over there and Patricia thought they were going to have a drink together? However, then Larissa bashed her on the head?”

  “That’s what makes the most sense, doesn’t it?” Willow asked. “That Larissa confronted her about the false pregnancy rumor and supposed file. I guess it could have been any woman who confronted Patricia, but Larissa seems like the obvious suspect. Who else could it have been? Becca confronting Patricia? You?”

  “What would I have said? Something about her betraying Daniel? I was very upset about what I was told she did to him. Yes. If I did go to her apartment that would be what I would have talked to her about.” She handed Willow an outfit from the wall. “Try this one on.”

  Willow went back into the changing room but didn’t want to change the subject from murder.

  “And what about Becca?” Willow asked. “Do you think the killer—”

  “You mean Larissa?”

  “Of course,” Willow said through the door. “Do you think that she told Becca that they had to meet that evening and had her change Wednesday’s appointment? But when she saw Becca, she stabbed her instead of getting her nails done?”

  “I bet that’s exactly what the killer did,” Cassandra said evenly.

  Willow was starting to feel desperate. It seemed as if Cassandra wasn’t going to admit anything. She knew that Willow was on to her and had even been spying on her. It seemed as if her current technique wasn’t going to work.

  She played with the knob on the changing room door, trying to get out in a hurry to see if she could catch a look of surprise on the other woman’s face when she talked about the murder. However, Willow ended up cutting herself on the door.

  Her finger started bleeding.

  “I’m sorry,” Willow said, forgetting the case for a moment and only thinking of herself as a customer in the store. “If I get blood on anything I’ll buy it.”

  Cassandra gestured for her to follow her and led Willow to her office. She let the door close behind them and headed to her desk.

  “Have a seat. I know I have some Band-Aids somewhere.”

  Willow sat down, feeling annoyed with herself. She hadn’t gotten a confession and instead she had injured herself.

  She began to doubt her ability to solve cases again. She was right back where she was when she was an intern at the police station. She knew who the culprit was but wasn’t able to get them to confess. She might have even alerted this criminal about their suspicions again.

  She didn’t want history to repeat itself. Especially with her sister’s life on the line.

  She needed to find a way to prove Cassandra’s guilt. Everything depended on it. McMillen would never believe Willow’s “gut” instinct, not even with Julie’s story to back her up. It would be Julie’s word against Cassandra’s, and Willow knew which way McMillen would lean.

  Willow accepted the Band-Aid and tried to think of another way to get Cassandra talking. That’s when Willow saw something that made her think she might not need to talk anymore. She had been developing her eye for detail and it landed on something incriminating.

  On the shelf behind them was a bottle of wine. This might not have meant anything. Perhaps it was a celebratory bottle that was used for special shopping experiences. However, with the bottle was a wine opener, and it had been personalized with the letter “P.” It was the missing opener from Patricia’s apartment.

  “Thanks for the Band-Aid,” Willow said, trying to position herself so she could grab the evidence on her way out. “I think I’ll come back to make those purchases.”

  Cassandra’s eyes wandered towards the bottle and opener. She sighed and then laughed.

  “I knew I should have gotten rid of that.” She grabbed the bottle and gave it a playful swing, reminding Willow of its weight and the damage it could do to the human head.

  “I bet you’re thinking I had some sort of twisted idea to share the bottle of wine that I used to kill Patricia with Daniel,” said Cassandra with a smirk. “Well, the thought did cross my mind.”

  Willow ran to the office door, but found that it was stuck or locked. She struggled trying to open it, cursing her recent luck with doors.

  Cassandra stayed cool as she advanced slowly, stroking the bottle. “The real reason I kept this was so I could plant it on someone if I needed to. Your sister was making it so easy for people to believe that she had done it, it seemed like I wouldn’t have a need to. But I wanted to have an insurance policy.”

  Willow continued to fight with the door, but looked around for something that she could use as a weapon. Cassandra had the heavy bottle that she had already clobbered one person to death with. All Willow saw within arm’s reach for her were some more of the hats that Cassandra had brought out when Willow first arrived in Belle Boutique.

  “It’s funny. I thought that the bottle would be safe here because I don’t let people into my office. Do you want to know why?” Cassandra asked, grinning. “Because my door is the opposite of Patricia’s. My door always seems to stick shut.”

  “You killed them because of Daniel Blakemore?” Willow asked, hoping to keep her talking as she tried to lift the door and see if a new position would help.

  “Of course.” A crazed look came over Cassandra’s face. “He was mine and they stole him from me. He loved me fir
st and then they started butting in. And if that wasn’t enough, they allowed him to get involved with a robbery that put him in jail. My poor Daniel in jail. They deserved to die.”

  “It was a high school relationship,” Willow said, thinking she had found the trick to the door but not quite succeeding in opening it.

  “It was true love. It still is. I would do anything for Daniel. Do you understand that? Anything. The first time I saw Daniel – back when we were in high school and I saw him walk down the hall – even then I knew that we were meant to be together. And I knew I was going to do whatever it took to make sure we ended up together in the end.”

  “Even murder?” Willow asked, turning to face her but keeping a hand on the knob.

  “For Daniel, yes. You can’t know what it’s like to love a man like that. And when we were together, everything was perfect. It was wrong for a long time, but I’ve almost fixed it. It’s going to be perfect again. We’re going to be together and we’ll be happy. It’s been so long since I’ve been truly happy. Since high school. Since he was all mine. But he’s almost mine again.”

  “I don’t know,” Willow said, trying to sound brave while inside she was terrified. “When I talked to him, it sounded as if he was into all of you. I don’t think he’s going to be very happy when he finds out that you killed the other two. I think he’s going to be pretty mad.”

  “Daniel isn’t going to find out about that,” Cassandra said. “He and everyone else is going to think that Wednesday did it. Why do you think I had Becca move her nail appointment?”

  Willow heard the door click and prayed this time it would open.

  “My only regret is that they died so quickly. Maybe I’ll take a little time with you. I mean, you’ve already got me blabbing away,” Cassandra said. “It’s probably time to stop talking and start enjoying this fine wine.”

  Willow grabbed a handful of the hats and threw them at Cassandra as she advanced. She was momentarily distracted and Willow used the opportunity to be more forceful with the door. She found the sweet spot and slammed her body against the wood. Escaping the office, she ran through the shop and out the front door.

  She nearly barreled into Frank who was walking down the street.

  “Willow,” he said. “Are you okay? Are you done with your meeting?”

  “Dad, it wasn’t exactly a meeting about clothes,” Willow admitted.

  Cassandra appeared at the door, still clutching her wine bottle as a weapon. However, as soon as she saw Frank, she retreated and ran towards the back of the shop.

  “Cassandra is the killer. She still has the murder weapon and a souvenir she took from Patricia’s house,” Willow said, pointing after her.

  “I’m going to restrain the suspect,” Frank said, heading in to the boutique. “Would you mind calling Detective Denton for back up?”

  “I’d be happy to,” Willow said. “And I’ve got a feeling you’ll be welcomed back as the chief by the time you finish the arrest.”

  22

  Willow was glad that it was so easy for her to focus on the positives. It certainly seemed as if they were abundant. She couldn’t believe that only two months ago she had been worried about her sister being accused of murder and sent to the slammer.

  She sat on her front porch, enjoying a nice cup of coffee with her three-legged furry best friend and thought about how lucky she was. She couldn’t believe it.

  She had escaped a near-death experience after confronting a killer, and this time her father had been so grateful that Wednesday was no longer considered a “person of interest” that he only gave her a short speech about not walking into danger instead of one of his hour-long ones.

  It was clear that Cassandra was guilty of the two murders, and even Detective McMillen had to agree with the evidence. It looked as if Cassandra would be going to jail for quite a long time, much longer than Daniel’s prison sentence.

  Willow’s dog gym was thriving. She had continued on with the dog food ad and now she and Lady Valkyrie could be seen on TV – in 30 second bursts on advertisements and on certain cans of food. Because of this publicity, her doggie gym was even busier than it had been. Luckily, she had extra help. She had hired a few new trainers and had even taken a chance on Julie. Though Julie hadn’t known much about dogs when she started, she had become one of her best workers, and it was adorable when her son visited and played with dogs during the open sessions.

  Willow was happy to be spending her time chasing dogs around instead of having to chase a killer. However, she was still glad to have the weight of her secret mistake from her time interning on the force lifted. Now when she trained her dogs, it didn’t feel like she was doing it because she was running away. She was doing it because she loved it.

  Another positive in regards to her gym was that Griffin was no longer working there. His shoulder had healed and he had returned to his old self. He was back to work pouring cement and fixing houses, though he was being a little more careful about where he placed his ladders. He was also able to pick up more than five pounds again. Telescope enjoyed being picked up, and Willow liked that she could be lifted into his arms again too.

  While many things had gone back to normal, others had not. But this wasn’t to say that it wasn’t for the better. Wednesday had decided not to return to her job as police secretary. She was happy that the officers (well, everyone except McMillen) had tried to convince her to come back, and she felt like she did have friends on the force. However, she decided to focus on her dreams of being an Instagram Influencer and writing online. Her first big story about being a prime suspect had already gotten a ton of hits and was getting a lot of buzz. She was pleased, and Willow hoped that this would continue.

  Wednesday knew that there were some things about her time as secretary that she wished she could change, but she was glad of the journey that she had taken.

  Frank had returned to duty and was back to upholding law and order in the town. While he missed having Wednesday working with him at the station, he seemed to understand her decision and supported her.

  Willow petted Telescope’s ears and looked out at the clear blue sky. She had decided to take a day off from work (since she now had so many amazing trainers on staff) and was going to visit some craft fairs with Griffin before hitting a bar that they loved that had over a hundred craft beers on tap. That night would be a family dinner and they would catch up on how everyone’s weeks had been. She could hear about Wednesday’s new campaign that she was trying to start, about how Frank was mentoring Detective Denton in a more official capacity, and see how Rover would annoy Telescope that night.

  She saw Griffin pull up and park in her driveway. Telescope wagged his tail happily. Griffin greeted the dog and then pulled Willow in close for another perfect kiss. He held her in his arms, and she didn’t want him to let her go.

  “I love you, Willow.”

  “I love you, Griffin.”

  Telescope barked, telling them that he loved them all too. She smiled at the dog.

  Yes, it was easy to focus on the positives.

  End of “The Bark of the Town”

  Paws Fur Play Book Three

  Home is Where the Bark Is

  July 5 2018

  Bark Up and Smell the Coffee

  September 6 2018

  The Bark of the Town

  November 1 2018

  PS: Keep reading for an exclusive extract from Barking up the Wrong Bakery.

  About Stella

  Stella lives and breathes cozy mysteries! With her head always buried inside these books, it’s no wonder that she would put pen to paper to bring her own cozy mysteries to life. The words flew onto the page, and she’s already teeming with ideas for the next cozy mystery series.

  With her trusted canine by her side, it seemed only natural to be inspired by her beautiful beagle Doogle and the many hours they spent walking through scenic New England villages. When Stella’s not reading books, she’s off on road trips, exploring every
nook and cranny in neighboring towns, seeking inspiration for her next book.

  She’s keen to see what her fellow cozy critics think of her new cozy mystery so please leave a review and share your thoughts with Stella.

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  Most importantly, you will get the cutest Beagle around hitting your inbox every month. Doogle the Beagle is my awesome canine companion and not a line of cozy mystery goodness would get written without him. He's quite a talker, so I’ll let him introduce himself...

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  BLURB

  Some people would kill for coffee…

  Olivia Rickard would kill to keep everything just the way it is. She’s got a gorgeous boyfriend who loves her, a supportive sister to lean on, and a dog walking business that’s briskly barking away. But just as she’s getting comfortable her sister suddenly wants to buy an entire brownstone with her and her boyfriend looks like he’s going to pop the question at every opportunity. Changing the status quo has always been disastrous for Olivia and now everything is changing at once…