The Purr-fect Crime: Willow Bay Witches #1

by Silver, Samantha

  “This is my work uniform!” Sophie protested.

  “Girls, it’s been too hectic a day for you two to be fighting,” Betty scolded us gently as she came over with a second coffee for each of us. “On the house, you’ve been through quite a bit today.”

  “Thanks, Betty,” we told her, shooting her a couple of grateful smiles. Little did she know Sophie and I were never going to stop bickering. It was just what we did. It was how we showed affection.

  But for the next five minutes, at least, Sophie and I sat there and just enjoyed our coffees. I rested my head on her shoulder.

  “I can’t believe this happened at Healthy Paws,” I finally muttered.

  “Yeah, I know. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I can’t believe this happened in Willow Bay at all!”

  “You can say that again.”

  “I can’t believe this happened in Willow Bay at all!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I hate you so much.”

  “Right back atcha.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes for a few seconds, but when I opened them again, rather than staring at a display shelf full of the best cakes in Oregon, I was staring directly into a wrinkly, angry old face.

  “Ahhh!” I cried out in shock, jerking my head up off Sophie’s shoulder as I looked into the face of Antonia deLucca.

  Antonia was absolutely, hands down the biggest gossip in town. She’d been a schoolteacher, and Sophie’s mom Lisa could attest to the fact that she was hated by all her students, but now in retirement she spent her time almost exclusively putting her nose in other peoples’ business, and just generally being a crotchety old lady that no one liked. She also suspected there was something strange about Charlotte and I, though she’d never actually accused us of being witches. Still, we were always exceptionally careful about what we said whenever she was within earshot.

  Right now, she was staring me down, her face at most three inches from mine.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, moving as far back in the seat as I could.

  “Checking to see if you look like a murderer.”

  “WHAT?”

  “You heard me. People in town are talking, you know.”

  “And I bet you’re talking more than any of them,” I muttered.

  “That’s no way to speak to your elders. But they have questions. After all, why would a body end up in the vet clinic?”

  “I don’t know, why don’t you ask the murderer?” I sighed. I was not in the mood for a chat with Antonia deLucca right now.

  “That’s what I’m checking, to see if I’m looking at her.”

  “What, do you think I have a tiny tattoo on my face that says “she did it” that just appeared when I shot the guy?”

  “So you know he was shot.”

  “I don’t know that, but I needed to give him a manner of death to fit the sentence. You’d think a former English teacher would understand that.”

  It was a bit of a low blow, but I wasn’t in the mood for this. Antonia’s eyes narrowed as she scowled at me.

  “You may be glib about this, but people are talking. And you know how in a small town, people don’t like things to be different. You best better hope Gary Banks finds the killer, and fast, or people might start finding a vet where human bodies don’t show up regularly.”

  I was about to open my mouth to reply, but Sophie beat me to the punch.

  “And you’d better watch your mouth old lady, because if you start driving people away from Angela’s clinic, well, you’ll have made an enemy of me. And if you want to see what happens when people make enemies in this town, well, they should be getting ready to wheel out that body pretty soon.”

  You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Had Sophie really just threatened to kill Antonia?

  “I’m not here to make enemies, I’m just here to let you know the lay of the land,” Antonia replied, shooting Sophie the darkest look she could muster while getting up out of her chair. It seemed Sophie’s threat was going to scare her off.

  “Remember what I said, Angela. You’re a smart businesswoman, not like your friend here,” she continued, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Bye, Antonia,” I told her as she left. “And good riddance,” I added as the door closed behind her.

  “What a bitch,” Sophie muttered when the woman was safely out of earshot.

  “Yeah, for sure,” I replied, but I couldn’t stop that nagging feeling that was starting to grow inside of me. What if Antonia was right? What if the town started avoiding my vet clinic? There was no way I could afford that.

  Chapter 5

  An hour later we picked an angry Bee up from her spot on the concrete in front of the vet clinic and walked over to the police station, where Sophie and I got ready to give our statements.

  “I don’t see why I had to come,” Bee complained as we headed towards the old brick building at the far end of Main Street that served as the Willow Bay police station.

  “Because you’re still my cat and it leaves a bad impression if I let you lie on the sidewalk downtown all day,” I hissed at the cat as we got to the door. “Now behave.”

  Sophie laughed as we opened the door.

  “Hopefully Antonia hasn’t gotten here first and told everyone about how you’re a murderer.”

  “I hope not,” I sighed. Obviously I knew no one here was going to be accusing me, but Antonia spreading her dumb rumours wasn’t something I wanted to deal with.

  “Oh, hey Angela, Sophie,” Casey the receptionist greeted us. “The chief told me to expect you. Sophie you’re supposed to go see Taylor and Angela Chief Gary wants to see you himself.”

  Sophie perked up considerably at the knowledge that she was going to get to talk to the hot guy, and I shoved her gently.

  “You’re incorrigible,” I teased. “He’s just going to interview you about this morning.”

  “Whatever, you’re a prude. He can interview me about whatever he wants.”

  “Try not to have sex with him on his desk, at least go to the bathroom,” I muttered as I walked past her towards Chief Gary’s office at the back of the building.

  “Well duh, I’m not an animal,” Sophie retorted before heading over to the officer’s desks, where Taylor was sitting and trying not to look like he was actually pretty excited about getting to interview Sophie. I smiled to myself. She was probably going to come out of that interview with a recommendation for a bravery medal or something. Sophie had broken up with her last boyfriend a few months ago, and she never stayed single long.

  Chief Gary was sitting in his office, typing away on his computer. I knocked on the doorframe lightly as I poked my head in.

  “Hey Chief Gary, you wanted to take my statement?”

  He looked up and smiled at me, but I could see from the lines on his face that the day had been a long and stressful one.

  “Angela. Hey, thanks for coming in. Yeah, please, sit down.”

  “How are things going?” I asked.

  “Not great. We’ve identified the victim, but that’s about it for now.”

  “Has there ever been a murder in Willow Bay before?”

  Chief Gary nodded.

  “Yeah, two of them.”

  “Really? Sophie and I couldn’t think of any we’d ever heard of.”

  “Well, they were a really long time ago. One was back in the 1830s, which I know absolutely nothing about other than the fact that it was a man just travelling through town, taken out by robbers, and there was one about a hundred years ago, basically a bar fight gone bad.”

  “Wow,” I muttered. “So this is pretty rare, though.”

  “Oh yeah. I’ve never worked a murder investigation before. Luckily the Portland PD is willing to lend me a couple guys to give me a hand if I need it, which is really nice of them.”

  “Are you going to take them up on it?”

  “For sure. I’m not proud. I know how to investigate a murder in theory, but having a few guys around who do it for a living won’t be a
bad thing. Now stop quizzing me, I’m supposed to be the one asking the questions here.”

  I laughed and sat upright, getting ready to give my statement.

  Recounting my story and answering Chief Gary’s questions took a little over half an hour. After all, there wasn’t all that much to tell. I got to work, found a body, and called the police.

  When we were finished, he leaned back in his chair.

  “Strictly speaking I’m not supposed to tell you this, so don’t spread it around, but so far we’re thinking he was shot somewhere else, went to your clinic to try and stitch himself up, and didn’t manage it before he bled out.”

  I nodded. The thought had occurred to me too.

  “It was just bad luck that your vet clinic was where it was, if he was shot closer to the medical centre he probably would have gone there instead.”

  “So he was a local?”

  “Yeah, for about ten years. Tony Nyman, works construction. You know him?”

  I shook my head. “He looked familiar, kind of like I’d seen him in town a few times, but not more than that, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. As far as we can tell he was just a normal guy. Single, no kids, no criminal record, worked decently hard.”

  “Nothing quite like getting an actual challenge for your first murder case, right?” I replied, giving him a wry smile.

  “Tell me about it. I’m going to go interview his coworkers tomorrow, see if I can get any insights as to his private life that might lead us in the right direction.”

  “When do you think I can open up the clinic again?” I asked.

  “You’ll be good tomorrow, I think. I’ll call you tonight to let you know for sure, but the crime scene guys seemed to think they were only going to be a couple more hours. I’ll send someone by tonight to put some wood over the window until you can get it fixed.”

  “Thanks, Gary,” I told him. “I appreciate it.”

  “No problem. Hopefully the place won’t be too much of a mess.”

  “Hopefully this case isn’t, either,” I replied. He lifted his coffee mug in agreement and I left the office, finding Bee getting all the belly rubs she could handle from Casey.

  “She’s the sweetest cat ever,” Casey told me, as Bee gave me a look of pure smugness from her spot on the table, spread out across about four different things Casey had been working on.

  “Haha yeah, she can be. She likes you,” I replied.

  “Leave me here. I don’t want to come home, ever,” Bee added, but I ignored her.

  “Oh, Sophie wanted me to tell you she went out with Taylor, you know, so she could show him on the spot what happened. She said she’ll make her own way home.”

  “Ok, thanks,” I told Casey, smiling to myself. There was no way the two of them went to the crime scene, my bet was if I went over to the Ship’s Anchor, the local bar whose food was surprisingly good, I’d find the two of them sharing a drink, at the very least.

  “Come on, Bee,” I ordered, and the cat grudgingly got up from her spot on the table.

  “I’m only doing this under protest,” she complained as she slithered over to my feet.

  “See you, Casey,” I told her as I left the police station. I was so caught up with my own thoughts as I headed back towards the street that I didn’t see the guy coming towards me until it was too late. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, my butt felt like it was on fire and my cat was sitting there laughing at me.

  “I’m so sorry!” I heard someone exclaim, and I looked up into the eyes of the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. His eyes were as black as his hair, which had that just-got-out-of-bed look to it. He flashed me a smile that looked like it belonged on a billboard as he held out a hand.

  I took it, still a little bit confused.

  “I wasn’t looking where I was going, I was looking for the police station.”

  “Damn, I’d let him put me in handcuffs if I were you, Angela,” Bee purred, and I shot daggers her way. She was not being helpful.

  “Oh, it’s just back there,” I told him when I got up.

  “Thanks. Hey, aren’t you the girl that found the body today?”

  I sighed. Hopefully all the attention around this murder was going to wear off soon, I was getting tired of being ‘the person who found the body’.

  “Yeah, that’s me,” I answered wearily.

  “Did you see anything? Like, that might have indicated who the killer was?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because nothing interesting’s happened here, like ever.”

  “How would you know? You’re not from here.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “This is a town of like, six thousand people. Believe me, if you lived here, I’d know.”

  “With a body like that every girl in town would know,” Bee agreed. Boy was I ever glad this guy couldn’t hear her.

  “Fine. I’m new here. And to be honest, it’s pretty quiet compared to New York, and I was hoping for a bit of excitement.” He flashed me that perfect smile again, and as much as I didn’t want to, I had to admit a few butterflies made their home in my stomach just then.

  “Well, you’re at the police station. Go in there and ask them,” I told him.

  And with that, I turned and walked off, Bee creeping behind me, berating me for being rude to him.

  “You’re going to die alone if that’s how you treat the hottest guy you’ve ever seen,” she chided as we made our way back to where Sophie had parked the car that morning.

  “You’re going to die pretty soon if you keep this up,” I warned the cat, who was now walking next to me on a ledge running next to the sidewalk.

  “Stop deflecting. Why were you so rude to him?”

  “There was something about him. First he pretended to be from here, and only admitted he wasn’t when I called his bluff. Then there’s wanting to know about the murder. Why would he care? He wouldn’t have known Tony Nyman, the guy was local here, and he would have just been a teenager when Tony left wherever he lived before.”

  “Yeah, well, cats are known to have excellent instincts, and I say you’re wrong.”

  “Since when?”

  “Haven’t you heard about how we can sense earthquakes before they happen?”

  “Sensing earthquakes and sensing murderers are two very different things.”

  “How would you know, you can’t do either.”

  I sighed and got into the car, letting Bee jump into the back first. I checked my phone. It was still only two in the afternoon. What a long day. I decided to go home and have a quick nap before Charlotte and Sophie got home, since I could feel a migrane coming on. Maybe we could order pizza for dinner; the local place did a vegetarian supreme pizza that made my tastebuds water just thinking about it.

  Chapter 6

  After an hour long nap and a long bath with a glass of white wine and the latest James Patterson book that I hadn’t gotten around to reading yet, I felt a lot better by the time Sophie and Charlotte came home. I texted Sophie, telling her to pick up the pizza on the way, and when she came back with two large veggie supremes just as Charlotte walked through the door, I was so happy I didn’t even make fun of her for going out with Taylor.

  “This isn’t something I say often, so enjoy it, but good thinking, Angie,” Sophie told me as she happily put the pizzas down on the counter while I grabbed plates.

  “What’s the special occasion?” Charlotte called out from the hall. Sophie and I looked at each other.

  “Haven’t you heard?” I called back.

  “Heard what?”

  “You’re such a city slicker,” Sophie teased. “They should take away your right to live here if you’re not as privy to local gossip as you should be.”

  Charlotte came into the kitchen, looking a little bit huffy.

  “Well I sure won’t know what’s happened if everyone just spends the whole time making fun of me for not knowing instead of, yo
u know, actually telling me.”

  “We found a dead body in the vet’s office today,” Sophie told her.

  I’d never seen Charlotte’s face go from red with anger to pure white so fast before.

  “What?”

  “Technically I found the body,” I corrected. “But yeah, Sophie has the gist of it right.”

  “You’re lying to me. This is some kind of dumb practical joke.”

  I handed a couple plates to Sophie and Charlotte, who still looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

  “Humans. You’re so dramatic,” Bee announced from her perch on top of the cupboards, looking down on us.

  “Oh yeah Bee, you’re just the perfect image of rationality,” I snapped back at her, rolling my eyes. My cat was the most dramatic animal I knew.

  “Seriously though. Did that actually happen?” Charlotte asked, and I nodded.

  “Yeah, when I got to the vet clinic he was just lying there. Chief Gary thinks he was shot somewhere else and tried to stitch himself up in the clinic.”

  “Why on earth didn’t anyone tell me?” Charlotte practically shrieked. “Why did I have to wait until I got home to find out?”

  “Because we knew you’d have that reaction, and we didn’t want you missing any classes to come back,” I replied. “Besides, we kind of assumed you’d find out about it before you got home some other way. Like, surely there have to be other people from Willow Bay at the college in Portland?”

  “Maybe, but it’s not like we walk around with signs around our necks announcing where we’re from. I don’t hang out with anyone from here when I’m at school.”

  I grabbed a couple of slices of pizza, inhaling the intoxicating aroma as I opened the box. Sophie grabbed a couple slices as well and went to the couch, where I followed.

  “Well, this has been crazy enough of a day that I don’t want to have to deal with even more crazy,” she announced. “So I’m going to sit here and eat some pizza and try and forget about the dead guy I saw a few hours ago.”

  I followed suit. “Same. And I’m not even going to make fun of Sophie for going out with that hot cop, Taylor.”