Busy as a Beaver

by Samantha Silver

  “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.