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.”
&nbs
p; 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.
Busy as a Beaver Page 11
