The Purr-fect Crime: Willow Bay Witches #1 Read online

  “Yeah, well, chopping those mushrooms up into dust isn’t going to do much,” I told her, raising an eyebrow. Realizing that maybe she was going a little bit overboard, Sophie stopped cutting.

  “It’s just such a bad idea. The state legislators, they don’t have a clue about this town. Sure, some of them come and spend a few days here in the summer but that’s it!”

  “You don’t have to convince me,” I told her. “But what can we do?” I grabbed a jar of black beans and handed it to Charlotte to open.

  “Anything. Shouldn’t doing anything be better than nothing?” Sophie had always been the type to act before she thought. I knew she was trying to figure out if we could sneak out there in the middle of the night and set the whole area on fire, or something.

  “If you come up with a solid plan, a legal plan,” I emphasized, “I’ll be happy to help. But for now, I’m starving and I want to eat so let’s focus on this food.”

  Twenty minutes later the enchiladas were cooked, a salad was made and we were sitting down in front of the TV to eat. I loved my recipe for vegetarian enchiladas. I’d been a vegetarian for most of my life; it’s hard to bring yourself to eat meat when you can have a chat with the beef cattle and the sheep at the side of the road.

  “Mmmm, these are awesome, Sophie,” Charlotte told her as she bit into the cheezy, gooey pile on her plate.

  “I helped!” I argued.

  “You chopped some peppers and opened a can, I’m taking full credit,” Sophie retorted, shoving a giant forkful in her mouth, a string of cheese getting stuck to the side of her chin.

  “Some people can’t do that elegantly,” I teased, taking a biteful myself. They were damn good enchiladas. Charlotte and Sophie were both good cooks, I could make a decent grilled cheese but not much more than that.

  “I think you did a great job,” Bee told me, sitting on the armchair next to me, eyeing my plate with a look that told me it wasn’t going to be safe to leave my food unattended.

  “Stop sucking up, Bee, you’ve had your dinner,” I scolded the cat, making sure to cover the side of my plate with my arm so she couldn’t go for a sneak attack at my food.

  “Since we’re celebrating me, and my total awesomeness in every respect, I declare that we should watch two Parks and Rec re-runs before I have to go study,” Charlotte announced, grabbing the TV remote and flipping over to Netflix.

  “Works for me,” I replied, leaning back into the chair. Maybe this resort was going to change everything. But for now, everything in Willow Bay was just the way it always had been. Perfect. Little did I know how quickly all that was going to change.

  Chapter 3

  “Are you coming?” I shouted down the hall. “We’re going to be late for work!”

  “What’s the point of being your own boss if you can’t be late every once in a while?” Sophie grumbled as she came out of her room, her hair – bright purple streak and all – tied back in a ponytail, wearing scrubs. Sophie worked as a vet tech at the clinic, and we carpooled to work pretty much every day.

  “You’re not your own boss, I’m your boss,” I reminded her. Bee meowed her agreement with me. Bee was always in a rush to get to the vet clinic, where she spent about 90% of the day lying on her bed purring contentedly when people came by and pat her.

  “Whatever, close enough,” she muttered as we headed out the door. Charlotte had left for her classes an hour ago, so I locked up behind us as Sophie started the car and we drove into town.

  Sophie definitely had what could be referred to as a lead foot. No matter how many times I – and the police chief Gary Banks – reminded her that the speed limit in town was 30 mph, Sophie insisted on doing at least 50. We screeched around the corner onto the main road, where Sophie stopped in front of the vet clinic to drop me off before going to park around the back. Bee jumped out of the car with me.

  I got out of the car and rummaged through my purse to find my keys. Grabbing them and adjusting my purse back onto my shoulder, I made my way to the front of the clinic, only to find that the front window had been smashed and the door unlocked.

  My blood instantly went cold.

  Had I been robbed? Thank goodness there weren’t any animals staying overnight right now.

  I wasn’t really worried about drugs, or money. After all, it was a vet clinic, so we didn’t exactly keep cupboards full of oxy and vicodin around, and what drugs we did have were locked up. Karen, the receptionist, took the little cash business we did every day to the bank, so I knew there wouldn’t be any money missing, either.

  But I’d hoped that whoever had done this – some bored kids, maybe? - had left the equipment alone.

  A part of me wanted to stay outside and call the cops. I had Chief Gary’s private number. I could just call him, and he’d be here in five minutes. After all, what if it was some drug-addled person from the city and they were still in there? Or a robber who was still there too?

  But a part of me knew I didn’t want to wait five minutes. And I also knew Sophie would be here in a minute, and there was no way in hell she was going to wait, and I didn’t want her to find out what had happened before I did.

  “Stay out here, Bee,” I ordered.

  “You realize you’re not my boss, right?” Bee answered, licking her paw. From her spot on the ground I figured she didn’t see the problem.

  “I’m your owner, though, and that’s pretty much the same thing. Stay out here.”

  “Fine, but only because the pavement’s warm,” my cat told me, turning around in a circle and lying down in a patch of sun. Cats, I thought, rolling my eyes.

  I took out a tissue and grabbed the door handle – I’d watched enough episodes of CSI: Miami to know that I didn’t want to touch anything with my hands – and turned the knob.

  The inside of my vet clinic – which normally seemed so inviting – felt darker than usual. It was strange, knowing someone had been in here without permission, knowing someone had invaded the space I valued more than any other in the world apart from the bungalow.

  My thoughts were quickly broken when I noticed dark spots on the floor.

  Was that blood?

  A cold shiver ran down my spine, and the rational part of my brain tried convincing me that I should just leave and call the cops. But a part of me was just too curious now. What had happened here?

  I followed the trail of blood – at first just a couple of tiny dots, that slowly grew to the size of a quarter. They led towards the examination rooms in the back of the clinic. Every step I took, I took with extreme caution. I had never noticed how quiet it was in here before. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, going at a thousand beats per minute.

  When I reached the exam room the blood trail led to, I instinctively reached for the light switch on the wall and turned it on. What I saw lying there made me gasp.

  Lying on the exam table was a man, and I was pretty sure he was dead. The room had been ransacked; it was obvious the man had tried to fix himself up, but didn’t manage it. He had wrapped a bandage around his midsection, and his hands were bloody. He had eventually collapsed on the floor where he lay now, surrounded by a small pool of blood.

  I don’t know how long I stood there staring at him, but eventually I heard a voice call out “Angie? Are you ok?” and it snapped me back to reality.

  “Stay there, Sophie,” I called out. “Don’t touch anything.”

  “Why? What’s going on?” Sophie replied as she turned the corner and saw me staring at the body.

  “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Is that guy dead?”

  “What part of ‘stay there’ sounded like ‘come see this’ to you?” I asked her crabbily as I grabbed my phone out of my purse. Now I was going to call Chief Gary.

  “You sounded weird, I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

  “Don’t lie, you wanted to see if anything interesting was happening.”

  “Maybe that too.”

  I rolled my eyes as Chief Gary picked up
the phone. How the hell do you tell someone there’s a body in your vet clinic?

  “Hi, Chief Gary?”

  “Hi Angela, how are you?”

  “Umm… ok.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is it? Where are you?”

  “I’m at the vet clinic.” I took a deep breath. “I came in to work today, and there’s, uh, a dead body here.”

  Chief Gary didn’t say anything for a minute.

  “A dead body?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure he’s dead?”

  “I might usually work on animals, but the crossover between animals and humans when it comes to life and death is a pretty common one,” I replied.

  “Fair enough. Listen, don’t touch anything. Get out of the building. Wait there for me. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  “Ok, thanks Gary,” I told him.

  “Oh, and Angela?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t tell anyone what’s happened, ok?”

  “Sure.”

  I hung up the phone, a wry smile on my face. This was Willow Bay. I didn’t have to tell anyone, and half the town would still know what had just happened within about an hour or so.

  “What did he say?” Sophie asked, still staring at the body.

  “We’re supposed to go outside and wait.”

  “Do you recognize him?” Sophie asked, and I shook my head.

  “No. Like, he looks vaguely familiar, like maybe I’ve seen him around town a few times, but I don’t know who he is.”

  Sophie nodded. “Same. I’d bet he’s a local. I wonder if he came in here himself, or if he was killed here.”

  “Ok, well before you start going off playing Law and Order let’s get out of here before Chief Gary comes and finds us gawking over the body like a couple crazy people,” I told Sophie, dragging her back to the entrance, both of us being careful to avoid stepping on the blood.

  We headed back out into the sunshine, and I squinted at the bright light. It seemed like such inappropriate weather considering the situation. Bee, for her part, was happily enjoying her spot on the pavement.

  “So why have I been banished from my work home like some kind of animal?” Bee asked, not even bothering to open her eyes.

  “Because you are an animal,” I grumbled. “And because I pay the rent, so I can banish you from it whenever I want. But more importantly, there’s a dead body in there today.”

  Bee’s head perked up at that.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I go see?”

  “Absolutely not. You can stay in your warm spot until Chief Gary gets here.”

  “Fine,” my cat huffed, and I rolled my eyes at Sophie, who was looking at the two of us with amusement. I knew she could only hear one half of the conversation, but she seemed to have gotten the gist of it.

  Luckily it was still early and we were the only people on the street. I could see Betty McMahon way down the other side of the street getting ready to open her little bakery and coffee shop, but apart from that the whole of Main Street was deserted.

  Two minutes later, however, Chief Gary pulled up in his dark green four-door sedan that I was pretty sure was older than I was. He stepped out, grim faced. I bet this wasn’t the phone call he wanted to get this morning.

  Chief Gary was in his early 50s, with a tiny bit of a potbelly and brown hair that was starting to grey around the edges. He was pretty much the stereotypical small town police chief type, but without the power complex. He was good at his job, and everyone in town liked him well enough. When our parents had been hit by a car he was just an officer then, and had been the one called out to the scene. Ever since then he’d always held a bit of a soft spot for Charlotte and myself.

  “Good morning, ladies,” Chief Gary said, tipping his hat towards us. “Thanks for calling me. I’ve two more guys coming, and a crime scene crew from Portland on their way, but it’ll take them a little bit to get here. If you don’t mind waiting out here, we’re going to have a look at the scene then come back to take your statements.”

  Sure enough, a minute later another car pulled up to the curb and two guys in police uniforms got out. I recognized them both; one was Taylor Shaw, who had been a football star back in high school, and to be honest still had the looks of a star athlete, with ragged blonde hair, blue eyes and a smile that I was pretty sure had melted quite a few hearts around here. The other was the slightly older, slightly pudgier Don Morrison, whose family had been in the police force in Willow Bay since pretty much the beginning of time, as far as I was aware.

  They nodded at us both and the three cops went into the clinic.

  Sophie and I sat down on the sidewalk and leaned against the wall. Bee came and snuggled up next to me, and I unconsciously started scratching her, making her purr contentedly.

  A body. In the vet clinic. Never in a million years could I have imagined that.

  Chapter 4

  An hour later Chief Gary had come out, told Sophie and I that we could leave and go down to the station later to give our statements rather than hang around, and the crime scene unit had arrived from Portland, in a big truck filled with guys in official-looking uniforms with impressive-looking toolboxes.

  Willow Bay being what it was, by the time I’d been allowed to go in to get my appointment book for the day and call the people scheduled to cancel – nobody had a big enough emergency that they wanted a home visit – half the people I’d called had already heard about that a body had been found at Healthy Paws’, and everyone wanted to know all the details. I had to apologize and tell them Chief Gary has told me I can’t comment due to the ongoing investigation, and I knew I was leaving a whole bunch of people disappointed that they didn’t get all the best gossip from the biggest thing to happen in Willow Bay in decades straight away.

  “Do you want to head home?” Sophie asked when I was finally finished. I’d also called Karen and told her what had happened, and that the clinic would be closed today, and maybe tomorrow as well.

  I shook my head. “I could really use a coffee.”

  “We have coffee at home.”

  “We have no-name brand instant stuff at home. That and coffee are two very different things.”

  Sophie shrugged. “Suit yourself. You know I love Betty’s sugar cookies.”

  I smiled as we headed down the street to Betty’s Café, leaving Bee to her spot in the sun, where she was complaining about all the Portland people making too much shade. Since there were people around I couldn’t reply, so I just told her to stay there until we got back. I knew Betty’s was pretty much the worst place to calm down; Betty’s was the equivalent of the town watercooler, everyone who wanted to know what was going on – which was going to be the whole town, on a day like today – was going to make their way there to gossip.

  As soon as Sophie and I walked in the door everyone stopped what they were doing to look at us. Pretty much all of the 30-odd seats were taken, and a couple people were just standing at the counter, drinking their coffee and chatting there.

  Betty McMahon was behind the counter as always. In her early 60s, with short grey hair and kind blue eyes, she was like the town grandma. Always ready with a kind word and something sweet to eat. Her cakes and cookies were easily the best in the whole state, and I had run into many a Portlander who stopped in Willow Bay whenever they had to drive down to California just to get a box of Betty’s treats on the way.

  “Sophie, Angela, hello!” she exclaimed when she saw us standing there. “You’ve had quite the morning, what can I get for you?”

  I ordered my usual sweet order – a vanilla latte and a mixed berry muffin – while Sophie got a cappuccino and two iced sugar cookies. If it was closer to lunch I was going to get one of Betty’s amazing BLTs, which she made specially with vegetarian bacon just for me. We looked around to see if there was a spare table around, and miraculously, about ten different peo
ple immediately got up and offered us their seats.

  They were going to come at a price though, I knew, and that price was information.

  “Is it true there’s a body?”

  “I heard it was old Andrea Dottory?”

  “Were they really shot?”

  “How cool was it to see it?”

  After about twenty questions in a row were asked, I had to hold up my hands in surrender.

  “Everyone. Everyone. Hold on. Let me clear a few things up: I have basically no idea what happened. I walked in, saw a body, and immediately called Chief Gary. I don’t know who it was, but it certainly wasn’t Andrea Dottory. It was a male, he was dead, and that’s all I can tell you.”

  If I thought that was going to stop the questions, well, I was way off. But I’d lived in Willow Bay my whole life, I knew that wasn’t going to stop the questions. But at least now they might start getting a little bit more creative.

  About ten minutes later, though, everyone seemed to realize that Sophie and I really didn’t know much about what happened, and when one of the local retirees suggested that they go out to the scene and watch what was going on, a good chunk of the crowd in Betty’s Café left, and Sophie and I finally had a chance to breathe.

  “Do you ever remember anyone being killed in Willow Bay before?” Sophie asked me, and I shook my head.

  “No. I don’t even remember reading about something like this happening here before we were born, either.”

  “I guess Chief Gary will know for sure, but we may have discovered the first ever body in Willow Bay!”

  “Who are you saying ‘we’?” I said. “You were out parking the car while I came across the body.”

  “Whatever, two minutes doesn’t make a difference.”

  “Tell that to Franz Ferdinand.”

  “Who?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re such a nerd.”

  “You’re a nerd.”

  “You’re the vet.”

  “You’re dressed in scrubs in a coffee shop.”