“If I knew that was all it was going to take I would have broken in and vandalized the place myself,” Sophie replied. A moment later though, she turned serious. “I agree with Jason, though. I think it was Matt Smith.”
“Maybe,” I conceded.
“Maybe? There’s no maybe about it. Who else would do this sort of thing?”
“I don’t know, ok?” I practically shouted. A moment later, I lost control. Tears began to steam down my face as I sobbed in the chair. Jason was immediately at my side, rubbing my back.
“It’s going to be ok,” he murmured to me. “There’s no permanent damage. Insurance will pay for all of it.”
“I know… it’s just… this place is my baby. I built this vet clinic. It’s my business. It’s my life. I don’t like knowing that someone was in here, doing that sort of thing, purposely trying to wreck it all for me.”
“I know,” Jason replied. “It sucks. It sucks a lot. But Chief Gary is on the case, and we can always try and help figure out who did it, right?”
“Yeah,” I said through my tears.
“But right now, you need to call Karen. You need her to come and sort out the files, and tell Chief Gary what’s missing. And then you have to call the insurance adjustors. Can you do that?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“And then when you’re done, I’m going to get you a BLT from Betty’s to take-out and you can eat it at home, ok?”
I looked up at Jason and smiled. He was just so perfect. “Sounds like a deal to me.”
I got up from my seat, the list of things I had to do galvanizing me. Sophie came over and wrapped me in a big hug.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Whoever did this, we’ll find them, and we’ll make them pay.”
“Thanks, Sophie,” I told her. Knowing I had such a great best friend and boyfriend really did make the tough situation easier to handle. Fifteen minutes later Karen was on her way, and I’d called the insurance adjustors who gave me a list of everything they’d need for the claim. Getting things done made me feel strong once again, and this time, when I stepped out of the room and saw the bright red slur spray-painted on the wall, it didn’t hurt at all. Someone thought they were getting the best of me. Well, they weren’t.
Five minutes later Karen showed up. I thanked her for coming in on her day off then sent her over to Chief Gary. He promised to be in touch later that afternoon, and then told me the best thing I could do would probably be to go home; anything else and the townspeople would be all over me trying to get as much information as possible. I figured that was a good idea.
“I’ll go get your BLT, and meet you back at your place,” Jason told me, planting a soft kiss on my lips. “You’re going to get through this.”
“Thanks,” I told him with a small smile. Having done as much as I could for now made me feel like I was more in control of things. I wasn’t exactly scared; to be honest, I wasn’t sure who would have done this. I still wasn’t sure that it was Matt Smith, although he was a pretty good candidate. I think a part of me hoped it was simply some kids deciding to play a prank, or something.
Sophie and I pushed past the crowd of people once again. I thanked a few well-wishers, then we made our way back toward the car.
“Hey, Angela,” I heard a familiar voice say, and I froze. Sophie and I turned around and faced Matt Smith, who had a crooked smile on his face. “I hear you got a nice dose of Karma this morning.”
Before I could reply, Sophie had stepped forward threateningly. “I can show you Karma if you’d like. Right in your stupid mouth.”
Ok, Sophie’s threat didn’t exactly make sense. But Smith certainly got the gist of it, and he laughed. “Oh yeah? You’re going to beat me up, are you? You weigh like what, a hundred pounds?”
“At least Sophie isn’t a coward, like you,” I replied. “Did you feel like a big man, breaking into an empty vet clinic and trashing the place?” I didn’t know why I’d said it. After all, I wasn’t even convinced that Matt Smith had been the guilty party. Maybe I just wanted to see his reaction. I got my answer in the form of a laugh.
“You think I did that? Well, you certainly can’t prove it. It’s too bad Willow Bay is such a charming city and no one has any security cameras around that might show the guilty party.”
“If we’re as backwards as you think we are, then it won’t surprise you to know I don’t believe in innocent-until-proven-guilty,” Sophie said with a small smile.
“Luckily for you, I make it a rule not to hit women,” Smith told Sophie, looking at her with disdain.
“Unfortunately for you, I make it a rule to only hit creeps,” Sophie replied, taking a step forward. To be honest, even though Smith had at least sixty pounds on Sophie, I would probably put my money on her in a fight. Sophie was scrappy. And while I knew I should probably be the mature one and stop her, I found myself just watching to see what would happen.
“Matt Smith!” I heard a voice boom from behind me, and before anything else could happen, Chief Gary was striding up the street toward us. “Good. You’ve saved me some time by being here. I’d like to speak to you about the vandalism at Healthy Paws Vet Clinic today.”
“You’re just the man I want to see as well,” Matt Smith replied. “This woman here was threatening me.”
“Why am I not surprised that you’re a total tattletale?” Sophie replied, rolling her eyes. Chief Gary simply sighed.
“You have no witnesses. I don’t think Angela will back up your story.”
“I didn’t hear any threats from Sophie,” I answered dutifully. I didn’t like lying to Chief Gary, but I certainly wasn’t about to tell the truth here.
“See? Now, I want you to come down to the station to answer some of my questions.”
Smith’s face fell slightly, and he glared at Sophie and I before allowing himself to be led toward the police station at the other end of the street.
As Sophie and I climbed back into the the car, I realized just how much I needed that BLT, and it wasn’t even ten in the morning yet. It was going to be a long day.
11
When Sophie and I got home—Charlotte was already long gone to Portland for her medical school studies—we only had to wait about five minutes before Jason arrived as well. As soon as he heard about our encounter with Matt Smith on Main Street, he was pissed.
“So he pretty much confirmed it was him. I knew it,” Jason said, angrily pacing around the living room. Sprinkles, Sophie’s dog, was following after him, wagging his tail and trying to calm him down. Jason finally sat down on the couch and gave Sprinkles a pat on the head.
“I agree,” I said. “I wasn’t sure before, but I am now. I definitely think it was him.”
“On the bright side, maybe Chief Gary will put him in holding and accidentally lose the key,” Sophie said.
“It’s just an intimidation tactic,” I said. “He wants me to suffer for ruining his business deal. Well, too bad for him, I’m not backing down. I’m going to find an investor to buy the property.”
“Now that’s the fighting spirit from the Angie I know,” Jason grinned at me. “You will need to be more careful though. If he’s willing to vandalize your business, who knows how far he’ll go to get that property out from under you.”
“Well hopefully Chief Gary will have enough to lock him up, and then maybe he’ll get the hint and leave town,” I replied.
“Hopefully, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Well, I’m not going to live like a monk because one guy has it out for me,” I continued.
“Of course not. But just… be careful,” Jason said, looking worried. “I can kick his butt if he comes near you when I’m around, but if he doesn’t, well…”
I took the sandwich Jason brought over and put it on a plate, then went over to the couch and sat down next to him. Sophie took a spot on the armchair.
“I agree with Jason,” she said.
“What kind of best friend are you?�
�� I replied through a big bite of sandwich. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“And you’re supposed to be able to eat like an adult,” Sophie said, scrunching up her face at my eating habits. “But Jason’s right. You need to be more careful. Maybe carry a can of mace around or something.”
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“I doubt anyone will care if you stop him from attacking you with it.”
“I don’t think that’s how the law works,” Jason piped in. “But I like the sentiment. Maybe a legal weapon of some kind.”
“If you’d like I can follow you around and claw him if I see him,” Bee said from her spot on top of the bookshelf. “I miss the feeling of human flesh under my claws.”
I smiled at my cat. With Jason around, I couldn’t answer her, and she knew it. Bee could be incredibly loyal, and also so creepy and weird at the same time.
“Ok,” I said. “I promise I’ll be careful from now on.”
“Good,” Jason said. “Also, I meant to tell you earlier, I went and saw Chief Gary late last night. I gave him the phone.”
“And so he’s going to re-open the murder investigation?” Sophie asked. Jason shook his head.
“No. He said that while it’s good that I brought it in, as long as the coroner declares the cause of death to be a bear attack, he can’t investigate anything. He said he’ll bring the new evidence to the coroner, but he doesn’t expect much. However, he did say that the search for the diamond is a separate case, and that the police are onto that now.”
I sighed. “Well that’s still not really going to help find Jeremy Wallace’s killer.”
“True, but it’s still better than nothing.”
“Yeah, I guess. Still, it’s frustrating. People are scared of bears, and the more we look into this, the more obvious it is that Jeremy Wallace was killed by a person. It’s only a matter of time before someone goes around killing the bears around Willow Bay just because they’re afraid. And it seems like Chief Gary isn’t doing anything to stop that from happening.”
“Well, saving bears isn’t his job,” Sophie pointed out. “Saving people is.”
“No, his job is to maintain law and order in Willow Bay. As far as I’m concerned, that includes not killing defenseless animals just because people are a bit scared of them.”
“It also hasn’t happened yet,” Jason added. “There have been no reports of bears killed.”
“It will, though. It’s only a matter of time. That’s why I need to solve this as fast as possible.”
I didn’t know why, but I was pissed off. I was angry. Maybe it was the combination of Chief Gary refusing to face facts, the scare Sophie and I had gotten in the hotel room and the vet clinic being vandalized. Everything was coming to the surface, and I could tell I was about to erupt with rage if I didn’t do something soon.
“I’m going out,” I declared, grabbing a jacket off the rack by the door. “I need some time to myself. I need to think about things.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Jason replied. “We’ll be here when you get back.”
“That’s Jason politely avoiding the fact that you’re acting like a crazy person,” Sophie replied, earning herself a glare from Jason.
“I did not say that at all. Angie’s obviously stressed, and I think maybe a walk alone could be incredibly helpful.”
“Thanks, babe,” I told Jason with a small smile, and headed out the door before I said something to Sophie that I’d later regret.
“Stupid everything,” I muttered to myself as I headed down toward Main Street. I made sure to keep my head down, and I’d grabbed a hat before leaving. On top of everything else, I didn’t want to run into anyone that wanted to chat about my vet clinic being vandalized. I was going to kill Matt Smith. Well, maybe not literally. But I was definitely going to step up my efforts to find an investor interested in the shop. Maybe I should ask Lisa, Sophie’s mom. She ran an accounting business out of Portland; there was a good chance she knew a bunch of rich people. Maybe one of them would want an investment property on our side of things.
Instinctively, I began walking toward Main Street, although I made sure to avoid the vet clinic side. I began to head the other way, toward the library and the beach, when suddenly I saw a familiar face: it was Andrew, one of the men who had broken into Jeremy Wallace’s hotel room. My eyes widened for a minute, then I had a split second to make a decision. Darting into a small alleyway between two buildings, I looked around. Good, no one was around.
“Nonvideroa,” I whispered, pointing at myself, and instantly my body disappeared. I went back into the street, where Andrew was walking away from me. I followed about six feet behind him—I knew that since I was invisible, as long as I made sure not to make any noise or bump into anything, there would be no way for him to know I was there. Andrew continued down Main Street and made his way toward the library. He nodded at Rose, the librarian, on his way in, and I followed close behind him. Andrew looked like a man who knew where he was going.
Instead of making his way to the racks, Andrew went up the stairs to the second floor, where a bunch of the older historical records of Willow Bay were kept. This obviously wasn’t by accident; the second floor of the library was often completely deserted. Sure enough, Andrew and I were the only two people there now.
Andrew sat in one of the chairs at one of the tables and took out his phone. I moved over behind him, but it turned out he was only playing Clash of Clans. Great.
I moved over to the corner and waited for about five minutes. Then, there was noise coming from the stairs. A minute later, Jack showed up.
“Look who’s early, for once,” Jack said to Andrew, who looked up lazily from his phone.
“Well, it’s not like there’s anything else to do in this town. The hotel doesn’t even have decent Wi-Fi.”
“Yes, truly a tragedy for the ages.”
“Hey, if the only car on the road was a Ford Focus you’d probably get pretty antsy too,” Andrew replied. Just then, another man came up the stairs. He was tall, and beefy, with sandy blonde hair and an authoritative face. He looked like the kind of person people listened to, and when he spoke, he had the voice to match.
“Where on earth is Claire? That woman is the least punctual person I’ve ever met.”
“Relax, Kevin,” came a familiar voice from the stairs, and I realized as she made her way into the room that I’d seen her before. Claire was the girl from the coffee shop who was asking questions and told Betty and I she was from a farm in Montana! “I’m here. I’m like, two minutes late.”
“Two minutes was what got Billy Bite-me shot by the cops back in ’97,” Kevin replied.
“And we’re not on a job, so we don’t need to be on time. Besides, the cops don’t even know that Jeremy was one of us. Hell, they don’t even know we’re all here in town now.”
“I’d like to keep it that way too, so why don’t we all keep our voices down,” Jack ordered, and the four of them settled into chairs, making a loose circle. I moved to the outside of their little circle, sitting on the floor against the wall about four feet away. I could still hear them, easily, but they couldn’t see me.
“So why did you call this meeting anyway, Jack?” Kevin asked, his eyes boring into the other man. I had a feeling Kevin was the leader of the group, but Jack was definitely second-in-command.
“We need to figure this out. I know things went sideways with the group as soon as Jeremy took off with the diamond.”
“Gee, you think?” Claire mumbled under her breath, earning a glare from Jack.
“I know one of us is a murderer,” Jack said. “I don’t know who among us it is. But I also suspect that whoever it is didn’t get the secret of where the diamond was hidden from Jeremy before they killed him, which was just monumentally stupid.”
The air in the room was so thick as Jack looked around, you could cut it with a knife.
“I also know that whoever finds it now is almost c
ertainly going to take off with it.”
“I wasn’t going to do that,” Claire argued. “You might be thinking of it, but if I find the diamond, I still say we split it four ways. It’s not like any of us are going to be in the poor house after my man in New York cuts it up for us.”
“Screw the rest of you,” Kevin growled. “It’s time to lay low. This is too risky. The job was risky to begin with, and it paid off, and then we got screwed by one of our own. I’m not going to sit around this dumb town and wait for the cops to find out about us. I’ve got about another week in me, and then I’m laying low for a while. Twelve million might be nice, but not being in jail is even nicer.”
“Enough,” Jack barked, making me jump. “The only way we’re going to find this diamond again is by working together. This is a whole new job. If you want out, go now. I’m looking at you, Kevin. But if you want to band together again, and work together to try and find the score that’s legitimately ours, well, stay here.”
There was complete and total silence for around thirty seconds while all four thieves looked at each other. Everyone seemed to look extra hard at Kevin. Finally, the man sighed.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll stay. You’re right. Four heads are better than one. I’d rather have a quarter of something than all of nothing.”
“Good,” Jack said. “And this time around, I’m the boss.”
Kevin paused for a minute, then nodded his head once. “You got it. I should have never let Jeremy hold on to the diamond in the first place. I brought him into this job. I knew he was arrogant, but I didn’t think he’d steal from his crew. The man knew the code.”
“I thought you’d worked with him before,” Andrew said, and Kevin nodded.
“Yeah. I did. We worked together in London a few years back. Some high profile hits, we managed to take a couple major jewellery stores over three days for hundreds of millions worth of diamonds. The man was a genius at prosthetics and makeup. He’d held the bag then, and never ran off with it. That was why I trusted him now. But I guess the allure was too strong.”
A Grizzly Discovery (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Willow Bay Witches Book 5) Page 7