The Purr-fect Crime: Willow Bay Witches #1

by Silver, Samantha

  I kept walking down Willow Bay’s main street, and as I did, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. This place always knew how to rejuvenate my spirit when I needed it most. And I supposed that was what home was supposed to do to you. It was times like these when I knew I was meant to live here. Times like these when I knew I’d made the right choice by not setting up shop in the city like everyone at vet school had recommended.

  Walking past the vet clinic, I could see Bee in her little bed on the counter, by the window, fast asleep. What can I say, she was never supposed to be a guard cat. I smiled at her, then kept going. When I got to the library, I stopped. I wasn’t sure why, but that came with the territory of being a witch. Witchy intuition was kind of like women’s intuition, only a lot stronger. It came and went, and sometimes the feelings were stronger than others, but whenever I had a feeling that I should stop somewhere, I did it.

  I turned and looked up at the library. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was just after six. It would be open for almost another hour. Figuring what the hell, I went inside.

  The Willow Bay Library was actually pretty decent considering the size of the town. The land and building – an old brick building that looked a lot like a house, which used to house the post office way back in the 1800s – were very well maintained by the city. The library was two stories high, with the bottom floor being dedicated to books and magazines, with the top floor housing more obscure stuff, as well as a few computers with internet access.

  I recognized the librarian, Rose, as being the same woman who used to check books out for me when I was a kid. She was old back then, and while I knew she’d aged almost twenty years since the first time I checked out “Where the Wild Things Are”, she still looked exactly the same to me. She had to be nearly eighty by now.

  “Why hello there, Angela. It’s been a few years, hasn’t it?” she greeted me as I walked in, and I shot her a warm smile. I couldn’t believe she’d actually recognized me. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been in the library since I graduated from high school, and still have a few fingers left over.

  “Hi, Rose,” I said, warmly. “It’s lovely to see you again.”

  “You too. You young ones and your technology. Makes us old ducks in the library feel unwanted. Can I help you find anything today?”

  “No, thank you Rose,” I replied. “I’m just going to have a look around for a bit.”

  “Alright, dear. Let me know if you need anything.”

  I smiled at Rose and made my way into the stacks. I didn’t know what I was looking for. Hell, I didn’t know if there was anything here for me to even find. Maybe I’d confused a stomach rumble after that heavy Indian food as an intuition thing. I reminded myself that I might very well be wasting my time here.

  Looking around the library, it seemed almost deserted. On the lower floor there was just a man in his 50s reading business magazines, and a woman scanning the science section, obviously looking for something specific.

  I began to wander through the racks, wondering if eventually my intuition would give me a hint as to what I was looking for. I made my way to the corner with all the kids books, however, and found the resident hamsters moving quickly around their cages, panicking.

  “Hey guys, hey!” I said to them softly, glancing around to make sure no one was around to hear me talking to the animals. The last thing I needed was to get labelled as the town crazy person, so I always made sure I was alone when I had conversations with them.

  “Guys! Guys! She’s coming to kill us!!” a big brown hamster squealed, and the three of them started running around their cage once more.

  “I’m not here to kill you,” I whispered. “Why would you think that?”

  “Because we saw,” a small tan and white one replied.

  “Saw what?”

  “Death,” an orange one whispered.

  I had to work hard not to roll my eyes. Hamsters were so prone to dramatics, and I knew it was going to take a little while to get the actual truth out of them. Because no, I did not believe that they did in fact, see death.

  “Alright, well when did death come here?”

  “Last night,” the orange one said. “But he’ll come back. He didn’t see us. We hid. But he must have known we were here.”

  “What exactly did death do?”

  One of the hamsters, I’m not sure which, let out a loud squeal.

  “He went upstairs, and he stole some things,” the brown one said. “But we saw him. He knows we saw us, even though we hid. He’s going to come back. He’s going to kill us.”

  “Ok, little dudes, relax. I don’t think death is going to come back and kill you. After all, I don’t think it was death. Why do you guys think it was death?”

  “He was dressed in all black. Completely black. Head to toe. Exactly how death would dress.”

  “So a man dressed all in black walked upstairs, took some stuff down, and left?”

  “Yes. Although I don’t think it was a man. I think death was a woman,” the tan and white hamster said.

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because these two misogynists think everyone is a man.”

  Great. So the hamsters really had no idea about anything, other than someone dressed in black came and stole some stuff yesterday.

  “Do you guys know what was taken?” I asked, hoping to get some more concrete information out of the little critters.

  “Tom Riddle’s Diary,” the brown hamster replied. “That’s how we know it was death. He was linked to he-who-shall-not-be-named.”

  “Stop being stupid, Marnie,” the tan and white hamster spat, and I had to smile. He looked at me apologetically. “They’ve been doing a reading of Harry Potter books here the last week. Yesterday we heard The Chamber of Secrets.”

  “Ah, that explains it,” I replied, smiling. The tan and white hamster continued.

  “We’re not sure what was taken. It looked like individual sheets of paper though, not a book. If that helps you at all.”

  “It does, thanks,” I told him. So someone had stolen some paper of some kind from the library. “Ok guys, I’m going to go. Please don’t worry. It wasn’t death that came by last night, it was a robber. And I don’t think he cares that a few hamsters saw him. You can’t identify him at all, so you should be safe.”

  “Are you sure?” asked the orange hamster. “I’ve been losing fur all day over this.”

  “I’m sure. You guys can relax.”

  I left the hamsters, my head reeling. I still wasn’t sure they weren’t totally insane, but they seemed pretty set on the idea that someone had been here last night and had stolen something.

  That was strange. This was Willow Bay. This wasn’t the kind of place where people stole things. Especially from the library. I mean, you could just slip anything you needed in your bag and walk out. Rose certainly wasn’t going to notice. This wasn’t exactly a high security establishment.

  I made my way up the stairs to the second floor, where the purported theft had taken place. There really wasn’t that much up there. Computers in the corner that all looked fine. One man was using it to browse the internet. There was a section with old stuff like maps, microfiches, a kind of makeshift historical society for Willow Bay. It wasn’t exactly high value stuff.

  Not noticing anything out of place, I eventually left, thanking Rose.

  Things in Willow Bay were getting weird.

  Chapter 18

  When I got back to the house I told Sophie and Charlotte about what I’d learned from the hamsters. Obviously, we argued about what it meant.

  “Are you sure this even happened?” Charlotte asked, looking sceptical.

  “What do you mean, do you doubt Angie’s ability to talk to animals now? You’re joining me in the ranks of thinking she’s a crazy person?”

  Charlotte laughed. “No, of course not. But I mean, the way Angela’s describing it, the hamsters don’t seem to be the most… reliable witne
sses.”

  I nodded. “I know what you mean. I kind of thought that too. And while I think there’s basically no chance any of the details are right – I mean, the closest I came to getting information on what was actually stolen was that it was Tom Riddle’s Diary – I think they are actually telling the truth about the overall story. There was someone there, and that someone stole something. After all, they were legitimately terrified that when I came over I was death and I was coming to kill them. They saw something.”

  “But is it linked to Tony Nyman’s death? I bet whoever did it was doing it for some completely different reason,” Sophie said.

  “Seriously?” I asked. “Two major crimes in Willow Bay in the course of like, a week, and you think the second one is a coincidence?”

  Sophie nodded. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not like Nyman’s death is the only thing happening around here. Maybe it’s something to do with the new resort. Maybe it’s some drunk kid who decided to be funny. Who knows.”

  “I agree with Angela. If something did happen, it was linked to Nyman’s death,” Charlotte said. “And since I think Nyman’s death was related to the resort, if I’m right, then it means that the theft was linked to both.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “Of course you guys would agree with each other.”

  I looked at Charlotte. “Why is she in a pissier mood than usual?” I asked.

  “Excuse me?” Sophie said, and I ignored her.

  “Lisa called and wants Sophie to help her with some computer stuff tomorrow after work,” Charlotte said, trying to stifle a laugh.

  “Ohhhhh, I’m sorry Sophie,” I told her, shooting her a half-fake sympathetic look. Sophie glared at me in reply. Lisa was notoriously terrible with computers. An absolutely amazing witch, but somehow human technology was completely beyond her. As an accountant, she’d been forced by her job to start using one, and whenever she had problems with it, Lisa always called Sophie to help her out.

  Once Sophie went over to her mom’s place because her printer “wasn’t working.” It turned out that at some point Lisa had unplugged the printer cable from the computer, hadn’t realized that was what made it work, and complained that for two weeks she had no access to her printer because it was “broken”.

  I supposed one small mercy for Sophie was that playing tech support was never a difficult job.

  “I’m so not in a pissy mood,” Sophie replied angrily.

  “Yeah, you’re the picture of sunshine and rainbows right now,” I replied, which earned me another glare.

  “Whatever. I don’t have to listen to this,” Sophie replied. “I’m going to bed. Go see Chief Gary tomorrow and see what he says about the break in. If he doesn’t know about it, it didn’t happen. I still trust Chief Gary over a couple hamsters.”

  And with that Sophie got up and headed off to her room while Charlotte and I watched a few old episodes of Orange is the New Black.

  * * *

  Despite her bad mood, Sophie’s idea wasn’t actually a bad one. So the next day, when we had a little bit of downtime after a scheduled surgery went faster than expected, I headed over to the police station and walked into Chief Gary’s office.

  “Hey, Angela,” he told me, giving me a small smile. “What can I help you with today?”

  “Well,” I said, “I heard there was a break-in at the library the other day.”

  Chief Gary sighed. “Great. News has gotten out about that, has it? I asked Rose not to tell anyone; with all the panicking going around after the Nyman murder I figured the last thing anyone needed to hear was that someone broke into the library and stole some old map. Even if it was just some kids messing around.”

  “So it actually happened?”

  “Yeah. How did you hear about it?”

  “Someone mentioned it to me last night. They didn’t seem sure about their source though. I wouldn’t worry too much about word getting around too quickly.” Obviously I wasn’t going to mention that my source was three hamsters, and since I was the only person in Willow Bay who could actually talk to them, the odds of anyone else finding out about the break-in were pretty low.

  “Good.”

  “Did you say it was a map that was stolen?”

  “Yeah. That’s why I think it was kids pulling a prank. With school getting out and stuff, I figure it’s probably some of the grade 12s deciding to do something stupid as a dare, or something. I’m not really that worried. After all, it’s not like an old map outlining the boundary of a state park is exactly worth anything.”

  “How old was the map?”

  “From the 1910s. It was a map of Sycamore State Forest. It had to be worth at most $50.”

  I frowned. Sycamore State Forest was a protected state park just south of Willow Bay. In fact, the municipality of Willow Bay bordered onto the park. But Chief Gary was right. There was literally no reason at all for anyone to steal a map that was completely worthless.

  “Were there any other copies of the map?” I asked. Chief Gary’s eyes narrowed.

  “Why are you asking?”

  “Just curiosity,” I replied, trying to give my best I’m-totally-innocent look.

  The look Chief Gary gave me indicated that he in no way believed me, but he still answered my question.

  “No. As far as we’re aware that was the only copy of the map. Which is what really makes the theft a shame, it’s not worth of a lot, but it does have some historic value.”

  I nodded. I still had no idea why anyone would want to steal that map, unless, as Chief Gary thought, it was just some kids playing a prank.

  “Hey, while I’ve got you here, I found out who those men were at the funeral, that you took a picture of.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked, interested.

  “They weren’t really anyone interesting at all. Just some men from Portland looking to start a business in Willow Bay, who saw all the excitement going on and thought they’d come have a look.”

  This time it was my turn to look like I didn’t believe Chief Gary. I wasn’t sure why. After all, he had never lied to me before, as far as I knew. But there was something about those men, I knew they weren’t from Portland. I knew there was something else going on.

  Damn it. I had to get Charlotte on this one. There was a spell we’d learned as kids, a truth spell. I didn’t want to use it on Chief Gary, but it might be the only way to get to the truth. Charlotte had mastered the truth spell, like she’d mastered literally every single other spell we’d ever learned. Me, on the other hand, I knew a handful of simple, useful ones, especially for a teenager – how to unlock a door, how to turn invisible, how to hide some vodka cruisers from sight – but the truth telling spell had always been above my abilities. Not Charlotte’s though. Like every single other thing that could be learned by a brain, Charlotte mastered tons of spells that were far beyond my abilities.

  “Really?” I tried, going for the normal human way of getting answers.

  “Yes,” Chief Gary replied, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “There’s nothing strange about those men at all. They turned out to be completely legit. Now just drop it, ok?”

  “Ok,” I answered, disappointed. I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me, but I wasn’t going to get the answer out of him. I knew that much.

  “Now, please promise me you’re not going to tell anyone about what you heard about the break in at the library.”

  “Well, I already told Charlotte and Sophie, but they’re the only ones who know, and I told them to keep it under wraps. I think it’ll be ok,” I told Chief Gary. I could understand his position. He wanted the town to feel safe, and right now, everyone felt anything but. As soon as someone was arrested for Tony Nyman’s murder things would probably go back to normal pretty quickly, but until then, well, who knew.

  “Thanks,” Chief Gary replied. “I can’t wait for all this to die down. I really can’t.”

  “Same here,” I told him. “I’m sure you’ll find the person who killed Tony Nyman
soon, though.”

  “I hope so.”

  That was my cue. I stood up, thanked Chief Gary again, and left the police station with a whole bunch of stuff on my mind. Why had Chief Gary lied to me about the men at the funeral? Who were they really? Was he lying? I was pretty sure he was.

  And I’d at least managed to confirm most of what the hamsters had told me, and got a little bit more information out of Chief Gary. Although who on earth knew what it meant. Maybe he was right, maybe it was just some kids playing a silly prank.

  Feeling a headache coming on from information overload, I headed back to the vet clinic. After all, there were a handful of animals who needed to be seen that afternoon.

  Chapter 19

  When I got back to the clinic, Charlotte was waiting for me, talking to Sophie in the lobby area while Karen was on the phone scheduling an appointment.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” I asked. Charlotte rarely came to the vet clinic; she was almost always either at school in Portland or at home studying.

  “I just came over to say I heard about a huge pro-Ocean Mist rally happening in a couple of hours. Apparently a whole bunch of the head honchos from the project are going to make an appearance – you know, to rally the troops and all that. I thought maybe we should go, and casually ask some questions, you know. See if there’s anything they can tell us that might lead us to Tony’s killer.”

  “Yeah, exactly. Our last appointment today is at 4:15, so you can take care of that, Charlotte and I can head over earlier, and then you can join us when you close up.”

  It was a good idea, but to be honest, I really didn’t want to hang around with a whole bunch of people who were actually in favour of Ocean Mist. It was just so bad for the town. Still, Charlotte had come up with a good idea.