“I don’t see why I have to be here,” Bee, my little black cat who liked being a drama queen, muttered. We made our way along the beach, the warm sand making its way between my toes like a soft massage.
“I’m one of the judges of the amateur surfing competition this year, and people like to see their local vet with a cute and obedient cat.”
“You lost me at obedient. Have we even met?” Bee replied.
“I told you, if you do this, I’ll buy you twenty bucks worth of sushi,” I replied. Ever since Bee had gotten a taste of the Japanese food staple a few months earlier, she had become a fiend for the stuff. It was basically kitty cocaine, as far as she was concerned.
“The contract doesn’t stipulate that I’m not allowed to spend the whole time complaining,” Bee said as we made our way towards the judges’ tent. I hid a smile. Sometimes, being a witch that could talk to animals was a mixed blessing, but I wouldn’t give up Bee and her snarkiness for the world.
“Angela, how are you?” a tall man in his forties asked, shaking my hand.
“I’m great, Brett. How about you?” Brett Coleman had been an international-level surfer for decades, winning competitions all over the world before finally retiring about ten years ago. He spent most of his time in Bend now, and when he volunteered to be one of the judges of the surfing competition, I knew the organizing committee jumped all over themselves to accept. I’d met him the day before while going through a quick organizational meeting.
“Any day on the water is a great day. Even if I’m just sitting under a tent to keep me cool while watching the next generation go at it.”
“Well, I’m sure your scores are going to be a lot more accurate than mine,” I admitted. “I did look up some surfing videos and try to read about what makes a good surfer, but I’m still a bit worried that I’m going to mess it up.”
“Don’t worry,” Brett assured me. “At this level, amateur competition, it’s going to be obvious who’s better than who. When you get to the real high-level stuff, that’s where the details matter, but you’re not going to have too much trouble here.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling a bit more relieved. “If I’m at all confused, don’t count it as cheating if I look at what you’re scoring though.”
“No problem,” Brett replied with a laugh. Just then, my boyfriend, and the other judge for the competition, sidled up to me.
“Hey, Jason,” I said, smiling up into his dark eyes. He shot me a grin as he shook Brett’s hand.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Good, man. I was just telling your girlfriend here how judging these things is pretty easy.”
“Oh, good. I had planned on researching surfing with her last night, but then I found an Instagram account called kookslams and I spent like three hours watching videos of people failing at doing water sports.”
Brett laughed. “I love kookslams. But yeah, don’t worry about it at all.”
“Good to know we’re probably not going to mess up the whole competition,” Jason said. “I knew they wanted someone from the paper to be a judge, and I got the vote because I was the youngest person working in the office by far, but I’m a New York boy. We don’t have waves. I’m pretty sure if anyone tried surfing around New York City they’d probably end up in the hospital being looked at by doctors in hazmat suits, anyway. There’s stuff in the rivers that I’m pretty sure isn’t natural.”
I giggled as I saw the man in charge of the competition today, Randy Kincaid, make his way towards us. Always jovial, with a few extra pounds around his middle, Randy lived for organizing the summer festival here in Willow Bay.
“Great! I’ve got my all-star cast of judges here and ready to go. We’re just about to get under way; the first competitor is hitting the water in thirty minutes for the qualification round before the finals tomorrow. Have you three seen the prizes yet?”
I shook my head no.
“Well, you’ve got to come have a look! We have some great ones this year.”
“Unless they’re sushi, I’m not interested,” Bee moaned.
“You’re not competing to win these prizes anyway,” I hissed at her quietly so no one else could hear. Jason knew I was a witch, but he was the only human who was allowed to know; I had to keep my powers quiet from everyone else.
Under another tent, about thirty feet away, was a large table with displays from the sponsors, and the prizes for the winners.
“There’s a women’s category and a men’s category, and the winners of each both get the same prize; we insisted on that this year,” Randy explained. “The winners in each category each get a brand new surfboard from Blackfern, a local Oregon company that make wonderful custom boards. They also get a prize basket with a bunch of items and coupons from local companies – a gift card from Betty’s, free sushi for a year from Ken’s, a certificate for ten free physiotherapy sessions, a year’s membership at the local gym and a coupon for 50% off at one of the big sporting goods stores in Portland.”
“Free sushi for a year?” Bee piped up. “Well this competition has just gotten far more interesting.”
“There are prize packs for second and third place as well; they get brand new wetsuits,” Randy told us, and I admired the fancy-looking suits hanging from a rack at the back.
“Not bad at all,” I said. “Those are some pretty impressive prizes.”
“Absolutely,” Brett said. “The organizers have worked really hard this year to bring on some incredible sponsors. I’ve heard the main event tomorrow is even going to be televised.”
Just then, someone’s voice came over the speakers announcing that the qualification round of the surfing competition was about to get started.
Chapter Two
We said goodbye to Randy and the three of us made our way back to our seats; as the hot summer sun beat down on us I was thankful for the shade provided by the covered awning.
Bee settled herself down in a patch of shade and promptly curled up into a ball and fell asleep while I looked over the judging sheet. There were five components to the judging: commitment and degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive maneuvers, combination of major maneuvers, variety of maneuvers, and speed, power and flow.
Each surfer was to be judged on a zero to ten scale for each component, then the scores added up at the end.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, our first surfer is in the water!” the announcer boomed. Every single face on the beach was fixated on the water. I looked out at the waves to see a teenager paddling out on a white board. A moment later he was standing on it, balanced perfectly and he did a bottom turn – a move I recognized as being one of the basic fundamentals of surfing from my research the night before.
“Keegan Philips is a local kid, born and raised right here in Willow Bay, so he knows these waves better than anyone,” the announcer said as Keegan made his way back to the shore a minute later. He had been technically sound – didn’t fall of or anything – but his moves were also definitely on the simpler side.
The next surfer, a girl named Freddie Ormont, from Portland, was significantly better. She managed a carving 360 and a tailslide on top of the bottom turn. I immediately noticed what Brett meant when he said that it wouldn’t be too hard to determine who was better than who in this competition.
After a couple of hours, all forty of the surfers in the competition had gone, and we had to narrow it down to 20 for the finals for the next day. Jason, being the best of the three of us at math, was left in charge of tallying the scores and determining who was going to be in the finals.
Eventually, we had our list, and I looked it over quickly.
The top competitor had been 19-year-old Ryan Ingram, a California kid who had come up specifically for the competition before heading back home to keep training and competing. According to Brett, he was a very talented up-and-comer with a chance to really make a name for himself in the next couple of years, and I wasn’t surprised. He had been miles in front
of everyone else.
Freddie Ormont had been the top woman in the field; she would have probably finished second or third if she had been competing with the men. I was excited to see what the next day was going to bring.
There were a few other local kids on the list; I recognized Sammy Krueger, the owner of a cute black lab who had a habit of getting into food he shouldn’t, and Pat Kingsley, whose little cat Alligator was his best friend. I was pleased to see Keegan Philips, the kid who had gone first, also made the cut, finishing twentieth.
“So the finals are tomorrow at noon?” Jason asked Brett, who nodded.
“Exactly. It should be a good competition, I’m looking forward to it.”
Suddenly, Randy came running up to us.
“Oh, hi Randy. We have the list ready for you,” Jason said, stopping when he realized that Randy was far too upset for that to be why he came here.
“It’s a disaster! The big gift basket, the one in the tent over there. It’s disappeared!”
“What?” I asked, standing. “Really?”
“Yes! Oh, goodness. It had to have been taken at some point during the competition.”
“That shouldn’t be too much of an issue, should it?” Jason asked. “After all, can’t the gift cards be cancelled?”
“No,” Randy said, shaking his head. “The businesses that gave them donated plenty of them for multiple competitions. And at least four others have already been given away. There would be no way to tell which ones are legitimate and which ones are the stolen ones.”
“Does that mean the sushi gift card is gone too?” Bee asked, suddenly interested. “Angela, you have to find out who did this!”
I ignored my cat, but at the same time, I had to wonder if she was right. After all, I’d managed to solve plenty of murders in this town, wouldn’t investigating a burglary basically be the same thing?
“Who had access to the prize table during the competition?” I asked. After all, it had to have been stolen while everyone on the beach was busy looking at the competitors.
“Anyone competing in the round,” Randy said, frowning. “They all had to walk past the table on their way back to the dressing room. There was also me, of course. And a handful of volunteers, but that’s it. The rest of this area is closed to the public until the awards ceremony tomorrow afternoon. What are we going to do?”
“Well, we have twenty four hours to find out who stole the basket,” I said.
“We can’t tell Chief Gary about it, I don’t want this to become a public thing,” Randy said, wiping his hand down his face.
“Don’t worry,” Jason said. “We’ll all do our best to find out who did it.”
“Would you? I know you’ve helped the police out a few times with, er, other matters,” Randy said.
“Of course,” I nodded.
“Great. Absolutely great. I knew I could count on you. Listen, I have to go deal with some other issues. Let me know if you find anything out, ok?”
“Sure thing,” I told Randy, who rushed off a moment later. Brett turned to us, idle curiosity written all over his face.
“So you’re a couple of amateur detectives?” he asked, and I laughed, waving away the question.
“No, not at all. I’m a vet. Though I suppose you could say that about Jason, what with him being a former investigative journalist and all. But we have managed to accidentally solve a couple of crimes here the past year or so.”
“I think we should go talk to the competitors,” Jason said. “They’ll still be around for now, right Brett?”
“Sure,” he nodded. “They’ll be relaxing, and then taking care of their equipment, getting it all ready for tomorrow, that sort of thing. I’ll come with you; I’ll be a huge draw to them and that way they’ll all stay, and you can have a chat with whoever you want.”
“Would you?” I smiled. “That would be great.”
“Of course. I want to find the thief as much as the two of you do.”
The three of us made our way past the tent – sure enough, while the wet suits, surfboard and smaller gift baskets were still on display, the large one in the center had disappeared – and into an area marked ‘COMPETITORS ONLY’. It was really just a large part of the beach that had been fenced off with shade cloth, surrounding the small collection of changing booths that were normally for regular beachgoers. The surfers were all sitting on the sand, going through their bags, or wiping down their surfboards, which were all lined up against racks at one end, or drying themselves off after using the outdoor shower in the middle of the changing area.
As soon as the three of us entered, however, every single one of the surfers stopped to look at the three of us, and I knew it had nothing to do with Jason or me.
“Oh my God, is that Brett Coleman?” I heard a hushed voice say from somewhere in the room.
“It is, wow, it’s really him,” another person replied in an equally reverent tone.
“Hi, everyone,” Brett said, casting a huge smile over the crowd. “I just thought I’d come and say hi to all of you, and tell you what an awesome job I thought you all did today.”
The crowd of kids immediately made its way towards him, surrounding Brett like he was a major celebrity. And to be fair, I supposed that was what he was, in the surfing world. He immediately pulled out a sharpie and started signing autographs for the competitors, and Jason and I quickly found ourselves marginalized, a little bit away from all the others.
“Maybe check out some of the bags?” Jason whispered to me, motioning with his head towards the large number of backpacks and duffel bags just hanging around.
“Good idea.” I slipped away from Jason and went behind the group of change rooms, making sure no one was paying any attention to me. “Obscuroa,” I whispered, pointing at myself. A charge of energy escaped my fingers, and the next thing I knew I had completely disappeared.
Perfect.
Slipping back out into the main area, I began to look through the bags scattered on the ground. I made an effort to look through them without moving them – I was fairly confident all of the kids were completely focused on Brett and wouldn’t notice if the opening to their bags moved a couple inches, but I still didn’t want to take that risk.
Unfortunately, despite looking through all the bags, there was no sign of the missing gift basket, or even simply any of its contents.
Before reversing the invisibility spell, I decided to do a more thorough search around the competitor’s area. After all, the basket would have only been missing for a couple of hours at the absolute maximum; there was a good chance it was still here.
And yet, after searching the place from top to bottom, making sure to avoid all the people, I still saw no sign of it. Sighing, I went back behind the changing area, made myself visible again, and made my way back out to where Jason was now talking to one of the local kids, Pat Kingsley.
“Oh, hey Doctor Wilson,” Pat said to me with a shy smile as I made my way over.
“How many times do I have to tell you, you can call me Angela,” I said to him. “Good job out there today! I was impressed.”
“Thanks,” Pat said with a bit of a blush. He was taller than the last time I’d seen him; he must have been seventeen, maybe eighteen now, though he was still pretty shy, and impeccably polite as he always was. “The conditions were really great, so that made it a lot easier.”
“Did you hear about the gift basket that went missing?” Jason asked, and Pat nodded.
“Randy came to ask us all if we knew anything about it. I wish I could help, but I have no idea. I can tell you that it was still there when I came back after my surf.”
“And you went tenth today, right?”
“Yeah,” Pat nodded. “I remember walking past it and thinking that maybe next year I’ll be good enough to win it.”
“How about this year?” I asked with a smile.
“Not a chance, did you even see Ryan Ingram? That dude just made us all look like total kooks. Besides,
I’m not good enough to even podium out there right now. I’ll probably finish somewhere between fifth and tenth. But I’m going to work hard, and hoping to get a lot better over the next year, and then next summer I’ll be in the mix.”
“Nice, it sounds like you have a good plan going,” I said.
“Sure thing. See you around Doct – uhh, sorry, Angela.”
With a quick wave, Pat headed off. I turned to Jason.
“So the gift basket was still there when Pat went,” I said.
“We can ask some of the other kids, and see if we can narrow down the disappearance time further,” Jason agreed.
“Is there anything I can do?” Bee asked from her spot at my feet. “I’m making the recovery of the sushi gift card my top priority.”
“Thanks for the offer, Bee, but I think we have it covered,” I said with a smile.
“Alright. I’ll go snooping around anyway and let you know if I find anything.”
“Sure thing,” I told her. “She’s helping because she’s taking the theft of a sushi gift card as a personal affront,” I explained to Jason, who obviously could only hear one side of the conversation.
“Ah,” he said with a small smile.
“Listen, I promised Sophie and Charlotte I would meet them and we would watch some of the sand sculpture building competition. Do you mind if I head off and see them?”
“Sure,” Jason nodded. “I’ll meet you over there as soon as I finish up here. I think I’ll see if I can narrow down the time frame at all.”
“Cool,” I replied, giving him a quick peck before heading off in the direction from which we came.
On my way out, however, I stopped at the table and had a quick look at it. Sure enough, nothing had been touched except the large gift basket in the center. Looking closely, however, I noticed part of the paint on the table was darker than the rest of it, right where the gift basket should have been.
I ran my fingers over the dark stain and realized it was caused by water. That meant whoever took the basket had to have been in the water not long before they took it. That ruled out the volunteers, and meant that it was one of the competitors who had taken it. It just had to be.
Spell or High Water Page 30