“Alright, we’ll have to get up at six. I’ll come by and pick you up at quarter past, how does that sound?”
“Good,” Sophie nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Bee hopped into the carrier in the back of my car, and Jason and I drove back home, with Sophie walking back to the house she and Taylor now shared. It was still kind of strange, after so many years of living with Sophie, to see her going somewhere else to live. But hey, we couldn’t be roommates forever.
The next morning, I woke up with a groan as my alarm went off. The sun wasn’t even up yet! What was the point of closing the vet clinic for the day if I couldn’t even sleep in?
Still, I knew it was all for a good cause. At least, I hoped so. If Sammy had stolen the gift basket, surely it was going to be in his house, right?
Jason stirred next to me.
“Are you coming, or sleeping in?” I asked.
“To commit a felony? You and Sophie are the experts at that. I’ll get up, but I’m going to go to the beach and see if I can get some answers.”
Twenty minutes and a cup of strong coffee later, Sophie and I had parked in the main lot at the beach. Jason got out of the car and made his way towards the sand, while Sophie and I tried to look subtle as we watched what was going on in the water.
“Do you see Sammy?” I asked, squinting at the small group of about fifteen surfers all taking advantage of the morning waves.
“I don’t know,” Sophie replied. “I can’t really tell.”
“If only you two had figured out that there might be more than one surfer out and about today,” Bee said from her carrier.
“I don’t see you offering up any helpful suggestions,” I replied.
“Yes, well, you’re not going to take me along with you anyway,” Bee replied. “Can you just let me out now and I can spend today doing my own thing rather than being your little puppet?”
“Fine,” I sighed. “But come back to the judging area when it gets busy, please. And don’t do anything naughty.”
“You never let me have any fun,” Bee muttered as I opened up her carrier and she jumped out, sauntering off to do whatever it was Bee did when she was out by herself. My guess was she was going to go find her boyfriend Buster and see if Gloria, his owner, would let him come out and get up to mischief with her.
“I think that might be Sammy out there,” Sophie said, pointing towards the group of surfers.
“I have absolutely no idea which one you’re pointing at, but I’m willing to take your word for it,” I replied. “Ready?”
“Always,” Sophie replied.
“Obscuroa,” I whispered, pointing at Sophie. She immediately disappeared, and I did the same spell again, pointing at myself this time. Now it looked like the car was empty.
“Ok, let’s get out of here subtly,” I said. “We don’t want anyone noticing my car’s doors opening and closing by themselves.”
“That would be super fun to scare people with, though. Why do there have to be so many rules about not doing magic in front of humans?”
I rolled my eyes, even knowing Sophie couldn’t see. We both checked to make sure no one was looking, then slipped out of the car carefully and closed the doors behind us.
“Which one is Sammy’s house?” Sophie asked, looking at the row of houses that lined the street in front of us. They were all one-story bungalows with wooden cladding.
“That one there, the white one with blue trim,” I said, pointing to a house with a nicely-manicured lawn for a second before I realized there was no way Sophie could see where I was pointing.
“Oh ok, I see it,” Sophie nodded. “There’s no car in the driveway, that’s a good sign, right?”
“Yeah, hopefully it means Sammy’s mom is up in Portland working,” I replied. “Back door?”
“Definitely the right call,” Sophie nodded.
I followed the sound of Sophie’s footsteps as we made our way to the back of the house. Sophie tried the door, but it was locked.
“You could have just let me try the door, since I’m the one who has to unlock it anyway,” I muttered, pushing past her.
“Recludoroa,” I muttered, and the small sound of the lock clicking on the other side let me knew that I had definitely nailed it. I twisted the doorknob and opened the door, feeling Sophie slipping in behind me.
The inside of the house was plain, but nicely decorated, with comfortable-looking furniture and a few nice pictures along the walls. Photos of Sammy as a boy were scattered around, and it was obvious he was his mother’s child.
“Let’s make sure they’re not here, first,” Sophie suggested in a hushed whisper.
“For sure. You take the rooms on the right, I’ll do the left,” I said. I made my way down the hallway that led back to the front door and checked room after room, including one which was definitely Sammy’s bedroom. They were all empty.
Suddenly, I heard a yelp, and a growl, followed by barking.
“Angie, I think I need a little help here,” I heard Sophie’s panicked voice say from somewhere on the other side of the house. I darted back out into the hallway and heard her squealing as she ran through the house towards me, with a huge black lab on her tail, barking away.
I’d completely forgotten about Riley.
“Riley, boy, it’s ok,” I said to the dog. His hackles were up; he must not have liked that he couldn’t see Sophie, only hear and sense her.
At the sound of his name his ears pricked up and he stopped moving, but a low growl escaped his mouth. I heard the pitter-patter of Sophie’s steps as well as her heavy breathing as she slipped past me and into the living room as well.
“If that dog eats us, they’re never going to be able to find our bodies,” Sophie whispered.
“Don’t worry, Riley won’t eat us,” I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt. After all, I knew Riley was a good dog… when he was outside the house and didn’t see us as intruders.
“Hi Riley,” I said in the happiest voice I could muster. “You don’t need to worry. It’s just me, Angela, your vet. And I’m here with Sophie, the lady that checks you out first when you come in to see me.”
“Why can’t I see you?” he asked.
“Well, you know the magic that I use to be able to talk to you? I can also use it to do other things, and right now I’ve used it to turn myself invisible.”
There was a rule about not telling humans about using magic, but there wasn’t any about telling animals. After all, it wasn’t like they could report back about it to other humans.
“Why are you in my house? And why are you invisible?”
“Well, the thing is, we’re worried about Sammy,” I said. I figured it wasn’t a good idea to let Riley know we thought he might be a criminal.
“Why? Is Sammy in trouble?”
“He might be. Yesterday, a gift basket disappeared from the surfing competition where Sammy was, and we’re worried that he might have it. If he does, it would be best to make sure it gets back into place before the competition today. Can you help us?”
Riley’s ear twitched. “I don’t think so. I didn’t see Sammy with anything like that.”
“Is it ok if we look around a little bit?”
“Well, I guess so. You should probably check the fridge while you’re here. I know there was a little bit of ham that looked like it needed investigating.”
I smiled. Riley was definitely a lab: he loved all sorts of food, and half the time he came to “visit” me at the vet clinic was because he’d eaten something he shouldn’t have.
“We’ll see,” I told him. “Thank you.”
Sophie and I had a look around the house, but it quickly became evident that the gift basket wasn’t here. There was no sign of it, or of any of the gift cards that had been inside it.
“Hey, Riley?” I said as we were getting ready to leave.
“Yes?” he asked, his ears pricking up.
“We’re going to go, now. I ca
n’t give you any ham, or Sammy will know we were here, but I’ll come by with some treats for you later, how does that sound?”
“Yummy! Treats! Are they going to be the chicken jerky kind that I love?”
“Absolutely,” I smiled.
“Thank you, Angela! You’re the best vet a dog could possibly ask for!”
“No problem, Riley. Sophie and I are going to leave now, please don’t try to escape when we open the door.”
“I won’t, I promise!”
“Good boy!”
While Riley had been a good boy, the results of our search definitely weren’t good. It looked like maybe Sammy wasn’t our thief after all.
Chapter Six
“We’re definitely running out of time here,” Sophie muttered to me as we crossed the street and made our way back towards the beach. I had reversed the spell and made us visible again while we were still in Sammy’s backyard – I figured the likelihood of anyone looking in was a lot lower than someone seeing me do it in the more public parking area.
“I know,” I replied dejectedly. “The competition starts at noon and it’s already seven-thirty. If we don’t get the gift basket back before the competition starts, then that’s it.”
“At least there’s still the surfboard for the winner.”
“There is that, but I really want to find that missing gift basket.”
Sophie sighed. “The problem is, none of the kids that might have done it even seem like bad kids. I mean, it’s not like they’re out there robbing gas stations at gunpoint or anything. Sammy was our best option because he tried to steal some candy a year ago, and by all accounts his mom beat some sense into him and he never did it again. I mean, we just searched his house and the gift basket wasn’t there; we have to assume he didn’t do it.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Our second-best suspect only has the motive that she’s poor and could use the money. Like, none of these kids seem to be bad people, and they certainly don’t strike me as master criminals.”
“Then there’s Pat, who if he stole anything in his life, it would be for someone else and not him,” Sophie joked. “He’d probably have handed himself in already if he had done it.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Say that again.”
“He probably would have handed himself in-“
“No, not that,” I interrupted. “Before that.”
“If Pat was the one to steal the gift basket he would have done it for someone else and not for himself.”
“That’s it!” I said. “That’s the key!”
“Care to share with the class?” Sophie grumbled.
“I know who stole the gift card, and why! Come with me!”
Sophie followed hot on my footsteps as I high-tailed it towards the far end of the beach, where the surfers were practicing – the rocks at that end were where the best waves in Willow Bay were located. As we got closer and closer towards them I began to make out who was who, and I caught the eye of one of them and called him over.
Keegan Philips paddled back towards land and made his way towards us.
“Hi,” he said, a bit of confusion in his voice. “You’re one of the judges for the competition today, right?”
“That’s right, Keegan. I’m Angela, and this is Sophie. But we’re not here to talk to you about the competition. Not directly, anyway.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
I motioned for us to sit down at one of the nearby picnic tables, and he did so. His dark hair was dripping with water, a small puddle forming at the base of his wetsuit.
“We need you to return the gift basket please, Keegan,” I said. I figured I’d go with the direct approach and see where that got us.
I had half expected him to jump up, act out, try and argue with me, something like that. I hadn’t expected him to simply hang his head down and sigh, but that was exactly what he did.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really, really am sorry. How did you know it was me?”
“It was Sophie here who really made things click for me,” I said. “She told me that none of the kids we suspected – we knew it had to be someone local – seemed like bad kids, and that someone like Pat probably wouldn’t have ever stolen the gift basket for himself, but would have had to have done it to give the stuff to someone else.”
“So? How does that point towards me?” Keegan asked. He wasn’t being insolent about it, just curious.
“Well, your mom hurt her shoulder, didn’t she? And she’s having surgery for it. Plus, I know she hasn’t been working because of that problem.”
“Money has just been so tight,” Keegan said. “I know she tries to hide it from me, but I’ve noticed. I can’t help but notice. It was so nice of her to even pay my entry fee into this competition, when I know it would have been hard for her, especially since I didn’t have a chance of winning.”
“So you wanted to do something nice for your mom.”
Keegan nodded. “I know that after the surgery, getting physiotherapy would be the best thing for her, to help her get better faster. But there’s no way we can afford physiotherapy. So when I saw the gift cards in the basket for the winner, and I saw that one of them was for ten free physiotherapy sessions at one of the local clinics, I just knew that would be perfect for my mom.”
“So you snuck out after your race and took it.”
Keegan nodded, his head hung in shame. “I know it was wrong. I knew it was wrong while I was doing it. But I just couldn’t help myself. I mean, I couldn’t win that contest even if I tried. There were so many other people who were so much better than me. The only way I was going to get that gift card was if I’d stolen it.”
“But where did you put the gift basket?” Sophie asked. “We looked all around the roped off competitor’s area.”
I had been wondering exactly the same thing.
“I took it to my car,” Keegan replied. “I was parked just behind where the prize display was located, so it was really easy to just slip away with the gift basket; I only had to go about ten feet without someone noticing I’d taken it before I could hide it behind the cars.”
I nodded. “That’s why no one saw you.”
“Exactly. I knew I’d gotten away with it as soon as I saw the three of you come over and start asking around. I knew that if I’d been seen, someone would have already reported it. But if it helps, I didn’t feel good about it. I didn’t get any sleep last night. I knew it was wrong, but I just wanted to help my mom so much. She’s done so much for me, my whole life, especially after my dad left. And now she’s struggling, and I just wanted to do something that would help her out, just a little. It was wrong. I’m sorry.”
I had to admit, my heart went out for Keegan. He was just a kid, seventeen years old. I mean, he knew better, but he also knew what he had done was wrong, and he had just been trying to help his mom. It wasn’t like he was a hardened criminal or anything like that. He was just a kid who had made a mistake while trying to help out his injured mom.
“I’ll give the basket back, of course,” he said. “It’s actually still in my car over there. I couldn’t bring myself to take it out yesterday and bring it into the house. I just felt so bad.”
“Thanks for admitting to it when we asked,” Sophie said. I could tell she also felt a little bit of sympathy for Keegan.
“Are you going to call the police on me?” he asked, his voice small.
“It’s not up to us,” I replied truthfully. “However, we will tell Randy about the extenuating circumstances, and hopefully he’ll understand that perhaps involving the police isn’t the best idea.”
Keegan managed a small smile. “Thank you. I’ll apologize to him myself, as well.”
Sophie and I stood up, and Keegan followed our lead. “My car keys are by my stuff over there. Let me get them for you and I’ll give you back the gift basket.”
A few minutes later I was on the phone with Randy while Sophie carried the gift basket back towards the
prize table. We had solved the case, and just in the nick of time, as well. There were only a couple of hours to go before the beginning of the competition.
Chapter Seven
“And now, the event we’ve all been waiting for!” the announcer exclaimed through the loudspeaker. “The surfing event competition finals! We have twenty incredible athletes competing for a range of great prizes.”
Brett, Jason and I were seated comfortably underneath our tent, pens at the ready. This was it, the big show.
“Where’s your cat gone off to?” Jason asked suddenly. I looked behind my chair, where Bee had been sleeping for a while, and sure enough, there was just a little cat-shaped mark in the sand where she’d been.
“Who knows?” I shrugged. “Off getting herself into some sort of trouble, in all likelihood.”
She had come back after Sophie and I brought the gift basket back, and was incredibly mad at me when I wouldn’t tell her who the responsible part was; I didn’t think Bee would take kindly to finding out who had stolen the sushi gift certificate.
Keegan was the first competitor to go, as he had finished twentieth the day before. Today they went in reverse order of how they finished on day one, so Ryan Ingram would be the last to hit the waves.
I was pleased to see the events of the previous twenty-four hours didn’t affect Keegan’s surfing. He surfed very well, even better than the day before, and when he had finished, I found myself clapping along with the rest of the crowd. He had definitely done his best.
It helped that Randy told us he wasn’t going to alert the police as to what had transpired. He found us at the table before the event and told us that Keegan had come up to him and apologized himself, and promised that he would volunteer for the remainder of the festival to make up for what he had done. Randy considered that an acceptable punishment, and there was going to be no further prosecution of Keegan for what he had done.
As surfer after surfer hit the waves, I got right into the judging side of things. It was harder than the day before; all of the competitors had obviously brought their A-game for the final.
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