Barking up the Wrong Tree: Willow Bay Witches #2

by Silver, Samantha

  “It was partly my fault. I think we need to figure out a better system in the future.”

  “Yeah, but that went pretty well for a first attempt, I think.”

  “Definitely. Now let’s get back home and show Charlotte this police report!”

  Chapter 13

  “You did what, exactly?” Charlotte asked when we told her all about our little adventure at the police station.

  “Relax, it wasn’t like it was dangerous or anything.”

  “You broke into a police station, looked through the police chief’s office, and then spied on an interrogation. There are like, at least six laws you broke today.”

  “Yeah, but no one would believe you if you went and tattled anyway,” I replied. “This is why we don’t tell you we’re doing things.”

  “Oh, yeah, because it’s so inconvenient to have one person in the group who doesn’t believe in blatantly breaking a ton of laws.”

  “Fine,” Sophie said with a grin. “I guess we just won’t tell you what we found out, seeing as you think it was so wrong that we got the info.”

  Charlotte’s face fell. “Well, now that it’s done, I want to know what you got. I just don’t think you should have done it in the first place,” she added, crossing her arms.

  Sophie passed her the phone. We’d looked at the photo of the police report from 1989 while we were still at the vet clinic. And it was juicy.

  “Wow,” Charlotte said breathlessly as she read through it. “Is this real?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I mean, as far as we know. It was on Chief Gary’s desk.” Charlotte shot me a dirty look, obviously still not agreeing with what we did, then went back to the report.

  “So if I’m reading this right, it looks like back in ’89 they were all in Vegas, along with Antonia’s husband, and a fight broke out and Antonia was arrested for breaking Andrea’s husband’s nose?”

  “That’s definitely what it says,” Sophie replied. “Can you believe it?”

  “And it looks like what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas,” I replied. “I’d never, ever heard about that at all. And I mean, this is Willow Bay! It must have been about something important if everyone kept it a secret for so long.”

  “We should ask my mom,” Sophie said. “She was around then, if anything was mentioned she might remember it.”

  “Your mom will want to know how we got the information though,” Charlotte argued. “And obviously we can’t tell her. That information just cannot leave this room at all.”

  “We just have to tell her we heard something happened between them in the late 80s and ask if she knows anything about it. We’re the only people other than Chief Gary who know about that police report, so she won’t know why we care.”

  “Ok. Definitely. But you said she has an alibi?”

  “Apparently when Andrea Dottory was killed Antonia was at Betty’s,” Sophie told her.

  “She must have left, found the crime scene and then come back,” I mused. “She wasn’t there when I got there, but she came in a little bit after to tell everyone about the body.”

  “Well if she was there, then there was no way she could have killed Andrea,” Charlotte said. “So we have to find out from Betty if her alibi is real. And while you guys were out breaking the law, I did some cyber stalking and got some info about Andrew Powers.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked with interest.

  “He lives in Portland, so he could have easily come back to Willow Bay to take out Andrea Dottory. Plus, I called his work and found out that he wasn’t actually at work that day, he had decided to take a personal day.”

  Charlotte looked at us proudly, and I had to admit, I was impressed.

  “How did you manage that, Char?” I asked.

  “I called up the office where he’s working and asked the receptionist if she could remind me what time my appointment with him was, for my records. When I told her the date, she told me it couldn’t have been that day as he’d taken a personal day, and I apologized and told her I must have gotten myself confused and that I’d call back.”

  “Wow,” Sophie said, looking at Charlotte appraisingly. “I didn’t think you actually had the ability to lie in you.”

  Charlotte blushed. The funny thing was, even though she absolutely hated lying, Charlotte was actually very, very good at it.

  “So how do we figure out how to tell if Andrew Powers was in Willow Bay a few days ago?” I asked. The silence I received in response made it obvious neither one of the other two had any idea yet either.

  Suddenly, Sprinkles walked into the room, looking warily at Bee, but luckily my cat had fallen asleep on top of her scratcher, where the sunshine poured in. He settled down next to Sophie and let her pat him.

  “Are you talking about Andrea?” Sprinkles asked.

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Have you found out who hurt her yet?” he asked, his big eyes looking sadly at me.

  I had to shake my head. “No. No, I don’t know. The police think it was Antonia deLucca.

  Sprinkles let out a low growl, the first time I’d ever heard him do that. He was normally so polite.

  “Antonia is not a good person,” Sprinkles told us. Suddenly it hit me. Sprinkles was too young to have been alive back when Andrea and Antonia were friends, but maybe he knew what had happened between them!

  “Why not, Sprinkles?” I asked. “Why isn’t Antonia a good person?”

  “Antonia made Andrea’s daughter go away.”

  I looked up at the other two in shock.

  “You can look at us like that, but we don’t know what he just said,” Sophie said.

  “Oops,” I replied sheepishly, then quickly caught them up on the conversation.

  “Hey Sprinkles,” Sophie asked him kindly. “Where did Antonia make Andrea’s daughter go away to?”

  Could it possibly be true? Had Antonia deLucca killed Andrea’s daughter? I didn’t know she even had a daughter.

  “To London,” Sprinkles replied.

  “Wait, like, England?” I asked, surprised. That wasn’t exactly the answer I’d been expecting.

  “Yes. England. Janice got mad at Andrea when Antonia told her the truth, and she moved to England.”

  “But what did Antonia tell Janice to make her so mad?”

  “She told her the truth: that her parents weren’t her real parents, that they stole her.”

  My mouth dropped open at that revelation.

  “Stole her?” I noticed Charlotte and Sophie looking both confused and expectant. They could only understand my half of the conversation, but my God was it ever something!

  “Andrea told me the whole story one day, after Antonia visited her. She was crying. When she and her husband were young they found out they couldn’t have children. One day Andrea saw a girl at the mall when they were on holiday in Arizona. Her mom was hitting her. She told the woman to stop, and the woman told her to mind her own business. Andrea followed them. The mom kept hitting the poor little girl, and eventually Andrea decided the girl would have a better life with them. She took the little girl, admitted what she’d done to her husband, and they immediately drove back to Willow Bay with her. They told everyone that they had adopted her from a destitute cousin, and no one questioned it. Only Antonia knew the truth, because she was Andrea’s best friend. Andrea never told me why Antonia told her daughter the truth. But it was a long time ago. And Janice said she was leaving, and never coming back. And Andrea never saw her again, and it broke her heart. Andrea’s husband died about two months later.”

  My mouth was completely agape when Sprinkles finished telling me this story. I passed it on to Charlotte and Sophie, and their reactions mirrored mine.

  “I wonder if Antonia deciding to tell the truth had anything to do with what happened in Las Vegas?” Charlotte mused.

  “Maybe. Or maybe Las Vegas was after Antonia told Janice,” Sophie offered, but Charlotte shook her head.

  “No way. There’s no way Andrea w
ould go to Vegas with Antonia after her daughter left. Definitely not. She would have hated Antonia then.” Charlotte had a good point.

  “You know what? This is a problem that needs to be tackled with the help of some white cheddar popcorn,” I announced, getting up and making my way to the kitchen to grab the bag I’d bought the other day.

  I was thankful that Sprinkles was finally starting to open up to us. Maybe with his help we’d have an easier time breaking this case open. But oh man, was that ever a bombshell of a revelation.

  “But wait,” I realized after a minute. “I mean, this doesn’t mean Antonia had any reason to kill Andrea. In fact, it’s more the other way around. This gives Andrea a motive to kill Antonia, which she obviously didn’t do.”

  “That’s true,” Charlotte said, slowly. “It’s not like Antonia would have been likely to grow a conscience and decide to do away with her former best friend over this, randomly, now, years and years after Janice left anyway.”

  “Oh hell,” Sophie spat, crossing her arms. “I was really hoping that would have been a huge breakthrough for us.”

  I sighed. To be honest, I’d been hoping for that as well. The deeper we delved, the more frustrating this case got.

  Chapter 14

  We continued to chat about the case for two hours, but didn’t come any closer to any solutions. Eventually, we decided to give up for now and see if a good night’s sleep gave any of us any better ideas. Besides, Monday was the day of Andrea’s funeral, and Sprinkles had asked us if we could go. We said yes, obviously. Besides, who knew? Maybe we’d find out something that we didn’t realize was important while we were there.

  All dressed in black, we put a black bandana on Sprinkles and loaded him up into Sophie’s car with the three of us. We arrived at the church about twenty minutes before the ceremony was about to start, and as soon as we arrived everyone started fussing over Sprinkles.

  “Oh the poor dear.”

  “It’s so good of you to bring him here to say goodbye.”

  “I hope you find him a good home, there’s no one better in town to take care of him right now.”

  “What a sweet little dog.”

  As everyone fawned over him, Sophie, who had been holding his leash, eventually got separated from Charlotte and I, and we began to wander through the throngs of people.

  “I wonder how many people are here to pay their respects, and how many simply want to gossip?” Charlotte asked, looking around. It seemed as if the whole town had shown up. Andrea Dottory had never really been liked around town; she started too many spiteful rumours about people to really have any friends. And I was sure her popularity levels would drop even further if she’d heard what Sprinkles had told us last night. I figured Charlotte was right, most of the people here must have shown up just to be able to tell their friends that they were at the murdered woman’s funeral.

  I sighed, watching from afar as Sprinkles got all the attention in the world. His tail wagged low and slowly as Sophie led him towards the entrance to the church. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind a dog being in there for the service.

  Suddenly, I looked over and saw a familiar face coming over.

  “Fancy seeing you two here,” Jason Black greeted Charlotte and I with that cocky little grin of his.

  “Hi, Jason,” Charlotte said.

  “So I guess you’re here covering the funeral?” I asked him. “Still more interesting than the post office’s new paint job?”

  “Sure is!” he replied.

  “That’s a little bit… macabre, don’t you think?”

  “Well, I’m a journalist. Not all news is good news. Also, the post office paint job has been pushed back to being the third biggest news story this week!”

  “Behind Betty adding cheesecake to the menu this summer?” I asked.

  “Wait, Betty’s making cheesecake this summer?” Charlotte interrupted.

  “Apparently,” I replied.

  “Score!”

  “No, I forgot about that story,” Jason grinned. “I’m also writing a story about catfishing people online. Although the editor told me he might not run it, he likes my enthusiasm for actually coming up with stories. But actually I have a source inside the police station that tells me they suspect a gang is using Willow Bay as a hideout to move drugs.”

  “Seriously?”

  Jason nodded. “Yes, catfishing is an important issue these days,” he said with a straight face. I could have punched him.

  “Not that, no one cares about catfishing. The drug thing!”

  Jason grinned. “Don’t tell anyone, it’s supposed to be secret until the new paper comes out on Wednesday. But yeah.”

  “Just FYI, a “source inside the police station” in Willow Bay is like four people,” I told him. “Your sources may appreciate a broader description if you expect them to give you more info in the future.”

  If I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like Jason’s face began to fall for just a split second before he laughed.

  “Well, it looks like I still have a lot to learn about small towns. Good call, Angie, thanks,” he replied, winking at me. I felt a blush crawl up my face and wanted to curl up into a hole and die. Why did my face always have to betray me?

  “Why is this gang using Willow Bay though? And is it pot they’re moving?”

  Jason shook his head. “No, harder stuff. Although, presumably, they’re probably also moving some pot, since it’s so easy to get in Washington now. But from what I understand it’s mainly cocaine. They’re getting it from California, moving it up here to store it, and then shipping it out east somehow, without anyone noticing. I don’t know why they picked Willow Bay, honestly. It’s kind of far from the interstate, it’s small, but then again maybe that was the point, to get pretty rural. Who knows. Maybe my source will let me know when they catch them.”

  I smiled slightly. “Who knew Willow Bay had such interesting things to write about after all? I’m starting to think it’s you.”

  “I’m starting to think it’s me, too, honestly,” Jason laughed. “But seriously, not really. In case you were thinking of actually blaming that on me.”

  This time it was my turn to laugh, despite myself. Fine, he was a little bit funny.

  “Hey, Angela, I think the service is about to start,” Charlotte suddenly said, dragging me back towards the church. Was it bad that I’d completely forgotten my sister was even there? Oops.

  We made our way to the entrance of the Willow Bay Church. Inside, I found Sophie standing against the wall, towards the front of the church, with Sprinkles next to her. Charlotte and I made our way over just as the pastor made his way to the front of the room to begin the service.

  Sprinkles spent the whole service sitting at attention, his eyes focused on the pastor. I had to remind myself that even if Andrea Dottory wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, she had loved Sprinkles and taken good care of him, and he had loved her back. This must have been hard for him.

  At one point I took a moment to look around the packed church. The only family Andrea had was her niece, sitting in the second row. She couldn’t have possibly looked more bored.

  But then again, that matched everyone else in the room pretty well. I was pretty sure one guy in his late teens at the back of the church was actually playing Pokemon Go. Oh dear, buddy. There’s a time and a place, and this was neither.

  When the ceremony was over, I took Sprinkles over to the casket for a minute while Charlotte and Sophie waited outside. I gave him a last moment alone with his human, who had raised and loved him, and then we went back outside. I saw Charlotte and Sophie and waved at them, but before I managed to walk over to them my path was blocked my Kelly Dottory.

  I looked up at her in surprise. Her arms were crossed, she was obviously mad.

  “Ummm, hi?” I tried.

  “This is the dog, right?” Kelly said to me, pointing at Sprinkles. He lowered his ears when he heard the tone of Kelly’s voice, and I instinctively put a protective arm o
n him.

  “This is Andrea’s dog, Sprinkles, that I’m taking care of, yes,” I replied cooly.

  “He is cute. Really adorable. You need to give him to me, he’s mine.”

  “We’ve been over this,” I explained calmly, secretly glad that I had witnesses. “I’m taking care of Sprinkles until I can find him a responsible home.”

  “I am responsible,” Kelly whined, stamping her foot on the ground. It absolutely did not look adorable in a woman in her mid-20s.

  “Well, I’m not taking applications yet,” I said, trying to placate her. I noticed people staring; she was causing a scene. Charlotte and Sophie moved back towards me.

  “I don’t care! I’m Andrea’s heir, I get all her stuff, and I want a doggie to play with.”

  “You can’t have him,” I told her firmly. Suddenly, with a quickness I didn’t think she had in her, Kelly reached forward and grabbed the leash. She pulled, and I yanked it back away from her, hard, making sure not to hurt Sprinkles.

  When she opened her hands, Kelly let out a shriek. Her hands were red and raw where I’d pulled the leash away, I’d inadvertently given her rope burn. I hadn’t done it on purpose, but I also certainly wasn’t sad about it. How dare this woman come here and try to take Sprinkles by force?

  “I’m done. We’re going home,” I said, turning around. Sprinkles began to follow me when suddenly I felt something grab my hair.

  “No! You can’t do that! You BITCH!” Kelly screamed as she pulled my hair back. I yelled, off balance, and falling to the ground. Suddenly, I heard the sickening thud of bone on bone, and Kelly released my hair.

  I was dazed for a split second until I realized what had happened. Looking up, Kelly was holding her mouth, screaming as blood poured out of the wound. Sophie stood between the two of us, a bit of blood on her fist.

  “You don’t come near Angela again, you hear me?” Sophie told her. “Or Sprinkles. Or any of us.”

  Had what I thought happened seriously just happened?

  It certainly looked like it had. Sophie always had a temper, but damn. To actually punch a girl in the face, even if she had grabbed my hair and was pulling me down to the ground, that was hard! Even for Sophie!