Knowing that he couldn’t put it off any longer, Jack pulled himself out of the car and headed to the small field. Alice saw him coming first, and she stopped speaking, making the others follow her gaze.
The surprise on Paige’s face was almost comical, and he had to control the smile that wanted to curve his lips, not wanting her to think he was laughing at her. He nodded to the group, looking around at them.
“Hello,” he said. “Sorry to interrupt, but I had a few more questions and I was hoping some of you might be willing to answer them.”
“Haven’t you already asked your questions?” asked one of the dog owners, sounding frustrated.
“I understand that you are all upset and tired of being questioned,” Jack said, hoping to reach them. “But circumstances have recently changed. We now believe that Jonathan Cook’s murder is connected to a series of dog thefts that have been occurring over the last several months. Many students of this school have been victims of this crime, and we believe that Jonathan Cook was investigating this, which may have been the motive for his death.”
“I can’t believe this!” A woman bustled to the front. It took Jack a moment to recognize Jessica Wilson, Paige’s current client. She had been happy to answer all his questions during her interview, but she had made it clear that she was upset to be a suspect. “First you suspect us all of murder, now you suspect us of theft?”
Several of the others were nodding with her, clearly upset at the continued suspicions. Before he could stop himself, Jack threw a helpless look at Paige, causing her to grimace in return. He saw her step forward, obviously intending on saying something.
“Please.”
Jack looked away from Paige, surprised at the sudden voice. It was Alice, who had been quiet until now, her eyes shadowed and her hands clenched at her side.
“Please, everyone,” she said, her voice carrying to them all. “I know it’s unsettling to be suspected of any crime, but Jonathan… He’s dead because of what had happened.” Several students shifted uncomfortably as tears started falling down the woman’s face. “If going through questioning can help us figure out what happened to Jonathan, then please help. I’m begging you.”
Jack looked around. Everyone was avoiding his gaze, but no one was refusing anymore, even Jessica. He glanced at Paige again; her worried eyes were on Alice but, as though feeling his gaze, she turned to look at him again and smiled slightly.
He cleared his throat, emboldened, and drew attention back to himself.
“This is not a formal interrogation,” he assured them all. “I’m not even interested in talking to everyone one by one. I’m happy to speak to you just like this, as long as everyone respects when someone is speaking. Now, let’s start with whoever knows anything about the thefts.”
In the end, it took almost an hour to speak to the small group. Jack wasn’t entirely sure if he had gotten anything useful; most of what he had gotten were rumors that had spread amongst them. One man had mentioned a rumor that Jonathan was the one behind the thefts, and Jack had had to wave Paige over to Alice before she snapped at the man.
Eventually, however, he dismissed everyone, resolving to trawl through everything he had heard later. Alice approached him as everyone milled around, returning to the lesson he had interrupted, looking as frustrated as he felt.
“I’m not sure that did much good,” she admitted.
“It’s good to hear what everyone thinks,” Jack told her. “I knew what I was getting into when I decided to go for an informal interview like this, especially with a group.” He paused. “It was interesting to see how everyone interacted with each other, and I got to watch how everyone reacted to each rumor.”
“Anything that stands out?” Alice asked.
Jack shook his head, not wanting to say that Paige’s expressions had stood out the most; she had looked like she was going to laugh when both Jonathan and River’s names were dragged through the mud, as though she couldn’t believe anyone would believe either of them were involved in this.
He had noted, with interest, that River wasn’t at the lesson today. They had let her go since they couldn’t hold her for very long without evidence, but she was still a person of interest in the case.
“I’ll let you know if I find anything,” he promised Alice. “For now, you should probably give your students a proper lesson.”
“Yeah,” Alice said with a sad smile. “Thank you, Sheriff.”
Once she had walked away, Jack let out a quiet huff. Every time he turned around, something new emerged about this case, making it more complicated than ever. Hopeful, he looked around for Paige.
She hadn’t wandered away with the rest of the class. She was standing nearby, kneeling on the ground as she patted Barkley, who was basking in the attention. Jack wasn’t sure if she was waiting for him, and he hesitated before he walked over to her.
“You’re not joining the lesson?” he asked.
She looked up and gave him another small smile.
“In a moment,” she said, standing and stretching. “So, that was pretty sneaky of you, Sheriff.”
For a moment Jack thought she was mad. Then he noticed the teasing tone in her voice, and his face relaxed into his own smile.
“Yeah, I can be cunning sometimes,” he joked.
Paige laughed. Jack’s heart rose at the sound, pleased to hear it.
“Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about something,” he said.
“What about?” Paige asked, curious.
Jack inhaled deeply. “I wanted to tell you that I’m not sorry that I’m asking you to stay out of this case. But…” He grimaced. “I regret that I think I’m hurting you, somehow.”
She just stared up at him, her eyes searching his.
“I think I’ve been hurting you, too,” she said quietly. “And I’m sorry.”
“Let’s sit down and talk?” Jack suggested. “I don’t think either of us knows what’s going on with each other right now, and I think we need to discuss it.”
“Yeah…when we have time,” Paige said with a small laugh. “But I agree.”
“I just…” Jack shook his head with a wry smile. “Can you try and see the reason why I keep asking you to leave the case alone? I promise I’m not saying it for no reason.”
“I know,” Paige said. Her smile was more reluctant this time, but it was still here. “I do understand, a little, I think.”
Jack nodded. He hadn’t explained himself properly, any more than she had, so he couldn’t expect anything more than that.
“Thanks,” he said.
Her smile grew a little, and Jack was overcome with fondness for this woman. They may be arguing now, their inherent stubbornness getting in the way of resolving the issue, but he really did love her, and he knew that they could work this out. Unable to help himself, he leaned in and kissed her softly, smiling against her lips when she kissed him back.
“Better get back to work,” he said, then spotted several gaping faces over her shoulder. “Looks like you have some explaining to do.”
“Yeah, I forgot to mention I was dating the sheriff,” Paige said with a wince. “Thanks for that.”
She didn’t sound upset, though, and Jack leaned in for another kiss before winking at her and walking away. He really did have a lot of work to do.
As he left the area, he heard a woman’s voice, high and irritated.
“Bet you get off the hook dating the sheriff,” she said. “We know who isn’t being suspected.”
“No,” he heard Paige say, her voice deliberately loud. “Dating the sheriff makes it harder.”
He looked back and she winked at him. Chuckling, Jack reached his car. Maybe, finally, things were starting to look up.
Chapter 14: More Clues
14: More Clues
It was in good spirits that Paige decided, the next day, to write up a shopping list and head to the store. She didn’t need much, but she was low on coffee, so she thought she should probabl
y stock up on everything else too. She left Barkley with her parents, promising to return and stay for dinner, and headed into town.
“Paige,” Andy said with a smile when she entered the store. “How are you doing?”
“Not bad, Andy,” Paige said, smiling back.
“I saw Jack the other day,” Andy said. “He looks pretty run down.”
“It’s a big case, Andy,” Paige said with a shrug. “I’m sure he has a lot to do.”
“No doubt,” Andy said. “So, what brings you here today?”
“Just some shopping,” Paige grinned. “I’m almost out of coffee.”
“The horror,” Andy laughed. “I’ll let you go and stock up, then.”
Paige grinned and headed for the shelves. She liked Andy Parker. The old man was her mother’s gossip partner when she was a child, and she doubted that had changed at all. Despite his gossiping, he was kind to everyone, and he was well-liked by all.
She found the coffee easily, and she dropped it in her basket before continuing on, scouring the shelves for any other essentials she needed. When she got to the end of the aisle, she turned and stopped short, pulled up by another customer who had turned in the opposite direction.
“Olivia,” she said, trying for a friendly smile. “We’ve been running into each other a lot lately.”
“Not by choice,” Olivia said with a scowl.
Paige frowned. She was starting to think that Olivia just had a problem with her, but she honestly couldn’t think why.
“Is there something wrong, Olivia?” she demanded, not prepared to beat around the bush. “Have I done something to offend you?”
The woman scowled, a red flush crawling up her pale cheeks. She lifted her chin, her eyes narrowing further.
“It’s offensive just seeing you hang all over Jack,” she sniffed.
Paige’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“Why don’t you go back to Portland where you belong,” Olivia said, brushing past her. “And leave Jack alone. You aren’t good enough for him.”
Paige watched her go, more shocked than angry at what she had just heard. She had no idea where that had just come from. Numbly, she gathered the last of her groceries and took them to the counter.
“You alright?” Andy asked, looking at her closely. “I heard what Olivia said to you.”
“Yeah,” Paige said, shaking her head to clear it. “I was just surprised. I didn’t realize she hated me that much.”
To her surprise, Andy laughed.
“She doesn’t hate you,” he said. “She just hates you being with Jack.” At her uncomprehending look he grinned. “It’s Otter Rock’s worst kept secret that Olivia’s been after Jack for years.”
“Why haven’t I heard about this?” Paige asked, taken aback.
“I’m surprised you haven’t yet,” Andy said with a shrug. “But Olivia hasn’t been here, and most folk don’t really talk about it. Poor Jack tried to tell her for a long time that he wasn’t interested, but she didn’t get the hint until he started seeing you.”
“Right,” Paige said. She snorted. “Well, that explains a lot. I should just stay out of her way.”
“Probably for the best,” Andy said with a grin, ringing up her purchases.
Once she’d paid him, she waved and left the store, shaking her head. She really needed to learn to listen to the gossip in town. She hadn’t paid much attention to it before now, because she wasn’t interested in hearing it, but it seemed like she was missing more than she realized.
Paige took her groceries back home first, and put them away, and then headed out to her parents’ place. Despite the confusing encounter with Olivia, she was still in a good mood, and she resolved not to let it worry her.
Jennifer was weeding the garden when she arrived, and her face lit up as Paige climbed out of the car, smiling.
“How are you, Mom?” she asked, kissing her mother on the cheek. “How’s Barkley?”
“Being a real terror, as usual,” Jennifer said, her eyes twinkling. “He’s out in the shed with your father.”
“As long as he doesn’t destroy anything, it’s fine,” Paige said with a shrug.
“That’s what your father said,” Jennifer laughed. “You look like you’re in a better mood today, Paige. You’ve been so down lately. Did something good happen?”
“Yeah, Jack and I had a bit of a talk,” Paige said with a soft smile. “I think we’re both being foolish, but we’ve promised to sit down and have a real talk about it all.”
“That’s good,” Jennifer said, beaming at her. “It’s important to talk about everything in a relationship, whether it’s good or bad.”
“I think we’re still trying to figure out where we stand with each other,” Paige said with a sigh. “With me leaving for so long and everything. I still remember him as a teenager, but he’s older now, and I need to remember that.”
“I think he does, too,” Jennifer pointed out.
“Probably,” Paige said. Her smile fell. “It probably doesn’t help that I still don’t know what I want.”
Jennifer shot her a shrewd look. “Are you still deciding whether or not to return to Portland?”
“It was my home for a really long time,” Paige said. She gave her mother a weak smile. “I miss being there, sometimes.”
“Perhaps you should figure out what, exactly, it is you miss,” Jennifer said. “Then maybe you’ll get an answer to what you should do.”
Paige paused, eyeing her mother. “Do you have an idea about it?”
Jennifer laughed. “I can’t tell you what to do, Paige! You were a headstrong teenager, and you’re even more so as an adult! No, I don’t know what the right answer is for you. You need to figure that out for yourself.”
Paige sighed. She knew, logically, that no one could tell her what to do with her life. Sometimes, though, she wished that there was a huge neon sign to point her in the right direction.
She heard cheerful barking inside the house, breaking into her thoughts. As she turned to the house, the front door opened and Barkley shot through it, his tail wagging as he raced toward her, yapping excitedly. She laughed and kneeled down, allowing him to lick her face a few times before she held him at arm’s length, making him wriggle in her grip.
“Looks like you missed me,” she said to Barkley.
“He’s been watching the door for the last ten minutes,” Patrick called from the porch, leaning on the railing with a smile.
Paige put Barkley down and headed for the porch. As she came closer, she could smell something good in the air.
“Something smells good,” she said over her shoulder to Jennifer.
“I thought I’d cook chicken tonight,” Jennifer said, putting her tools down and stripping off her gardening gloves. “You are staying for dinner?”
“I said I would,” Paige reminded her.
“Good,” Jennifer said, poking Paige in the stomach. “You look like you’re losing weight again. Have you been eating properly?”
“Yes,” Paige said, with all the indignation she could muster. “I can take care of myself.”
One or two skipped meals weren’t going to hurt, anyway. She was definitely taking better care of herself than she had in Portland. She was eating regularly and getting daily exercise with Barkley.
Jennifer shot her a look that said she didn’t really believe her, but she let it drop as they all walked into the house. Barkley took off somewhere, and Paige let him go since neither of her parents looked very concerned by this.
“We moved everything that Barkley could tear or break to higher ground,” Patrick explained as they moved toward the kitchen. “So don’t worry too much about what he’s doing.”
“I should probably do that,” Paige sighed. “He did climb onto the kitchen table the other day, and he knocked a few things down. Nothing breakable, thankfully.”
“I’d say keeping up with Barkley is taking up a lot of your time,” Jennifer said.
&nb
sp; Paige gave the air an appreciative sniff as they entered the kitchen, and smiled.
“Yeah, but it isn’t so bad,” she said with a shrug. “It keeps me on my toes. My biggest worry, right now, are those dog thefts that have been happening. They were all connected to the dog school I’m attending, so I need to keep an eye out.”
“You could just move schools,” Patrick pointed out.
Paige shrugged, not wanting to admit that she was too invested in the murder of Jonathan Cook to go anywhere else.
“You know, we knew some of the people that lost their poor dogs,” Jennifer mused. “They were all champions in their own right. Poor Martha’s dog was competing at a state level… What type of dog was it again, Pat?”
“A German Shorthaired Pointer, I believe,” Patrick mused. “He was a beautiful dog, and very well-trained.”
“I did see some pictures of the missing dogs, and most of them seemed to be competition dogs,” Paige said. “I wonder what happened to them?”
“No doubt they were taken and sold,” Patrick said, his voice grim. “Champion dogs can sell for a lot of money to the right people.”
Paige made a face. “That’s awful. One of the dogs at the training school went missing recently, too. The owner said he was training at the beach, and, when he turned around, his dog was just gone.”
“Same thing happened to Martha, didn’t it?” Jennifer said to her husband. “She was down at the beach, playing with her dog, and then he was gone.”
“I think poor old Hughes said the same thing,” Patrick added.
“They were all at the beach?” Paige asked, puzzled.
“Most of them, as far as I know,” Jennifer said with a shrug. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you own a dog, you’re usually watching over them. But if you’re playing with them, you’ll throw a ball and let them chase after it. The beaches here in Otter Rock are a good place to do that because the area is so big. Now, where exactly did Martha say she was?”
The Comfy Canine Murder Case Page 9