If he sat here and took a close look at it, he probably could decode it. But, if he was honest with himself, he really hated puzzles like that. Jackson wouldn’t be far away, and he could at least give the code to someone who would enjoy solving it.
On the side of his desk, his cell suddenly rang; the sound piercing in the silence. Groaning again, Jack pulled himself up into a sitting position. He was so tired, but he couldn’t take a break, not until this case was solved.
“Sheriff Lewis speaking,” he said gruffly into the phone once he had picked it up.
“Jack?” At the sound of Paige’s voice, Jack sat bolt upright.
“Paige!” he said. He blinked, looking at the clock. It was only seven o’clock in the morning. “It’s a little early for you to be calling, isn’t it?”
“I decided to take Barkley on an early morning walk,” Paige said, and he could almost see her shrug. “I haven’t been feeling the best, and the morning air was good for me.”
“Do you feel better now?” Jack said, absently flicking a page of the journal; none of the entries were very long, and most of them were in dot points. He wondered if this was the break he was looking for or just another dead end.
“Well…” The hesitation in Paige’s voice made Jack pause. “We went out to Otter Crest Loop; it’s been so long since I went that way.”
Jack’s grip on the phone tightened. Otter Crest Loop… The place where all those dogs had gone missing. He hadn’t spoken to Paige about his suspicions about the place, but he forced himself to calm; all the kidnapped dogs had been competition winners. Barkley was anything but.
“Did everything go alright?” he couldn’t help asking.
“We weren’t there for very long,” Paige said slowly. “Barkley… He suddenly stopped and he seemed really upset about something. He even growled. Then he started digging at the ground. Jack…we found blood.”
“Blood?” Jack gasped.
“A lot of it,” Paige added. “It had been covered up by the sand.”
Jack cursed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Where did you find it?” he demanded.
“It was in this little cove… We were only walking for a few minutes,” Paige said. “There were a few rocks there, too, ones that would be big enough to hide behind.”
Jack opened his mouth to say something and then paused. That was odd wording. Why didn’t Paige just say that the rocks were large? How did she know that they were large enough to hide behind?
“Anyway, we only dug a small hole, and I covered it back up,” Paige continued. “I thought it might protect the blood so you could get out there.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, standing. He heard the station door open, and he grabbed the journal off the desk. “Where are you now, Paige?”
“Home,” Paige said. “Sorry, I know I should have called you straight away, but I didn’t think it would be a good thing to hang around there.”
It was actually a relief to know that Paige wasn’t still at the crime scene.
“I’ll head out there straight away,” he promised, stepping into the main office and waving to Jackson; the officer paused in the middle of hanging up his coat. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“…No,” Paige said.
Jack closed his eyes. That hesitation was telling him that there was something that Paige could tell him, but she wasn’t going to just yet.
He would get it out of her later, though. Right now, he had bigger problems. If Paige had found a large amount of blood, then it may just be the crime scene that he had been looking for all week.
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll talk to you later, Paige.”
“Take care.”
He hung up and turned to Jackson, who was shrugging his coat on again.
“Where are we going?” the officer asked.
“Otter Crest Loop,” Jack said grimly. “We might have just found the scene of Jonathan Cook’s murder. Paige was on a walk there this morning, and she uncovered a large amount of blood.”
“Lucky,” Jackson said.
Was it luck? Jack pressed his lips into a thin line. He felt oddly out of control, and he wished that Paige would trust him enough to let him in on whatever secret she was keeping.
“Yeah,” was all he said. “On the way, will you take a look at this?”
“What is it?” Jackson asked, taking the journal being passed to him.
“Jonathan Cook’s missing journal,” Jack said. “It’s in code. Paige and River Townsend brought it in last night after they found it hidden in his apartment.”
Jackson frowned as he opened it. “Paige again? Sheriff, are you sure she’s keeping out of it, like you asked her to?”
Jack sighed. “No, I’m not.”
Otter Crest Loop was gloomy when Jack arrived, and the wind was biting. There was a handful of people down on the beach, though they all looked the other way when they saw the two officers approaching.
“Forensics on their way?” he asked.
“They should be here soon,” Jackson said, glancing up from the journal. “I think I cracked the code, Sheriff, but I need to write it down.”
“Use my notebook,” Jack said, tossing him the small, thick book. “Come on, let’s find this crime scene.”
“Uh…how?” Jackson asked, raising an eyebrow. “You said Barkley was the one that found the blood. How are we supposed to find it?”
“Paige described the area,” Jack said with a shrug.
“We really need to invest in a police dog,” Jackson said with a sigh. “Alright, lead the way, Sheriff.”
In the end, however, it didn’t take them long to find. The tide hadn’t yet washed far enough up the beach to disturb the area Paige had discovered, so it was easy to see both Paige’s and Barkley’s footsteps on the ground. On top of that, when they came to a small cove, they could see the patch of ground that Barkley had dug up by the claw marks on the ground, even if Paige had then covered the hole.
It looked like she had been in a hurry, Jack noted with narrowed eyes. The hole wasn’t completely filled. He could also see her footsteps (though there was no sign of Barkley’s on this path) leading toward the rocks.
Frowning, he walked closer to the water. There were several other footprints in the area. Closer to the sea, he could see Barkley’s pawprints once more, followed, for a meter or two, by an odd, long line, as though he had been trailing something, before it abruptly disappeared.
What had happened here? Had Paige been spooked by someone coming near while she uncovered blood? Or had something else occurred?
Why wouldn’t she just tell me?
“Sheriff!” Jackson called, breaking into Jack’s thoughts.
He turned around. Jackson was kneeling at the hole Barkley had no doubt dug, brushing it away with his gloved hands. His expression was grim, and Jack hurried back to him, peering into the uncovered hole.
“It’s old blood,” Jackson noted. “But we have no way of telling whose it is until forensics get here.”
Jack sighed. Did that really matter? Jonathan was the only person that had been killed in recent months in Otter Rock; there was only one person this blood could belong to.
On top of that, it definitely fit the theory that Jonathan Cook had known something about the dog kidnappers. If this was his blood, then he had been killed on the same beach all those dogs had gone missing.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Close off the area,” he ordered. “This area is now a scene under investigation.”
“On it, Sheriff,” Jackson said with a nod, pulling himself to his feet. “By the way…here’s the translation from the journal.”
Jack took the pages Jackson handed him, scanning the rough scribbles. His lips pressed into a thin line.
“Thanks,” he said. “Once you’ve cordoned off the area…please go and pick up Alice Campbell. I think we need to ask her some questions.
The officer nodded and turned away. As Jacks
on hurried off, pulling a roll of police tape from his pocket, Jack turned to look at the hole once more. Someone had gone to great lengths to disguise the true crime scene, and it was just unlucky for them that Paige had stumbled on it.
The problem was that he didn’t believe that that was a coincidence, either.
Jack sighed and closed his eyes.
‘Paige…what are you getting yourself into?’
Paige hadn’t expected to get a call back from Jack regarding the crime scene at Otter Crest Loop; she wasn’t part of the investigation, so she didn’t need to be informed about it. Instead, she moved restlessly around her home for the rest of the day, clicking on the television or listening to the radio on her phone, waiting for some sort of news.
At around midday her phone rang, startling her. She was surprised to see that it was her mother calling her, and she frowned as she picked it up.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Paige, there are police officers all over Otter Crest Loop, and a large area has been closed off by a police barrier,” her mother said abruptly.
So…they had found the blood and they were investigating.
“Okay,” she said. She frowned. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“I just didn’t want you to head down that way on your evening walk,” her mother said. “Andy believes that it might have something to do with the murder of that dog trainer.”
“Jack did say that they were still looking for the crime scene,” Paige agreed.
“If he’s found the crime scene, then he’s done a good job,” her mother said, satisfied. “Andy said they’ve also taken another suspect in.”
“Where’d you hear that?” Paige asked, startled.
“There was a special news report on television fifteen minutes ago.”
Paige mentally cursed. She had missed the report while she was fiddling with the radio on her phone, hoping that it might give her the information she sought.
“Did it say who they picked up?” she asked.
“No,” her mother said. “Just that new evidence had come to light, and the suspect worked closely with the victim.”
Paige sighed. No doubt about it, then; Jack had picked Alice up as a suspect. And why wouldn’t he? Jonathan Cook had obviously suspected her. Based on his journal, Alice was the most suspicious person in this entire case, now.
Except…
Paige sighed and bid her mother farewell. She didn’t think Alice had done it. And now there were two more suspicious players in this case. The only problem was that she had no proof that there was anything suspicious about them other than her own gut feeling.
She would find the evidence, she decided. Jessica Wilson was her client, so she was in the perfect position to figure out what was going on.
Somehow, Paige would get to the bottom of all this.
Chapter 20: Suspicions
20: Suspicions
The next morning, Paige was awakened by her phone ringing.
“Hello?” she said groggily, rubbing sleep from her eyes; at her feet, Barkley huffed at the disturbance and curled up a little tighter.
“I’m sorry to call you this early,” a familiar voice said. Paige sat upright, accidentally making Barkley tumble sideways. “It’s Jessica Wilson. Are you available for an appointment this morning?”
Paige’s heart thumped. Ignoring Barkley’s baleful look, she looked out the window, her mind whirling. Just yesterday, she had heard Jessica and Daniel discussing the possibility of firing Paige. Now, suddenly, Jessica wanted to come in for an appointment?
The timing was suspicious. The question was, what to do now? She could easily tell Jessica that she had other clients today and schedule an appointment for later in the week. But this might be her only opportunity to get the truth.
“Yes, I am,” she said. “What time would you like to come into the office?”
“In about two hours?” Jessica suggested.
“That’s good with me,” Paige agreed. “I’ll see you then.”
They hung up and Paige leaned back against her pillow, frowning. Should she call Jack and have him attend the appointment, as well?
No, she couldn’t do that. It would be a breach of confidence. If Jessica was just coming in for another appointment to discuss the divorce, it would be highly unprofessional to have Jack there.
Besides, there probably wasn’t much point in bothering Jack with this. He had enough to deal with; having Alice to question and the crime scene to search. She didn’t need to go to him with half-formed, unproven theories.
She could deal with this herself.
With that thought in mind, Paige sent her mother a message to ask her if she could take Barkley, and rolled out of bed. The puppy sighed, recognizing that his sleep was over, and grudgingly tumbled out of bed, too.
“Don’t pout, Barkley,” she said. “We have a big day ahead of us. Come on, come and get food.”
He trotted out of the bedroom on her heels, his jaws wide in what was unmistakably a yawn, and he sat heavily at his food bowl, watching as she dug out a can of dog food. Once he was fed, Paige dropped a few pieces of bread in the toaster and stood there for a moment, still thinking about the unusual appointment request.
Maybe Jessica wanted to fire her in person. Honestly, a phone call would have done the job and Paige wouldn’t have minded (too much), but she had had the odd client, back in Portland, who had bustled into their last appointment with her just to tell her that they no longer needed her services.
Normally, though, she could tell when that was going to happen. Whether because she could see the stirrings of resolution between the couple, or just because the client wasn’t happy for whatever reason, she was usually prepared for being fired long before it actually happened.
But this time, she hadn’t seen it coming. Daniel and Jessica were the most ill-suited couple she had ever come across, and she would never have imagined that they could resolve their differences. On top of that, Jessica had seemed happy enough with her services, even going so far as to thank Paige, at the end of their last appointment, and claim that she would never have gotten so far without her. So she didn’t think Jessica had been unhappy with her services.
It just didn’t make much sense.
Maybe I am just putting too much thought into this, she thought with a sigh as her toast popped up, now lightly browned.
All she could do was go to the appointment and see what Jessica wanted now. As she turned away, intending to find some butter in the fridge, something that glittered caught her eye.
The watch.
She had put it on the dining table, hoping to remember it next time she visited Jack, but it was still sitting there several days later.
Could it belong to Daniel? If it did, she should return it to him, somehow. Maybe Jessica would be kind enough to see to it that he got it, especially since they seemed to be talking to each other again. At the very least, she should ask Jessica if it belonged to her husband.
With this in mind, Paige scooped it up from the table and tucked it away in her pocket. She would ask Jessica about it when she heard what the woman had to say.
“Are you alright, Paige?” her mother asked with a frown, peering at her closely.
“I’m fine,” Paige assured her mother. “I’m just not looking forward to dealing with Jessica Wilson again; she and her husband are a handful.”
If anything, Jennifer’s frown became more pronounced.
“I see,” she said slowly. “Do you know how long the meeting will go on for?”
“Not long, I hope,” Paige said, glancing at her watch. “I should be back to pick Barkley up around midday. I’ll message you if I’m going to be any later.”
“Alright,” her mother said, taking the leash Paige was holding out to her.
Barkley yapped forlornly at Paige, and she bent down to scratch his ears, smiling at him.
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised the dog.
Then she walked away. She
could feel both her mother and Barkley watching her, and their serious eyes made some of the dread she was feeling ratchet up a few notches.
This is ridiculous, she told herself. She didn’t even know if there was something to worry about.
She got in her car and glanced in the mirror. Her mother was attempting to pull Barkley inside, but the puppy had dug his heels in. He likely wouldn’t move until she was out of sight.
He’s just going to miss me, she thought.
Or perhaps he had picked up on her dour emotions, and he was worrying about her. Her uncertainty had no doubt rubbed off on him. Because, no matter what she did, she simply could not convince herself that there was nothing to worry about.
“I always trust my gut instincts,” Jack had said to her some months ago when they spoke about his job. “They’ve never led me astray.”
Paige started the car and drove away. She didn’t really know what her gut instincts were telling her right now. She just knew that something was wrong, and she couldn’t do anything until she knew what it was.
When she got into town and parked her car, Paige drew in a deep breath. She didn’t know what truth was waiting for her here, but she was determined to find it. But she needed to go in there calmly; it would do her no good if she acted nervous when there shouldn’t be any reason for it.
When she arrived, the door to her office was still locked tight, and no one was waiting for her. She let it close behind her, and went about opening the curtains and windows, frowning at the dust; she had been so preoccupied that she hadn’t cleaned as much lately.
It was as she was opening the window in the inner office that she heard the door open, and she steeled herself.
“Is that you, Mrs. Wilson?” she called. “I’m in the office.”
She pushed the curtains aside, busying herself for a moment with tying them off, and turned around with a smile of greeting.
The smile abruptly fell when she realized that she had two people in her office.
The Comfy Canine Murder Case Page 13