Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Chapter 8

The next morning I woke up to find Sprinkles still sleeping in his makeshift bed, but as soon as I got up and started moving around, even though I did it as quietly as I could, he began to stir. He opened his eyes and lifted his head, but didn’t make any move to get off the pillows.

“Hey, Sprinkles,” I greeted him, coming over and scratching him behind the ears. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m pretty tired, to be honest. Are you going to be taking me to the pound today?” Sprinkles asked, and the sadness he said that with broke my heart.

“No,” I told him. “No, you’re going to stay here with me. I’m going to go tell Chief Gary, and I’m sure he’ll say it’s fine. Then when you’re feeling up to it, we’re going to find you a new home, ok? But not before then.”

“I’m so glad you’re not taking me to the pound. I’ve heard stories. I don’t want to go there.”

My heart broke for Sprinkles. “You won’t. I promise you Sprinkles, you won’t.” I gave him a hug, then told him to sleep in my room in peace, that I’d come back when we left with food and water.

“Is this because of the cat?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah. It’s not her safety I’m worried about, it’s yours. She comes to work with me though, so when we leave I’ll give you free reign of the house, ok?”

“Can you tell her I’m sorry, I don’t mean to impose?”

“Of course I can,” I replied, smiling. I wished all dogs were as polite as Sprinkles. Every time he came in for a check-up at the vet clinic he just stood on the exam table and let me examine him. Of course, with his owner right there I couldn’t exactly have a conversation with him those times, but it was nice to see that he was the sweetest little dog ever.

He lay his head back down comfortably on the little bed of pillows as I softly closed the door to the bedroom and made my way into the kitchen to make my morning smoothie before work.

Charlotte was out back taking care of the animals living in the stables at the back of the property, and she came in at almost the same time as I did.

“Someone’s not happy this morning,” she said, nodding her head towards Bee, who was sitting on the bookshelf, her tail dropping down over the edge, her face burrowed into the corner.

“Awwwwww, Bee, what’s wrong,” I asked, going over to see the cat.

“You let him sleep with you. In your room.” Her voice was muffled against the sound of the bookcase, and I could see Sophie struggling not to laugh at just how much my cat was sulking.

“I did. Because I wanted him to feel safe. He’d been left outside in the cold for days, I wanted him to have a nice, warm bed for once, like you do every night.”

“I do not. I have a nice, warm, couch.”

“Only because you decided to play fetch with my toes at 2am one time too many,” I protested.

“Did he sleep on the bed with you?” she asked, and the level of hurt in her voice was so ridiculous I wasn’t sure if I should be heartbroken or burst out laughing.

“No. He slept on the floor.” Well, that wasn’t completely true. But I wasn’t exactly lying to Bee, Sprinkles hadn’t slept on the bed. Bee’s tail flickered once, and I wondered if maybe she was starting to forgive me.

“When is he going away?”

“I don’t know Bee. His owner died. He has nowhere to take care of him, so we’re going to handle that for a little while. Are you ok with that?”

“Absolutely not at all.”

I sighed. “Come on, Bee. Sprinkles wanted me to let you know he said thank you for letting him stay in your home for a while.”

“The dog can say what he wants. I don’t like him, and I don’t want him here.”

“Well Bee, we all have to put up with things we don’t like sometimes. Come on, I’ll give you another piece of sushi if you move on out of there, ok?”

The promise of her favourite treat placated Bee enough that she allowed herself to move to the kitchen.

“I’m not coming to the office today,” Bee announced as I was getting the sushi out of the fridge.

“You absolutely are.”

“No. I need to protect my territory.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bee, you’re coming to work today. You don’t need to protect your territory. Sprinkles knows this is your place. And I’m not giving you sushi if you’re going to be difficult.”

“Fine,” my cat muttered. I really, really hoped Bee would never get tired of sushi.

When we got to the vet clinic Karen told me I had a free half hour to start off the day. I thanked her, asked her how she was feeling after her fall (she was fine), and rushed out of the office to get to talk to Chief Gary before I had to start seeing patients.

I found him just leaving the police station, and walking towards his old Crown Victoria. It wasn’t decorated in Willow Bay Police decals, but you could still tell it was a cop car from a mile away.

“Chief Gary!” I called out, jogging towards him and waving my arms.

“Angela!” he greeted me with a smile. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. I just wanted to chat to you about Andrea Dottory.”

Chief Gary’s smile fell. “Of course. It’s so incredibly sad. It took a while, but I finally tracked down her closest living relative, a niece in Seattle.”

“Oh, well I’m glad she had someone, at least.” Chief Gary made an unscrutable sound in his throat, but I didn’t have time to ask what he meant by it.

“I just wanted you to know, I found Sprinkles last night out behind the diner. I don’t know if he’s important to your investigation or not, but he seems pretty shaken up. I was wondering if you’d mind if I took care of him for a while? Until we can find him a suitable home?”

“Of course. Thanks, Angela. You’re so good with animals, you always were. His face clouded over with pain.

“You know, one of those times when I first saw you after the accident, I found you in your room, telling your pet hamsters what had happened.”

“I did have a pretty active imagination back then,” I said, laughing it off, although the memory of my parents dying still did bring a tinge of sadness to my heart.

“So yes, I’m glad to know Sprinkles is safe, you can definitely take care of him.”

“So… was it murder, like everyone is saying?” I asked in a conspiratorial whisper. Chief Gary sighed.

“Yes. It’s murder. It seems as if someone hit her in the back of the head to make it look like she just fell and hit her head on the pavement. They might have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for the flecks of a metal crowbar the medical examiner found lodged in her skull.”

“Wow,” I muttered. “Two murders in two months here. That’s unheard of!”

“I know. I’m not looking forward to going through another murder investigation,” Chief Gary couldn’t help but mutter, and I gave him a sympathetic look. I knew he really wasn’t a fan of his newfound fame. “Now, you girls aren’t going to go around trying to find the murderer this time, are you?”

“No, no, of course not,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to make sure you knew Sprinkles was ok, and to let you know I’d take care of him until we can find him a suitable owner.” Of course, if Sprinkles led us straight to the murderer, that wasn’t my fault. And seeing as I was the only person in town who could do it, there was no way Chief Gary could find out the information from Sprinkles himself. So that was totally fine.

“Good. Because I know we caught Zoe Wright thanks to you last time, but you were almost killed. I don’t want that happening again.”

“It won’t, Chief. I promise.”

Chief Gary smiled at me. “Thanks, Angela. I just don’t want to have to worry about you too much.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Chief. Now I’ll let you get back to work, I have an angry cat with an infection who needs to be seen, anyway.”

The day passed relatively uneventfully, and when the three of us were home I caught Charlotte up on the fact that it turned out to have been a murder after all, having told Sophie earlier in the day at the clinic.

“I can’t believe it! And so soon after Nyman’s murder. This is insane. Who could have done this?”

I looked toward Sprinkles, who was lying down in the corner with his face in between his paws, getting stared down by Bee from her spot on top of the bookcase.

“I was thinking of maybe trying to ask him again tonight,” I said. “After all, it’s important. There is a murderer out there, and Sprinkles might know who it is.”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah. I agree. He’s such a little sweetie though, it’s so sad to think about what he’s gone through.”

It was funny, most of the town, it turned out, liked Sprinkles more than his owner. A few people in the clinic who found out I was taking care of him mentioned what a tragedy it was that he lost his owner, but nothing about the tragedy of a woman losing her life to a murderer who was out on the loose. Although, to be fair, that list bit was still just idle town gossip; I was fairly certain there were only a handful of people who actually knew it was murder.

I brought Sprinkles over a bowl of food, and put Bee’s dinner on the other side of the room, along with half a sushi roll as a bribe.

I sat next to Sprinkles as he ate his food. Most dogs disliked humans being nearby when they ate, but Sprinkles didn’t seem to mind at all. When he was finished, I patted him as he lay back down on the ground.

“Hey Sprinkles,” I told him, gently stroking his soft fur. I spoke softly, knowing how he reacted the night before to this kind of questioning. “Are you up for answering a few questions? It’s important.”

“If it’s important, I’ll try,” Sprinkles told me. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” I told him, smiling. “What can you tell me about when Andrea was… hurt?”

Sprinkles suddenly began to shake violently.

“No. No, no. No. I can’t. I can’t. I don’t know. I don’t remember. I can’t.”

“Ok, ok,” I told him, patting him again. “It’s ok, you don’t have to say anything. It’s ok.”

“I’m sorry,” Sprinkles told me, looking up at me with his big brown eyes. “I can’t. I can’t remember. All I remember is fear.”

“Ok, that’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” I told him with a smile. I looked up to where Sophie and Charlotte were working on dinner and shook my head. Sophie came over and started patting Sprinkles as well.

“You’re a good boy, aren’t you,” she asked him, earning a hiss from Bee on the other side of the room.

“You don’t even like Sophie,” I shot at my cat.

“Well that doesn’t mean she’s allowed to like dogs,” Bee replied, and I rolled my eyes.

“Angela?” Sprinkles asked, and I looked over at him. At least now he was calling me by my first name instead of ‘ma’am’.

“Yes, Sprinkles?”

“Would it be alright if I went to bed now? I’m still quite tired.”

“Of course!” I told him, and led him back into my room, settled him in on his temporary bed – I made a mental note to go to the pet shop a few towns over and get him a bed on my next day off – and told him to sleep tight as I closed the door behind him.

“He’s a little sweetie, isn’t he?” Sophie asked me as I came back into the kitchen and washed my hands before grabbing plates for the homemade veggie supreme pizza she and Charlotte had just made.

“I’m a little sweetie,” Bee complained as she jumped onto the counter, walking along the ledge.

“You are not in any way a little sweetie,” I replied, picking her up off the counter and setting her back down on the ground. “For one thing, you’ve known for years you’re not allowed up on the counter.”

“I’m acting out because I’m being replaced.”

“You are not being replaced. I love you, Bee. But I need to take care of Sprinkles too for a little while. Plus, Sprinkles might have information to help us catch a murderer. It’s important that he feel comfortable here.”

I turned to Sophie and Charlotte.

“I asked him, but he’s too scared. He says he doesn’t remember anything, only being scared. My guess is he’s repressed whatever happened.”

“Awwww, poor thing,” Sophie muttered. “Do you think he’ll remember with time?”

I shrugged. “I hope so. It certainly would help. I also think possibly telling him that whoever killed his owner has been arrested might help.”

“Oh no,” Charlotte said. “Absolutely not. The last time you decided to hunt down a murderer yourself you almost died.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t?” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “And we did catch the murderer. Zoe Wright’s going to be spending the next 30 years in jail thanks to us.”

“Was it really worth it though? What if this time we do die? What then?”

“Oh my God Charlotte, you’re such a baby,” Sophie chimed in.

“Of course you agree with her,” Charlotte said, crossing her arms. “You’re both insane.”

“Fine, well, you don’t have to have anything to do with it,” I told her.

“That’s ridiculous. If you’re doing this, I’m in too. One of us has to be smart enough to keep you from killing yourselves.”

“Well, we’re doing it. For Sprinkles,” Sophie said. “I don’t want that poor dog being so scared anymore. If we can use him to find the killer, great. If we can’t, well, we’ll find the killer on our own and hopefully that will help him heal. He’s too sweet a dog to go through this.”

Charlotte sighed. “I hate both of you.”

I supposed that meant she was in!