Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Chapter 12

After I got back and told Sophie and Charlotte what I’d found out, Sophie asked me if Sprinkles would want to go for a walk.

“I was just thinking, he’s been inside all the time since he came back, except to go do his business,” she was telling me. “It might be good for him to go out for a little bit.”

“I agree,” I told her. “I’ll ask him, if we promise not to go near Andrea’s house, he might be ok with it.”

I found Sprinkles lying down on the floor in my room, which he’d taken as a safe haven from Bee’s judgemental eyes. She still hadn’t quite forgiven me for bringing a dog into the house.

“Hey Sprinkles,” I told him, sitting down next to him. “Sophie and I were thinking, it might be good for you if you went for a short walk around the place. Would you like to do that? We won’t go anywhere near where Andrea was hurt. It’ll just be for a short while, and Sophie and I will take good care of you.”

Sprinkles thought about it for a moment.

“Ok,” he finally replied. “That would be nice, thank you. Although, could we please make it a short walk? I’m still a little bit nervous whenever I go outside.”

“Of course,” I told him. “Fifteen, twenty minutes at most. How does that sound?”

Sprinkles got up, and as he went to the door, I might have been mistaken but it seemed as if he had a little bit more energy about him. I nodded to Sophie, who grinned and went to grab her running shoes.

I took Sprinkle’s leash – which I’d run through the washing machine after he came home with us – and clipped him up to it. His tail even began to wag slightly as I reached for the door handle.

“Why don’t we turn right at the end of the driveway and head towards Main Street?” I asked Sprinkles. “We’ll turn back in about ten minutes or so. Would that be alright?”

“Ok, that’s good, thank you,” Sprinkles replied as Sophie came out of the house as well.

“I want to hold him!” she begged, and I handed her the leash as Sophie came out and gave him a pat.

“You’re really brave coming out with us today,” she told Sprinkles as she stood up and we started our walk. Sophie and I had a silent agreement not to talk about the murder; after all, with Sprinkles right there we didn’t want to talk so seemingly callously about the death of his owner. But Charlotte had added Kelly Dottory’s name to the list of suspects.

“It’s a gorgeous day out,” Sophie announced as Sprinkles sniffed a bush like his life depended on it.

“Yeah, if the weather this spring is an indication of things to come, this summer is going to be amazing,” I replied.

“I’m thinking of taking up paddleboarding,” Sophie told me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Really?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, but you have the balance and co-ordination of a drunk elephant,” I told her.

“Oh that’s so not fair.”

“Isn’t it? Because the other day I saw you fall over trying to put on a sock.”

“It got hooked on my little toe,” Sophie protested, but I saw the blush crawl up her face.

“Fine. I’ll come with you to some lessons if you want.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I not only think it’s a good idea, and it sounds like fun, but this way we’ll be able to record each other when we fall into the ocean.”

Sophie grinned. “Deal.”

Just then we saw Annalise come up the street with her dog, a little white schnauzer poodle cross named Strawberry, who barked in greeting as soon as he saw Sprinkles.

Sprinkles sprung forward on his leash; he obviously knew and liked Strawberry. Sophie ran forward with Sprinkles until the two dogs were close enough to say hi, and they started sniffing each other’s butts while their tails wagged wildly.

“Hey, Annalise,” I greeted her. “How are things?” Annalise was a customer at the vet clinic, and I saw her around town enough to say hi.

“Good, thanks Angela. How about you?”

“Yeah, not too bad. Taking care of poor Sprinkles here.”

“Oh the poor thing. Did you hear, Antonia deLucca’s being taken in for questioning at the police station. They spoke to her a few days ago, but they want to talk to her again. Apparently it looks like they’re coming close to arresting her for the murder.”

“Really?” I asked, looking surprised. We did have Antonia as one of the top suspects on our list, but I wanted to give the impression that this was shocking news.

“Yes. The police stopped by the café and were looking for her. She was doing her grocery shopping, and so they said they’d wait for her to go home and then bring her in when she’d packed them all away.”

“Wow, they must have some evidence against her then,” Sophie chimed in.

“Exactly. Apparently there was some feud between her and Andrea, something to do with Andrea’s husband. I’m not sure exactly what. Anyway, I’d better be on my way. Take care, girls!”

We said goodbye to Annalise, who went on her way. Sophie and I looked at each other. We definitely needed to find out what the police knew that led to them questioning Antonia deLucca twice about the murder. Or even better, we needed to be able to get into the room to hear the interrogation.

A few minutes later we turned back and headed home.

“Thank you for my walk,” Sprinkles told Sophie and I as we headed home. “The outside isn’t quite as scary as I remembered, and I liked seeing Strawberry.”

“No problem at all,” I replied, and passed the sentiment on to Sophie.

“Anytime, little buddy,” she told him, giving him a scratch between the ears. I had a feeling Sprinkles was growing on my best friend.

We let Sprinkles back into the house, but Sophie and I both stayed outside.

“I know you’re thinking what I’m thinking. We totally need to find out what the cops know and why they think Antonia was the one who murdered Andrea.”

I nodded. “Yup. Definitely.”

“But how are we going to get in there?” Sophie asked. “It’s not like we can barge in and just look around without anyone seeing us.”

I smiled coyly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

Sophie’s eyes widened as she realized what I meant. “Are you serious?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

“I am so in,” Sophie replied, as I glanced towards the house.

“Should we ask Charlotte? She might feel left out if she knew we were going to do this without telling her.”

“Nah. She’s got a bunch of work to do. Besides, all she’d do is complain about how we’re mis-using magic, and trespassing, and stuff.”

Sophie did have a point. We jumped into her car and parked out behind the vet clinic, so to any passers-by it would look like we were just doing some work on our day off. I unlocked the door and we went inside.

“Ok, so even though this spell should make us both invisible, it doesn’t make us like, ghosts. We can still touch things, obviously. So try not to run into anything, and for the love of God, don’t run into anyone.”

“Fine,” Sophie replied. “Can you just say the spell already?”

I focused on Sophie as hard as I could. “Nonvideroa,” I said in a low voice, pointing towards Sophie, and I felt the familiar jolt of energy shooting through me, pulsating through my whole body until it reached my fingertips and was expelled out of me. Sophie suddenly disappeared in front of me, and I smiled.

“Awesome,” I heard her voice say. “Now do you!”

I repeated the same process, focusing on myself, and a minute later I looked down, but couldn’t see anything else.

“Ok, now we have to go to the police station. Let’s go out the back door so no one sees the front door magically opening and closing,” I replied.

“Sure,” Sophie said.

“Wait, hold on!” I realized. “We should hang on to each other. After all, if we get separated, we can’t exactly call out to one another. If we do get split up for whatever reason, let’s meet back here in an hour.”

“Ok,” Sophie replied. “Where are you?”

“I’m over here.”

“Yeah but where’s your arm?”

A minute later we’d blindly managed to stumble into one another and held hands as we left the vet’s office. I looked around carefully to make sure there was no one around as I locked the door, then Sophie and I headed down the street towards the police station.

“How are we going to get in?” Sophie whispered as we got near. “It’s not like we can just walk over and open the door.”

“Shoot, I don’t know,” I replied. “Wait for someone to come in or leave?”

“Hold on, I got an idea,” Sophie whispered. A moment later, she dragged me right next to the front door of the police station. We waited there with bated breath for what felt like twenty minutes, but in reality was more like 45 seconds, when suddenly the front door opened. Taylor, Sophie’s boyfriend and a police officer here in Willow Bay, stood in the doorway and looked around for a minute, confused. Sophie dragged me into the police station behind him, both of us making sure not to brush past him by accident.

We stood in the corner and watched as Taylor eventually shrugged his shoulders and went back into the station. Sophie must have texted him to come out to the front of the station. That girl could be a genius sometimes, when she wanted to be.

Behind the receptionist’s desk was an open space for all the regular officers to work from. Taylor moved past us and sat down at one of the tables, and there was one other officer on duty as well. At the back of the room was Chief Gary’s office. The door was open, but there was no sign of him.

Sophie dragged me to the right, past the desks and past Chief Gary’s office. It seemed she knew the lay of the land here in the police station, much better than I did. I let her take me out to an area behind the offices. There was no one here, but there was a holding cell on the right and two doors on the left that I assumed led to interrogation rooms. I could tell from where she was that Sophie was peering into the interrogation rooms.

“She’s not here yet,” Sophie finally whispered.

“That must be where Chief Gary’s gone,” I replied.

“Let’s go look in his office, see what info he has,” Sophie said. I paused for a second. It felt like such a huge invasion of privacy to go wandering into Chief Gary’s office and looking at his things, but at the same time I also knew we had to find out as much as we could about the case. This was our chance.

“Ok,” I whispered. “But be careful! No one can know we’re here.”

Sophie and I raced back towards the office. Luckily, we didn’t see anyone, and in a minute we were in! Success!

Chief Gary’s desk was covered in papers. Seriously, I thought I was messy. I had nothing on Chief Gary. Sophie carefully shifted some papers around, looking for information, while I kept a lookout to make sure Chief Gary wasn’t on his way.

“Do you have to move the papers so much?” I asked at one point. “If anyone looks over here they’re going to know something’s up, and then we’re screwed.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not exactly the world’s most organized desk,” Sophie replied. “Hold up. There’s something here.”

“What is it?”

“An old arrest record. Wow! Antonia deLucca was arrested in 1989!”

“What for?”

“Ummm…” Sophie started, obviously scanning the old police report. Suddenly, I saw Chief Gary come in through the front door with Antonia.

“Shoot, they’re here.”

“Hold on,” Sophie hissed, and a second later I heard the snap of her phone camera. She had obviously just taken a picture of the report. I had to hand it to Sophie, she could think quickly on her feet sometimes.

“Come on,” I told Sophie. I kind of pulled her towards the door, and her hip hit the edge of the table. A whole bunch of papers went sliding off it and onto the floor.

“Shoot,” I muttered, looking around quickly. How on earth was this going to be explained away? I saw Chief Gary looking towards his office. He turned to tell Antonia to stay there, and that was when I saw my chance. I yanked Sophie towards me as I lunged towards the closed window and opened it. As I looked back, Chief Gary was turning and coming this way.

“Damn, why’d I leave my window open. Rebecca?” he called out to the receptionist when he saw what had happened to all his papers. “I have to interview Antonia here, do you mind picking these papers up and putting them back on my desk? I’ll organize them again later.”

Yeah, right. Those papers had never been organized in the first place.

We slipped out of Chief Gary’s office and followed him as he brought Antonia down to the area at the back and opened the door to one of the interview rooms. I sucked in my stomach as best I could as I slipped past Chief Gary, not daring to breathe.

Antonia sat down on a hard metal chair at the table, which was also made of metal, and bolted to the floor. This seemed excessive; after all, this was Willow Bay, not central Los Angeles. The walls were brick, painted in a blue-ish gray that I can only assume the police department got at a huge discount, because there was no reason anything should ever be painted in that color. It was fading and chipping away in parts; obviously it had been a long time since the room had been painted.

Sophie and I stood against the far wall as Chief Gary sat down in the chair across from Antonia and pulled out a notepad. What I wouldn’t give to see what he had written about this case! Still, I knew that literally reading over his shoulder was too big a risk. Way too big a risk.

Antonia had the look of someone who was absolutely not going to talk. With her head held high, she crossed her arms across her chest and glared at Chief Gary.

“So what was so important that you had to interrupt an old woman while she did her grocery shopping?” Antonia asked. She was spiteful and rude, but if I wasn’t mistaken, I did hear a little tinge of fear in her voice.

“I’m sorry, Antonia,” Chief Gary told her. “But we’ve come across some new information, and so I have some more questions for you.”

He waited for a minute, scribbling in his notepad, as if waiting for Antonia to give something up.

“Well?” she finally asked. I didn’t like Antonia deLucca, but I had to smile to myself. The old lady was the biggest gossip in town, especially with Andrea gone, but she was pretty good at keeping her mouth shut when the cops were around.

“We’ve come across an old police report from Las Vegas, from 1989.”

“Oh. Well, it took you long enough.”

“Would you like to explain what happened?”

“Not especially.” Antonia was making a show of looking bored, but I hadn’t missed that her eyes had widened slightly when Chief Gary mentioned the police report. She wasn’t expecting that.

“I have the police’s side of things. Would you like to tell me yours?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well in that case,” Chief Gary sighed, “I have to ask you for an alibi for the morning Andrea Dottory was murdered. Where were you that day at 11:30am?”

“Picking on an old woman like this. I’m in my seventies! It’s indecent,” she muttered.

“Antonia, I need an alibi, please.”

She stayed silent for so long that I wasn’t sure she was going to answer Chief Gary at all. Finally, she spoke.

“I was at Betty’s,” Antonia said. “Enjoying a cup of tea. Which is what I should be doing now. You can check with Betty. Now, if I’m not under arrest, I’m leaving.”

“Fine. But please, stay in town.”

Antonia laughed a shrill laugh as she left the room and I instinctively looked over at where Sophie was, even though we couldn’t see each other. If Antonia really was at Betty’s, then she had a rock solid alibi for the time of the murder.

We slipped back out through the door, and five minutes later were back in the empty vet clinic.

“Videroa,” I said, focusing on Sophie, and in an instant she reappeared in front of me. She looked at her hands, amazed, as I did the same for myself.

“That was so cool. We need to do that again sometime. Remind me to yell at my mom for not giving me the witch gene.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I haven’t done that sort of thing in a long, long time. It was pretty fun, except for that part where you knocked over all of Chief Gary’s papers.”

“That was your fault, for knocking me into the desk in the first place,” Sophie argued.

“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!”