Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Chapter 6

“Why does my mom want to have dinner with us at the diner anyway?” Sophie complained as she did her hair.

“Don’t ask me, all I know is we’re meeting her there,” I replied, hurrying out of the bathroom and back to my room to find a different top. I didn’t realize my old favourite had a mustard stain on it, so I tossed it into my laundry hamper as I picked out a simple, form fitting red tee to go with a pair of dark blue jeans and black flats. This was the Willow Bay equivalent of dressing up, and that was just the way I liked it.

“Don’t you dare tell her,” Charlotte hissed at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“Tell me what?” Sophie yelled from the bathroom. I held up my hands and gave Charlotte a look that screamed ‘you deal with it’ and went back to the living room.

“I don’t see why I can’t come to dinner,” Bee complained from her spot on the arm of the couch.

“You’ve had your dinner, that’s why,” I replied.

“That was canned food. I want real, fresh-cooked fish.”

“Well, if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll get you a sushi roll on the way back.”

A week earlier Charlotte had brought back some sushi for dinner – including some vegetarian ones for me (it’s a lot harder to eat animals when you can talk to them) – and after Bee nabbed one from Sophie’s plate she declared sushi to be her new favourite food, and that she wanted it for dinner every night.

Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but it was good to know a California roll was the best treat my cat could ask for.

I tried not to think about Sprinkles as we all piled up into Sophie’s car. I tried not to think about all the time we could spend looking for the poor thing instead of eating dinner. I had called Chief Gary earlier in the day, and he told me the dog hadn’t shown up yet. This was getting pretty worrying.

Charlotte had apparently invented some story, so Sophie still didn’t know about the mystery man when we got to the diner.

The Seaside Diner was right on the waterfront, and looked just like the stereotypical 50s hangout: red neon signs in the windows advertising Burgers, Fries, Milkshakes, black and white checkered floors, plush red booths and stools at the metallic curved counter with super bright lighting and cheery waitresses. Some people might think it was a bit kitschy, but I loved it. And the food was awesome. Great, stereotypically American fare. As soon as we walked in I saw Lisa sitting at a booth at the back. And sure enough, there was a man next to her.

Uh oh.

As soon as Lisa saw us she waved.

“This is what I wasn’t supposed to know about, wasn’t it?” Sophie hissed as we made our way down the aisle towards where Lisa was waiting. Lisa Mashito had brown hair and big round eyes, like a doe, which Sophie had inherited. Her face could look hard, but as soon as she smiled it always lit up gorgeously.

Charlotte ignored Sophie and instead burst into a huge smile. Leave it to my sister to be the most mature of the three of us, despite being the youngest.

“Lisa! How good to see you!” she exclaimed as she slid in the booth across from Sophie’s mom.

“You too, girls, I’m so glad you could all make dinner tonight.” She looked over at the man next to her, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she actually looked nervous. Lisa Mashito didn’t do nervous.

“I wanted to introduce you all to Austin Stark, my new boyfriend.” She paused for a split second before saying ‘boyfriend’, as if the word was all new to her.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Charlotte said, flashing him a smile. Austin Stark was exactly what I expected from someone who would date Lisa Mashito. She was the ultimate professional, and together they looked like they would make an incredible power couple. He wore a full suit, with expensive cufflinks and a haircut that probably cost more than my weekly salary.

“Nice to meet you too,” Austin replied, smiling. I shook his hand as well, but Sophie just sat at the booth and promptly ignored him.

“So what is it that you ladies do here in town?” Austin asked as the waitress brought us menus.

“I’m in medical school in Portland,” Charlotte offered first.

“And I run the vet clinic here in town. Sophie works there as well, she’s our vet tech,” I added, knowing that Sophie was absolutely not going to willingly offer anything constructive to this conversation. I knew not telling her about Austin beforehand had been a mistake. So far, Austin seemed pretty nice.

“How about you?” Charlotte asked politely. “How did you and Lisa meet?”

Austin looked over lovingly at Sophie’s mom, and I heard Sophie emit a low growl. I kicked her under the table. So much for giving people a chance before judging them.

Still, I had to admit, there was something about Austin that seemed a little bit… off. I didn’t know what it was, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I chalked it up to simply being uncomfortable with Lisa dating for the first time I could ever remember, it had to just be that.

“Lisa and I met through work,” Austin told us. “I run a real company, a distribution centre that supplies over a thousand stores throughout Oregon and Washington states.”

Excuse me? A real company? Was that a jab at my vet clinic?

“I can supply my foot up your ass,” I heard Sophie mutter so quietly next to me that only I could hear, and I had to admit, I had to struggle not to giggle. Still, maybe he didn’t mean anything by it.

“What was that, dear?” Lisa asked Sophie innocently. Oh, Lisa. For such a great mom, she really was clueless as to her daughter’s faults. Like her microscopically short fuse.

“Oh, nothing,” Sophie smiled overly sweetly.

The waitress came over to take our orders. The four of us ordered vegetarian; Charlotte, Lisa and Sophie were nice enough to (usually) eat vegetarian around me, although I knew and had no problem with the fact that when they were alone they were full carnivores.

“Is there a moratorium on meat or something?” Austin asked Lisa, looking at her curiously.

“Oh, Angela’s a vegetarian, so we always eat vegetarian around her. But you have what you want, don’t let us pressure you.”

“Well, as a full-fledged American, I’m going to have some meat. Specifically, the double double burger, with onion rings instead of fries,” he told the waitress as we handed over our menus.

Ok, that was enough. I might have been trying to fight my instincts, but the more Austin Stark opened his mouth, the less I liked him. Sophie had that fake smile that screamed ‘if I open my mouth I’m going to ruin this whole dinner so I’m just going to sit here looking like a happy idiot’, while Charlotte dutifully tried to make conversation with Austin. At least one of us was trying to keep the rapidly deteriorating peace.

“So how long have you and Lisa known each other?” Charlotte asked.

“Oh, about three months. We started dating two months ago, but to be honest, we weren’t sure how you’d react, so we decided to keep our relationship a little bit more secret for a while.”

I could feel Sophie using every ounce of energy she had not to bash her head against the table. How did neither Lisa or Austin realize that telling us about them ahead of time was surely a better idea than just showing up to dinner together one night?

I was worried that we’d quickly run out of things to talk about, but luckily, Sophie decided to pitch in at one point.

“Hey Austin, did you hear that today Willow Bay had its second murder in two months?”

“Sophie,” Lisa scolded. “That’s not exactly dinner conversation.”

“It’s fine,” Austin said, smiling. “I enjoy a little bit of local gossip here and there. Do they know who was killed?”

“A local gossip,” Sophie replied with a small smile. I couldn’t tell if she was ridiculously angry, enjoying herself, or both. Austin’s smile dropped slightly, but then he pasted it right back onto his face.

“Well, that’s quite sad. I heard you ladies had a little something to do with helping the police find the last killer,” he added.

“Yeah, we just helped,” I jumped in quickly, before either of the other two could reply. I was going to do my best to make sure this dinner didn’t devolve into total chaos, for Lisa’s sake. I might not like the guy, but if he made Lisa happy, wasn’t that what was important? After all, she’d raised Charlotte, Sophie and I as a single mother; the least we owed her was to be nice to her first boyfriend that we knew of since her divorce.

Just then the waitress came by with our meals – thank God – and the conversation was a lot slower as we all focused on our food.

We made it through the rest of the meal without anyone openly insulting anyone else, and when we finally parted ways, we decided that we’d just leave Lisa and Austin there and head straight back to the bungalow. Walking through the parking lot towards the car, I thought I heard a bang behind the restaurant.

“What was that?” I asked Charlotte and Sophie, and they shrugged. “Just someone throwing out some trash.”

“Maybe,” I replied, but something drove me to go have a look. Witch’s instinct? I wasn’t going to say no to that. “I’ll be right back.”

I made my way around the side of the diner building towards the back. Most of it consisted of windows, to let the guests see the view of the water, but the far end was just behind the kitchen. I made my way over there, certain that was where the sound came from.

I was suddenly extremely aware of the fact that I was alone, in the dark, at the back of a restaurant where I’d just heard a strange noise. My heart leapt into my throat as I heard something else, there was someone in the garbage at the back of the restaurant.

Moving ever so slowly, I made my way closer, and closer, until I saw what it was and let out a yelp.

Sophie and Charlotte came running over.

“What is it?” Sophie asked, as I came out holding a dirty, ragged, but still healthy looking red and white shepherd mix named Sprinkles.

“Sprinkles,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. We’d found him.