Busy as a Beaver

Chapter 13

I spent most of the rest of the night looking at my phone, checking the app that was linked to the camera to see if anybody had come by and annoyed the beavers yet or not. There were a few videos triggered by the motion sensors, but so far they had all been of the beavers themselves, wiggling around outside of their lodge.

I had to admit, the quality of the video, even at night, was extremely good. The man in the shop had sold me that model specifically because I asked for something that would work well at night, and he had delivered. Apparently, this camera shot at a higher ISO than most, and it showed. While it wasn’t high-def or anything like that, even in the pitch black I could make out the outline of what was very obviously a beaver waddling around on the land near the lodge.

Afterwards, I began to browse Pinterest, looking for gift ideas to order or make for Charlotte to take with her to San Francisco. I knew I still had a few months, but I wanted to make sure that she had something really special from me. After all, I was her sister. I needed Charlotte to know that no matter what, she was in my heart, and that if she ever needed anything, she could always call.

Jason returned home a few hours later, and I heard Charlotte giving him the news in the kitchen as well. I smiled as he congratulated her. He came over with a bowl full of pasta and sat down on the couch next to me.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m ok,” I said with a smile. “Is the emergency all solved?”

“It certainly is. There was an issue with one of the drivers that the computer through which the printing was done used, but I managed to find an update and apply it. So we’re all good.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to reading your article about the break-in at Gloria’s.”

Jason shrugged. “Unfortunately, it’s definitely very far from my best work. I just wish we had more to go on. But none of that is important compared to the news I’m sure you just heard from Charlotte as well. How are you holding up?”

I smiled. “I’m thrilled for her. I mean, of course I’d be really happy if she decided to stay in Willow Bay, or the Portland area. But at the same time, I’m also so excited for her to see more of the world. Oregon is just one small corner of it, and I think getting out there and exploring a little bit more is going to be a great thing for her.”

“At least it’s only a few hours away by car, too.”

“Exactly! Plus, I’ve always wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge, and now I have the perfect excuse.”

Jason wrapped his arm around me. “I’m glad you’re happy for her.”

“And I bet you’re glad that we’re finally going to get this house to ourselves,” I teased, poking him in the stomach.

Jason laughed. “I like having Charlotte around here. This way, whenever I’m sick and you take me to go to the doctor, I can just ask your sister what’s wrong with me and she always tells me. Now I’m going to have to actually leave the house whenever I have medical issues.”

This time it was my turn to laugh. Things were definitely changing, but I knew that in the long term it was going to be for the better.

I woke up early the next morning to find Bee insisting that she get to come to the vet clinic that day. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary about that; Bee often enjoyed spending her days lying down in her bed on top of the counter, making snarky remarks at or about the clientele. Besides, Buster often came in to spend time with her as well, and I had a sneaking suspicion that as she began to heal Gloria might try bringing him by a few times simply to get a little bit of a break. That was completely fine by me; whatever I could do to help her healing process, I would.

Bee trotted after me towards the car and hopped in, and five minutes later we made our way through the back entrance of the vet clinic. Sophie was already there, drinking a coffee and motioning to an extra take-out cup waiting for me on the counter.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I told her as I took a deep sip of the caramel latte. Yeah, as good as the café we had gone to yesterday in Portland was, there was still nothing quite like a good morning coffee from Betty’s.

“How do we solve a murder when we have exactly zero suspects?” I asked Sophie at the end of the day as we began packing up our things.

“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “Find a suspect?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Maybe we should get together and just try to pound it out. Want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“Sure,” Sophie replied. “I’ll make some cookies and we’ll get wine-drunk and regret everything in the morning, but hopefully we’ll be a bit closer to solving the case.”

“Sounds good,” I laughed.

Half an hour later we were home, full of wine and Indian food that we’d picked up on the way, and Sophie was in the kitchen making vanilla bean sugar cookies with salted caramel icing—perfect for these cold winter nights—while Jason and I sat at the dining table watching her as we worked our way through what we knew about the case so far.

“So we still don’t know what the link between Gloria and Michael Carlton is?” I asked as I watched Sophie pour flour in the bowl.

“That’s right, but I have a source at the police station who confirms that the two home invasions were committed by the same person,” Sophie said.

I gave her a sly look. “That person wouldn’t happen to be someone you’re sleeping with, would it?”

Sophie winked in reply. Sometimes it was handy having your best friend dating one of the local cops.

“It must have been the bullet that fired in Gloria’s home,” Jason mused. “I assume they would have compared it to the bullet that killed Michael Carlton and would have found that it matched.”

“That was it,” Sophie said. “Taylor texted me this afternoon to tell me; he knows that I’m curious about this investigation.”

“Just how much do you tell him about how involved you get in these murder cases?” I asked. After all, I was curious. Jason basically knew everything about my investigations, mainly because he often helped out, what with being an investigative journalist and all. But somehow, I had a feeling that Taylor, being an actual policeman, wouldn’t be quite so enthusiastic about Sophie’s involvement.

“Oh, he just thinks I’m one of those true crime junkies that’s curious about that sort of thing,” Sophie said with a smile. I laughed; that sounded about right.

“Anyway, the important thing here is that we now have confirmation that the same person committed both home invasions,” Jason said. “So there has to be a link between the two; it makes no sense for these to be unrelated events.”

“Sure, but I mean, what could the link be?” I asked. “Gloria says she’s never heard of Michael, and there was no reason for her to ever have gone to his work or met him in any way.”

“Maybe we’re thinking of the wrong link,” Sophie said. “What about Gloria’s husband?”

“Francis Romano?”

“Yeah, him. What if he knew Michael Carlton, and Gloria just didn’t know about it?”

“That’s an interesting thought,” Jason said, tapping his pen lightly against the desk.

“What do we know about him?”

I thought back to what Betty had told me a few days earlier at the café.

“Well, I know that he grew up here. In Willow Bay, I mean. He was a teacher, like Gloria, but he taught high school whereas she taught middle school. I believe he retired earlier than Gloria because of a scandal of some sort; apparently, one teacher accused him of yelling at her or something, and he decided that rather than fight for his side he would just take his retirement.”

“That’s quite interesting,” Jason said. “Although, I’m not sure how anything like that would have led to his knowing Michael Carlton. After all, the guy was still an accountant.”

My eyes lit up as I suddenly realized why they would have known each other.

“He was an accountant, yes, but he worked in the same building as all of the human resources people!”

Sophie stopped mixing the cookie dough and gaped at me with her mouth open. “Oh my God, that’s got to be it.”

Jason nodded. “It does make perfect sense. Something like that, I imagine Francis Romano would have found himself visiting the human resources department of the District at least a few times. It’s possible that at some point there the two of them met.”

“True,” I said. “Although that doesn’t necessarily make things add up. I mean, we both know all of each other’s friends. My best friend is standing ten feet away from you now, and I’ve met all of your friends, like Jack, Nate, and Mike.”

“That’s a good point,” Jason said. “Still, maybe things are different when you’ve been married for, like, thirty years. Maybe they stopped caring about each other’s friends because they didn’t think it was as important?”

“Maybe,” Sophie said. “Still, I think Angela is right. There’s something weird about them being friends and Gloria having never even heard the name.”

“At least now we’re one step closer,” I said. “We may have figured out what the connection between the two victims is: Michael Carlton may have known Francis Romano.”

“That’s true,” Jason said. “I think we need to work under the assumption that this is the case. Otherwise, we are still stuck where we were at the beginning of this case.”

We continued to chat for a couple of hours, but the deduction of what may have linked Michael Carlton and Gloria was the only real discovery we made that night. Eventually, Sophie went back home, carrying with her a few cookies on a plate for Taylor, and Jason and I went to bed feeling like even if we were a little bit closer to the truth, we were still light-years away from the ultimate answer.