Busy as a Beaver

Chapter 19

The next six hours or so flew by like a blur. I had to call Karen and ask her to reschedule the afternoon’s appointments as well, as there was no way we were going to make it back to Willow Bay in time. Luckily, all of my patients were extremely understanding when they found out exactly why I had to push their appointments back.

After Sophie had called 911, an ambulance came by first, followed very shortly by a police cruiser whose cops came right up to us.

“Can you tell us what happened here?” one of them asked, flipping open a notebook.

“He tried to attack us,” Sophie said. “Luckily, there were two of us, and we managed to get the upper hand eventually.”

Everything we told the cops was accurate, except for the magic, which we obviously left out. We explained to them that we had found out Chuck was actually Charles Green, but that there had been no evidence that he had been the one to attack Gloria and kill Michael Carlton. We explained that we had gone to the coffee shop to try and talk to him in a public setting, but that he followed us out and tried to kill us.

Ok, so we lied a little bit. But it was mainly so that Chief Gary wouldn’t yell at us quite as much as we knew he would if we told the truth. After all, there was nothing wrong with us going to see the man in a public place; that was the safe way to do it.

Sophie played the recording of the conversation between us and Chuck for the cops, then emailed it to one of them so that they would have a copy.

We were interrupted by one of the EMTs who wanted to know if either one of us required medical attention as well. I shook my head; my arm was starting to feel better with every passing minute and I didn’t think it was the sort of thing that was going to require medical attention.

“Is he going to be ok?” I asked, motioning towards Chuck.

“It’s too early to say,” the EMT replied. “We’re getting him to the hospital right now.”

With that, she left me, closed the ambulance bay doors, and got into the driver’s side seconds before peeling off, lights and sirens blaring.

“Well, at least it’s over,” Sophie said to me quietly. “We figured it out, and Gloria is safe now.”

I nodded. It was over. We knew who had committed the crimes, and he was incapacitated. Even if for whatever reason he couldn’t be tried for Michael Carlton’s murder, there was at least a pretty open-and-shut case of attempted murder against Sophie and me.

The cops brought us coffee and asked us to wait for a few more minutes. That was totally fine with me; I was definitely ok with hanging out here, as I wasn’t sure I was really in a state to drive back to Willow Bay. My hands shook as I took the steaming cup of coffee, and I suddenly realized that Sophie might be doing even worse than I was.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her, leaning my head against her shoulder.

“I’m actually ok,” Sophie said. “Even if he dies, I know that I did it to save you, and since it came down to a choice between having him in the world and having you in the world, well, I definitely made the right call.”

“I love you so much,” I said to Sophie.

“Same here. You need to work on those magic skills; that dude should have never been able to out-magic you.”

“Hey, it’s not like I come across a murdering wizard every day,” I argued. “Who am I going to fight against? Charlotte? I’m pretty sure she would destroy me one hundred percent of the time.”

As I said the words and realized that in a few months I wasn’t going to be able to magic-fight Charlotte even if I wanted to, my heart dropped slightly. I had always taken it for granted that my sister was going to be around all the time, and it was going to take a little bit to get used to the idea that it wouldn’t always be the case.

“Do you think that weird magical court you had to visit a while back is going to go after Chuck?” Sophie asked.

I shrugged. “I doubt it. After all, there was no one non-magical around except you, and you’re allowed to know about magic since your mom’s a witch, so there were no magical rules broken. If he uses his magic to try and break out of human jail, he’ll get nailed by them, though.”

“Was that how he stole the money, do you think?” Sophie asked. “Using magic?”

I shook my head. “No, I doubt it. The magical council would have definitely gotten mad at him for doing that. Besides, if he had used magic, he wouldn’t have needed help from Michael and Francis.”

Just then, a familiar car pulled up to the front of the alley. Chief Gary got out of the driver’s side and started making his way towards us, but not before I spotted his passenger: Jason. He practically sprinted out of the car and made his way over to me, taking me into a huge bear hug.

“I’m so glad you’re ok, Angie,” he whispered in my ear as he held me close.

“Me too,” I whispered back.

“I know you’re glad Angela is safe, but if you don’t mind, I have a few questions to ask,” came Chief Gary’s gruff voice from behind us, and Jason and I separated. I looked over sheepishly at him; I wasn’t quite sure just how mad he was at us. Going by the look on his face, probably about a seven out of ten.

That was ok. I could handle a seven.

“Now, Angela, I need you and Sophie to tell me everything that happened here.”

Sophie and I recounted our story, making sure to emphasize the part where we met Chuck in public but he followed us afterwards.

When I finished off by telling Chief Gary and Jason how Sophie called 9-1-1 and we waited here for them to arrive, I held my breath, wondering just how much we were going to get yelled at.

“I cannot believe the two of you,” Chief Gary said, shaking his head.

“What? You told us we needed more evidence,” Sophie said.

“No. No, I specifically thanked you for the information, and said that the police could now focus their attention on Charles Green in order to find the evidence needed to prove he did those things.”

“He would have never admitted it to the police, though,” Sophie argued. “But to us, on the other hand, it was different. Plus, I recorded it, so now you have all the evidence you need to prove he was the one who attacked Gloria.”

“Yes, and then he proceeded by attacking the two of you. I’m thankful that you managed to overpower him, but the two of you are going to end up giving me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” I said. “We honestly didn’t think he was going to attack us. After all, he was just an old man.”

An old man with magical powers that were more powerful than my own.

“Well, I’m glad the two of you are safe,” he said gruffly, turning to speak with the officers that had been the first on the scene.

“I’m glad too,” Jason said, nodding to Sophie.

“She saved my life,” I told him.

“Thank you,” Jason told Sophie. “Seriously, thank you.”

“We didn’t tell Chief Gary this, but Chuck had magical powers,” Sophie whispered. “Angela was amazing. She got me to run away, since I was at such a huge disadvantage compared to the two of them. But I couldn’t run. So I came back, and I hit him over the head with the piece of wood.”

“Which ended up saving my life,” I replied. “He was more powerful than me; I couldn’t break his protection spell, so nothing I did could hurt him.”

“Geez,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I really wish you wouldn’t get into these kinds of situations, but I always relied on the fact that you had your magic. I never imagined that you would come across someone else with the same powers.”

“Same, to be honest,” I admitted. “After all, the magical population is pretty low. We’re the only ones in all of Willow Bay with magical powers. It has to be something like zero-point-two percent of the population or something.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re ok,” Jason said. “Really, really glad.”

“Me too.” I smiled. “Now, if you don’t mind, let’s see if we can head back. I want to check on the beavers.”

The three of us got up, got permission to leave from the cops, and headed back to my car, where I handed my keys to Jason, letting him drive. I still definitely wasn’t feeling up to it if I didn’t have to; I was still pretty shaken up.

But it was over. Charles Green was in custody. He couldn’t hurt us anymore. And we had gotten justice for Gloria and for Buster.