Busy as a Beaver

Chapter 2

As soon as the vet clinic closed for the night, Sophie and I packed everything away, got ready for the next day, and decided to stop by the clinic to see how Gloria was doing.

“I’m going to keep you here for now,” I told Buster. “However, if it turns out Gloria’s spending the night in the clinic, I’m going to come back and take you home, ok?”

“Why can’t I come with you?” Buster whined.

“Cats aren’t allowed in the hospital.”

“Please. I’m cleaner than most humans.”

“That may be true, but some humans are allergic to you, and it’s not fair to bring a cat into a situation where they’re already not feeling their best.”

“Isn’t that what you call Darwinism? Anyone who’s allergic to such a majestic creature as myself should be considered inferior anyway.”

I smiled as I rolled my eyes. Cats certainly had an interesting way of viewing the world.

“Maybe, but I don’t plan on getting myself kicked out of there, either, for sneaking you in. So stay here and I’ll come back later, either with Gloria or to come and get you.”

“Fine, but I’m starving here.”

“You’ll get dinner after I get back.”

Buster stalked to the back of the cage he was in and turned his back to me, obviously unimpressed with this turn of events.

Well, he was going to have to get over it. As much as I wanted to sneak him in to see Gloria, I was all too aware that the rules were there for a reason.

Ten minutes later Sophie and I drove up to the Willow Bay Medical Centre. It wasn’t a full-sized hospital—our small town definitely didn’t warrant that kind of infrastructure—but because of the frequent surfing tourism in the region, and some mountain biking as well, we did have a bit of a miniature emergency room with ten beds, X-ray capabilities, and a CT machine. Anyone requiring more complex emergency care was taken by ambulance or helicopter to Portland, but basic emergency needs could be taken care of here.

We found Gloria in one of the emergency beds, having her blood pressure taken by a nurse. Her face was covered with a bandage but she smiled as soon as she saw us, her brown eyes shining with questions.

“How is my little Buster?” she asked as soon as Sophie and I made our way towards her.

“He’s doing great,” I said to her with a smile. “He’ll have to be kept inside with minimal exercise for at least a month, possibly longer. We’ll re-do the X-rays in three weeks to see how the fracture is healing. Other than that, just make sure to change the bandage on his side daily, and he’ll be fine. How about you? How are you holding up?”

“So much better now that I know he’s going to be alright,” Gloria said, leaning back into the pillows on the bed.

“Have you called the police yet?” Sophie asked.

“One of the nurses did, about ten minutes ago,” Gloria replied. “They wanted to make sure I was taken care of first, but it looks like I’m going to be fine. No broken bones for me, luckily, just a few scrapes and bruises and possibly a very minor concussion from where he hit me over the head.”

Right on cue, Chief Gary poked his head around the corner. “Hello, Gloria. I got a call that you needed to speak to me?” He glanced over at Sophie and me. “I hope these two haven’t been trying to get in on this investigation before I have.”

“Of course not,” Sophie replied. “We just came to update Gloria on Buster’s status. He’s got a broken leg, thanks to the monster who did this to her.”

“Did what to you, exactly?” Chief Gary asked Gloria, pulling out a notepad. “Would you like these two young ladies to leave?”

“No, it’s fine,” Gloria said. “I like having them around. After all, they’re the ones who saved my Buster. I went out to get groceries this morning, and when I left I let Buster into the yard. He didn’t seem to want to come to the vet clinic today, so I just let him hang around outside while I did my shopping. We do that a lot, after all. I came back around one in the afternoon, and as soon as he saw the car, Buster came running up to it. He was meowing at me, so he must have known something was wrong, but being the silly old woman I am, I just ignored him. As soon as I entered, I knew there was something wrong. I could feel a presence, but before I managed to run, the man came into the room and drew his gun on me. He asked me where it was, where the money was.”

“Do you keep any money in the house?” Chief Gary asked, and Gloria shook her head vehemently.

“No, absolutely not. I had a twenty in my purse, but that was it. So I offered that to him, and he called me an idiot and hit me across the face with the base of the gun. That’s what caused this,” she continued, bringing her fingers gingerly to the bandages that covered her face.

“He asked me again where the money was, and I told him I didn’t have any. He stood over me, and I could have sworn he was going to shoot me, and that was when Buster came flying out of nowhere. He clawed at the man and he shouted in surprise. He dropped his gun, and when he did it went off, but I don’t think the bullet hit anything. He also managed to get a hold of Buster eventually and threw him against the cabinet. When he was free, he looked around for the gun, and in the time it took him to find it, I got up, grabbed Buster, and ran out the door. I didn’t look to see if he came after me. I don’t know if he searched my house. I just took Buster straight over to Angela.”

“Can you describe the man for me?” Chief Gary asked, but Gloria shook her head.

“Not really, no. He was wearing a mask and gloves.”

“Was he tall, short?”

“A little bit on the taller side, I think,” Gloria mused. “It’s hard to tell, though. He certainly wasn’t short.”

“Do you remember what he was wearing?” I asked, earning myself a look from Chief Gary. Evidently, I was not invited to help out in this interview.

“A dark hoodie and jeans,” Gloria replied, nodding slowly as she thought back. “And he had on sneakers. Nikes, with a stripe and three stars across the front. I remember those, because when he hit me and I fell to the ground I fell forward and was looking right at them.”

“Was there anything about his voice that stood out to you?”

“Not especially,” Gloria said.

“Would you recognize it if you heard it again?”

“Maybe, but I can’t say for certain.”

“Alright, thanks, Gloria. I’m going to send a patrol car over to your house straightaway to take care of things.”

“Thank you, Chief Gary,” Gloria told him.

“And can I expect the two of you to stay out of this?” Chief Gary asked, turning to Sophie and me.

“Of course,” I replied. “We weren’t intending to get involved at all. We’re only here to update Gloria on Buster.”

“Good,” Chief Gary replied. “Whoever did this is obviously dangerous, and I don’t want to see the two of you playing detective once again.”

Sophie and I nodded. I wasn’t even lying to Chief Gary, for once. I had no intention of getting involved. I was just glad to see Gloria and Buster were both going to be ok; that experience had to have been absolutely terrifying for them.

A nurse came by a few minutes later. “Gloria’s going to need her rest, so if you ladies can wrap it up soon, please?”

“Of course,” I answered. “Will she be able to go home tonight? We need to know; I have her cat at the vet clinic, and if not, I’ll bring him home with me for the night.”

The nurse looked at Gloria, who nodded. “It’s fine. I’d like to know as well.”

“The doctor would like to keep you overnight for observation, just to make sure there’s no internal bleeding we haven’t found, and because of the suspected concussion,” the nurse answered.

“Alright, we’ll go back to the clinic and get Buster,” Sophie told Gloria. “Bee will be happy; she gets to have a sleepover with her best friend.”

“Thank you so much, to both of you,” Gloria said, taking me by the hand. “I do have one more thing to ask of you, though.”

“Of course, anything,” I replied.

“I’d like the two of you to look into who did this to me, and find them, please.”

Oh. I thought she was going to ask us to water her plants or something.

“We can absolutely do that for you,” Sophie replied instantly, glaring at me as I opened my mouth to protest. Could we do that?

“Oh, thank you girls so much. You know, I do have complete faith in Chief Gary, but I’m well aware the two of you have become quite the investigators yourselves, and I really wouldn’t mind an extra set of eyes on this case. Obviously, if you’re not comfortable doing it, that’s completely fine.”

“No, no, we’re happy to help,” Sophie said. “You rest up, and we’ll take care of it. Come and see us tomorrow when you get out of here. We’ll bring Buster back to the clinic tomorrow so you can come and get him as well.”

As Sophie and I left a few minutes later, I turned to her, incredulous. “Why on earth would you tell her we would do that? Chief Gary explicitly told us not to,” I hissed.

“Well, it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve lied to him. Besides, we weren’t lying at the time. And how could we possibly say no to a kindly old lady like Gloria, especially when whoever did this hurt Buster, too?”

I rolled my eyes. “You just want another case to solve.”

“Hey, what can I say? Willow Bay is more fun when there’s crime happening. Luckily, this time, no one was murdered.”

“Not yet, anyway,” I said ominously. “What if whoever decided to attack Gloria does it again, and this time the victim doesn’t get away?”

“Even more reason for us to find who did this. The more eyes on it, the better. So come on, are you in, or are you going to wuss out on me?”

I sighed. “Fine. But we’re staying out of Chief Gary’s way, and if we find out anything, we need to tell him as well.”

“Sure thing,” Sophie said. “I’m so glad we’re going to be investigating this together.”

“Right. We’ll talk about it in the morning. I’m going to go pick Buster up from the vet clinic. Are you going to come?”

“Nah, I’m like a five minute walk from home, I’ll just go straight there. See you in the morning.”

I said goodbye to Sophie and climbed back into the car, wondering what on earth I had just gotten myself into.