Just Horsing Around

Chapter 20

The rest of the day passed in quite a bit of a blur. I made my way to the vet clinic and saw my patients for the morning. Around ten, I got a text from Jason. It was a picture of me, scowling at him through the passenger side window of my car. My eyes were half closed, my hair was sticking out the back of my head, there was a piece of straw poking out of my hair, I had dirt on my face, and my oversized t-shirt gave me a real puffy look. All in all, not my greatest moment.

This one’s going on the front page came the caption a minute later.

If it does, there’ll be one more murder to report in Willow Bay I replied.

Alright, alright. Meet me for lunch at Betty’s tomorrow?

Only if you promise not to run any photos of me this morning.

Promise. When’s your lunch break?

One to two.

See you then

So I had to admit, I my heart skipped a little bit of a beat knowing that I was going to get to see Jason for lunch the next day. It made the day go by just a little bit faster, knowing I had that to look forward to.

Luckily, while all of Willow Bay was talking about the incident that occurred at Gibson Farms that morning – that was all anyone knew so far, that it was an “incident” – no one seemed to know or guess that I was involved, so I was spared the usual Willow Bay mobbing for information that usually accompanied anyone knowing anything that might be gossip worthy in town. I knew it would only be so long before people would find out that I was involved and my moments of peace would disappear.

As for Sophie, she wasn’t pleased that she didn’t get to come along and be involved in all of the excitement, but when I told her how early it was when Charlotte woke me up, she seemed far less enthusiastic about it.

“I need my beauty sleep, you know.”

“I’m glad you think sleeping in was more important than stopping a murder,” I teased in reply.

“That’s so not what I meant, and you know it. But you and Charlotte obviously had it all under control.”

I smiled to myself. That was Sophie. Willing to go head first into any situation, as long as it was after 8am.

At lunch time I grabbed a quick sandwich to go and made my way over to the Willow Bay police station. After all, I had to thank Chief Gary for his help that morning; I was fairly certain that the Wawnee police would have been a little bit later in arriving if it wasn’t for him. He was sitting in his office, eating a sandwich himself, when I walked through the door. He motioned for me to come straight in, so I smiled at Casey the receptionist and went straight through.

“You have got to stop getting yourself into situations like this,” Chief Gary scolded as soon as I sat down across from him, taking my own sandwich out.

“It wasn’t my fault!” I said. “I called Chief Hawthorne the night before and told him everything. He told me that I was just a little girl who should just keep to myself and leave the detective work to the people who know what they’re talking about.”

Chief Gary practically choked on the piece of sandwich he was eating.

“He said what?” Chief Gary scowled, his face darkening. “I knew he was an idiot, but that’s ridiculous.”

“I know. So this morning when Charlotte realized that Philippe wasn’t done killing, that’s why she called you instead of him.”

“She told me that. I didn’t realize just how badly you got the brush off. Well, I did come here to tell you not to do that again, but at the same time, I realize you did save a girl’s life, so I can’t be too harsh.”

“I promise I’ll try to never get into that situation again,” I replied solemnly, taking a bite out of my sandwich.

“I feel like you’ve promised me that a couple of times now, and it never really ends up working out.”

“Yeah, well, Willow Bay is a small place,” I said. “Surely there can’t be that many more murderers around.” Suddenly, I thought of something. “Hey, I meant to ask you, too,” I continued. “Did you find out anything about Susan, the housekeeper? She was acting really weird after the murders, like the murders hit her a lot harder than someone’s terrible boss being killed normally would have.”

Chief Gary smiled. “Ah, so you still do need the help of the police sometimes, do you?” he teased, leaning back in his chair. I smiled sheepishly at him.

“Always, Chief Gary. I don’t think you need reminding that you saved my life a few weeks ago.”

“No, but it’s nice to hear you and your little crew of private investigators couldn’t figure everything out on your own this time.”

I blushed as Chief Gary took another bite from his sandwich. “But yes, there was something about her. It turns out Susan Granger isn’t her real name. She was born Susan Montford, and she worked as a personal assistant for a wealthy man back in England. Some lord of some kind or something, you know how they are over there. A title makes you a celebrity. Anyway, the guy dropped dead one day, it turns out he was poisoned, and they never caught the person who did it. The news raked Susan over the coals, though. There were insinuations that they were having an affair, that sort of thing. So she moved over here at the same time as her parents, started going by the name Susan Granger instead of Montford, and started a new life for herself.”

“So when she had another boss who was murdered…” I ventured, and Chief Gary finished the sentence off for me.

“Exactly. She was terrified that her secret was going to come out, and that she’d immediately be suspected of the murder.”

“That explains that, then,” I murmured. I imagined Susan must have been looking for any forms Caroline might have had in her study that had her real name on them the day I found her rummaging through Caroline’s things. She would have wanted anything like that to disappear before the police found them. I thanked Chief Gary again, promised to do my best not to get involved in any more murders, and headed back out to the vet clinic to deal with my afternoon patients, making a mental note to ask Karen to schedule a doctor’s appointment for me as well, since I was relatively sure I had a mild concussion from the hit with the pipe.

When we got home from work that afternoon Charlotte was out. She came back a little while later with a veggie supreme pizza from our favourite place.

“I thought we should get a treat for not only solving the murder, but also to enjoy while watching the entertainment today,” she declared.

“What entertainment?” Sophie asked, shooing away Bee who had started pacing around the pizza box expectantly.

“The press conference Chief Hawthorne is scheduled to give in five minutes,” she replied, moving over to the TV and turning it onto the local news channel. I passed around some plates and we all served ourselves before the news anchor came back onto the screen.

“And now we go from the studio to Wawnee, where local police chief Anthony Hawthorne has a statement to make regarding an incident this morning at Gibson Farms.”

The camera cut to Chief Hawthorne, who was obviously in his element standing in front of the police station with a makeshift podium in front of him. He fingered the note cards he was holding as he began his speech.

“Thank you. This morning the Wawnee Police received a tip that there was an assault occurring at a property in Wawnee. We responded immediately. Being police chief, I immediately realized that this likely had to do with the recent murders in Wawnee - ”

Chief Hawthorne was cut off by an enormous farting noise that suddenly engulfed the room. A few of the reporters in the background could be heard giggling.

“Yes, erm, as I was saying,” Hawthorne continued, his face going red as Charlotte, Sophie and I burst into laughter. “We arrived on the scene and found that my main suspect in the murder cases was already incapacitated-”

“Pffffffffrrrrrtttttttttttttt,” interrupted a new farting sound, eliciting even greater laughs from the three of us as Hawthorne’s face went an even deeper shade of red.

“Oh my God!” I laughed, “Why is this happening?”

“I went to his office this afternoon and put a spell on him,” Charlotte answered, tears of laughter streaming down her face. “Every time he lies, he farts loudly.”

“I rescind Angela’s status as my best friend, and I give it to you, Charlotte,” Sophie practically cried. “You’re my spirit animal now.”

“As the head of the investigation, I was already well aware that the man calling himself Philippe Marceau was actually a Swiss citizen with a grudge against the people at Gibson Farms.”

Another giant stream of fart, this one lasting a good five seconds, threw the three of us into an even greater fit of laughter. Hawthorne’s face was practically purple now.

“I would like to say that the man is in police custody in hospital now, and he will be facing justice. Thank you,” Hawthorne finished as the reporters could barely contain their laughter. He practically sprinted off the stage.

“That’ll serve him right for trying to take credit for everything,” Sophie said into the pillow she was clutching. “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Me too,” I laughed. “You’re crazy, but awesome, Charlotte.” My sister blushed as she took in the praise.

I sincerely hoped that I was never going to have to deal with Hawthorne ever again. The man was an absolute animal, and thanks to him an innocent girl had almost been killed.

But for now, as I ate my pizza, I was thankful that despite probably having a mild concussion, I was alive and well. At one point this morning, it hadn’t quite looked like I was going to get another day in this world, and I was incredibly, incredibly happy that things weren’t over for me yet.

I had a date with Jason tomorrow, too. Things were definitely looking up for me right now. Now I just had to hope no more bodies landed on my doorstep.