Sleeping With The Fishes

Chapter 20

I sent Jason a text as I made my way toward my car as soon as the vet clinic closed.

Jake, the roommate, is the murderer. Going to see him now.

I had to get Jake to admit to me what he’d done. After all, I didn’t actually have any proof, just a hunch and a bit of what the crime shows on TV that I watched way too often would call circumstantial evidence.

When five minutes after I sent the text Jason hadn’t replied, I figured he was still asleep. As I made the drive up to Lake Oswego, everything continued to fall into place. It all made sense. The only thing I didn’t know was why he had done it. Hopefully Jake would be surprised enough when he saw me that he would admit to everything.

I arrived at the house just before one. I parked the car in front of his house and made my way up toward it. Opening a recording app on my phone, I slipped it into the pocket of the hoodie I was wearing. This way, if Jake did admit to me what he’d done, there would be evidence of it. I could hand it over to Chief Gary, and he’d go away for life, and Jason and I would officially be suspects no more.

The only problem was, despite ringing the doorbell three times there was no answer. Jake wasn’t home. I looked around, and sure enough, I couldn’t see his Prius anywhere.

“Are you looking for Jake?” a woman’s voice asked, and I looked over to where the sound came from. An elderly woman was looking over the hedge separating Jake’s house from his neighbor’s, an elderly woman with a pair of pruning shears in her hand.

“I am, yes,” I said with a smile. “I thought he would be home this morning.”

“Oh, he was here a little while ago,” she said. “But I saw him leave about half an hour ago. He told me he was going to check out the development site he was working on.”

“Do you know where that is?” I asked, and the woman nodded. “Oh, yes. It’s in Damascus, an old farm there. Take the Old Clackamas Highway and turn onto South-East 162^nd Avenue. That’s where the young man is building his new houses. You’ll see it immediately, it’s the large lot on the left.”

I thanked the woman and made my way back to the car. Lake Oswego wasn’t far from Damascus as the crow flies, but because of the Williamette River, with no bridges linking the various residential neighborhoods on either side of it, it was actually a half hour drive to get to the property.

Sure enough, as the old lady told me, the property was easily spottable. One side of the street had a large sports field, complete with stadium lights, and the other side had obviously been a farm in the past. I could still make out where rows of plants had grown before the land was sold. Jake’s Prius was parked on the side of the road, and I parked my car about a hundred feet further down the road.

Despite myself, I was a little bit nervous. After all, this place was pretty isolated, unlike Jake’s home in Lake Oswego. And while my arm was feeling a lot better, I was well aware that it was still injured. I knew that I could do basic tasks like cut food with my hand now, but if I had to actually fight a murderer, I was still at a significant disadvantage.

Still, I was here now. I figured I might as well do my best. Turning the recording app on my phone back on, I made my way onto the property, parts of which had earth moved as though they were getting ready to start building houses. I could see Jake toward the back of the property, doing something.

“Jake!” I called out, not wanting to scare him, and he looked up at me, confusion crossing his face. A minute later, there was a spark of recognition and he spoke.

“Oh! You were that hot chick’s friend, weren’t you?” he asked. Ugh. Great, I’d forgotten how just completely creepy this guy was.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Could this guy be any more disgusting?

“Why are you here? And more importantly, where’s your friend?”

I decided to try and hit him with the element of surprise. “I’m here because I know you killed your roommate, Matt Smith.”

Jake laughed. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” I replied. “Your car was seen in Willow Bay the night of the murder.”

“So what if I did kill him? What are you going to do about it? Turn me into the police? None of what you have is actual evidence.”

“I think a jury would think otherwise,” I replied, trying to sound confident. “But anyway, none of what I’m saying here has to come out.” I didn’t really know where I was going with this, I only knew that I was going to try and take a page out of Jason’s book. “I think we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement, here.”

A creepy smile formed on Jake’s face. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. After all, you property development types have a bunch of money, right? So what do you say? You give me a small percentage of what you’re worth, and I don’t go to the cops.”

Jake came toward me, nodding slowly. He was about ten feet away from me now. “Ok. Yeah, ok, I can see where you’re going with this. I like it. What kind of number are you thinking of?”

“A hundred grand.”

“I give you a hundred grand and you keep your mouth shut about me killing Matt?” My heart swelled. That was it, that was an admission! At least, surely it would be enough for the courts.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Jake said, coming toward me with his hand outstretched, as if to shake mine. I put my hand out to shake his, but I didn’t notice the knife until it was too late. He slashed at me; luckily because the knife was in his left hand he was slightly less co-ordinated, and it simply grazed my skin, cutting me lightly in my side.

I let out a yelp and jumped backwards, but Jake had grasped my hand in his, and yanked me toward him, trying to stab me once more. Pain coursed through my injured wrist, but I ignored it.

“Help!” I shouted, but I knew the odds were so low that anyone would hear. We were too far from the street, and even so there would be no one around to hear my cries.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “Shut up! The less you fight, the sooner this will be over.”

“You’re not going to kill me,” I muttered. “And even if you do, you’re not going to get away with it. I’ve sent a text to my boyfriend telling him where I went, and why. He’ll know.”

“Oh, and your boyfriend’s going to stop me, is he?” Jake laughed.

“Yeah, he is,” I heard Jason say, and I turned to see him launching himself toward Jake, who let go of my hand in shock.

“Look out, he has a knife!” I shouted, but it was too late. It was like everything was happening in slow motion. A grin formed on Jake’s face as he lowered himself and extended the knife toward Jason’s abdomen. Jason’s eyes widened as he saw the weapon, but his momentum was moving him too quickly toward Jake; there was no way he could avoid the knife.

I was about to see my boyfriend being stabbed to death in front of me.

“Propelloroa,” I shouted, using my magic for the first time in days. I had no idea if it was even going to work. What I did know was that if it did, I was going to be in huge, huge trouble. But none of that mattered. I didn’t care. The Witches’ Council could do what they wanted to me, so long as it meant Jason would still be alive.

As soon as I felt the burst of energy expelling from my body, I knew my magic was working fine once again. Jake was suddenly thrown to the side, as though he’d been hit by an invisible wrecking ball. Jason stumbled to the ground and I rushed to him.

“Are you ok?” I asked. I glanced over at Jake quickly; my spell had completely knocked him out. Jason looked up at me in surprise.

“What on earth just happened?”

“I… uh… nothing? I don’t know,” I started, but Jason shook his head.

“No. No, something happened. He was going to stab me, and then you pointed at him, and you shouted something, and now he’s lying over there like he’s dead. Oh God, is he dead?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. He shouldn’t be, anyway. But you’re right. I did do something. Jason, there’s something I need to tell you.”

I looked into my boyfriend’s eyes, and I could see the trust in there, mingled with curiosity. Still, I’d felt so bad about hiding this from him for so long that I couldn’t look at him while I told him. “I’m a witch.”

“You’re a… you’re a what?”

“A witch.”

“Like, Harry Potter? Well, I guess Hermione. Except, Charlotte would be Hermione. Wait, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“Like Harry Potter, yeah. I know spells, and I can use them. I can also speak to animals.”

“Wait, for real?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Always have been able to. It’s how I managed to get so much information about the smugglers. Barely any of it came from Richard Steele’s daughter; it almost all came from Lucy herself, and the three birds. Coolidge, Cherie and Hehu are their names.”

Jason grabbed his head. “Do I have a really bad concussion or something? Because seriously, I can barely believe what I’m hearing right now, and yet it makes perfect sense. And even if I didn’t believe it, that guy is lying over there passed out. I should grab his knife,” Jason said, getting up and moving over to where Jake was still lying motionless. He carefully picked up the knife and brought it back over to where I was, then sat himself gingerly back down.

“I’m going to call you an ambulance,” I said, taking out my phone.

“No, call the cops, first,” Jason said. “I’m fine, physically. I’m just… actually, I’m just shocked. Give me a minute to process this.”

I called 9-1-1 and told them where to meet us, then called Chief Gary to let him know what had happened. He promised he was on his way, and I sat down next to Jason. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it,” I said quietly. “I wasn’t allowed to. I wanted to. I wanted to tell you so badly. But we’re not allowed to tell anyone who’s not an immediate family member.”

Jason looked at me. “Why not?”

“We’re supposed to keep ourselves secret. And I mean, I can understand it. Do you really think the reaction if the world at large found out about us would be that great?”

Jason gave me a small smile. “I imagine it would be pretty similar to what happens in X-Men.”

I laughed. “You’re such a boy. But yeah, I think you’re right. So the Witches’ Council takes these sorts of things very seriously. We’re not allowed to use magic in front of non-humans.”

“Do you refer to us as muggles?” Jason asked, and I giggled.

“No,” I replied. “Maybe as a joke from time to time.”

“This is so much to get my head around. And Charlotte, she’s a witch too?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Sophie isn’t, but her mom is. Because her mom is, Sophie’s allowed to know about us. Also, Charlotte can’t talk to animals. She can control the weather, which I can’t do, but she uses her magic very, very rarely. She’s better at it than I am though.”

“As I would expect her to be. I’m going to start calling her Hermione.”

“She’ll probably love that,” I admitted.

“So what’s going to happen now?” Jason asked. “I mean, you’ve told me about the magic. You’ve broken the rules. What are they going to do to you?”

I shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”