Sleeping With The Fishes

Chapter 4

When I got back to the vet clinic, I was so close to my next appointment that I didn’t have any opportunity to talk to Sophie. A couple hours later we had our lunch break, which was our first chance to chat.

“Let’s go to Betty’s,” Sophie suggested. “This is a BLT kind of day for you, isn’t it?”

I smiled at Sophie. She knew me too well. “Any day is a BLT kind of day, if it’s at Betty’s.” Betty always made mine with special vegetarian bacon, and it was my favorite lunch treat. Grabbing my purse from behind the counter and telling Karen we’d see her soon, Sophie and I made our way out onto the street. I told her what I found out about Lucy.

“That’s awful,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “You realize we have to find the people who smuggled her, right?”

“Of course,” I said, nodding vehemently. “I was thinking of going and asking her more questions when we get back. I don’t want to overwhelm her, but she seems to be happy to answer my questions for now.”

“Good, let me know what I can do to help. We need to hunt down the scum that separated this poor giraffe from her mother and left her here in Willow Bay.”

“Agreed,” I said. “We’re not going to let this go.”

“Hey, by the way, have you noticed Bee and her kittens lately?” Sophie asked. A few weeks ago Bee had found an abandoned litter of kittens and taken them in as her own. She had declared that she was training them to be soldiers in the war against the humans, although so far the only thing I’d seen any of them kill was little bits of lint they managed to spot on the floor. I had to admit, the kittens were pretty adorable. However, I realized when Sophie mentioned it that I hadn’t really noticed Bee the night before.

“No, I didn’t notice them last night,” I said. “And we were making a lot of noise. Normally, she’d be around complaining.”

“Exactly. I was thinking about that this morning. I think she and the kittens are up to something.”

“Great. With that cat, it’s never anything good,” I said. I loved Bee, but she was an absolute drama queen. “I bet she’s realized the kittens are getting old enough that I’ll be looking for adopters for them soon.”

Sophie nodded. “That could be it. Maybe she’s hoping if they hide you’ll forget they exist.”

“But then who will complain that I let a dog live in her house?” I replied with a smile. Bee still hadn’t forgiven me for allowing Sophie to adopt Sprinkles, who was the absolute nicest dog alive and the complete opposite of Bee in every way.

“Ooooh, look, Betty got a new sign,” I noted, pointing out the chalk A-frame at the front of the store. The writing was extremely pretty, advertising half price slices of pie with a nice picture of a slice done in chak as well.

“Well, I know what I’m going to order to take-away and have for desert tonight,” Sophie joked.

“As long as she still has peach-blueberry, I’m in,” I replied, my mouth already watering.

Sophie opened the door to Betty’s Café and walked in, with me following behind her. All of a sudden, every head in the café turned to stare at us. The murmurs of conversation–mostly gossip from around town–that the dozen or so people in the café had been partaking in suddenly stopped. Betty’s new employee, a teenager named Carson, was standing behind the counter. As soon as he saw us, his eyes widened and he zipped back into the kitchen.

“Was it something I said?” Sophie mumbled to me. We quickly made our way to the counter.

“I know I walked a giraffe through downtown but I didn’t think it would warrant this kind of reaction,” I said to Sophie in reply. The slow murmurs began once more, and I overheard snippets.

“They don’t know, it’s obvious they don’t know.”

“Maybe that’s just what they want us to think.”

“Or she just doesn’t have anything to do with it. It could be that boy of hers, the one from New York City. That’s how they solve their problems over there, right?”

I had a feeling whatever had happened, it wasn’t good. Just then Betty, the café owner, came out from the kitchen. As soon as she saw Sophie and I she rushed over.

“You’ve obviously not heard the news if you’re here,” she said in a whisper.

“What news?” Sophie asked.

“Someone found Matt Smith’s body washed up on the beach this morning,” she said. “He’d been shot.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “We had no idea.”

“And of course, the whole town heard that you chased him down after he set your vet clinic on fire last night,” Betty said.

“Ohhhh,” I said with a groan, realizing why everyone was staring at us. They weren’t staring at Sophie and me, they were just staring at me. I was definitely the prime suspect in this murder.

“I think we’re going to get two BLTs to go, one with real bacon please,” Sophie said. “And two hazelnut lattes.”

“Coming right up,” Betty said. “If you’d rather sit in the back room to avoid everyone while you wait, I have a nice little seating area there for when I eat my lunch.”

“Thanks, Betty,” I told her with a smile. “But I think we’ll hang out here. After all, I didn’t do it. I have nothing to hide.”

“Of course you didn’t, dear,” Betty told me. “And shame on anyone who thinks you did.”

Sophie and I took a small two-seater table by the wall while we waited for our food and drinks.

“I can’t believe he’s dead!” Sophie whispered to me when we sat down.

“I know! And of course with the timing, everyone thinks I did it, or Jason,” I replied, remembering the conversation. I glared at the woman who had made the comment about Jason; she was facing away from me so it wasn’t exactly threatening, but it made me feel better.

“Everyone who actually knows you will immediately know that’s bull,” Sophie said.

“I know, but still. Chief Gary’s going to have to investigate me. He wouldn’t be doing his job, otherwise. Same with Jason. And people here don’t know him as well as they know me.”

“That’s true,” Sophie conceded. “I’m pretty sure there’s people here who think New York is like that movie The Purge every single day.”

I shook my head. “I mean, I’m not sad he’s dead. He basically threatened me last night. If anyone deserved to be murdered it was him. But I also don’t want me or Jason caught up in the aftermath.”

“You won’t be. Look on the bright side, now no one cares about the fact that you spent the morning walking a giraffe through town.”

I smiled at Sophie. “That’s true. I’m going to text Jason.”

I sent him a quick text telling him Matt’s body had been found in the ocean. He replied a minute later telling me he was aware, that everyone was on Willow Bay Beach, the main beach in town–whoever founded this place wasn’t exactly bursting with creativity when it came to names–and he confirmed that Matt had been shot.

“We should go down there, have a look,” Sophie said as Betty motioned to us that our sandwiches were ready. I nodded.

“Yeah, good plan, I replied. Sophie and I took our sandwiches and coffee and ate while walking down the street toward the beach. We walked silently, each one of us preoccupied with our own thoughts.

Was it bad that a part of me was a little bit happy Matt Smith was dead? After all, he had proven himself dangerous. He had set my vet clinic on fire, and threatened me less than twenty-four hours ago. I definitely felt safer without him around.

Unfortunately, I also knew those thoughts were what was going to make me an automatic suspect in his murder.

When we arrived at the beach, it could have been mistaken for a warm summer day. A gentle breeze floated in from the ocean, and the sun shone down on the sand, sending a small wave of heat up from the ground as Sophie and I walked along. The crowd—made up of at least a few dozen onlookers—and police tape strung between some trees, flowing in the breeze, was the only indication anything was wrong.

I saw Jason over to the side of the onlookers, with his camera with the telephoto lens–a necessity for a journalist–taking photos of the police officers. Making my way toward him and away from the crowd, I got a better look at what was happening behind the police tape.

There was a body in a black bag lying on the sand. Huddled around it was Chief Gary, with a somber expression on his face. He was speaking with Taylor, Sophie’s boyfriend, and two other police officers who I recognized but didn’t really know very well. One of them nodded at something Chief Gary said and made his way back toward the street. A minute later I saw a van with ‘Wawnee County Medical Examiner’ stencilled in white letters on the side, and I imagined it wouldn’t be long before the black bag was loaded up into the van.

“Hey, what’s happening here?” I asked Jason as I made my way toward him. He turned to me, his face grim.

“The rumor mill is right, it was Matt Smith. I considered texting you, but didn’t want to worry you at work.”

“It’s ok. I found out about it at lunch, we went to Betty’s and found out there. Are you sure it’s him?”

Jason nodded. “One hundred percent. I was walking to the office when I saw someone running away from the beach, saying to call 9-1-1, that her phone had died. So I gave her my phone and went to see. It was absolutely him, and he had a bullet wound in the middle of his forehead. He didn’t drown accidentally; Matt Smith was murdered.”

I shook my head slowly. “So we’re essentially the biggest suspects, aren’t we?”

“As of right now, as far as I can tell, yes.”

“I’m guessing you can’t tell when he was shot?”

Jason grinned. “Sadly, despite how much of my youth was spent watching Law and Order, I can’t tell time of death myself yet. I don’t know, although I think it’s safe to assume it was in the last 18 hours or so.”

“Definitely,” I nodded. “So we know it was sometime after he set the clinic on fire and then claimed he didn’t to Chief Gary, but before…”

“Eleven-fourteen,” Jason replied. “I had my phone out and was texting someone about an interview when the lady came running toward me.”

“Ok, so there’s about a fifteen hour time span when he could have theoretically been killed. Probably more like 14 hours because the body was probably in the water for longer than five minutes.”

“I would say so,” Jason agreed. “Now we just have to find out who wanted Matt Smith dead.”

“Apart from us,” I deadpanned.

“Apart from us,” Jason agreed, nodding. “I’m going to interview some people here. After all, I have the perfect reason to find out as much information as I can.”

“Sounds good. I need to go back to work, but since today is Saturday I can help out tomorrow.”

“Sure thing. Talk to you soon, sweetie,” Jason said, leaning over and kissing me softly on the lips. My face flushed with excitement as I found Sophie and we made our way back to the vet clinic. Comparing notes, it seemed she hadn’t learned anything other than what Jason already knew. I hoped his interview skills would get us a little bit more information before the night was out.