Sleeping With The Fishes

Chapter 7

The next day dawned and it being Sunday, the vet clinic was closed, except for any emergency calls that came in. The phone call from Chief Gary came in just after nine. Luckily, since I had to be up early during the week, it meant that even “sleeping in” meant I’d been up for half an hour already.

“Hello,” I answered the phone, Jason sleepily grabbing at my waist as I sat up in bed.

“Hi, Angela. Sorry for calling so early, it’s Chief Gary.”

“Hi Chief, what can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if you could come in and have a chat with me, I need to talk to you about Matt Smith’s death.”

“Sure, no problem. When would you like me to come in?”

“Does eleven o’clock work for you?”

“Of course, I’ll see you then.”

“Great, thanks Angela.”

I hung up the phone then gave Jason a kiss and dragged myself out of bed. Making my way to the kitchen, I threw some pancake mix into a bowl and added water, and started to make my favorite Sunday morning breakfast. Bee wound her way around my legs in a figure eight as she always did when I made pancakes–her way of going ‘hey just in case you forgot, I exist and I also like pancakes’–and I smiled down at her.

“Good morning, Bee,” I said.

“And what a lovely morning it is,” Bee replied. “Oh, you wouldn’t happen to be making pancakes, would you? Well, that’s lucky. Although I am giving you this affection simply because I adore you.”

“Of course you are,” I smiled. Suddenly, from the hallway, four little kittens–Boo, Bilbo, Butters and Boop–all pounced into the kitchen and formed a line behind Bee, joining her in her affectionate walk around my legs. I couldn’t help but smile, even though I knew Bee was teaching them to beg; it was really cute, seeing my black cat leading the little cream ones, with the little ones following like little ducklings after their mother.

Ok, they were adorable. Maybe I could wait another week or so before starting the search for their new homes.

A few hours later, after everyone was up, showered and full of pancakes, Charlotte headed down to Portland for her classes, Sophie took Sprinkles out for a walk, Bee and Bee-hive disappeared to do whatever it was Bee was teaching them to do, and I headed downtown to go chat to Chief Gary. Jason got his phone call during breakfast; his appointment to chat with Chief Gary was at one that afternoon. Which meant, I was in charge of trying to get into Chief Gary’s computer and finding the address of the truck’s owner. I had memorized the license plate number over breakfast, and I was ready.

I also knew that I wanted to get as much information about Matt Smith’s death as I could. After all, I was all too aware that Jason and I were the most likely suspects, and I wanted to see if I could dig up anything that could lead to the real killer.

I decided to walk down to the police station; after all it was still a gorgeous day out and I wanted to enjoy the late summer for as long as possible before winter set in. With the sun’s soft rays on my skin and a gentle breeze keeping me cool, I made my way to the police station and greeted the receptionist who led me to Chief Gary’s office.

The local police chief looked less stressed than he had during previous murder investigations; it seemed even he was getting used to the bodies that had been cropping up in the area recently. Still, his face was sombre as he greeted me and motioned for me to sit down, and on top of the full mug of coffee on the table he also had two take-away containers in the little garbage can next to his desk.

“Thanks for coming in, Angela. You understand that I have to ask you a few questions, I hope.”

“Of course,” I replied. I didn’t want to make this harder for Chief Gary than it had to be, and besides, I was innocent.

“Good, I’m glad you get it, that this is nothing personal. I need to ask you where you were between the hours of eleven o’clock Friday and eight in the morning Saturday.”

“I was in bed by ten thirty,” I replied. “My alarm went off at six-thirty, and I got up, made breakfast, then went down to the vet clinic to get ready for the day. I was at the hardware shop at eight, and I bought a cheap rug to cover up the damage.”

Chief Gary jotted down my words while nodding. “Ok, thanks. Can anyone really confirm that you were asleep?”

“Well, Sophie and Charlotte were in the house, but they were in different rooms. So, not really.”

“Ok,” Chief Gary said, his face frowning. “Can you confirm that you didn’t see Matt Smith again after our conversation?”

“That’s correct,” I said. “I went back to the clinic, looked at the damage, chatted with Jason, Sophie and Charlotte then went home.”

“Great. Well, thanks for coming in,” Chief Gary said, and I inwardly started to panic. I had honestly expected the conversation to last a little bit longer. Not only had I gathered absolutely no information about the murder, but I also had no idea how I was going to get Chief Gary out of his chair so that I could get access to his computer.

“So it’s true he was murdered?” I asked. “Since you’re asking all these questions.”

“Yes,” Chief Gary nodded. “He was murdered.”

“Do you have any idea who could have done it?” I asked, as I suddenly came up with a plan. I just needed to keep Chief Gary talking for long enough that he’d take a sip of his coffee.

He chucked in reply. “You know I can’t talk to you about an open investigation. But don’t you go sticking your nose in this one please, Angela. I know you’ve got a penchant for finding out who the murderers in town are, but I’d rather you stay safe.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on looking into this at all,” I replied with a smile. “I have a lot on my plate as well.”

“Yes, I heard you were walking a giraffe through town yesterday,” he said, raising an eyebrow, and I let out a nervous peal of laughter.

“I did, yeah. She was brought to the clinic by someone who didn’t leave her name. She wanted me to save her, though, since her father kept her.”

Chief Gary’s face darkened. “You realize smuggling animals into this country is illegal, right?”

“Of course,” I said. “I took the giraffe, and I’m hunting down where she came from so that she can be released. As soon as I track down where her mother came from, I’ll be contacting the proper authorities to have her taken back there. I’m pretty sure the actual owner of the giraffe isn’t from here though; the owner’s daughter said she drove away from her home so that it couldn’t be traced back to her father.”

Chief Gary nodded. “Ok, so not part of my jurisdiction, then.”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “I’m pretty sure not.” That was when Chief Gary finally reached for his cup of coffee. As soon as he took a sip, I pointed behind me randomly and whispered “Speculum quassoroa.”

There was a sound of shattering glass from behind me, and I looked around as Chief Gary immediately stood up, drawing his weapon, but keeping it against his leg.

“Stay here,” he ordered as he went out into the main part of the police station. Looking behind him, I noticed my spell had broken the main window at the front of the police station. The one other officer in the station was also on alert, while the receptionist ran toward a back room at the insistence of Chief Gary.

I felt a bit bad for making them panic over something that I’d done, but I really, really needed this information. I ran over and sat down in Chief Gary’s chair, my eyes flittering up every few minutes to make sure that he didn’t look this way and see me.

Before I opened the program to check a license plate number, however, my eyes were drawn toward the manila file with the label ‘HOMICIDE–SMITH, MATTHEW’ on the side. I couldn’t resist; after all, I needed this information too. I slipped open the file, which was still pretty thin.

The first page was just basic information about Matt Smith, and I skimmed it quickly, making a mental note of his home address in Portland. The second page, however, showed that Matt had been a defendant in a lawsuit brought forth by a company called Peacock Hills Property Investments. I made a mental note of the company name; I’d look them up later. I imagined that one was a business dispute. The third page, however, was even more interesting.

It was an arrest record for Matt Smith in Washington state; he’d been charged with assault, although the charges were dropped. I checked the date; he’d been arrested a little over two weeks ago. The victim’s name was Sean Dressler. There wasn’t much more information than that in the file.

Still, it was enough to go on to start. It seemed Jason and I weren’t the only people who’d gotten on Matt Smith’s bad side. Glancing out the door I realized Chief Gary had now gone outside to assess the damage. I looked at his computer screen, but to my dismay, it was a lot more complicated looking than I thought. I chewed my lip, clicking a few things trying to find where I could type in a license plate number and find out who owned it, but it must have been in a different program. Before I got a chance to figure it out, I noticed Chief Gary coming back. I quickly put the program that had been open back up onto the screen and slipped back into my seat on the other side of the table before Chief Gary came back. My heart was pounding with adrenaline as he came back into the room.

“Sorry about that. I think it was a false alarm. Seems the glass in front of the station just randomly burst. A few people nearby said nobody was around when it happened, so I don’t think it was vandalism.”

“Hmm, weird,” I replied. “Maybe an air pressure change? I heard it’s supposed to rain tonight.”

“Could be. Anyway, thanks for coming in.”

“No problem,” I said, standing up. “Anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“Will do, thanks Angela.”

I left the police station, feeling a bit bad about the repair bill I’d just stuck them with, but at least I had all the information about Matt Smith that I needed. The lawsuit, being public record, we possibly could have found out about on our own, but I never would have thought to check Washington State arrest records.

Taking out my phone I sent Jason a text.

I failed at getting the license plate info

His reply came back a minute later. No problem, I’ll be down there in about an hour anyway, I’ll give it a shot.

Thanks. I did get to look at the file on Matt Smith though. Some company was suing him, and he was arrested two weeks ago in Washington for assault.

Interesting. Chat about it over dinner tonight?

Sure, see you then!

I smiled to myself as I texted Sophie, asking if she was up for a road trip. Her reply of ‘of course’ came by a minute later and I started to walk home. I figured we had time to drive to Portland and see if there was anything interesting in Matt Smith’s home that could tell us why he was killed, and by who.