The Purr-fect Crime

Chapter 14

I decided to go back to Betty’s for a chocolate milkshake, figuring I’d deserved one, thinking that I’d beat the lunch rush and maybe actually get to relax at a table to myself for a little while.

Little did I know how wrong I was. As soon as I walked into Betty’s I knew something new had happened in town. All the local town gossips were huddled together, but this time it seemed different. Rather than one big group of people all sharing news and information, it was like people were split up into packs. I had a feeling this had something to do with that resort they were building.

“Hey, Betty,” I greeted her. “How are things?”

“Busy busy busy!” Betty answered, rushing out to the till. “What can I getcha today Angie?”

“Ummm, a chocolate milkshake, please,” I asked. “Maybe make it to go.”

Betty laughed. “Sure thing. I don’t blame you. If you came here today for peace and relaxation, well, for once you’re not going to find it in Willow Bay.”

“Why not? What’s going on?” I asked.

“Zoe Wright, that terrible woman heading up the Ocean Mist project, was here. She drank coffee with a bunch of supporters and then let slip that they plan on opening the whole resort in under a year. Can you believe that? I personally don’t think it’s even possible, what with everything they have to build. Apparently they’re expecting to break ground on the site in just under six weeks. So soon!”

“Wow,” I breathed. I’d completely forgotten about the huge monster resort they were building south of town, what with all of the hub bub surrounding Tony Nyman’s death.

“Yeah. Completely ridiculous. There’s no way they’ll get it done in time, but they’re just looking for a way to get some extra free publicity.”

“Well, it seems to be working,” I said, motioning around. It was obvious every person in the coffee shop was talking about Zoe Wright’s visit. Betty shook her head.

“It’s a damned shame, that’s what it is, pardon my language. I’ve lived in this town my whole life, and I’ve never seen a single thing come so close to ruining our way of life. This is a small community. We’ve always been a small community. We attract enough tourists, and I say that as a woman who runs a company that relies heavily on them. We don’t need to double, triple, quadruple the number of people coming to visit here every year.”

“You say that, Betty, but you aren’t employed by a restaurant that gets 70 percent of its business from tourists,” Annie Perkins said from the other side of the room. I recognized her as a waitress from the Seaside Diner, a cute little restaurant down the street from the vet clinic, along the waterfront.

“My café gets a large portion of its business from tourists,” Betty said. “I understand exactly how important they are for the local economy. But I’m not ready to completely abandon the small-town charm of this place by bringing in three, four times more people than are already here. It will ruin the town for everyone.”

“If by ruin you mean make it easier to put food on the table for little Sammy, sure,” Annie replied.

“You can’t just think about yourself in these things,” someone else shouted from another table. Uh oh. This was getting really ugly, really quickly.

“I’m not! I’m thinking about the town. I think bringing more tourists here is a good thing. More people get to appreciate the town this way.” Annie was definitely ready to defend her position.

“Well, I don’t think it’s reasonable,” Betty announced.

“Luckily for the rest of us who understand how economics work, the state government agrees with us,” Annie retorted.

“Please,” came Antonia deLucca’s voice from another table. I didn’t normally like the woman, but I did agree with her on this issue. “Economics had nothing to do with it. All it means is Ocean Mist paid the right people enough money.”

“Hear, hear!” came the shout from the opposition table. Oh boy. Being stuck in the middle of a giant small-town argument was so not something I was into right now. Town hall meetings were bad enough. Here it looked like people were ready to start throwing chairs and tables around.

“Thanks for the milkshake, Betty,” I told her, giving her a smile as I practically ran out the door to get away from the still-arguing mob inside.

I was halfway down the street before I realized that Betty had even added whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle on top for me. The woman truly was a saint.

But right now, I knew I had to think. What I really wanted to do was talk things over with Sophie and Charlotte. I had learned a lot from Chief Gary, but this resort stuff really had me bothered.

I didn’t like the idea of hundreds of thousands of extra people coming to Willow Bay a year. Of course, I welcomed the tourist money. For a tourist town, that’s definitely a bonus. But to be honest, I didn’t think there was going to be that much more of it. Ocean Mist seemed like it was going to be a very insular resort, that it would bring people to the town, but that they were more likely to spend their money at the resort than with local businesses.

I sighed. I felt so useless when it came to the Ocean Mist thing. It was done now. There was nothing more to do, Willow Bay was going to change forever.

Four hours later I was home, making black bean burgers and sautéing up some potatoes while Bee tried to steal bits of potato for no other reason than being annoying – the only vegetable she actually likes are carrots.

I was just about to start discussing the day with them, when all of a sudden I heard the front door open.

“Hello, girls,” came the call from Lisa, Sophie’s mom.

“Hey Lisa,” Charlotte called out. “We’re in the kitchen.”

The three of us looked at each other. Lisa never, ever came to the house without calling ahead first. She was the epitome of reliable. When we were kids, we kind of thought Lisa was too perfect. And in the end, it turned out we were right. We found out about a year ago that Lisa is a regular partaker of a certain green herb that’s still illegal in Oregon, and had been for years and years. How she managed to keep that knowledge from us for so long is still beyond me. I suspected some magic was involved, though.

Lisa came into the kitchen, her curly brown hair bouncing on her shoulders.

“Hi mom,” Sophie said, going over to her mom, but she stopped when she saw her mother’s hands on her hips.

“Don’t you ‘hi mom’ me, young lady,” Lisa scolded, and the three of us glanced at each other. We were definitely in trouble, I wondered what for now.

“Sorry?” Sophie offered.

“That’s right, you had better be apologizing,” Lisa said. “I’ve been down to see Chief Gary today.”

“What possible reason could you have had to go see him?” I asked.

“That’s none of your business,” Lisa told me. The woman was like a magician, the way she always knew exactly where she had to go to get the three of us in trouble. I supposed since she was a witch, she actually was a magician. Although as far as I knew, she didn’t actually use any spells to get us into trouble. She just had mom magic.

“Anyway,” she continued, “We’re getting off topic. Chief Gary told me he suspected that the three of you are trying to figure out who murdered that poor man a few days ago.”

“Well I spoke to Chief Gary this afternoon too, and he told me the same thing, and I assured him that we are absolutely not doing that,” I told her. I always felt guilty when I lied to Lisa. After all, she’d taken us in when our parents died. But it was absolutely necessary in this case. Lisa thought life was about finding a good job, with a pension, having a family and dying without any debt. Anything out of the ordinary, anything that might sound a little bit like an adventure was absolutely out of the question. I always thought she was trying to be extra normal to hide the fact that she was a witch.

“I know, I spoke to Chief Gary after you did. He told me that, but I also know that you could tell Chief Gary that elephants grow on trees and he’d believe it. So I decided to come here for myself and make sure that my daughters aren’t getting into mischief, poking their heads where they shouldn’t be.”

“Oh mom,” Sophie told her, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you don’t think Angela was telling the truth. Don’t you trust us?”

“I trust you least of all young lady,” Lisa told Sophie, pointing a finger at her. Sophie pretended she’d just been stabbed in the heart.

“Oh!! Betrayed by my own mother!” she exclaimed, falling to her knees. I laughed, and got a glare from Lisa for my trouble.

“Trust is earned, not given,” Lisa told Sophie. “You stop getting into way more trouble than Charlotte and Angela, and then I’ll begin to trust you. But we’re getting off topic. I still don’t believe you.”

“Lisa, I swear, none of us are investigating Tony Nyman’s death.” Sophie and I both stared at Charlotte, mouths agape, as she made that pronouncement. Charlotte never lied. Ever. Which was a shame, because she was an absolute genius at it. Her wide eyes looked so sincere as she looked at Lisa. And of course, because Charlotte was the “good” child, the one who was never getting into any trouble, Lisa immediately believed her.

“Thank you, Charlotte, for being so honest with me.”

“Hey, we told you the same thing!” Sophie protested.

“Yes but there was a good chance you were lying to me,” Lisa replied.

“But you believe Charlotte!”

“That’s because Charlotte doesn’t lie to me, like my own biological daughter sees fit to do at every opportunity.”

“Whatever,” Sophie muttered. Was I insulted that Lisa had taken my sister’s word over mine and Sophie’s? A little bit. But I was pretty used to it at this point. I supposed being a goody two shoes had its advantages, and I was just thankful Charlotte decided to use her amazing ability to lie like a pro for once.

“Anyway, that wasn’t the only reason I came here.”

“Really? You didn’t just come here to accuse your daughter of lying?” Sophie asked.

“That’s enough out of you,” Lisa sighed. “I raised you to be better than this. I came here to tell you there’s a protest against the Ocean Mist resort. I assume the three of you have heard the news about how they want to be open in under a year?”

“No,” Charlotte and Sophie said in unison, at the same time as I nodded and said “yes”.

Both their heads instantly turned to me, and I shrugged.

“I was going to tell you pretty much right when Lisa came in. I heard about it today at Betty’s. Apparently that lady that runs the whole thing was there telling everyone about how they’re going to be starting construction in six weeks and be finished and ready to open in under a year.”

Lisa nodded. “Exactly. I was at a group meeting of people opposed to it, and we’re planning a major protest for two weeks from now. It’s right before the May long weekend, so there shouldn’t be too much happening in the news as everyone will be getting ready for the holiday. We’re calling in all the local news stations, and hoping to get some major negative coverage for Ocean Mist. Are you girls in?”

“Obviously,” Sophie replied. “Just let us know when and where, I’m always up for a good protest. Especially against something as stupid as Ocean Mist.”

I nodded. “Agreed. I’ll happily join.”

“Same,” Charlotte added. Lisa beamed.

“Good. I knew I raised you girls right. Just because the government says everything is over, doesn’t mean it’s true. We can keep fighting this.”

Unfortunately, in my heart, I knew deep down that no number of protests were going to stop the Ocean Mist people now. Not after how much money they’d sunk into that project. They were coming, and they were going to ruin our town, and there was nothing we could do about it.