The Purr-fect Crime

Chapter 20

Ninety quick minutes later – it’s amazing how fast time goes when you love what you do – I was taking off my scrubs and changing back into my jeans and t-shirt, and getting ready to go to the rally. Despite everything, I couldn’t really get any enthusiasm up for it.

After all, this group was trying to push through a project that I was sure was going to change our town for the worse, even if we were going to try and get some more information about who killed Tony Nyman.

I had gotten a text from Sophie; all the top level people from the Ocean Mist project were there. The head of PR, the head of marketing, and Zoe Wright, the head honcho had all made an appearance. Apparently they were extremely invested in keeping what little support they had in Willow Bay on their side.

There’s like 50 people here lol Sophie texted me. I smiled at that. Even in a town as small as Willow Bay, 50 was a pretty low turnout. The last anti-Ocean Mist rally had garnered a crowd of over 300.

I jumped into my car and made my way over to the rally, promising Bee I’d be back in an hour or so to take her home. It was being held at Railworkers Memorial Park, a ten-acre green space just a few minutes from downtown. There were a few picnic tables, lots of trees, a few trails that wandered their way through the woods, tennis courts up one end, and an off leash dog park. Railworkers Memorial Park was pretty much the community gathering spot in Willow Bay – apart from Betty’s Café, of course. It wouldn’t be long before summer weekends led to families coming here for picnics, dog owners filling up the dog park with the happy yelps of playful pets and fitness enthusiasts taking to the trails as they trained for the annual half marathon held every September in Willow Bay.

But for now, the park was home to a rally supporting a project that went against everything Willow Bay stood for. I tried to quell the spark of anger that grew inside of me as I got closer to the open park area. Sure enough, there were about fifty people there. Some of them were holding up homemade signs that said things along the lines of “Ocean Mist – Good For The Community” and “Willow Bay Needs a Future”.

The thing was, I didn’t inherently disagree with all of them. Willow Bay did need a future. We were a tourism-based town, and bringing in more tourists who would otherwise go to some of the flashier places in the state like Mt. Hood, or venture out further to places like Yellowstone, wasn’t a bad thing. I just thought the Ocean Mist resort was the wrong way to do it.

I recognized most of the people at the rally – a few of them had been involved in the argument at Betty’s café the other day. Looking around, I spotted Charlotte and Sophie standing under some trees, about fifteen feet from the majority of the rally attendees. I waved and made my way over to them.

“I feel evil just being here,” Sophie muttered, and I grinned at her. I knew how she felt, that was for sure.

“Oh shut up guys, how do you plan to ever solve a murder if you can’t even be around people who have a different opinion to you?” Charlotte scolded us. She grabbed my arm and started pointing people out to me.

“That’s Michael Kensington. He’s the head of Marketing for Ocean Mist,” she told me, pointing to a man who looked like a stock photo. Seriously, the man encapsulated the idea of the generic businessman absolutely perfectly. He could have been anywhere from 30 to 50 years old, with a plastic smile that didn’t move stamped on his face. His haircut obviously cost hundreds of dollars, while his suit must have cost thousands, and he walked around shaking hands, all the time the smile not moving off his face. It was actually kind of creepy.

“And there’s Zoe Wright,” Charlotte continued, pointing out the woman whose face I’d seen around town way too many times now. I knew she was the head of the whole project. She walked around easily, chatting casually with people from the town, laughing with them, giving them hugs. I sent a glare her way when her back was turned. The woman was definitely good at schmoozing people. I wondered how much schmoozing had been involved to get the project approved by everyone in the state legislature. Or how much bribe money. I refused to believe they actually believed in the merits of the project; I gave even politicians more credit than that.

Charlotte was pointing out Anita Grey, the head of PR to me, when I suddenly felt something graze my ankle. I jumped about a foot in the air, letting out a yelp, and when I looked down I saw a familiar calico cat staring up at me.

“What?” Bee asked. “I was just saying hi. Way to make a girl feel welcome.”

“You can’t be here,” I hissed at Bee.

“Why not? They’re here.”

“They’re humans. This is a human rally. They belong here. Not you.” How on earth Bee had gotten away from Karen, I didn’t know. I pinched the bridge of my nose as Sophie laughed out loud.

“She’s too smart. Why did you even come here, cat?” she asked.

“I have a name, human,” Bee replied haughtily. “Tell the human that what you had planned sounded more interesting than sleeping alone for a while longer. You’re not allowed going on adventures without me.”

I relayed Bee’s message to Sophie, who rolled her eyes, then turned my attention back to Bee.

“We absolutely are allowed going on adventures without you. Because in case you didn’t notice, you’re a cat!”

“Details,” Bee replied. I was about to reply with another smarmy reply when Zoe Wright suddenly descended on us, like a spider spotting flies in her trap. Little did she know that we were the ones setting the trap. At least, I hoped we were. We didn’t actually have a strategy, beyond show up here and ask questions.

“Hello ladies,” Zoe greeted us with an enthusiasm that surely had to be fake. No one could be that excited about meeting this many random strangers. Her life had to be exhausting. “It’s so lovely to see you here at the rally. The youth of Willow Bay are so important, and I’m so glad to see some young people here who appreciate that we’re trying to give Willow Bay a future.”

I plastered a plastic smile onto my face, not daring to speak. I could see Sophie next to me practically seething with anger as she breathed heavily from her nose. Her fists were clenched, and I sent her a look. This wasn’t the time to unload on Zoe Wright. We were supposed to be pretending to be on her side.

Luckily for Sophie and I, Charlotte didn’t have a hint of a temper in her.

“Yes, we’re very invested in the future of Willow Bay. We heard that you were planning on having the resort open this time next year and we were just thrilled to hear that, weren’t we?” Charlotte said, turning to glare at the two of us in warning. Sophie and I both nodded our heads enthusiastically.

“Yes, definitely!” I even managed to spit out. My voice sounded fake and unnaturally high, even to me.

“Well I’m so glad you came,” Zoe told us.

“We were wondering though,” Charlotte said, concern lining her face. “What do you think is going to happen with the recent murder? In terms of tourism at the resort?”

“I don’t think it should affect it at all,” Zoe told Charlotte. “After all, I have full confidence the police will make an arrest, and justice will be served.”

“But we heard that Tony Nyman owned a plot of land right next to the resort, and that it might be what got him killed.” It was a gutsy move, but we didn’t really have much to go on. Zoe’s back stiffened at Charlotte’s words, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it seemed as if her smile dropped for a split second before being pasted back onto her face.

“I have no idea where you heard that, but there is absolutely no way that poor man owning land near the resort will be affecting us at all. Ocean Mist has owned all of the parcels of land we’ve needed for over three years now while we gained approval from the government to build the resort. It’s just an unhappy coincidence that won’t be affecting the project at all.”

Charlotte put on her best concerned face.

“I just don’t want it to hold anything back, you know. Or stop people from coming to the resort.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. As far as the resort is concerned, everything is completely fine. We have everything taken care of. And the tourism industry will continue. There’s no doubt about it. People have short memories, I guarantee you that this time next year no one from outside the town will even remember there had been a murder here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve been doing this a long time. Believe me. While the man’s death is sad, it’s not going to have any long term effects on tourism. We’re going to bring so many more people to Willow Bay that it’s not going to matter at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe Anita wants me. It was lovely to meet you ladies, and thank you so much for your support.”

The three of us turned and looked at each other as Zoe made her way towards Anita Grey, who had been motioning for Zoe to come over and see her. “Geez. If I wasn’t mistaken, I think we might have actually shocked her a bit with that first question,” I said, smiling at Charlotte. “Good work.”

“We definitely did. I’m still sure that even if she doesn’t, someone at her company has something to do with Nyman’s death. I know that woman has answers for everything, but we shocked her at first.”

“Hello? Were you not there like two hours ago when I said Nyman had links to literal mob guys out east?” Sophie protested.

“That doesn’t mean they killed him,” Charlotte replied.

“Oh yeah gee I think the businesswoman with nothing to gain from it killed him then, not the guys who do that sort of thing for a living.”

“You watch too much TV,” Charlotte told Sophie. I held my hands up between them.

“Relax, both of you. We can go forward as if both theories are right, remember? It’s not like we need to pick and choose right now. Besides, I still don’t see how Jason Black fits into things, and I’m sure he does somehow.”

“You’re so obsessed with that guy,” Sophie told me.

“I am not obsessed,” I replied. “I’m interested in him as a suspect in the murder that essentially happened in my vet clinic.”

“Speak of the devil,” Charlotte muttered, pointing over to the other side of the park. Standing by the fountain, talking to Michael Kensington, the head of marketing, was Jason Black. I would have recognized that face anywhere. He was dressed down today, just wearing a light blue polo with dark blue jeans, and I had to admit despite myself that he looked good. Damn good.

No, I had to stop thinking that way. He was involved in a murder. He was insufferable. I hated him. And I wanted to stop running into him everywhere I went.

I stormed over to where he was standing.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. Michael Kensington looked shocked at my outburst, but Jason just laughed lightly.

“I would have thought it was obvious. I’m having a nice chat about the great Ocean Mist project with my new friend Michael. Michael, this is Angela. She owns the vet clinic in town.”

I shook his hand almost out of obligation. Of course he had a firm, generic businessman handshake. The man couldn’t have been more of a stereotype if he tried.

“Now sorry to cut our conversation short, Michael, but it seems Angie and I have a lot to talk about,” he told him, leading me away from the man.

“Angie?” I hissed. “Don’t call me that.”

His lips curled up into a smile. “Aww, why not? Don’t you like it?”

“Only my friends get to call me that, and you’re not my friend. Why are you here, anyway?”

He looked around. “I thought it would have been obvious, I’m attending a rally for people who are in favour of the Ocean Mist resort going ahead.”

“You are not,” I replied. “You’re new to the town anyway. You’re up to something. What is it?”

“Wow, you’re quite the conspiracy theorist Angie,” Jason replied, his eyes twinkling with laughter that made me want to punch him. “If I really was ‘up to something’ as you put it, don’t you think I’d be hiding myself just a little bit better instead of being out here in plain sight? Anyway, I should ask you the same thing. I’ve asked around town and I hear you’re very much opposed to the Ocean Mist plan. So why are you here?”

“That’s none of your business,” I replied.

“Well same to you.”

Damn it. I had no idea what Jason Black was up to, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell me. I figured I might as well go back and see Sophie and Charlotte. I stormed off without another word to Jason Black.

“Stay out of trouble,” he called out after me, and I replied by flipping him off without looking back. I could practically picture him laughing at me.

When I got back to where Charlotte and Sophie were waiting, I could see them laughing at me, too.

“What?” I asked, the annoyance on my face obvious.

“Nothing,” Sophie said, trying to hide a smile. “It’s just, you two would make a really cute couple.”

“I could slap you right now, so easily,” I replied. “No, worse. I’ll curse you. I’ll curse you so your hair falls out,” I replied. Ok, I didn't actually know that curse. Sophie didn’t know that though.

“Pfffft, my mom will be so pissed at you if you curse me that it won’t be worth it for you,” she told me, and I knew she was right. Lisa took the Witches’ Rulebook extremely seriously. There were basically just two basic rules to witchcraft: don’t ever let non-witches who aren’t immediate family find out about your powers (so Charlotte and I weren’t allowed to tell boyfriends about our powers, we had to wait until we got married), and don’t curse humans without extremely good reasons.

There was actually a court of witches that upheld the rules for those who broke them really, really badly. I didn’t know the details, but from what I heard, they were not a group you wanted to be hauled in front of. I highly doubted they would call me in just for putting a dumb curse on my best friend, but the wrath of Sophie’s mom scared me almost as much.

“Ok, how about we deal with this stuff later?” Charlotte suggested, getting in between Sophie and I. I grumbled a fine, but Sophie had a bit more fight in her.

“What do you suggest then, Einstein? Your brilliant plan of coming here and getting Mr. Robot over there or the Happiest Person Ever to admit to murder has failed.”

“It didn’t fail completely,” Charlotte protested. “Zoe Wright seemed a little bit shaken up when we mentioned it. I think we should go down to the proposed resort site and the property Tony Nyman owns and see if we can come up with any clues.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of clues are you expecting to find down there? A billboard advertising the motive to kill Nyman?”

“Obviously I won’t know what clues are down there until we go look.”

This time it was my turn to play peacemaker.

“Ok. Calm down guys.” I waited a second and Sophie and Charlotte stopped looking like they were going to go at each other’s throats, so I continued. “Why don’t we go down to the Ocean Mist building site? We can look around, see where Nyman’s property is, and see if there’s anything that will give us a clue. After all, it is one thing to see the records and all that, another completely go to and have a look. And if we don’t find anything, we can do what Sophie wants to try and get info on the mob guys. Agreed?”

“That sounds fun,” came a voice from down in the grass. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re not coming, Bee. You don’t get a vote.”

“Why don’t I get to come?” my cat protested.

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Really? What are you planning to find down there, a loaded gun and then play around with it?”

“Not for you. For the wildlife. Ocean Mist is going to be built on land with a ton of birds, and I don’t want them to have to worry about you.”

“If you let me come I promise I won’t kill anything.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked at my cat.

“Why are you so intent on coming? You never care about what I do.”

“I don’t care about this either. But today was my first time out in the fresh air in a while and I realized I miss it.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “But if I so much as see you tease a bird you’re going back in the car, and I’m never letting you outside without your leash again.”

I hoped the threat of the leash would be enough to keep Bee in check; she hated that thing more than anything else on earth. The first time I’d put it on her she refused to walk, and I literally dragged her along the front lawn to the sidewalk before realizing my efforts were completely wasted.

“We think it’s an ok idea too, since you asked,” Sophie offered, and I laughed.

“Sorry. Bee’s coming too.”

“Yeah, we figured that out,” Charlotte replied. “Now let’s get going, I want to be able to get over there before it gets dark.”