The Purr-fect Crime

Chapter 22

I was only out for a second or two, but it was enough. When I woke up, Zoe Wright was reaching for the gun. My vision was blurred and I moved for it as well, but with my weakened reflexes, I missed. I had one option though: I reached out and grabbed Zoe’s perfectly groomed hair – although Bee had already done a number on it herself – and yanked as hard as I could.

Zoe fell to the ground, yelling, and I took up every ounce of strength I had to get up and run.

Bee was lying on the ground, motionless, about ten feet away. My heart sank like a stone. No. No, no, no. This couldn’t be. I ran to her and grabbed her off the ground, and as soon as I did I could feel my cat’s heart beating against my hands. Thank goodness.

“Oh Bee, I’m so glad you’re ok,” I whispered to my cat as she began to stir. She’d just been knocked out for a minute. I’d never been so relieved in my life, I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to my cat. My aggravating, annoying, unbearable, beautiful, perfect cat.

“I told you this adventure was a bad idea,” she murmured softly as I ran to the forest with her in tow. I could hear Zoe running after us.

Every ounce of my being was focused on getting out of the forest and back to the road as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I was never exactly what you would call a runner, and after a few hundred yards I could feel my breath becoming more ragged, and a sharp metallic feeling in the back of my throat.

I swear, if I get out of here alive, I’m going to start going to the gym more, I thought to myself as I struggled to run with Bee through the forest. I could hear Zoe catching up to us. We had to be still a good mile from the road, there was no way we were going to make it.

“I’m sorry, Bee,” I whispered to my cat. “You run as far as you can, ok?” I asked.

“Nah. The other humans don’t talk to me. They’re boring. I don’t have the energy to try and claw her down again, I’m sorry,” Bee replied.

“Don’t be. I love you,” I told my cat as I came to a stop. Zoe had practically caught up to us, we were just delaying the inevitable. Less than five seconds after I stopped, Zoe came upon us. She flashed a grin as she raised her gun.

“You realize my sister and Sophie got away, right?” I said, desperately hoping to stall Zoe. Not really because I thought anyone was going to save us, but because I just wanted a few more precious moments on earth. It wasn’t until now, as I stared down the barrel of her pistol, that I realized just how much I really, really wanted to keep living.

I heard a rustle of wind in the trees, and inhaled a deep breath of air, knowing it might be my last one. Nature was so wonderful, so peaceful. At least I’d picked a nice place to die.

“They’re going to get the police. And they’re going to come and arrest you,” I told her. “You’re not going to get away with it.”

“I can kill you now and get back there long before they do. No one will ever know.”

“I know,” came a voice out to the side, and a split second later Jason Black burst out from the trees and tackled Zoe. They fell to the ground, and I ran towards the two of them to get the gun from Zoe.

Suddenly, a shot rang out. It was like everything froze for a split second. I couldn’t hear anything. All I knew is my t-shirt had blood on it. But I didn’t feel any pain. Then, instinct kicked in.

Get the gun.

I caught a glimpse of the barrel and reached towards it, yanking it from Zoe’s hands. Jason overpowered her easily and pressed her to the ground, ripping off her jacket and using the sleeves to tie her up.

I looked down at my shirt. There were splatters of red blood on it. But funnily enough, nothing hurt.

That was when I looked up at Jason, and I realized: it wasn’t my blood.

He was standing there, a hole the size of a quarter in his arm with blood flowing out of it.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m not the one we have to be worried about right now,” I said, stuffing the gun into the back of my pants. He looked down at the wound.

“Yeah, that’s not great, is it?” he replied. Even though my training involved taking care of animals in an emergency, it didn’t mean I was completely useless with humans as well.

“Take off your shirt,” I ordered.

“Look, I know you think I’m hot, but do you really think this is an appropriate time?” he asked.

“To stop the bleeding,” I replied, exasperated.

“Oh. Uh, yeah,” he said, immediately slipping the shirt up and over his head. I totally didn’t look on purpose, but couldn’t deny that he had one hell of a chiselled body. I didn’t think I’d ever actually seen a six pack in real life before.

“And I do not think you’re hot,” I replied, grabbing the fabric from him and tearing it into strips.

“If that’s true then why did your face go like three shades of red when I took my shirt off?” he asked, and I felt my face go an even deeper scarlet. Great.

I immediately wrapped the strips of fabric tightly around his arm to help staunch the bleeding. That was the most important thing; we were far enough away from civilization right now that I had to make sure he lost as little blood as possible before we got to the hospital.

“Are you ok to walk?” I asked, and he nodded.

“I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure you don’t need an arm to walk,” he replied with a smile.

“Well if you don’t stop giving the actual doctor lip, you’re going to be walking back to Willow Bay by yourself,” I warned, looking around for Bee. She was just sitting on the ground, still looking a little bit dazed as she stared aimlessly at a clump of grass.

“Come on Bee, we’re going,” I told her. “Can you jump up on my shoulder?” The sound of my voice seemed to shock Bee back to life, and she easily leapt up onto me.

“Wow, that’s the best trained cat I’ve ever seen,” Jason said, staring at Bee, amazed. A second later he had to move out of the way of her claw swiping at him.

“Woah, what was that for?”

“Insinuating that she’s trained,” I replied, rolling my eyes at my cat. “Now come on, let’s get going. I really don’t want to have to carry a gunshot victim out of the woods in the dark,” I replied.

Zoe Wright was still writhing around on the ground. We had no other options but to hope she wouldn’t be able to get out of Jason’s makeshift rope tying her up until Chief Gary got there. Although even if she did, at least now we knew who was responsible.

I helped guide Jason through the forest and back towards the town.

“How did you find us, anyway?” I asked as we trampled along. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight to make it easier to see; unfortunately around Jason making magical light was completely out of the question.

“I followed you, after you left the rally. I knew you were going to try and find out who killed Tony Nyman, and thought you might have gotten a clue.”

“So you were also trying to find out who killed him.”

“Well, yeah. I thought that was obvious.”

“You did a really bad job of it; we all spent a good while thinking you had killed him.”

Jason was silent for a moment before replying. “For a long time, I wanted to. I really did.”

“Why? The thing I can’t figure out is how you fit into the picture? How did you know Tony Nyman?”

“He was my dad.”

I didn’t even have the time to let the gravity of those words really set in before I suddenly heard some movement and saw flashlights in the woods a few hundred yards away.

“Hey! Over here!” I yelled, and a couple minutes later Jason and I finally met up with Taylor, and another cop I didn’t recognize.

“He has a gunshot wound, get him taken care of,” I ordered the two cops as soon as I saw them. Taylor was instantly on his radio, asking for an ambulance to meet them as close by as was possible, and rushed off with Jason while I stayed behind with the other cop.

“I’m Officer Schultz, but you can call me Jesse,” the man told me, shaking my hand. He was about my age, with just the first sign of a balding head, and a friendly face.

“Angela.”

“We had a report that Zoe Wright tried to kill you?”

I nodded. “Yes. She almost succeeded, too. Jason saved my life. He overpowered her and tied her up back in the forest a bit. Do you want me to show you where?”

“If you can describe it to me I’ll send other officers over there. I want to get you to the hospital as quickly as possible.”

“I’m fine, really!” I protested.

“Chief Gary’s orders, ma’am,” Jesse replied.

“Fine,” I sighed. I described where Zoe had caught up to me as best as possible, then Jesse led me back to the road after he radioed in my directions, where an ambulance was already waiting for me.

As soon as the paramedics came into view I was whisked away from Jesse. Bee hissed threateningly at anyone who tried to take her off my neck.

“We can’t take the cat in the ambulance,” one of the EMTs told me.

“Well, Bee saved my life out there, so either you let her in the ambulance, or I’m not going,” I replied. They decided they could bend the rules just this once.

As soon as I lay down on the gurney I realized just how exhausted my body was. I had scrapes and bruises all over me from the various fights. I was covered in blood – mostly Jason’s, but some of my own. I was shaking, and my heart was still going a million miles a minute. Now that I had time to come to terms with the fact that I’d come really, really close to being killed, well, that wasn’t a great thing to have to deal with. I stroked Bee’s fur; she had decided to lie down on my stomach in a little ball.

One of the EMTs told me they were going to give me something to let me sleep for a little bit; apparently I wasn’t the only one who realized that I was in pretty bad shape. A minute later my eyes began to close and I fell asleep, the last thing I remember being a soft meow from Bee.