The Purr-fect Crime

Chapter 23

“You have to let her sleep,” I heard Charlotte hiss.

“I am letting her sleep!” Sophie protested in reply.

“You are not. You’re making so much noise.”

“It’s not my fault they use the crinkliest wrappers ever for their take-away burgers.”

“You could always eat that in the hallway.”

“I promised Angie I wasn’t leaving her side.”

It took every ounce of effort I could muster to open my eyes. Charlotte and Sophie were sitting in a couple of chairs next to my hospital bed. Hospital bed. Why was I here?

Suddenly, everything came flooding back to me. We went out to the Ocean Mist site. Zoe Wright trying to kill us. Jason Black getting shot while saving me.

I leaned back against the soft pillow as Sophie and Charlotte realized I woke up.

“Angie!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Oh Angela, I’m so glad you’re awake!” Charlotte exclaimed, coming over and taking my hand gently. I could feel Bee against my leg; she was sleeping, curled up into a little ball next to my right thigh.

I smiled weakly at my sister and best friend.

“Are you guys ok?” I asked.

“Of course we are. Thanks to you. And to Bee. If it wasn’t for the two of you, well, I think we’d all be dead now.”

I shook my head. “Don’t think about that.”

“Seriously though, you were awesome,” Sophie said.

“What happened to Zoe Wright?” I asked in a soft voice that didn’t quite seem my own yet.

“They found her. She’s been arrested and is facing a lot of charges. Apparently she’s not admitting to anything, but Chief Gary thinks as soon as her lawyer gets here he’ll try and get her to confess to get a slightly reduced sentence. Either way she’s going to spend pretty much the whole rest of her life in jail.”

“Good. She deserves it. What about Jason Black?”

“He’s ok,” Sophie answered. “He was just shot in the arm. We had breakfast with him this morning before he went back to the airport.”

I had to admit, my heart sunk a little bit at the news that Jason had left. If nothing else, I wanted to thank him properly for saving my life. That was the only reason. Or so I told myself.

“Airport?” I asked, not really feeling up to full sentences yet. Charlotte filled me in on the rest.

“Yeah, when his mom heard that he had been shot, she was worried and wanted him to come home straight away. So he did. He flew out from Portland back to New York a couple hours ago.”

“He’s from New York? He told me Tony Nyman was his dad.”

“Yeah. He was. That was why he was here. It turns out Tony Nyman used to be Tony Formetti. He had an affair with Jason’s mom, and Jason was the result of that affair. Except that Formetti was in the mob, and ended up on the wrong side of a hit. His wife was killed, but he managed to get away by faking his own death and creating a new identity for himself. That was when he came to Willow Bay.”

“That’s why the mob guys were at the funeral.”

“Exactly. Since people aren’t usually killed so dramatically in small tourist towns Nyman’s death actually made the news around the country, and someone in Formetti’s old group saw the picture and recognized him. They came over to make sure it was him and he was really dead.”

Suddenly, something else clicked.

“So that day. When Jason saw me and ran away…” my voice trailed off and Sophie nodded.

“Yeah, it wasn’t you he saw. He saw the three mob guys, instantly recognized them, and decided he had no desire at all to see them. You were standing in between the mob guys and Jason, so you thought he was running from you.”

Everything was slowly starting to make sense.

“But why was he here to begin with?” I asked. “I saw him a few hours after his dad died. He couldn’t have found out and flown out here that fast.”

“No, he arrived the night before. Apparently Nyman emailed his old mistress, Jason’s mom, telling her where he was. Jason decided to come and visit and see the dad he hadn’t seen in a long time. It was just incredibly bad luck that he showed up just before his dad was murdered. Also, he told us it was him who was in the house at the same time as us, he was looking for his dad’s will, but the place had already been ransacked, since Zoe Wright had already been there.”

“Wow. That’s pretty sad,” I said, feeling bad for Jason. “So what happens now?”

“Now you start by going back to sleep,” Charlotte ordered, suddenly going into doctor mode. “We’ve already probably told you more stressful stuff than you really needed right now.”

“How come I have to stay in the hospital when you guys seem to be up and about and getting food from good places?” I protested, looking at Sophie’s bag of takeaway.

“Because we weren’t the ones who saw a man being shot, got covered in his blood, or who got an infection from one of the cuts on the run back,” Charlotte replied. “You have to stay here for another day or so, then you can come back and eat all the take-away you want.”

“Can you at least sneak me in some Chipotle?” I asked, giving Sophie my best puppy dog eyes. I knew Charlotte would never, ever break hospital rules. I loved my veggie bowl from Chipotle, but Willow Bay didn’t have one. Seeing as it didn’t have a hospital, either, I knew I had to be in Portland.

“Yeah, for sure,” Sophie replied, earning herself a glare from Charlotte that she purposefully ignored.

“Have I ever told you that I love you?” I replied, just the thought of my favourite fast food making me feel better already.

“Not nearly as often as you tell me you hate me,” Sophie joked in reply, and I laughed. It felt really, really good to laugh.

“Is the Ocean Mist resort still going forward?” I asked, and Sophie shook her head.

“You know, it’s funny. I seem to remember someone telling me that there was nothing we could do, that it was hopeless, that even though we tried really hard and we understood the people, there was nothing we could do to stop the project from going forward. It turns out that was wrong. All we had to do was get the head of it arrested for murder, and the company decided to put the project on indefinite hold.”

I grinned in reply. That was absolutely awesome news.

Just then, Bee stirred at my feet, shifting a little bit before going back to sleep.

“Oh, we got her these,” Charlotte told me, holding up a giant bag full of Temptations, Bee’s favourite treats.

“Yeah, we figured she deserved them after saving all our lives,” Sophie replied.

“I bet she loves you guys,” I said, grinning as I noticed the bag was already open. It seemed Bee had already gotten into her treats.

“Well, she’s letting us pat her, and also not trying to bite us, so we figure that’s about as close to love as Bee gets with people that aren’t you,” Sophie replied, and I laughed. That did sound like Bee.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Lisa’s coming in after work to check in on you as well,” Charlotte said.

I smiled.

“Thanks so much, guys. I really appreciate it.”

“Hey, I’m only here because you saved my life,” Sophie replied, punching me in the arm lightly. I laughed.

“I guess that’s fair.”

“Let me eat my burger and then I’ll go get you Chipotle, ok?” Sophie asked.

“Sure, no problem. Thanks.”

Fifteen minutes later Sophie and Charlotte had gone to get Chipotle, after a nurse came and told them I needed to rest for a little while longer. I lay on the bed and absent-mindedly stroked Bee as she purred contentedly under me. Who could have guessed that our little adventure to try and find out who had killed Tony Nyman would have almost led to the three of us getting killed? And the fact that Bee had saved all our lives was even more incredible.

Leaning back, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. This was enough of a crazy adventure to last a lifetime.