Саманта Сильвер - Busy As A Beaver

“I love you so much,” she whispered to me.

“I love you too. I always will, no matter where you live. Now, get your butt to California and show them all how amazing you are.”

Charlotte laughed through her tears. “Well, it’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow. I still have to officially finish my schooling here, which ends at the end of December. Then I’m going to take a month or so off, and I move in February, which is when I told them I’ll start.”

“You? Taking time off? Please, you’re going to get bored after like two days and start running up the walls,” I joked. I had to admit I was choking back tears somewhat. I loved Charlotte, and I loved having her here. Sure, she could be neurotic and a little bit naggy, and she wasn’t the biggest fan of when Sophie and I investigated crimes. But she helped where she could, and she was always fun to have around in her own nerdy kind of way. I was definitely going to miss her.

But at the same time, I was also insanely excited for her. After all, my little baby sister was finally going to go out and take on the world on her own terms. She was going to be amazing.

Chapter 13

I spent most of the rest of the night looking at my phone, checking the app that was linked to the camera to see if anybody had come by and annoyed the beavers yet or not. There were a few videos triggered by the motion sensors, but so far they had all been of the beavers themselves, wiggling around outside of their lodge.

I had to admit, the quality of the video, even at night, was extremely good. The man in the shop had sold me that model specifically because I asked for something that would work well at night, and he had delivered. Apparently, this camera shot at a higher ISO than most, and it showed. While it wasn’t high-def or anything like that, even in the pitch black I could make out the outline of what was very obviously a beaver waddling around on the land near the lodge.

Afterwards, I began to browse Pinterest, looking for gift ideas to order or make for Charlotte to take with her to San Francisco. I knew I still had a few months, but I wanted to make sure that she had something really special from me. After all, I was her sister. I needed Charlotte to know that no matter what, she was in my heart, and that if she ever needed anything, she could always call.

Jason returned home a few hours later, and I heard Charlotte giving him the news in the kitchen as well. I smiled as he congratulated her. He came over with a bowl full of pasta and sat down on the couch next to me.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m ok,” I said with a smile. “Is the emergency all solved?”

“It certainly is. There was an issue with one of the drivers that the computer through which the printing was done used, but I managed to find an update and apply it. So we’re all good.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to reading your article about the break-in at Gloria’s.”

Jason shrugged. “Unfortunately, it’s definitely very far from my best work. I just wish we had more to go on. But none of that is important compared to the news I’m sure you just heard from Charlotte as well. How are you holding up?”

I smiled. “I’m thrilled for her. I mean, of course I’d be really happy if she decided to stay in Willow Bay, or the Portland area. But at the same time, I’m also so excited for her to see more of the world. Oregon is just one small corner of it, and I think getting out there and exploring a little bit more is going to be a great thing for her.”

“At least it’s only a few hours away by car, too.”

“Exactly! Plus, I’ve always wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge, and now I have the perfect excuse.”

Jason wrapped his arm around me. “I’m glad you’re happy for her.”

“And I bet you’re glad that we’re finally going to get this house to ourselves,” I teased, poking him in the stomach.

Jason laughed. “I like having Charlotte around here. This way, whenever I’m sick and you take me to go to the doctor, I can just ask your sister what’s wrong with me and she always tells me. Now I’m going to have to actually leave the house whenever I have medical issues.”

This time it was my turn to laugh. Things were definitely changing, but I knew that in the long term it was going to be for the better.

I woke up early the next morning to find Bee insisting that she get to come to the vet clinic that day. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary about that; Bee often enjoyed spending her days lying down in her bed on top of the counter, making snarky remarks at or about the clientele. Besides, Buster often came in to spend time with her as well, and I had a sneaking suspicion that as she began to heal Gloria might try bringing him by a few times simply to get a little bit of a break. That was completely fine by me; whatever I could do to help her healing process, I would.

Bee trotted after me towards the car and hopped in, and five minutes later we made our way through the back entrance of the vet clinic. Sophie was already there, drinking a coffee and motioning to an extra take-out cup waiting for me on the counter.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I told her as I took a deep sip of the caramel latte. Yeah, as good as the café we had gone to yesterday in Portland was, there was still nothing quite like a good morning coffee from Betty’s.

“How do we solve a murder when we have exactly zero suspects?” I asked Sophie at the end of the day as we began packing up our things.

“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “Find a suspect?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Maybe we should get together and just try to pound it out. Want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“Sure,” Sophie replied. “I’ll make some cookies and we’ll get wine-drunk and regret everything in the morning, but hopefully we’ll be a bit closer to solving the case.”

“Sounds good,” I laughed.

Half an hour later we were home, full of wine and Indian food that we’d picked up on the way, and Sophie was in the kitchen making vanilla bean sugar cookies with salted caramel icing—perfect for these cold winter nights—while Jason and I sat at the dining table watching her as we worked our way through what we knew about the case so far.

“So we still don’t know what the link between Gloria and Michael Carlton is?” I asked as I watched Sophie pour flour in the bowl.

“That’s right, but I have a source at the police station who confirms that the two home invasions were committed by the same person,” Sophie said.

I gave her a sly look. “That person wouldn’t happen to be someone you’re sleeping with, would it?”

Sophie winked in reply. Sometimes it was handy having your best friend dating one of the local cops.

“It must have been the bullet that fired in Gloria’s home,” Jason mused. “I assume they would have compared it to the bullet that killed Michael Carlton and would have found that it matched.”

“That was it,” Sophie said. “Taylor texted me this afternoon to tell me; he knows that I’m curious about this investigation.”

“Just how much do you tell him about how involved you get in these murder cases?” I asked. After all, I was curious. Jason basically knew everything about my investigations, mainly because he often helped out, what with being an investigative journalist and all. But somehow, I had a feeling that Taylor, being an actual policeman, wouldn’t be quite so enthusiastic about Sophie’s involvement.

“Oh, he just thinks I’m one of those true crime junkies that’s curious about that sort of thing,” Sophie said with a smile. I laughed; that sounded about right.

“Anyway, the important thing here is that we now have confirmation that the same person committed both home invasions,” Jason said. “So there has to be a link between the two; it makes no sense for these to be unrelated events.”