Саманта Сильвер - Busy As A Beaver

“Thank you,” the main beaver told me. “We appreciate that you are trying to solve this for us.”

By the time I was walking off, the beavers were all busily chopping down more trees to get their dam back into shape. They were definitely nothing if not hard workers.

Most of the morning was spent dealing with the morning’s animal issues—two separate sets of kittens came in for their initial shots, which was absolutely adorable and led to Bee complaining that I loved them more than her; one six-month-old Labrador came in because she had eaten her own collar; a sheltie had sprained her tail from wagging it too hard and whined in pain as she continued to wag; and another lab had eaten an entire bag of chocolate chips. Luckily, they were white chocolate, so I told the owner to watch out for some exciting bathroom times over the next few days but that otherwise he would be fine. It certainly was one of the more eventful days I’d had recently.

When Karen announced that I had a two-hour break for lunch before my next appointment, I decided I was going to try and take care of the beavers’ problem a bit earlier than I’d initially planned.

“Alright, I’ll be back,” I told her.

I decided to stop off at Betty’s first to grab a quick sandwich to go. Betty’s BLTs—made specially with vegetarian bacon for me—were absolutely my favorite meal on the planet, and I figured what better to fuel myself with than one of those?

After all, the morning had been interesting enough that I figured I’d earned one.

As I stepped into the shop, Betty wagged a finger at me with a smile. “I hear you’ve been cheating on me.”

I laughed. “Did Sophie tell you about our trip to the city?”

“She did,” Betty replied with a grin. “She said I should add bourbon pecan pie to my menu, since she’s certain mine would outshine the one at Two Sweets Bakery.”

“Well, I may have cheated on you once, but I always come back in the end,” I laughed as I got my wallet out from my purse. “Can I get a BLT and maybe a slice of brownie to go?”

“Sure thing,” Betty replied, tapping away at the cash register. “Long day ahead?”

“It’s already been a long day,” I laughed. “I’m not sure how the afternoon is going to go. But yeah, I have a few things on the schedule, so it’s going to have to be to go. Hey, do you have a minute to chat?” I figured if I was here, I might as well try and get some information about Francis Romano.

“Of course, let me just go drop your order off in the kitchen,” Betty said, grabbing the slip of paper and disappearing into the back for a minute before returning.

“What can I help you out with? Don’t tell me you’re still looking into that home invasion at Gloria’s. She was in here the other day, poor thing. She’s looking a bit better, but that guy sure did a number on her, didn’t he?”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “And yes, she did ask me to look into it, and I couldn’t say no to her. Not in that state. So I am doing it, but I’m going to tell Chief Gary anything really important that I find out.”

“Alright,” Betty said, a small smile playing on her lips. “What can I tell you, then? I told you, I don’t know Gloria all that well.”

“No, but you said you knew her husband.”

“Sure.” Betty nodded. “I grew up with Francis. He was a year ahead of me in school, but at that point Willow Bay was so small we were in the same class three quarters of the time anyway.”

“What can you tell me about him?”

Betty put a hand on her hip as she thought for a while. “He was always a bit of a troublemaker. To be honest, I was surprised to find out he became a teacher. I suppose we all had to grow up eventually, though. He probably would have actually been quite a good high school teacher. He was always very creative, and I imagine he would have made sure that the kids he taught found school fun for once.”

“What do you mean he was a troublemaker?”

“Well, you know, he was always the class clown. And he was always up for all sorts of adventures. Half the stories he told, I can’t imagine they were even remotely true. There was the time he claimed he came across the old abandoned cars from that train that derailed just outside of town back in the fifties, or when he claimed he found an underground bunker in the woods. There was also the time when he wrapped the school principal’s car in toilet paper during the day, and no one noticed. Yes, he definitely had stories to tell. Of course, the railcar story did end up being true.”

“You mean to tell me that Gloria’s husband was the one that found the old railcars in the forest?” I asked. I had never heard this story; there was a trail leading to the railcars now which was super popular among both tourists and locals, as the route was only about a mile long one way, fairly easy, and extremely scenic.

“Oh yes,” Betty said, nodding enthusiastically. “The day when it was officially announced that they were building a trail there was one of the best days of his life, I think. We were still in high school; it was about three years after he had initially discovered the cars. He was extremely excited, I think because it led everyone to believe that some of his other ridiculous adventures had actually happened as well.”

“Did they?” I asked with a smile. I was genuinely curious now. After all, I’d taken the trail to the railcars multiple times in my life.

Betty shrugged. “Who on earth knows? I suspect a lot of them were made up; why on earth would there be underground bunkers outside of Willow Bay? It just makes no sense. He claimed to have found a lot of things in the forest that simply should not have been there.”

“Did you know any of his friends as an adult?”

Betty shook her head no. “I’m afraid not. We lost touch completely after he moved out of town; we had never been close, so when he left I almost never saw him again. He did come back to town a few times, but not often. Last time I saw him would’ve been, oh, around twelve years ago. It was a few months after that woman up in the city strangled the hitman her husband hired to kill her. It was during the school year; I remember thinking that of course Francis couldn’t even take his holidays at the same time as normal people.”

“Right,” I said, nodding. “I’d forgotten about that.”

“That was the last time I saw him.” Betty shrugged. “Then a few years ago I found out he had died.”

“Do you know how it happened?”

“Heart attack,” Betty said. “Quite a sudden one, as well. Apparently, he just collapsed and never regained consciousness afterwards.”

I nodded. “So you’ve never heard the name Michael Carlton before?”

Betty shook her head. “Not in the context of anything to do with Francis. The first time I heard that name was a couple of days ago when it popped up in the papers.”

I frowned. While it was interesting to know Francis Romano’s background, it didn’t seem to be getting me anywhere when it came to a link between him and Michael Carlton. Another dead end. It seemed this case was full of them.

Betty came back with my sandwich and brownie a couple of minutes later, and I thanked her as I left, mulling over everything she’d told me.

Nope, for the life of me I couldn’t see how this could help me solve the case.

Chapter 15

Still, I knew that there was one case that I could solve right now. I dropped my food off at the vet clinic without eating it and made my way towards Sequoia Street. Looking at Google Maps, this was the street whose houses on the left-hand side backed onto the creek where the beavers lived.

The fact that the beavers had heard the man complaining that their dam was flooding his yard made me think that he almost certainly lived along here somewhere. Now all I had to do was start knocking on doors and hope that I recognized the man when he answered.