Саманта Сильвер - Sleeping With The Fishes

“All right, you three. It’s time for you to go home,” I said, the first tear escaping my eyes. I wiped it away and laughed. “I’m so glad you’re going to see your mom soon, Lucy.”

“Thank you, Angela,” Lucy said. “The only sad part about going home is leaving you.”

That sentence started off a whole new series of waterworks. “Oh come here you,” I said to the giraffe as I reached up and wrapped my arms around her softly in a hug.

When I pulled back, I made my way to the two cockatoos and hugged them as well. “I’m also going to miss you guys. Thanks so much for saving my life.”

“No, you saved our lives,” Coolidge replied. “What we lived in that barn was not a life, and you saved us from it. We are the ones who thank you.”

“Take care of yourselves,” I said. “Now come on, let’s go to the truck that’s going to take you home.

The two birds flew slowly overhead and Lucy followed me as I guided her out of the stable and out to the front of the house. The birds casually flew straight into the large cage at the back of the truck, while I coaxed Lucy into the large trailer at the back.

“Wow, it’s almost like they listen to you perfectly,” Lauren said. “Thank you for reporting these. I’ll be in touch later to get the information on the farm keeping them.”

“Thank you,” I told Lauren. “I appreciate your help.”

I waved goodbye until the truck turned the corner at the end of the street and disappeared from view, my eyes still stinging with tears. It was a very bittersweet goodbye.

After Lauren left I made my way back to the vet clinic, where a pretty uneventful morning led to an extended lunch at Betty’s with Sophie. I told Sophie about Lauren taking the animals back, and we started discussing the murder.

“The thing is, we’re out of suspects,” I told Sophie. “No one had a motive, except for the guy with a rock-solid alibi.”

“Maybe you’re thinking about it the wrong way,” Sophie suggested. “You’re trying to think about the reason for the crime. What about the facts?”

I shrugged. “That’s the problem though. We don’t have a lot of facts. What do we know? That Matt was killed, presumably in Willow Bay that night, and then dumped in the water. He was shot, so the person who killed him had access to a gun; that only narrows it down to what, like half the population?”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. Still, I think that’s the way to go. Even if it’s not physical evidence, what if you could prove that one of our suspects was in Willow Bay? I’d bet Tony Fanchini has a noticeable car. Maybe someone saw it.”

My mouth dropped open.

“Oh my God, Sophie, that’s it!”

“Yeah, of course it is. Now we just need to figure out who it was.”

“No, no. You’re right. We have to go to Portland.”

“I can’t go today, after we close up I’m meeting Taylor. He says he has something special planned.”

“Ok,” I replied. “Well, I can’t wait until tomorrow. There’s a murderer out there, and I’m pretty sure I know who it is.”

“Who?”

“The roommate, Jake.”

“The creepy guy who stared at my boobs for a whole conversation?”

“Yeah, him.”

“Why would he want to kill Matt? They were business partners.”

“I don’t know, but as you said, I don’t need to focus on that. But the thing is, I’m pretty sure Jake was in Willow Bay the night before the murder.”

“Ok, how do you know that?”

“You know when I chased Smith down the street after he set the vet clinic on fire? Well I grabbed at him and we both fell into a car. I thought it was a grey Prius, but it was dark, it could very well have been silver.”

Sophie’s eyes widened. “Silver like Jake’s car.”

“Exactly. And sure, it’s not exactly rare to see a Prius in Willow Bay, but the two owned by people in town are blue and green, and it’s not tourist season at all. Plus, all the businesses were long since closed, so why be parked on Main Street? Anyone staying at one of the hotels would be parked there.”

Sophie nodded. “I think you might be right. It’s a little bit of a long shot, but it actually makes sense.”

“I need to find out for sure.”

“Absolutely,” Sophie said. “Try not to almost die, this time.”

“I’ll do my best,” I deadpanned back. As we were getting ready to go, I realized why Matt Smith might have been parked on Main Street. I told Sophie I’d meet her back at the vet clinic, and headed down the street to confirm my theory.

I ducked into the Italian place Jason and I liked to eat at, and found Jessie, who had been our waitress a few days earlier, cleaning a table.

“Excuse me, Jessie?”

“Yes?” she asked, a friendly smile on her face. I turned my phone to her and showed her a picture of Jake that I’d found on the website of the company he and Matt owned; a simple, professional headshot.

“Would you happen to have seen this guy sometime recently?” I asked. “Maybe he was a customer?”

“Oh, yeah, him,” Jessie nodded. “I called him boobs. Oh, he wasn’t a friend of yours or anything, was he?” she added quickly, realizing what she said, and I laughed.

“No, don’t worry. And I agree with you, the nickname is well deserved. Listen, do you remember when you saw him by chance? It’s important.”

Jessie put a hand on her hip and looked up as she thought back. “Hmm. It was the night Carley called in sick, so we were short-staffed, which was a little bit annoying. That would have been on Friday. Yes, definitely Friday. The man he was with asked to keep the wine bottle, which was weird, but whatever.”

I smiled, thanked Jessie, and left. That answered that. I was certain of what had happened now. Matt and Jake had a meeting in Willow Bay, afterwards Matt used the wine bottle to torch my vet clinic. Then, later on that night, Jake and Matt met up again, and Jake killed Matt.

It all made perfect sense.

Unfortunately, I was going to have to spend the afternoon working before I could confirm it.

Chapter 20

I sent Jason a text as I made my way toward my car as soon as the vet clinic closed.

Jake, the roommate, is the murderer. Going to see him now.

I had to get Jake to admit to me what he’d done. After all, I didn’t actually have any proof, just a hunch and a bit of what the crime shows on TV that I watched way too often would call circumstantial evidence.

When five minutes after I sent the text Jason hadn’t replied, I figured he was still asleep. As I made the drive up to Lake Oswego, everything continued to fall into place. It all made sense. The only thing I didn’t know was why he had done it. Hopefully Jake would be surprised enough when he saw me that he would admit to everything.

I arrived at the house just before one. I parked the car in front of his house and made my way up toward it. Opening a recording app on my phone, I slipped it into the pocket of the hoodie I was wearing. This way, if Jake did admit to me what he’d done, there would be evidence of it. I could hand it over to Chief Gary, and he’d go away for life, and Jason and I would officially be suspects no more.

The only problem was, despite ringing the doorbell three times there was no answer. Jake wasn’t home. I looked around, and sure enough, I couldn’t see his Prius anywhere.

“Are you looking for Jake?” a woman’s voice asked, and I looked over to where the sound came from. An elderly woman was looking over the hedge separating Jake’s house from his neighbor’s, an elderly woman with a pair of pruning shears in her hand.

“I am, yes,” I said with a smile. “I thought he would be home this morning.”