Саманта Сильвер: Lipstick On A Pig

“Sophie?”

“Yes?”

“Everything is spinning.”

“Sit down,” Sophie ordered, and I did as she asked, the sharp grass biting through the thin layer of my black pants as I sat on the ground. “Are you sitting?”

“Yes.”

“Now, I want you to look around. Where are you?”

I slowly began to take in my surroundings. The car had fallen down a short embankment, about four feet lower than the street level. The car had hit a tree, but it was just a small birch. All in all, I had actually been pretty lucky. I described the scene to Sophie.

“Can you climb up the embankment so we can see you when we come past?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Do that,” Sophie ordered. I crawled up the embankment slowly; my head felt like it was on fire. When I was there, I told Sophie I’d done it.

“Good. Now don’t move. Tell me what happened, we’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

About five minutes later I’d told Sophie everything that had happened with the car that had run me off the road. Taylor called Chief Gary, who came and took my statement himself.

“You should really go to the hospital,” Chief Gary told me for the tenth time since taking my statement.

“I’m fine. I’ll go home and rest, and if I feel like I have a concussion tomorrow I’ll go see the doctor.”

“Fine, but I will be calling you tomorrow to make sure you’re really all right,” Chief Gary warned me. “And I’ll be asking Charlotte for her opinion, as well.”

“I’m the older sister, you’re supposed to be taking my word over hers.”

“She’s the one who’s trained to be a doctor.”

“So am I!”

“On humans,” Chief Gary replied, giving me a pointed look.

“Close enough,” I muttered in reply. “Fine. I’ll check in tomorrow,” I finally added. “Taylor can drive Sophie and I home. I’ll get Charlotte to pick up Bee.”

I texted my sister quickly asking her to get my cat while Sophie came over.

“Did you convince her to go to the hospital?” she asked Chief Gary, and he gave her a wry smile.

“What do you think? We’ve compromised. I’ll check in tomorrow and see how she’s feeling; if there are any problems then Angela has agreed to go see the doctor.”

“Good. If she keeps getting into trouble we’ll finally have enough reason to build a hospital in Willow Bay.”

“I know you’re joking, but I don’t like this at all,” Chief Gary replied. “From what Angela has told me it sounds like someone tried to purposely run her off the road. She’s extremely lucky to just come out of this with a small concussion.”

I shifted uncomfortably in place. I didn’t really like to think about what could have happened.

“What I want to know is why someone would go after Angela.” Sophie and I glanced at each other. “The two of you aren’t getting in too deep on the Jessica Oliver murder, are you?” Chief Gary continued, his eyes narrowing.

“What? No, of course not,” Sophie replied in a voice that was a half octave too high to be completely believable. “We have no reason to be involved in a murder case.”

“Good. Make sure it stays that way. I want to find the person who did this to Angela. If you think of anyone who might have wanted to do this to you, please let me know. I mean it. I don’t even care if you have been investigating the murder, I just don’t want you hurt worse than you already are.”

I nodded mutely. I knew what Chief Gary was telling me, but I couldn’t admit to him that we had been investigating the murder separately. I just couldn’t.

“Take care of yourself, Angela. I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”

He gave me an awkward pat on the shoulder then headed off to speak with one of his other officers. I glanced over at Sophie.

“I just want to go home,” I told her quietly, and she nodded, leading me back to Taylor’s truck. Five minutes later Taylor was driving us back home.

“I’ll bring you guys over some food,” he told us. “You’re a vegetarian, right Angela?” he asked, looking at me through the rear view.

“Yeah,” I offered. “Thanks.”

Chapter 18

When we walked through the door, Charlotte looked ready to kill us.

“What?” I protested. “You don’t even know what happened yet.”

“You had better have a damn good excuse for this,” Charlotte replied.

“Is she back? Is the human who forgot her poor, long-suffering, adorable, starving cat at her boyfriend’s house back at the house? She was too busy to pick me up herself, but she has finally graced us with her presence.”

Bee was upset, I gathered.

“What did she do?” I asked Charlotte quietly so Bee couldn’t hear.

“She hid. Her and Buster. It took us thirty minutes to find them; they were inside the dryer.”

“Oh, God,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

I walked past Charlotte into the living room.

“Her Majesty graces us with her presence,” Bee announced.

“I’ve always wished you’d call me that,” I replied, “Although I always pictured it with a bit less biting sarcasm.”

“Why should I speak to the human who cannot be bothered coming to get her cat herself?”

“Someone tried to kill me, Bee. I got run off the road and was in a car accident.”

“Wait, what?” Charlotte said from her spot in front of the door.

“Sure, make this all about you,” Bee replied, carefully licking a paw. “But all the same, I am glad you’re alive.”

“Thank you,” I told Bee.

“You’re welcome. After all, I don’t trust the dog owner or the other one to feed me as much sushi as you do.”

Of course Bee was going to miss me spoiling her over anything else.

“Hold up,” Charlotte interrupted. “You can make up with your cat later,” she continued, earning herself a hiss from Bee. “Tell me about someone trying to kill you.”

I turned and told her the whole story about the car coming up behind me and driving me off the road. When I was finished, Charlotte’s face was white.

“We need to stop investigating this murder. It almost got you killed tonight.”

“Are you joking?” Sophie replied. “This means we have to work extra hard to figure out which one of the Forrester brothers killed those women. It’s the only way to make sure Angela stays safe.”

“If anyone kills my sushi giver, I’ll claw them to death,” Bee added.

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re on my side again, and for all the right reasons too,” I told her, and she purred contentedly.

“You’re welcome.”

“That’s the worst logic I’ve ever heard,” Charlotte said. “If we stop looking for the killer, then assuming the killer was the person who tried to run Angela off the road, then they’ll have no reason to keep going after her.”

“But what if they don’t stop?” I argued. “What if they decide to kill me anyway? I’m with Sophie on this one. I want to do my best to make sure whichever Forrester brother is responsible, or both of them, are locked up.”

“How do you know it’s one of the Forrester brothers?” Charlotte asked, and Sophie and I went over the rest of the afternoon’s activities with her. When we were finished, her face was ashen.

“That’s enough. We’re finished. There’s absolutely no way we’re going to continue investigating this murder.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but just then Taylor walked into the house, carrying a whole bunch of take-out containers, followed closely by Jason who ran over to me and took me in his arms. I leaned against my boyfriend as Sprinkles ran up to Taylor, happily running around his legs as Sophie sprang up to help him with the food.

“How did you know what happened?” I muttered to Jason.