Саманта Сильвер - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

He lay his head back down comfortably on the little bed of pillows as I softly closed the door to the bedroom and made my way into the kitchen to make my morning smoothie before work.

Charlotte was out back taking care of the animals living in the stables at the back of the property, and she came in at almost the same time as I did.

“Someone’s not happy this morning,” she said, nodding her head towards Bee, who was sitting on the bookshelf, her tail dropping down over the edge, her face burrowed into the corner.

“Awwwwww, Bee, what’s wrong,” I asked, going over to see the cat.

“You let him sleep with you. In your room.” Her voice was muffled against the sound of the bookcase, and I could see Sophie struggling not to laugh at just how much my cat was sulking.

“I did. Because I wanted him to feel safe. He’d been left outside in the cold for days, I wanted him to have a nice, warm bed for once, like you do every night.”

“I do not. I have a nice, warm, couch.”

“Only because you decided to play fetch with my toes at 2am one time too many,” I protested.

“Did he sleep on the bed with you?” she asked, and the level of hurt in her voice was so ridiculous I wasn’t sure if I should be heartbroken or burst out laughing.

“No. He slept on the floor.” Well, that wasn’t completely true. But I wasn’t exactly lying to Bee, Sprinkles hadn’t slept on the bed. Bee’s tail flickered once, and I wondered if maybe she was starting to forgive me.

“When is he going away?”

“I don’t know Bee. His owner died. He has nowhere to take care of him, so we’re going to handle that for a little while. Are you ok with that?”

“Absolutely not at all.”

I sighed. “Come on, Bee. Sprinkles wanted me to let you know he said thank you for letting him stay in your home for a while.”

“The dog can say what he wants. I don’t like him, and I don’t want him here.”

“Well Bee, we all have to put up with things we don’t like sometimes. Come on, I’ll give you another piece of sushi if you move on out of there, ok?”

The promise of her favourite treat placated Bee enough that she allowed herself to move to the kitchen.

“I’m not coming to the office today,” Bee announced as I was getting the sushi out of the fridge.

“You absolutely are.”

“No. I need to protect my territory.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bee, you’re coming to work today. You don’t need to protect your territory. Sprinkles knows this is your place. And I’m not giving you sushi if you’re going to be difficult.”

“Fine,” my cat muttered. I really, really hoped Bee would never get tired of sushi.

When we got to the vet clinic Karen told me I had a free half hour to start off the day. I thanked her, asked her how she was feeling after her fall (she was fine), and rushed out of the office to get to talk to Chief Gary before I had to start seeing patients.

I found him just leaving the police station, and walking towards his old Crown Victoria. It wasn’t decorated in Willow Bay Police decals, but you could still tell it was a cop car from a mile away.

“Chief Gary!” I called out, jogging towards him and waving my arms.

“Angela!” he greeted me with a smile. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. I just wanted to chat to you about Andrea Dottory.”

Chief Gary’s smile fell. “Of course. It’s so incredibly sad. It took a while, but I finally tracked down her closest living relative, a niece in Seattle.”

“Oh, well I’m glad she had someone, at least.” Chief Gary made an unscrutable sound in his throat, but I didn’t have time to ask what he meant by it.

“I just wanted you to know, I found Sprinkles last night out behind the diner. I don’t know if he’s important to your investigation or not, but he seems pretty shaken up. I was wondering if you’d mind if I took care of him for a while? Until we can find him a suitable home?”

“Of course. Thanks, Angela. You’re so good with animals, you always were. His face clouded over with pain.

“You know, one of those times when I first saw you after the accident, I found you in your room, telling your pet hamsters what had happened.”

“I did have a pretty active imagination back then,” I said, laughing it off, although the memory of my parents dying still did bring a tinge of sadness to my heart.

“So yes, I’m glad to know Sprinkles is safe, you can definitely take care of him.”

“So… was it murder, like everyone is saying?” I asked in a conspiratorial whisper. Chief Gary sighed.

“Yes. It’s murder. It seems as if someone hit her in the back of the head to make it look like she just fell and hit her head on the pavement. They might have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for the flecks of a metal crowbar the medical examiner found lodged in her skull.”

“Wow,” I muttered. “Two murders in two months here. That’s unheard of!”

“I know. I’m not looking forward to going through another murder investigation,” Chief Gary couldn’t help but mutter, and I gave him a sympathetic look. I knew he really wasn’t a fan of his newfound fame. “Now, you girls aren’t going to go around trying to find the murderer this time, are you?”

“No, no, of course not,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to make sure you knew Sprinkles was ok, and to let you know I’d take care of him until we can find him a suitable owner.” Of course, if Sprinkles led us straight to the murderer, that wasn’t my fault. And seeing as I was the only person in town who could do it, there was no way Chief Gary could find out the information from Sprinkles himself. So that was totally fine.

“Good. Because I know we caught Zoe Wright thanks to you last time, but you were almost killed. I don’t want that happening again.”

“It won’t, Chief. I promise.”

Chief Gary smiled at me. “Thanks, Angela. I just don’t want to have to worry about you too much.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Chief. Now I’ll let you get back to work, I have an angry cat with an infection who needs to be seen, anyway.”

The day passed relatively uneventfully, and when the three of us were home I caught Charlotte up on the fact that it turned out to have been a murder after all, having told Sophie earlier in the day at the clinic.

“I can’t believe it! And so soon after Nyman’s murder. This is insane. Who could have done this?”

I looked toward Sprinkles, who was lying down in the corner with his face in between his paws, getting stared down by Bee from her spot on top of the bookcase.

“I was thinking of maybe trying to ask him again tonight,” I said. “After all, it’s important. There is a murderer out there, and Sprinkles might know who it is.”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah. I agree. He’s such a little sweetie though, it’s so sad to think about what he’s gone through.”

It was funny, most of the town, it turned out, liked Sprinkles more than his owner. A few people in the clinic who found out I was taking care of him mentioned what a tragedy it was that he lost his owner, but nothing about the tragedy of a woman losing her life to a murderer who was out on the loose. Although, to be fair, that list bit was still just idle town gossip; I was fairly certain there were only a handful of people who actually knew it was murder.

I brought Sprinkles over a bowl of food, and put Bee’s dinner on the other side of the room, along with half a sushi roll as a bribe.

I sat next to Sprinkles as he ate his food. Most dogs disliked humans being nearby when they ate, but Sprinkles didn’t seem to mind at all. When he was finished, I patted him as he lay back down on the ground.