Саманта Сильвер - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

I smiled slightly. “Who knew Willow Bay had such interesting things to write about after all? I’m starting to think it’s you.”

“I’m starting to think it’s me, too, honestly,” Jason laughed. “But seriously, not really. In case you were thinking of actually blaming that on me.”

This time it was my turn to laugh, despite myself. Fine, he was a little bit funny.

“Hey, Angela, I think the service is about to start,” Charlotte suddenly said, dragging me back towards the church. Was it bad that I’d completely forgotten my sister was even there? Oops.

We made our way to the entrance of the Willow Bay Church. Inside, I found Sophie standing against the wall, towards the front of the church, with Sprinkles next to her. Charlotte and I made our way over just as the pastor made his way to the front of the room to begin the service.

Sprinkles spent the whole service sitting at attention, his eyes focused on the pastor. I had to remind myself that even if Andrea Dottory wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, she had loved Sprinkles and taken good care of him, and he had loved her back. This must have been hard for him.

At one point I took a moment to look around the packed church. The only family Andrea had was her niece, sitting in the second row. She couldn’t have possibly looked more bored.

But then again, that matched everyone else in the room pretty well. I was pretty sure one guy in his late teens at the back of the church was actually playing Pokemon Go. Oh dear, buddy. There’s a time and a place, and this was neither.

When the ceremony was over, I took Sprinkles over to the casket for a minute while Charlotte and Sophie waited outside. I gave him a last moment alone with his human, who had raised and loved him, and then we went back outside. I saw Charlotte and Sophie and waved at them, but before I managed to walk over to them my path was blocked my Kelly Dottory.

I looked up at her in surprise. Her arms were crossed, she was obviously mad.

“Ummm, hi?” I tried.

“This is the dog, right?” Kelly said to me, pointing at Sprinkles. He lowered his ears when he heard the tone of Kelly’s voice, and I instinctively put a protective arm on him.

“This is Andrea’s dog, Sprinkles, that I’m taking care of, yes,” I replied cooly.

“He is cute. Really adorable. You need to give him to me, he’s mine.”

“We’ve been over this,” I explained calmly, secretly glad that I had witnesses. “I’m taking care of Sprinkles until I can find him a responsible home.”

“I am responsible,” Kelly whined, stamping her foot on the ground. It absolutely did not look adorable in a woman in her mid-20s.

“Well, I’m not taking applications yet,” I said, trying to placate her. I noticed people staring; she was causing a scene. Charlotte and Sophie moved back towards me.

“I don’t care! I’m Andrea’s heir, I get all her stuff, and I want a doggie to play with.”

“You can’t have him,” I told her firmly. Suddenly, with a quickness I didn’t think she had in her, Kelly reached forward and grabbed the leash. She pulled, and I yanked it back away from her, hard, making sure not to hurt Sprinkles.

When she opened her hands, Kelly let out a shriek. Her hands were red and raw where I’d pulled the leash away, I’d inadvertently given her rope burn. I hadn’t done it on purpose, but I also certainly wasn’t sad about it. How dare this woman come here and try to take Sprinkles by force?

“I’m done. We’re going home,” I said, turning around. Sprinkles began to follow me when suddenly I felt something grab my hair.

“No! You can’t do that! You BITCH!” Kelly screamed as she pulled my hair back. I yelled, off balance, and falling to the ground. Suddenly, I heard the sickening thud of bone on bone, and Kelly released my hair.

I was dazed for a split second until I realized what had happened. Looking up, Kelly was holding her mouth, screaming as blood poured out of the wound. Sophie stood between the two of us, a bit of blood on her fist.

“You don’t come near Angela again, you hear me?” Sophie told her. “Or Sprinkles. Or any of us.”

Had what I thought happened seriously just happened?

It certainly looked like it had. Sophie always had a temper, but damn. To actually punch a girl in the face, even if she had grabbed my hair and was pulling me down to the ground, that was hard! Even for Sophie!

“What’s going on here?” suddenly came a familiar, booming voice. I looked to where it came from and saw Chief Gary’s form making his way over.

“She punched me in the face,” Kelly sobbed, her voice muffled as she hid her face in her hands, nodding at Sophie.

“Is that true, Sophie?” Chief Gary asked, and she held out her hands.

“Yes, but only because she deserved it.”

“That’s not actually an excuse, you know. Officer Shaw, please arrest Sophie and take her in to the station.”

“What?” I cried out. “You can’t do that!”

“I’m sorry Angela, but I have to.”

I looked over at Taylor, who was awkwardly walking towards his girlfriend.

“It’s fine, it’s just a misunderstanding,” Sophie said to him, holding out her hands. I knew Taylor wouldn’t arrest Sophie if she put up a fight, and Sophie must have known that as well. Her capitulating was just her trying to save her boyfriend’s job. “Besides, I like the handcuffs,” I heard her whisper to Taylor, whose face went beet red. Even I had to grin.

“Excuse me, Chief Gary,” I heard a voice say. It was Jason.

“Yes, Jason?” Chief Gary replied, visibly annoyed. “I don’t have any comment right now, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, no, not at all. I just wanted to tell you, I took video of the whole thing. If you have a look, you’ll see that Sophie here was actually acting in defense of a third party, Angela, who was attacked first.”

Chief Gary looked suspiciously over at the phone Jason was handing him, then motioned for Taylor to wait a moment while he watched the video.

“Why isn’t it obvious? I’m here bleeding and she’s not! She attacked me!” Kelly cried, and the murmur of the crowd around us showed they disagreed.

“Only because you attacked me first,” I shot back.

“I did not!”

“Well there’s video of it, isn’t there?”

Chief Gary was intently looking at the video Jason had shot. I heard my shout, then the punch, then Kelly’s screams. The video suddenly stopped, and it seemed like every single person in earshot was solely focused on Chief Gary.

“The video makes it clear who the aggressor was. Shaw, uncuff Ms. Mashimoto please,” he ordered. “I’m sorry Sophie.”

“No problem,” Sophie replied casually. I knew this was far from the first time she’d ever gotten into trouble.

“As for you, Miss Dottory, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you were overcome with grief and made a bad decision.”

“Why aren’t you arresting her?” Kelly whined.

“You’re lucky I’m not arresting you,” Chief Gary shot back. “Angela here didn’t deserve to be attacked for taking care of a dog that’s in her care, and she may still choose to press charges.”

Kelly’s protests turned into no more than a whimper.

“Now, I suggest that everyone move on,” Chief Gary announced in a booming voice. Slowly the crowd that had gathered began to disperse, as the residents of Willow Bay muttered among themselves. We were absolutely going to be the talk of the town for the next day or so, no doubt about it.

“Son, I’m going to email myself this video from your phone,” Chief Gary told Jason.

“Sure thing, Chief,” Jason replied, winking at me. Chief Gary noticed it, and frowned, moving his focus to the small screen of Jason’s iPhone.