Саманта Сильвер: Barking Up The Wrong Tree

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not going to try and solve the murder. We don’t even know if it was a murder. She was in her 70s and all our information comes from one of the least reliable sources in the whole town. I just want to see if she really was murdered. And no, I don’t want to wait for the paper tomorrow to find out.”

Charlotte sighed.

“Fine. But only if we’re quick.”

“I have to be back at the vet clinic in 20 minutes. We’ll be quick.”

Five minutes later we were standing on Oak street, adjacent to the street Andrea had lived on. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to go, it seemed like half the town had come out to see what was happening.

“So macabre,” I heard Charlotte mutter behind me, and I ignored her as I pushed my way towards the front of the crowd. A number of tarps had been set up surrounding the site, so nobody from the general public could actually see the body. A van from the county medical examiner’s office had pulled up behind the tarps, so I suspected they were likely going to be moving the body pretty soon.

“See? We can’t see anything. We might as well go,” Charlotte complained. I couldn’t help but think she was probably right. I wasn’t even sure why I’d come here, there was just something in my gut that told me it was a good idea. And as a witch, my gut was usually right.

“Give me a few minutes,” I begged Charlotte. I saw the police chief, Gary Wells, off to one side of the crime scene. I smiled at him, and he smiled back, then went back to his work, his face lined and worried looking. If this really was a murder, the pressure would be on.

After Zoe Wright was arrested for a number of crimes for which she was currently serving a 30-year sentence after a plea agreement with the district attorney, Chief Gary became an instant celebrity: the small town police chief who foiled a murder by the head of a major corporation. There were articles about him in The Washington Post, the New York Times, and every paper in Oregon as well. I had a feeling Chief Gary wanted absolutely no part of his newfound fame, and another body landing on his doorstep probably wasn’t going to be a good thing for him.

I looked around, trying to figure out why my brain insisted I be here. What was it that I was supposed to see? I could see absolutely nothing around the crime scene; that was covered by tarps. My eyes scanned the crowd. Everyone I could see was local, no one stood out or looked exceptionally suspicious. Still, I mentally gathered a note of everyone who was here. After all, you never knew if the criminal was going to return to the scene of the crime.

I focused on the houses around the scene. They were mainly small bungalows, modern enough, a nice little neighbourhood. A little Jack Russell terrier that I knew was excitedly barking at the window, wanting to be involved in the energy happening outside.

The dog.

Of course, that was it. Andrea Dottory had a little dog named Sprinkles, and I knew that she walked him every single day. Like clockwork. She told me about it whenever Sprinkles came in for his appointment; one walk in the morning, down to Main street, one walk in the late afternoon, when things cooled down a bit.

“Charlotte,” I said, looking around for my sister. I found her ten feet away, looking away from the crime scene, her arms crossed. She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she didn’t want to be here if she tried.

“Yes?” she asked. “Can we go yet?”

“No, Charlotte, I need to ask Chief Gary about Sprinkles.”

“Sprinkles?”

“Andrea’s dog. She would have been walking him. I want to know if they found him.”

“Fine, but then we go.”

“Deal.”

I made my way to the edge of the police cordon and leaned against the yellow rope. I caught the eye of a tall guy with ruffled blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes. It was Taylor Shaw, Sophie’s boyfriend, who worked as a cop, and motioned for him to come over.

“Hey, Taylor,” I greeted him. “Can you tell me if you guys found Sprinkles?”

“Sprinkles?”

“Andrea’s dog. She would have been walking him this morning.”

“Taylor looked thoughtful. “I haven’t heard anything about a dog. Stay here, let me go ask Chief Gary for you.”

I watched as Taylor went over to Chief Gary, spoke to him for a minute. I saw Chief Gary look over at me, and then he spoke to Taylor again, shaking his head. When Taylor came back, I already knew the answer.

“No, there was no dog here. Though Andrea had a couple dog poo bags in her pocket, so she must have been walking him. Do you know what Sprinkles looks like?”

I nodded. “He’s red and white, probably an Australian Shepherd mix. Andrea was never completely sure, she rescued him from a shelter in Portland a few years back. He’s extremely sweet, and should come when called, though he can also be pretty shy so it might help if you have treats. I can text you a picture when I get back to the office, I have one in his file.”

“That would be good, thanks. We’ll keep an eye out,” Taylor told me.

“Thanks,” I replied, turning around to find Charlotte, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. Sprinkles was the sweetest little dog, and I really, really hoped he was ok.

When I found Charlotte, she was hanging out at the edge of the crowd that had formed.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and I nodded. On the way back to the vet clinic, I told her about Sprinkles. Charlotte frowned.

“Do you think that dog’s at Andrea’s home?” she asked.

“I don’t think so. Surely the cops are there already, and so Chief Gary would have known about it. Plus I’m sure she was walking him.”

“That poor thing. I’ve seen Sprinkles once or twice, he’s a sweet dog.”

“He really is. I wonder what happened to him. I bet that when Andrea collapsed he got scared and ran off. After I’m done at the clinic I’m going to go look for him, if you want to help.”

Charlotte nodded. “Yeah. I don’t really have any plans for the afternoon, I was just going to do a bit of light studying. So I can actually start looking for him now, while you’re at work.”

I shot Charlotte a grateful look. “You’re my favourite sister, you know.”

Charlotte laughed. “That might mean something if I wasn’t your only sister.”

“But seriously, thank you,” I told her. I liked Sprinkles, but he never really gave off the impression of being able to handle himself alone in the woods. He was more the lying down at your feet getting rubs type of dog.

I gave Charlotte a quick hug, then headed back to the vet clinic, hoping Sprinkles would show up quickly.

Chapter 4

The afternoon at the vet clinic was hectic, but nothing compared to that morning. When we finally finished up and were all out the door at ten past five, I finally got my first chance of the afternoon to tell Sophie about Sprinkles, and Andrea Dottory.

“Awwwww, I love Sprinkles!” Sophie exclaimed. “Andrea, well, it’s sad when anyone dies, but let’s face it, she was a pretty terrible person.”

“I think there’s a saying about not speaking ill of the dead,” I told Sophie. “You’re gonna get some bad karma if you don’t watch out.”

Sophie shrugged. “What? It’s true. Just because someone’s dead we have to lie about how great a person they were?”

I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, Charlotte’s out looking for Sprinkles, and I’m going to go give her a hand. Wanna join?”

“Of course!” Sophie replied. “That poor little doggie, all alone out there. We only have a few hours before it’s going to get dark, so let’s get started!”

I smiled at my best friend. We were very different, but where it mattered we were pretty much exactly the same.