Саманта Сильвер - The Purr-fect Crime

“Well, when he was running away did you see him holding anything?” Charlotte asked. I tried to think back, then I shook my head, slowly.

“No. No, I don’t think so. I mean, whoever it was was pretty far away, but I think I would have remembered if they were carrying anything.”

Leave it to Charlotte to think about these things completely rationally.

“So I think we can say whoever was in the house didn’t find what they were looking for,” Charlotte continued.

“Yes. I think we can say that.”

Sophie nodded in agreement.

“I agree. I only even less of a glimpse of the person than Angie did, but I agree with her. I don’t think whoever it was had anything in their hands.”

“So that leaves us with one of two options: either whatever the person was looking for wasn’t there, or it didn’t exist at all.”

I threw some chopped onions into heated olive oil in the pan and mixed them around as they sizzled, sending a delicious aroma wafting through the house. I kept my eye on Bee, who was slowly, subtly trying to make her way towards the kitchen; I knew if I gave her the opportunity she was going to try and steal some of our dinner.

“I think whatever someone was looking for, it wasn’t there,” Sophie announced.

“But why?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know. Just a gut feeling, I guess. I mean, why else would they go to all that trouble? As you’ve been pointing out religiously, what was done was a felony. Whoever did it could potentially have gone to jail. That means what they were expecting to find must have been important. Otherwise, why risk it at all?”

Charlotte rested her chin in her hand as she thought about Sophie’s words.

“I agree. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to, to rob a place if you didn’t have something specific you were looking for. But then, what could that have been? I mean, we went through the rest of his things, and it didn’t really seem like Tony Nyman had anything out of the ordinary going on in his life.”

“Well maybe that’s the thing, maybe what the person was looking for was the out-of-place thing.”

“But then where would it be?” I asked. Charlotte shrugged.

“Safety deposit box?”

“Maybe. But we’re never going to be able to find out if he had one, let alone get access to it.” Sophie sighed. “This sucks. I thought this would be easier.”

“You always think everything should be easier. I think it’s good for you to have to actually work this mystery through,” Charlotte told her, and Sophie rolled her eyes.

“A minute ago you thought what we did do was the worst thing ever.”

“It was the worst thing ever. But at least it was a thing.”

“Ok, let’s not start this again,” I warned them both. “I think whatever the person was after, it had to do with business or finance or something along those lines.”

“Why do you think that?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, the literal only part of that house that was even touched was the study. And it was completely and totally ransacked. Like, the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom weren’t even touched.”

“Would we have even noticed if it was?” Sophie asked. “The dude lived like a monk, he owned like four pieces of furniture.”

“Well obviously we still would have noticed,” I told Sophie, shooting her a dirty look. “Stop being argumentative just for the hell of it.”

“I’m not!” she argued, and I rolled my eyes.

“I think that’s a good point, though,” Charlotte told me, ignoring the little spat between Sophie and I. “I think you might be onto something Angela.”

“Of course Angie is. She’s Nancy Drew, remember? But what do we do about it?”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do for now,” I replied. After all, one felony a day was enough, wasn’t it? “I think we should wait for the funeral and go to that. After all, that’s totally allowed.”

“I overheard Portia Ross telling Karen that it’s going to be in two days, it’s just going to be a small thing at the church apparently. I guess seeing his bank account statements and the fact that he didn’t have any family or anyone who cared about him, really, it’ll be something really small.”

“Oh, good, two days from now is Sunday, so the vet clinic will be closed anyway and Charlotte doesn’t have class, so we can all go,” I said.

“Good. Today’s adventure was a total fail, maybe someone at the funeral will give us a clue as to where we should be looking next,” Sophie piped up, excited once more that we had a new, definite plan.

One little setback wasn’t going to stop us.

Chapter 10

The next day I had a half hour break between appointments, and I wandered down the street to Betty’s Café once again. Not only because I absolutely wanted to enjoy a vanilla latte and a slice of pie, but also because I wanted to hear if there was any new gossip in town about Nyman’s death.

Luckily, in a place like Willow Bay, you don’t exactly have to subtly hint that you want information about things. You bring up a topic even vaguely, especially such a major shocker like a murder in town, and people will spill everything they know – or think they know – without even blinking.

“Hey Betty, how are things?” I asked as I walked in and went straight to the counter. A handful of tables were full of people chatting, but they all stopped to look at me when I walked in. Obviously, they had almost certainly been talking about the murder, and I had been the one to find the body.

“Oh you know,” Betty told me, a small smile on her face. “Things are pretty busy here. Tongues are wagging.” She winked at me, and I smiled at her as she took my money and moved over to the coffee machine.

“That sounds about right. Must be good for business.”

“It’s amazing for business, I must admit. Though it would be quite morbid for me to hope for more murder to improve my bottom line.”

“Careful saying things like that, if another body shows up Chief Gary might set his sights on you,” I joked, and Betty laughed.

“Yes, I’ve often thought of myself as the serial killer type,” she told me as she handed me my coffee. I laughed. I’d seen Betty coax spiders into glasses and take them outside so she didn’t have to squash them. The woman had a bigger heart than almost anyone else in Willow Bay. Except maybe Sophie’s mom, Lisa.

“Thanks, Betty,” I told her, sitting down on a stool at the bar. I figured if anyone knew the biggest secrets, it would be Betty. After all, she would have heard all of the biggest secrets from her customers.

“I wonder how Chief Gary is doing with this, though,” I told her. “After all, he told me he’s never had to work a murder before.”

Betty pursed her lips. “I know. He’s been coming in here for coffee more often than usual, and he looks a little bit more… ragged… than before. Poor man. He’s doing his best, and he’s a wonderful small town cop, I hope this doesn’t take it all out of him. But if you ask me, there’s something weird about this murder.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee, trying not to seem overly eager, but still interested.

“I think he was into something he shouldn’t have been. Yesterday, this boy came in, about your age. Said his name was Jason. I’d never seen him before. He sat around, innocently enough, but then he started trying to get into the conversations about Tony. I knew Tony, you know.”

“I didn’t know that, no. What was he like?” I was torn between getting more info about Tony and trying to find out what this Jason wanted to know.

“He was the quiet type. Not a big talker. Very good looking boy though, dark hair, dark eyes and a smile that would have most of the girls in town fawning over him. I know he wasn’t from around here at all, originally. He had more of an east coast way about him, but he wasn’t the type to open up. I asked him once, if he was from out east. He shook his head and said no, but I’m almost certain he was lying to me. I had a feeling he wanted to forget about what he’d been through before, so I dropped the topic.”