Саманта Сильвер - The Purr-fect Crime

All three of them were wearing bespoke black suits that probably cost more than what most people in Willow Bay made in a month. They were wearing sunglasses, which fit the fact that it was a nice, sunny day out, but just the way they were wearing them made it seem like they were doing it to be more threatening and hide their faces.

Yeah, there was definitely something weird about this trio. They definitely didn’t belong here, and they didn’t seem like the type of people that came to Willow Bay. Not even the rich people from Portland looked like that. These were outsiders.

“Maybe let’s try and subtly take a picture of them,” I told Sophie, when suddenly Charlotte grabbed my arm.

“Hey, Angela, look!” she told me, pointing about a hundred feet to my right. “Isn’t that the Jason Black guy that you were telling us about?”

I squinted for a better look. Sure enough, Jason Black was coming over this way. Suddenly, though, he saw me looking at him. He stopped, and looked around, then turned around and started going back the other way.

No way. Absolutely not. I was so not going to let him get away from this. I wanted answers, and I was going to get them.

“You guys stay here. Watch the weird guys. I’ll be back.”

“Angie, wait!” I heard Sophie hiss behind me, but it was too late. I was already on the move. I could see Jason moving away from me, and he had a pretty big head start, but there was no way I was letting him get away.

He was heading back up the road, but he also wasn’t looking behind him. I made my way around the few people still heading towards the church, gaining ground on him slowly but surely.

Finally, after around 300 yards, I caught up to him. I tapped him on the shoulder, and he spun around faster than I was expecting, his fists clenched and his face angry, like he was about to punch me. As soon as he saw me though, his face softened. I couldn’t help but notice just how damn good he looked with sunglasses on and the sun shining on his face, but I forced that thought out of my head.

“You!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“I was going to Tony Nyman’s funeral.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“Yeah, you do. You’re sneaking around, asking about the dead guy, and I’m curious as to why you care so much, seeing as you’re not from around here.”

To my surprise, Jason burst out laughing.

“Who made you the Willow Bay police chief?” he asked. “Maybe I knew the guy. Maybe I’m just from Portland up the road. I should be asking you the same questions. Why do you care so much?”

“Because I was the one who found the body. At least I have an excuse.”

“That doesn’t mean you should go around trying to find out who killed him.”

What? How did he figure that out?

“I’m so not doing that,” I replied, crossing my arms across my chest, hoping the lie sounded more convincing than it felt.

“Of course you’re not,” he conceded sarcastically. “Fine. But trust me, some things are better left alone. Let Tony Nyman’s murder go unsolved by you. It’s better that way.”

“Why, because that way you don’t have to spend a single day in jail?”

This time, the expression on Jason’s face turned to shock.

“Wait, you think I killed him? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Kill the guy, then wander around town asking about him instead of just getting out of dodge. Good work there Sherlock Holmes.”

This guy was starting to annoy me. Why are the hot ones always so annoying?

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re doing here. For all I know you are the killer. After all, I know you were at Nyman’s house yesterday afternoon.”

It was a total bluff, but I hoped it would work.

“What? What are you talking about?”

Damn. I studied Jason’s face, trying to see if he was genuinely surprised.

“Someone broke into Tony Nyman’s house yesterday. I know it was you.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Nope. Wasn’t me.”

Now the question was whether or not I believed him.

We looked at each other, neither one of us blinking. This was quickly turning into a staredown.

“Look,” he finally said. “You’re not going to tell me why you’re looking into Tony Nyman’s death. I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing here, because frankly, it’s none of your business. So why don’t we just agree to disagree, and each go our own way?”

“Fine,” I snapped, not breaking eye contact with him. He did have a point. And if he wasn’t going to tell me anything good, I wanted to get back to the funeral, where I might actually find something useful.

“See you around,” he called out to me as I walked away from him.

“You won’t,” I called back, and I could practically feel his dumb grin boring into my back. His dumb, stupid, gorgeous grin.

Chapter 12

“That guy is so weird,” Sophie commented when we were finally back home, safe and sound in the living room with a couple glasses of wine (we swore we were only going to share one bottle tonight) and an old episode of Orange is the New Black on in the background while we chatted about the funeral. I was just going through telling Sophie and Charlotte about my encounter with Jason Black; I didn’t want to do it when we were still out in public.

“There is something strange about him showing up just when the murder’s committed, and then hanging around and asking questions after, but he does have a point,” Charlotte said thoughtfully. “If he had really killed Tony, then he could have just left. Literally no one would have even known he’d existed. It would have been like, the perfect crime.”

“Maybe that’s why he’s doing this,” I offered, almost playing devil’s advocate more than believing my own words. “Maybe he thinks that by hanging around he’s taking suspicion off himself.”

“Well the rest of his actions sure as hell aren’t helping him,” Sophie snorted, grabbing a handful of cheddar flavoured popcorn from the bag I’d left open on the table.

“Anyway, long story short the whole thing was a giant bust. He didn’t admit to being the person who broke into Tony Nyman’s house, and he didn’t admit to killing him, either.”

“I can’t believe you just straight up asked him,” Charlotte chided. “What if he had said yes? You guys were totally alone, he could have killed you too.”

“Yeah, well, he didn’t,” I retorted, feeling a bit silly just saying it.

“Gee, great answer,” Charlotte answered, rolling her eyes. “I know you guys think I’m a bit of a prude when it comes to these things- ”

“We definitely do,” Sophie interrupted. “You worry too much. You can’t investigate things without asking the hard questions. Besides, he wouldn’t have killed Angie with so many people so close by at the funeral. Plus he would have seen us with Angela, and he would have known that we knew she went off to go see him. So he would have had to kill us, too, and that definitely wouldn’t have been subtle.”

Charlotte’s face paled at the thought, but she had no comeback to that.

“I guess,” she finally admitted.

“So now if you’re done scolding us for going out there and doing something about the murderer that’s somewhere in our town, let’s figure this out. I think the three Men in Black that showed up at the funeral today are probably a good place to start.”

“Yeah, what did you find out about them?” I asked.

“Well, it’s not really about them, but we did find out that Sophie is really, really good at being a total slut when she wants to,” Charlotte mentioned, and I almost choked on a sip of wine.