Саманта Сильвер - The Purr-fect Crime

I finished off the rest of my rice, leaning back as I let my mouth feel the heat from the slightly spicy food. Everything about the day had been overwhelming. Driving out to Wawnee, getting the disappointing information, having to say goodbye to Skittles as she went back home with her five healthy kittens, then going through with Charlotte and Sophie and finding out that the three of us all disagreed about the motive most likely to have been the reason for Tony Nyman’s death.

I knew I complained about it a lot, but damn, why did this murder have to be so hard to solve?

“I’m going to walk home, I think, you guys,” I told Charlotte and Sophie after a few minutes. “I think I need some more fresh air to clear my head. Plus, you know, I don’t like being seen in public with you guys,” I teased.

“Likewise,” Sophie replied, sticking her tongue out at me. “Do you want me to pick up Bee from the clinic when we head back?”

I nodded. We’d left Bee at the vet clinic while we grabbed dinner. A couple of years ago, just after I got Bee, I’d taken her to the beach to enjoy the sand. It was a hot day, and she did in fact love lying down in it, especially when it was hot. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized that Bee didn’t understand the concept of tides, and when her warm, relaxing nap in the sun was interrupted by a giant ocean wave overtaking her, well, that was the end of Bee’s visits to the beach, even though I insisted that we could always go when the water wasn’t going to rise, or “try and kill me”, as Bee always put it.

Despite my insistence that the beach is fine, Bee has never stepped on it since. So when I told her Sophie and I were going there this afternoon, she opted to continue her nap in her bed at the vet office instead.

“Ok. Will do. Text us if you get into any trouble.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Trouble central,” I replied, laughing as I got up and stretched my legs. The bungalow was about a thirty minute walk from where we were, at a leisurely pace. I could definitely use the time to clear my head just a little bit.

Chapter 17

It was just after six, and the sun was starting to make its way towards the horizon. I liked this part of the day, but it was starting to get a little bit cool as I walked back home. There was a shortcut, where you could cut through parts of the forest and go along a pretty rural dirt road to make it back to our place about five minutes faster than going through town, but I liked the look of Willow Bay at night, and went the long way.

The lights in the few shops that were still open flowed onto the street, giving the main road a nice, homey look to it. I couldn’t help but wonder if this feeling was going to stay once Ocean Mist made their resort. A couple walked down the street, hand in hand, the warm glow of the streetlights turning them into silhouettes. I could see Betty closing up shop, and I waved at her from the other side of the street. She waved back happily then walked towards her house, which was only a couple blocks away from the shop.

I kept walking down Willow Bay’s main street, and as I did, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. This place always knew how to rejuvenate my spirit when I needed it most. And I supposed that was what home was supposed to do to you. It was times like these when I knew I was meant to live here. Times like these when I knew I’d made the right choice by not setting up shop in the city like everyone at vet school had recommended.

Walking past the vet clinic, I could see Bee in her little bed on the counter, by the window, fast asleep. What can I say, she was never supposed to be a guard cat. I smiled at her, then kept going. When I got to the library, I stopped. I wasn’t sure why, but that came with the territory of being a witch. Witchy intuition was kind of like women’s intuition, only a lot stronger. It came and went, and sometimes the feelings were stronger than others, but whenever I had a feeling that I should stop somewhere, I did it.

I turned and looked up at the library. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was just after six. It would be open for almost another hour. Figuring what the hell, I went inside.

The Willow Bay Library was actually pretty decent considering the size of the town. The land and building – an old brick building that looked a lot like a house, which used to house the post office way back in the 1800s – were very well maintained by the city. The library was two stories high, with the bottom floor being dedicated to books and magazines, with the top floor housing more obscure stuff, as well as a few computers with internet access.

I recognized the librarian, Rose, as being the same woman who used to check books out for me when I was a kid. She was old back then, and while I knew she’d aged almost twenty years since the first time I checked out “Where the Wild Things Are”, she still looked exactly the same to me. She had to be nearly eighty by now.

“Why hello there, Angela. It’s been a few years, hasn’t it?” she greeted me as I walked in, and I shot her a warm smile. I couldn’t believe she’d actually recognized me. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been in the library since I graduated from high school, and still have a few fingers left over.

“Hi, Rose,” I said, warmly. “It’s lovely to see you again.”

“You too. You young ones and your technology. Makes us old ducks in the library feel unwanted. Can I help you find anything today?”

“No, thank you Rose,” I replied. “I’m just going to have a look around for a bit.”

“Alright, dear. Let me know if you need anything.”

I smiled at Rose and made my way into the stacks. I didn’t know what I was looking for. Hell, I didn’t know if there was anything here for me to even find. Maybe I’d confused a stomach rumble after that heavy Indian food as an intuition thing. I reminded myself that I might very well be wasting my time here.

Looking around the library, it seemed almost deserted. On the lower floor there was just a man in his 50s reading business magazines, and a woman scanning the science section, obviously looking for something specific.

I began to wander through the racks, wondering if eventually my intuition would give me a hint as to what I was looking for. I made my way to the corner with all the kids books, however, and found the resident hamsters moving quickly around their cages, panicking.

“Hey guys, hey!” I said to them softly, glancing around to make sure no one was around to hear me talking to the animals. The last thing I needed was to get labelled as the town crazy person, so I always made sure I was alone when I had conversations with them.

“Guys! Guys! She’s coming to kill us!!” a big brown hamster squealed, and the three of them started running around their cage once more.

“I’m not here to kill you,” I whispered. “Why would you think that?”

“Because we saw ,” a small tan and white one replied.

“Saw what?”

“Death,” an orange one whispered.

I had to work hard not to roll my eyes. Hamsters were so prone to dramatics, and I knew it was going to take a little while to get the actual truth out of them. Because no, I did not believe that they did in fact, see death.

“Alright, well when did death come here?”

“Last night,” the orange one said. “But he’ll come back. He didn’t see us. We hid. But he must have known we were here.”

“What exactly did death do?”

One of the hamsters, I’m not sure which, let out a loud squeal.

“He went upstairs, and he stole some things,” the brown one said. “But we saw him. He knows we saw us, even though we hid. He’s going to come back. He’s going to kill us.”

“Ok, little dudes, relax. I don’t think death is going to come back and kill you. After all, I don’t think it was death. Why do you guys think it was death?”