Саманта Сильвер - The Purr-fect Crime

“Angie?” I hissed. “Don’t call me that.”

His lips curled up into a smile. “Aww, why not? Don’t you like it?”

“Only my friends get to call me that, and you’re not my friend. Why are you here, anyway?”

He looked around. “I thought it would have been obvious, I’m attending a rally for people who are in favour of the Ocean Mist resort going ahead.”

“You are not,” I replied. “You’re new to the town anyway. You’re up to something. What is it?”

“Wow, you’re quite the conspiracy theorist Angie,” Jason replied, his eyes twinkling with laughter that made me want to punch him. “If I really was ‘up to something’ as you put it, don’t you think I’d be hiding myself just a little bit better instead of being out here in plain sight? Anyway, I should ask you the same thing. I’ve asked around town and I hear you’re very much opposed to the Ocean Mist plan. So why are you here?”

“That’s none of your business,” I replied.

“Well same to you.”

Damn it. I had no idea what Jason Black was up to, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell me. I figured I might as well go back and see Sophie and Charlotte. I stormed off without another word to Jason Black.

“Stay out of trouble,” he called out after me, and I replied by flipping him off without looking back. I could practically picture him laughing at me.

When I got back to where Charlotte and Sophie were waiting, I could see them laughing at me, too.

“What?” I asked, the annoyance on my face obvious.

“Nothing,” Sophie said, trying to hide a smile. “It’s just, you two would make a really cute couple.”

“I could slap you right now, so easily,” I replied. “No, worse. I’ll curse you. I’ll curse you so your hair falls out,” I replied. Ok, I didn't actually know that curse. Sophie didn’t know that though.

“Pfffft, my mom will be so pissed at you if you curse me that it won’t be worth it for you,” she told me, and I knew she was right. Lisa took the Witches’ Rulebook extremely seriously. There were basically just two basic rules to witchcraft: don’t ever let non-witches who aren’t immediate family find out about your powers (so Charlotte and I weren’t allowed to tell boyfriends about our powers, we had to wait until we got married), and don’t curse humans without extremely good reasons.

There was actually a court of witches that upheld the rules for those who broke them really, really badly. I didn’t know the details, but from what I heard, they were not a group you wanted to be hauled in front of. I highly doubted they would call me in just for putting a dumb curse on my best friend, but the wrath of Sophie’s mom scared me almost as much.

“Ok, how about we deal with this stuff later?” Charlotte suggested, getting in between Sophie and I. I grumbled a fine, but Sophie had a bit more fight in her.

“What do you suggest then, Einstein? Your brilliant plan of coming here and getting Mr. Robot over there or the Happiest Person Ever to admit to murder has failed.”

“It didn’t fail completely,” Charlotte protested. “Zoe Wright seemed a little bit shaken up when we mentioned it. I think we should go down to the proposed resort site and the property Tony Nyman owns and see if we can come up with any clues.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of clues are you expecting to find down there? A billboard advertising the motive to kill Nyman?”

“Obviously I won’t know what clues are down there until we go look.”

This time it was my turn to play peacemaker.

“Ok. Calm down guys.” I waited a second and Sophie and Charlotte stopped looking like they were going to go at each other’s throats, so I continued. “Why don’t we go down to the Ocean Mist building site? We can look around, see where Nyman’s property is, and see if there’s anything that will give us a clue. After all, it is one thing to see the records and all that, another completely go to and have a look. And if we don’t find anything, we can do what Sophie wants to try and get info on the mob guys. Agreed?”

“That sounds fun,” came a voice from down in the grass. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re not coming, Bee. You don’t get a vote.”

“Why don’t I get to come?” my cat protested.

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Really? What are you planning to find down there, a loaded gun and then play around with it?”

“Not for you. For the wildlife. Ocean Mist is going to be built on land with a ton of birds, and I don’t want them to have to worry about you.”

“If you let me come I promise I won’t kill anything.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked at my cat.

“Why are you so intent on coming? You never care about what I do.”

“I don’t care about this either. But today was my first time out in the fresh air in a while and I realized I miss it.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “But if I so much as see you tease a bird you’re going back in the car, and I’m never letting you outside without your leash again.”

I hoped the threat of the leash would be enough to keep Bee in check; she hated that thing more than anything else on earth. The first time I’d put it on her she refused to walk, and I literally dragged her along the front lawn to the sidewalk before realizing my efforts were completely wasted.

“We think it’s an ok idea too, since you asked,” Sophie offered, and I laughed.

“Sorry. Bee’s coming too.”

“Yeah, we figured that out,” Charlotte replied. “Now let’s get going, I want to be able to get over there before it gets dark.”

Chapter 21

“This is like hands down the dumbest thing we’ve ever done,” Sophie grumbled.

“Really? Because I can think of at least eight things that were dumber, and that’s just off the top of my head,” I replied.

“And that’s not even counting the list of guys Sophie’s dated,” Charlotte added.

“I hate both of you,” Sophie replied, but in all honesty, she wasn’t wrong.

Because of Chief Gary being suspicious of us, and not wanting Lisa to find out we really were investigating Tony Nyman’s death, we decided to park the car a little ways away from the Ocean Mist site and walk the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, the quickest way from the outskirts of town to the Ocean Mist site meant walking about two miles in half-swampland as the sun was just starting to show signs of dropping down out of the sky. We were starting to get cold, and in case anyone was wondering, yes, it was late enough for the mosquitos to be out.

“Ugh, we should have just driven the whole way,” I complained as I swatted away yet another mosquito.

“This isn’t too bad, really,” Bee said from her perch on my shoulder, where she was happily allowing herself to be carried across the muck.

“You’re welcome, your highness,” I said to her, and Bee’s response was to start licking a paw.

“We’re almost there guys,” Charlotte encouraged us, looking at GPS co-ordinates on her phone, seemingly unfazed by the mud, puddles and stinging insects.

“Yeah, yeah, you said that half a mile ago,” Sophie replied.

“But this time I’m telling the truth. The Ocean Mist property begins twenty yards in front of where I’m standing now. Nyman’s property begins a hundred and fifty yards to the left,” she said, pointing.

We all stopped.

“So how do you want to do this?” I asked Charlotte. “What are we even looking for?”

Charlotte shrugged. “Anything that looks like it might be relevant.”

“Oh look, a blood soaked knife!” Sophie exclaimed, and we all looked at her, shocked. She held her arms out. “Seriously? We’re not going to find anything here. But I guess I will help.”