Саманта Сильвер - The Purr-fect Crime

Zoe Wright was still writhing around on the ground. We had no other options but to hope she wouldn’t be able to get out of Jason’s makeshift rope tying her up until Chief Gary got there. Although even if she did, at least now we knew who was responsible.

I helped guide Jason through the forest and back towards the town.

“How did you find us, anyway?” I asked as we trampled along. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight to make it easier to see; unfortunately around Jason making magical light was completely out of the question.

“I followed you, after you left the rally. I knew you were going to try and find out who killed Tony Nyman, and thought you might have gotten a clue.”

“So you were also trying to find out who killed him.”

“Well, yeah. I thought that was obvious.”

“You did a really bad job of it; we all spent a good while thinking you had killed him.”

Jason was silent for a moment before replying. “For a long time, I wanted to. I really did.”

“Why? The thing I can’t figure out is how you fit into the picture? How did you know Tony Nyman?”

“He was my dad.”

I didn’t even have the time to let the gravity of those words really set in before I suddenly heard some movement and saw flashlights in the woods a few hundred yards away.

“Hey! Over here!” I yelled, and a couple minutes later Jason and I finally met up with Taylor, and another cop I didn’t recognize.

“He has a gunshot wound, get him taken care of,” I ordered the two cops as soon as I saw them. Taylor was instantly on his radio, asking for an ambulance to meet them as close by as was possible, and rushed off with Jason while I stayed behind with the other cop.

“I’m Officer Schultz, but you can call me Jesse,” the man told me, shaking my hand. He was about my age, with just the first sign of a balding head, and a friendly face.

“Angela.”

“We had a report that Zoe Wright tried to kill you?”

I nodded. “Yes. She almost succeeded, too. Jason saved my life. He overpowered her and tied her up back in the forest a bit. Do you want me to show you where?”

“If you can describe it to me I’ll send other officers over there. I want to get you to the hospital as quickly as possible.”

“I’m fine, really!” I protested.

“Chief Gary’s orders, ma’am,” Jesse replied.

“Fine,” I sighed. I described where Zoe had caught up to me as best as possible, then Jesse led me back to the road after he radioed in my directions, where an ambulance was already waiting for me.

As soon as the paramedics came into view I was whisked away from Jesse. Bee hissed threateningly at anyone who tried to take her off my neck.

“We can’t take the cat in the ambulance,” one of the EMTs told me.

“Well, Bee saved my life out there, so either you let her in the ambulance, or I’m not going,” I replied. They decided they could bend the rules just this once.

As soon as I lay down on the gurney I realized just how exhausted my body was. I had scrapes and bruises all over me from the various fights. I was covered in blood – mostly Jason’s, but some of my own. I was shaking, and my heart was still going a million miles a minute. Now that I had time to come to terms with the fact that I’d come really, really close to being killed, well, that wasn’t a great thing to have to deal with. I stroked Bee’s fur; she had decided to lie down on my stomach in a little ball.

One of the EMTs told me they were going to give me something to let me sleep for a little bit; apparently I wasn’t the only one who realized that I was in pretty bad shape. A minute later my eyes began to close and I fell asleep, the last thing I remember being a soft meow from Bee.

Chapter 23

“You have to let her sleep,” I heard Charlotte hiss.

“I am letting her sleep!” Sophie protested in reply.

“You are not. You’re making so much noise.”

“It’s not my fault they use the crinkliest wrappers ever for their take-away burgers.”

“You could always eat that in the hallway.”

“I promised Angie I wasn’t leaving her side.”

It took every ounce of effort I could muster to open my eyes. Charlotte and Sophie were sitting in a couple of chairs next to my hospital bed. Hospital bed. Why was I here?

Suddenly, everything came flooding back to me. We went out to the Ocean Mist site. Zoe Wright trying to kill us. Jason Black getting shot while saving me.

I leaned back against the soft pillow as Sophie and Charlotte realized I woke up.

“Angie!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Oh Angela, I’m so glad you’re awake!” Charlotte exclaimed, coming over and taking my hand gently. I could feel Bee against my leg; she was sleeping, curled up into a little ball next to my right thigh.

I smiled weakly at my sister and best friend.

“Are you guys ok?” I asked.

“Of course we are. Thanks to you. And to Bee. If it wasn’t for the two of you, well, I think we’d all be dead now.”

I shook my head. “Don’t think about that.”

“Seriously though, you were awesome,” Sophie said.

“What happened to Zoe Wright?” I asked in a soft voice that didn’t quite seem my own yet.

“They found her. She’s been arrested and is facing a lot of charges. Apparently she’s not admitting to anything, but Chief Gary thinks as soon as her lawyer gets here he’ll try and get her to confess to get a slightly reduced sentence. Either way she’s going to spend pretty much the whole rest of her life in jail.”

“Good. She deserves it. What about Jason Black?”

“He’s ok,” Sophie answered. “He was just shot in the arm. We had breakfast with him this morning before he went back to the airport.”

I had to admit, my heart sunk a little bit at the news that Jason had left. If nothing else, I wanted to thank him properly for saving my life. That was the only reason. Or so I told myself.

“Airport?” I asked, not really feeling up to full sentences yet. Charlotte filled me in on the rest.

“Yeah, when his mom heard that he had been shot, she was worried and wanted him to come home straight away. So he did. He flew out from Portland back to New York a couple hours ago.”

“He’s from New York? He told me Tony Nyman was his dad.”

“Yeah. He was. That was why he was here. It turns out Tony Nyman used to be Tony Formetti. He had an affair with Jason’s mom, and Jason was the result of that affair. Except that Formetti was in the mob, and ended up on the wrong side of a hit. His wife was killed, but he managed to get away by faking his own death and creating a new identity for himself. That was when he came to Willow Bay.”

“That’s why the mob guys were at the funeral.”

“Exactly. Since people aren’t usually killed so dramatically in small tourist towns Nyman’s death actually made the news around the country, and someone in Formetti’s old group saw the picture and recognized him. They came over to make sure it was him and he was really dead.”

Suddenly, something else clicked.

“So that day. When Jason saw me and ran away…” my voice trailed off and Sophie nodded.

“Yeah, it wasn’t you he saw. He saw the three mob guys, instantly recognized them, and decided he had no desire at all to see them. You were standing in between the mob guys and Jason, so you thought he was running from you.”

Everything was slowly starting to make sense.

“But why was he here to begin with?” I asked. “I saw him a few hours after his dad died. He couldn’t have found out and flown out here that fast.”

“No, he arrived the night before. Apparently Nyman emailed his old mistress, Jason’s mom, telling her where he was. Jason decided to come and visit and see the dad he hadn’t seen in a long time. It was just incredibly bad luck that he showed up just before his dad was murdered. Also, he told us it was him who was in the house at the same time as us, he was looking for his dad’s will, but the place had already been ransacked, since Zoe Wright had already been there.”