Саманта Сильвер: The Purr-fect Crime

I took it, still a little bit confused.

“I wasn’t looking where I was going, I was looking for the police station.”

“Damn, I’d let him put me in handcuffs if I were you, Angela,” Bee purred, and I shot daggers her way. She was not being helpful.

“Oh, it’s just back there,” I told him when I got up.

“Thanks. Hey, aren’t you the girl that found the body today?”

I sighed. Hopefully all the attention around this murder was going to wear off soon, I was getting tired of being ‘the person who found the body’.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I answered wearily.

“Did you see anything? Like, that might have indicated who the killer was?”

My eyes narrowed. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because nothing interesting’s happened here, like ever.”

“How would you know? You’re not from here.”

“You don’t know that.”

“This is a town of like, six thousand people. Believe me, if you lived here, I’d know.”

“With a body like that every girl in town would know,” Bee agreed. Boy was I ever glad this guy couldn’t hear her.

“Fine. I’m new here. And to be honest, it’s pretty quiet compared to New York, and I was hoping for a bit of excitement.” He flashed me that perfect smile again, and as much as I didn’t want to, I had to admit a few butterflies made their home in my stomach just then.

“Well, you’re at the police station. Go in there and ask them,” I told him.

And with that, I turned and walked off, Bee creeping behind me, berating me for being rude to him.

“You’re going to die alone if that’s how you treat the hottest guy you’ve ever seen,” she chided as we made our way back to where Sophie had parked the car that morning.

“You’re going to die pretty soon if you keep this up,” I warned the cat, who was now walking next to me on a ledge running next to the sidewalk.

“Stop deflecting. Why were you so rude to him?”

“There was something about him. First he pretended to be from here, and only admitted he wasn’t when I called his bluff. Then there’s wanting to know about the murder. Why would he care? He wouldn’t have known Tony Nyman, the guy was local here, and he would have just been a teenager when Tony left wherever he lived before.”

“Yeah, well, cats are known to have excellent instincts, and I say you’re wrong.”

“Since when?”

“Haven’t you heard about how we can sense earthquakes before they happen?”

“Sensing earthquakes and sensing murderers are two very different things.”

“How would you know, you can’t do either.”

I sighed and got into the car, letting Bee jump into the back first. I checked my phone. It was still only two in the afternoon. What a long day. I decided to go home and have a quick nap before Charlotte and Sophie got home, since I could feel a migrane coming on. Maybe we could order pizza for dinner; the local place did a vegetarian supreme pizza that made my tastebuds water just thinking about it.

Chapter 6

After an hour long nap and a long bath with a glass of white wine and the latest James Patterson book that I hadn’t gotten around to reading yet, I felt a lot better by the time Sophie and Charlotte came home. I texted Sophie, telling her to pick up the pizza on the way, and when she came back with two large veggie supremes just as Charlotte walked through the door, I was so happy I didn’t even make fun of her for going out with Taylor.

“This isn’t something I say often, so enjoy it, but good thinking, Angie,” Sophie told me as she happily put the pizzas down on the counter while I grabbed plates.

“What’s the special occasion?” Charlotte called out from the hall. Sophie and I looked at each other.

“Haven’t you heard?” I called back.

“Heard what?”

“You’re such a city slicker,” Sophie teased. “They should take away your right to live here if you’re not as privy to local gossip as you should be.”

Charlotte came into the kitchen, looking a little bit huffy.

“Well I sure won’t know what’s happened if everyone just spends the whole time making fun of me for not knowing instead of, you know, actually telling me.”

“We found a dead body in the vet’s office today,” Sophie told her.

I’d never seen Charlotte’s face go from red with anger to pure white so fast before.

“What?”

“Technically I found the body,” I corrected. “But yeah, Sophie has the gist of it right.”

“You’re lying to me. This is some kind of dumb practical joke.”

I handed a couple plates to Sophie and Charlotte, who still looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

“Humans. You’re so dramatic,” Bee announced from her perch on top of the cupboards, looking down on us.

“Oh yeah Bee, you’re just the perfect image of rationality,” I snapped back at her, rolling my eyes. My cat was the most dramatic animal I knew.

“Seriously though. Did that actually happen?” Charlotte asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, when I got to the vet clinic he was just lying there. Chief Gary thinks he was shot somewhere else and tried to stitch himself up in the clinic.”

“Why on earth didn’t anyone tell me?” Charlotte practically shrieked. “Why did I have to wait until I got home to find out?”

“Because we knew you’d have that reaction, and we didn’t want you missing any classes to come back,” I replied. “Besides, we kind of assumed you’d find out about it before you got home some other way. Like, surely there have to be other people from Willow Bay at the college in Portland?”

“Maybe, but it’s not like we walk around with signs around our necks announcing where we’re from. I don’t hang out with anyone from here when I’m at school.”

I grabbed a couple of slices of pizza, inhaling the intoxicating aroma as I opened the box. Sophie grabbed a couple slices as well and went to the couch, where I followed.

“Well, this has been crazy enough of a day that I don’t want to have to deal with even more crazy,” she announced. “So I’m going to sit here and eat some pizza and try and forget about the dead guy I saw a few hours ago.”

I followed suit. “Same. And I’m not even going to make fun of Sophie for going out with that hot cop, Taylor.”

Sophie turned to me, glaring as Charlotte’s eyes lit up.

“Really? Sophie has a booooooyfriend?” she teased, and Sophie grabbed a small piece of tomato off her pizza and threw it at my sister. Charlotte had never been the co-ordinated one; it landed right on her cheek and stuck there. I couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing.

“That’s not funny!” Charlotte hissed at me as she grabbed the tomato off her cheek and threw it back at Sophie. Unfortunately, Sophie actually was pretty athletic, she ducked out of the way easily and the tomato landed on the wall, the force of the impact making it break up into a few pieces before it fell on the floor, leaking goo onto the hardwood.

Bee watched us haughtily from her position up above us.

“You’re all as immature as each other,” she scolded, standing up and leaving us, presumably to go poop in a box. I rolled my eyes as she left the room.

Sitting down on the couch, I took a bit of pizza while Sophie and Charlotte still glared at each other. Eventually, though, things settled down and we all started eating without simultaneously trying to hate on each other.

“So who was the victim, anyway?”

“Someone named Tony Nyman,” I replied through a giant bite of pizza. “He’s lived here for ten years apparently, but I didn’t know him.”

“I think he might have done some work for Lisa a couple years ago,” Charlotte replied thoughtfully as she chewed a slice herself. “When she was getting the roof redone.”