Sleeping with the Fishes (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Willow Bay Witches Book 6) Read online

  “Take care of yourself,” Chief Gary told me. “I’ll make sure to send a car by your place a couple times tonight.”

  “I’ll be spending the night there as well,” Jason said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I leaned into him; Jason always made me feel safe.

  “Good,” Chief Gary said, nodding, before heading back into the night.

  As soon as he was gone, I let myself shiver just a little bit.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Jason asked. “Come on, let’s go home.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I just wish there was some evidence against Matt Smith. I don’t like that he’s going to get away with this.”

  “I’m going to go pay him a visit tomorrow,” Jason growled. “He needs to be reminded that I’m not going to let him hurt you, no matter what.”

  “No,” I insisted, placing a hand on Jason’s arm as we all piled into the car to go home. “I don’t want you to get in trouble over this. And I guarantee you that if you try anything, he will press charges against you.”

  “He won’t be able to press charges against anyone after I’m done with him,” Jason muttered.

  “I appreciate the thought, but I really don’t want you getting in trouble for me,” I insisted. “You’re no use to me if you’re in jail.”

  “And I don’t want to have to visit you in the hospital in Portland next time he decides he hates you,” Jason replied. “But, if you really don’t want me to do anything, I won’t.”

  “I don’t want you to do anything,” I said.

  “Fine. But first thing tomorrow I’m installing some better security at your vet clinic,” Jason said. “And if you’re working late, I’ll bring you dinner and act as security. And for goodness sake, lock the front door! I swear, Willow Bay is like a completely different planet.”

  I laughed. “Deal, on all of those. Especially the dinner part.”

  Jason stuck his tongue out at me and I leaned in for a kiss. “Thanks for caring. I do appreciate it. I appreciate all of you.”

  “Awwww, look, she’s getting all sappy on us,” Sophie teased, and I kneed the back of the driver’s seat she was sitting in.

  “Moment ruiner,” I replied. I had meant what I’d said. My heart was full knowing that I had such an amazing boyfriend, and such an incredible best friend and sister. Despite everything that had happened tonight, I felt incredibly lucky to have that kind of support around me.

  Chapter 3

  I woke up early the next day and made my way to the clinic. Luckily, most of the damage was limited to one spot on the floor, and after a quick stop at the hardware store I had replacement floor ordered, and the owner gave me a few small orange cones to borrow so I could mark off that part of the main lobby.

  Of course, dogs and cats weren’t exactly known for their obedience of human-designed limitations, so I also bought a large rug to cover up the hole and prevent any paw injuries. It looked completely ridiculous, but it worked. Jason came in before we opened and installed some security cameras for me, as well. How on earth he’d sourced them in the middle of the night, I had no idea, but that was one of the things Jason managed to do, even here in Willow Bay. He told me he’d be back later to show me how they worked. He had one facing the front door, and another facing the reception desk, as well as a third one that he put just outside the front door looking down the street. I had to admit, I was impressed. They were small and subtle, so regular passers-by wouldn’t notice them.

  When Karen, my receptionist, walked in and eyed the rug with raised eyebrows, I explained to her what happened.

  “Oh, geez,” she replied, shaking her head when I had finished. “That’s awful. I hope Chief Gary manages to find proof of what happened.”

  “Me too,” I replied. “Don’t be surprised if Jason comes by at some point today, he installed some security cameras and is going to show me how they work.”

  “I think that’s a good idea. I can’t believe something like this would happen here. Willow Bay is definitely worse for having that guy trying to live out his business fantasies here.”

  “I agree,” I nodded, just as I saw my first customer of the day walk in. Kiki was an extremely energetic Jack Russell Terrier, who despite being nine years old still had the mannerisms and energy of a puppy. As soon as she was let loose in the clinic she let out a few barks–just to let us know she was here–and then promptly sped around the room, sniffing the shelves filled with dog and cat food while wagging her tail at a million miles an hour. Her frazzled owner, Sarah, made her way to the counter.

  “Sorry,” she exclaimed. “I tried bringing her in the carrier but she knew and wouldn’t come near me, so I had to bring her on the leash only. She was an absolute terror in the car. At one point she managed to turn on the hazard lights, and set the windshield wipers on at maximum speed.”

  I laughed. “She really is a bundle of energy, isn’t she? No problem at all. I made my way to Kiki and picked her up off the floor.

  “Nooooooo, I was sniffing that!” Kiki exclaimed in anguish.

  “It’s just dog food, the same stuff that’s always on those shelves. Come on now, little girl, you need to get your shots and we need to give you a checkup,” I replied.

  Oh yeah, I should probably mention, my special witch power, which is unique to me, is that I can talk to animals. It makes my life as a vet a lot easier sometimes, and a lot more entertaining all the time. I took Kiki to one of the back rooms, where Sophie was already waiting with the booster shots ready and a smile on her face.

  “Hi Kiki!” she exclaimed. “How are you?”

  Kiki ran toward Sophie with her tail wagging at a million miles an hour. “Hello human! You look so nice! Please let me go back out and sniff the bags! I don’t want whatever is about to happen. They’re going to torture me! Like my owner, she doesn’t feed me at all! I could really use one of those treats I think I smell in that jar over there.”

  I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Fine, you can have a treat. But we both know Sarah takes very good care of you,” I said, handing Kiki one of the small treats I kept in the vet clinic for bribery purposes. She wolfed it down happily, and I took the opportunity to give her the booster shot she needed. Kiki was so intently focused on her treat she didn’t even notice. Sophie grinned from her spot on the other side of the examination table.

  Fifteen minutes later I’d given Kiki a good look over. Confirming that the little terrier was in great health, I sent her back out to be with Sarah, who thanked me and left, Kiki straining on her leash as much as possible to get to whatever new adventures she was going on next.

  Making my way to the back, I went to go finish filling out Kiki’s chart, while Sophie worked on getting some vaccines organized for a little of puppies that were scheduled to come in that afternoon.

  “That little dog has so much energy,” Sophie laughed. “I swear, Sarah should just buy a treadmill and let Kiki run on it all day.”

  “I hope I have that much energy as I approach my senior years,” I agreed. “That dog is in insanely good shape for nine years old.”

  Just then, the phone that linked the exam room to reception began to ring. I picked it up.

  “Hey Karen, what’s up?”

  “Ummm, you have a walk-in,” Karen said tentatively.

  “Ok,” I replied. “Do we have space to slot them in?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. Your schedule has space, but I think maybe you should come out here first.”

  A little bit confused, I made my way out to the main lobby area, where my jaw dropped to the floor. The entire space was taken up by an almost ten-foot-tall ungulate with gorgeous, deep orange spots, staring at me with a kind face and two horn-like ossicones.

  There was a giraffe in my vet clinic.

  “Hello,” I said to the giraffe softly. “How are you doing today?”

  “Do you know where my home is? I don’t know where home is, I don’t recognize anything here,” the giraffe said in a soft voice. M
y heart broke for–I did a quick check–her. She was obviously still a juvenile; fully grown giraffes were often around fifteen feet tall. If she were fully grown there was no chance she would be able to fit in the vet clinic. Even as she stood, the top of her head grazed the ceiling.

  “It’s going to be ok,” I whispered to the giraffe, stroking her side softly. She seemed to accept me doing that, and visibly relaxed at my words. “All right, this isn’t the usual kind of walk-in client I get,” I joked, looking around the giraffe to see who had brought it in. In front of me was a scared-looking girl of about twenty years that I didn’t recognize, with shoulder-length brown hair and big brown eyes.

  “I brought her here,” she told me. “You can’t tell my dad.”

  “Ok, that’s fine,” I told her. “How did you get the giraffe?” I mean, this was coastal Oregon. They weren’t exactly native to the area.

  “I took it from my dad,” she mumbled.

  “Your dad had the giraffe? Where did he get it?”

  The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. I never know where he gets his animals from. Usually they’re not that bad. They can live in this climate at least. But when I saw Lucy, I just knew she didn’t belong here. The winter will kill her. Plus, she’s way too young. So when he was at work I went in, took the horse trailer, and kidnapped Lucy. I brought her here because I need you to help her. I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Thank you,” I said to the girl. “Can you tell me your name?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not from around here, either. I came here because I knew no one would recognize me. I can’t have my dad know that I did this.”

  “It’s ok,” I said, trying to comfort her. “I don’t want to get you in trouble. I just want to get to the bottom of how your father got a giraffe.”

  “I don’t know,” the girl said quietly. “I have to go. Please take care of Lucy. She’s a nice giraffe.”

  And with that, the girl was gone, and I was left standing in the middle of the waiting room with a juvenile giraffe, not much older than a calf.

  “Wait, where are you going? Why are you leaving me here?” Lucy almost wailed as the girl practically ran out of the clinic and back into the truck that was parked out front, a horse trailer attached to the back.

  “It’s ok, Lucy,” I whispered to her. “It’s going to be ok. We’re going to take really good care of you here, ok?”

  Just then, Sophie came out of the back room. To her credit, her eyebrows barely rose when she saw the large desert mammal standing in the middle of our lobby. “I’m not sure we have the right vaccines for a giraffe, if that’s what you need,” was all she said, smiling as she made her way past the giraffe and handed some papers to Karen.

  “What do you want to do with her?” Karen asked, and I bit my lip. Looking outside, I was thankful the weather was still very warm for late September. The temperature was still in the mid-70s today, which I knew was on the cooler side for a giraffe, but not unheard of.

  “Well, first things first, if she’ll let me, I’d like to do an exam. I think I’ll take her home, though. How long until the next appointment?”

  “Forty minutes,” Karen replied, and I nodded. “Good. That’ll give me time to get this girl home and settled. I’ll give her a quick look over, but I think a full exam will have to wait until the end of the day.”

  Sophie grinned. “I’m definitely coming with you.”

  “What? Why?” I asked, confused.

  “Because you’re going to have to walk that giraffe home, and seeing you walk a giraffe through downtown Willow Bay is going to be amazing,” Sophie replied. I groaned as I realized she was right. This was the sort of thing that made front page news here in town; last week the main news story in town was that it rained for three days. In September.

  “Man, Jason’s going to have to make big decisions,” I said. “Is the torching of a business more gossip-worthy than the owner of that business walking a giraffe through town?”

  “I’m definitely on team giraffe. I’m going to take a picture of this beauty and start a hashtag on Instagram.”

  I laughed as I took the biggest dog leash I had and looped it around Lucy’s neck, then gently led her back toward the door. “We’re going to go home to my place now, ok? I have a small stable out the back where we can keep you for a bit.”

  “You’re not going to hurt me, are you?” Lucy asked as she ducked under the doorframe, and my heart broke for the poor giraffe.

  “No, of course not,” I told her quietly as soon as we were outside, so Karen couldn’t hear. “I’m going to take care of you.”

  Sure enough, even though foot traffic in town was pretty light with tourist season being over, I noticed a few people staring through shop windows, and one guy driving along paid so little attention to the road that he almost drove into a parked car.

  “Great,” I muttered. “Let’s get this over with before we start causing accidents.”

  “IS THAT APRIL?” a lady yelled excitedly. Great, that was all I needed, for the entirety of Willow Bay to think I had the internet-famous giraffe that gave birth via webcam a few months ago. I told her that no, it was definitely a different giraffe.

  Luckily for me, Lucy was extremely docile, and happily allowed herself to be led along the streets of Willow Bay. I decided to try and get some information out of her.

  “So Lucy, do you remember where you were born?” I asked her.

  “It was orange. There were not as many trees as here, and a lot less water.” Ok, so Lucy had been born in Africa.

  “Do you remember when you left the orange place?”

  “Yes. I was not an old giraffe. There were six men and one woman. They came and took me. My mother screamed and tried to hit them, but they were too fast. They put me on one of those moving things the humans use, and I saw my mother chasing after me. I did not know where they were taking me. Eventually they put me in a big box, and I was there for a long time. I thought I was going to be there forever. When they let me out of the box, everything looked like here.”

  My heart broke for the poor giraffe. “I’m so sorry, Lucy. I promise, I’m going to do everything I can to help you. My name is Angela, by the way.”

  “Thank you, Angela. Do you think you can find my mom?”

  “I hope so, Lucy. I really hope so.”

  Luckily for me, Jason had dropped me off at work this morning, so my car was still sitting in the driveway and I could just drive back to the clinic.

  In the backyard was a small stable that I used as an occasional wild animal care center. It wasn’t official or anything, just a place where I took care of any animals that really needed help. Right now, luckily, there were no animals to take care of, as the owl with the injured wing I’d recently taken in had just been re-released into the wild two days earlier.

  “You can stay here,” I said to Lucy. I gave her a quick physical exam, and didn’t see anything immediately wrong with her. She seemed in pretty good health. “I’m going to get you a trough of water,” I told her, and filled one up for her.

  I didn’t have any acacia trees around, obviously. This being coastal Oregon, most of the trees around were pines, and I didn’t know if Lucy would like the leaves from the trees around here. I went back into the house for a minute and came back with some carrots and a whole head of romaine lettuce. Leaning a ladder against the wall, I climbed up and put the food on a small ledge. It was too high for a human to reach, but Lucy would be able to eat the food from there without bending over.

  “I’ll come back with some better food for you later,” I told Lucy. “I promise, I’m going to take care of you.”

  “I believe you, Angela.”

  As I left the docile giraffe I had to fight back tears. She’d been taken from her mother in Africa, and smuggled to the United States to be someone’s pet. I wished the girl had stayed and given me more information, so I could track down her father. The smuggling made me angry, if I knew who her father was may
be I could track down who had sold him the giraffe.

  Chapter 4

  When I got back to the vet clinic, I was so close to my next appointment that I didn’t have any opportunity to talk to Sophie. A couple hours later we had our lunch break, which was our first chance to chat.

  “Let’s go to Betty’s,” Sophie suggested. “This is a BLT kind of day for you, isn’t it?”

  I smiled at Sophie. She knew me too well. “Any day is a BLT kind of day, if it’s at Betty’s.” Betty always made mine with special vegetarian bacon, and it was my favorite lunch treat. Grabbing my purse from behind the counter and telling Karen we’d see her soon, Sophie and I made our way out onto the street. I told her what I found out about Lucy.

  “That’s awful,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “You realize we have to find the people who smuggled her, right?”

  “Of course,” I said, nodding vehemently. “I was thinking of going and asking her more questions when we get back. I don’t want to overwhelm her, but she seems to be happy to answer my questions for now.”

  “Good, let me know what I can do to help. We need to hunt down the scum that separated this poor giraffe from her mother and left her here in Willow Bay.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “We’re not going to let this go.”

  “Hey, by the way, have you noticed Bee and her kittens lately?” Sophie asked. A few weeks ago Bee had found an abandoned litter of kittens and taken them in as her own. She had declared that she was training them to be soldiers in the war against the humans, although so far the only thing I’d seen any of them kill was little bits of lint they managed to spot on the floor. I had to admit, the kittens were pretty adorable. However, I realized when Sophie mentioned it that I hadn’t really noticed Bee the night before.

  “No, I didn’t notice them last night,” I said. “And we were making a lot of noise. Normally, she’d be around complaining.”

  “Exactly. I was thinking about that this morning. I think she and the kittens are up to something.”