Busy as a Beaver Read online

  That was certainly strange; he had planned on staying home that day to work on his article and get something in for the deadline.

  “We should follow him,” Sophie said, but I put a hand on her arm.

  “We absolutely are not doing that,” I said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’m sure there’s absolutely nothing out of the ordinary with what he’s doing,” I replied, turning my head as he passed right across the street from where we were.

  “If you’re so sure that there was a good reason for him being here, why were you hiding?” Sophie asked, her hands on her hips.

  “Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll text him.”

  Hey, where are you?

  I pressed send and gave Sophie a smug look as my phone made the sound indicating the text had gone off.

  When thirty seconds later I hadn’t received a reply, however, Sophie’s eyebrows rose and my smug expression turned into a bit of a frown. He had his face right in his phone; why didn’t he answer my text straightaway?

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” I mumbled, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling of dread building in my stomach. Jason had never been the type to hide anything from me.

  “Let’s go make sure it’s nothing,” Sophie said, poking her head back out into the street, but as I turned around to join her, she frowned. “Where did he go?”

  Sure enough, Jason had disappeared somewhere in the twenty or so seconds that had passed since we’d last seen him. I had to admit, a part of me was pretty happy with that. No matter what he was doing, I really didn’t want to spy on my boyfriend. After all, I was supposed to trust him. And I did trust him. Even though deep down, I was pretty curious as to what he was doing here. Especially since he had told me he was spending the day in Willow Bay, and he still hadn’t answered my text.

  “I’m sure he’ll tell me at home tonight,” I said, heading back out to the sidewalk and continuing back towards the car.

  “I don’t know,” Sophie replied. “I’d like to think so, but you can’t really trust men.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Trouble in paradise between you and Taylor?”

  “No, of course not. It’s just a general rule.”

  “Well, if I had dated the train of absolute awful that you called boyfriends over the last few years, I suppose I wouldn’t be the most trusting either. Remember the guy who got drunk at a bar and called you to give him and the girl he picked up a ride back to her apartment?”

  Sophie threw her head back in disgust while I laughed. “Ugh. I had almost managed to repress that memory. I think his name was Daryl or something.”

  “Well, Jason isn’t at all like the train wreck that was your dating life before Taylor. So yes, I trust him. He can go to Portland if he wants. He’s a grown man and he doesn’t need me to peek over his shoulder at all hours.”

  “Fine, well, if you change your mind, I’m happy to hunt him down for you,” Sophie said.

  “I’m all good, thanks.”

  I didn’t let Sophie know that deep down, however, my gut was starting to wonder if it was all good.

  Two hours later we were back in Willow Bay, and I had dropped Sophie off at home with the promise that we would text each other if we found out anything important about the case. But for now, I had more important things to worry about.

  I spent about an hour sitting at the kitchen table playing around with the new cameras that I had just bought. I eventually figured out how they worked, set them up, and made sure they were ready for my plan.

  “What are you doing with those?” Bee asked, jumping up onto the dining room table and sniffing the cameras curiously.

  “I’m going to help out the beavers,” I said. “Someone has been wrecking their dams, and it leaves their lodge vulnerable. This way, if whoever did it comes back, I’ll be able to track them down.”

  “Why do you care about the stupid beavers anyway?” Bee replied. “They’re a little bit annoying, after all. Buster and I decided to go wandering over there one day a few months ago, and they got all accusatory, telling us we were in their territory. You don’t see me complaining whenever you bring another animal into this house.”

  I shot Bee a look. “That is literally all you do. Remember when Sprinkles lived here?”

  “That was different; he was a dog. It was an insult to my species to force me to live with the worst of the animals. He was always so happy, it was disgusting.”

  I smiled. “You say that, but I remember that towards the end you and Sprinkles got along just fine.”

  “Only because I was forced to, and because destroying a creature of such low intelligence with my wit and intellect felt like cheating.”

  “Right. So how is that different from the beavers?”

  “It was totally different! They were being territorial towards me!”

  I laughed as I got up from the dining room table and got ready to go out. Throwing on a coat, I gave Bee a quick pat.

  “I should be back soon,” I said. “I should beat Charlotte home, so if you’re lucky, I’ll stop by the Japanese restaurant and grab some sushi for dinner.”

  Bee’s tail wagged appreciatively as I left the house and made my way back towards the beavers’ lodge.

  Luckily for me, it was still only mid-afternoon, so not only was it a little bit warmer thanks to the sun still being up high in the sky, but there was more light to play with as well.

  “Hello? It’s just me, Angela,” I called out towards the beavers’ lodge as I approached. Now that I had forged a little bit of a path to make my way towards their home, it had been much less of an adventure to get here. The beavers had obviously been busy; the parts of the dam that had been destroyed were now completely rebuilt, less than twenty-four hours after I had last been here.

  “Why, hello there again,” I heard a voice say with a slight lisp. The beaver whose name I was fairly certain was Naba made her way out of the den towards me.

  “I’ve brought the security camera equipment,” I told her. “Has anyone been back since I was here yesterday?”

  “No, there have been no humans,” Naba said. “I’m quite glad, actually. Personally, I trusted your spell completely, but the little ones were scared all the same.”

  “Well, I can say the spell worked, and that there is no way anyone can get into your lodge to attack you. And now, since I have the cameras to set up, if anyone comes by in the future, we will know.”

  Naba crawled towards the bag I was carrying. I pulled out two GoPro-sized cameras and showed them to her.

  “And those work?” Naba asked. “I don’t understand how something so small will be able to show you who is hurting us.”

  “They do work,” I replied. “Let me set them up around here and a couple of different places, and I will show you.”

  I set myself to work, with Naba watching carefully as I scouted the area. I eventually settled on placing the first camera hidden slightly behind a rather large bush near a tree, figuring that the leaves of the bushes would hide the camera from view better than most things. Managing to set up the camera and point it directly at the beavers’ lodge, I waved my hand in front of it and opened my phone, checking the corresponding app to see if the footage was recorded and sent.

  Sure enough, it had worked.

  “Here, come have a look at this,” I told Naba. “See? The little box there shows on my phone exactly what’s happening. The camera is motion-activated, so it will only run if someone comes in front of the camera’s screen.”

  “Alright,” Naba said after spending about two solid minutes looking at my phone’s screen. I had a sneaking suspicion she could barely see what was on it, but that was fine. So long as the beavers trusted me, that was what was most important.

  I moved over towards the dam and found a prime spot to set up the second camera. It was inside the dam, with the camera somewhat hidden inside the logs. This setup gave me a great view over the whole lodge from another angle completely, but also a
llowed me to see the entire dam setup as well. This way, even if the intruder came back and only wrecked the dams again instead of targeting the lodge as well, I would still hopefully get some footage.

  After spending about ten minutes making sure the second camera was also placed in prime position and double-checking the footage on my phone, I was satisfied that this was as good as it was going to get.

  “All done,” I told Naba. “You can tell your family that if the intruder comes back, to stay in the lodge. The spell is still active, but this time, I’ll be able to see them.”

  “When will you come back?” Naba asked.

  “In a few days, to replace the batteries on the camera. It depends on how often the motion sensor is triggered.”

  “Alright. Thank you for the help. I do hope whoever did it doesn’t come back, but it is good to know that if they do you will be able to find them.”

  “Hopefully,” I said. “There are no guarantees.”

  “Right.”

  With that, Naba turned and waddled back towards the lodge, diving into the water to access the entrance I knew would be hidden underneath.

  I smiled and turned, heading back towards home. At least my spell would keep the beavers safe.

  Chapter 12

  I got home just as the sun began to set. I let my mind wander to what I was going to make for dinner—I kind of felt like pasta, maybe a fettucine and broccoli alfredo?—until I saw Jason sitting on the couch, looking through his notes, and I froze.

  “Hey, how was your day?” he asked, getting up off the couch as soon as he saw me.

  “Eh, it was ok,” I replied. “Sophie and I went to Portland, but I’m not sure how much we learned. How about yours?” I was almost scared of the answer.

  Jason shrugged. “Sort of the same. I was just going to sit here and finish my article, but the words flowed pretty easily and I had it done by ten. I went up to Portland to speak to Michael Carlton’s old boss and coworkers, but I’m not sure I learned anything amazing from them.”

  As soon as the words came out of his mouth, it was like a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders. Jason wasn’t hiding anything from me at all. He had probably just been preoccupied, which was why he hadn’t replied to my text. After all, he had just admitted to me straightaway that he’d gone to the city.

  I couldn’t wait to tell Sophie she was all wrong about him. Petty? Definitely. But I wanted her to know that I trusted Jason, and that he was a trustworthy man.

  “So what did you find out?” I asked as I made my way to the kitchen, grabbing a deep pot in which to cook the pasta.

  “Not a whole lot. Michael Carlton retired three years ago after a career that was basically spent entirely within the Portland school district.”

  “He was an accountant, right? So he wouldn’t have had anything to do with Gloria directly?”

  “That’s right, as far as I could tell. I mean, he worked in the office building above the Oregon State Credit Union right downtown; I spoke to one of his coworkers from a few years back and he basically never went into schools individually. There was no reason for him to have had to.”

  “Right, and Gloria worked at a school that was more out in the suburbs,” I frowned.

  “Exactly. As far as I can tell, even though they both had the same employer, there was no reason for her to have ever gone to that office building.”

  “What else was in that building?” I asked. “Other than school board employees, I mean.”

  “It’s basically the administrative center,” Jason replied. “So not only was there everyone involved in financial services, but also IT, human resources, and the senior administrative staff.”

  I frowned. Sure enough, none of that really sounded like any reason a regular teacher would have had to visit that building.

  “What about you? What did you find?”

  “Sophie and I went to Michael’s house, and we found out that he had a coffee date with a friend, but it turned out that the guy—Chuck—had only moved to Portland a few months earlier. He met Michael while playing golf and the two of them hit it off, but he didn’t seem to know very much about Michael or his life. So, overall, it was kind of a bust.”

  “That’s too bad,” Jason frowned. “I was hoping at least one of us would have found a connection between Gloria and Michael, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.”

  “The worst part is, I just don’t know where we go from here. I mean, I kind of feel like we’ve exhausted a whole bunch of avenues, and until we figure something out with the information we have, we’re not going to get anywhere.”

  Jason nodded. “I agree.” Before he had a chance to continue, however, his phone began to ring. “It’s my boss; I have to take this.”

  Jason answered the phone and started talking. My mind drifted while I stirred the pasta in the pot and began making the alfredo sauce. The sound of Charlotte’s car pulling into the driveway reached my ears, and I smiled. She was right on time for dinner.

  And on that note, so was Bee, who began wrapping herself around my legs the instant I pulled the Parmesan cheese out from the fridge.

  “I have to go,” Jason said as he hung up the phone. “There’s a problem with the printer, and seeing as we’re supposed to have this week’s issue out tomorrow, I have to go down and give them a hand. I’ll be back later.”

  “Sounds good,” I replied. “I’ll keep you a bowl of pasta.”

  Jason gave me a quick peck as he grabbed his jacket and was out the door, with Charlotte coming in just as he was leaving.

  “Someone’s in a rush,” she commented, raising her eyebrows slightly. “Big news in town that we’re missing out on?”

  I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. Just a newspaper emergency with the printer.”

  “That’s good,” Charlotte said. “Although I imagine if anything bad had happened, you would have been right behind him.”

  I was going to argue, then realized Charlotte was absolutely correct. “Well, on a different note, you’re right on time for dinner,” I replied, motioning to the almost-ready food piling up around me.

  “It smells nice, that’s for sure,” Charlotte said as she hung up her jacket. I doled out bowls of pasta and the two of us sat down at the dining table, not saying anything for a few minutes as we simply ate the food.

  “I have something to tell you,” Charlotte said eventually, putting down her fork.

  “Oh yeah?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

  “I’ve been offered a job.”

  “Really? Congratulations,” I said, a grin spreading across my face. “That’s wonderful!” I had absolutely no doubt that Charlotte was going to get a position as a doctor when she graduated. After all, she was hands down the smartest person I knew, and she worked incredibly hard. If there was anybody I wanted to look after me when I was sick, it was Charlotte. Still, the fact that it had happened was absolutely wonderful.

  “It’s in San Francisco.”

  I paused. It was no wonder Charlotte had smiled when she told me the news. She looked down into her lap like she was embarrassed.

  “So? What’s wrong with that?”

  Charlotte looked up at me. “It means I’m going to have to move away from here.”

  “And go have an adventure in California? This is wonderful news, Charlotte.”

  “You’re not mad?”

  My mouth dropped open. “Mad? Are you joking? I mean, yeah, of course I’m going to miss the hell out of you. And you have to promise to call me every single day. And you have to send me pictures on Snapchat, and I want to know everything about California. But seriously, if this is what you want, then it’s awesome news.”

  Charlotte laughed. “Oh God, I’m so relieved. I was so worried that you’d be upset with me leaving, since I mean, we’ve lived together our whole lives. I didn’t want to let you down, but this is a super exciting opportunity at a teaching hospital, which also opens up some doors in the future if I want to teach classes.”<
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  “What kind of sister would I be if I didn’t encourage you to follow your dreams? Of course I’m going to miss you. But it’s a big world out there, and we all need to find our place in it. Mine is in Willow Bay; going to medical school in Seattle proved that to me. And if your place is in San Francisco, well, at least technology makes it super easy for us to stay in touch these days.”

  Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes, and I stood up from my chair and made my way over to her, enveloping her in a huge hug. Sometimes, with Charlotte being so smart and all, it was easy to forget that I was actually the older sister.

  “I love you so much,” she whispered to me.

  “I love you too. I always will, no matter where you live. Now, get your butt to California and show them all how amazing you are.”

  Charlotte laughed through her tears. “Well, it’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow. I still have to officially finish my schooling here, which ends at the end of December. Then I’m going to take a month or so off, and I move in February, which is when I told them I’ll start.”

  “You? Taking time off? Please, you’re going to get bored after like two days and start running up the walls,” I joked. I had to admit I was choking back tears somewhat. I loved Charlotte, and I loved having her here. Sure, she could be neurotic and a little bit naggy, and she wasn’t the biggest fan of when Sophie and I investigated crimes. But she helped where she could, and she was always fun to have around in her own nerdy kind of way. I was definitely going to miss her.

  But at the same time, I was also insanely excited for her. After all, my little baby sister was finally going to go out and take on the world on her own terms. She was going to be amazing.

  Chapter 13

  I spent most of the rest of the night looking at my phone, checking the app that was linked to the camera to see if anybody had come by and annoyed the beavers yet or not. There were a few videos triggered by the motion sensors, but so far they had all been of the beavers themselves, wiggling around outside of their lodge.