“I wonder if Antonia deciding to tell the truth had anything to do with what happened in Las Vegas?” Charlotte mused.
“Maybe. Or maybe Las Vegas was after Antonia told Janice,” Sophie offered, but Charlotte shook her head.
“No way. There’s no way Andrea would go to Vegas with Antonia after her daughter left. Definitely not. She would have hated Antonia then.” Charlotte had a good point.
“You know what? This is a problem that needs to be tackled with the help of some white cheddar popcorn,” I announced, getting up and making my way to the kitchen to grab the bag I’d bought the other day.
I was thankful that Sprinkles was finally starting to open up to us. Maybe with his help we’d have an easier time breaking this case open. But oh man, was that ever a bombshell of a revelation.
“But wait,” I realized after a minute. “I mean, this doesn’t mean Antonia had any reason to kill Andrea. In fact, it’s more the other way around. This gives Andrea a motive to kill Antonia, which she obviously didn’t do.”
“That’s true,” Charlotte said, slowly. “It’s not like Antonia would have been likely to grow a conscience and decide to do away with her former best friend over this, randomly, now, years and years after Janice left anyway.”
“Oh hell,” Sophie spat, crossing her arms. “I was really hoping that would have been a huge breakthrough for us.”
I sighed. To be honest, I’d been hoping for that as well. The deeper we delved, the more frustrating this case got.
Chapter 14
We continued to chat about the case for two hours, but didn’t come any closer to any solutions. Eventually, we decided to give up for now and see if a good night’s sleep gave any of us any better ideas. Besides, Monday was the day of Andrea’s funeral, and Sprinkles had asked us if we could go. We said yes, obviously. Besides, who knew? Maybe we’d find out something that we didn’t realize was important while we were there.
All dressed in black, we put a black bandana on Sprinkles and loaded him up into Sophie’s car with the three of us. We arrived at the church about twenty minutes before the ceremony was about to start, and as soon as we arrived everyone started fussing over Sprinkles.
“Oh the poor dear.”
“It’s so good of you to bring him here to say goodbye.”
“I hope you find him a good home, there’s no one better in town to take care of him right now.”
“What a sweet little dog.”
As everyone fawned over him, Sophie, who had been holding his leash, eventually got separated from Charlotte and I, and we began to wander through the throngs of people.
“I wonder how many people are here to pay their respects, and how many simply want to gossip?” Charlotte asked, looking around. It seemed as if the whole town had shown up. Andrea Dottory had never really been liked around town; she started too many spiteful rumours about people to really have any friends. And I was sure her popularity levels would drop even further if she’d heard what Sprinkles had told us last night. I figured Charlotte was right, most of the people here must have shown up just to be able to tell their friends that they were at the murdered woman’s funeral.
I sighed, watching from afar as Sprinkles got all the attention in the world. His tail wagged low and slowly as Sophie led him towards the entrance to the church. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind a dog being in there for the service.
Suddenly, I looked over and saw a familiar face coming over.
“Fancy seeing you two here,” Jason Black greeted Charlotte and I with that cocky little grin of his.
“Hi, Jason,” Charlotte said.
“So I guess you’re here covering the funeral?” I asked him. “Still more interesting than the post office’s new paint job?”
“Sure is!” he replied.
“That’s a little bit… macabre, don’t you think?”
“Well, I’m a journalist. Not all news is good news. Also, the post office paint job has been pushed back to being the third biggest news story this week!”
“Behind Betty adding cheesecake to the menu this summer?” I asked.
“Wait, Betty’s making cheesecake this summer?” Charlotte interrupted.
“Apparently,” I replied.
“Score!”
“No, I forgot about that story,” Jason grinned. “I’m also writing a story about catfishing people online. Although the editor told me he might not run it, he likes my enthusiasm for actually coming up with stories. But actually I have a source inside the police station that tells me they suspect a gang is using Willow Bay as a hideout to move drugs.”
“Seriously?”
Jason nodded. “Yes, catfishing is an important issue these days,” he said with a straight face. I could have punched him.
“Not that, no one cares about catfishing. The drug thing!”
Jason grinned. “Don’t tell anyone, it’s supposed to be secret until the new paper comes out on Wednesday. But yeah.”
“Just FYI, a “source inside the police station” in Willow Bay is like four people,” I told him. “Your sources may appreciate a broader description if you expect them to give you more info in the future.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like Jason’s face began to fall for just a split second before he laughed.
“Well, it looks like I still have a lot to learn about small towns. Good call, Angie, thanks,” he replied, winking at me. I felt a blush crawl up my face and wanted to curl up into a hole and die. Why did my face always have to betray me?
“Why is this gang using Willow Bay though? And is it pot they’re moving?”
Jason shook his head. “No, harder stuff. Although, presumably, they’re probably also moving some pot, since it’s so easy to get in Washington now. But from what I understand it’s mainly cocaine. They’re getting it from California, moving it up here to store it, and then shipping it out east somehow, without anyone noticing. I don’t know why they picked Willow Bay, honestly. It’s kind of far from the interstate, it’s small, but then again maybe that was the point, to get pretty rural. Who knows. Maybe my source will let me know when they catch them.”
I smiled slightly. “Who knew Willow Bay had such interesting things to write about after all? I’m starting to think it’s you.”
“I’m starting to think it’s me, too, honestly,” Jason laughed. “But seriously, not really. In case you were thinking of actually blaming that on me.”
This time it was my turn to laugh, despite myself. Fine, he was a little bit funny.
“Hey, Angela, I think the service is about to start,” Charlotte suddenly said, dragging me back towards the church. Was it bad that I’d completely forgotten my sister was even there? Oops.
We made our way to the entrance of the Willow Bay Church. Inside, I found Sophie standing against the wall, towards the front of the church, with Sprinkles next to her. Charlotte and I made our way over just as the pastor made his way to the front of the room to begin the service.
Sprinkles spent the whole service sitting at attention, his eyes focused on the pastor. I had to remind myself that even if Andrea Dottory wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, she had loved Sprinkles and taken good care of him, and he had loved her back. This must have been hard for him.
At one point I took a moment to look around the packed church. The only family Andrea had was her niece, sitting in the second row. She couldn’t have possibly looked more bored.
But then again, that matched everyone else in the room pretty well. I was pretty sure one guy in his late teens at the back of the church was actually playing Pokemon Go. Oh dear, buddy. There’s a time and a place, and this was neither.
When the ceremony was over, I took Sprinkles over to the casket for a minute while Charlotte and Sophie waited outside. I gave him a last moment alone with his human, who had raised and loved him, and then we went back outside. I saw Charlotte and Sophie and waved at them, but before I managed to walk over to them my path was blocked my Kelly Dottory.