Sophie’s eyes widened. “Silver like Jake’s car.”
“Exactly. And sure, it’s not exactly rare to see a Prius in Willow Bay, but the two owned by people in town are blue and green, and it’s not tourist season at all. Plus, all the businesses were long since closed, so why be parked on Main Street? Anyone staying at one of the hotels would be parked there.”
Sophie nodded. “I think you might be right. It’s a little bit of a long shot, but it actually makes sense.”
“I need to find out for sure.”
“Absolutely,” Sophie said. “Try not to almost die, this time.”
“I’ll do my best,” I deadpanned back. As we were getting ready to go, I realized why Matt Smith might have been parked on Main Street. I told Sophie I’d meet her back at the vet clinic, and headed down the street to confirm my theory.
I ducked into the Italian place Jason and I liked to eat at, and found Jessie, who had been our waitress a few days earlier, cleaning a table.
“Excuse me, Jessie?”
“Yes?” she asked, a friendly smile on her face. I turned my phone to her and showed her a picture of Jake that I’d found on the website of the company he and Matt owned; a simple, professional headshot.
“Would you happen to have seen this guy sometime recently?” I asked. “Maybe he was a customer?”
“Oh, yeah, him,” Jessie nodded. “I called him boobs. Oh, he wasn’t a friend of yours or anything, was he?” she added quickly, realizing what she said, and I laughed.
“No, don’t worry. And I agree with you, the nickname is well deserved. Listen, do you remember when you saw him by chance? It’s important.”
Jessie put a hand on her hip and looked up as she thought back. “Hmm. It was the night Carley called in sick, so we were short-staffed, which was a little bit annoying. That would have been on Friday. Yes, definitely Friday. The man he was with asked to keep the wine bottle, which was weird, but whatever.”
I smiled, thanked Jessie, and left. That answered that. I was certain of what had happened now. Matt and Jake had a meeting in Willow Bay, afterwards Matt used the wine bottle to torch my vet clinic. Then, later on that night, Jake and Matt met up again, and Jake killed Matt.
It all made perfect sense.
Unfortunately, I was going to have to spend the afternoon working before I could confirm it.
Chapter 20
I sent Jason a text as I made my way toward my car as soon as the vet clinic closed.
Jake, the roommate, is the murderer. Going to see him now.
I had to get Jake to admit to me what he’d done. After all, I didn’t actually have any proof, just a hunch and a bit of what the crime shows on TV that I watched way too often would call circumstantial evidence.
When five minutes after I sent the text Jason hadn’t replied, I figured he was still asleep. As I made the drive up to Lake Oswego, everything continued to fall into place. It all made sense. The only thing I didn’t know was why he had done it. Hopefully Jake would be surprised enough when he saw me that he would admit to everything.
I arrived at the house just before one. I parked the car in front of his house and made my way up toward it. Opening a recording app on my phone, I slipped it into the pocket of the hoodie I was wearing. This way, if Jake did admit to me what he’d done, there would be evidence of it. I could hand it over to Chief Gary, and he’d go away for life, and Jason and I would officially be suspects no more.
The only problem was, despite ringing the doorbell three times there was no answer. Jake wasn’t home. I looked around, and sure enough, I couldn’t see his Prius anywhere.
“Are you looking for Jake?” a woman’s voice asked, and I looked over to where the sound came from. An elderly woman was looking over the hedge separating Jake’s house from his neighbor’s, an elderly woman with a pair of pruning shears in her hand.
“I am, yes,” I said with a smile. “I thought he would be home this morning.”
“Oh, he was here a little while ago,” she said. “But I saw him leave about half an hour ago. He told me he was going to check out the development site he was working on.”
“Do you know where that is?” I asked, and the woman nodded. “Oh, yes. It’s in Damascus, an old farm there. Take the Old Clackamas Highway and turn onto South-East 162nd Avenue. That’s where the young man is building his new houses. You’ll see it immediately, it’s the large lot on the left.”
I thanked the woman and made my way back to the car. Lake Oswego wasn’t far from Damascus as the crow flies, but because of the Williamette River, with no bridges linking the various residential neighborhoods on either side of it, it was actually a half hour drive to get to the property.
Sure enough, as the old lady told me, the property was easily spottable. One side of the street had a large sports field, complete with stadium lights, and the other side had obviously been a farm in the past. I could still make out where rows of plants had grown before the land was sold. Jake’s Prius was parked on the side of the road, and I parked my car about a hundred feet further down the road.
Despite myself, I was a little bit nervous. After all, this place was pretty isolated, unlike Jake’s home in Lake Oswego. And while my arm was feeling a lot better, I was well aware that it was still injured. I knew that I could do basic tasks like cut food with my hand now, but if I had to actually fight a murderer, I was still at a significant disadvantage.
Still, I was here now. I figured I might as well do my best. Turning the recording app on my phone back on, I made my way onto the property, parts of which had earth moved as though they were getting ready to start building houses. I could see Jake toward the back of the property, doing something.
“Jake!” I called out, not wanting to scare him, and he looked up at me, confusion crossing his face. A minute later, there was a spark of recognition and he spoke.
“Oh! You were that hot chick’s friend, weren’t you?” he asked. Ugh. Great, I’d forgotten how just completely creepy this guy was.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Could this guy be any more disgusting?
“Why are you here? And more importantly, where’s your friend?”
I decided to try and hit him with the element of surprise. “I’m here because I know you killed your roommate, Matt Smith.”
Jake laughed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” I replied. “Your car was seen in Willow Bay the night of the murder.”
“So what if I did kill him? What are you going to do about it? Turn me into the police? None of what you have is actual evidence.”
“I think a jury would think otherwise,” I replied, trying to sound confident. “But anyway, none of what I’m saying here has to come out.” I didn’t really know where I was going with this, I only knew that I was going to try and take a page out of Jason’s book. “I think we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement, here.”
A creepy smile formed on Jake’s face. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. After all, you property development types have a bunch of money, right? So what do you say? You give me a small percentage of what you’re worth, and I don’t go to the cops.”
Jake came toward me, nodding slowly. He was about ten feet away from me now. “Ok. Yeah, ok, I can see where you’re going with this. I like it. What kind of number are you thinking of?”
“A hundred grand.”
“I give you a hundred grand and you keep your mouth shut about me killing Matt?” My heart swelled. That was it, that was an admission! At least, surely it would be enough for the courts.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You’ve got a deal,” Jake said, coming toward me with his hand outstretched, as if to shake mine. I put my hand out to shake his, but I didn’t notice the knife until it was too late. He slashed at me; luckily because the knife was in his left hand he was slightly less co-ordinated, and it simply grazed my skin, cutting me lightly in my side.