“That’s true,” Sophie conceded. “I’m pretty sure there’s people here who think New York is like that movie The Purge every single day.”
I shook my head. “I mean, I’m not sad he’s dead. He basically threatened me last night. If anyone deserved to be murdered it was him. But I also don’t want me or Jason caught up in the aftermath.”
“You won’t be. Look on the bright side, now no one cares about the fact that you spent the morning walking a giraffe through town.”
I smiled at Sophie. “That’s true. I’m going to text Jason.”
I sent him a quick text telling him Matt’s body had been found in the ocean. He replied a minute later telling me he was aware, that everyone was on Willow Bay Beach, the main beach in town–whoever founded this place wasn’t exactly bursting with creativity when it came to names–and he confirmed that Matt had been shot.
“We should go down there, have a look,” Sophie said as Betty motioned to us that our sandwiches were ready. I nodded.
“Yeah, good plan, I replied. Sophie and I took our sandwiches and coffee and ate while walking down the street toward the beach. We walked silently, each one of us preoccupied with our own thoughts.
Was it bad that a part of me was a little bit happy Matt Smith was dead? After all, he had proven himself dangerous. He had set my vet clinic on fire, and threatened me less than twenty-four hours ago. I definitely felt safer without him around.
Unfortunately, I also knew those thoughts were what was going to make me an automatic suspect in his murder.
When we arrived at the beach, it could have been mistaken for a warm summer day. A gentle breeze floated in from the ocean, and the sun shone down on the sand, sending a small wave of heat up from the ground as Sophie and I walked along. The crowd—made up of at least a few dozen onlookers—and police tape strung between some trees, flowing in the breeze, was the only indication anything was wrong.
I saw Jason over to the side of the onlookers, with his camera with the telephoto lens–a necessity for a journalist–taking photos of the police officers. Making my way toward him and away from the crowd, I got a better look at what was happening behind the police tape.
There was a body in a black bag lying on the sand. Huddled around it was Chief Gary, with a somber expression on his face. He was speaking with Taylor, Sophie’s boyfriend, and two other police officers who I recognized but didn’t really know very well. One of them nodded at something Chief Gary said and made his way back toward the street. A minute later I saw a van with ‘Wawnee County Medical Examiner’ stencilled in white letters on the side, and I imagined it wouldn’t be long before the black bag was loaded up into the van.
“Hey, what’s happening here?” I asked Jason as I made my way toward him. He turned to me, his face grim.
“The rumor mill is right, it was Matt Smith. I considered texting you, but didn’t want to worry you at work.”
“It’s ok. I found out about it at lunch, we went to Betty’s and found out there. Are you sure it’s him?”
Jason nodded. “One hundred percent. I was walking to the office when I saw someone running away from the beach, saying to call 9-1-1, that her phone had died. So I gave her my phone and went to see. It was absolutely him, and he had a bullet wound in the middle of his forehead. He didn’t drown accidentally; Matt Smith was murdered.”
I shook my head slowly. “So we’re essentially the biggest suspects, aren’t we?”
“As of right now, as far as I can tell, yes.”
“I’m guessing you can’t tell when he was shot?”
Jason grinned. “Sadly, despite how much of my youth was spent watching Law and Order, I can’t tell time of death myself yet. I don’t know, although I think it’s safe to assume it was in the last 18 hours or so.”
“Definitely,” I nodded. “So we know it was sometime after he set the clinic on fire and then claimed he didn’t to Chief Gary, but before…”
“Eleven-fourteen,” Jason replied. “I had my phone out and was texting someone about an interview when the lady came running toward me.”
“Ok, so there’s about a fifteen hour time span when he could have theoretically been killed. Probably more like 14 hours because the body was probably in the water for longer than five minutes.”
“I would say so,” Jason agreed. “Now we just have to find out who wanted Matt Smith dead.”
“Apart from us,” I deadpanned.
“Apart from us,” Jason agreed, nodding. “I’m going to interview some people here. After all, I have the perfect reason to find out as much information as I can.”
“Sounds good. I need to go back to work, but since today is Saturday I can help out tomorrow.”
“Sure thing. Talk to you soon, sweetie,” Jason said, leaning over and kissing me softly on the lips. My face flushed with excitement as I found Sophie and we made our way back to the vet clinic. Comparing notes, it seemed she hadn’t learned anything other than what Jason already knew. I hoped his interview skills would get us a little bit more information before the night was out.
Chapter 5
A few hours later I was back home, an afternoon of clinic work over. Nothing especially exciting had happened–after a smuggled giraffe had ended up in the clinic, that was always going to be the peak excitement for the day anyway–and when I got home after a quick trip to the grocery store I got straight to work taking care of said giraffe.
Lucy seemed happy in the stable. As happy as a young giraffe taken from her mother as a calf and sold, presumably as a pet, on the other side of the world from her home could be, anyway. She was having a chat with a little Stellar’s Jay that had come by, but her new friend flew away as soon as I appeared.
“Hi Lucy,” I greeted her. “How are you doing?”
“I’m ok. I’m a little bit hungry though. I really liked the orange thing you gave me.”
I grinned, and pulled the bag of lettuce and a few carrots that I’d grabbed at the grocery store out of my bag. “You’re in luck,” I told Lucy. “These are treats, I was thinking if I let you out into the yard, you could try eating from the trees here and see if you like them?” I asked.
“All right, I will try that. But first, the orange treats!”
I laughed and handed her a carrot before putting the lettuce and other carrots where I had left the rest of her food. I then opened the door to the stable and let Lucy out into the backyard.
“So Lucy, I want to do my best to help find your mom. Do you remember what the place you came from was called? Do you know what country you were from?”
“I don’t know,” Lucy said. “I remember my mother calling our home something, but it was long ago now. I think it was called ‘Tara’-something.”
“Tanzania?” I asked hopefully, but Lucy shook her large head.
“No, it was not that. It definitely started with ‘Tara’, but beyond that, I cannot remember.”
“Ok,” I told Lucy. “I’m going to go inside and look up where it could be. Do you think you would remember the name if I told it to you?”
“I think so, but I am not completely certain, I’m sorry,” Lucy said.
“It’s ok, you don’t need to be sorry,” I told her, stroking her. She was so much softer than I had expected a giraffe to be. “I’ll be back soon, ok?”
“Ok,” Lucy replied. I left the stable door open.
“Feel free to go out and eat some of the trees in the yard,” I told her. “There are no predators here.”
“I will.” I turned around to go back to the house when suddenly I heard Lucy’s voice again. “Do you think you’re going to be able to find my mom?”
My heart broke at the sentiment. I knew what it was like to lose my parents, although I barely remembered mine. I hoped Lucy would have better luck. “I hope so, Lucy. I hope so.”
As soon as I walked back into the house I unlocked my iPad and started to search through Google Maps. A few minutes into it, my phone rang. It was an unknown number; normally I’d just let it go to voicemail, but now that I’d sent an email to my old vet school friend to call me, I picked up.