“I think he might have done some work for Lisa a couple years ago,” Charlotte replied thoughtfully as she chewed a slice herself. “When she was getting the roof redone.”
“How do you even remember that sort of thing?” Sophie asked. Charlotte shrugged.
“I dunno. I just do.”
My sister was so smart sometimes it was scary.
“We saw Antonia deLucca in the coffee shop today, too,” I told Charlotte. “She says people are taking, since the body was found in the vet clinic and all.”
Sophie rolled her eyes.
“You can’t seriously be taking what that crazy old bat was saying seriously, can you? Like, she lives for gossip and rumours. I guarantee you no one actually said that about the vet clinic, she just wants to stir some stuff up.”
I shrugged.
“I mean yeah, I guess. But I can’t help but thinking what if she’s right? Even if people aren’t actually telling her that, what if they still believe it?”
Sophie leaned back against the couch.
“So what if they are? What are you going to do about it?”
I stayed silent for a minute, and Charlotte realized what I was thinking.
“No. No, absolutely not,” she told me. “There is no way you’re going to try and figure out who killed Tony on your own.”
Sophie sat up on the chair and grinned.
“Yes! You absolutely should! It’ll be like a real life Nancy Drew mystery.”
“Oh and I bet you think you’re Bess then, don’t you?” Charlotte replied, rolling her eyes.
“Please. You are so Bess. I’m way more of a George.”
I held my hands up in the air to stop them both.
“Woah, woah, woah. You guys are getting way too far in front of yourselves, here. I’m not going around playing Nancy Drew here. I just don’t think it’s a bad idea for me to maybe look into the murder a little bit and see if I can’t dig out a bit of info that might help Chief Gary figure things out. You know?”
Sophie nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, I still think Antonia’s a terrible human being who just made that stuff up to create drama, but I don’t think digging around is a bad idea at all. After all, we found the body, that’s pretty much the universe telling us it’s fine to start investigating things.”
“Oh my God, no, that is absolutely not what the universe is telling you,” Charlotte practically shrieked. “You guys are crazy. We are not going after a murderer. This is how horror movies start.”
“Oh you’re such a baby,” Sophie muttered.
“I am not!”
“You are though,” I followed up. “I mean, it’s not like we’re going to find the murderer and confront him or anything like that. We’re just going to see if we can dig anything up ourselves.”
“I can’t believe this is a conversation we’re actually having.”
“Well, you don’t have to help,” I told her. “It’s not like we’re forcing you into this.”
“Of course I have to help. You guys are going to get into so much trouble without me there.”
I grinned. “Fine. But you have to stop complaining about it.”
“I do not,” Charlotte grumbled.
I couldn’t help it. I had to admit, I was actually… excited. Nothing interesting ever happened in Willow Bay. The closest thing I had to excitement in my life was getting puked on by angry cats. They do it on purpose, too. I have that on good authority from Bee.
“If a cat is going to throw up, we will do everything in our power to make a human feel as miserable as we do,” she told me once after I found a “present” in my shoe.
Now Charlotte, Sophie and I were going to find out who stabbed Tony Nyman so he ended up dying trying to patch himself up in my vet clinic.
Chapter 7
“So what seems to be the problem here today, Strawberry?” I asked the white Schnauzer/Poodle cross sitting on my exam table first thing the next morning.
“You mean apart from the fact that my owners let a five year old pick my name? Not very much. I wish I wasn’t here.” the dog replied. I had to hide my smile.
“He’s been a little bit lethargic the last few days, and I found a little bump on his leg, right here,” Annalise told me, prying away a bit of his fur and exposing a little lump the size of a pin head on his right hind leg. Annalise Thompson was in her 30s, with two kids. She had babysat us a few times growing up when she was a teenager, and now as far as I was aware she lived the life of a typical housewife: husband working in the city, kids at school, white picket fence and the family dog, who was now getting up there in years. Strawberry was ten years old now, and had been named by Annalise’s half sister, who was now fifteen. Strawberry had, unfortunately, never gotten over the shame of his name.
“I’m only tired because we went for like a five hour hike yesterday, since her damn husband’s decided he wants to lose weight. Just because he wants to get fitter doesn’t mean I want to.”
I smiled into Strawberry’s fur as I leaned over to get a better look at the lump. Schnauzers were quite prone to getting lumps later in life, and this one looked completely benign.
When I was done I took Strawberry’s heart rate and asked a few questions.
“Has he been more lethargic than usual, other than over the last few days?”
“No,” Annalise replied.
“Any diahrea or vomiting?”
She shook her head.
“Is he eating and drinking ok?”
“Yes, nothing strange there.”
I did a little bit more of a checkup over Strawberry, then looked up at Annalise.
“Well, I’m honestly not too worried about the lump. I can do a biopsy of it and send it away for testing, but it feels like a fat lump to me, which in a Schnauzer isn’t a rare thing.”
“Who are you calling fat?” Strawberry muttered, but I ignored him and continued talking.
“He also seems to be in good shape, especially for a dog his age. I wouldn’t worry too much about the lethargy just yet, but if it keeps up for another few days please come in again. He’s getting older, and sometimes just having a big day can take it out of him for a few days now. I’d recommend not taking him on extensively long walks.”
“Thank you, you’re a goddess among humans!” Strawberry praised, and it took everything I had not to laugh at how enthusiastic he was.
“Thanks Strawberry,” I told him, giving him one last set of pats before motioning to Annalise that she could take him off the exam table.
“And thank you for bringing him in,” I told Annalise. “Even though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.”
“So we just leave the lump?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Yes. I mean, we could put him under and cut it out, but the older dogs get the greater the risk of complications with the anesthetic, and to be honest if he’s got one lump, others are probably going to show up. If he ever needs surgery for something else separately we can always cut them out then, but I wouldn’t recommend putting him under just to get rid of his lump.”
“Ok, thanks so much, Angela,” Annalise told me.
“No problem, have a great day!” I told her as she left with Strawberry, the little white dog leading her out of the room as fast as possible. I smiled to myself as I watched them leave; I liked Strawberry. He was a funny little dog.
When they left, Sophie popped her head in while I was finishing up the paperwork on Strawberry.
“Hey, so I have just had an awesome idea!”
“Cool, what is it?”
“So you know how we’re totally going to find out why Tony Nyman died?”
“Yes…” I started.
“Well, I found out where he lives. And I think we should go there and look for clues!”
A part of me, the sensible part of me probably, instantly rejected this idea as pure folly. Stupidity, even. But my mouth didn’t get the message.