“I didn’t know you had keys to the campaign office,” Orville said then.
Lefty looked away. “Uh, technically…I don’t.”
“So you did break in?” Vera asked.
“Well, maybe technically I sort of did…but not for nefarious purposes! My purpose was entirely farious.”
“I’m not sure that’s a word,” Orville noted.
“Skip the grammar,” Vera said. “I’m definitely not writing this little event up in the paper. It makes everyone look bad. Lefty, can you please promise me that you’ll go home and not break into any more places? And if you’ve broken into places in the past, no one wants to hear about it, ok?” she added with special emphasis.
“Sure thing, Miss Vixen,” Lefty said. He peeled off near the river, toward his home.
Orville yawned. “I want to hear about Highbank, Vera, but I can’t keep my eyes open. Breakfast at Joe’s? You can tell me then.”
“Sounds good,” she agreed. “I’ll definitely need some coffee to get through everything that happened to me upriver.”
Chapter 16
Despite the disruption at the police station, Vera had slept well for the rest of the night, and she hummed as she dressed for her breakfast date with Orville. She needed to get to work at the newspaper office, considering that she’d missed precious days, but she really wanted to talk with Orville first. Perhaps he would see something that she had missed. She had gotten herself confused with one too many rats, and they still didn’t know who the decapitated creature discovered in the woods was.
When she arrived at Joe’s, she greeted Esme and then spotted Orville waving at her from a table in the corner of the diner. She hurried over to meet him, knowing Esme would soon appear with a full coffeepot. Vera glanced over the menu; the fall specials were all tempting. She was torn between the maple pumpkin pancakes with sunflower seeds, or her favorite morning treat—a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, onion, and tomato. Orville said that he was having the waffles with cinnamon whipped cream. By the time Esme returned to take their order, Vera had decided to go with the pancakes. Nothing said fall like special treats with pumpkin in them.
After they placed their orders, and Vera sipped her coffee rapturously, Orville took her small paw in his two large ones and looked at her.
“Are you sure that you are all right?” he asked. “What went on in Highbank?”
She gave him a report, which was mostly accurate. Vera did not want to alarm Orville, so she downplayed the moment where she landed in the pit.
“I fell in a hole and bruised my hindquarters as well as my dignity,” she said, making light of the harrowing incident. “Thanks to that annoying wolf, I was none the worse for wear.”
The police bear looked concerned, but he seemed to accept her explanation.
“The worst thing about it all,” Vera confessed, “is that I was so certain that Thomas was involved in this mess! But it’s impossible, unless he can meddle from beyond the grave. Officer Ambler was actually at the funeral, so there’s no chance that Thomas arranged to have an empty casket dropped down the hole or something. Big Eddie confirmed the identity of the body, and Ambler’s convinced that Eddie was the one responsible for Thomas’s death, though she can’t prove it.”
“I’ve heard of Big Eddie,” Orville said. “He’s bad news, and dangerous enough that the law in all the towns up and down the river know his name. If Thomas Springfield crossed him, Eddie wouldn’t think twice about making an example of the rat. Still, it’s little odd that he volunteered to identify the body. I mean, he’d be the prime suspect, so why give the cops help? Unless he was taunting them…” He broke off, looking out the window with a frown on his face.
“So what do I do now?” Vera asked. “I hate to think that Dorothy has been driven out of her own home by this situation. I mean, let’s put together the facts! She claims her husband was murdered, and then the body of a rat is discovered buried in the woods. Even though Dr. Brodhead may never be able to confirm it’s Edward, who else could it be?”
“But then who is the rat who looks just like Edward?” Orville countered. “The only possible contender is the older brother, Thomas, but he can’t have done it. I don’t want to bring up the other possibility,” he added, his expression morose despite the cinnamon-dusted waffles he was eating, “but Dorothy has a history of some rather odd behaviors and remarks. What if she really did imagine it all?”
She sat back and twisted her whiskers, thinking hard. She drained her coffee mug and shook her head once. “No. Body in the woods. Blood in the foyer, in the carpet, which I hope you believe me about now. We can’t put those things aside. A murder was committed. We need to solve the crime.”
“You mean I need to solve the crime,” Orville told her. “Me and Meade, no matter how this election turns out. You’ve done great work, but without new clues, you’ll just spin around in circles.”
“I won’t give up on Dot.”
“No one’s giving up. But you need to take a break from this case. Let me work, and if new information comes to light in the next day or two, you’ll get another brilliant idea. I know how your brain works.”
Vera sighed, but dutifully turned her attention to the pumpkin pancakes. It would be a crime to let them get cold. “A couple of weeks ago, I did volunteer to review all the voter registrations,” she said. “It’s for the town itself, not a candidate, so I can do it without being biased. It’s the only way I could think to help.”
Orville slurped his coffee, then said, “Honestly, I wish Ms. Brocket had never found that body. Tell you one thing, whoever is responsible can’t be from here. Any resident would know the
