Chapter Two
Someone killed Sugar, and Nancy Lammeter aimed to find the culprit. Everyone said it was probably old age, but Nancy knew better. Sugar was as fine as she could ever be, until the day she turned and keeled over. She had tied the dog outside in the garden as she did every morning. No, this was a plain murder case, and Nancy was going to prove it.
You'd think people would be more sympathetic about the situation. Not a single soul cared for the life of Sugar. Especially not Sheriff Marshall. Just because Sugar had a good grip of his bottom few years back didn't mean he didn't have to show respect for the dead. None of the other neighbors had bothered either. Except for the new lady that just moved in next door, with her fancy Shakespeare name, Hermione. Nancy had told Sister that the new neighbor was probably a snotty rich girl who thought she was better than the rest of the neighborhood. And usually, once an opinion formed in her head, she NEVER changed her mind. Well, maybe in Hermione's case, she'd just do it this one time, as long as other people didn't know.
The same day Nancy found poor Sugar lying lifeless in the garden, she screamed so loudly that the entire neighborhood was sure to hear. No one came running, except for Hermione, who had just parked her car in front of her house. She quickly ran over to Nancy's garden. The instant she saw Sugar, she picked up Sugar, she helped Nancy into her car and ran back to where Sugar was. Gently, she placed Sugar in the trunk, and drove to the nearest vet. Without further due, she carried Sugar inside the clinic and demanded a consultation immediately. The vet, a man with blond hair that hadn't been combed in years, was actually scared of the girl! He quickly led them into the examination room, and after a quick physical, he carried the dog into another room in the back and slid him inside the freezer. It was definite. Sugar was gone.
The vet said that it was probably heart failure. Sugar wasn't exactly a young thing anyway. The entire town knew that. But Nancy wouldn't hear a word of it. She believed that it was poison. Who the hell would want to poison such a sweet little dear, she didn't know. Especially when Sugar was half the daughter she never had. So the vet was almost scared into perform an autopsy.
Hermione placed an arm around Nancy's shoulder and led her back to the car. When she parked in her driveway again, she escorted Nancy back, and gave her a comforting smile before returning to her own house. Later, Nancy called up Sister in York, telling her that she'd better come back down because she was going to start an investigation. Sister had only retorted saying that her well-aged eyes could barely put two and two together, let alone squint and find a murderer. Besides, Sugar was already good to go already. Nancy didn't care and had ordered Sister to take the train back down home.
Nancy was one to stick with her own ideas, and normally she was right. Except with the case with Hermione. It had been rumored that her new neighbor was a Cambridge-trained doctor. No one knew the reason for her moving to a small town like theirs, except that she wanted to be near her best friend who was sick for almost three years. Even though most of the townspeople didn't think the doctor was much to look at, Nancy thought she was classy indeed. Of course, the doctor usually dressed in a pullover with a Cambridge logo and a pair of old jeans, with her rich brown curls tied up in a loose pony tail. But the day she helped out with Sugar, she was in a black linen power suit with a pale blue blouse. The woman was a looker, and the younger men in the town were stupid to not see that. More importantly, she was really thoughtful and kind, even though she did seem a bit queer. But Nancy thought, it wouldn't hurt to have peculiar friends, wouldn't it?
Anyway, so Sister came back to town. It had been over a month already, and still no clues had turned up on the Sugar case. Nancy had made it part of her duty to write a letter to the bureau of investigators, told them the situation about Sugar, and had requested a dispatch of investigators. She had waited patiently every day for the arrival of an agent, but it seemed that they hadn't received her letter, or it must have been overlooked by their swarms of paperwork. In her head, she decided to give them a few more days before she took the next course.
While Sister was cleaning the house while Nancy sat out in the front porch eyeing all passerbyers with keen
suspicion. Mentally, she made a small list of possible suspects. Of course, dear Hermione was already off the list, but
the mayor sure wasn't. Ever since Hermione moved to town, the mayor couldn't keep his eyes off the woman.
Viktor Krum had been telling all his drinking buddies at the local pub that Hermione Granger was his woman, and that no
one else could lay a finger on her. Of course, it was also rumored that when Dr. Granger had heard this, she had
scoffed and continued to ignore him like she did the first day they had met a year ago.
Sister had thought that they should put the misery over Sugar's death behind them and suggested that they cook up a mince meat pie for Hermione. Nancy snorted at Sister's forgetfulness and reminded her that Hermione had gone to Paris for the week to one of those medical conferences. In the meantime, she was going to sit on her lounge chair on the porch and watch the townspeople, hopefully be able to catch a guilty look on any person's face.
Then maybe tomorrow, she'll write another letter to the investigators. A letter with no reply in over a month meant red tape. She had waited patiently enough. This time, she'll address the letter to the chief. Maybe then it should be important enough for her to get her answer.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you're enjoying this story. Before you leave though, please, please leave a feedback. It really does make a difference and gives a lot of motivation to whip up the next chapter.
One more thing, I'm not taking the time to do research about British things, so if I make any mistakes, let me apologize beforehand. I'm just writing for the heck of it, so … yeah, I'll leave it at that.
Anyway, please review!
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