Purrfect Roast: A Dragon Cozy Mystery by Verena DeLuca (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📗

say," Azure transmitted. "I've just been hearing stories, through the transmissions with the tribes."

I took a sip of coffee, and the girls followed suit. Did us standing here chatting seem suspicious, or was I just being paranoid?

"Anyone who doesn't care about the missing trophies seems awfully suspicious to me," Aubrey said. "I think we should figure out why they were so relaxed during the lock-in."

"Totally," Skylar said. "How they weren't concerned in the slightest, I don't get."

"Agreed," I said. "Since I have yet to see the group that was missing from the ballroom, these ladies are second on my list of most likely suspects."

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about those ladies that didn't attend the awards," Aubrey said, crossing her arms, and putting her fingers on her chin. "Hope they didn't slip out of the hotel."

"If the purpose of stealing the trophies was to stick it to the cat show," Skylar said. "The culprit would totally be sticking around to watch the fallout."

"Good point," Aubrey said.

Time to take charge.

I walked straight to the open table next to where four of them sat. I knew walking to the opposite side of the pool from the doors stood out as strange—especially as I passed a vacant table—but I crossed my fingers that my bat pin would give the girls pause before making an issue of it. If Veronica wanted to blow a fuse, let it be at me and not Aubrey or Skylar.

Two of their ladies were in the pool, they were floating with one hand on the pool side right in front of two members laying on the pool chairs tanning, and the other four sat at one of the two tables. While they were not waving a flag that said they were all together, their body posturing made it clear they were friends. As Aubrey and I headed toward the open table, Skylar dropped off from us to lay down on one of the chairs, with Shadow happy as a kitten curled up on the warm concrete.

"What a totally insane day!" Skylar said loud enough for everyone to hear as she plopped into the chair. "Who would have thought missing trophies would cause all this drama."

I let the statement hang in the air to see if anyone would respond. When Aubrey stayed quiet beside me, I figured she was doing the same. We did not have to wait long as Veronica lowered her sunglasses and gave me a once over.

"I assume she is speaking to you?" Veronica asked.

"Not sure," I said and took the seat closest to her. "She is Skylar, this is Aubrey, and I'm Hailey from Marble Falls."

"It was to the room," Skylar said, clearly annoyed that Veronica did not address her.

"Pleasure," she said in a tone that made it clear it was anything but.

"It has been a day, that's for sure," one of the ladies next to Skylar said, "but at least it means we get more time to soak up this sun."

"True story," Aubrey said, taking a seat that was not under the umbrella shade of the table.

"Have you been pondering who could have done this? We're trying to get to the bottom of this so we can go about our day. Our plans did not include sitting around this hotel all day."

The lady next to Veronica laughed but cut it short when Veronica gave her a stern look.

"We don't care who did it," Veronica said.

"Really?" I sipped my coffee to avoid her "stop talking to me" gaze.

"Only as far as we might want to thank them for doing it." She spoke as if it was ridiculous, she had to explain.

"Why would you want to thank them?" Aubrey asked, leaning closer to the table.

"For real," I said. "I just want to go home."

"Not all of us are here because we want to be," she said, looking at me to emphasize that she couldn't say more. "But I'm not going to begrudge anyone that gives me a few more hours poolside."

"That stinks," Aubrey said. "Hanging out here today has really changed my perspective on those that participate."

"How so?" Veronica said, posturing as if Aubrey was about to say something highly offensive.

Aubrey did not notice the threat. "We've talked to so many ladies that don't care about the show at all. Just seems like a weird way to take a vacation."

One of the ladies in the lounge chairs laughed—probably thinking, "if only Aubrey knew the half of it". I concurred, had it not been a requirement to attend, I would not be here either.

"Once something becomes a tradition, it's hard to break," a lady sitting next to Veronica said.

"This is only my first year, so I'm still learning the ropes," I said. "Not what I expected at all."

"At least your first time here will be memorable," another girl at the table said.

"No kidding," I said. "Had I known it was going to be an episode out of daytime tv, I would not have been so hesitant to come."

"I didn't even know cats had breeds before today," Aubrey said.

Everyone laughed, and it felt like the tension between us all eased, but just a smidge.

"All I know is that it wasn't any of us," Skylar said.

The woman next to her began to laugh and said, "Yeah, it wasn't us either. We can all vouch for one another because we were at the restaurant for breakfast together."

"Oh yeah," Skylar chimed in. "That's totally right! I remember seeing you guys a few tables over from us."

I loved Skylar, but I wished she recalled that before now. It would have saved me from having to confront a fellow tribe leader.

A woman at the table said, "If it's anyone, it was probably Sue."

All of their tribe laughed or made comments of agreement, while we stayed quiet. I really did not get the impression it was her from our lunch chat.

With all the ladies being in swimwear, I had no way of knowing who any of them were other than Veronica. All their name tags sat