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

"To each their own," I said, giving Skylar a look that said now was not the time to discuss cats vs dragons. "I bet Frank could build it for an eighth of the price."

We walked away as the salesperson pushed the other ladies to spend their hard-earned money on overpriced cat obstacle courses.

"If you talk to him about it, tell him I'm interested too," Skylar said.

"Maybe I should have him build a course for my kids too?" Aubrey said.

We all laughed, but in reality it was not a bad idea. I would have loved an obstacle course as a child.

They had set this vendor room up in much the same manner as the food vendor, with a long table along the back for customers to place orders and interactive displays in the middle of the room for the cats to play on.

Attendees entered the room, hugging the left wall as they admired posters of products. Once they reached the table, the first salesperson gave his pitch to groups of about ten, then shuffled the buyers forward to the next salesperson at the opposite end of the table. Non-buyers exited the line at the middle of the table to look over the displays.

We exited the line as soon as we could to avoid being sucked into another sales pitch. Azure and Shadow were already ten steps ahead of us, as they chased each other around the displays. I led the girls to a spot out of the flow of traffic to watch the cats play.

"The more I've thought about it, the more I think those ladies from San Marcos look guilty," I said.

"For real," Aubrey said. "We have no way of really knowing if they were sleeping, and even if they knew they weren't going to win, it seems odd for them to miss the ceremonies."

"Totally," Skylar said. "Of all the people we've looked into, they have the best opportunity. If they were missing all morning, they would have had plenty of time to steal the trophies. They really could have been sleeping, if they snuck down to steal the trophies and then went back up to nap."

"That's a good point," I said. "So, in that way, they could be telling the truth, just not the whole truth. Maybe we could speak to housekeeping, and see if they saw anything?"

"I don't think they would have been here that early," Aubrey said.

"You're probably right," I said. "Besides, I'm sure the police will speak with them, and the last thing I want is to make myself look like a suspect to them."

"Exactly," Aubrey said.

A salesperson behind the counter dropped a jar, causing me to yelp. When it hit the ground, the lid popped off and the smell of Catnip permeated the room. As soon as the smell hit us, Skylar and I rushed forward to pick up Azure and Shadow. Dragons or not, the alluring smell would still seduce them. Azure squirmed in my arms as I looked around at the chaos.

In an instant, every cat in the room rushed over to the pile of green flakes and began rolling around in it. The salesperson attempted to pick up the open jar, but a cat head-butted his arm causing him to dump the remaining contents onto the mound of cats. The jar looked to be about the size of an economy size peanut butter container. There was no hope for cleaning that up any time soon. Hopefully, they knew the trick about cats and vacuums.

While many of the ladies were yelling out their cat's names, telling them to stop, the salespeople stood in a stunned stupor. I could not help but laugh at the way they froze and watched the mess unravel.

The three of us stayed put as well, I was not sure if we should flee or try and help. But as the rolling cats turned into feisty cats, a full-blown cat brawl broke out. In the time it took me to realize we needed to get out of there, the sound of cat hissing had drawn the attention of cats outside of the room, who began to file into the room to get their own turn to roll in the catnip. This was not going to end well.

"We should go," I said while snickering at the chaos.

Careful not to trip on a cat, or get scratched, we squeezed ourselves out of the room. Skylar and I held Azure and Shadow until we were back out in the lobby just to be sure they would not flee.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sunday, May 17th, 3:45 PM

With the cafe the quietest it had been all weekend, I set it as my mental destination. Anywhere that was not in the middle of the cat crazed nonsense happening around the Cat's Play vendor room would have worked, but the cafe had the bonus of serving coffee all day.

By the time we cleared the doorway and entered the hall, most of the cats in the lobby had raced to the commotion trying to get their turn at the catnip. I could not help but giggle at the owners while we tiptoed through the sea of cats to avoid stepping on any little toes. They fell into three categories: the few that picked their cats up the moment they heard a ruckus, the many that were trying to keep up with their pets as they attempted to squeeze into the room, or the owners that had no idea what was happening but felt yelling their cat's name and standing in place was the best course of action. This left the lobby mostly empty, but still loud, due to the open layout.

"Am I going to be able to put you down once we get to the cafe?" I transmitted to Azure.

"It would be great if you put me down now." he transmitted and tried to wiggle his way out of my arms as he said it. "I have legs, you know."

"You do?" I transmitted