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

kind of protector would steal from their tribe mates? What tribe did these ladies belong to?

So many questions raced through my mind. It was hard to keep still. But I was almost positive they had no idea we were here, so if I wanted any chance at solving this case, I needed to stay silent.

"Whatever," Hadley said.

"Maybe you should consult with Raine before you continue to dig yourself a deeper hole," Joy said.

Hadley cackled again. "That's rich, like he isn't well aware of what's going on? How do you know he isn't involved too?"

"Thank you for letting me know where to start my investigation at," Joy said.

Her calm demeanor freaked me out. She must have thought she had this woman right where she wanted her. It reminded me so much of my own problem child. Eventually, that was going to come to a head I was not ready to face it.

I heard one of the ladies sit up in a huff and assumed it was Hadley. After what felt like minutes of her shuffling around, gathering her things, she stood and noticed us lounging next to them. With as silent as Aubrey and Skylar had been throughout the argument, I guessed their eyes were closed, same as mine.

"Oh," she said, and cleared her throat. "I'm done discussing this with you, I'll see you at the next meeting. Don't think for a second that I'm going down and not taking you with me."

She stormed off in front of us as Joy sat up. I assumed she purposely did not alert Joy to our presence in hopes that she would say something incriminating in front of us.

"This is far from over, Hadley!" she shouted. Her volume lowered as she spoke the sentence. I assumed that meant she too had turned to find us relaxing beside her.

Hadley did not respond, but we all heard her attempt to slam the hotel door as she left the pool area. I was not sure if we should wait until we heard the other woman leave, or lay back down, before moving, but I opted for the safest option of staying as still as possible—grateful the other ladies with me decided to do the same. Thankfully, what felt like thirty minutes, but was probably five, passed with Joy gathering her belongings.

"Guess you ladies got a show with your pool time, sorry about that."

Skylar and Aubrey remained silent as I waved off her words. I held up my badge to let her see the bat pin and heard her let out a sigh of relief. I was not about to open my eyes and make it more awkward by involving eye contact.

"I can assure you, it's not about the missing trophies," she added before storming off.

As soon as the door shut, we all sat up and exchanged glances.

"Do you know what tribe that was?" I transmitted to Azure.

"San Marcos," he transmitted back in an alert tone.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sunday, May 17th, 5:35pm

After moving out of the evening sun, and to a table, we reconvened over what we knew about the case, and the ladies that might have just given us the clue we needed to solve it.

"Didn't we speak to that lady already today?" Aubrey asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Those were the ladies that missed the awards this morning."

She mouthed "oh," and we sat in silence as we pondered over the ramifications of what we just heard. I found it hard to believe that a tribe leader would harbor a thief, knowing we were all paying for the consequences of her actions by being stuck in the hotel. If they were the tribe behind the trophy theft, knowing that we knew what they did should have the effect of someone turning themselves in, no?

How was the hotel okay with us staying here for another day? Did the organization pay them for the inconvenience? I should have asked Mark.

Seemed silly that they could make us stay over trophies. Even sillier that the police did not call for reinforcements and fly through the interviews or conduct a search so it would be over with already. Never coming to a cat show again.

After a few minutes, Skylar broke the silence, causing me to jump. "The real question is, do we trust her?"

"What do you mean?" Aubrey asked.

"Like . . ." Skylar started, then paused, as if contemplating how to word what she was thinking. "She says their argument had nothing to do with the trophies, right?"

"Sure . . ." Aubrey said.

"So either, it really does have nothing to do with the trophies, and she is telling the truth, or she was attempting to cover her friend's tracks."

"If it was me," I said. "I would only say that if it was true, because with what we just heard, why shouldn't we go to the cops and report her? She has to know we're thinking it."

"Totally my thoughts," Skylar said.

"But it's also just as likely that she knew we would think through her statement before acting on it," Aubrey said. "And she knew we would end up taking her word for it, because why else would she announce that, knowing we could turn them in? So, I bet that girl did steal the trophies, and she is just covering her tracks better than we think."

"I'm pretty sure her response to us being here was genuine shock," I said.

"I had my eyes closed the whole time." Aubrey shrugged. "All I'm saying is, it's possible she planted that doubt in our mind on purpose."

"I get that," I said. "The theory just seems too pre-meditated for the shock in her voice, I guess."

"I say we go find her," Aubrey said. "Demand to know what she stole, or we'll turn them in."

She stood and started to walk toward the doors before turning back to discover that Skylar and I were not following behind her. I shifted in my seat, glanced at Skylar, who looked uneasy, then locked eyes with Aubrey.

"What the tea y'all," she