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 said, as she walked back over to the table.
"I'm just not ready to barge in there and accuse anyone of anything yet," I said.
Skylar shielded her eyes and looked up at Aubrey. "Yeah, most of these ladies know who I am. Next year's going to totally suck if we get it wrong and make a scene."
"I didn't even think of that." I buried my face in my hands as I rested my elbows on the table and let out a sigh. There was no right way to find the culprit.
"Okay," Aubrey said slowly. "I guess I get that. I just don't know how else we're going to find answers, if we don't start asking the hard questions."
"I know, I know."
I rubbed my face, hoping that once I took my hands away, we would be in the cafe and this whole nightmare would be just that. A horrible dream that I woke from. But as I folded my hands in front of my mouth and glanced around the pool area, it became clear I was not dreaming. I took a drink of my coffee and let out another sigh.
"We just don't have enough to go on," Skylar said. "Not a single group of people have come back with anything that gives me a clue to them being guilty or not."
Aubrey picked at the table as we spoke. I could tell it upset her that we were not eager to back her. But truth be told, I did not want to make a fool of myself. There was more at stake here than a cat show. Being a tribe leader meant I needed to stay professional and not cause unwarranted drama.
Skylar and I exchanged glances, and she shrugged. We needed a subject change. Talking about something else would help our subconscious figure out the puzzle. Okay, maybe not, but it would at least break the tension in the air.
"Oh!" I said. "I forgot to tell you about this new series I started reading."
Aubrey's eyes met mine and gave me a look that screamed, "are you kidding me right now?" But I pushed on. She was going to get her mind off of the trophies if I had to do the hula on the table.
"Seriously! You're going to love it," I said. "It's about a witch, that lives in a town where witches and normies blend together. But the normies don't know about the witches. She has this cat familiar that is so sarcastic. Like my level of sarcasm. He and her grandma are my favorite characters."
"Normies," Aubrey giggled.
"I don't even read this genre and I'm intrigued," Skylar said. "Cats and sass go hand in hand."
She looked at our sass buckets curled up on the concrete and smiled. I felt silly for never thinking to chat with her about the dragons before. But in reality, most of the time we were hanging out, Jess or Aubrey were with us.
"For real," Aubrey said, perking up just a tad from her hunched position. "When the cat isn't sassy, I'm seriously disappointed."
"Same," I said. "I binged the first three books, plus the free one from the author's newsletter."
"Wow. Alright, I'm sold. Text me the name, and I'll download it," Aubrey said. "Is it standalones or a series-long plot happening?"
"Alright, Alright," Skylar interrupted. "I'll bite. Text it to me too. I need to check out one of these cozy mysteries y'all keep going on about, anyway."
"Finally!" Aubrey threw her arms up in the air as I typed Charmed and Dangerous by Morgan Vale into our group text message with Jess.
"Don't say I didn't warn you. They're as addictive as coffee," I said in a deadpan tone, then looked back to Aubrey, excitement pouring off me. "I'm telling you you're going to love it. It has a bigger mystery that is spanning each book. Like that royal witch baker series. The world also has werewolves, and a slow burn romance developing."
"Werewolves?" Aubrey said, excitement finally taking hold of her tone. "That's a new one. Are they good or bad? I hope they aren't the bad guy. Werewolves always get such a bad rap in media."
My phone dinged, along with tones from Aubrey's and Skylar's with a response from Jess.
Jess: Hey! Don't have book chats without me!
Jess: This looks good, already bought book one.
"They're good guys," I said, then paused to respond to Jess before continuing.
Hailey: Books is about the only thing interesting happening here. The number to the fire department is 911.
"Well maybe, I don't know. You need to read it so we can talk about it! They are part of the bigger mystery that's happening. I need to fan girl with someone."
They both laughed at me, but I was dead serious. There was nothing worse than reading a book with major plot speculation elements and no one to theorize about them with. Another round of tones sounded and I looked down at my phone, glad I did not tell Jess about the theft. Smart alecks did not get mystery intel.
Jess: Lame.
Jess: Duh, thought it was 211. No wonder they hadn't shown up yet.
Hailey: 12
"Ha," Skylar giggled, and I looked up to see her reading her phone.
Skylar: Hailey is lying. Someone stole the trophies. We're totally investigating it.
Jess: SHUT UP! TELL ME EVERYTHING!
Skylar: Too much to type, we'll fill you in tomorrow. We're still at the hotel.
Aubrey: Wish you were here, we could use another sleuth.
I rolled my eyes and took a drink of coffee. Another body here would not make the investigation any clearer. Luckily, both Skylar and Aubrey were looking down at their phones as Jess responded.
Jess: Unfortunately, I'm stuck burning down the fort.
Hailey: Not funny.
"It was a little funny," Aubrey said, and took a sip of her own coffee.
"Totally funny," Skylar added.
"Even apart, you three are ganging up on me," I said. "Rude."
I shook my cup to find disappointment. Guess it was time for us to head back into the chaos. At least to fuel up, anyway.
"What's not funny?" Azure transmitted.
"Nothing," I transmitted back. "Go back to sleep."
"It was funny," he transmitted. "You're too overprotective. The cafe is fine."
> "Not you too," I transmitted, and Skylar laughed.
I stuck my tongue out at her. There was no way to verbally call her out for telling Shadow what was happening, but at least she knew I knew she was a tea tart.
A silence fell back over the table as we all spaced out into our thoughts.
There had to be a way to get out of this hotel. I glanced at the time on my phone, 5:50 PM. Over five hours past when I thought we would be done. Awesome. Veronica was right, they needed to comp us a room for the night.
"I'm sorry," Aubrey said. Startling me out of my anger.
"For what?" I asked.
"Getting carried away with the case." Aubrey looked down at the table again. "I lost track of the fact that you guys have to see these people next year. I would have ended up making a scene if you'd followed me in there."
I smiled. "Don't be."
I reached across the table and put my hand on top of hers.
"Totally," Skylar said, and mimicked my actions.
"If it weren't for you, Skylar and I would probably have gone upstairs and taken a nap until they kicked us out."
"Totally would have," Skylar laughed. "You're the one that kept us entertained."
Aubrey looked up at us and blushed.
"Whatever," she said. "You guys would have taken the case with or without me."
"Maybe," I said. "But it would have been way less fun. Neither of us would have talked to Mark."
"Seriously!" Skylar said. "How you just walked up to him and got him to gossip with you. I would have never had the nerve to do that."
"That's true, I guess," Aubrey said, looking down at the table again. Her embarrassment over the case was clear on her face, and I did not want her to feel like she overstepped, but I was not sure what to say.
"We need a new plan," I said.
"We could always just leave," Aubrey said, not looking either of us in the eyes. "No one would even notice we're gone. The police already spoke to us."
"I meant for solving the case," I said. "We're not going to bail when there is a case to solve."
"You mean it?" Aubrey said.
"I swear on my bean roaster," I said. "We started this, and we're going to finish it."
Aubrey squealed and put her hand in the air for us to do a group cheer. Skylar and I put our hands in.
Aubrey said, "To finding the trophies?"
"To finding the trophies," we repeated and bounced our hands into the air.
We fell into a fit of giggles, and Skylar cleared her throat first. "So now what?"
"Why don't we just hang out in the lobby?" Aubrey said. "We might see or hear something that will help us find the culprit."
"Good idea," I said.
We stood and gathered our cups.
"Come on, fluff ball," I transmitted to Azure. "We're going back inside."
"You go," he transmitted. "We'll stay here, hold down the concrete."
"And get the pound called on you?" I transmitted. "I don't think so."
"As long as we look like we belong here, no one will bother us."
I laughed and bent down to tickle his toe beans.
"Stop that," he transmitted and tried to kick out of my tickles, but it was no use. I was fully awake, and he was still groggy from his nap.
"We can't find the trophies if you don't get up."
"Touche," he transmitted. "I'm up."
He let out a long stretch, and I glanced up to see Skylar having the same issue getting Shadow to wake.
"Dang," Aubrey said. "I was so wrapped up in the case, I didn't take photos of the cats in the last three groups of ladies we spoke with."
"Guess we know what you're doing in the lobby." I giggled.
"Ha!" Skylar switched her tone to a mocking one. "Can I photograph your cat? I swear I'm not a creep, just want cat photos to show my kids."
We all laughed.
"Is that what I sound like?" Aubrey said, making Skylar and I laugh harder.
"Y'all," Aubrey pleaded. "If that's what I sound like, tell me!"
We both walked over and gave her a hug, and I said, "You can be a creepy cat stalker if you want. It's not our place to shame you for it."
"Yeah, no shaming here," Skylar said, still trying to control her giggles.
"Y'all aren't funny," Aubrey said as we headed for the doors.
I laughed, but internally tried to center myself. At least we were heading back in with a new perspective.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sunday, May 17th, 6:10pm
We entered the lobby hopeful to find a table for people watching, only to discover it was packed full of contestants. The doors to the ballroom and vendor rooms were closed. I hoped it meant they had apprehended a culprit, but based on the amount of people walking up to them and trying to enter, I knew we would not be so lucky.
I glanced around the crowds, looking for a familiar face, or an open table. Our tribe sat together at one of the tables in the recessed area. I led the girls over to them, with neither of them questioning my destination. While it was nice to spend the day without the tribe following me around, I was curious if any of them followed through on checking into the gossip mill.
It took us longer than usual to weave through the crowd, and while we walked it became clear everyone in the lobby was as happy as I was, to still be stuck in the hotel. From rude remarks to arguments with staff and coordinators, no one was pleased at the delay. I was still not convinced they could keep us, but I focused on keeping my head down and walking straight to my destination, to avoid getting pulled into any discussions.
"Hey y'all," I said with a fake smile as I walked up to the table. "Where've y'all been hiding?"
Wow, could I have said that more country?
We pulled three chairs over from a neighboring table, to the dismay of Tori as the other ladies said various forms of hi. I ignored her disgruntled look. Her opinion mattered less after talking with Veronica. I just needed to kill her with kindness for a few more hours. Then I could get home and think everything over.
"We've been up in the rooms for most of the day," Sofia said. "Betty and I took a nap."
"It was much needed rest," Betty said. "Nice to be able to sleep without the stress of the competition."
A few of the other ladies nodded along with her.
"It's some malarkey that we've been stuck here all day," Bethany said. "But I was able to watch a few movies I've been wanting to see."
As they spoke the cats at our feet became restless and walked around the table, weaving in and out of chairs. I could not tell if they were bored or having an impromptu tribe meeting.
"Meeting," Azure transmitted after reading my uncontrollable thoughts.
"Oh, fascinating," I said aloud with a smirk. "Missed y'all at lunch. Guess you were up there until they told us to vacate the rooms?"
"Yeah," Tori spoke up. "We decided it would be better to leave the investigating to the professionals."
"Sending the dragons to eavesdrop on conversations," Azure transmitted in a growl.
As he said it, I noticed the cats disperse from under us one by one to not draw attention to themselves. With all the cats roaming the lobby, it was unlikely anyone would notice a few extra underfoot. We should have thought of that sooner.
"Totally," Skylar said. "Better to disregard a direct order and do what you think is best. So glad Hailey left you in charge."
Oh my, sass. I would be lying if I said I was not proud of Skylar in that moment. She rarely spoke at meetings, but man was she coming out of her shell the more we hung out. I swallowed my smile and glanced around the table to gauge reactions.
A few of the older ladies looked at their feet while Tori's eyes grew wide from the implication. Aubrey cleared her throat behind me, and I heard her shift in her seat. I knew she was feeling like an outsider and hoped she did not mind it getting worse.
"Did y'all figure out who took the trophies?" Elizabeth asked, her tone sounded like she was genuinely curious, but I knew ful
l well she was attempting to defuse the tension. She avoided scenes at all costs.
"We've had a lot of fascinating conversations today," I said and looked Tori in the eyes. "I don't know if y'all have met her, but Veronica runs a little cat group in San Antonio. She had so much advice for me, knowing Tona recently bestowed this group on me, it gave me a lot to think about."
Tori moved to get up from the table, as if going to use the restroom, but thought better of it. I assumed that meant she received a direct order from Butter or worse, Azure. At this rate, the next month was going to be a rocky one for us.
"That's great, dear," Vera said. "So many wonderful people here to talk to. Tona was the life of this show."
All the ladies around the table nodded, and we had a moment of silence for Tona. It was true. Throughout the weekend I heard many marvelous stories of Tona, and her love for the cat show. There was no way I would fill her cat show shoes, but at least I could be the tribe leader she knew I was destined to be.
"It has been so wonderful to talk to all that knew and loved her," I said. "It was almost like she was here with us this weekend."
I wiped a fleck of dust from my eye and smiled at the warm thought of her memories.
Aubrey put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "So true."
I patted her hand and relaxed into my chair. These past few months really showed, blood had nothing on family. Genuine family, were the ones you chose and they chose you back.
I refused to waste time airing tribe drama, while everyone was tired and ready to go home. Instead, I sat in silence, thinking of something else to discuss. A few of the other ladies picked up with the conversations they were having prior to sitting down. I was glad for the spotlight to be off us. I let out a breath, only to hear someone shriek from across the lobby.
I sat up and looked around as a familiar voice said, "I found a trophy!"
My eyes landed on Sue, the leader of the Austin tribe. Figures. Everyone quieted, if only for a few seconds, and then picked up into hushed whispers as the coordinators pushed through the crowd to get to her. I searched for the police and sure enough, they were casually making their way over as well.
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