Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans Read Online Free PDF Page A

be quite coincidental. My gut tells me this is all related. We just need to figure out why.  Did Linda or the other girls say anything?”
    “Just that they’re worried and I think Linda is afraid they might leave the pageant.  I hate to say it, but I can’t really blame them.”  I hated saying that to him, but it was the truth.  “I would be scared if I were in their shoes.”
    “I would too, Presley.  Harvey is livid, and I can’t blame him.”
    “Was Camille OK?  Did she say anything else?”
    “She had a mild concussion, but they didn’t take her to the hospital.  I was going to let her rest and talk to her in the morning.”
    “What did detective Miller say?”
    “Not much.  He was very surprised, I think.  I have a feeling the police didn’t take the issues the pageant was having seriously until today.  He said he would still call me tomorrow when he found out more about what was used to poison Hollie.”
    I sat down on the bed next to him.  “I know this looks bad, like we aren’t doing our job, but I know you’ll get to the bottom of this.”
    “Thanks, babe,” he said, kissing me.
     

 
     
    Chapter 5
     
    I stood in line forever at the Starbucks in the lobby. I woke up early, thinking I would avoid the crowd and get my favorite caffeine fix to start my day.  Surely these girls would want their beauty sleep, but no such luck, they were making me feel like a world-class slacker. Most of them were already in line for coffee post workout from what I could see. How anyone could work out this early and without caffeine was beyond me. And they all seemed perky. Working out wasn’t high on my list.  I sporadically had periods where I would exercise, but I never really enjoyed it, and I wasn’t functional until I had my coffee. I did hear a lot of them talking about what had happened to Hollie and Camille.  Speculating on who was after them.  Though none of them seemed too worried, more curious, which I guess was a good thing.
    Fully caffeinated, I was now in the process of tracking down Allie, Marissa, and Janine, the three girls who’d had pranks pulled on them at the last pageant. Cooper and I had talked at length last night about how to approach this. We needed to find a correlation, if there was one, between the pranks and the murder and what happened to Camille. Someone or something that connected them. Neither one of us wanted to think about what it might mean if the incidents weren’t related. It would make tracking down the person responsible that much more difficult because it would mean that several people had it out for the pageant and that possibility was too bad to think about.
    None of girls were in their rooms, and the day’s activities hadn’t started yet, according to the schedule I had received from Linda this morning. She said she’d been up and at her desk since 5:00 a.m. and she looked like she hadn’t slept at all the night before. So there was no telling where the girls were. I thought I would try the hair and makeup room, as it was one of the few places I hadn’t checked yet. Even though they weren’t due for swimsuit practice run-through until ten, which was two hours from now, maybe they took that long to look their best.
    I arrived at the ballroom that was serving as the makeup and hair room and pushed one of the double doors open to see frantic activity. So this was where everyone who wasn’t working out was hiding this morning. I did have to admit I was surprised at the amount of work that went into prepping for this pageant.  These girls had to be dedicated.
    Now to just figure out where the three girls were. I saw Elaine standing by what appeared to be the blow dry station where several of the contestants were getting their hair done and walked over to her.
    “Hi, Presley. How are you this morning? I see you already have some coffee. Are you a caffeine addict like me?” Elaine said in a rush. Did this girl ever calm down? Maybe she should slow