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

disappoint me. It was as delicious as I thought it would be.
    “Should be by tomorrow. Once we have that information I’m hoping it will give us more of a direction to go in.”
    “How’s the filet?” I asked him.
    “Very good. I’m glad we got to actually eat food this time.”
    “Me, too,” I said, smiling.
    After what was an enjoyable dinner, Cooper and I decided to walk around the hotel to see what other beautiful features there were and to walk off the big dinner we just had. I couldn’t resist the crème brulee dessert, but my stomach felt like it was about to explode. Why did I do this to myself?
    We walked down the stairs to head out to the garden when a handsome-looking man walked up to us. He approached Cooper and said, “Excuse me. Are you Cooper Sands?”
    “Yes. Can I help you?”
    “My name is Woody Adams, and I’m Hollie’s brother,” he said, tears welling up in his eyes.
    I put my hand on his arm to comfort him he looked so upset. “I am so sorry for your loss,” I said, as did Cooper.
    “Please, can you tell me who did this to my Hollie?”
    “I’m sorry, sir. You should probably talk to the police about that,” Cooper said.
    “But I was told you were the one to talk to.”
    “Who told you that?” Cooper asked.
    “I don’t remember,” Woody said, vaguely giving me the impression he just didn’t want to let us know who told him. Made me wonder if it was Elaine.  I could see her running her mouth. “Please! I just need to know what happened.”
    Cooper shook his head. “I’m sorry, Woody. I really am.”
    We walked away and I glanced back and saw Woody staring after us, looking forlorn. “I feel bad,” I whispered to Cooper. “Isn’t there something we can do?”
    “We can’t give out information like that. If the police want to, fine, but we need to stay away from things like that.  All it does is usually make things more complicated.”
     

 
     
    Chapter 7
     
    C ooper hung up the phone and came into the bathroom, where I was blow-drying my hair. “Turn off the dryer. I need to talk.”
    “Can’t this wait? You know I only have a small window of time before my hair dries too fast naturally to round brush it,” I said, only partly joking.  The humidity here wasn’t helping, so waiting a few more minutes wouldn’t make it any worse.
    “Do you think I would interrupt your beauty regimen if it wasn’t important?”
    He had a point. I set the dryer and brush down to give him my full attention, smiling to let him know I was willing to cut him some slack for interrupting. “Okay, what’s going on?”
    “You know how the preliminary results said Hollie was poisoned by some type of plant or flower? Well, that was Detective Miller on the phone, and we have more information now. The poison came from a tassel flower. There are about ninety different species that grow mostly in Asia and Africa, but are grown here in the US as well. It’s not a common flower but not impossible to get a hold of either.”
    “So, what was someone here doing with a flower that grows better on other continents, and why would they go to the trouble of extracting the juice or whatever you call it to poison someone? I’m assuming that’s how it’s done, unless they put it in Hollie’s salad disguised as fancy lettuce. Wouldn’t it be easier to get arsenic or something?”
    “Yes it would. That’s why this is great news for us. It significantly narrows down the places from which the poison could have been retrieved or who could have had access. In fact, I’m heading over to the biggest greenhouse here in the Dallas area right now to ask them where someone could get their hands on tassel flower extract.”
    I held out my cheek for him to kiss me goodbye. “Okay, well, I have that meeting with Janine and Marissa at nine, so I guess I will catch up with you later and we can compare notes.”
    “All right. Bye,” he said, grabbing his jacket and letting the door close behind him.
    I