Free Beach Town Trouble (A Port Grace Cozy Mystery Book 2) by Emily Page

did,” said Ryan, stepping in front of Georgia. “I think you should go back home.”
    “Oh really? You think so?” said Cooper, his voice low and dangerous, his shoulders back.
    “Knock it off, Ryan,” said Georgia. “You too, Cooper. I’ve had it with the both of you! I don’t want a relationship right now, period, and if you two are going to act like this, I certainly don’t want a relationship with either of you.”
    She felt like screaming and crying all at once, so instead, she shoved her way past both of them. Just before the station door closed behind her, she heard Ryan shout, “Fine. Be that way! I’m going back to New York!”
    Georgia got into her car, slammed the door, and took off toward the bed and breakfast without looking back. Her blood was boiling. Cupcake was going to be put down, the police weren’t listening to her, again , and now she had lost her two best allies because they both refused to respect her wishes. When she got to the B&B, she marched up to her room and sat cross-legged on the bed, frustrated and a little bit desperate. She didn’t know how to proceed with the investigation. She knew her way around a computer, but she didn’t know how to dig deep into the recesses of the internet and pull out information like Ryan did. She didn’t have the resources Cooper or Crimbleton did. She had to hope that Crimbleton would keep her word and get the warrants. Still, it probably wouldn’t be fast enough to save Cupcake.
    She heard the thumping of drawers in the room next door—Ryan’s room. He was packing. He really was heading back to New York. Her anger flared again. He was abandoning her just because she didn’t want to start a relationship. She flopped back on the bed, mad at Ryan, mad at Cooper, and mad at Crimbleton. If the chief had just gotten the warrants sooner like she should have, Cupcake wouldn’t be in jeopardy.
    She heard Ryan slam the door to his room. She felt a tug of loss that she hadn’t expected. She really did care for him. Why did he need her to care for him in a romantic way? He shouldn’t make her choose between a romantic relationship and no relationship at all. Still, he was her best friend in the world, and she probably could have handled things better back at the station. Lying there on the bed, she realized she desperately didn’t want him to go, not like this. They had to fix things before he left, or the relationship they did have might never be repaired.
    She rushed out of her room and into the parking lot. There was no sign of Ryan’s rental. She jumped in her own car and headed toward the airport to catch him. She fiddled her fingers on the steering wheel and looked anxiously out all her windows in search of his car. She stomped on the brake when she saw it. She had expected to see the rental on the road ahead of her, but the black sedan was parked outside Camila Skimmerhorn’s house. As she pulled up behind Ryan’s car, she saw why he had stopped. There was another car in the drive: a candy apple red Camaro.
    She jumped out of her Rolls and ran toward the house. She was just about to run up the creaky porch steps when Ryan’s urgent whisper made her spin around.
    “Georgia, over here.”
    Ryan was crouched down behind the bushes and shrubs in the garden, just underneath a windowsill. Georgia joined him, and he put a finger to his lips and then pointed at the window. Georgia peeked over the sill and into the house. Tim Jr. was crouched down in front of Camila’s firewood stove in his fancy suit. There was a stack of papers beside him.
    “He’s been heating the stove since I got here,” Ryan whispered.
    “What’s he doing here?” said Georgia. “Where’s Camila?”
    Ryan shrugged. As the two of them watched, Tim Jr. began to feed the stack of papers to the flames one by one, making sure each piece was completely obliterated before he put in the next. Ryan whipped out his phone and began recording a video.
    “That’s evidence,”