Free Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans by Laina Turner Page B

than you look. Say twenty-seven?” asked Maddie.
    “Close. A little older but I’ll take twenty-seven.”
    “Right. She had red hair, not pretty auburn like yours, but more of an orangey red. It didn’t go with her skin tone. It looked like a wig to me, but maybe she was just born with bad hair. Other than that I can’t tell you much. The hair just really stood out at me.”
    “That’s great information. I appreciate it. Did you tell the police this?”
    “I wasn’t here when they came, so no. Izzy here doesn’t have a memory for people the way I do.”
    Izzy sniffed. “You may remember people, but you sure can’t add.”
    “What’s all the fuss with these flowers anyway?” asked Maddie.
    “As I was telling Izzy, I work for a security firm and we were hired by a company to investigate into some pranks that have happened recently, and we ran across tassel flowers in the course of our investigation. I’m just tracking down where the flowers might have come from.” I tried to stay as close to the truth as I could without giving out too many details.
    “You mean the beauty queen who was murdered?” asked Maddie.
    I wasn’t able to contain the surprise that she knew about what was going on, and it probably showed on my face. “How do you know?”
    “I listen to local news radio all the time I’m working in here. I heard one of those girls was killed, and the reporter said she was allegedly killed with poison. Tassel flowers are poison, and why else would the cops and you be asking about a flower no one knows about if it wasn’t for that? I put two and two together.”
    I was astonished. “You’re a pretty smart lady, Maddie.”
    She beamed. “I watch a lot of  Murder She Wrote reruns and I was a chemistry major in college.”
    I laughed. “Thank you, ladies, for the information and for being so nice.”
    “Come back anytime, dear.”
    “Oh, hey, Izzy? One more question.”
    “Of course, dear.”
    “Who is Trish?”
    “She started laughing. Come back for coffee and I’ll be glad to tell you.”
    “It’s a date,” I said.
    As I headed back to the hotel, I was glad to have some information, though a red-haired woman under thirty didn’t help too much. It was still going to be difficult if not impossible to find that person. And what if she was wearing a wig? That opened the field of possible suspects even that much more.
     

 
     
    Chapter 10
     
    A red-haired woman under thirty, huh?” Cooper said after I filled him in on my trip to the greenhouses. And possibly wearing a wig. That’s not much to go on but don’t be discouraged.  It’s more than we knew before you went,”  he thoughtfully said.  He knew me well and knew I would be frustrated by not having solved this already.
    “At least we know someone was shopping around for them. And according to the each greenhouse, they aren’t a commonly asked for flower, so it’s probably not a coincidence. The other two places I stopped said no one had bought any or asked about them. Do you think there are any other places the flowers could have been purchased?”
    “Sure. The killer could have driven it in or flown it or mailed it, for that matter.  There are any number of ways.”
    “Then what good did it do for me to check locally? It seems so daunting.” I sighed.
    “It’s not the instant gratification you like, but it’s important. Chances are the flowers were bought locally from someone here since the pageant is local. I found that people generally like to choose the easy way. Now we know someone was inquiring about the flowers. If no one was it would be even more frustrating because we would have nothing to go on. You know most of my work is boring and tedious and requires a lot of patience.”
    “Tell me about it,” I joked. “It’s a good thing you’re cute or you would bore me to death.”
    “Oh, really? Maybe I should find a way to entertain you?” Cooper said, moving toward me until we were face-to-face. “At