Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) by Mary Maxwell

white envelope on the desk. “Please
don’t ask me how they came to be in my possession.”
    Trent squirmed in his chair before
folding his thick forearms over his chest.
    “Katie?” he said in a deep, hoarse
tone. “How did these things come to be in your possession?”
    I sighed. “I thought maybe they
could help,” I said, flying past his rhetorical query. “Like, maybe the GPS
will show you where he’s been during his visit to Crescent Creek. And the call
logs and text message history can be helpful, right?”
    Trent groaned. “Magic?” he said.
“Is that it?”
    “What’re you talking about?”
    His unhappy expression brightened
slightly. “You avoided my question. I wanted to know where you found Greer’s
phone.”
    I lifted both hands, fluttered my
fingers in the air and said, “Abracadabra! Presto chango!”
    Trent slapped both hands over his
face. “Why are you torturing me, Katie?” he moaned. “I’ve been awake for twenty-eight
hours!” He rubbed his eyes. “ Twenty-eight hours ! Do you know how tired I
am?”
    I waited until he lowered the meaty
mitts. Then I smiled, tapped the white envelope and said, “You’re welcome!”
    His jaw clamped down and the chubby
fingers of one hand reached for the package.
    “I know that you’re right,” he
said, loosening the flap. “About the GPS and the rest. But I get a little
ticked off when people meddle with our investigations.”
    “How am I meddling?” I asked. “As
soon as I took possession of Greer’s belongings, I came right over to see you.”
    “How’d you know that I was still
here?”
    “I didn’t. But if you weren’t, I
would’ve left the envelope with the front desk.”
    Trent laughed. “That’s the first
smart thing you’ve said all night,” he told me. “Want to try for another?”
    I nodded.
    “Where’d you find the phone?” he
said.
    I shook my head. “What does that
matter? Why don’t you see if it has anything useful to help find Theo Greer and
identify Rex’s assailants?”
    “Why are you being so evasive?” Trent
asked. “Are you trying to protect someone?”
    I nodded.
    “Besides yourself?” he said.
    I waited for a few seconds, wondering
how much deeper down the conversational rabbit hole we would go before Trent
yielded to reason.
    “There’s a sensible explanation,” I
began. “I have it on good authority that Rex’s things were on the ground
underneath his backpack when the ambulance reached him. The paramedics
apparently picked up everything at once and loaded it onto the gurney. When
they arrived at the hospital, the backpack, phone and other things followed Rex
from the ER to his room.”
    Trent scoffed. “What backpack?”
    “It’s still at the hospital,” I
said. “Bottom drawer of the bedside table.”
    “Why didn’t you abscond with that,
too?”
    “Because,” I said, “I didn’t want
to…um, how did you put it? Oh, yeah! I didn’t want to meddle with your
investigation. I left the backpack for Dina or Tyler to recover when they interview
Rex Greer. I have the phone and pictures because he asked someone to give them
to me.”
    Trent shook his head and pushed
back from the desk. Then he got up and walked to the windows. As he stared
through the glass into the endless black night, I saw his shoulders gradually
relax beneath his wrinkled dress shirt.
    “Oh, Katie, Katie, Katie ,”
he mumbled, turning back to the desk. “What the heck are we going to do with
you?”
    I straightened my posture and shared
a dazzling smile. “Maybe the keys to the city?” I said. “And a ticker tape
parade?”
    He glared at me and flopped back
into the chair. “I know you’re not trying to be a thorn in my side.” He
paused, lowering his chin and staring at me down the length of his nose. “Because,
frankly, it comes naturally to you. I mean, you, Kate Reed, can be a nuisance,
a rabble-rouser and a total, one-hundred percent pain in the neck.”
    I felt my stomach flutter with a
strange