Gators and Gumshoes: A Cozy Tiffany Black Travel Mystery (Tiffany Black Travel Mysteries Book 17) by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

We returned to the B&B along the same path. Rosie had the camera out, taking pictures. We ducked under a low branch covered in an explosion of little green flowers. Rosie took a few shots.

“Green fly orchid,” Jimmy said. “It’s the only orchid in Louisiana that isn’t terrestrial.”

“Pretty,” I said.

Jimmy looked off the trail. “I use it as a trail marker. Reminds me to take a hard turn. Otherwise, you walk right down into the swamp.”

We took that hard turn and I walked right into a spider web.

Gagging, shaking my hair, brushing at myself wildly, I cried, “Is there a spider on me?”

Rosie looked me over. Stone took my arm gently. Probably to keep me from colliding with a tree.

“Clear,” Rosie said.

I stood up straight, gasping. “Bleh! There’s too much nature out here.”

Mildly traumatized, I followed along the vague path. It didn’t take long before the low murmur of voices came to us. When we entered the parking lot, I saw a crowd standing near the dock.

“What’s going on?”

“Tour groups come in to get a look at Buttercup getting fed,” Jimmy said.

Though they weren’t all the way back in the trees, I thought they were in a bad spot. “Isn’t that way too close to the edge of the water?”

“Part of the thrill. If you’re going to see a big gator getting fed, you might as well be close,” Jimmy said.

Rosie frowned at me. “You want to join them?”

“Nope. I need to brush my hair for an hour. Just in case.”

“Don’t take too long. Dinner is right after the alligator feeding,” Rosie reminded me.

“Betty-Lou’s still feeding her?” Jimmy said. “That animal needs to be put down.”

Rosie squinted at him. “Buttercup needs to be put down?”

“Rumors say Sam is missing. She obviously got Sam. There’s nothing else out here that could kill a man,” Jimmy said.

“What, are you kidding?” Rosie said. “You’ve got copperheads and cottonmouths, coral snakes, killer bees.”

“I meant the only thing that could… I mean…” Jimmy shook his head. “Take him. You know?”

Seemed to me that it was far more likely that the most dangerous inhabitants of this area were people, the same as it was everywhere.

“I gotta get back to work,” Jimmy said and trotted off to the B&B.

Watching him go, then taking in the crowd of alligator fans, I had to wonder. “Is that how people are feeling about this? That Buttercup would kill Sam?”

“Far as we know, nobody knows what happened to Sam. They can speculate all they want. We have some details, and we don’t even know,” Rosie said. “The cops have the body, and they don’t know.”

“Maybe the locals are turning against their favorite attraction.”

Stone said, “The kid knows the outdoors around here. He might have more insight into alligators than most.”

“Is the expert we’ve been looking for?”

“No. If he’s working as a bellhop in a B&B, I’m going to say he’s not an expert. He grew up here, so he knows the area. I get that. But he isn’t a scientist, a zoologist, a reptile-ologist—”

“Herpetologist,” Rosie helped out.

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