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need to contain this as much as possible.
    “What do you mean?  It’s all over the news.  Reporters have been calling all day, and thank goodness for the hotel security for keeping them off the premises.”
    “I mean as far as the contestants and your employees are concerned. We don’t need guesses and speculation. That will just build fear.  Business as usual will help keep that to a minimum.”
    “If you say so,” Harvey muttered, not really seeming to believe what Cooper was telling him.
    “I say we ask them to stay here in the hotel due to basic security reasons throughout the course of the pageant.  It will be easier to keep track of them if we don’t let them off site.”
    “That shouldn’t be that difficult.  They rarely have time to leave anyway.  My only concern is that Hollie was poisoned in this hotel. You think this is still the safest place to be?” Harvey asked.
    “Harvey, this isn’t easy, but at least if the girls are all under this roof it will narrow down the possibilities and be easier for us to contain. Unless you think moving the location of the pageant is an option.”
    “No, not as this stage. And I don’t want to cancel, but I don’t want my girls in danger either.”
    Cooper nodded. “Candy was with Hollie at dinner, so it stands to reason she was poisoned after she left dinner and before Candy found her. I have more guys coming in today, and I will have a team stationed in the two restaurants, the lounge, and the Starbucks. My hope is the security will be a deterrent to anything else like this happening while we work to find out who’s behind this. Rest assured, Harvey, between the police and my team, we will find the person responsible.”
    “That’s what I hired you for. I just can’t imagine who would want to go after my girls?”
    “Harvey, we will get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
    “I certainly hope so. If you’ll excuse me now, I have work to do. The show must go on.” He stood up, looking to me as if he had aged ten years.
    Harvey walked out and left Cooper and me sitting there.
    “You’re thinking about something,” Cooper said to me.
    “Promise me you won’t be mad?”
    “Nothing that starts out that way can be good.”
    “Allie heard me talking to you about Hollie being poisoned. I had just finished telling her to keep it quiet when Elaine came up and Allie told her.”
    “Presley!”
    “I know, I know. I’m sorry.”
    “So, what did you tell them?”
    “The truth. I didn’t see the point of making something up. I said that she was poisoned, but it was too early for any other information, and that’s all I could say for now and to please keep it to themselves.  For all the good that will do.”
    “How confident are you that they won’t go gossiping? This is the last thing we need,” Cooper said, running his fingers through his hair in frustration—which just made him all the more attractive.  But I hated him being stressed out because of something I did.
    “I know,” I said. “I have no idea with Allie. I don’t think she would blab on purpose, but I had just finished telling her not to talk about it when Elaine walked up and Allie spilled it. I don’t think it was intentional, but I’m not sure how much she thinks before she speaks. Elaine, I’m not sure either. There’s something odd about that girl.”
    “What do you mean  odd ?”
    “She comes across all perky and energetic and at first seemed quiet harmless, but there have been a couple times when talking with her I sensed an underlying negative tone, and just this morning she was downright antagonistic, saying we let Hollie get murdered right under our noses. Not that I blame her, but she was more hostile sounding than necessary.”
    “Me, either, I’m afraid. Everyone here has a right to be angry.”
    “She’s just more snarky than the others, I think. Every once in a while she slips from that bubbly, obnoxious persona and snarky comes through.”
    “Snarky. Is