WILL THE HERO BECOME THE MONSTER? Feisty university sophomore Tonya finds a woman's body on the beach with its stomach ravaged. Missing persons return, impregnated with dragon's eggs. When medicine and magic can't remove the egg , Tonya makes a deal...
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When she realized what was at stake, Tonya told Priya to go back to the residence.
"There's no reason for you to stay with the body. I'm from an Old Loon Lake Family, and when the local police get here, they'll be much happier if they don't think a Mundane found the body.
"Not even me?" asked Priya. "They know me and all your friends since the eating epidemic."
"Don't remind me. They might be suspicious if they see you getting mixed up in magical affairs a second time, especially since this looks like murder."
"All right, all right. You convinced me. I want to get out of here anyway. I can't look at that poor girl's body without feeling sick to my stomach."
"Go home and study Frankenstein," said Tonya.
"As if. I won't be able to do anything but worry until you get back. Call me once you know something?"
"Of course, now hurry before somebody sees you here."
Tonya watched Priya walk away, but couldn't relax until her friend had left the beach. Now that Priya was taking care of, she just hoped Helen would arrive before the police did.
Unfortunately, first on the scene was Constable Purrell, the same policewoman who had tried to prevent her from going into her aunt's apartment when it got burned down.
The pale police officer with her blond hair, and thickly mascara eyelashes looked at Tonya and sighed. "Are these footprints around the body all yours?"
"I'm sorry. I had to see if she was still alive."
The officer raised a penciled brow.
"She was lying face down when I found her. I rolled her over to see if she was breathing."
"We appreciate you acting the good Samaritan, but from now on leave the crime scene to us. Would you please go to the police station and make a statement? Oh, and before you go, I'll need to take those boots. We'll need an impression to help us eliminate your footprints now that you've stomped all over the crime scene."
"Footprints? The beach is all pebbles and rocks. How are you going to get a clear footprint from that?"
The constable pointed at Tonya's feet. "Your boots. Now." Purrell waited for her to slip off her boots and hand them over. Tonya was left shivering, standing in stocking feet on the cold stones of the beach.
"Leave the investigating to us." To the constable, she said, "Valentino, would you please bag her boots? Let her wear a pair of crime scene booties home."
Tonya looked Purrell in the eye. "It's freezing out. If I walk all the way back to my dorm, there isn't going to be much left of some plastic booties by the time I get there."
"Constable Valentino? Could you give this young lady a ride home?"
