Page 75 of The Billionaire's Royal Crown

“Hello, we–“ Elena began as another officer scurried past, his focus on his phone. “Well, this is quite frustrating.”

“Maybe we should…” Maddie wrinkled her nose, leaving the statement unfinished as she failed to come up with a suitable option.

Elena shook her head, dragging a wooden chair from next to a desk and climbing onto it after grabbing a stack of folders from a desk. She released her grip on them, sending them smacking into the floor with a loudthwack.

Chatter died down and eyes turned to her. “Excuse me, but which of you is working on the Chloe Hartman case?”

“That’s Wallace and Davis,” someone said.

“Lovely. And where might we find Detective Wallace and Davis?” Elena questioned.

“They’re in court.”

Elena leaned forward, her features pinching. “Court?”

“Yeah, the lady who did it is being arraigned. They’re over in the courthouse.”

Elena’s stomach twisted into a knot.Arraigned?Poor Victoria. They had to hurry.

“If you need to leave something for them, we can–“

“No,” Elena answered, scrambling off the chair and heading for the elevator. “Thank you.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Now what?” Maddie asked, her voice breathy.

“We must go to the courthouse immediately.”

“Should we leave the evidence here, Your Highness?” Caroline asked.

“I’m not letting this out of my sight. It could be lost or ignored. No, we’ll go straight to the courthouse and present the evidence there.”

“Good idea,” Caroline said as the elevator doors opened again.

They made the short trip down to the street level and left the police station behind returning to the street.

“Where is the courthouse?” Elena asked, spinning in the parking lot in search of something recognizable.

“Two blocks over. We can walk,” Maddie said.

“Thank heavens,” Elena answered as she followed the young woman to the sidewalk.

She tightened her grip again on the camera in her pocket as they made their way through the throng of mid-day people hurrying to and from their lunch plans.

The clock on the courthouse chimed the hour with a melodramatic gong as they climbed the stairs, passing Lady Justice before they pushed through the door.

A guard held up a hand and waved them toward the metal detectors.

Elena hurried through it setting off an alarm. They sent her back, asking her to empty her pockets and put her purse on the conveyor.

With a click of her tongue, she hurried to dump the camera and purse into a plastic bin, staring longingly after it as it disappeared into an x-ray scanner.

After Elena had been cleared, she hurried through, this time with no ill-effects. She snatched the camera the moment it slid from inside the machine and stuffed it into her pocket again.

Caroline cleared the security protocol, and they hurried forward.

“How will we know which courtroom? We cannot go into them all,” Caroline said.

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