Chapter 444 - Spirit Pavilion (5)

In the VIP room JoAnna still glanced once in a while toward the closed door through which those four inviting cocktails left out of her reach.

Sarah knocked JoAnna on the head. "Stop feeling sorry for the drinks and worry about your man."

JoAnna looked at Sarah, obviously confused. "Why should I worry about him?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Because a WOMAN sent the drinks over. How can you be so relaxed? Or do you think she sent them to me?"

If JoAnna was tipsy even a little bit from three beers she had, it disappeared in an instant. "But she is the owner's sister, right?" JoAnna glanced at Jeff for confirmation.

Jeff didn't respond, he found Sarah's analysis interesting.

Sarah continued explaining to JoAnna, "Yes, owner's sister. That means that she is not the owner. Also, she had a chance to find out who is in this room, no matter how secretive Jeff is." Sarah gave a meaningful look to JoAnna. "And she might be watching us right now, as we speak." Sarah tilted her head slightly toward the camera in the top corner of the room.

JoAnna's expression turned serious.

Sarah patted JoAnna's hand in a comforting way. "I don't want to spoil your mood. Sending drinks over is not a big offense. But don't relax too much. I'm probably overreacting. It's just that whenever we attracted attention, it was not a small thing."

Aiden pulled Sarah back into his embrace. "You can say that again. You are a magnet for trouble."

"Hey, hey… this time it's you. You can't pin this one on me." Sarah defended herself while sinking deeper into his embrace.

JoAnna was not so carefree. Not now that Sarah planted the idea into her mind that some girl is lusting after Jeff. She got her phone and did an online search for Roxanne Carter. JoAnna immediately found thousands of posts, mostly from Roxanne. First impressions JoAnna got were that Roxanne is a party girl, socialite, not bad looking… JoAnna could not find anything that would indicate that Roxanne has education or that she is gifted in the smarts department. But those chests of hers, they can make up for several post graduate degrees.

Ginny came back inside again, apologizing for intruding. She brought four bottles: two beers and two sparkling waters.

JoAnna was on high alert this time. "These are from…?" She scrutinized Ginny who looked squeamish, obviously uncomfortable.

"Compliments of the management." Ginny smiled awkwardly while opening the bottles. She left swiftly.

"Management my ass!" JoAnna squeezed through her teeth. She grabbed freshly opened sparkling water and looked at it for some time before smelling it.

"Hey! That should be mine!" Sarah complained.

"You don't want to drink this. It's obvious that these are tampered with, and it's easier to find something wrong with a sparkling water than with a beer." JoAnna explained while looking at the bottle in her hands.

Jeff straightened up and watched JoAnna swirl the bottle lightly for some time. "Why do you think that they are tampered with?"

Sarah and Aiden also focused on JoAnna while she explained her previous statement. "Because pressure was much less than expected. These were opened previously and then resealed. All four of them." JoAnna noticed that 'Pshhh' was less than expected when Ginny opened the bottles. Also, it's not difficult to reseal bottles after opening, especially with these tin caps which just need to be pressed back with enough force. Tampering might be visible upon close inspection, but they didn't get a chance to inspect the caps when bottles arrived.

JoAnna was disappointed that the sparkling water was clear, and she didn't smell anything unusual. She reached for her purse and got a box. From the box she got one thin strip and dipped it in the sparkling water. Jeff, Sarah and Aiden leaned in and observed as strip changed colors from pink to red to purple before settling into dark blue. JoAnna frowned.

"What does that mean?", Sarah said in a low voice when she concluded that strip will stay dark blue and not change into any other color.

JoAnna took a deep breath. She was troubled and her expression showed it. "It means that the drink is spiked. Do you want me to check other ones?"

"No need." They all agreed. Even if only one drink is spiked, it's a sign of trouble. Confirming that more than one drink is tampered with will not change gravity of the situation.

JoAnna looked at Jeff, Aiden and her sight settled on Sarah. "How I see it, we have two choices. We either leave and forget about this or we stay and make them regret this attempt." It was obvious that JoAnna is not comfortable. She didn't like this. She didn't like it at all. They came here to relax and have a good time and it ended up like this, that someone wants to drug them. What kind of a world they live in?

They all glanced at each other and nodded in understanding. No one wanted to leave.

Sarah observed JoAnna's troubled state and felt the need to share an advice. She patted JoAnna's shoulder. "No matter what, you need to stay calm."

"I am calm.", JoAnna lied. But she took few deep breaths and felt better after that.

"Let's find out who sent these." Aiden suggested.

"I'm on it." Sarah got an earpiece out of her bag and after few seconds she was instructing Eve to get into the video surveillance system of Spirit Pavilion.

It didn't take long for them to watch a video recording of the bartender putting something in each of their drinks before he placed caps back on the bottles and pressed them into place.

"We can confirm who did it… now let's rewind and see who told him to do it.", Sarah said and looked for the part which shows who spoke with that bartender before he reached for those four bottles.

When they got to view the part where a young woman with large chest and long black hair gave something to the bartender which he later put in their drinks, JoAnna confirmed. "That is Roxanne Carter."

"How do we deal with her? Should we keep these as evidence?" Sarah reached for bottles.

"Wait." Jeff blocked Sarah's hand.

JoAnna gave him and inquisitive look. Why would he block Sarah from securing the evidence?

"I want to know if her brother is part of this." Jeff had a dark expression. If William is part of the attempt to spike their drinks, Jeff will make sure he suffers the consequences. And in that case, they don't need any evidence. He will take care of William himself.

William and Jeff know each other from high school. They never spent much time with each other, because Jeff didn't approve of Will's partying lifestyle. But they were on good terms, and Jeff helped William more than once financially. Especially when this club was just starting, and Will needed the money.

Sarah nodded in understanding. Even though she does not know what history Jeff and William share, she can tell based on Jeff's expression that it's important to him. "Let's follow Miss Roxanne since she got into the club and see what she did and with whom she spoke. The videos have sound as well, but if it's a recording from the floor, it's useless because of all the noise."