Punch, Pastries, and Poison by Harper Lin (ebook reader for pc and android .txt) 📕

looked at the chair with something like longing, paused for a moment, then lowered himself down into it. He rested his head on the back of the chair and closed his eyes. My own eyelids started to feel heavy—well, heavier, since I’d been one pillow away from falling asleep all day. Now, seeing Mike looking like he was drifting off, I was starting to think I didn’t need a pillow at all. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to fall asleep sitting up? Or maybe to rest my head on the arm of the couch. That seemed like a good idea.

Just as I started to lean over, Mike’s eyes opened. “Almost fell asleep there,” he said, blinking rapidly.

I righted myself and pulled my blanket tighter around my shoulders. I couldn’t wait for all this to be over, if only so that I could go to sleep for a while. “I was hoping you would so that I could take a nap.”

He chuckled then winced and rubbed his head. “Head’s killing me,” he muttered.

“Your eyes are all red.”

“Are they?” He rubbed both eyes with the heels of his hands. “You have any of those anti-redness eye drops?”

I resisted shaking my head, knowing how much it would hurt. “Nope.”

His eyebrows rose ever so slightly. “You sure?”

What a strange question. Why would I lie about something like that? Why would he even think that I would lie about something like that? “Yes, I’m sure. Why do you ask?”

Mike sighed and looked down at his lap. He rubbed at his fingernails with his thumb. “You hear what happens if someone puts some of those into your drink?” he asked, watching me out of the corner of his eye.

“I think I saw it in a movie once. It gives you an upset stomach or something, right?”

He bit his lip and rubbed the back of his hand across his stubbled chin—another sign that he wasn’t feeling well. I’d never seen him with so much as a five o’clock shadow before. “It’s a lot more than an upset stomach. Headache, tremors, blurred vision, trouble breathing, messes with your blood pressure...” He trailed off, his eyes still fixed on my face as my eyes went wide.

“You mean that’s—someone put eye drops—you’re joking, right?”

Mike slowly shook his head. “I wish I was.”

I leaned back on the couch, trying to wrap my head around it. It was so bizarre to think of someone doing that—slipping eye drops into the food. And then to think of something so common, so innocuous, making so many people so sick. “Could it have been an accident?”

“Have you ever accidentally added eye drops to food at a party?”

“Of course not.”

He bobbed his head. “Exactly.”

I shook my head as much as I could without sending pain radiating up through my skull. “You’re sure about his?”

“Unfortunately.” He pulled his notebook out of his pants pocket and flipped it open. “Tetrahydrozoline.” He pronounced each syllable separately as he stumbled through the unfamiliar word. “Anti-redness drops. So I take it we’re not going to find any of those?”

“Nope.” At least I hoped not. I never used them, but I wasn’t completely certain that my mother or grandparents hadn’t used any and tucked the bottle in some forgotten corner. I hoped the long-past expiration date would be enough to convince the investigators the drops weren’t mine.

“Didn’t think so.” Mike rested his head against the back of the chair again and let out a slow, deep breath. “I’m sorry to be putting you through all this. You had the most access to all the food, so I have to rule you out before I can move on to other suspects.”

“You have other suspects?”

“Only about a hundred of them. How many people did you have at this shindig anyway? It was an open house, wasn’t it? Do you even know how many people showed up?”

“Not exactly. We had sort of a sign-in sheet, but I don’t know who signed in or didn’t.”

Mike’s eyes lit up with interest. “Can I get a copy of that?”

“It’s back at the café, but you’re welcome to it.”

He scribbled something down in his notebook. “I’ll need you to look it over and see if you notice anyone’s missing, but I don’t expect you to get it a hundred percent.”

He said it, but I didn’t necessarily believe that he meant it. Mike could be a little snippy when things didn’t go his way. I was sure he thought he meant it anyway.

Mike drummed the end of his pen on his notebook. “You notice anyone acting suspicious last night? Doing anything unusual?”

“Like putting eye drops into the food?”

He shrugged. “If that’s what you saw.”

I shook my head before remembering how much that hurt. I winced and held my breath until the wave of pain subsided. Holding my head in my hand, I finally got out an answer. “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of anything, but I can’t. I can’t think of anything unusual at all.” Out of the blue, the image of Ephy lurking by the food table, sipping her glass of water, came to mind. But drinking a glass of water wasn’t a crime. There was no reason to mention that to Mike.

“I think that’s the tetra—” He looked down at his notebook and blinked hard. “The eye drops wracking your brain.” Mike chuckled weakly.

I managed something like a smile. “What about you? You were there. Did you see anyone acting suspicious?”

“Fran, I’m not at liberty to discuss—”

“Mike, you’re literally discussing an active investigation with me right now. Besides, I’m not asking you as the detective investigating the case. I’m asking you as my friend who came to my birthday party.”

Mike shifted in his chair and looked at me like he wasn’t sure if my motives were entirely pure. He was probably worrying that I was going to try to solve the case myself. It wasn’t a completely unfounded concern, but I was way too sick to be thinking about that. All that was on