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

I snapped my hand to my heart and gasped. “Was that a compliment, Mike?”

“Don’t get excited. I’m sick. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

I chuckled to myself. It was the closest thing I’d get to a compliment on my detective skills from him. He barely even gave them out for my coffee and baking, and I knew he enjoyed those.

He swallowed down some more of his tea. “Now that you know it was the punch and you’ve had a chance to chat with your friend about it, have you thought of anything that might be suspicious? Or just worth mentioning to the person actually in charge of this case?”

Ephy.

He looked at me with the kind of piercing look that made me wonder if he could read my mind.

I felt bad, like I was lying to him if I didn’t tell him about Ephy. I wasn’t, though. Not really. I didn’t have any specific reason to suspect her—just a nagging thought in the back of my mind. And that wasn’t nearly enough of a reason to turn her in to the police, especially not when that nagging thought probably had more to do with my bad first impression of her than anything she’d done the night of the party.

He was still looking at me, waiting for my answer.

“No. Nothing at all.”

Chapter 14

With the poisoned food identified and all the punch ingredients disposed of, Mike gave me the name of a good cleaning company and permission to reopen the café.

I was a little hesitant to call up a company called Crime Scene Clean-Up, particularly since the motto emblazoned across their website was “Blood, Guts & Goo—We’ll Clean it All for You!” But I didn’t think I could literally or figuratively stomach cleaning the café to the extent it needed to be, even if I called all the girls in to help. Or maybe especially not if they helped, since I knew Rhonda and Sammy were still feeling queasy.

Mike had assured me that this company was the best and fast to boot, so I sucked it up and called them. The girl who answered the phone sounded almost disappointed when I told her that very few bodily fluids needed to be cleaned up and they were all confined to the bathrooms. Apparently, stale food and fingerprint dust weren’t the most exciting things to clean. Still, she assured me that a team would be out within the hour, and they’d have everything cleaned up and ready to go for the café to reopen in the morning.

Sure enough, when I walked in just before dawn the next morning, the place was immaculate. It somehow didn’t even smell like cleaning chemicals like I’d expected—it was why I’d gotten there extra early—so I could prop the doors open and air the place out before customers came in. Whatever the cleaners had used, though, left the place smelling fresh more than anything. And soon, I planned to have the mouthwatering aroma of fresh-brewed coffee floating on the air, which I did by the time Sammy walked in.

“I was about to call the police until I saw you behind the counter. Are you okay? Why are you here so early?” Sammy walked in through the door I’d decided to prop open after all as a kind of advertisement that we were open again. Aside from a pinker-than-usual flush to her cheeks, she looked like she was back to her usual self.

I laughed. “Just wanted to make sure everything was looking good and ready for us to open.” I opened my arms and gave her a hug as she walked around the counter to me.

Sammy put her head to my forehead. “Are you sure? This is awfully early for you.” She stopped and chuckled. “It’s even early for me! I thought I’d have some cleaning up to do before we opened.”

I made her a cup of coffee as we chatted about how we were feeling, and I updated her on the police investigation so far.

“Do they have any suspects?” She cradled her coffee cup in her hands and breathed in its smell.

“I don’t think they do.”

For the thousandth time, I wondered if I should have mentioned Ephy’s behavior at the party to Mike. And then I wondered if I should mention it to Sammy. On the one hand, her boyfriend was a police officer, but on the other, she knew Ephy as well as I did and would have a good perspective. Plus, she thought the absolute best of people until they had proven that they really didn’t deserve it, and even then she wouldn’t give up on them entirely. In the end, my anxiety over whether I was doing the right thing won out over the risk she’d spill everything to Ryan.

“Actually, about that—can I ask you something?”

“Of course! Anything.” She gave me her patented bright Sammy smile.

“This is probably crazy, but—” I stopped to wonder one last time whether it was a good idea to tell her. Then I blurted it out. “Ephy spent the whole party leaning against the wall over there, right next to the poisoned punch. And she was drinking water the whole time because she ‘doesn’t like sweet stuff.’ But I’ve seen her eat sweet things here at the café, haven’t you? I don’t know whether this is really something you should tell Mike or if I’m just jumping to conclusions because she can be abrasive sometimes.”

Sammy nodded slowly and chewed on her lip. “I think—” She stopped, and her forehead wrinkled. She took a long, deep breath. “I think you should tell Mike. But not that you think she may have had something to do with it—just that you saw her by the punch bowl and maybe she saw something that would help. I think that’s most likely what could have happened anyway. I can’t imagine our Ephy poisoning anyone, but she could have seen something and not even realized that it