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

She looked at me like I’d lost my mind, which, to be fair, was how she usually looked at me. I looked at Rhonda for support. Surely I wasn’t the only person who knew about this abomination picky people committed against boxes of chocolates in an attempt to spare themselves the indignity of biting into an orange crème center when what they really wanted was vanilla crème. Few things were worse, in my opinion, than biting into a fancy chocolate or truffle only to realize too late that someone’s thumbnail had already been inside it.

“Dan and the boys do that to every nice piece of chocolate I bring into the house. I have to hide it with the cleaning supplies so they don’t get to it.”

My eyebrows went up in alarm at the mental image of Rhonda eating chocolates that had been sitting next to—and possibly contaminated with—bleach or furniture polish or who knew what.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, seeing the look on my face. “I put them in a plastic bag or two and then a box so nothing gets to them. And then I label it Toilet Bowl Cleaner so no one gets to them.”

I chuckled quietly to myself at the thought of Rhonda furtively sneaking pieces of good chocolate out from under a cabinet and what her husband and sons would think if they ever caught her.

Meanwhile, Ephy had ignored our conversation and chosen one of the chocolates. I watched as she first sniffed it then popped the whole thing in her mouth. She made a face as she chewed. I immediately felt insulted, even though I hadn’t tried the chocolates and didn’t know where they’d come from. She was the one who insisted on having one—it wasn’t my fault she didn’t like it.

She swallowed it down, still making that face. If anything, she looked even more disgusted, which was really saying something.

Then she coughed—a small, tight little cough.

Her hand went to her chest.

She looked at me with fear in her eyes before crumpling to the floor in a heap.

Chapter 16

I ran the two steps to her and dropped to the floor by her side. “Ephy!” I yelled. “Ephy!” It had only been a moment since she’d fallen, but she already looked frighteningly lifeless. I didn’t think people normally passed out that quickly from choking, but then again, how many people had I ever seen choke?

I struggled to get her limp body into a sitting position so I could give her the Heimlich maneuver, but her torso kept bending over my hands.

“Sammy, call 911!” Rhonda shouted as she ran around the counter and crouched down beside me. Together, we managed to sit Ephy up a little straighter and support her so that we could eject the piece of chocolate from her throat. It wasn’t working, though.

Rhonda and I traded places so that I kept Ephy sitting up while Rhonda tried the Heimlich.

Seeing Ephy from this angle made my stomach clench tighter in fear. Ephy’s eyes were still open wide, but they had a blank glassiness unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Her skin was even whiter than usual, and her lips had taken on a purple cast. “Harder! Harder!” I yelled at Rhonda.

“I’m trying!” She leaned Ephy forward a little and smacked her hard on the back as though that might jostle the chocolate loose when the proper procedure hadn’t. I couldn’t blame Rhonda. I was getting tempted to stick my fingers down Ephy’s throat to see if I could reach the chocolate and scrape it out. I might have tried that out of sheer desperation if professional help hadn’t arrived just then.

Ryan Leary, officer in the Cape Bay Police Department and Sammy’s boyfriend, ran through the door and came straight to where Rhonda and I were crouched down with Ephy. “Lay her down flat.”

“She choked on a piece of chocolate,” I said as he grabbed her wrist in his right hand. After a moment, he dropped her wrist and grabbed the other one. He frowned, adjusted his grip, and waited again. He shook his head and looked at me and Rhonda. “Do either of you know CPR?”

“Sort of,” I said, trying to remember the details of what I’d learned in the CPR class I’d taken back in high school.

Fortunately, Rhonda’s skills were fresher than mine. “I’m certified.”

“You do breaths and count. I’ll do compressions.” Ryan said something into the radio perched on his shoulder as they both moved into position. “Ready?” Rhonda nodded. He looked at his watch. “Okay, let’s go.” Ryan started pumping Ephy’s chest as Rhonda counted along. When she got to thirty, Ryan stopped, and Rhonda bent to breathe twice into Ephy’s mouth. Even I could see her chest rise and fall with the two breaths. If air was getting through to her lungs, that meant she hadn’t choked after all.

Ryan and Rhonda were only a few rounds into their CPR when the paramedics arrived. Ryan rattled off a bunch of words that I took to mean something about Ephy’s condition as he and Rhonda stepped back to make room for the paramedics to take over for them.

It was the second time in only a few months that I’d witnessed a scene like this, but it was no easier than it had been the first time. If anything, it was more upsetting this time around.

As the paramedics did their work, Ryan guided Rhonda, Sammy, and me toward the back of the café. By some miracle, we’d been completely empty of customers when Ephy collapsed, so it was just the three of us and Ryan. “Mike’s on his way,” he said. “He’ll want to talk to you.”

I wasn’t sure whether he meant just me or all three of us, but we nodded.

Ryan looked towards the door apprehensively. He shifted his feet and rubbed his hands together. Sammy got up and put her arms around him. He hugged her back. I suddenly found myself desperately wishing Matt were there.

Rhonda