“Why, Juniper! How nice to see you.” Fedora shoved her hands into the pockets of her loose-fitting smock and nudged the door shut with her foot.
“Fedora Layhee, are you hiding something?”
“Whyever would you say that?” Fedora wasn’t a very good liar.
“Let’s see your hands.” Juniper gestured to the pockets.
Fedora laughed. “That’s silly. You’ve seen my hands before.”
“Listen. Somebody tried to poison my coffee at my own Thanksgiving dinner, and you were seen hovering around the scene of the crime, and something is missing: the ring that fell into my coffee. Do you happen to know anything about it? I would hate to have to have the police interrogate everyone that was seen near the table…”
Fedora’s face turned crimson. “I didn’t steal it. I mean, it was sitting right there on the table, and I didn’t want it to get lost. I figured I’d keep it for you.” Fedora took her hand out of the pocket and wiggled her fingers. The ring that Halen had given Juni was right there on her index finger.
Juniper held out her hand, and Fedora pried the ring off and plunked it into her palm.
“I was going to give it back.”
Juniper turned the ring over, looking for a hinge or compartment, but there wasn’t one. It was a normal ring with a big stone. “There’s no compartment in this ring.”
“Well, it’s the one that was on the table.” Fedora sounded a little defensive.
“I wasn’t questioning that.” Juniper had a great memory, and she could see it was the same ring. “Tori thought it might’ve been a poison ring with the poison in the compartment. She thought that was how it might have gotten into my coffee.”
Fedora gasped and rubbed her hand.
“But I guess it wasn’t. So the question remains: How did the poison get into my cup?”
Fedora’s brows shot up. “I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with it. Why don’t you look at that maid of Beatrice Miller’s? Penny or Petra or whatever her name is. She was having a big argument with one of the other servers about your special cup. You know, the one with the pansies that you like to drink out of.”
“What do you mean?” Juniper remembered seeing the maid but hadn’t noticed any argument.
“When they were serving the coffee, remember you told the server to take your cup back because you wanted the pansy one?”
Juniper nodded.
“Well, it turns out Beatrice’s maid was filling that cup. When the server went back to get it, there was a little bit of an argument.” Fedora gasped. “Oh my! You don’t think the maid put the poison in the coffee? But why would Beatrice’s maid want to poison you?”
“That’s a good question. I barely know her.” Juniper pressed her lips together. Then her eyes widened. “Oh no! I think we’ve gotten it all wrong!”