Where did the antique vanity disappear to? It seems to have been replaced by this rusted, undusted hunk of junk that wouldn’t be worth a nickel! The fanciful lights affixed to the frame have all burned out, and the mirror couldn’t even reflect a flashlight at this point. An open drawer hangs out of the front. The perfume bottle sits empty on its side, straining to hold onto the luster it once had.
All that remains inside is this torn family photo.
You’ve sniffed stranger things before, and who knows, maybe there will be some neat side effects if you get a good enough whiff of whatever’s left.
“How truly barbarous. You really are the worst of all of them.”
You turn to find the foggy figure of none other than Vera McDermott.
“Well I never!”
“What kid might that be, crook? Elsie? So the child that quite possibly caused all of this torment has run off and caused more trouble? The troublemaker is making more mischief? I’m shocked. Please – I’ve done nothing to poor little Elsie. So she’s disappeared? She was always running off and getting into misconduct. I imagine she’s just hiding, or perhaps you’ve done something to upset her.”
“As I mentioned before, things got blurry rather quickly. I remember entering our house, and that it felt suddenly too full of people for such unpleasant weather. I had wanted to tell them all to leave, that the day had gone sour enough as it was with the breaking down of our car, but I didn’t. Birdie was rather insistent that we have a conversation, so after putting her off onto Jane I left the room. Duty compelled me to at least offer everyone some refreshments, so I went to the kitchen to gather a tray. I did, believe it or not, peep my head into Elsie’s room to make sure she hadn’t snuck off somewhere to cause trouble, and I was satisfied that she appeared to be sleeping. I found that someone had already prepared hot cocoa in the kitchen. It was sweeter than I would have prepared myself, but I figured it would do well for the guests. As I returned to the chaos of the crowd and sat down the tray, I started to feel faint. My head swam, and I felt as if I had swallowed a purse of coins! It had to have been that awfully sweet cocoa!”
“And it looks like you know a thing or two about crimes, does that make you a criminal? Oh now, I suppose it does. I, however, had nothing to do with this quandary. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’ve been poisoned. Perhaps someone should poison you?”
