A Shot in the Dark

“Well, here’s how I see it,” said Amaryllis. “The trouble really began when Miss Nedry started to get romantic feelings for Professor Sinclair. Not one to be cooped up in his office all day, Professor Sinclair invited his new teaching assistant to join him for coffee while they went over the day’s lessons, and the poor girl was so moved by the gesture that when he asked her what she wanted, she simply stuttered that she would have whatever he did. Sinclair was a black triple-shot Americano man, while Miss Nedry self-consciously concealed a propensity for vanilla chai lattes. Quite incompatible as a couple, of course, but Miss Nedry has never once yielded at the sight of a red flag.

“It was no secret that Mrs. Amelia Sinclair liked her oat milk macchiato extra hot, and could coerce a string of gentlemen into ordering them for her, sometimes twice in the same lunch hour. Knowing this, Miss Nedry contrived to schedule a coincidental encounter whereby Professor Sinclair would see his wife enjoying the membership discount of another. Thus disillusioned, Professor Sinclair would doubtlessly leave his wife and fall into the comforting arms of his loyal, if misguidedly duplicitous assistant.

“In order to manufacture these specific circumstances, Miss Nedry would need a gentleman to seduce Mrs. Sinclair while under Miss Nedry’s administrative influence. It is here that her attention falls on a Mr. Joshua Blake, matcha latte drinker and hoarder of WiFi. Perpetually positioned with an advantageous vantage, Mr. Blake of course had seen Mrs. Sinclair many times, although he had never once, in his recollection, laid eyes on Miss Nedry. By the time the diminutive assistant exposited her enticement, and the role Mr. Blake was to play in it, they were both five lattes, two paninis, and two cake pops in, and by that time, the poor boy had eyes for no one else.

“His predicament, as far as any matcha drinker can be made to understand, was how to win the affection of one woman while honoring her desire for him to seduce another. In this, Mr. Joshua Blake was uniquely fortunate to have the convenient use of his twin brother.

“Mr. Jonathan Blake was quickly enlisted to the task of buttering Mrs. Sinclair’s croissant, and did so with a level of enthusiasm reserved for double-shot sweet-cream cold-brew chuggers, and all the intelligence of a thirteen-year-old ordering her first caramel mocha Frappuccino and claiming to be named ‘Beyonce’. While his tactics were haphazard at best, Mrs. Sinclair was at last exasperatedly aghast at his frantic antics, and agreed to be intrigued at his insistence. However, the tempestuous temptress would not submit to his strict restrictions, and convinced him to persist at her convenience, in quite the wrong time and place for the Professor’s accidental convergence.

“Furious, Miss Nedry suspected her Mr. Blake had betrayed her, knowing nothing of his twin’s existence, and confronted him regarding his unscrupulous incongruence. Mr. Joshua Blake begged forgiveness, and wrangled his doppelganger into established parameters for a second attempt at deception. This time, the professor and his assistant were perfectly aligned with the pick-up counter, heard the barista scream out Mrs. Sinclair’s moniker, and watched the scandalous madam leave arm-in-arm with her caffeinated fancy man. Rather than confront the couple, the professor neglected to mention it, and subsequently suggested that Miss Nedry feign complicit innocence.

“Against this request, Miss Nedry tracked down the mischievous missus and her conquest, with the intention of investing in even more disastrous madness. Attempting to isolate the apparent Mr. Blake and expand her plans, Miss Nedry was distressed when he attested to never once making her acquaintance. Suspecting malicious ignorance, Miss Nedry bided her time in silence, and turned her yearning heart to vengeance.

“It is well known that no drinker of a pumpkin spice latte can be accused of having taste. The concoction confuses the sensory center of the brain, and the seasonal aspect of the beverage is due to ritual drinkers becoming insufferable with prolonged exposure to its insipid sustenance. It is also an excellent vehicle for those who wish a fast-acting poison to remain undetectable while dissolved in such a substance.

“Miss Nedry ordered a pumpkin spice latte for Joshua Blake to say that there were no hard feelings about the backstabbing happenstance. Since Jonathan Blake had no idea who Miss Nedry was, he had not elucidated the confrontation of a mousy teacher’s assistant to his twin, and Joshua had no way of knowing what led Miss Nedry to be dissatisfied with his actions. He went straight to his brother to uncover the mishap, at which point the poison took effect, and he named Miss Nedry as his killer as he dispassionately passed.

“Now, Jonathan Blake was unaware of Miss Nedry’s appearance, but he did know she was the assistant to Professor Sinclair, and he went to the professor with his concerns that the murderous girl had dispatched his duplicate. Professor Sinclair had admired the young man's distant visage, and after hearing from his wife how clumsy and outlandish the youth was in his seductive ensnarement, suspected the unlikely story was a ruse to disguise redirected enchantment. Truth be told, they were both triple-shot Americano romantics, and might have got along quite splendidly, were they not observed by the incredulous Miss Nedry.

“Outraged that her poison had failed, and that her cohort had once again betrayed her, Miss Nedry positioned herself just ahead of Mrs. Sinclair, and ordered a pumpkin spice latte with the name ‘Amelia’. Waiting directly next to the pick-up counter, Miss Nedry had seconds between the name being called and Mrs. Sinclair claiming the cup, discretely administering the poison and departing before the professor’s wife could exit with the deadly suspension. Because Jonathan had gone to her husband, and the lovestruck professor had kept their rendezvous anonymous, Mrs. Sinclair suspected an errant barista, and not a murderous assistant for her dark and bitter end.

“Now, of course, the professor believed Jonathan absolutely, but did not want to confront Miss Nedry without extensive evidence. Enlisting his attractive rapscallion, Professor Sinclair arranged to meet Miss Nedry for coffee while Jonathan searched her room for the deceptive venom. Completely failing to anticipate that the last of that very poison was in the pumpkin spice latte she had ordered for him.

“With the professor dead, Jonathan finally stopped being manipulated by clever minds with dubious intentions, and saw that Miss Nedry was truly merciless. In the instant since, he's fled the risk of deadly escapades or overzealous police interference.

"And here you are," Amaryllis said, securing the plastic lid to the paper cup. “Does that answer your question?”

Detective Brennan scratched the short hair at the back of his neck. “Actually, ‘Why don’t I make the lattes and you can solve the murders’ was more like a mean figure of speech.”

“Ah,” Amaryllis said, smacking bitter grounds into the knock box. “I see. Don’t mind me.”