Back in the Kitchen

Smoke filled the kitchen as the ringing of alarms echoed throughout the halls. A tall, thin woman, the homeowner named Val, ran into the kitchen to open the stove, the source of the smoke. Opening the lid of the aged stove, she grabbed the tray of cookies with her mitted hand and quickly dropped the tray on the counter before opening the kitchen window. The smoke quickly made its way out of her house and into the open outside air, clearing the room enough that she could breathe again.

“That was way too close,” Val said, “Everything was almost ruined!”

Val removed the oven mitt from her right hand and opened the drawer, reaching for a pair of yellow gloves that she kept in there. Making sure it fit snugly on her bony hand, she grabbed one particular cookie from the tray to give it a closer look. It had the same amount of chocolate chips as the others, but her keen eye immediately pointed out the one chip that had a blue speckle on it. Most people would not think to give the cookie a second glance, and even fewer would think to look this closely at an ordinary cookie. But Val knew exactly what it was, and now that she confirmed it was the only cookie with such a difference, she moved it to the very corner of the tray so she would know where it was at all times.

Satisfied, Val looked up at the clock, and saw that the time was 9:42.

“Just enough time for a glass of wine.”

***

One hour later, and the exchange had already begun. Nearly all of Val’s neighbors had attended, some of whom had already started exchanging recipes with one another. Quite a few of them had already sampled Val’s cookies from her platter with positive feedback. Thankfully for Val, the corner cookie she had made special remained untouched. She waited patiently as she sampled other delicious cookies from her neighbors, making small talk about their recipes and their family lives.

And then he walked in. A tall, thin and bearded man with a noticeable scratch on his nose. The husband of one of her guests. Late as usual, he never could bother to be on time when his wife goes to any of their events. Today, however, it worked in Val’s favor. Especially when, upon arrival, he spotted Val with her cookie platter and was the first person he approached.

“Nice set-up you have here,” he told her.

“Like you wouldn’t believe, James,” Val replied.

“So…have you given it any thought?” James asked quietly.

“Of course not,” Val replied, “Because I would never consider anything like that.”

James groaned audibly, rubbing his forehead as he tried to reason with her.

“I’ll tell them,” he desperately said, “I’ll tell everyone what you did…”

“You forced it on me,” Val hissed, “And no one would believe you if you told them.”

“Oh really?” he asked her, “In case you’ve forgotten, I happen to own more than half the property in this neighborhood. I’m a respected community leader. A beacon of strength. Who do you think they’d believe? Some bitter widow who lives off of government checks? Or me?”

Val gave him an icy glare of death. He wasn’t wrong, though. In this town, those who had wealth and influence were the ones who were considered first. Everyone else was left to fend for themselves. James had the support of their neighbors.

“Was there anything else?” James asked condescendingly.

Val reached for the special cookie on the tray meant for him, placing it on a dainty teal napkin and presenting it to him.

“Yeah,” she said with a hint of venom in her voice, “Enjoy the cookies. They go great with coffee.”

James gave her the most fraudulent smile she had ever seen, walking off without saying a word. Once he was far way and in the crowd, Val smirked in satisfaction. Half the job was done.

***

Once everyone started leaving, Val kindly bid farewell to her guests as they left the door. From the corner of her eye, she saw James and his wife arm in arm about to leave. Val wasn’t expecting a reaction from James this soon, but she couldn’t take chances that her plan didn’t work.

“Betty, so glad you could come,” Val said with a wide smile, “Did you enjoy yourself?”

“I did, thank you very much for having us,” Betty said, brushing a stand of her curly blonde hair behind her ear, “This was so much fun!”

“I agree,” Val said, grabbing two cups of hot coffee nearby, “Have some for the road!”

“Oh thank you!” Betty said, “We do need a little pick-me-up after the morning we had.”

“Well now I’m extra glad I had some coffee left over,” Val said, “You two enjoy yourselves!”

Betty and James walked peacefully towards their car as Val closed the door behind her. With no one else left in the house, Val chuckled to herself, her work was almost done. Now she just had to play the waiting game.

***

Betty and James had a quiet ride home. Things hadn’t been the same between them for some time. Both had finished their coffees in near-total silence on their entire drive through the snowy weather.

That was, until James started coughing violently. Betty didn’t say anything at first, thinking he might have just had a frog in his throat. It wasn’t until he began coughing up blood on his scarf that she started to get worried.

“James?” Betty asked, “James, are you okay?”

He only responded with more coughs and a grotesque upchucking into his own lap. Betty pulled the car to the side of the road slowly, but James immediately opened the passenger door and ran out, puking right into the snow. Betty got out from the car door and ran over to him, screaming as his body began to shake rapidly.

“That bitch….she….she got me….” James sputtered.

***

James was pronounced dead before he even made it to the hospital. His body finally gave out in the ambulance after choking on his own blood and bile. When Betty gave her story to the doctors, and later the authorities, she mentioned that he accused someone of poisoning him. But they both drank the coffee, and she was just fine. The autopsy report left both the doctors and the authorities baffled; the coffee had no traces of any form of drug. In fact, the tasteless, odorless powder Val slipped into everyone’s coffee was completely undetected. The powder itself was harmless on its own. It just happened to have very strong corrosive qualities that broke down sugars and carbs at an exponential rate. Everyone who drank the tainted coffee had the chocolate chips dissolve in their systems much faster than regular digestion. But that alone was harmless.

Now, for a chocolate chip with a gel ball filled with cyanide and ricin, THAT would do serious damage. That was the blue speckle in the chocolate chip cookie made special for James. The gel containing the poisons were impervious to bodily acids. The powder, however, broke through it just as easily as it broke through the chocolate, sending the poison directly into his body before spreading into his bloodstream and triggering the violent reactions his body experienced. Though the tox screens did reveal the presence of cyanide and ricin, they never could pinpoint how it got into his system.

***

Val took the last of her homemade powder and poured it down the drain, washing away any trace of evidence she had used the cookie exchange to kill her attacker.