THE SECRET IN THE SILVER WRAPPER
CHAPTER TWO
Moira gently took the silver foil from the black cat’s paws. Toe gave a soft purr and jumped up to his dark shelf. Moira put the small piece of shiny paper on her heavy wooden counter and turned on her desk lamp to see it better.
It was torn. On one side, she could see a tiny piece of a picture—a green leaf. She lifted the foil to her nose and breathed in. Under the smell of alley dirt, there was a very strong smell of mint. It was not the real, fresh mint she used in her tea. This was the sharp, fake smell from the cafe.
“A sweet coat,” she read again from the open pages of The Days of the Dreams.
She looked at Ashwaganda. The big orange cat was asleep in his chair, trusting her to keep them safe. But Moira knew the village was not safe right now. Someone in Speranza had used a clever trick to kill a man.
The next morning, the sky was gray. The wind blew cold air through the narrow stone streets. Moira locked the thick door of her tea shop. She walked straight to the alley behind Anna’s Coffee Taverna.
Yellow police tape blocked the back door. Ispettore Salomone stood against the old brick wall, holding a cheap cigarette. He looked like he had not slept at all.
“Moira,” he said, shaking his head. “Go back to your tea. This is police work.”
“I am just taking a walk, Ispettore,” Moira said in a calm, soft voice. “What did the doctor find out about the poison?”
Salomone sighed. He knew Moira used to work in medicine. “Cyanide. Fast and very deadly. But it was not in Anna’s coffee machine.”
“It was in the sugar,” Moira said.
Salomone looked surprised. “How do you know that?”
“Because the man only took one sip,” Moira explained. She kept her secret about the magic book safe. “If the poison was in the whole cup, he might have smelled the bitter almonds before he drank it. But if it was in a small sugar packet, dumped in right before the first sip… the fake mint smell would hide the poison.”
Salomone dropped his cigarette and stepped on it. “You are too smart, Moira. We found an empty sugar packet on the floor near his table. It was not from Anna’s cafe. It was shiny silver.”
Moira’s heart beat faster. It was exactly like the silver foil Toe had found.
“Thank you, Ispettore,” Moira said.
She turned and walked away quickly. She did not go back to La Pagina che Fa le Fusa. Instead, she walked across the square to the Mint Chocolate Treasure House.
Marisa’s shop was bright, white, and perfectly clean. Marisa stood behind the glass counter in her neat white coat. She smiled when Moira walked in, but her eyes looked worried and tight.
“Moira,” Marisa said. “Can I help you? Do you need chocolate today?”
Moira put her hand in her pocket and held the torn silver foil. She looked right at her friend.
“I need to ask you about the man who died, Marisa,” Moira said slowly. “And I need to know why the poison was hidden in a silver wrapper with a green leaf on it.”
Marisa stopped smiling. The quiet peace of the village was truly gone, and the dark game had started.
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