Walking back over to the living room, everyone sat quietly as Emily was writing something in her notebook. When Emily heard me walking over, her head perked up. “Are you ready to hear the whole story?”

“Yeah, but I have to use the restroom really quick if you don’t mind.” I said, standing at the edge of the group.

“I’ll show you where it is at.” Milia said, walking over to me. She walked past me, guiding me down the hallway behind me. At the end of the short hallway, she turned on the light and held an open hand. “Here is the bathroom.”

“Thank you,” I said, walking into the bathroom. As I shut the door, I saw the master bedroom behind her. One of the closet doors was open, and a shirt was lying on top of a box. The shirt was white and read and had the words Meat Cuties.

With the door closed, I started to look through some of the bathroom cabinets. In the medicine cabinet there was nothing suspicious, just a few items for cold and flu, a thermometer, and a few prescriptions for face creams.

Bending down on one knee, I looked through the sink cabinet. There was nothing crazy there either. Some toothpaste, toothbrushes, rubbing alcohol, and other toiletry products. Getting up, I sat. On the toilet and looked out to the window. There was a fire escape outside just outside the window. I know the murder weapon, but the motive is still not clear, but at this point there is no doubt Filip was poisoned from the food and nothing else. I wonder how Emily could find the murder so easily.

I flushed the toilet, then ran to the sink for a few minutes and joined everyone back in the living room. Emily had a stern face as she was still writing in her notebook notepad. Everyone in the room was visibly concerned, not knowing what she was jotting down.

Walking over, I stood next to her. On the notepad was a grocery list and a drawing of a girl and boy. Over their heads were Emily and Tom. The character with Tom above its head had a speech bubble next to him that said ‘Oh Emily, I love your poems! Please keep reciting them.’

I rolled my eyes, then looked at the group. “Milia explained to me and detective Dickinson that you all meet up together once a month. Do these parties have a certain theme to them? I noticed cherries were the main ingredient in most of the food over there.

“No, that is just my brother’s favorite. Even through Milia can be a bitch sometimes. She is a thoughtful girlfriend.” Elijah said. “Milia always put Filip’s needs over her own. Even when her Meat company…”

“Elijah, that is like so un-cool to bring that up right now.” Bethany said.

“Milia, can you explain further about the meat company?” I said, pulling out my notebook. Peering over to Emily’s note pad she added little rabbits to the bottom of the characters’ feet.

Milia let out a deep sigh. “Bethany and I wanted to start our own business. It would be a meat delivery service, but what separated us from our competition is that we would use drones to deliver the meat.”

“At first, we were like totally making a killing. Like we made so much that we paid off all of our student loans. Then we started to save up to buy a storage house so we could expand our reach.” Bethany said.

“However, we got flooded with a lot of negative reviews. There were entire smear campaigns against us. Then we started to lose drones and had to refund customers.” Milia said, “This happened so much that our company went into the red and we couldn’t financially recover. It got to a point where we need to let go of the business and file for bankruptcy.”

“What did Filip think about your business?” I asked.

“Filip was vegan, so of course he hated the whole concept of the meat delivery service. He would like always to complain about how cow farts are harming the environment. Which I thought was a weak argument because the production of oil and the use of cars is a much bigger problem we should be worrying about, but whatever.” Bethany said.

“Was his hatred of your business the reason you killed him, Milia?” I said.

I may have given that accusation too nonchalantly because they all looked at me puzzled and then Milia in horror. Milia looked at all of her friends in confusion.

“Uh-uh wh-what do you mean? I didn’t…” Milia stuttered.

“Well, you made all the food, correct?” I asked.

“Yes… but…”

“The main ingredient in all the food was cherries. In the cherry pit you can create cyanide. I wouldn’t have noticed until I check the sauce for the burgers. I found traces of hydroxocobalamin, a known antidote for cyanide.”

“Well, that’s just a coincidence…” Milia stuttered.

“Not necessarily, you knew that Filip was vegan and wouldn’t eat the burger. While everyone was being cured from the poison, Filip was slowly eating to his doom.” I said.

Milia started to bite her thumb. “Okay, okay, you got me, I’ll confess. I poisoned Filip.”