Snapdragons

Caught Red-handed

Eventually, the fire ran out of alcohol to thrive on and abruptly stopped licking the metal. The gas lamp was lit once again. Three out of four valuables had been rescued from the bowl of blue flames. Theophania slipped her golden pocket watch back into her cloak. Alice clutched her necklace, relieved. Edwin handed Alistair his silver ring and Alistair slid it back on while muttering a thank you.

It had been part of the scam; one item would be removed while the room was dark, before the fire was lit. And so everyone figured that the engagement ring had been the unlucky victim. But even Ms. Snapdragon stared into the pan, shocked by the missing presence of the ring.

In her hand, she held a small coin, a mere shilling. She had no gold ring, no expensive diamond.

"You…you all got your belongings back?"

Ms. Snapdragon didn't have the engagement ring. It was simply…gone. And in its place was nothing but a coin worth an extraordinarily small fraction of the diamond and gold.

"Ms. Snapdragon. Where is my engagement ring if you did not take it?" Edwin's words were terse, his expression unchanging. Edwin hadn't gotten back his ring.

"You— you do not have it?"

"No."

Everyone was silent besides the jittery Ms. Snapdragon, trying and failing to make sense of the situation. Nobody had the ring. Her scam had been exposed and something had gone terribly wrong.

"You must have taken it, Miss. Maybe without knowing?"

Ms. Snapdragon brushed along her dress deliriously, looking for any evidence of the gold circle on her. Nothing.

"Ms. Snapdragon, please give me my valuable back. I am absolutely sure you have it in your possession."

"I'm telling you…I don't have it!"

She sank to the ground, patting at the carpet for any sign of the ring. She didn't even care if she got to keep it or not. It had existed, she was sure. Her sallow fingers touched to her lips, nails pulling a gap between her teeth for a strangled cry to free itself from her throat.

While she was collapsed on the floor, Edwin leaned over to the closest person to him, which happened to be Alistair, and whispered in the quietest voice, as to only be heard by one person, "The closet. I am positive there's something dead in there."

Alistair turned, eyes wide, to look at the closet door barely visible from his seat. Then, quickly, without being seen by anyone else, he tapped Theophania's shoulder and pointed to the door. The closet, he mouthed. Theophania glanced back to observe the abundance of sweet-smelling blooms crowding the particular area around the door. Oh, she mouthed back. 

After the minute of silence, Edwin rose from his seat and extended a hand out to Ms. Snapdragon, who was still sunken on the floor and trembling. She looked up, eyes two dark, dewy voids. She took his hand, he helped her to her feet.

"Well, Ms. Snapdragon," Edwin's voice was a godsend in the syrupy floral room. "May we call the police now?"

"But I— I haven't done anything wrong! I did not steal. We were just playing a game—"

Edwin turned to Alistair who stood to join the conversation. "Alistair, why do you suppose there are so many flowers in this house?"

Alistair glanced around at the carnations, lilies, gardenias, lilacs, tulips, honeysuckle, and snapdragons, by far the favored flower.

"Well…there seems to be more flowers than most would like around their home. An odd preference, all the fragrant varieties. Especially because of the sickeningly strong smell. As if they're covering a scent that is just as heavy."