The stairs

Chapter 6

Cassie was deep in thought, and the others were sulking around, when one of the policemen yelled suddenly.

"Found it!"

He was yelling from the floor above, and waving a coffee cup. Cassie and Lex looked at each other.

"How do they know?" he asked.

"Maybe they matched the lipstick?" said Cassie, "or maybe they tested for cyanide. That looks like an iced drink, so its probably the correct one. Once they get the fingerprints off that, that'll be it."

"Found it!" yelled another policeman from their floor. He was also holding a coffee cup.

"Clever, very clever," said Cassie, "now, which of our suspects is clever enough and sociable enough to pull that off? I doubt we'll find any fingerprints at this rate, but that means the murderer bought coffee as well. It's quite simple, really."

Meanwhile the two policemen converged on the scene. Both cups were in evidence bags now. They weren't even from the same shop, Cassie noticed. Actually, the one found on their floor was from a shop that wasn't in even that mall. Lex didn't seem to realise it.

She looked at the others intently. Phillip had a puzzled expression on his face, but he probably lacked he confidence to voice his concerns. Robin and Rosa were both watching with some interest. Mark was watching the three of them intently. Beryl barely looked up from her phone.

"So, if we can get someone to ask around the coffee shops..."

"Nevermind, that's irrelevant now," said Cassie, "wait, what do you mean by getting someone to ask around?"

"Well, the mall will have to be opened, eventually, so..."

"No it won't be, not today, at this rate," said Cassie, "For a second there, I thought you had a great idea. Where is Detective Clark? We have so much to tell her and she's gone. It's not like we can tell this guy."

Phillip walked up to them. "Cassie, I don't know if you noticed, but the second cup..."

"Wasn't bought at this mall. I noticed," said Cassie, "and?"

"That's it, I just thought it was odd. It's just that, well, they have a shop on campus. That cup may have been bought on campus. Even if that's the case, it just confirms that the murderer is linked to our university..."

"Not just that," said Cassie, "Not many of us really visit coffee shops on campus. You make your own coffee. I'm a tea person. Lex buys coffee cans."

"So, you have a plan," said Lex, "spit it out."

"Anna is on campus and she's free today as far as I know. I'll send her the photos and tell her to ask whether any of them had been seen at the coffee shop. It's open during daylight hours only, so, chances are, they have the same staff all the time."

"I'll call Rick as well, and the two of them can go ask around together," said Lex, "do you have photos of everyone?"

"I do now," said Cassie, taking a photo of Phillip and Lex in quick succession, "now, I'll add a photo of myself for fairness, and mail it to Anna. I think I'll have to call her as well, since she doesn't really check her mail often."

"Alright, I'll do that as well," said Lex.

Cassie was talking to Anna already. "Wait for Rick, and go talk to the staff together. Ask them whether they noticed them throw the cups away, or leave them on the table. Yeah, that's it, I know that's what normal people do, but don't tell them anything more. No, I can't tell you anything more. I'll explain everything in detail once I get back. Look, this is extremely important. Record their responses, if you can, and tell that to Rick as well. Alright, mail me the recording when you're done. Okay, bye."

"I texted the same thing to Rick as well," said Lex, "so, now we wait."

"Yes, now, we wait."

"So, how long will it take?" asked Phillip.

"Thirty minutes to one hour," said Cassie, "unless they were both in the library or something already - unlikely, since we're technically on vacation right now. Now, the next problem we have to solve is, how does a university student get their hands on cyanide?"

"Rosa might have access to it," said Phillip, "they might have cyanide in the labs at the biology department. My cousin did biology as well, and mentioned something about using cyanide for tests..."

"We don't use cyanide, at least not for electronics. Phillip and the management students don't need that stuff. What about civil? Do they use it?" asked Lex.

"Not as far as I know. Think about it. If they use it for construction, cyanide would be more freely available," said Cassie, "but Rosa being the only one with legitimate access to cyanide doesn't mean she was the only only one that could buy it. It's also used for mining, so buying a bit of it shouldn't be too difficult, and besides, extracting it from plant material isn't very difficult."

"Look, I might be able to check whether Rosa could have taken it," said Phillip, "I work with a group of marine biology students for my thesis. I'll ask them."

"What are you going to ask them? Hey, is any of the cyanide missing from your lab?" asked Lex.

"Good point."

"Just ask them whether they've used cyanide, and whether they can access it," said Cassie, "and if it's in a locked cupboard - which is almost certainly the case - ask them to describe the lock on it."

Phillip nodded. He moved away from them to check on it, leaving Cassie and Lex alone again.

"You don't suspect Phillip anymore, do you?" asked Lex.

"No," said Cassie, "He's about as sociable as a terrapin. He couldn't have pulled off the trick with the coffee cups. You see, the trick would be useless if you were caught on camera, and the clincher is, essentially, that one cup was on the floor above."

"What you're trying to say is, the only way the cup could have ended up on the floor above was if he convinced someone else to dispose of it at the floor above. You're right, Phillip would have startled anyone he was trying to talk to in the first place, and no one in their right senses would take anything he gave them," said Lex.

"Pretty much," said Cassie, "Beryl could have done it with ease, and so could Rosa. Robin also has a disarming presence. I don't know about Mark."

The two of them waited in silence for a while. Then, about five minutes later, Phillip returned.

"Cyanide is available in the labs, it is in a closed cupboard, any of them could have accessed it, but only under the supervision of the staff, the lock of the cupboard looks like this, but it is in a fingerprint-locked lab that only students and staff could access," rattled off Phillip, showing a photo on his phone.

"What about the fingerprint sensor?" asked Cassie.

"It's the usual one you have on all the labs."

"Interesting, very interesting," said Cassie.