2: 2
I washed my hands and quietly counted down in my head.
By the time I stepped out, Barret was hitting the floor, convulsing right on cue.
The moment Yvette saw me, her face went frantic. "Pauline! You've killed him!"
Horace shouted along with her. "He ate the cake and dropped like this. Somebody call the police, this looks like poisoning!"
"No need for that," I cut in.
Yvette's voice went shrill. "Are you trying to kill him?"
I ignored the crowd gathering around us in the hot-pot restaurant.
Step by step, I closed in on Yvette.
"I haven't done a single thing, and you keep saying I killed someone. What exactly are you steering everyone toward?"
Her face drained of color, and her words started to stumble.
"I'm just telling the truth. What... what would I be steering anyone toward?"
I looked her dead in the eye. "After all, if I get a black mark on my record, you're the one who gets the permanent slot."
Yvette's pupils shot wide.
Horace pulled her behind him.
When he turned to me, his face was full of rage.
"Pauline, why are you being so aggressive?"
"If you've got nothing to hide, why are you afraid of me calling the police?"
The onlookers turned suspicious eyes on me too.
I didn't panic.
I only asked Horace, "When something like this happens, a normal person thinks it's an allergy. You're the only one who jumped straight to poison."
"Unless you're the one who did the poisoning?"
His face went red, then white, then red again.
The crowd's eyes swept back and forth between us.
They'd punched three numbers into their phones, not sure whether to make the call or not.
Barret's classmates stepped up to back them.
"Quit making excuses. We can testify it was you who gave Barret the cake!"
"You're the one who called him a beggar. He snapped back at you, so you held a grudge and poisoned him to get even!"
Plenty of people had heard him demanding the cake earlier.
Now more than a few of them were murmuring.
"It was just a slice of cake. Should've just handed it over. What a cruel thing to do."
"Not even dressed poorly, and this stingy!"
In the middle of the uproar, I reached over and grabbed a toothpick off the next table.
While none of them were watching, I jabbed it into Barret's fingertip.
He yelped and shot upright.
"You old hag, what are you doing?"
"No wonder my sister says you're vicious. You stabbed me with a needle on purpose, didn't you?"
He pointed at me and yelled to the whole room.
"You all saw it, right? Hurry up and call the police, arrest her!"
But everyone there, along with the paramedics who'd just rushed in, was frozen.
Because the person who'd been convulsing on the floor a second ago was now bouncing around and cursing at full strength.
I seized the moment. "Who's your sister?"
He instinctively pointed at Yvette.
Yvette's face went bloodless in an instant.
Horace's throat bobbed a few times.
He stepped forward to put an arm around me, and I threw it off.
He rubbed his nose, embarrassed.
"Since he's fine, everybody go on home. It was all a misunderstanding!"
And with that he tried to lead Yvette away.
"Stay right there!" I called out.
"Nobody's calling the police for you now. I'm the one making the call!"
I grabbed my phone and quickly dialed 911.
"Hello, some people at a hot-pot restaurant are working together to frame me—"
Before I could finish, Horace snatched the phone and hung up.
"Pauline, don't push this too far!"
He said it in a voice only the two of us could hear.
"Barret's group is four people. Add me and Yvette, and do you really think you stand a chance?"
"You're a smart woman. Let's both back off and not go after each other, how about that?"
He was threatening me.
But if I'd dared to come alone, I wasn't about to fight a battle I hadn't prepared for.
The next second, the hot-pot restaurant's manager came rushing out.
"Customers, whatever private issues you have, right now we've got a poisoning incident in our restaurant."
"We've already called the police. Please cooperate and wait for their investigation."
At that, they all looked at each other, and no one said another word.
