Chapter 7 - THE TEA CART
The tea cart became evidence.
Not because of the porcelain.
Because of fingerprints and timing.
House staff testified Celeste had dismissed them forty minutes before tea.
Unusual.
She normally demanded service.
The housekeeper, Rosa Bennett, said Celeste prepared the tray herself.
“She told me Miss Evelyn wanted privacy.”
Evelyn had said no such thing.
Then investigators found residue from the same unknown harmful substance on one object:
the underside of the spoon Celeste used while preparing Evelyn’s cup.
Not Celeste’s.
Evelyn’s.
The spoon had been placed separately on a side plate.
That did not tell the whole story.
But it narrowed it.
Celeste’s attorney argued contamination.
Investigators tested the rest of the tea service.
No matching residue.
Then Rosa remembered something.
Celeste had asked where the “small medicine dropper” from the conservatory cabinet was kept.
Three days earlier.
The same day Evelyn later found the empty vial.
Now the vial’s existence connected to Celeste before the poisoning.
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Still circumstantial.
But strong.
