Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

Corcoran.
    “I stand corrected,” Corcoran answered with a smile. “The same earrings of which one ended up in the soup and, unfortunately, in Mrs. Finkelstein. Anyway, at that point Mr. Pupik decided this might be a matter for the police, and that is why Mr. Jenkins and I are here.”
    Pupik nodded, as if satisfied that he had done his duty and deserved a pat on the back. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
    “This does put a different light on the situation, as you can see,” said Corcoran. I did not see, but apparently Mrs. K did, because she nodded as if he should continue. And he did.
    “What that means to us,” and here he looked at Jenkins, “is that whoever caused that earring to end up in Mrs. Finkelstein’s soup, or in the dumpling in her soup—”
    “Matzoh ball,” corrected Mrs. K.
    “Matzoh ball,” agreed Mr. Corcoran. “Whoever caused the earring to be in the matzoh ball in Mrs. Finkelstein’s soup, or in the soup itself, is probably the person who took Mrs. Goldfarb’s earrings in the first place. Whether they were trying to hide it or simply accidentally dropped it we do not know, of course.”
    At this point there was silence. We were all digesting what Corcoran had just said. But any way you swallowed it, it sounded like he was implying that my best friend Rose Kaplan not only had caused poor Bertha Finkelstein’s death, but maybe had stolen from Daisy Goldfarb the diamond earring she used to kill her.
    Oy Gotenu!
It seemed like it was Mrs. K, not just poor Bertha, who was in the soup.

9
    “So now you are accusing me of stealing Daisy’s earrings?” cried Mrs. K. “I who never so much as stole a paper clip when I worked in an office? Who would not be caught dead (you will excuse the expression) in those dangly-schmangly earrings of Daisy’s?” I had rarely heard Mrs. K raise her voice, but now it was several decibels above ladylike and rising.
    Corcoran stepped in quickly to say, “No one is accusing you of anything, Mrs. Kaplan; I was just following the logic of the facts we have thus far discovered. Now, if you can fill in some of the facts we are still missing, I’m sure we can quickly straighten this out. To begin with, if you could tell us how you happened to be in possession of Mrs. Goldfarb’s earring…”
    “But I did not possess Daisy’s earring,” protested Mrs. K, “so I cannot very well tell you how I got it.”
    “You did make the dumpl…uh, the matzoh balls that were in the soup last night, did you not?” Corcoran persisted.
    “Yes, of course, but—”
    “And the soup?”
    “Yes, and the soup, but—”
    “And I am told by Mr. Pupik that you were the only one allowed in the kitchen while you were making them, is that right?”
    “Yes, yes, but I did not have Daisy’s earrings in the kitchen with me, so what does that prove?”
    “Then do you have another explanation for how the earring ended up in the matzoh ball soup that you made in the kitchen all by yourself?”
    Well, now, that was just what Mrs. K and I were trying to come up with the previous night. And of course we did not have much success.
    “And how do you know those earrings were even stolen?” Mrs. K asked, changing the subject just enough to avoid answering Corcoran’s question. “Daisy Goldfarb is a very nice person I’m sure, but she is well known to be absentminded and forgetful. She probably mislaid the earrings and when she could not find them, she thought they were stolen.”
    Here Jenkins piped up for the first time: “We asked Mr. Pupik that already, and from what he told us this was clearly a case of theft.”
    All eyes turned to Pupik, who suddenly looked uncomfortable, but he turned toward Mrs. K and said, “I also thought it was possible Mrs. Goldfarb had only misplaced the earrings. Such things happen all the time, of course, but then I spoke with Miss Zeiss, who as you know is Mrs. Goldfarb’s personal caretaker. She told me that earlier in the day she was helping Mrs.