Mittens & Mugs
Lisa went upstairs to get her coat, but first she left her mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table next to a pair of old mittens. She had misplaced her coat in her closet, and it took her ten minutes upstairs to find it. When she returned downstairs, the mug was nearly empty, and both the mittens were damp to the touch with a few flakes of snow still melting on top of them. Her friends were all outside, making a snowman. One by one, she asked them to come inside:
James shook the snowflakes off his own gloves and dusted his boots off on the rug. He shivered against the fireplace as he denied drinking from Lisa’s mug. He tried to dust it off quickly, but on the front of his coat, a fresh, round patch of snow fell off, as if he’d been blasted by a snowball.
David claimed he saw Beatrice eyeing the mug before he went outside, but he lost sight of her when his own mitten fell off and he lost it in the snow. He spent the majority of the time outside searching for it, and claimed not to notice anyone acting suspicious.
Beatrice kept her own gloveless hands in her jacket pocket as she entered. She denied stealing the cocoa, gesturing to a bubbling pot on the stove. She claimed to have seen Lisa’s and had decided to make her own.
Anna, also not wearing gloves, warmed her hands against her own mug. One side of it seemed wet and sticky, but the handle remained dry. Anna glared at James out the window, but she too, denied drinking Lisa’s hot chocolate.
Carl had left his jacket inside but kept his gloves on when he went outside. He didn’t seem to be too cold however, and he claimed he had gone inside early to avoid James and Anna, who had gotten into an argument after they both stepped outside together.
Who stole the cocoa?
***ANSWER BELOW***
When Lisa went upstairs to get her coat, Carl was the first to head outside. Beatrice took a moment to eye Lisa’s mug. David noticed her linger as he followed Carl out. After deciding to make her own cocoa on the stove, Beatrice left. Anna, seeing how delicious Lisa’s hot chocolate looked and unwilling to wait for Beatrice’s new pot, couldn’t resist. She quickly poured it into her own mug, but James caught her in the act. In her hurry to cover up, she spilled some of the beverage on the side of the mug.
Flustered, Anna grabbed the mittens from the table, slipped them on, and hurried outside, pleading, James following behind, demanding she fess up. After Carl had gone back inside to warm up, Anna, in fear that James would tattle, threw a snowball at him, warning him there’d be more where that came from if he didn’t stay quiet. After James joined Beatrice and David in making the snowman, Anna returned to the house, leaving the snow-covered mittens on the table in an attempt to cover her tracks.
Was your guess correct?