The moment the words left her mouth, she felt like she was clearly Mai-lock Mingle. After waiting silently for a minute, she was forced to revert back to being just Mai Mingle.
By the time the third minute had passed, the conference room remained dead silent. The walls, photos, and furniture were like a cast of professional extras, holding back laughter and refusing to look at her. All that was left was a completely stumped Mai-at-a-loss Mingle.
'…Did I guess wrong?'
'Jones isn't in one of the photos on the wall?'
'And here I was, so full of confidence a moment ago. Good thing no one saw that.'
There were plenty of eyes around, but not a single person—if you could even count Jones as one.
'How could Jones not be here?'
Mai Mingle spent a little more time reviewing her deductive process. She even played the devil's advocate in her own mind, trying to pick apart her own logic, but no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see where she had gone wrong.
