Christmas Cocoa Murder

by Carlene O'Connor

  Nothing.

  Setting the chair back in place, I took a step back to give the room another good look. It took only a moment to note one of the drawings hanging on the wall was of a cheerful-looking Santa standing beside a square house with smoke curling from the chimney. Santa’s hat was a bit overlarge, but I figured it still counted for my purposes.

  “That’s two,” I said. Now that I understood what I was to do, I began searching for hats in earnest.

  I took a good couple of minutes checking every item in the room. Nearly everything was Christmas themed, and that included the small bowl of candy sitting next to the rocking chair. There were no Santa hats inside it, however, though I did steal a chocolate bell and popped it into my mouth.

  I glanced at the clock, and noted I had twelve minutes remaining. I chewed my chocolate and considered the rest of the room. I had yet to find a single Christmas tree or reindeer. Did that mean the other two numbers were zero?

  It seemed odd, but I went with it. I hurried to the lock, typed in 0, 6 (the number of hats I’d found), and one more 0. I checked the door once again, but it remained stubbornly locked.

  It was then I noticed the two microphones.

  They were attached to the wall, just under a small black speaker. There was one on either side of the room, and I had a feeling they fed directly into the rooms on either side of me.

  I hurried across the room to my right and spoke into the mic. “Rita? Are you there?”

  There was a long moment of silence where I could feel the seconds draining away. I almost abandoned the mic to check the other one when she finally responded.

  “Krissy? Lordy Lou, this is a challenge!”

  “I think I’ve solved it,” I said. We already were under ten minutes remaining, and if I was wrong, we’d be wasting a lot of time.

  “Really? You’ve unlocked your door?”

  “No, not yet. But I think we need to work together to get them open.” I glanced back at my lock to double-check the symbols before turning back to the mic. “Do you happen to have any reindeer around your room?”

  “Let me check.”

  Seconds ticked by. I fought down the urge to pace as yet another minute passed, and then one more.

  “Rita?” I asked. She was taking her grand old time searching. “Hurry.”

  I was dancing from foot to foot by the time she said, “Got it! I see three reindeer.”

  “Okay, great.” I mentally catalogued the number. “Look at your passcode box. There are three symbols above it. The first symbol is what I’ll need to look for. Then use the mic on the other side of your room to talk to your other neighbor. Tell them the third symbol, while asking for their first. Whatever symbol is in the middle is your item. You should find them in your room.”

  “Snowballs,” Rita said. “It looks like snowballs.”

  “Got it. Tell your neighbor. I’m going to let mine know and get counting for you.”

  I hurried across the room, eyes scanning for snowballs. I saw one immediately, a soft, plush one in the corner. I pressed the mic as my heart started to pound. Time was quickly running out. Those fifteen minutes drained away awfully quickly and I wondered if the clock was running fast.

  “Hey,” I said, mind blanking for an instant before I remembered the name of the man next door. “Bob, are you there?”

  Seconds ticked by.

  Then a few more.

  I scowled and pressed my ear to the wall, listening for any sounds from the other side, but his room was completely quiet. There wasn’t even the faint shuffle of him going through the stuff in his room.

  Did he somehow get out?

  “Bob?” What if the mic wasn’t working? Would we get more time? If we couldn’t communicate with one another, then there was no way we’d be able to escape. “Hey, are you there?” I raised my voice, just in case he could hear me through the wall like I’d heard Rita earlier.

  Another handful of seconds ticked by, and then, finally, there was a click.

  “Sorry. I’m here,” Bob said. He sounded out of breath. “I didn’t even know these were here.”

  “It’s all right,” I said. “I think I know how to unlock our doors.”

  I gave him a quick rundown of what to do and told him to look for Christmas trees for me.

  “Candy canes,” he said, once I finished explaining. “Looks like you need to find me some candy canes.” He grunted into the mic. “This whole thing is kind of clever, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” I said, even as I hurried away from the mic and started searching for both candy canes and snowballs. I had six minutes remaining. I had no idea what happened when time ran out, since Lewis hadn’t told us beforehand. I was guessing we failed and Santa wouldn’t get his gift.

  I was determined not to let that happen.

  I went through the room twice, double-checking my count. The items weren’t all that hard to find, and none of them appeared to be hidden inside other objects, which was a relief. Once I was certain I had them all, I headed for Bob’s mic. Just before I could tell him my count, he said, “Four. There’s four trees.”

  “Eight candy canes,” I responded.

  “Got it.”

  I took a moment to set the first number of the code at 4, leaving the 6 hats in place, and then I adjusted the reindeer number to 3. Then I moved to the other side where Rita would be waiting.

  “Two snowballs,” I told her. “Got that?”

  A handful of seconds passed before, “I do.”

  “Great. I’m going to try my door.”

  A strange sense of excitement washed over me as I double-checked the code and reached for the doorknob. I was unsure about doing an escape room at first, but now that I was actually doing it, I found it was kind of fun. It was like a puzzle, but on a grander scale. I loved puzzles of all kinds, and this one was already exceeding my expectations.

  My fingers brushed the knob, and with a big grin, I turned it.

  The door refused to budge.

  “What?” I almost screamed it. I was positive I was on the right track, so how could that have not worked?

  I checked the code once more, even went as far as to adjust the numbers and reset them, before I tried it again.

  It still didn’t work.

  “What went wrong?” I asked aloud. I turned and counted my hats again, and came up with the same number.

  But what about the one on the wall?

  Could the code symbols count? I added one to my total and tried again.

  Still locked.

  Glancing at the clock, I added 1 to both Rita and Bob’s count. Less than five minutes to go. I tried the door, and was once again rebuffed.

  I hurried over to one of the mics. “Rita, are you out?”

  “Almost,” she said. “I was double-checking my number. I had to find sleighs, if you can believe it. There’s actually a life-sized one in here!”

  “You said three reindeer, right?”

  “I did.”

  “Are you sure that’s right?”

  “Well, it’s what I found.”

  Four minutes.

  “Can you check again? My code’s not working and I can’t think of any other way to get out.”

  Rita made an exasperated sound, but said, “Give me one sec.”

  While she recounted, I darted across the room and asked Bob the same thing in regard to the Christmas trees.

  “I’ve already double-checked,” he said. “There are four. Let me try my code and I’ll let you know if it works.”

  “All right.”

  My fingers drummed on the shelf next to the mic. Three minutes and counting. If I’d gotten it wrong and caused us to fail, I’d be sick. This was supposed to be something I was good at.

  There was a shout from the center room. It sounded like Carol, but the door was thick, as was the wall on that side, so I couldn’t be sure.

  A moment later, Bob returned. “It unlocked. I’m good to go.”

  “Can you count yo
ur trees once more?” I asked. “I have Rita checking for more reindeer. My code isn’t working.”

  “Will do. But once we’re down to a minute, I’m getting out of here. I’m not sure if those who fail to escape are eliminated or not, and don’t plan on being left behind.”

  “Understood,” I said, before leaving the mic and hurrying to Rita’s side. Two minutes to go.

  The commotion outside got louder as I called for Rita to hurry. After a few seconds, she returned.

  “You won’t believe this, dear, but I totally missed one of your reindeer! It was sitting right in front of my face and I looked right over it.”

  “So, there’s four?” I asked. I could feel every tick of the clock. Lewis wouldn’t eliminate me for Rita’s error, would he? If she got to continue and I didn’t, I wasn’t going to be happy.

  “Four,” she said. “I’d swear to it.”

  Bob’s voice came from the other side, echoing Rita. “Four trees. I’m getting out of here.”

  I rushed to my code. I had less than a minute remaining, and I was terrified I’d be the only one not to get out. I adjusted the numbers on either side to 4, made sure the hats sat at 6, and then reached for the door, just as a loud “Oh, my Lordy Lou!” came from the room on the other side.

  “Here goes,” I said, turning the knob.

  The door opened. I just about threw myself through as the timer hit 0.

  The first thing I noticed was the giant package sitting atop a table in the center of the room. It was wrapped, with a big green bow on it and a tag that read, SANTA. All around it were smaller gifts, eight in all, that were obviously meant for the eight competitors. Each had a tag with our names on them.

  My eyes moved from the gift table to the people in the room.

  Carol was standing near one of the open doors, hands over her mouth, eyes nearly popping from her head. Next to her, June had her face buried in Troy’s chest. His own face was pale, with a trickle of sweat running from his brow. Across the room, both Bob and Jerry stood next to one another, talking in quick, hushed tones, while Yuri sat in the corner, head hanging, knees up by his ears.

  All eyes were locked on something on the other side of the table from me, right next to where Rita stood with a shocked expression on her face.

  Trepidation growing, I circled the room until the object that had captured everyone’s attention came into view.

  Lying upon the floor, amid a still-steaming spill of what smelled like hot cocoa, was an unmoving, unblinking Lewis Coates.

  Chapter Three

  “Do you think it’s part of the game?” Jerry asked from across the room.

  No one made a move toward Lewis. He hadn’t so much as twitched since he’d been found, which told me we were most definitely not dealing with part of the escape room here. Even if he was faking his death, he would still have to breathe.

  “Is anyone a doctor?” I glanced quickly around the room, not wanting to take my eyes off of Lewis for long, just in case he made a subtle movement of some kind. The only response I got were shaking heads.

  “It could be part of the game,” Jerry continued. He sounded frantic, half out of his mind. I didn’t blame him. I’d feel much the same if I hadn’t already dealt with a few dead bodies in my time. “It could be like that horror movie, the one where the guy pretended to be dead, but really wasn’t, and was, in fact, the killer all along.”

  “This isn’t a horror movie, J.,” Bob said.

  “Yeah, but he could’ve gotten the idea from it, right?” He met my eye. “Right?”

  “I don’t know.” But you didn’t make dead bodies, real or not, a part of a Christmas-themed event.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” This from Carol.

  “Has anyone checked him for a pulse?” I asked. I needed to remain calm. Out of everyone here, I was probably the person with the most experience around dead bodies. It didn’t say much about my life choices, but it wasn’t like I went out of my way looking for them.

  “No,” Carol said. Her voice was quiet, subdued. “I found him when I escaped my room. He hasn’t moved so much as a finger. No one has gone near him either.”

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “I’m going to check him, just in case.” Then, hoping that Jerry was right, and it was all part of the show, I raised my voice. “Hey, Lewis. If you’re alive, could you, I don’t know, move a hand or something?”

  I held my breath, as did seemingly everyone else in the room.

  Lewis’s hand remained stubbornly still, as did the rest of him. I willed his back to move, an eyelid to blink, but nothing happened.

  I swallowed and then started slowly forward. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, which made me worried I’d somehow mess this up. I wasn’t trained for this kind of thing, and I was most definitely not a cop. No matter how many crimes I’d solved in my time in Pine Hills, I was still just an amateur. One misstep and I could destroy an important piece of evidence.

  Slow down, Krissy. I wasn’t even sure the guy was dead yet, let alone murdered. I couldn’t let my past experiences influence my thoughts about what was happening now.

  Careful not to step in the cooling hot cocoa, I knelt next to Lewis. There was no blood, as far as I could see, which was a good sign that this might be an accident. “Are you okay?” I asked. When he didn’t respond, I reached out and gently pressed my fingers against his neck.

  He was still warm, but there was no pulse I could detect. I moved my hand and held it under his nose in case my untrained fingers had missed their mark. I felt no air movement of any kind.

  “Okay,” I said, sitting back on my heel. “He’s not breathing.”

  “Oh, no.” Carol backed up until she bumped into a Rudolph standing near the wall. She gave a little yelp as she hopped away from it.

  “Does anyone know CPR?” I asked, though I was pretty sure it was already too late.

  “I know a little,” Bob said. He made no move toward the body. He eyed Lewis’s corpse as if he was afraid it might leap up and attack him if he got too close.

  I stood and gave him room. The way his eyes tightened, I knew he didn’t want to touch Lewis, but with everyone watching him hopefully, he couldn’t refuse either.

  Bob strode forward and gently rolled Lewis onto his back. With the rest of us looking on, he got to work.

  “Does anyone have their phone with them?” I asked, patting my pockets in the vain hope that I’d somehow forgotten it there, though I knew it was tucked away in my coat.

  “I left mine in my locker,” June said. She glanced at Troy, who said, “Me too.”

  “We all did, dear,” Rita said. “It was one of the rules.”

  “I know,” I said with a sigh. “But I hoped that someone decided to break the rules this time.” My gaze flickered to Carol, but she shook her head.

  “It’s no use,” Bob said, standing and taking two quick steps away from Lewis. “The guy’s dead.” He rubbed his palms against his slacks.

  “Does he have his phone on him?” Jerry asked. “He didn’t have to follow the same rules the rest of us did, so maybe he has it.”

  When no one immediately moved to check Lewis’s pockets, I did. I patted him down quickly, but he wasn’t carrying so much as a wallet, let alone his phone.

  “Nope.” I stood and, like Bob, I wiped my hands on my pants. “He must have left it in the other room.”

  “Heart attack, you think?” Troy asked. “He seemed pretty uptight.”

  “Could be,” I said. “I didn’t see a wound on him.” I glanced at Bob, who shook his head. He hadn’t either.

  “Okay. All right.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Does anyone know if someone else is monitoring us?” A quick look around the room didn’t reveal a camera, but if the guy worked security, like Yuri said, then he’d likely know how to hide them effectively.

  “Lewis always worked alone,” Rita said. “His wife died young, and they never had kids, so there’s no family.”

  �
�So, no one can let us out?” I asked, which was probably the wrong thing to say at that point in time, but it was too late to take it back.

  “Oh!” Carol made a strangled sound. “I . . . I can’t . . .” She spun on her heel, nearly tripped over the Rudolph, and then rushed back into her room. She slammed the door closed, and I heard it click as the lock engaged.

  “We can’t get out?” June asked, voice rising in pitch. “Are you serious?”

  “There’s a lock on the door,” Yuri said. “Has anyone done this escape room before? Please tell me someone knows the combination.”

  “Let me try.” Troy strode across the room and quickly punched in a code. Instead of three digits, there was a full eight. As he hit the last number, he tried the door.

  It didn’t open.

  Jerry groaned and sank to the floor. Next to him, Bob put both his hands on his own head and scowled.

  Troy stepped back, frowned at the door, and then tried the code again. The door remained stubbornly closed.

  “What are we going to do?” June asked.

  “Stay calm,” I said. “We can’t panic.” I turned my attention to where Lewis lay. “Let’s figure out what happened to him and go from there.”

  “We should cover him,” Yuri said. “I can’t stand looking at him like this.”

  “Did anyone have a blanket in their room?” I asked.

  “I did,” Rita said. “It has a reindeer on it.”

  “I’ll get it.” Troy hurried away from the door, and went into Rita’s room.

  “Maybe the door code is on him?” Jerry said, nodding toward where Lewis lay.

  “Let’s find out.” Bob started forward, but I stopped him.

  “He had nothing in his pockets. And well . . .” A thought was working its way through my head, one I didn’t like one bit. I walked slowly around the central table, taking in the details. “There’s a gift for each of us,” I said, speaking out loud for everyone else’s benefit. “And each person has a cup of hot cocoa waiting on them.”

  “Which I could use right about now.” Yuri stepped forward and reached for one of the mugs.