Murder in Mystery Manor

by Anthony E. Zuiker

  A short time later, after finding nothing else unusual, the estate bell rang, ending their investigation.

  CHAPTER 23

  SPOILED DINNER

  Parker and Sophia were alone in the dining room. And they almost spent more time flirting with each other than they did investigating. They felt like they had this process locked down. Besides, as long as Darrel was around to keep screwing up, they should be safe. Parker also figured there was no possible way they’d be eliminated before that total screw-off Bryce.

  Just the same, they weren’t completely foolish, either. They spent as much of their thirty minutes as they needed to in order to make two important discoveries. They’d started their search at Frank’s spot at the table. The dinner service was still set up, the fish cart still out. It looked as if the dinner had been abandoned in a hurry, which made sense since it, in fact, had been.

  Upon first glance, Frank’s plate looked very much like everyone else’s. But when Parker really looked closer, he realized there was something about the remaining pieces of specialty roll on his plate that didn’t feel quite right. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

  “Come here for a second,” he said to Sophia, who had been picking at something on the chef’s cart.

  She sauntered over to him slowly, as if she still needed to prove to him that she was sexy. Of course she was. Not that Parker hadn’t been with women more beautiful than she was. He definitely had been. Actually, Sophia’s appearance was perhaps a little too manufactured for his normal tastes. But still, in the given situation, Sophia was as good as it was going to get.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Look at Frank’s plate of sushi. This roll looks different inside, doesn’t it? Or is it just me?” he asked.

  She looked closely at the food on Frank’s plate and then shrugged. Parker had to keep himself from sighing. They’d had this plan to work together, sure, but in all honesty he had been the one doing most of the work. Parker knew he wasn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar himself, but Sophia was a certifiable idiot. She had the mental capacity of a sack of peas. He’d wondered more than once what had ever driven her husband to marry her. Even as a trophy, her incredibly rich and successful husband surely could have done better, right?

  But that didn’t matter right then. Parker needed to stay focused.

  “Come on, you take a piece and I’ll take a piece, and let’s compare what’s left of his specialty rolls to the rest of the guests’,” he said.

  She made a face at him, but then gave in and picked up one of Frank’s sushi rolls as if it were a piece of garbage instead of some rice and seaweed and fish. They went around the table, one on each side, comparing sushi rolls. How has it come to this? Parker suddenly wondered. There he was playing detective with sushi in order to save his own life. It was insane.

  “Well, what do you think?” he asked after they had gone around the table.

  “It’s definitely different,” she said. “The meat in his roll looks a lot lighter.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” he said. “And it’s more gelatinous or something. The fish in his almost looks… gummy.”

  She nodded blankly.

  “What does it mean?” she asked.

  Parker shrugged. He honestly had no idea. It could have just been a coincidence.

  “Come on, let’s look at the chef’s cart. Maybe that can help us,” he suggested.

  They looked at all the fish left on the chef’s cart. Nothing looked particularly unusual or out of place. They did notice that none of the fish on the cart looked like the meat inside of Frank’s rolls. Then again, the specialty rolls had come from the kitchen, not the chef’s tableside cart, so that actually made sense.

  Parker was about to give up when he noticed something odd about the WILD CAUGHT ON date label for the salmon. He leaned in closer and rubbed the label with his finger. It peeled back a little too easily. He pinched it and peeled it all the way off. There was another label underneath it.

  “Well, I think I just found out why we all got so sick,” he said.

  Sophia looked at the newly exposed label. It was dated three weeks ago.

  “Yuck!” she said. “Why would they do that?”

  “A diversion,” Parker said. “If we were all busy being sick then we wouldn’t notice the killer following Frank to the trophy room and impaling him with a swordfish!”

  CHAPTER 24

  GOOD FORTUNE

  “Welcome back!” Giles said after the guests were all led to the recreation room with the pool table and big-screen TVs. “I truly hope, for your sakes, that you all made some significant discoveries.”

  The seven wary guests looked at him, wondering if he was mocking them. Either way, it didn’t really matter. Most of them knew that, anyway.

  “As you all know by now, I would hope,” Giles continued, “now is time for information sharing. Since it’s already getting late, you have just thirty minutes to talk among yourselves and share or don’t share the evidence you have collected. Feel free to play billiards or watch TV while you interact. Also, the video arcade games and pinball machines on the far wall are free to play. Enjoy!”

  Giles left the room as two maids entered to take drink orders.

  Thomas ordered a soda water with no alcohol (in his opinion, only fools would impair themselves in such a dire situation) and then sequestered himself in the corner of the room away from everybody else. He already felt like he had a pretty good bead on what had gone down. Plus, now that Frank was gone, he truly didn’t know whom he could trust. One of the guests was the killer, after all. And Bryce was the only one remaining who Thomas was pretty sure was not the killer. Even then, pretty sure wasn’t sure enough to risk his life over. Furthermore, he was fully confident in his ability to solve the upcoming challenge alone, whatever it may be. He’d already pretty much single-handedly cracked the first two, after all.

  Parker and Sophia also seemed pretty content to merely keep what they’d discovered in the dining room to themselves. They sat together on a large Italian leather sofa and rubbed each other’s leg like they were at home watching a movie rather than solving a real, live murder.

  So that left Darrel, Jacqueline, Guadalupe, and Bryce as the only four willing to share information with one another this time around. Guadalupe did so more reluctantly, but she was not foolish enough to assume that she could solve this without at least one or two more clues.

  For the four of them, the half hour went by quickly. Giles returned precisely thirty minutes after he’d left. Had someone timed him, they would have seen that he was gone for exactly 1,800 seconds. Punctuality was imperative, as any well-trained butler would know.

  As usual, Giles did not arrive empty-handed. He held a wooden bowl full of fortune cookies still in their wrappers. All seven guests realized that it was not merely going to be a late dessert. Not that any of them likely felt well enough to eat just then.

  “Once again I have a riddle from the killer. At the conclusion, please help yourself to a fortune cookie to use however you like. You will have forty minutes to complete this challenge. Here is your riddle.”

  As Giles took out a card to read, five of the seven guests readied a pen and some paper. It seemed as though all but two of them had learned from their past mistakes. Only Parker and Sophia were unprepared. But Parker wasn’t concerned; he had a pretty good memory for rhymes. Besides, Frank had been one of only two guests to write down both riddles and look where that had gotten him.

  “ ‘Please, help yourselves to a treat that could be greater. It’s your choice to break it now or break it later. And whether it leads you to glory, or leaves you stranded on a boat, just remember that it’s not what you find, it’s what you don’t,’ ” Giles said, reading from the card. Then he set it down and motioned toward the bowl of fortune cookies. “Your time starts now.”

  The seven guests stepped forward and grabbed a fortune cookie. There were only seven in the bowl, leavi
ng it empty by the time they’d each taken one. Giles handed the bowl to a maid and then watched the guests try to figure out whether to open their cookies right away.

  Sophia and Parker left the room almost immediately. They clearly had a plan, regardless of what was inside their cookies. Bryce, Guadalupe, and Thomas also separated themselves, appearing comfortable to go at this one alone. Darrel and Jacqueline huddled in a corner of the game room, strategizing.

  “If one of us opens it now, we’ll still have one intact if we need it later for some reason,” Darrel said.

  Jacqueline had yet to see him this determined. For the first time since Mr. Cho’s murder, Darrel actually seemed to be alive himself. She nodded at his suggestion.

  “You open yours, honey, go ahead!” she whispered.

  He popped open the wrapper and removed the cookie. After basically shattering it in his shaking hands, he held out the little white fortune so she could see it as well.

  It was a very short fortune: MTW419.

  “What do you think it means?” he asked.

  Jacqueline shook her head slowly and said, “I don’t know, but there’s something familiar about it for some reason. Lordy, I just can’t put my finger on it!”

  She seemed frustrated, which was unusual for her.

  Darrel glanced around at the other guests still in the game room. They had also opened their cookies and seemed equally perplexed. Thomas especially, Darrel noticed, looked extremely annoyed at the vague message in his cookie. That’s assuming he had gotten the same one.

  “Maybe we should open yours, too?” he said. “It could be different.”

  Jacqueline hesitated before answering, but then eventually nodded. She opened her cookie and removed the fortune. They held them side by side. They were identical.

  “Damn,” Darrel said.

  “Wait!” Jacqueline said, almost too loudly. “I got it.” She grinned at him. “Come on, follow me. Stay calm, we don’t know nothing, right?”

  He nodded and winked at her as they tried to saunter out of the game room as casually as they could. They both feigned confusion pretty well, as not one of the remaining guests considered following them.

  Neither spoke as Jacqueline led them toward the library. As soon as they entered the dark room, she turned and grinned at him again.

  “Whatcha got?” he asked, almost giddy.

  It did feel good to finally not be losing miserably, he had to admit to himself. This was the feeling he got when a new freshman came along every few years with talent that can’t be taught. That feeling of having a secret weapon.

  “I’d recognize a Bible verse from anywhere,” she said. “I ain’t never missed a Sunday service in my life. Those letters, they definitely stand for Matthew.”

  “Of course,” he said. “Matthew 4:19.”

  They switched on just one small lamp on a desk in the library. They didn’t want to tip off anyone else who may be nearby. Although they needn’t have worried. Sophia and Parker were the closest guests, and they were outside with a flashlight, heading toward the boathouse by the lake. They’d badly misinterpreted the line “leaves you stranded on a boat” from the riddle.

  Jacqueline and Darrel found a massive Bible on the library shelves and flipped through the pages until they found Matthew 4:19. They read it aloud together.

  “ ‘And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ’ ”

  They looked at each other, once again stumped. But the confusion only lasted a matter of seconds. This time it was Darrel who had bright eyes, as if a lightbulb behind them had just been switched on.

  “I got it!” he said. “This time, you follow me.”

  They walked down the halls of the mansion with huge grins on their faces. Fate had been on his side all along, Darrel marveled. Had they both not stumbled upon a certain room together during their first few hours in the mansion, he might not have been able to put together what the Bible verse had meant so quickly.

  When they reached the aquarium, they were once again faced with uncertainty. While Jacqueline agreed that this was likely the correct place, they didn’t know what exactly they were looking for. That’s when Jacqueline suggested they go back to the riddle for clues. Darrel read it aloud, quietly.

  “ ‘Please help yourselves to a treat that could be greater. It’s your choice to break it now or break it later. And whether it leads you to glory, or leaves you stranded on a boat, just remember that it’s not what you find, it’s what you don’t.’ ”

  “ ‘It’s not what you find, it’s what you don’t,’ ” Jacqueline repeated the last line.

  “That’s got to be the key,” Darrel said as his eyes scanned the room, looking at the various fish tanks. “Maybe there’s a fish missing? I mean, I don’t get what that would have to do with the murder, but…”

  “It’s worth a shot!” Jacqueline agreed.

  And so they went from tank to tank, looking at the fish inside. As soon as they reached the fourth tank, it struck Darrel that they’d been missing the obvious all along. He rushed back over to the first tank.

  “It’s gone! The puffer fish—I remember seeing it in this tank that first day, but now it’s gone!”

  “Okay…” Jacqueline said.

  “Remember what Bryce said about the lack of blood at the crime scene?” he asked.

  Jacqueline nodded.

  “Well, take that and also the fact that the puncture wound wasn’t through the heart, which means…”

  “He was already dead,” Jacqueline finished for him.

  “Right, look here,” he pointed at the placard next to the fish tank. His finger rested next to a specific phrase in the puffer fish’s information:

  THE PUFFER FISH IS BELIEVED TO BE THE MOST POISONOUS FISH IN THE WORLD. IF NOT PREPARED PROPERLY, IT IS USUALLY FATAL FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

  “Sushi night!” Jacqueline said.

  Darrel nodded. Then they both walked as fast as they could toward the mansion’s kitchen. Darrel had to force himself not to go too fast for the sixty-eight-year-old woman to keep up. Although he had to admit she could book it pretty fast for an old lady. They didn’t see any of the other guests along the way, which they both took as a pretty good sign.

  Once in the kitchen, it didn’t take long to find the puffer fish carcass in the trash. Darrel held it up and they both grinned at each other. What surprised them was the other item they found inside the trashcan. It was a small, empty jar labeled AQUA REGIA. The label claimed that the salve could melt certain metals within minutes.

  Jacqueline laughed as the estate bell chimed, almost louder than the thunderous bell itself. They had finally been the first to solve the challenge. Darrel had never been so happy, even in spite of the fact that he was trapped on an estate with six other people, one of whom was a psychotic and sadistic serial killer.

  CHAPTER 25

  WORST TO FIRST

  By the time the challenge was over, it was already well past ten P.M. To say that the guests were tired would be grossly understating the facts. For most of them, under normal circumstances, eleven P.M. was far from a late night. However, given the long and eventful day they’d all had, along with the food poisoning and mental stress of solving riddles and investigating a real murder, eleven P.M. suddenly felt like three A.M. to most of them. Those things certainly had a way of fatiguing a person not accustomed to such activities crammed into one day.

  Therefore, Giles’s announcement that the murder theory pitches would be occurring at an accelerated pace was met with relief, rather than panic. At least for five of the seven guests, that is.

  “Let’s not dawdle further,” Giles said as they gathered around him in the recreation room. “The first to state their case is Thomas. Please follow Pam into the adjacent room and make your plea to the camera.”

  Thomas left and returned a few minutes later looking more than a little nervous. The other guests followed suit in turn. The last to go was Bryce, and he returned looking mo
re anxious than any of the guests had seen him so far.

  “Please retire to your suites for the next forty minutes, while our killer reviews your murder theories,” Giles said. “During this time, we will ask that you not leave your suites for any reason whatsoever. You will be escorted back down here to learn your fates soon. Don’t fall asleep—the night is far from over.”

  The next forty minutes were filled mostly with excessive pacing throughout six of the seven suites, the guests worried about their fates and starting to wonder who among them could actually be capable of all of this. Of course, in one of the suites, the killer sat calmly and watched the TV screen as the others stated their cases to a camera. They were all getting better at this, the killer realized. Well, except for two of them. Which made the decision particularly easy this time around.

  “Welcome back,” Giles said as the guests were escorted back to the recreation room. “The killer has made his or her decision rather quickly this time. It seems that two of you have performed quite admirably, while two more of you should be very, very scared indeed. For the first time we have dual winners, one of whom has made a remarkable turnaround. Darrel, please step forward and share what only you, Jacqueline, and the killer know.”

  Darrel beamed as he grabbed Jacqueline’s hand and gave it a light squeeze before standing to face the other guests. He did not mean to gloat, but he quite enjoyed the feeling of being on the other side for once. He’d always been a pretty competitive person, as was usually the case with coaches on all levels of sports.

  Darrel legitimately tried to keep from smiling too wide as he cleared his throat and started talking: “Before dinner, while the other guests were busy getting ready, the killer snuck into the trophy room and applied some Aqua Regia salve to the metal chain holding up the head of the mounted swordfish, knowing that our victim would likely end up there after dinner, as he had after virtually every meal so far. The salve began to slowly melt the metal. Then the killer instructed the chefs to prepare expired salmon with the rest of the fish for the sushi dinner, while also ensuring that fugu, or puffer fish, was butchered and placed into the specialty roll served to Frank, our victim.