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But oh, God, how could she have resisted?
“Let’s check the kitchen,” Jacey said, heading away from the common rooms where the contestants were busy trying to outsleuth one another.
They did but found nothing. Caro and Jacey continued the search, if only so Caro could get an explanation and Jacey could set up her shot ahead of the contestants’ arrival. They had no luck after fifteen minutes of searching the huge old house, from the basement through all the common rooms on the first floor.
Then they froze, as did everyone else in sight, when they all heard the same thing. A scream.
“One of the second-floor bedrooms?” Caro asked.
“Yeah.”
The two of them headed for the stairs and a few others followed. As they reached the second-floor hallway, they heard another scream from above.
Caro and Jacey’s eyes met. “Third floor,” they said in unison.
This time, knowing whatever was happening was going on one floor above them, they ran up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. Jacey even kicked off her high-heeled shoes. She raced barefoot in her flapper costume, swinging her camera up in front of her face as they reached the third-floor hallway.
A crowd was gathering outside one of the two suites. They beelined toward it. Some of the extras were milling about in the hall, looking disappointed that they couldn’t get in. Caro pushed past them into a large bedroom suite which, to her knowledge, was where Renauld had been staying during the shoot. He and Professor Whittington were the only ones who’d been rooming on this floor, since Whittington’s former roommate had been eliminated last week.
Caro immediately spied the director whispering direction to a member of Jacey’s team, whose camera was pointed toward the open bathroom door.
“What the hell’s going on? Why wasn’t I told of this?” Jacey hissed into the director’s face, angry but still conscious of the rolling cameras.
Caro was about to ask the same thing, but before she did, she saw the startled look on Jacey’s face. Curiosity made her follow the camerawoman into the large bathroom, where members of the cast stood near the shower or sat on the counter. Willie even reclined on the closed lid of the toilet.
All of them had their sleuth notebooks open. All were taking notes, trying to capture every detail of the scene so they could answer any potential questions on the next elimination quiz.
“She’s been shot, that’s for sure,” one of them muttered.
“Maybe it wasn’t a gunshot we heard—maybe it was a car backfiring and we were supposed to think it was a gunshot,” said another. “Maybe she just fell in the tub and hit her head.”
Professor Whittington puffed out his chest and pointed out, “The wound is on thefrontof her body.”
“What about a drowning?” Mona asked.
Whittington gave her a withering look. “There’s no water. And she’s dressed. And there’s blood all over her!”
When Caro finally swung her gaze to look at the victim in the bathtub, she sucked in a hard breath. Because the dead extra was none other than Miss Hester Tomlinson, the pastor’s sister.
“How on earth did you getherto play an extra?” she asked Renauld, sotto voce, mindful of the cameras. Given the way the woman had protested the show, she couldn’t figure out why she’d want to actively participate in it.
He didn’t answer, still intent on whispering instructions to the crew, including a lighting tech who was erecting a pole to illuminate the scene from above.
“Let us through,” came a voice from the bedroom.
Caro looked up to see two young men dressed as cops. She recognized them as real police officers from Derryville.
“I sent for them since they were here at the party,” Renauld whispered. “Thought it would look very authentic to have the local police involved in this scene.”
Caro still hadn’t forgiven Renauld for setting up the scene without her, but she did like this cop touch.
The young officers pushed into the bathroom, both growing pale when they saw the corpse in the tub. Even Caro had to admit, it was disturbing. The makeup people had done a good job with this one.
Though the bathroom was full to overflowing, the remainder of the contestants had to get in, so Caro stepped back out, making more room. Jacey, she saw, had climbed up onto the bathroom counter, one foot on the faucet, the other in the sink, and she was capturing every moment.
“What’s going on?” a voice asked. Caro instantly recognized Mick, who had entered the room with Hildy.
“An unexpected murder.”
