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“The last thing you want to do—or that I want you to do—is give the impression that you’re questioning anything that’s happened so far.”

Ellery said with exasperation, “Then I’ll be the only one.”

There was a short silence and the muffled sound of someone talking in the background. Jack came back on. “I’ve got to go. Please be careful. I can’t stress that enough.”

“I will be. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Very much. So please don’t take any chances. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Ellery opened his mouth—

Dial tone.

Ellery sighed, clicked off, and whistled to Watson.

“Lenny and I’ve been talking,” Flip said, when he sat down for his interview. “We’reconvincedChelsea’s murder has to do with Noah’s accident.”

Jack’s warnings still ringing in his ears, Ellery could only manage a feeble, “Uhhhh... Did you discuss that theory in front of everyone?”

“Give ussomecredit,” Flip scoffed. “Of course not. Like everybody else, we’re pretending that we think Edwin Dolph is scurrying around inside the walls like a demented squirrel.”

“Lenny didn’t seem to be pretending this morning.”

“She was half-awake. We all were. But now that we’ve had time to think it through, come on. Why would Dolph come here in the first place? You made that case pretty effectively when we were initially worried about his showing up. Secondly, if hedidcome here, why would he skulk around in the secret passages waiting for someone to show up so he could kill them? Why wouldn’t he come out during the night and murder us all in our beds like a normal axe murderer?”

“You put that so well,” Ellery said.

“I’m serious. Why wasn’t he stealing food from the kitchen? Why hasn’t Watson been barking his head off? He’s not here and you know it.”

“I don’t know it for a fact. And neither do you.”

Flip opened his mouth, and Ellery said very quietly, “Think, Flip. If youareright about a connection between Chelsea and Noah, is it smart to make a point of there being no alternative culprit besides one of us?”

Flip blinked. “Oh.”

“Exactly.”

Flip leaned forward and whispered, “I remembered something that happened a couple of days before Noah died.”

Ellery moved his phone closer to Flip. “What?”

Flip looked over his shoulder and whispered, “Not here. Not now. I don’t want to say—”

Ellery’s jaw dropped. “Flip! You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you out of yourmind?”

Flip gave a shaky laugh. “Totally joking. Ofcourse,I’m going to say. It’s just that it feels like one of those old movies where somebody knows a vital piece of evidence, but d—”

Ellery burst out, “You’re joking around in the middle of a murder?”

Flip looked sheepish. “Sorry! I’m just nervous. This whole situation feels like we’re in a Fellini film.”

Or a Woody Allen movie.

Ellery said forbiddingly, “Phillip Daly, do you have information or not?”

“Yes! I was remembering that before... before Noah died, he was...not edgy, but maybe a little stressed. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he was going to have a conversation he didn’t want to have.”

“With whom?”