Page 71 of Dead Serious Case 4 Professor Prometheus Plume

I look down and sure enough, he’s wearing black trousers, a black polo shirt with a name badge, and a little frilly white apron, the kind you’d find on a French maid’s costume.

“You’re the maid?” Mr Pennington sneers.

“I know who you are, Room two-oh-six.” He leans in and towers over Mr Pennington, who looks a little less sure of himself. “The midnight snacker.” John’s eyes narrow. “Crumbs in the sheets and empty crisp packets under the bed.”

“How come we’ve not seen you before?” Mr Meadow demands haughtily. “Those of us from the actors guild have been here nearly a week preparing.”

“They’ve been here nearly a week enjoying free room and board,” Rosie mutters under her breath.

John turns his attention to Mr Meadow, who squeaks slightly under the huge man’s scrutiny. “Ah yes, you. Room Three-one-nine, the graffiti artist. Toothpaste all around the sink, and…” He pauses to lean in even closer. “You squeeze the tube from the middle.” His voice drops to a menacing whisper. “What kind of monster are you?”

Mr Meadow scrambles back and John’s gaze falls on the Japanese couple. “Room two-two-one.” He points at them. “Very clean, very tidy, as you were.”

Mr Greyson scoffs. “This is ridiculous.”

“And you, room four-two-eight,” he says slowly, “I really don’t think you want me to list your transgressions.” His eyes briefly flick to Ruby, still held in Mr Greyson’s embrace. “It took a lot of disinfectant.”

I turn my head back to the body, carefully bagging the hilt of the knife to preserve any potential fingerprints before slowly sliding it from the wound to maintain the clean wound tracks. Placing the knife fully into another bag, I hand it to Danny to seal with the tape Rosie hands him.

“I think we should cover the body to prevent any further contamination of trace evidence,” I tell Danny.

“Agreed. Bin bags?”

I nod. “If we cut them, we can just lay them over the top. Also, if the police can’t get to us until morning, I suggest we cut the heat to this room and seal it until the body can be collected. We should be okay if they can get to us within twenty-four hours. Once past that, we may have to move him, but if they’ve got walk-in cold storage in the kitchens, I don’t want to contaminate them unless I have to.”

“Rosie, bin bags, if you don’t mind?” Danny requests. She blanches slightly but does as he asks. “That covers the body.” He turns to Ellis. “Who else is in the hotel?”

“Who’s not in this room?” Ellis asks.

“Yes.”

“Um, Dilys, but she’ll be in bed by now. She goes up at eight, was in her room before we even sat down to dinner. I know because I took her up a cup of Ovaltine like I do every night.”

“I think we’ve already ascertained that we can rule her out. Anyone else?”

“All the guests and actors are here like you said, but, uh...” He bites his lip. “There’s Mr Ashton-Drake. He’s the owner.”

“Why haven’t we seen him?” Mr Greyson demands. He’s really starting to grate on my nerves. Seeing as how he’s banging the dead guy’s wife apparently every chance he can get, he should be a prime suspect, something I need to point out to Danny as I’m not entirely certain he knows Ruby was married to Professor Plume in real life.

“Mr Ashton-Drake is in his eighties and he’s agoraphobic. He doesn’t leave his apartments on the fifth floor… ever. I think he’s actually been up there since 1990. He’s never ventured out of his room in all the time I’ve lived and worked here, and that’s been ten years.”

“You live here?” I ask curiously.

He nods. “Rosie and I both do. We have apartments on the fifth floor too. They used to be the old servants’ quarters. Isn’t that cool?”

“I think we can rule out Mr Ashton-Drake too for the time being,” Danny agrees. “Anyone else? What about the cook?”

“Aggie?” Ellis says brightly. “Oh yeah, she’s around here somewhere. She lives here too, most of the staff are live-in. Oh, and that’s one of her knives.” He points to the bag Danny is holding, which Danny lifts up so they can both examine it.

“Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” Ellis states confidently. “She’s very particular about them, won’t let anyone touch them.”

“We need to find the cook.” Danny looks down at me as I cover the body with plastic from the bin liners Rosie has given me.

“If you want to get everyone out, we can close up this room,” I say, my eyes flicking to the spirit of Professor Plume.

Although Danny can’t see him, I’m pretty sure he’s guessed what I’m going to try, and he knows I can’t do it with an audience.