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“Let me get you some water,” Detective Blackburn said.

“I’m fine,” Tempest insisted. She was as fine as it was humanly possible to be right now. “Let’s get this over with so I can go find Sanjay. So, Sanjay had vanished, and we thought Lucas was dead—which he was, but things got all confused when he vanished—so we started freaking out. And we all ran to the kitchen to get our phones to call 9-1-1—staying together the whole time.”

“Your phones were in the kitchen?”

“Phones get locked up to make the games more fun. It’s the 1930s, so you’re not supposed to have phones for help with clues.”

Blackburn looked as if he was rolling his eyes on the inside, but he didn’t say anything.

“We were all within sight of one another, but when we got back to the living room, Lucas was gone. And yes, we searched. Everywhere. He’d simply vanished.”

Blackburn let her words sink in. “Tell me more about everyone who was there.”

She nodded. “Kira Kendrick, the librarian around my age. You already talked with her, so do I need to—”

“What else can you tell me about her from that first night?”

“That’s when I learned she’s a fantastic singer. She has both talent and stage presence. And she’s the best actor of all of them. I don’t know her well. She’s close to Milton, who you already spoke to. So you know he’s the rare books expert who works for the Hidden Bookshop—” Tempest broke off and winced. She’d been the one to suggest the rare book motive to Blackburn, then hadn’t followed up when her grandparents pointed out how illogical that was.

“We already know Mr. Cruz wasn’t searching for a book,” Blackburn said, “since he died that first night. What else do you remember about Mr. Silver from that night?”

“He was acting stiffly, but I can’t attribute that to being about to stab the person he thought was Sanjay. Can’t we do this later?” She looked at her phone. “Sanjay isn’t texting me back, and we really need to find him.”

“The best way to help him is to find out who did this. You were talking about Mr. Silver.”

“Milton takes himself too seriously, so I wonder if he got into acting in an attempt to loosen up. Even though he’s around my dad’s age, he only got into acting a couple of years ago and has taken Kira under his wing.”

“I thought you said Ms. Kendrick was the talented one.”

Tempest gave him a wry smile. “You’ve never been an attractive woman in your twenties in a performance-oriented profession. It can be helpful to have people in perceived positions of authority watching your back.”

“Understood.”

“Kira also knows Milton isn’t going to hit on her. I’ve heard him talking about his husband, who he adores and who’ll be coming to the play this weekend—if it happens.”

“We already spoke with his husband,” Blackburn said, ignoring the implied question about releasing the crime scene. “Don’t look so surprised, Tempest. I’ve been doing my job. Like I am now. What else can you remember about Ms. Kendrick’s and Mr. Silver’s movements that night?”

Tempest shook her head. “It was just a normal play rehearsal, except with Sanjay filling in for Lucas.”

“What happened right before the lights went out?”

“I really don’t know. Can’t we finish this later? I need to—”

“Just one more question. Who else was there that night? I want to make sure I’ve got everyone I need to talk with.”

“Ivy and I were both there, since we wrote the play and wanted to see the rehearsal. Cameron Gray was also in the audience, since it’s his house that’ll soon be a library.”

“Mr. Gray was trapped in the escape room with you, so we already talked with him, but what about his movements during the rehearsal?”

“That’s more than one question. But fine. I don’t remember anything about his movements that night. There was nothing weird about Cameron. Secret Staircase Construction has been working with him for months—and he and Ivy have just started dating. Or are at least at a point where we know they’ll be dating as soon as this is solved.”

“Good to know.”

“And before you ask, there are two more people to mention. Mrs. Hudson, whose security footage you’re using from the escape room ordeal, was spying on us from across the street and arrived later. She’ll be happy to tell you exactly what she and her sister saw from her front porch. And Enid Maddox was in our audience. She wasn’t there last night when we got trapped, so you wouldn’t have spoken to her already.”

He shook his head. “I’ve heard the name. Is she another neighbor?”

“She was a friend of Cameron’s great-uncle, Harold Gray. You’ve probably heard me mention her. She’s the woman who opened the Locked Room Library a few years ago. Harold got the idea for his Library of Classic Detective Fiction from Enid, for what to do with his collection of more than ten thousand mystery novels.”

A knock sounded on the door. Blackburn excused himself and asked Tempest to stay put.

“But—”

“I’ll only be a minute. While I’m gone, I want you to think about one thing. That moment before the lights went out. Who was close enough to stab Lucas Cruz?”

“What, you mean besides Sanjay?” Tempest regretted the words as soon as they’d left her mouth. “You don’t really think he—”

“We don’t know what to think yet.”

“But you just admitted I was right that he’s the intended victim!”

“Tempest. You know how this works. It’s early days.” Blackburn slipped out and the door clicked firmly shut behind him.

Tempest wanted to run after him, but forced herself to sit still and think. She pressed her eyes shut. When they thought Lucas had been shot, it could have been any of them who’d done it. But if Sanjay wasn’t the intended victim, he was the closest to Lucas to stab him . She didn’t believe it for a second, but the police might.