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“I can’t believe you talked us into breaking into a crime scene.” Sanjay peeked through the curtains.

“It didn’t take much arm-twisting for you to agree to it,” Gideon pointed out.

Sanjay snapped the curtains shut. “Mrs. Hudson doesn’t appear to be awake, so let’s keep it that way.”

“It was still a good idea to park down the street and keep the blinds drawn,” said Ivy. “Tempest, are you finally going to show us what we’re looking for?”

“The futon really doesn’t look like there’s room to hide a body.” Tempest crouched in front of it.

“You think Kira made it up?” Sanjay joined her at the innocuous piece of furniture.

Tempest shook her head. “Blood was in Sanjay’s trunk because that’s where Lucas’s body was hidden at first, which is why the police thought he was hidden in the trunk once more, and they didn’t look further for where else he could have been hidden a second time.” She attempted to flip open the futon, but it didn’t budge.

“There’s got to be a lever somewhere.” Gideon knelt next to her and felt around the wooden edges. “Got it.”

The cushion lifted upward silently, leaving a shallow space tall enough for extra blankets, books, or a dead body.

“That looks like a little bit of blood.” Tempest pointed.

“Don’t touch it.” Sanjay pulled her away from it.

“I’m not going to.”

“Oh no!” Ivy ran to the front windows.

“You heard something?” Tempest followed.

“Not yet, but don’t you see?” Ivy looked in horror at the unassuming piece of furniture. “Kira is telling Blackburn about how she used the futon to hide the body right now—”

“That means the police will be over here soon,” Sanjay finished. “Great excursion, everyone! Now let’s get going.” He hooked his hand through Tempest’s elbow, but she pulled free.

“We won’t be long,” she insisted. “Blackburn will take Kira’s statement. We left at the same time they did, so we have time.”

“I still don’t like it,” said Ivy.

“You’re going to like what I say next even less.” Tempest walked to the fireplace, where she could face them all. “Ivy, I need you to answer two questions truthfully.”

“No way,” Sanjay said. “You can’t suspect Ivy of murder.”

“Obviously,” Tempest snapped. “None of us is a killer. I know that. But Ivy has two key pieces of information.”

“I do?” Ivy zipped up her pink vest and peeked out over the top of the collar.

“Who suggested the restaurant you and Cameron ordered takeout from?”

“You mean the new Himalayan restaurant?” Ivy asked. “I did. Cameron wanted something spicy, and I’d seen this new restaurant but hadn’t tried it yet, so I suggested it.”

Sanjay caught Tempest’s eye. “Sounds like a force to me.”

Ivy laughed. “You mean that Cameron made me pick the restaurant without knowing I did?” She shook her head.

“The restaurant itself didn’t matter,” said Tempest. “But the fact that it was fragrant, spicy food did.”

“What are you talking about?” Ivy looked from Tempest to Sanjay.

“To cover up another smell ,” said Gideon.

Ivy’s head snapped to Gideon. “What are you all talking about?”

“You’d see it, too,” said Tempest, “if you weren’t interested in Cameron.”

Ivy crossed her arms and glared at all of them. “You’re seriously telling me that because Cameron had a food craving, it means he’s a killer? Listen to yourselves. That doesn’t make any sense. None. Zero. No sense. Because it’s nonsense.”

“Lucas had been killed more than a day before,” Tempest said gently. “His body was starting to smell. That’s how Cameron located the body where it was hidden.”

“I didn’t smell anything,” Ivy said. “You were with me at Gray House—”

“I was,” said Tempest, “but what better way to cover up the scent than to light a fire and order food that would mask the smell, at least for a short time? The fire would also help speed along the stages of rigor mortis.”

“Now you’re making even less sense,” said Ivy. “If he found Lucas’s body because of the smell, why wouldn’t he simply tell the police? And if he was the one who killed him in the first place, like you’re suggesting, he wouldn’t have invited us over for dinner at Gray House after finding the body Kira hid. He doesn’t even live here. There was no reason for any of us to have come over before he got rid of the body.”

“Unless he wanted to create a perfect alibi for himself,” Tempest said.

“The escape room?” Ivy said. “Really? You think he set that whole thing up to give himself an alibi? Well, it’s the best alibi possible, because it’s truly impossible for him to have moved the body from the futon to the floor. I was with him the whole time. I’ll swear to that.”

“Even when he went to grab the poker?” Tempest asked.

Ivy hesitated. “Yes. Yes! I was on the stairs, with the rest of you.”

“The furniture,” Sanjay said as he walked around the furniture. “I get it now. That’s why the furniture was rearranged. Not because of a trick mechanism, but because of the lines of sight.”

Tempest nodded. “Cameron moved the furniture so the futon wouldn’t be visible from any other room—or the stairs. He had a great excuse to grab the poker, since we thought someone was being attacked upstairs. We were all still close to him, so we’d all think he was within sight. But like Kira, he’s gotta be strong from moving heavy piles of books, so it wouldn’t take him long to step a foot away from the fireplace and roll Lucas’s body out of the futon. The fire was keeping the room warm, so he was speeding along the decomposition process, making Lucas’s body look distorted when we found him—like he was beaten up, which confused things even more.”

Sanjay shook his head. “I should have seen it.”

“I thought I came up with the unstable spot to put our phones,” Gideon said, “but it’s only because he’d covered every surface of that table with food, wasn’t it?”

Tempest nodded.

“You’re all grasping at straws.” Ivy backed away and tripped. Sanjay caught her before she fell, but she yanked her arm away from his hand. “You’re all turning against him—and me. Making up a fantasy so that this mess will be over.”

“We’re not turning against you, Ivy,” Gideon said. “Tempest is right. It’s the only way everything that’s happened makes sense.”

“Harold’s ghost was a lucky addition to muddle things,” Sanjay said. “I’m sure Cameron was thrilled when Enid suggested that idea. She gave him so much great material to work with. And he took advantage of it.”

Ivy shook her head. “You’ve all lost your minds. How did he make Harold’s voice call out from upstairs, huh?”

Tempest raised an eyebrow at her BFF. “You’re claiming it was Harold’s ghost working with Cameron?”

“Well, no,” Ivy said. “But Cameron’s voice is nothing like his great-uncle’s, and he knows nothing about AI, but someone had to have cloned Harold’s voice to do that, right? I’m sure he’d be happy to let the police search his computer, since he doesn’t have anything he could have used to fake Harold’s voice. There’s no proof about any of this.”

“Ivy is right. We don’t have proof,” Sanjay said. “The facts fit perfectly, but it’s all circumstantial. The escape room clues about poison were written in unrecognizable block letters, Cameron has a legitimate reason for his fingerprints being everywhere in this house, and the police screwed up forensics by not taking any that first day when he killed Lucas early in the day before texting me. Oh! What about Lucas’s cell phone? Cameron must have been using it.”

“Blackburn already told me Lucas’s cell phone had been in this house the whole time,” Tempest said. “It doesn’t tell us who was using it.”

“Oh.” Sanjay kicked the carpet. “So the only thing we don’t have is proof.”

“Which you don’t have,” Ivy said defiantly, “because he didn’t do it. What about Harold? Have you all forgotten about him? We heard his voice. He could have—”

“Actually,” Gideon said, “I have an idea about proof.”

All eyes turned to Gideon. “I was thinking about that voice we heard, before we got trapped in the escape room. It sounded grainy.”

“Because it came from upstairs,” Ivy said.

Gideon shook his head. “It was more like static.” Gideon really was the best at noticing the smallest details, though Tempest couldn’t yet see why it mattered here.

Ivy gasped. “You don’t really mean I was right and it was Harold?”

“Yes and no,” Gideon said. “When we were first hired to work on the job site, Tempest talked to Harold to get his vision for the magic he wanted to bring to life here, like she does with all clients. He told you about his career.”

Tempest smiled. “He was a curmudgeon, but I have a soft spot for curmudgeons. Especially ones who love books.”

“Your notes mentioned what else he was interested in besides books,” Gideon said.

“Radio!” Tempest said. “He walked away from a career recording radio dramas in the ’50s not because he didn’t have talent on air, but because he had to work more collaboratively than he wanted to. Radio dramas of the ’50s had all sorts of dialogue like that. What do you want to bet we’ll find a radio show where Harold’s character cried out for help?”

“But that doesn’t prove anything,” Ivy insisted, though her protestation was less vehement than minutes before. “Anyone could have found that—”

“Did you all hear something?” Gideon hurried to the front window.

“I did,” Tempest said. A click . But not from the front door. The sound came from the back.

“The police must be here already,” grumbled Sanjay. “Come on, they’re not here for us, so let’s go out the back—”

“Not that way—” Tempest called after him, but someone was already pushing Sanjay back into the living room.

Cameron Gray—with a shotgun pointed at Sanjay’s chest.