“I do apologize again for the unusual nature of our meeting,” Giles said as he looked at the four guests.
They were standing in the mansion’s foyer, and Giles had just handed out strips of duct tape and instructed them to place the tape over their mouths. They were hesitant to follow instructions, but Giles insisted, reminding them about the poor maid they’d watched die on the TV monitor that first night.
They eventually gave in.
“The killer has requested that we not ruin the fun of the maze challenge by sharing what we know or don’t know. Or what we merely think we know,” Giles said with a sly grin. He opened a polished silver ice bucket on a table next to him before continuing. “This challenge will be timed using a very unique device: an ice cube.”
He held up a square ice cube for them to see.
“Once your ice cube has melted, your time will be up and you will be disqualified from the challenge. It mustn’t leave your hand until you think you have solved the riddle. Therefore, be sure that you have figured things out before releasing your ice cube, or cleverly placing it into a freezer. Once it leaves your hand in any form, the challenge, for you, will be over. A maid or servant will accompany you at all times to ensure you are following the rules the killer has laid out.
“And now, on to the best part. The killer has once again carefully crafted a riddle to help you solve this murder. When I am finished reading it, you will be handed your ice cube. Which means, of course, that the clock will be ticking!
“ ‘Go here, look inside me to be a spy and oust a mole, or maybe even pretend to be dancing on a pole. I’m the same as Jumbo’s tool but just not quite as handy, and I’m most certainly not a container for candy. But here, you’ll see the device of a murder quite deft. And once you’ve found it, simply pull the switch and toss what’s left.’ ”
Giles finished the riddle as the gagged guests scribbled down the words. Then they were immediately handed one ice cube each. Water began dripping down the sides almost as soon as the cubes hit their warm, clammy palms.
“And may I remind you,” Giles said as the four guests rushed off to find whatever it was the riddle was directing them toward, “please be careful if you feel the need to go outside, or near a window… it’s a scorcher out there today!”
Darrel looked as though he suddenly felt lost without the ability to brainstorm with Jacqueline. He’d been doing so well. He’d been so determined. But now he merely looked deflated, reduced to the doomed man in shock he’d been for the first few challenges.
And his nerves betrayed him even further. The more anxious he got, the more he squeezed the ice cube, causing it to melt faster. And that’s partially why Darrel was the first guest disqualified. His ice cube turned entirely to water while he was in the kitchen, possibly led there by the references in the riddle to candy containers and vague tools with switches.
Jacqueline’s ice cube was the next to melt completely, accelerated by the fire blazing in the fireplace in the center of the game room. It’s hard to say exactly what had led her there—perhaps thinking “Jumbo’s tool” was a reference to a large TV’s remote—or what led her to any of the places she ended up going that afternoon, looking for hints. But all the places she checked led to very few results.
Bryce actually seemed to have figured out the riddle. Near the end, he was headed in the right direction. He’d apparently eventually figured out the reference to an old trunk full of clothes. And a short time later, he’d realized that old trunks full of clothes were usually stashed in attics. And old attics were typically located on top floors, exactly one floor above Guadalupe’s room to be precise.
The problem was, he didn’t start up the stairs and look around the mansion’s fourth floor until his ice cube was already as small as a casino die. Thus, by the time he finally saw the open, narrow door leading to the attic stairwell, and saw Thomas already climbing toward the top, it was too late. His ice was now water. But even still, he had seen enough to put together a fairly accurate murder scenario. After all, he now knew that something above the bathroom had played a role in the last victim’s death. Additionally, he hadn’t been given false information like Jacqueline and Darrel.
Thomas once again completed the challenge alone. He’d drawn the same conclusions as Bryce had. The reference to playing dress-up in old clothes, the reference to the famous elephant, Jumbo’s, trunk. The fact that this particular trunk was a container of some sort. All of that had led him to the attic, just like it had for Bryce.
But Thomas had figured it out much sooner. Plus, his normally cold and thin hands had kept his ice cube slightly cooler than everyone else’s. So he found the stairs to the attic on the fourth floor with enough time to complete the challenge.
When Thomas got up to the massive, cavernous attic that was as large as three school gyms put together, he wasn’t sure at first if he’d find what he was looking for. But the contraption was so large and so foreign looking inside an otherwise fairly normal attic that he noticed it pretty quickly even though it was all the way across the room. Which, in the case of a mansion that large, was almost forty yards away.
Thomas hurried over to it, the maid assigned to him struggling to keep up in her mandatory high heels.
The contraption itself was a large metal vat of some kind, almost the size of a bathtub. Except it had gears and hinges and levers and chains in all the places a bathtub wouldn’t. Plus, it had an industrial vibe, not a luxurious aura like a normal bathtub.
Then Thomas noticed the manual release lever, marked by a red rubber handle. He glanced at his notepad, at the end of the riddle where it said, “Here, you’ll see the device of a murder quite deft. And once you’ve found it, simply pull the switch and toss what’s left.”
His ice cube was nearly gone. So he wasted no time in reaching out and pulling the lever. As soon as he did, a rectangular panel in the floor of the attic opened up and the metal vat split apart. A clear, smoking liquid poured through the opening in the floor. Thomas looked down and saw it splash into Guadalupe’s empty bathtub, the spray freezing the walls around it.
He tossed what was left of his ice cube into the opening. It landed in the bathtub and a small explosion erupted inside the liquid.
Vavoom!
Even just that small amount of ice and water had created a reaction so violent that the bathtub, only bolted to the floor on one side, tipped slightly toward the window before settling back on all four claw feet.
Thomas turned and looked back at the maid. He gave her a satisfied and smug grin. She looked away without responding directly. Time was up and Thomas had apparently won the challenge yet again, for the second time in a row and third time overall.