We decided to try the gym one more time to see if we could talk to Moore before going to the Math classroom. Plus, we wanted to throw off anyone who might trace our steps back to where we found the door combination. As we walked through the auditorium, I could barely contain my excitement. Eighties rock and pop music continued to pour out of the speakers at a level that was just above background noise. The Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat” was currently in the rotation.
“Hey,” Gilly said, coming up behind me. “Where have you two been hiding?”
“Nowhere.”
“Have you found anything…interesting?” she asked.
I scanned the gymnasium and changed the subject so I wouldn’t give away the clues we’d found. I couldn’t lie to my BFF, but I could avoid with the best of them. “Have you seen Pippa and Jordy?”
“Earlier in the library.” Gilly eyed me suspiciously. “Wait a minute. You’re avoiding the question. You know something, don’t you? You know you can’t fib around me, Nora. I can read you like a book.”
Her assessment hit close to home as far as the new clue went. I made a key-to-lock motion on my lips then threw away the key. “You’ll get nothing outta me.”
She turned her mom-gaze on me, but I’m immune to the parental death stare. When I wouldn’t say more, she let out a frustrated noise. “Come on. It’s my birthday. Just a hint. We’ve been over the crime scene, the packet, and interviewed everyone. Other than the fact that bohunk Biff was a jealous butthead, I’ve got bupkis.”
Crap. Playing the BFF Birthday card was way more effective than the mom gaze. I glanced at Ezra apologetically. “When you get to the chemistry room, check the drawers.” I pointed toward the ceiling. “And look up.”
Ezra groaned as Gilly threw her arms around me and noisily kissed my cheek. “This doesn’t mean you get credit if I win,” she said.
“Duly noted,” I told her. “I wouldn’t expect anything less than a full denial that I gave you any help.”
She happily scampered off in Scott’s direction.
Ezra raised both brows at me.
“It’s her birthday,” I said in my defense. “Consider it my gift.”
He chuckled as he slung an arm over my shoulders. “No more gifts.”
“None.” I crossed my heart. “Hey, it looks like the science teacher is on his own. Let’s nab him while we can.”
Mr. Ren Moore, according to the historical background of the character, had been a teacher for fifteen years at Central High School. He was married with two elementary-aged children, and he was well-liked by students and staff. Only Ezra and I knew that one student hadn’t liked the man.
“Mr. Moore, can we have a private word?” I asked.
He pointed up and twirled his finger. “That’s what the music is for. It’s not so loud we can’t talk, but loud enough that our conversation won’t carry.”
I looked around and tried to hear the conversation the young couple was having with the cheerleader Leah Standish, and realized I couldn’t make out anything they were saying.
I nodded. “Impressive.”
His smile was beaming, and it gave his face a more youthful appearance. I guessed him to be his early to mid-forties. “What can I do for you?”
I glanced at Ezra.
He gestured for me to go ahead.
Since he wasn’t a real suspect for a real murder, I decided to go for the direct approach. “How long has Biff Cruise been blackmailing you?”
Moore managed to appear shocked. “What makes you think he was blackmailing me?”
“Oh, I don’t know. An incriminating letter in the locked drawer of your desk, perhaps?” I pointed an accusing finger at him. “What did he have on you, sir? And was it enough for you to kill him to hide your secret?”
He shook his head. “It’s true Biff was blackmailing me. Or at least trying to, but I wasn’t going to change his grade to keep my secret.” A slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “As to what he had on me, that’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“Are you denying you killed him?”
“I was getting coffee in the breakroom,” he said evasively.
“For forty-five minutes?” Ezra interjected.
Moore crossed his arms over his chest. “The pot is a slow percolator.”
“Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts?” I asked.
“When I dropped Biff off in the office, I didn’t know I was going to need an alibi,” he said smoothly. “Do you meddling kids have any more questions?”
“Nope. Thanks for your time.”
He spread his hands. “I’ll be here all night.”
The other actors-slash-characters were all engaged with other guests…except Tubbs Crockett, who was dressed in the dark brown wig and ill-fitting suit. So, he was now Mr. Hughes, the principal. “Do you want to talk to that guy?” I asked Ezra.
“I don’t,” Ezra admitted. “There’s something familiar about the man. I know him from somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Like in an official capacity?”
“Maybe,” he said. He jammed his hands in his pockets. “I remember every person I ever booked, so I don’t think he’s someone I arrested. Still, he doesn’t feel like a witness or another cop.” He shook his head. “It’ll come to me. Until then, I’d like to keep my distance.”
“That’s good by me.” Hughes-Crockett’s cologne kept sending me down psychic memory lane. I was happy to avoid another run-in. “So, the Math room?”
“Let’s do it,” Ezra said. “If Gilly or Pippa comes around, we wait until they are scarce before we punch in the code.”
I nodded. “Yep. Totally.”
He kept his gaze on me.
“I swear,” I said.
“Until Gilly guilts you again.”
I grinned. “Exactly.”
We waited for the Graves sisters to go inside the History classroom. I didn’t see Gilly or Scott, so I assumed they were trying to figure out Chemistry Chaos.
I punched in the code on the Math room door: 1695. The light on the keypad turned green, and the lock clicked.
Ezra grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. His smile was victorious.
“We’re awesome,” I said as we rushed inside.
“You’ll get no argument from me.” He let the door close behind us.
I tugged on a front belt loop on his jeans. “Alone again. Whatever shall we do with our time?”
Ezra rested his arms on my shoulders. “I’m sure something will come up.”
Suddenly, the ceiling lights flared to life, putting the kibosh on sexy time.
“Welcome to Math Madness, folks,” the guy over the intercom said.
That’s when we noticed there was another keypad on the interior of the door. Ugh. It didn’t occur to me that there would be a keypad on the inside, too. But I should’ve remembered it was an escape room before attacking Ezra.
“You have twenty minutes to find the clues and escape,” the guy said. “If you need a hint, just say help. Every hint will cost you five minutes.”
“Thank you, cockblocking Man-Behind-The-Curtain.”
“Here’s a free hint,” the guy added with a chuckle. “If you want privacy, you should’ve gone to a hotel.”
I rolled my eyes at the camera then turned my gaze to Ezra. “At least the lights are on this time. Should make stuff easier to find.”
He pointed to a mash-up of equations using numbers and letters that covered the entire surface of the whiteboard at the front of the class. “I’m not sure easy is the right word.”
“Nope,” I agreed. “Numbers are hard.”
The room had a teacher’s desk, twenty student desks, some cabinets and counter space on the wall with the door. Outside the windows was a view of a lighted courtyard.
The slightly sour scent of dry erase markers made my tummy feel icky. Again, it was a bit anachronistic since I was sure that most the schools in the ’80s had chalkboards, but I imagined the whiteboards were easier to maintain.
“Are you okay?” Ezra asked.
“Absolutely. The smell of dry-erase markers upsets my stomach.”
“Visions?” he asked quietly.
“No more bullies versus geeks, Mrs. P and the jock, or the boy and his mom, thankfully.” I wasn’t worried. “Honestly, I just need to stay away from Hughes-Crockett. His cologne is really doing a number on me tonight.”
Ezra started pulling out drawers, checking them inside, outside, top, and bottom. “There’s definitely something about him that rubs me the wrong way.”
I would have liked to rub my boyfriend the right way, but, alas, there was an audience. “He seems harmless enough, though, right?”
“You mean other than when he knocked you over then flipped us off?” He found a lockbox with a six-number combination in the bottom right drawer. “Yes!”
“This’ll be easy.” I joined him on the other side of the desk. “There’s only a gazillion combinations. Nooo problem.” I spun the first dial around. “Strange.”
“What?”
“These turn dials only have numbers one through six. There’s no zero, and it doesn’t go up to nine like most combo locks.”
Ezra spun it around toward him. “Good news. That makes it a million or so combos less.”
I stared with anxiety at the whiteboard. “If the answer is in that mess, we’re screwed. We might as well tell The Wiz behind the camera to let us out, so we can ease on down the road, so to speak.”
“You’re the one who told me the answers are usually obvious, so I think most of the stuff on the board is a red herring. You go through the desks. I’ll check the shelves. Between the two of us, we’ll find the right code to unlock the door.”
“I don’t suppose there was a grade book in the desk?”
Ezra gave me a hug. “Nope. Not this time.”
I didn’t see anything inside the students’ desks, but as I ran my fingers across the smooth top of one of them, I felt a scratched-in groove about an inch long on the corner. I peered closer and could make out a notched end. “Hey, there’s an arrow on this desk,” I told Ezra. There were some initials next to it. “Next to it says BB + MJ.”
“Brian Bender plus Mary Jane.” Ezra joined me at the desk. “That tracks with the jealousy tantrum in the gym.”
“Fifteen minutes,” the guy over the intercom said.
“We better get going.” Ezra leaned down and nodded. “The arrow is pointing to the right.” He moved to the next one. He practically skipped around when he found another arrow. “It’s pointing toward the desk behind it.”
My adrenaline ramped up a notch as we went from one desk to another, following the arrows to their conclusion: the last window at the back of the room.
I groaned. “I’m going to start looking at windows first from now on.” There wasn’t anything on the window that I could see. “I don’t get it.”
“What’s that on the ledge?” Ezra asked.
“I can’t believe I missed it.” On the wooden ledge, someone had used a knife to carve the word blow. So, I blew. As the window fogged from my breath, the number 3 was revealed on the pane in the condensation. I did a quick count. I spoke rapidly. “There are six windows. We need six numbers for the combination. We need to blow on all of them.”
We laughed together like giddy teenagers as we proceeded to reveal all the numbers on the panes. It was nice seeing Ezra relaxing and having genuine fun.
We raced from one window to the next, and I got to the final one before Ezra. “Dibs,” I called.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind. “It’s all yours.”
My breath revealed a number 4. I noticed the latch wasn’t turned the same way as the others. Was that part of the clue? Did it indicate order? I tugged it, and the window opened. That’s when I detected the skunky scent of marijuana mixed with the tart-sweet smell of cherries.
“I’ll do it,” a guy says. “For you, I’ll do anything.” His face is a fuzzy mess, but he has short brown hair, and he’s wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt. He takes a tug on a joint. “I wasn’t ready before, but I am now.”
A woman, a blonde, puts her hand on his arm. She’s wearing jeans and a red sweater. “Are you sure? I…we could just stop. Like we did before. He never has to find out. No one does.”
“There’s nothing keeping us apart now. You can’t get in trouble anymore. He’s the only thing standing between us.” He stubs the joint onto the latch and brushes the debris out the window before putting the roach in his pocket. “I’ll do it. I’ll take care of him this weekend.”
“It has to look like an accident,” she says.
“Don’t worry, Winnie.” He kisses her. “By the time the opening weekend is over, he’ll be dead, and no one will even look in your direction.”
“Oh.” My eyes widened as I transitioned from memory to the present time. This wasn’t some distant plan from prior decades. The room had been this room. The way it looked now.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” Ezra said.
“Not a ghost,” I told him, still shaken from the memory. “But there might be a murder if we don’t stop it.”
Ezra’s eyes widened. He glanced toward the camera then tugged me into an embrace. In my ear, he whispered, “Let’s take this conversation somewhere that doesn’t have eyes and ears.”