“I’m sorry, what?” Gilly asked. We’d grabbed her and Scott when they’d exited Chemistry Chaos and dragged them to our guest room.
Scott, who had gotten a front-row seat to my smell-o-rama show a few months back, leaned against the dressing table. He crossed his arms. “Are you sure there’s going to be a murder this weekend? I mean, maybe they were just acting out a scenario for a future mystery.”
Ezra assessed the doctor and nodded. “That’s a good thought.”
I frowned as a tension headache began to take hold. I massaged the space above the bridge of my nose. “I don’t think so. My visions are triggered by scents, but only if the emotional memories attached to them are strong.” I rubbed my eyes and cringed as a fake eyelash came loose. “Shoot.”
Gilly walked over, and with the calm only a BFF can bring, she took the eyelash from me. “Close your eyes.”
I did.
She put the lash back in place, then swiped under my eye with her thumb to clear off any smudged liner or mascara. “There,” she said. “All better. Now, explain your reasoning.”
“There was too much…intensity for that memory to be play-acting.”
“Maybe they were method actors,” Gilly said. “You know, really living the part.”
“You’ve seen these people act,” Ezra noted. “Do you think any of them could pull off a real performance?”
Gilly winced. “No. I mean, they aren’t terrible for what they’ve been hired for. But no, I don’t think any of them could pull off what you’re talking about, Nora.”
“Even if they could, it doesn’t explain the other visions, like the one with the kid and mom, or the crew of bullies. And there was the secretive hook-up in the library. This doesn’t feel put on or fake. It feels super real.” I pivoted my gaze to the door. “We should find Pippa and Jordy. We’re going to have to gather as much information about all the players if we want to stop this couple’s plan.”
“Wait a minute,” Scott said. “We can’t exactly ask strangers if they’re planning on murdering someone, and the actors are all playing roles. When we were interviewing them, they really stuck to their characters. How are we supposed to get them to reveal personal information?”
“Their real names are listed in the brochure. We can search the internet…” Gilly’s shoulders dropped, and her lower lip jutted out. “Except, they have our freaking phones locked up somewhere.”
“It’s another good thought,” Ezra said. “Having their real names is a start.”
I snapped my fingers. “Maybe it’s a married couple. And the woman and her lover are plotting to kill the husband.”
“It’s a cliché,” said Ezra, “but it’s also true. Most spousal murders are committed by partners.”
“Okay. So, maybe we’ll get lucky. If two of the actors have the same last name, that might give us our married couple and lead us to the probable victim.”
Scott took the brochure from the dressing table. I think we were all holding our breaths as he read through it. At least, I was.
Finally, he looked up and gave a small headshake. “No same last names.”
“It can’t ever be easy, can it?” I asked. “Let’s lay out the potential victims.” I grabbed the dry erase marker from the packet along with the blank page for notes. I made two columns. One for the men. Potential suspect-slash-victims. And one column for the women. Potential conspirators. “Okay, so we have Robert Forester, who plays the detective and the principal, Sawyer Johnson is Biff Cruise, Tim Dean who plays Brian Bender, and Tony Morton is Mr. Moore.” I moved to the second set of names. “Wendy Price is Mary Jane Masterson, our brunette cheerleader, Lynn Gleason is Leah Standish, the blonde, Tina Rothschild is Mrs. Nelson.”
“There could be more than one married couple in that group,” Gilly said.
“Or no married couples,” Scott added.
“Maybe the wife didn’t take her husband’s last name.” Gilly shrugged. “Lots of women don’t. And we haven’t even considered if one or both of the suspects are from the guests and not the actors.”
Ezra frowned. “We won’t completely discount it.”
“The scent of pot was fairly fresh,” I said. “This wasn’t a distant memory.”
Gilly began to pace. “Unless the person who smoked the pot recently had a memory about something that happened in the past when he or she smoked the pot before.”
“Convoluted, but possible. Still, I’m not convinced.” I tapped the marker on the paper. “The couple was making a plan to murder someone on opening weekend. This is opening weekend. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet gives us the opportunity to stop it. An opportunity we don’t usually get.” This was the first time one of my scent visions had given me a warning of a crime, and I couldn’t risk ignoring the metaphysical heads-up if it meant saving a life.
Gilly sat on the edge of the bed. “This wasn’t the kind of mystery I had in mind for my birthday weekend.”
“I wish my psychic smeller could be used as evidence so we could get the police involved.” I glanced at Ezra. “And maybe if we were in Garden Cove, we might’ve had wiggle room.” After all, I’d worked with the police on several investigations as a psychic consultant. “But this is a different town. Hell, it’s a different county.”
“But Easy’s a detective,” Gilly said. “Doesn’t that give him some credibility, even if it’s not his jurisdiction?”
Ezra shrugged and raised his hands palm up. “I have one line from one of Nora’s visions talking about killing someone. We don’t have a victim or a suspect. It’s not enough to call in the cavalry.”
“You’re right.” Gilly sighed. “This isn’t how I saw this weekend going.” She looked up at Scott. “I’m sorry. I thought this would be a fun getaway for all of us.”
The hot doc put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ve been having a great time. This is the first time I haven’t been on call at the hospital in a year, and I get to be with you.” He gave her a sympathetic smile. “What do you want to do?”
Gilly nodded. “Nora’s right. If someone’s in trouble, we have to help.”
Ezra cleared his throat. “We need to set some ground rules for safety reasons. I don’t want anyone putting themselves in danger. It’s more of an ears-and-eyes-open situation. If you ask personal questions of the actors, keep them vague. Anything you learn, even if it doesn’t seem relevant, bring it to me immediately. All information is good information, and just because something doesn’t seem important by itself, it might be a smaller piece of a larger puzzle.”
I looked at the digital clock near the bed. “It’s almost nine. We have two hours until tonight’s festivities end. If we don’t find out anything before eleven, let’s meet back here.” I frowned. “And when we find Pippa and Jordy, we’re going to have to fill them in.”
Gilly got up. “I think Pip and Jordy bailed on the game.”
“What do you mean? They left?”
Gilly smirked. “I’m pretty sure they’re boinking.”
I quirked a brow.
“You know, knocking boots. Doing the nasty.” She broke out into a flawless cabbage patch. “Puh-push it real good. The Humpty dance.” She wiggled her rear. “Doing the butt.”
Ezra and Scott chuckled.
I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “I get it. They’re having sex.”
“Oww. Sexy, sexy,” Gilly sang, adding a snake move to the end of her dance. She stopped and shrugged. “That’s my guess, anyhow.”
If Pip and Jordy were in their room bumping uglies, I totally envied them right now. I wasn’t going to interrupt them for something that could turn into a wild goose chase. And besides, sometimes less was more when it came to a covert investigation. “Okay. We stay in pairs, though. No one goes off on their own.”
Gilly snorted then raised her hands in surrender when I narrowed my gaze at her. “That’s sound advice.”
“Just act like you’re still doing the fake investigation,” I said, choosing to ignore her sarcasm. Had I gotten caught on my own once or twice by a bad guy? Yes. Was it because I was stupid? Nope. More like wrong place, wrong time.
Gilly’s face lit up with an idea. “Make sure you flatter them. They’re small-town actors. They aren’t doing this job for the money. They must love the work, even if they aren’t great at it. I bet if we push the right buttons, someone will break character.”
“Good idea,” I concurred. “No situation was ever made worse by a little flattery. Just keep it friendly, so the baddies don’t catch on to us.”
Ezra clapped his hands and started toward the door. “Clock is ticking. We don’t know how long we have before these two make their move.”
“If they make it at all,” Scott said. “Devil’s advocate. They could’ve changed their minds about doing the deed. We could be worried for nothing.”
“Here’s hoping,” I told him. “I’d really love for this to be a false alarm.”
Gilly bumped me with her hip. “Whatever happens, we’re in this together.” She rubbed her palms and said, “Let’s go find us a potential killer.”