THE CHEF WAS Emma’s uncle! JJ looked around for Emma to see how she’d reacted to this news, but he couldn’t find her.
“That makes the chef a suspect too,” Buck said, sitting back in his chair, looking smug.
Fiona added to the chorus. “Not just any suspect. If Mr. Barclay was poisoned by a cupcake’s frosting, I would say that whoever made the cupcake is the prime suspect.”
Everyone agreed that this was a logical conclusion to arrive at.
“So now we have five suspects?” JJ’s mom asked, pointing out the obvious.
Fiona said, “I would say the chef is the only suspect.”
There was murmuring, which turned into louder voices, protesting, and finger pointing.
Mr. Clark raised his hands. “Everyone, everyone.”
Out of nowhere, Fiona stood up and clapped her hands twice. “Well, since I have everyone’s attention, I’d like to announce that I’ll be hosting my murder mystery game during dinner this evening. It’s called Midnight at the Barclay Hotel. This way, I can show you all just how much fun it could be!”
Buck grumbled, “I think we’re all fed up with murder mystery games, Ms. Fleming.”
Everyone nodded.
Fiona’s face dropped.
“Perhaps another time, Ms. Fleming,” Mr. Clark said.
She sank back down into her seat, looking disappointed.
Mr. Clark said in closing, “To continue the game, you will need to interview each other as suspects. So ensure you all are available this afternoon.”
“I NEED TO call home,” JJ’s mom said as they left the dining room.
“Hey, Mom?” JJ said. He looked down at his shoes. “I’m really sorry about all this.”
Jackie looked surprised. “Unless you killed Mr. Barclay, this isn’t your fault, JJ.”
That wasn’t exactly what he was referring to when he apologized. Lying to his mom about the letter from the principal was starting to eat away at him.
“Did you like the sticky notes?” she asked, smiling. This only made JJ feel worse, if that was possible.
“The tired MOM was in a JAM and decided to find the hot tub instead of a BATH,” JJ said. It wasn’t so awesome, but he did use all three words in a sentence.
His mom seemed to like it—she was JJ’s mom, after all. “Nice one. I’ll give you some new ones, later.”
JJ nodded. He was a little old for the sticky notes at this point, but he didn’t have the heart to tell his mom that he had long moved on from sight words. Sometimes, moms don’t like to be reminded that their kids grow up.
“Maybe we can check out that pool later today,” JJ’s mom said. “Right now, I have to go call your dad, and let him know what’s going on over here.”
A phone call. There was something about it that made JJ think it was a clue. He felt an idea forming in his head . . .
“You’re awfully quiet. Are you okay, JJ?” his mom asked.
“Yeah, sure.” He needed to think. And talk to Penny and Emma. “I’m going to do some more exploring of the hotel. See you at lunch?”
JJ’s mom nodded and gave him a last hug.
JJ didn’t waste any time making his way to the back of the room and down the secret passage, up the stairs to the secret room. Penny was there, poring over her notes.
Emma seemed relieved to see him. “Oh good, you’re here. Penny just told me that my uncle is a suspect! We have to find a way to clear him.”
JJ nodded. Penny made a face, like she was fearing the worst.
“He didn’t kill Mr. Barclay!” Emma was nearly in tears.
“Okay, okay.” JJ raised his hands in defense, then sat down in one of the old chairs. “Neither did my mom, you know.”
Emma worked to compose herself. “I know. So, I guess it’s up to us to prove that.”
Penny said, “Let’s see what we have so far. You have your notebook, JJ?” Once he handed it to Penny, she tore out five pages. “One piece of paper for each suspect. We have to add your uncle, Emma. If we want to rule him out as a suspect, we have to prove it.”
“Okay,” Emma relented. “You’re right. Five suspects.”
Penny made a drawing of each suspect on a different sheet of paper.
Buck Jones
Fiona Fleming
Jackie Jacobson
Ms. Chelsea
Chef Pierre
And then she added a sixth page called extra clues.
“These are great drawings, Penny,” JJ said.
He went around the room, pinning the pages to the wall, using the nails that were already there. Then he took one of the pads of sticky notes from his backpack. “For the clues,” he said.
“Nice.” Penny smiled, then her face got serious. She said, “Buck Jones. Motive.”
Emma summed it up. “He wanted to buy the ranch, but Mr. Barclay wouldn’t allow it.”
JJ wrote down ranch on a sticky note, and put it under Buck Jones. Then he said, “But what would killing Mr. Barclay do to make that better?”
“Buck Jones was angry,” Emma said, but she didn’t sound convinced either.
JJ pointed to the next name. “The actress, Fiona Fleming. Another angry person?”
Penny said, “She wrote the murder mystery game script for Mr. Barclay. And then he turned her down.”
JJ wrote script on a note under Fiona Fleming’s name.
“Mr. Barclay is not a very nice guy, is he?” Penny asked no one in particular.
JJ nodded in agreement. “He was downright mean. He promised all these people things and then didn’t deliver. What’s weird is that he wasn’t like that before.”
Emma nodded. “Yeah, I think he was really nice, you know, normally.” She scrunched up her face again as if she might start crying at the thought of him, but she looked away before the other two noticed anything.
JJ wrote grant on a sticky note for the library funding motive for Ms. Chelsea.
“Jackie Jacobson,” Penny said softly. It was awkward, to say the least.
JJ sighed and looked at the wall. “Well, my mom had motive too. Mr. Barclay was going to make her pay back the loan she used to start PB&JJ.” He put a PB&JJ loan note under her name. “I feel like there’s an important clue I’m missing, something to do with the phones . . .”
“Like what?” Penny asked.
“I don’t know yet.” JJ chewed on the end of his pen.
“It’ll come to you.” Penny wanted to be encouraging. It couldn’t be easy to have your mom be suspected of murder.
“The chef,” JJ said, moving along on the suspect list.
“We don’t know if my uncle had any motive,” Emma said. “But since he’s the chef, I would say he definitely had the opportunity. He served the cupcake.” She sounded nervous.
“We should talk to him,” Penny said.
“I can do it,” Emma said a little too quickly.
Penny felt awkward but said, “An impartial person should question your uncle. Like me, or JJ.”
“Sorry, Emma, but . . .” JJ said.
But Emma was already storming out of the room.
Penny sighed. She felt bad for Emma. She turned back to JJ and tried to figure out what to do next.
Then she remembered a clue. Penny got up and took a sticky note from JJ. She put Mr. Clark has a secret. “He is pretending to be British. I heard him, and he sounded American.” She put the note under extra clues.
JJ looked at the wall. “Now what?” he asked Penny.
A deep voice went, “Now you find the person with opportunity.”