Once back inside, we all went back to the entryway together. There we found the butler, dead from a blow to the head with a large bent pipe lying in a pool of his blood next to him. Mr. Teal picked up a large candlestick holder and clutched it as if he was a cornered animal ready to defend himself. Emily went over to the body and inspected the lead pipe.

“Now what do we do?” Violette asked.

“Well, we can’t stay here,” said La Crème, “either one of you is the killer or the killers on the loose!”

“One of you,” Flamingo enunciated, “how do we know it’s not you?”

“Now hold on everyone,” Custard interrupted, “let’s just think for a moment who was where and when. If one of us is the killer, we should be able to figure it out by process of elimination.”

“I know who the killer is,” Emily proclaimed.

Everyone turned their attention towards her. I stood beside her in the entryway holding that big wrench.

“The reason Mr. Cadaver called us all here tonight was because he wanted to expose

The Black Hand. Someone wanted him dead before he could do it and I know who it was.”

“Who?” Professor Pumpkin asked.

“It was…Mrs. Flamingo,” Emily accused.

“That’s preposterous. I was right there at the dining room table when he died.” “Yes, but he died from poison,” I said, “anyone could have done it beforehand.”

“Well then clearly, it was the chef as we assumed before,” Flamingo suggested.

“That’s right. But someone could’ve put him up to it, and I believe it was you,” Emily insisted.

“But why?” she asked.

“Because you killed the chef…with a knife, in the kitchen. You ran out of the room saying you were going to be sick as soon as he died to cover your tracks. When you came back, your pink gloves were missing. That was my first clue. I’m sure they’re in a trash can in the kitchen, covered in blood, we can go check if you want.”

“Young lady, you’re not answering the question as to why Mrs. Flamingo would do it,” Custard diverted.

“Why,” said Emily, “because Cadaver knew about Flamingo’s shady business dealings. You own the flower shop downtown that caught fire a few weeks ago, don’t you? It’s been rumored to be a front for drug smugglers. You burned it down to cover the tracks and filed a bogus insurance claim on it.”

“Ridiculous!”

“Is it?”

“You know nothing about me, little miss scare all,” Flamingo retorted.

“Oh, but I do. I know about all of you. In fact, I’ve met some of you before, haven’t I? All of you are connected in one way or another.”

“Mrs. La Crème, I’ve spoken with you before at your Art Gallery. When those paintings went missing. I told you then I thought it was the work of The Black Hand. And you also filed large insurance claims didn’t you. You did it by way of Mr. Teal, who is an insurance adjuster after all. The same one who finalized your claims, Mrs. Flamingo.”

Teal looked like he was about to cry.

“I believe it was actually you who paid the chef and then Flamingo offed him for you Mrs.

La Crème. I know more about the rest of you too. Custard, you do military contracts and Professor Pumpkin provided you with experimental nerve gas that has been banned for decades. The two of you wanted Cadaver silent too because each of you had done business with him separately and he knew about the shady deals. Also, it was you Custer who fired the gun in the Billiards room.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Uh, young lady, I do not have a gun. You’re free to check me.”

“You don’t have one now, but I saw your boot holster when we got up from the table at dinner. It was missing after the lights came back on. You must have slid it under the couch in there. You were actually aiming at me, but thanks to the first shot missing and Eric saving me, the clock was hit and you tried to make it look like Violette was the target. But that was also a distraction...a distraction from what she had just done. She was late coming back from trying her phone signal. She was actually disposing of the butler.”

”I did no such thing! I’m incapable of hurting a fly!” she defended.

“I find that hard to believe from a lady of the night.”

“What did you say?!”

“You heard me. You’re a high-end prostitute. Probably run a brothel and I’m sure you’ve had relations with Mr. Cadaver. In fact, every man in this room with the exception of Eric, has had sex with you.”

“This has gone on long enough. What would you know about me? I’ve never met you in my life!”

“The perfume you wear. It’s a pheromone enhancer. Between that and the provocative gait you display, I see all I need to know about you. Also, I checked the lead pipe, and it has your perfume scent all over it.”

“But how do we know it wasn’t the maid? She was also quite provocative and could very well have had the same perfume. Perhaps she orchestrated all of this and then killed herself afterwards,” said Professor Pumpkin. Everyone nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. No one has seen her since dinner began and she was one of the last bodies we found,” said Custard. Everyone rumbled their agreements with him as well.

“Funny you should say that, Professor. Because I seem to remember that you excused yourself when Eric needed to talk to me earlier. No one saw you until after Cadaver collapsed. I believe that you strangled the maid and hung her to look like a suicide. You were going to write a note later imitating her writing to make it seem like she did all this. That part is just a hunch, but I can’t prove it.”

Everyone remained quiet for a moment before Emily continued.

“The truth is…The Black Hand is not a person, it's an organization. And you are all at the top. Every one of you had reason to shut Mr. Cadaver up and anyone close to him that may have known your secrets. And every one of you has either killed or attempted to kill someone tonight…all except you,” she said as she pointed at Mr. Teal.

Teal stood there, still shaking, and clutching the candlestick. He said, “I I I, didn’t know they would go this far. I just thought we were, we were going to scare him!”

“No, Mr. Teal,” Emily responded, “that’s not what they were going to do. They had planned to kill me too when they found out I’d be here. But when I came in with Eric, it slowed them down a little bit. That’s why they got sloppy in the Billiards room.”

Mr. Teal sank to the floor with his back against the wall, still clutching the candlestick holder. Everyone remained quiet a moment longer before General Custard stepped forward and announced, “Suppose that’s all true. What’s to stop us from killing you both now? There’s six of us and only two of you?”

I reared back the heavy wrench I had in preparation to defend the two of us but before anything else happened, Emily stated, “that’s not true. You’re actually greatly outnumbered. The police have been outside establishing a perimeter for the last twenty minutes. I called an officer on the force I had worked with before when I was in the washroom after the lights came back on and explained everything to him.”

“Ha! Ha ha!!! You expect us to believe that bluff? We already know there’s no cell phone signal out here,” Custard expressed with a grin on his face.

“I own a satellite phone. And I told him that my signal to come in would be when I called him back,” Emily said, as she raised her phone up, showing the others that it was already dialing a number.

A moment went by and the front door burst open behind us, Emily still holding out her phone with a smirk on her face as officers poured into the Manor with weapons drawn. The murderous group collapsed to the floor and placed their hands behind their heads as the police subdued them.

* * *

After giving all the information and explaining to the officers everything that she had just disclosed to the perpetrators, Emily’s police friend gave us a ride down from the mountains and back into the city.

“You were amazing in there, Emily! You completely lived up to your reputation…and your own hype. I only wish I could’ve been more help to you instead of mostly just an observer.”

“You did plenty, Eric. I’m confident that your mere presence saved me. They would’ve killed me soon after I arrived if you had not been there. And what you did in the Billiards room…” she trailed off, looking out the backseat window of the police car we were in, “you saved my life directly. The first shot was an unfortunate miss. But had you not tackled me, the subsequent three shots would’ve surely annihilated me. Thank you.”

I paused for a moment as I watched her look out the window and not make eye contact with me.

“I guess my only question,” she said, “is how did you know that Mr. Cadaver was going to be killed? At that point, I was still suspecting him of being The Black Hand.”

“It’s hard to explain, but that entire situation back there reminded me of a lot of something back home. I’ll show you sometime. There’s a number of things in this world that are oddly familiar to things that are just folklore and pop culture where I come from.”

“Interesting.”

“What now?” I asked, “do you want me to go back home and come back after you’ve rested for a while before starting my case?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. My office is still open for business for a few more hours, so let’s go back there and talk. We’ve got a Devil to locate for you.”