“Of course,” Cameron says, trying to hide his horror.
Ollie’s curly hair is a greasy, tangled mess, and the sweats that he wears are covered in stains. I walk over to hug Val, and when I turn to Ollie to offer him one as well, the overwhelming stench of alcohol stings my nose.
“Hey, Drew, it’s nice to see you,” he says, as he wraps one of his arms limply around me.
“You too. Come in, Cameron got some games and food for us.”
“I don’t suppose you have a mini bar in here, do you?” When we all stiffen, he says, “Just kidding. I know what you all are thinking, I can see it in your faces, but I’m okay. I just needed a few hours of oblivion after everything that happened last night.”
He walks unsteadily to the dining room and plops himself down in a chair, resting both forearms on the table to keep himself upright. Cameron meets my eyes with a vacant stare.
“What game should we play first?” I ask, taking over when it’s clear that Cameron needs a moment. “Monopoly? Or maybe we can warm up with a few rounds of Uno?”
“Uno sounds great,” Val says, and pulls out the chair next to Ollie to sit down.
I grab the deck of cards and tuck a few bags of chips and a dip under my arm to bring down to the table with me. “Cameron, can you get everyone some water, please?”
My voice snaps him out of his daze, and he nods. “Yeah, of course.”
Val plays some upbeat music on her phone, and the tension lightens as soon as the cards are dealt.
“Val, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” I say, after playing a draw two against Cameron, much to his chagrin.
She puts down a regular number card. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“During our introductions at Ravenwood, you said that you were testing a hypothesis. What did you mean?”
She smiles at my question, but before she can answer, Ollie calls out Uno as he lays down a reverse card, making it Val’s turn again. She promptly plays a draw four against Cameron, and he presses his lips together as his turn is skipped again and he has to pick up more cards from the deck.
“My manager has been on my back about going to conventions to sign autographs in cosplay,” Val says. “I have a hard time around strangers, though, so I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do less. I agreed to work on getting comfortable around people, and this retreat was my first attempt.”
I laugh. “I’m guessing it didn’t help the cause, did it?”
“No,” she says. “Not at all.”
It’s my turn, and I only have a draw two card in the color Val picked. With how excited Ollie looks, I am pretty sure his last card also matches the current color, so I act like I don’t have a card to play and start drawing from the deck. After picking up four cards, I nod to Ollie, pretending that none of them matched.
Ollie slams down his last card on the pile, and we all cheer for him with over-the-top enthusiasm. I worry that we may be taking it too far and he will think we are patronizing him, but he beams under the attention, and we all let out a collective breath. As Cameron shuffles the cards for another round, I check my phone for updates, finding one from Leah and Monika.
I open Monika’s first and bring my phone down to my lap to conceal it, because smiling up at me are pictures of Ollie from the winery website and Val from her Patreon. I type back a quick confirmation that they are who they claim to be, then move on to the text from Leah.
Leah: Yes, actually. I just got back from giving my print to the Jersey police. I guess it’s all instant. I was free to go back home within fifteen minutes.
Relief washes over me that Leah is in the clear, even though I’m not exactly sure what that means for my odds of getting out of this. I shoot a text to Monika with the news, just as a new picture is sent in the family group chat of Scott holding his son on his chest. I gasp, and everyone turns towards me.
“Sorry, my brother’s baby was just born, and he sent me the cutest picture.”
I study it for a few more seconds before turning the phone around to show the others. They all ooh and ahh over how cute my nephew is, until Val and Ollie both frown in unison.
“What, did the screen go black?” I turn the phone back around towards me.
“No, you just got a text from Leah. You aren’t talking to her, are you?”
“Well, kind of,” I say, defensively. “We’ve texted a few times. Why? Do you guys suspect her or something?”
The question is out before I can stop myself, and I prepare for Ollie to go back down into a spiral, but he perks up at the chance to talk about the case. “I suspect Leah and Judith equally, but only because I know for certain that none of us four in this room did it.”
“I think Judith seems more likely than Leah, though,” I argue gently. I look to Cameron for support, but he remains tight-lipped.
