When she smirked and said nothing, I shot a questioning look at Landon. He shrugged, as in the dark on her meaning as I was, before he glanced at his watch.
I forced myself to take a breath. “Whatever, Elaine. Just stand there and be quiet. You’re distracting us.”
“And you’re missing the call that happenedbeforeshe was attacked.” Elaine brushed her nails on her sweater before examining her hand.
“What call?” Morgan asked, shuffling through the papers we’d assembled to hunt for it.
Elaine held up a slip of paper. “Whoops. This one, I guess.”
I stalked over to her and all but ripped it from her manicured fingers. “You are theworst.”
She rolled her eyes. “And you’re transparent. But lucky for me, I know what you don’t. The understudy may have attacked her, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a hand in it. He’snotinnocent in this.”
Bringing the note to Morgan, we both read the transcript of the costar’s phone call with the understudy. He needed help. His fear over what would happen to their production was apparent in their conversation. What he said…the understudy took it and ran with it. Like she’d been waiting for the chance to steal the spotlight. Hated waiting in the shadows while the actress stole the show.
Morgan squealed with excitement. “We’ve got them.”
I nodded, staring numbly at the paper while she wrote out our final answer. The understudy committed the crime, but he was an accomplice. He’d helped hide the blood trail, without realizing he’d carried some of it away. Painted on his shoes, like I’d painted my heels for the first party.
When we handed the paper to Landon, he smiled and congratulated us. We’d solved the murder and were released from the room.
As the girls jumped and shouted with excitement over completing the first trial with perfect marks, I couldn’t understand why it didn’t feel like a win.
Why my mind spun over other secrets waiting to come to light, and why the truth felt like an axe waiting to fall. Certain that when it came down...
It would change everything.
That evening, Kingston escorted me to the bathroom to clean up and change, while Landon and Max cleared out the first escape rooms together.
My mind kept circling back to what Elaine had said in the room, despite not wanting to let her get under my skin.
I side-eyed Kingston before shutting off the water at the bathroom sink. “So, these secrets you’re still holding onto…” I hedged as I dried my hands. “How bad are they?”
Kingston tilted his head, watching me from the doorway, with his eyes clouded by shadows and regret.
“Most are heavy, like the one I shared about my father and Landon. Pieces of my past I need to share with you so you understand…all this, and me, more. But there is another one I need to share with you, and I?—”
I walked over to him, eager to hear anything he wanted to share, if it might put my mind at ease.
But a blast of air from the vent above it hit me, filling my nose with a strong scent I couldn’t immediately place.
“What’s that smell?”
Even though I’d chastised Max about asking someone that, it was the first thing that popped into my head.
“Smell?” He sniffed the air, then dropped his head to his shirt, lifting the fabric and smelling it before holding it out to me. “Maybe the detergent Alice uses? She makes it herself.”
I sniffed at his shirt, and my vision blurred as the overwhelming scent of citrus and spices filled my nostrils.
“That smell?—”
I blinked, trying to clear my head and recall all the times I’d smelled that scent. When I swayed on my feet, Kingston took my elbow and led me away from the bathroom.
“It’s probably on all the towels and things. Come sit and let me grab something from my room that isn’t freshly washed.”
I nodded, my mind going a mile a minute. I recognized the scent from that night in front of Pendragon with Merle. From the night I’d been drugged. And…
From the night I’d been attacked.
