Free Murder in the Mystery Suite (A Book Retreat Mystery) by Ellery Adams

skin, but she restrained herself.
    Once the guests had fallen silent, Butterworth stepped forward and gave the lapels of his uniform coat a firm tug and explained the rules of the hunt clearly and succinctly. Each guest would receive an envelope with a literary clue. Their task was to work out which Storyton Hall location the clue directed them to. If they guessed correctly, the next clue would be waiting for them in that particular spot. The person who found their clues the quickest would win the prize. When Butterworth was done, he told his rapt audience to direct their attention to the grandfather clock. The guests stared fixedly at the second hand, their fingers clutching the white envelopes the staff had distributed during Butterworth’s speech.
    You could hear a pin drop,
Jane thought, reveling in the air of suspense.
    When the second hand reached the twelve, Butterworth gave a slow nod. “You may now open your envelopes.”
    Every envelope contained a line of dialogue spoken by a famous fictional detective. The quotes were meant to have people scurrying all over the estate, thus helping the guests become familiar with the buildings and grounds. If guests couldn’t figure out their clue, they were allowed to ask certain staff members for help. Fitz and Hem, who’d helped the housekeepers, bellhops, and groundskeepers hide the clues, wore their “Ask Me!” badges with pride.
    “I read this book in June!” a woman told her male companion after seeing her clue. “It’s from Adela Dundee’s
The Hollow in the Heart of the World
. In this scene, Umberto Ferrari finds a rare Padparadscha sapphire hidden inside an old globe. I saw a globe in the library.” She bounced up and down in excitement. “This is such fun! Where are you going?”
    “In the opposite direction from you, my dear,” the man replied cheerfully. He pointed to a map of the resort. “I’m off to the rose garden. Apparently, there’s a pink rose with my name on it.”
    Jane smiled. Hercule Poirot had had a rose named after him in
How Does Your Garden Grow?
She was pleased to see that most of the guests were enjoying a successful start to the scavenger hunt. However, a few were obviously stumped.
    “I must win that prize,” Jane overheard a woman muttering to herself. She caught a glimpse of white hair streaked with silver and a periwinkle blouse before the woman hurried down the hall.
    The twins were assisting a flustered man in his early thirties. “I only came to this thing to impress my girlfriend,” he moaned. “I’m an investment banker, for Pete’s sake. Never read a mystery novel in my life.”
    Fitz murmured something to the agitated guest. The man nodded enthusiastically, pressed several bills into Fitz’s hand, and then dashed off. Looking supremely satisfied. Fitz counted the money and handed Hem several dollars, and the two boys exchanged one of their many secret handshakes.
    Jane was about to chastise her sons for accepting bribes when they wriggled their way through a knot of giddy women and abruptly vanished.
    At that moment, Felix Hampden, the Umberto Ferrari look-alike, appeared from behind a potted ficus tree. He glanced about in desperation and then, seeing Jane, made his way to her side with that quick, funny little gait of his. He was the only guest in costume. “Beautiful
signora
. Would you be so kind?” He stroked his pencil mustache in agitation. “I, the most dashing and intrepid inspector in all of Europe, am confounded by this clue.”
    Examining the slip of paper, Jane read the line out loud. “‘Hemlock in the cocktails, wasn’t it?’” She tapped her chin and tried to remember which book the quote came from. “I believe this is from
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
.”
    When the little man gave her a baffled frown, Jane tried again. “You didn’t investigate this case,
signor
. Miss Marple, the British lady sleuth, was the investigator. However, I believe the key word here is