The Adventure of the Costume Ball: A Short Story

by Jonathan Brett

“There wasn’t much time for the thief to get away, so it’s someone in this area right here.”

  “Great, Mike, you narrowed it down to, like, twenty people!” Kate said.

  I nodded. “There are a hundred at the party, so I’m doing pretty well. Felicity, where are the lights?”

  Felicity stood away from the door and pointed to her left. A bank of light switches stood by the window.

  “They didn’t cut the power to the room?” Jake asked.

  “Emergency lights didn’t kick on,” I said, pointing to the lights overhead.

  “Who walked over to the light switch?” Jake asked Felicity.

  “I was talking to Sarah,” Felicity said. “When the lights went out, I ran over to the switches and saw a small light for a second before I threw the switch.”

  “Where was that light?” I asked.

  Felicity pointed to a trio of people: Abe Lincoln, and Raggedy Ann and Andy.

  “It was his cell phone,” Andy said and pointed at Lincoln. He pointed the hand that was attached to the hand of his costume-mate, causing her to stumble, so she grunted at him. “Sorry, honey, I forgot…”

  “Honest Abe?” I asked.

  “I thought it would, uh, be a light,” he said.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “Scarlett O’Hara, oh, is that you, Ashley Danvers? Didn’t you graduate last year?”

  I’ve only been teaching for a few years, but I teach high school, so she was one of the seniors I had in an elective a year or two ago.

  “Surprised you remembered my name, Mr. O’Brien,” Ashley said. She navigated around a group in her hoop dress. “The necklace came with the costume.”

  I nodded. “You, Phantom of the Opera, stand with her. And random Southern Belle – hoop skirts must be in. You, too, then. Actually, anyone with a cape or a big dress in this immediate area, stand by Scarlett. Great.”

  “Boiled it down to ten people,” Kate said as several fabric-heavy costumes gathered around the hoop-skirted Ashley. I involuntarily smiled at the dimple that appeared on Kate’s cheek as she cast a bemused look at a man in a big, red fish costume.

  Mary Simms stomped over to the group since her crazy Aztec goddess costume had a rather bright and huge satin cloak. “I’m not going to put up with these parlor tricks while one of those lazy, union-fat teachers wastes my time…”

  “Shut up, Mary!” Kate said. “I’ll put this lazy, union-fat fist in your pug nose in a minute. Mike’s working here.”

  “What are you working on, Mike?” Pike asked.

  “Jake, I think we should focus our searches on these folks here,” I said.

  Jake looked over from frisking Frankenstein. “What? Not Grayson?”

  “Nope,” I said. “I heard his boots, but I think that was because he was just running for the door so his wife wouldn’t notice that he had spent the last ten minutes talking to the girl dressed like a medieval wench.

  The Bride of Frankenstein glared at her husband.

  “Fine,” Jake said. He came over and looked at my ten people. “All of them?”

  “Well, except for him,” I said and pointed to the guy dressed like a fish.

  “Why not?” Sue asked.

  “He’s a red herring,” I said. I walked over to Mrs. Winger and continued thinking.

  “I, uh, guess I’ll, uh, search the guys until a female officer gets here…” Jake said.

  “You’re not putting your hands on me,” Mary Simms said.

  “Believe me, honey, no man in this room wants to put their hands on you,” Kate said.

  “There’s got to be a faster way,” Pike said. “What if they have a partner? They could have passed the jewels to that person and we may never find them now! You see how many sparkly costume jewelry pieces are around us? The longer we wait, the better chance they have of getting them out.”

  Jake’s cell phone rang and he answered it. He motioned for Felicity to open the door and two more cops came in. Unfortunately, the female officer was coming, but was on the other side of town.

  “It’s going to take a long time to search us,” Ashley said. “If their costumes are like mine, there are several layers and stuff. That Aztec thing might have lots of possible pockets and stuff.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Scarlett?” Simms snapped.

  “I will…I will sue!” Mrs. Winger said. She had apparently recovered her voice.

  “Fix it, Mike!” Pike said.

  “What? You think I can just wave my screwdriver and make it all better?” I asked. I pulled out my costume prop and waved it. “All it does is light up and make noise! It wouldn’t have even been enough light to…”

  Suddenly, the little blue light on the prop activated a neural connection in my brain that led to an epiphany. You see, I am frequently the opposite of Sherlock Holmes’ advice: I observe, but I don’t see. It takes me a while to make connections and process everything that I observe, and it usually happens at about three in the morning when I also come up with a really good comeback to something mean that someone said to me earlier in the day.

  I turned around. “Mr. Lincoln, may I see your cell phone.”

  “Um, no, why?” Abe said.

  “Why?” Jake asked. “I thought you couldn’t tell a lie.”

  “That’s George Washington!” Kate said.

  “You called?” said someone dressed as George Washington.

  “You don’t need to see my cell phone,” Abe said, sternly.

  “The only person allowed to try that one is the guy dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he’s too busy stuffing his face with the deviled eggs.”

  “Muriel made those,” Felicity said.

  “Oh, yeah?” I said. I had Felicity’s daughter in class. “If Obi-Wan leaves me any, I’ll try them.”

  I held out my hand for the phone.

  Raggedy Ann and Andy blocked Abe’s escape. Finally, he reached into his waistcoat and pulled out his phone.

  I pressed the send button and found the last number called. I held my thumb over the button.

  “The last piece that I couldn’t figure out,” I said. “The chimes. There aren’t any wind chimes in the decorations and no one has anything like that on their costumes. That means that I had to have heard something else…like a ringtone.”

  I pressed the button. A couple of tense seconds later, the wind chimes sounded again. Everyone turned around and looked at Ashley.

  Ashley stammered as she stepped back. Her Scarlett O’Hara hoop skirt swished as she backed toward the emergency exit. “This…Mr. O’Brien, you had me in class…you know I’m a good girl.”

  “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” I said. “I always said you were hanging out with the wrong crowd. Who is Mr. Lincoln? A little old for you, I’d think.”

  I pulled off the beard, but I didn’t recognize the guy underneath. I suppose he was someone she met at college.

  Ashley glowered as Jake grabbed her arm.

  “Make it easier on yourself,” Jake said, “and give us back the jewels.”

  After a rustle of more fabric, the jewels reappeared. Pike snatched them from Jake and handed them back to Mrs. Winger.

  “Only one thing I don’t get,” I said to Kate as they escorted our former student out of the party and Pike sang my praises to Mrs. Winger, who downed quite a lot of alcohol in a short amount of time.

  “What’s that?” she asked as she sipped another glass of wine.

  “Who wrapped around me when the lights went out?”

  Kate choked on her wine and then laughed. “I guess that’s a mystery that will have to go unsolved.”

  ###

  About The Author

  Jonathan Brett lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and reads a lot of mystery stories, which is where the ideas for the A+ For Murder series come from. He is currently writing short stories in between work on the second book in the series.

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