Chapter 30
CHAPTER
Jordyn
Present
NERVES STRUNG TIGHT, Jordyn couldn’t focus on the details of what Mei was saying about her game character.
Mei was supposed to be a countess of a small European country, and she was visiting Rookstone Manor because—who knew?
Jordyn didn’t care. How messed up was it that this group was mingling to learn one another’s fictional characters, when the real people beneath the costumes were the true mystery.
One year ago today, a book club member had been killed a stone’s throw from where they all stood knocking back cocktails, and you’d never know it to hear them chatter away about Rookstone freaking Manor.
Like Tara didn’t matter. Like she didn’t deserve to be remembered with even a toast in her honor.
“What about you?” Mei asked, sipping from a martini glass with little left in it besides two olives on a toothpick.
“What about me?” Jordyn asked, hauling her attention from the arched entryway to a sitting room where Gina and Luke were engaged in an intense conversation.
Their body language did not look like that of lovers.
Didn’t anyone else feel the same tension in this house that she did? The sense of impending doom, like a killer might strike again at any minute? They were wasting time speculating about the characters in a game when someone in this house had run Tara down in cold blood.
“Um, we’re supposed to be trading character backstories, right?” Mei lifted a censuring eyebrow. “I intend to be the one to solve this thing.”
“Right. The murder that has yet to happen? That’s not how these mystery games are supposed to work.
” Jordyn had researched the crime-solving party entertainments as soon as she’d received the invitation, and she’d never heard of a version where the dead person was unknown for a portion of the event.
The whole point was to find out who killed a character who was already dead.
Mei gave a knowing smile. “You’re new to the book club, so you might not be aware of the group dynamics yet. But Sophie Durand knows what she’s doing. I can guarantee she has planned this night down to the smallest detail.”
The knots in Jordyn’s stomach tightened. Agitation spilled over. “What about last year? Was last year’s murder mystery perfectly planned too?”
She didn’t realize that she had raised her voice until the kitchen quieted.
Heads swiveled toward her.
“Everything okay, Jordyn?” Destiny asked, a warning clear in her dark eyes.
Jordyn couldn’t think of a better time to disclose her motives than right now when she had all of the potential suspects under one roof. The front doorbell rang again, but no one moved to answer it.
“Things are far from okay,” Jordyn informed them, shoving her oversize costume glasses on top of her head so she could see everyone’s faces more clearly. “Because I can’t fathom why we’d spend tonight trying to crack a fictional mystery when a much more important real one remains unsolved.”
“Oh honey,” Kaitlin murmured, moving closer in her doctor scrubs. “Let’s not go there, all right? We’re trying to put the pain of that behind us.”
When Kaitlin looped an arm around her, Jordyn shook her off.
“Maybe that’s easy for you to say since one of you is her killer.” She met Kaitlin’s startled gaze, recalling the damage to the woman’s SUV. “But Tara Hughes was more than a friend to me.”
She could have heard a pin drop in the room. Even the Halloween playlist had been silenced.
“What are you trying to say?” Destiny pressed, giving her a hard stare.
In the quiet, Jordyn could hear her own ragged breathing.
Her erratic heartbeat that warned her she was treading shaky ground.
She hadn’t planned to reveal her mission this early in the evening, but she couldn’t continue the charade when Tara’s killer might be ready to strike again.
Someone was following her. Someone had guessed her real reason for being in Saratoga and wanted to silence her.
“I’m saying that Tara was my foster sister. The best friend I ever had.” She paused to let that sink in. Wanting them to feel the strength of that bond and how much it meant to her. “And she deserves justice. So no one is leaving here until I find out what happened on the last night of her life.”
There was a gasp. An outcry.
Before Jordyn could figure out where the sound came from, another flash of lightning sizzled through the sky. Lighting up the kitchen.
Thunder cracked.
Every single light in Sophie’s house went out, plunging them all into inky darkness.