Frank exhaled forcefully and rolled back to his side of the bed.

Nancy stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, waiting for her heartbeat to slow and her vision to clear. When she could speak, she hissed, "Frank! I told you try to try to be quiet! How are we ever going to show our faces at dinner? This old plantation house has paper-thin walls!"

Frank shrugged and grinned mischievously, somewhat out of breath. "What?" he managed. "We're a married couple, playing a married couple. And don't blame me, your sound effects drowned out the mattress." He leaned over and kissed Nancy's forehead. "Happy first anniversary, sweetheart. The last 365 days have been the best of my life, and the next will be even better."

"You've got that right." Nancy propped herself up on one elbow and kissed her husband on his nose. "This role-playing overnight is such a sweet idea, honey, and so creative. We're going to have such a good time."

"I'm glad you're saying that, Nancy. You know, you're an awfully difficult person to shop for." Frank peered up at Nancy, pretending to be annoyed. "Let's see, you don't like romantic dinners…"

"Why would you just sit there while somebody makes your food? Waste of time."

"Or flowers…"

Nancy rolled her eyes. "They die in a couple of days."

"Or chocolates…"

"I like savory foods, not sweet. Anyway, I get your point, and you don't have to bang your head against a wall every year for me, dear. But this is a nice idea for our first." Nancy nodded toward Frank's nightstand. "How much time do we have? Why don't we review the rules again?"

Frank sat up and looked at his watch. "4:30 now, so we technically don't need to be anywhere until 5:30. Are you recovered from that long raft ride across the bayou?"

"I'm fine, thanks. It was nice of them to make it so old-fashioned and realistic for us. They must have a motorboat somewhere on the island for safety, though."

"I'm sure. This really is quite an opportunity, roaming around on an old plantation like this with virtually no red tape. I guess the family decided not to go the traditional route of carefully preserving Misty Acres as a historical landmark." Frank took his copy of the rules and list of characters and handed Nancy her copy.

Nancy arched an eyebrow. "Oh, I'm sure they're making plenty of money with these types of events they do. I can only guess what you paid for this, Frank." Frank put an arm around her, and she nestled into his chest. "Come on, let's review the rules one more time."

"Okay, I'll start." Frank skipped the introductory paragraphs and got right to the rules. "The only staff on this island right now that we know of are the people playing the parts of Henri Dijon, who is the man in the wheelchair, and Jeeves, his butler, who is the gamemaster. They will try their best to stay in character all night, but they will answer questions shortly and discreetly if it's really needed. They don't give hints, though."

"We're professionals, we don't need hints anyway," Nancy teased.

"Of course not," Frank agreed, hiding a smile. "There's also a bartender in one of the downstairs rooms, but he has nothing to do with the role play. The game starts at 6:00, and starting at 7:00 there will be one murder per hour until the game ends sometime late tonight. There's no guarantee of when the game will end, since they do not disclose the number of survivors, if any. We are each allowed one guess per hour as to who we think the murderer is, if we want to use it. We can guess that there is a different murderer for each character, one serial killer, two or more characters working in cahoots, etc. And we have to keep an ear out for Jeeves to give us prompts throughout the night, especially because we could die at any time!"

Nancy laughed. "So he would tell us where to lie down and play dead?"

"Exactly. The other characters can find the body and gasp for a few minutes, but there will be no searching bodies or anything like that, and then the dead person changes out of their costume and into plain clothes. The person whose character just died can continue to interview other characters and search for clues if they want to, they just can't be interviewed since their character is dead."

"Gotcha," Nancy said. "I have a personalized script for my character in my suitcase, right?"

"Yes, and start becoming very familiar with it. Your character is required to be in certain locations at certain times to act out scenes that give everyone clues. For instance, if you and I are scheduled to argue in the dining room, we would give the other characters a minute to gather in the doorway and 'eavesdrop,' and the conversation itself is a clue to the mystery."

Nancy covered her mouth with the sheet to muffle her sound of excitement. "This sounds like such fun!"

Frank grinned. "Everyone is allowed and encouraged to interview anyone else at any time, and remember, the more information we give to others, the more they will want to give to us. If we need to break character throughout the night, we announce "Break character," but we should do it as little as possible to keep to the integrity of the game."

Nancy took over reading. "Jeeves, the butler-slash-gamemaster, will shut a door when he is setting up props and/or characters for a scene. Other than doors that Jeeves briefly closes, plus this residential hallway where we're all staying, there are no restricted areas on the plantation. They stress that repeatedly. We can take anything, move any items that we might need, as long as we don't take it with us off the island tomorrow. They just ask that if something is obviously a clue at murder scenes only, examine it and leave it at the scene for others to find too."

Frank finished. "These are the following questions that we are trying to answer for each murder. Who killed the first character, second character, and so forth? What is the motive for each? What conversations lead you to that conclusion? What physical clues around the plantation lead you to that conclusion? So they want evidence, too, not just blind guesses."

"What does the winner get?" Nancy asked.

Frank's eyes twinkled. "Fifty percent off any event next year."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Nancy laughed. She swung a foot out of bed, using the momentum to stand up, and began putting her costume back on. "Like we're just going to hop, skip, and jump back to Louisiana for their next event!"

"I guess not," Frank agreed. "But this week off is just what we needed. Thanks for agreeing to come down here with my parents, Nance, even though it's our first anniversary. They weren't interested in this overnight role-play, but they had a great time seeing the historical plantations, Baton Rouge, the French Quarter…"

"And your mother sampling Cajun food at every restaurant, in denial each time that she can handle spicy food. She gets so caught up in the local culture, who knows what would have happened if we'd brought her here a few months ago for Mardi Gras." Tugging on her shoes, Nancy began laboriously accessorizing in the mountains of jewelry that her character never left home without. "What time are we meeting up with your parents tomorrow morning?"

Frank had remained in bed, watching his wife dress. "The brochure said the raft would have us back on the shoreline at 11:00, so they'll meet us there with the rental car. They're only staying twenty minutes away from where they'll pick us up at the shore. You know, I love you in that dress, Nancy, but I love you out of it, too."

"Rise and shine, dahhhling, it's time to go exploring." Nancy threw Frank his 1920s suit. "We need to make up for lost time and explore this island. I want to do a full walk around the perimeter before dinner. Joe will never let us hear the end if the trained detectives aren't the ones to solve this murder mystery."