Cathy, feeling rather nervous attempted to restore the electricity again, but the door was stuck vast. She didn't know what to do next. Everything was so confusing. The so called murder of her Father, the poisoned brandy, the ring, the dagger with the strange motto…nothing connected. And why had her father refused to tell her who killed the cop? She had to do something, she knew, but what? Stumbling a little on the stairs, Cathy led Veronica and Dana to her room, where she hoped that they would be safe. Then, checking that the coast was clear, she tiptoed to her parents' bedroom where Wadsworth was struggling to repair the electricity.

"Father!" She called, and Wadsworth spun around, petrified.

"Don't ever do that again, Catherine! This blasted box is so old there isn't a chance of restoring the electricity tonight."

"Father, I need the house key."

"Catherine, you know not to let anyone leave until we have finished the music performance."

"I need it to let the guests out. Someone has locked them in the ballroom."

"Dear God in Heaven…" Wadsworth sighed, "I shall let them out." He frantically searched his pockets for the key.

"The key, it's gone!"

"Father, don't be ridiculous. You keep it upon your person at all times."

"Do not contradict me, Catherine. The key is gone!"

"Which means…the murderer must have it!"

"What murderer? Catherine?"

"Someone tried to kill you, father. The cognac is poisoned. There was a ring in the bottle."

"You have this ring?" Wadsworth queried, "let me see it."

Cathy pulled the ring out of her apron and dropped it into her father's palm.

"You see, Father?"

Wadsworth collected his reading glasses from the bedside table and put them on, examining the ring with great intrigue.

"It is a female ring. A lady's ring. The owner will have very small fingers."

"Father…Aunt Mary…does she have small fingers?"

"No, Catherine. Mary has very long fingers. They are very bony."

"Could this ring belong to her?"

"I doubt it Catherine. I'd best go and set those poor people free downstairs." And he marched off, leaving Cathy to sort out the mysterious disappearance of Sophia and Corey. Veronica and Dana were waiting agitatedly in her room.

"My Father's going to let the people out downstairs. They've been locked into the ballroom."

"Why?" Questioned Dana.

"Obviously encase someone spotted the murderer."

"Is there a murderer?"

"Yes. There has to be. That body couldn't have been…wait a minute. Veronica! You're a genius!"

"I am?" Veronica repeated enthusiastically.

Cathy led the girls to her parents room where she knew that there was a horrible mannequin usually resting next to the window. But when she pulled the curtains back, the mannequin was gone!

"The body is a fake!" She exclaimed excitedly. "It was a threat. My father was meant to see the body, and he would have panicked. The culprit could have kidnapped him and held him to hostage and no one would have known any different! It all makes sense! No one would have wanted to disturb the body after it was removed from the hall, as you rightfully agreed Dana, touching dead bodies is not something people normally do…but the knife…the dagger…that's still a mystery."

"What was on the knife or the dagger which was so awful?"

"A motto. The Noble Rise Forth."

"The Noble Rise Forth? Isn't that a military thing?" Questioned Dana.

"Military?" Cathy repeated, curiously.

"Yeah…nobility, being noble, not just like rich or powerful…but brave…you know…"

"How do you know that? Or are you guessing?" Demanded Cathy.

"No, I'm not. Daddy gets a lot of like, retarded soldiers coming into his place, and they all spout garbage about courage and nobility…"

"Courage and nobility? Girls, we have to find Sophia Mustard now! She's been sent to kill us all by her grandfather. But what is her motive?"

"Maybe she doesn't need one…I mean…little secrets…"

"Veronica, I may regret saying this, but you are much more intelligent than people give you credit for. Until my father is dead…the Colonel's secrets can still be discovered. That's why the evidence is missing. My father kept some of the original letters and stuff and fourteen years ago…they must have been clever copies, or forgeries…and I'll bet that there is another secret besides that poppycock about Yvette and the Colonel's affair."

"Like what?" Asked Dana.

"I don't know…what do soldiers normally profit from?"

"Can't think of anything." Admitted Veronica.

"Right. I'll go downstairs, and you two, keep an eye on the attic and the rooms around here. Any sign of movement, make any noise, and for goodness' sake make it loud enough for me to hear. I'm going to announce a 'game' that you and I have created, and we'll see what happens. It's called Evening Reconstruction."

"Never heard of it." Veronica announced, dumbly.

"Of course you haven't. It's not real, she just made it up."

"oh ok. By the way, Miss Wadsworth, is this real, or are we playing?"

"No this is extremely real. And rather dangerous. Watch out for Sophia. She might pretend to be searching for her ring, but believe me, she knows that I have it. Don't allow her to take you anywhere. Stay where I can hear you. I'll send the Professor and Mr Green up if there's trouble."

"What about Corey? What do you think she's done to him?"

"He worked out that that hair we found in the empty box was hers. She's probably locked him in a closet somewhere…in the cellar! Of course!" And with a hasty wave, she rushed back downstairs.

"Father!" She called, and Wadsworth turned around. But it wasn't Wadsworth. It was Mary!

"How kind of you to join us, Catherine."

And she seized Cathy by the scruff of the neck and threw her into the ballroom, before closing the door behind her. In the candlelit darkness, Cathy could just make out the unconscious forms of the other guests.

"The poison! The poison in the Cognac! You did this? But I thought…"

"Sophia? No, Catherine. It was me all along." She threw off the butler's coat revealing her grey dress underneath, and shook her hair loose from the wig. But it wasn't the same chestnut colour as earlier.

"You…who are you?"

'Mary' laughed.

"Don't you recognise the seventh guest, the missing guest of the party fourteen years ago? After all…you've seen the evidence."

"That doesn't explain anything. There was no case file on you. Whoever you are."

'Mary' put on a very strange innocent little girl voice.

"No one recognised dear Miss Brown. Not even Wadsworth himself."

"You? You were the seventh guest? But Father said…"

"Yes…that I never came to the party? I did. But they all agreed to keep it secret, after I'd threatened to expose them all."

"You weren't the blackmailer though. Father was."

"Of course. An alliance with such a convincing con artist does wonders."

"You and my father? Together?"

"Yes, girl. You do look like your father, don't you?"

"What are you here for, Mary?"

"You can stop that, child. Your father and I agreed, after the scheme, we would continue our hold over those pathetic fools, but he had a change of heart. I had to destroy all the evidence, the foolish idiot had kept it all, as though he was waiting for the police to collect him."

"But why? I don't understand? Do you want him dead?"

"Don't be simple, child. Of course I want him dead. He betrayed me. Betrayed our plans…betrayed everything. But I knew that I had to get someone else to take the blame. After all, I want a life of freedom, so I stole that foolish Sophia girl's ring when she removed it after pulling off her gloves, and along with the poison, I accidentally dropped it into the bottle. I simply wanted to poison them all so that they would know what it is to suffer, and then I used the secret passageway from the library to the master bedroom en-suite to grab that mannequin, fit it with clothes, seize the Colonel's army knife which he had brought along to have valued by the Professor, who has a great knowledge of things like that, and stab it into the back. Then I fitted it with this wig," She held it up proudly, "and laid it in the hall, where you found it."

"But where was my father at the time?" Cathy demanded.

"I told the Colonel that there was a collection of military awards in the dining room, and he suggested to Wadsworth that he might like to see them. I knew that the key would probably be upstairs, so whilst he was there, I watched you find that note and order the two men to move him to the study, none of you checked to see whether he was really dead or not." She laughed.

"So that note? It was a ploy? You wanted to send me on a wild goose chase."

"Yes. A red herring, if you like, Catherine. I never imagined that that boy would work out the Latin translation of The Noble Rise Forth. But he did, and then when I saw that you'd found that single hair I'd left…"

"I sent Corey to find someone it matched with and I found the singed black gloves."

"Your father's. I used them to shoot the Singing Telegram girl."

"You did that? Why did you kill Mary Kravitz? Father said…"

"He tells you far too much, Catherine. Mary Kravitz was a lunatic, but she had a good talent for singing…as well as gossip. She agreed to be part of the blackmail scheme…but then she began to get very confused…didn't know what was going on…she was dangerous to keep alive. So I shot her."

Cathy was chilled by the woman's blunt and uncaring manner. 'Mary' smiled, and began to comb her hair.

"So that cloak and the silk gloves. They belong to you?"

"I thought I'd leave Thomas a souvenir. Reminding him of his duty to me."

Cathy shuffled nervously and noticed a mock crocodile briefcase next to the piano.

"What is in there?" She asked hesitantly.

"Why don't you come and have a look, Catherine?"

Cathy felt two hard hands on her shoulders and found herself being escorted to the piano, where 'Mary' unlocked the clasps. Inside were six stylish black boxes tied with purple ribbon.

"No! Oh God…six weapons…six victims."

"My, you do catch on quickly, Catherine. Yes. Professor Plum with the revolver, Miss Scarlet who humiliated me with a familiar candlestick…Mr Green, easy…lead pipe…The colonel, and his 'devious' little granddaughter-the wrench…hmm….Mrs White, oh, one of my personal favourites…the rope…Mrs Peacock and her extraordinarily daffy step-granddaughter…which brings me to my two personal favourites-you and your father."

"What are you planning to do with us?"

"I don't know…how would you like to meet your end, Miss Wadsworth?"

Cathy was appalled.

"I don't know…I suppose I hadn't really thought about it…"

"You do have a choice, Catherine…the rope, the dagger…actually that's far too messy…the revolver…lead pipe…candlestick?"

Cathy screamed at the top of her voice.

"No one can hear you, girl. Wadsworth is caught up in that secret passageway and well, I can easily find your little friends."

"You won't, Mary!"

"Won't I? These unconscious forms won't awake for another four hours. By that time, they will all be dead, and no one can point the blame at me. I'll be long gone."