To everyone who replies to this story: THANK YOU! It makes me happy to read such nice reviews, mainly from people who have stories that I equally love! And yeah, 3 Doors Down pretty much rocks. Okay, now onward to the next chapter: which you all are going to love/kill me for. One more cliffhanger before the end of the party!

Chapter Fourteen: Irony

"Okay, let's try and find this room," I said as Flack and I wandered down the hallway together. Abbey and Charlene passed us, too absorbed in their clue to notice, however. "Alright, well, it should be somewhere around here…2659…2660…2662!" I said triumphantly, pulling the card key out of our envelope. Sliding it into the door, it opened with a soft click.

"Now what?" Flack asked curiously, wandering around the room.

"I guess we need to find…"

Flack held up a glass with another periwinkle envelope attached to it.

"…that," I finished with a smile. He tore open the envelope and unfolded the next clue.

You've got some nice bling on, I see.

Flack frowned, bewilderment etched on his face. "That one sounds more like a statement rather than a clue," he said.

I licked my lips and tried to concentrate. Elsie made up the clues, so I had to think about where she was coming from.

"What about the gift shop in the lobby?" Flack suggested. "Maybe it has jewelry in it."

I shook my head and brushed the brunette hair out of my face. "No, that would be too easy. Elsie thinks on a less literal level than that…wait a second! That's it! Flack, what was the clue attached to?" I asked with a smile.

"A glass," he stated simply. "Why?"

"She gave us two hints here: another name for bling, and the statement after the comma…" I trailed off as we exited the room.

"What do you mean?" he asked, thoroughly confused.

"Say 'I see' really fast…" I said, shutting the door to the room.

"I see…I see….I see…icy!" Flack said with a smile of satisfaction. The other part of the clue dawned on him as well. "And another name for bling is…"

"…ice," I finished with a grin. "Which means that we need to find the ice machine on this floor to get to our next clue."

We walked in silence until we reached the end of the hallway, where we were stopped by a hotel maid, and politely informed that we were on the opposite end of the hallway from where the ice machine was. We looked at each other, and groaned, heading back in the direction that we had come from.

Finally, we neared the end of the floor's hallway, and paused, finding the ice machine in one of the rooms. I pulled our next envelope from it, and tore it open. All that came out was a piece of stationary with a flamingo holding a bowling ball.

"And now I am officially lost," Flack muttered. I scrunched my face up in concentration. A flamingo and a ball…but that was it!

"There are about a dozen different ballrooms downstairs, and we need to find one that is associated with a Flamingo…I think Elsie mentioned something about a Paradise Ballroom…" I said, talking mainly to myself at this point.

"It's a good thing that I'm working with Elsie's best friend," he said to me. I smiled.

"Yeah, she planned out all the pairs." The elevator door opened with Hawkes and Hammerback looking very determined as they nearly ran out of the elevator and onto our floor. Flack and I stepped into the elevator and then I proceeded to dissolve into a fit of laughter.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked, pressing the button for the Lobby. I wiped my eyes, nearly crying from my hysterics.

"I just thought: wouldn't it be hilarious if Abbey and Charlene, the only pair of non-CSIs beat the rest of us out?"

Flack thought, and began to laugh with me. "I thought Hammerback was going to plow you over when he and Hawkes got off the elevator!"

I laughed again. "You know, this has been, if nothing else, a demonstration of just how far a CSI will go to solve a case."

"Even one that has no point whatsoever," Flack replied with a smile.

The elevator came to a halt, and we found ourselves, once again, in the Lobby of the Harmony Suites. Walking towards the front desk, I saw the man and woman who had been with us when we opened our first envelope.

"Excuse me," I said politely. The woman fixed her hazel eyes on me and smiled.

"Yes dear, what can I do for you?"

I pulled the piece of stationary out of my envelope and explained the clue to her. "Is there a Paradise Ballroom, or a Flamingo Ballroom, or something to that extent down here?"

The man nodded and pointed down the hallway, to the left. "You'll find both ballrooms down that-a-way. We can't tell you which one your clue is in though, sorry."

I nodded and thanked them, as Flack and I proceeded down the hallway.

"Alright," I said with satisfaction, as we opened the double doors to the Paradise Ballroom. I gasped as we looked inside. In the center of the room, there must have been dozens of blown up balloons.

"Flack, do me a favor and go a few doors down and see if there is a Flamingo Ballroom."

Flack walked further down the hallway and nodded, as he opened the doors to the ballroom. "Yeah, Anna, there are about another dozen balloons in here too," he shouted from inside the threshold. I let out a sigh, and yelled back.

"We'll have to start popping them, since the clue is obviously somewhere in the balloons."

"Alright Price, I'll race ya!"

I smiled. "Okay, on my count. Ready, set, POP!" I ran to the center of the ballroom and began popping balloons like crazy, hoping to find a piece of paper in one of them.

"I got it!" Flack yelled from the other room. I rushed out of the room to meet him, just as he was reading the clue, obviously dumbfounded.

"This one makes no sense," he said with confusion, placing another card key in my palm. "And it's our final clue, too," he added, pointing out the star on the paper.

I leaned over and read the clue out loud.

Who am I? I'm Jean Valjean!

I beamed. Elsie knew me all too well. Grabbing Flack's hand, I pulled him down the hallway and to the elevator.

"Woah, Price. You know what this means?" he asked, struggling to hold the clue in his hand and run at the same time. I nodded. I didn't even have to read the other paper that came attached to the clue.

"Les Miserables," I explained as I hit the button for the 15th floor, "is my favorite musical, and in it there is this convict named Jean Valjean."

"Okay…" Flack said, still confused. "What does that have to do with our clue?"

"I'm getting there, just wait. Now, each convict had a number tattooed on their chest. Well, Valjean bursts out in the play: Who am I? 24601!"

"So, we're going to room 24601?" Flack asked with eyebrows raised skeptically. "There is no room 24601."

"I think we're just going to room 2460 then," I replied with an all-knowing grin, that I prayed Flack hadn't noticed.

We headed out of the elevator on the 15th floor, and headed to the left. I hoped that I knew where I was going without my map. But as it turns out, I didn't need to know where room 2460 was, because Abbey and Charlene were already sitting against the wall. When they saw us coming, they waved their clues and smiled.

"That was a good one of Elsie's," Charlene said with a smile. "It's a good thing that Abbey here is just about as big of a theatre freak as you are," she added, motioning for me to sit beside her.

Flack was puzzled. "Woah, wait a second here, they won already?"

Abbey glanced over at me with bewilderment. "Didn't you tell him?"

I shook my head and peered down the hall to see Mac and Stella walking towards us. "But I guess I have to explain to them sometime soon."

"No need," I heard Elsie say as she appeared from behind Mac and Stella with Hawkes and Hammerback in tow.

Flack was still confused. "Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" he asked upset.

"I'd like to know that as well," Mac said with a frown. Elsie, Charlene, Abbey and I all exchanged glances.

"Well?" chorused the CSIs.

"Alright, I'll explain…" Elsie began, herding everyone away from room 2460 and towards the elevator.

Uh-oh. What's going on? Why is everyone at the same spot? And why did the girls know about this already? Well, you'll know…next chapter! MWHAHAHA.