Chapter Three

Striding into the room, using a handkerchief to wipe fake blood from his face, was Grumman, looking mischievous and very much alive. He stopped on the edge of the circle of chairs, looking around. "Well, I have to say that this particular plan backfired spectacularly."

Roy had shot to his feet the instant the old man spoke for the first time, and now stood staring in dumbfounded amazement. "Sir, I –" he seemed to shake himself, his startled thoughts aligning. "What do you mean, your 'plan backfired?'"

"Just what I said, my boy!" Hands on his hips, moustache twitching indignantly, Grumman surveyed them all again. "This was supposed to be the entertainment for this evening: a murder mystery theatre! Even the guards didn't know! But it all went ludicrously awry, for the best possible reason."

He turned to look at Armstrong. "You've done a commendable job, Major. However, I'm afraid I underestimated you. I didn't expect you to react quite so quickly or so well." There are twelve actors in the ballroom among the other guests that were meant to be the real suspects, but the Major managed to find real ones."

"How were we supposed to know it wasn't real?" Olivier asked, lounging casually in the deep chair with the perfect manner of nonchalance. "More people could have been of the same mind as Alex."

"Ah, but I had two methods of that. The first was my house manager, Jenson. Lovely man. He had just stepped out of the residence to pick up the information pages to distribute to the guests when Major Armstrong locked down the house." His eyes glittered with high good humour. "What was it? 'No one in or out?' Brilliant work, but it meant poor Jenson was stuck at the west guardhouse. Thankfully, I had another possible method, though she was urged to keep it to herself unless necessary. Riza?"

Smiling faintly, Riza held up the piece of card that had been in the envelope on the Solstice tree. Writ plainly were the words 'Whatever happens, play along.'

"I was confused at first," she commented, "but when I found that what was supposed to be a dead body still had a pulse, I began to suspect it might be something like this."

Roy turned an incredulous look on her. "You knew all along? And you didn't think to share this news before it got this out of hand?"

"The Führer gave me an order, sir. 'Play along.'" She looked up, still with a small smile. "But I wouldn't have let anyone be arrested. And since I didn't know anything beforehand, I couldn't know this wasn't the way it was supposed to go."

Hakuro's face was reaching near-alarming shades of red from his barely-contained fury. "The fact remains that for the last forty-five minutes, people have been practically held hostage in this house, without knowing why! Just what are you planning to tell them?!"

Unfazed, Grumman waved a hand in dismissal. "I'm told that Major Armstrong didn't inform the general public of my so-called demise. A fortunate thing. We don't necessarily have to explain ourselves to the general populace, though if pressed, we will play the 'classified' card."

Turning, he extended his hand for Mrs. Bradley's. "My dear, I'm terribly sorry you got caught up in all this. This was not the way I had hoped for you to spend your evening; I'd rather hoped you might enjoy it much more than this."

"It's perfectly all right," the lady said, with a genuine smile. "If nothing else, this is certainly the most interesting party that's ever been thrown here, even if the entertainment did hit a snag."

"Then, by all means, let's not hang around here! The night is still young and there's a party going on!" Grummans started for the door. "Come, Major! We will repeal your barred exit order and let things get back to normal!"

Together, he, Mrs. Bradley, and Armstrong swept out of the room, followed by a still-grumbling Hakuro and an indifferent Olivier. Roy caught Riza's hand, giving her pause.

"You could have at least told me," he said quietly. "I was worried about you; you just… you seemed to kind of shut down." Reaching up, he brushed a stray hair from her face, tucking it back behind her ear. "Not to mention that it gave me some grief too."

"I tried," she said apologetically. "But there was only one brief moment when we weren't surrounded by people or talking about something else…. I didn't want to risk being overheard and spoiling the surprise for everyone else." She looked at him steadily. "But you also know me. You know how I react to real tragedy, and that wasn't it."

"True." He smiled. "In the back of my mind, I knew something was off, but I thought it was just refusal to process." Pulling her into a hug, he rested his cheek against her hair. "You realize your grandfather is probably crazy, right? For pulling a stunt like this?"

She pulled back to smile, that same promise-filled smile for what awaited them later, after they had left. "No more so than you."

He grinned in return, before she took his arm and led him back toward the ballroom. As Grumman had said, the night was still young, and even more than half a year after the Battle of Central, an opportunity to celebrate was never wasted.