Reenacted Mystery Masquerade

Have you ever wanted to step into someone’s shoes for one night? Maybe to relive some wonderful mystery and find out what really happened. I personally have and it was strangest thing that ever happened to me…

The whole ordeal started in 1943 in the town of Westhaven when a rich accountant named Henry Walters invited four people over to a party.

1. Alice Sullivan was a beautiful blonde singer with a budding career, but she had some recent financial struggles.

2. Edward Saunders was an Army General with a major attitude that served in WW1.

3. Margaret Wilson was an incredibly clever industrious engineer with enough smarts to rival Albert Einstein. 

4. Jack Cox was a brilliant young actor with a taste for the finer things in life.

During the party supposably an incredibly expensive family heirloom went missing from a display case. The heirloom, a stunning gold and blue diamond rose brooch was no where to be found. Eventually the five began to accuse each other of theft. Finding no solid proof of theft by any one person, the five decided to dial up Detective Albert Poole. Even with the detective no conclusion could be found, and the mystery was closed by Henry with a heavy heart. Detective Albert Poole supposedly vowed that one day the mystery would be closed even if it wasn’t by him.

Now in the twenty-first century, my uncle, who is a petroleum engineer and is extraordinarily rich because of it, bought the house that the mystery went down in. He himself is very invested in history and found a replicate of the diamond rose brooch and bought it as well. He now uses the house as an extra home and has it decorated like it would be in the 1940’s.

One day I had the bright idea that me and my friends could throw a party and dress up like the people in the mystery. We all loved history and my friends where down to do it. So, I asked my uncle and he said we could as long as we didn’t trash the place. Then we just had to decide who was going as who.

I, Xander, was going to dress up as Detective Albert Poole. Chase my lifelong buddy was going as Mr. Henry Walters. My fellow mystery lover and singer, Maddie was dressing up as Miss Alice Sullivan. Peter my closest friend on my baseball team really wanted to be General Edward Saunders. Anika my trigonometry tutor made it extremely clear she was going to go as Miss Margaret Wilson. Then finally, AJ my best friend was dressing up as Mr. Jack Cox.

We had everything planned and the night of the party arrived. The party progressed like any normal party. We ate, talked, then sat down on the velvet couches in the parlor. It was then things went from normal to beyond explainable. As we sat there conversing the lights suddenly flickered then went out and the entire room was bathed in darkness. I began to panic but the lights turned on again rather quickly. When the lights flickered on, immediately everyone in the room began to argue.

“You stole the brooch, Alice! Your career has been rather rocky since your recent diagnosis. You needed the money, so you took the brooch.” Chase cried his eyebrows furrowing.

Maddie responded with silky fervor. “How dare you accuse me of such treason! I would never steal from you Henry.”

Peter huffed gruffly. “Now we are just going in circles again!” He then began in a mocking high-pitched tone. “Oh! It must be him. No! it must be her!” He growled lowly proclaiming. “No! In the army we act! That is why we called Detective Poole, let us see what he says.”

Suddenly all their gazes where on me. I blinked trying to process what was going on. Clearly this was a joke, and I was the intended target. “Come on guys, cut it out. Stop this joking around.”

Everyone across the room looked at me incredulously. Chase’s face flushed red, and he spat “Are you daft! This is no joke! My family brooch is missing, and someone here stole it!”

I looked over at AJ sure he would back me up, but he just looked at me through slitted eyes and spoke. “This is no joke detective; we all are important people and have things to do, we must find the culprit. We can’t be stuck here all night.”

I felt sick, I wasn’t sure what was going on. This acting was far beyond what I knew my friends were capable of, they all looked genuinely put out. The faces of my friends had almost been twisted into the faces of characters they dressed as. That was it! They all seemed to have been transformed in a sense into their characters.

Woah, the realization hit. If that was true, then this was way beyond me. I put my teenage brain cells together and tried to quickly figure out what to do. I went with my gut and I figured the best choice of action was to use my knowledge and to go along with whatever the heck was happening. I stood up quickly, proclaiming perhaps a little too loudly. “I must examine the clues first!”

I decided the best place to start was at the display case and I made my way over to it. Sure, enough the brooch was missing from its usual perch on the velveteen pillow in the case. Nothing seemed to be broken, only the lock was unlocked. Using my own non-detective brain, I deducted that it was odd that the glass wasn’t even broken. A key. Whoever opened it used a key, either owned one, or stole one.

In that moment I felt incredibly inferior. It was as if all my stupidity smacked me in the face. I realized tonight was going to be a long night. Who was I to be solving this mystery? I was nobody. A real detective couldn’t even solve this mystery!

I gave a sigh and shook away my thoughts and tried to focus on the task at hand. I strutted back into the room where Chase (or maybe he was Henry right now?) was in a heated argument with Anika/Margaret.

Chase/Henry seethed his face flushed red, “I’m positive someone stole it! How else would is disappear!”

Anika/Margaret snapped. “I’m not sure!” Her tone then became pointed, and she accused “Maybe you took it to get rid of one of us! Passing the buck onto one of us!”

Chase/Henry hissed in response “How dare you. What do you know! You are just a dame.”

Both Maddie/Alice and Anika/Margaret gasped at that.

I interjected and cleared my throat announcing. “I am going to ask you each a few questions now.”

Their gazes all snapped to me and they all gave me scrutinizing looks.

“Ok I need to know where everyone was during the time the brooch went missing. Henry you first.”

“What! Why me? It is my brooch that was stolen!” Chase/Henry’s eyes widened, and he looked like he might burst.

“It is always possible that you tried to frame someone for taking the brooch. Plus, you are the only one who has the key.”

He stuttered and spat finally forming a sentence. “I went to go get more drinks, than It was then I realized the key I keep in my pocket was missing!’

“Does everyone else agree this is what happened?”

Everyone nodded and Anika/Margaret spoke up. “When he came back in yelling, he had two bottles of champagne in his hands. We are all on friendly terms with Henry, I don’t think he would try to frame us.”

I considered this. I figured this made sense, there was no reason for him to frame anyone. I saw no carefully planted evidence as if he had tried. “Ok, well I believe Henry is innocent, I don’t see any proof of anyone being framed and all the evidence adds up.” I nodded realizing maybe I could do this. “Ok Alice what were you doing.”

“Well, I was taking my pain medicine. When I came back everyone was going bonkers.”

“Ok, what do you take medicine for?”

“Well doll, I have what the doctors call Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and I take morphine for my wrists. I’ve developed some paralysis in my hands. Unfortunately, it has been ruining my piano playing as of late.”

Now that I looked, her hands did seem to be unusually limp. Chase/Henry even said something about her diagnosis earlier. “Alright then, I believe Miss Alice is innocent. Even if she has a need for money. There is no way for her to have been able to steal the key then open the lock.”

Maddie/Alice shot everyone in the room a sharp look as if to say, I told you so.

“Next up, Edward”

“I was simply sitting here minding my own business talking to Margaret about locomotives and the railways when everyone else came in and dun said the brooch was missing! Then we all started to wrack our brains to find the culprit. I have no reason to steal the brooch. Plus, Margaret was in here with me the entire time.”

“Is this true Margaret?”

“Oh yes, me and Mr. Edward here were having a chat. Henry, Alice and Jack were gone.”

I considered this. I wasn’t sure of any motive they would have for stealing the brooch. Both seemed pretty well off and everyone said they were sitting in the parlor. “Ok, well I believe both Edward and Margaret are innocent. They have no motive to steal the brooch, and everyone says they were in here.”

It was then every gaze turned to AJ/Jack who had been unusually quiet. “What? Don’t look at me like that, I had to take a break and dial up the director of the movie I’m starring in. I needed to reschedule some filming dates. My own phone is busted so I asked Henry if I could use his.”

Chase/Henry muttered. “That is true, he did ask me that.”

I considered this for a moment. “Jack, what movie are you starring in?”

“Ha! Why do you need to know? How will that help you solve the mystery?” He smirked and his gaze held my steadily. His eyes were slits.

“Just tell me.” I glowered over him, hoping my intimidation tactic would work.

 “The Mystery of the Ivory Pearl” Maddie/Alice piped up. “That is what he’s starrin in! He’s told anyone and everyone about it.”

“Mm, Jack is the best actor here, he is even currently the lead in a mystery movie. He decided to use his skills to steal the brooch for his own! He is the only one sneaky and sly enough to take the key and to come up with a good reason to not be in the room ahead of time. Plus, we know how fond Jack is of valuable things.” I pointed my finger at him dramatically. “I believe Jack is guilty!”

The lights then flickered out then back on again. I glanced around the room at my very confused looking friends. AJ sat holding the brooch and the key in his hands. His eyebrows went way up as he spoke. “Woah, I was actually Jack. Like, I was him, I thought and felt his emotions…”

Everyone nodded in agreement to what AJ said. All my friends were very shook up and we agreed not to tell anyone about this for now. We put the brooch back on its velvet pillow locking it away and putting the key in a cabinet. The following minutes consisted entirely of discussing the overwhelming amount of weirdness that went down. We considered the real Jack in 1943 ended up taking the brooch, selling it, and probably got rich off the money he made from selling it before his tragic death in the 1980’s. Anika said that the detective probably was overthinking things and all we really needed was the simplicity of a teenage brain to find the real thief.

One big question was on everyone’s mind. We wondered about what would have happened if I never solved the mystery or chose the wrong person. I tried to reassure them “Well, I did solve it, and everything is fine now.”

Chase looked exhausted. He snorted and said, “I’m beat! I’m never going to want to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes ever again!”

Everyone left and we never went back to that house again. I’m still friends with Chase, Maddie, Peter, and Anika. Me and AJ ended up getting married and adopting 2 young boys. Now it’s a bedtime story I tell them. They ask me if it really happened. I always tell them it did. Whether they choose to believe me or not is their deal, but it will always stick in my mind as the weirdest and most unexplainable party I ever went to.