by Tony Verna

Created on: September 27, 2009

When we left our story, Jancy Hall had enamored the Professor with an offer to split the profits made from Tonio's revenge on those she termed the "seven sinners." She had also provided the information on how both the villainous Major Raithburn and the enigmatic Commodore Whitehead planned to profit from her "gift of seeing."

* * * *

The wide hallway thronged with guests as the sounds of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" came from the music room. The guests filtered in, gathered around the seven Steinway pianos, and began singing the traditional Christmas hymn. As the Professor stood by the wings of the door, he saw Commodore Whitehead recede slowly behind the reeds of a large potted plant to smoke his cigar. Then, as he spotted the Professor, the Commodore gave a cold, lidless stare as if to take the other man's measure.

Leaning his head back and opening his mouth wide, the heavyset poseur made a simple gesture, one that he slowly stifled with his huge left hand. It was a yawn, but not an involuntary yawn. It was a yawn similar to that made by a hippopotamus when claiming a territory. With that status gesture accomplished, the Commodore made his way to the front door. His leaving before Jancy's performance came as a surprise to Chester, who asked the Professor for a meaning.

"Perhaps he is basking in his own predictability, leaving the guests to bat about his name for the rest of the evening. But more likely he wishes to distance himself from a proceeding of which he may not fully approve."

The Parisian clock in the corner struck the first of seven chimes, causing the Professor to begin to wend his way to the Christmas tree. He stopped short when he saw one of the servants approach Major Raithburn with the tray carrying the lone blue-stemmed glass. He left Chester with a warning: "The glass with the blue stem contains more than the champagne of a Black Pinot Noir grape. If I have surmised correctly, it is spiked with the juice from the poisonous glands of a sea urchin different from the paracentrous urchin being served as an appetizer. A few drops of this poison will be sufficient for instant death, making it appear that one Miss Jancy Hall's passing was caused by heart failure." The expression on Chester's face could not have been more startled had he just been told that he, himself, was about to die.

When the Professor reached the stairway, he found the black man, Stanford, placing a last-minute gift of an unwrapped powder keg under the massive Christmas tree.

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