“Oh, don’t pretend this is about respect for the departed.” Hanna’s expression was cold. “This is about solving a puzzle. There’s a reason Dill and Evan will never do another escape room with us.”

“I was not that bad,” Liza protested.

“You were exactly that bad. And this is worse.”

“This is different.”

“It’s not though, is it?”

“There were no dead bodies in that escape room.”

Unexpectedly, Hanna smiled. “There would have been if Dill had taken any longer with that puzzle with the two portraits.”

“He just had to get them to line up to spell out a password—it wasn’t—okay, maybe I do get a bit carried away with this kind of thing, but … well …” Liza broke off. This whole situation was two thoughts away from some very scary places. “Look, the alternative is being trapped in a room, and I really don’t want to feel like I’m trapped in a room.”

At that, Hanna gave a resigned sigh. “No, no, I get it. You’ve always been … This is going to eat you alive if we don’t look into it, isn’t it?”

Liza held her thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart.

“And you won’t go around harassing anybody?”

“Cross my heart.” Liza actually did. “I got a bit over-enthusiastic earlier, but I do do this for a living, and I’m actually pretty responsible.”

“You talk about murders for a living. You don’t investigate them.”

“And I talk about them responsibly. I promise I’ll be careful.”

With a resigned “harrumph,” Hanna swung herself off the bed. “Okay,” she said, “let’s go.”

“Go?”

“This has got in your head, and I know you can’t be stopped when something is in your head. And I’m not going to let you run around this hotel alone.”

Liza gave a smile that she hoped looked self-deprecating. “Why? Are you worried I’ve changed my mind about Ruby?”

“No. I’m worried you’ll die.”

There was that. “I thought you said this whole thing was a tragic accident.”

“And it might be. But if somebody stole a gun then that means—”

“That it’s going to be fired by the end of the play?”

“This isn’t a play, Liza, but essentially yes.” There was a look of real concern on Hanna’s face, and Liza felt incredibly bad for putting it there. “Nobody goes to all the trouble of breaking into two safes to get a gun just for the hell of it. Somebody really is planning to shoot somebody, and I really don’t want it to be you.”

Put that way, it did seem a little reckless. But there was a strange comfort in recklessness. It meant you were only in danger if you chose to be. That wasn’t, however, Hanna-friendly reasoning. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”