She traced the outside of the door frame until she felt the doorknob. She pulled the door open and noted that the hallway was just as dark as the room behind her.

“Do you see any light?” Nancy asked from the table.

“Nothing yet,” Lindsey said. “Wait here, maybe I can rustle up a flashlight.”

She stepped out into the hallway. She could hear the excited murmur of voices coming from the stage area. She felt her way along the wall, trying to remember where the door into the auditorium was.

Her fingers closed on a door handle and she pulled it open.

She stepped into the room just as a scuffle and a shout sounded from the stage.

“Get off!” a voice that was unmistakably Robbie’s shouted. “Hey! Ah!”

There was the sound of a thud as if a body had just collapsed against the stage.

“Robbie? Was that you?”

“Who’s there?”

“Ouch!”

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Could somebody please hit the breaker?”

There were too many voices to pick out any one voice. Lindsey hurried forward, but it was still pitch-black and she slammed into a row of seats, almost knocking herself down. She began to feel her way along the seat backs, trying to get to the stage.

“Quiet!” Violet’s voice commanded. “Everyone be still. If you move in the dark, you could hurt yourself.”

The loud voices and shouts quieted to a low murmur. Lindsey took the opportunity to step into the aisle, which had small yellow floor lights that would lead her down to the stage. She was getting close when a beam of light snapped on near the stage.

It swept the stage, catching everyone in the position they had been in presumably when the lights went out. Then it swung back and lowered. Lying on the stage was Robbie; a dark stain marred his white shirt, and it took Lindsey just a moment to realize that it was blood pooling from a gash in his arm.

As Robbie was illuminated by the light, a scream sounded and the entire room erupted into chaos. Lindsey rushed forward and clambered up onto the stage, reaching Robbie first. Violet knelt beside her.

“Robbie, are you all right?” Lindsey asked. Her hands were shaking and she blinked. “Ugh, sorry. Clearly, you’re not.”

He glanced up at her from where he lay. “No, no, it’s just a flesh wound in my arm, but I was afraid to move lest I meet my adversary’s knife point again.”

“What are you saying?” Violet asked.

“Someone stabbed me, love,” he said. His voice was low so that only the two of them and the person next to Violet with the flashlight could hear him. “Shortly after the lights went out the knife went in.”

11

“Shine the light here, please,” Lindsey said.