Dana Gunn said, “I did it in the dining room with the candlestick.”

She certainly didn’t have to tell us, Caro Swenson thought. And why do I feel like an extra on the set of CLUE instead of a vacationing nurse? “Professor Plum did it on the drawing room with…” Fer Christ’s sake.

The killer, a pleasant-looking blonde with curly Orphan Annie hair and big blue eyes, didn’t have to make the announcement, because Caro could see for herself…the killer was standing in the hallway outside the bedrooms, calm as a cotton ball, the big candlestick in her fist actually dripping with the victim’s blood.

Caro was a nurse, and long used to gore that would send a layman running for the toilet, but the cool way the killer held the weapon, the monotonous plink-plink of the blood hitting the carpet…it was startling, to say the least.

“Are you kidding?” Caro finally asked.

“I’ve already called the police,” the killer declared, dropping the candlestick, which hit the carpet with a thick thud and rolled a few feet away. She rubbed her bloody palm on the skirt of her Anne Taylor knockoff, grimaced like Lady Macbeth, then continued. “I’m just going to wait here in my room until they get here.” Then she stepped backward and shut the door in Caro’s face.

After a long, thunderstruck moment, Caro turned to the other guests and said, “I don’t know about you guys, but this wasn’t in my brochure.”