Finished listening?

Amazing job, Puzzler! Ells asked Baxter if Ronan had told him to “break an egg,” and Baxter nodded in surprise. Baxter said that he figured Ronan had surely said “break a leg,” but that it really had sounded like, “break an egg.” Ells replied that “egg” was indeed correct, but she didn’t have time to explain because Ronan might be in danger.

The detectives jogged through the backstage area, telling everyone they had met that Ronan might still be in the building and could be in danger. After a bit, there was a shout, and Ells and Ernie were sure the whole theater could hear Muriel’s yell. She found Ronan downstairs in the prop room and everyone should come quickly!

Everyone rushed downstairs to find Ronan gagged and tied to a chair. At his feet were a rock, a recording device, and Della’s large coat. Muriel took the gag out of Ronan’s mouth and Shelby asked him who tied him up. Ronan told the group he didn’t know anything. He was hit over the head, probably with the rock, and he had just woken up here.

Ernie cleared his throat and stated confidently that he and Ells knew who was responsible. The proclamation was met with an expectant silence until Ells added that at least they would know once they knew who picked up the lunches from Chip’s Diner. The crowd turned toward Kip.

Kip shifted uncomfortably and confirmed that he did pick up the lunches, but challenged what that had to do with anything. Everyone waited for Ells or Ernie to answer the perfectly valid question, but Ells announced the next part of the reveal would be set in the sound effects room. As she led the group upstairs, Ells whispered a few words to Della, who nodded in agreement.

Muriel unlocked the door and the group crowded inside. Ells faced everyone and said, “None of what has happened today makes any sense! That is, until you focus on the biscuit. Ernie, if you please?” Ernie explained that Muriel’s lunch today was missing a biscuit, as indicated by a note written on a napkin. He pointed out, though, that surely the restaurant would have just substituted a different choice of bread. Also strange, was that Tilly, who had only burger condiments, would have a biscuit on the side of her lunch. Therefore, the restaurant didn’t write that note, the culprit did. And the same culprit had taken the biscuit out of Muriel’s lunch and added it to Tilly’s. Someone didn’t want Muriel to have a biscuit today. The reason? So that Muriel would put both mini jelly jars in her jelly jar jar, instead of just one.

Ells explained that to know why this was important, they needed to remember that someone broke a vase in this room a few weeks ago. The vase-breaker had snuck into the room, set various items exactly how they wanted them, and used a screwdriver to tamper with the jelly jar jar shelf. The culprit knew Muriel stored her extra mini jelly on that shelf every time lunch was ordered. They had used a scale to measure the weight of one jelly jar in ounces and multiplied that by the number of lunches. Once the culprit had their calculation, they knew how much the shelf needed to be tampered with to make it collapse exactly today. While setting up their plan, the culprit accidentally broke a vase, which made Muriel start locking the door. That didn’t matter to our culprit though, since they didn’t need to come back in the room for their plan to work.

Ells said that the plan would have worked flawlessly, if not for Hardy’s mishap. When the rain machine overflowed a few days ago, that caused yesterday’s rehearsal to be cancelled. No rehearsal meant no lunch. No lunch meant no mini jelly jar being added to the shelf, which meant the shelf wasn’t going to collapse on the correct day.

“So you,” Ells said, pointing at Kip, “You needed Muriel to put two mini jelly jars in the jelly jar jar today.” Everyone looked at Kip, who scoffed and told Ells that all of this was nonsense. Ells wasn’t listening though and neither was anyone else. At that moment, they were all staring at Ernie who had begun some kind of interpretive dance, gliding across the room and pointing from one object to another.

Speaking mostly to the wall in front of him, Ernie explained that when the shelf collapsed, three things happened, and then a bunch more things happened. First, the jelly jar jar smashed to the ground. Second, wind-up chattering teeth swarmed Muriel, distracting her. And third, a chain reaction that Kip had arranged weeks ago was set into motion. The jelly jar jar shelf fell which triggered the spring which sproinged into the rocket which launched into the mousetrap which snapped onto the bucket which fell onto the baseball bat which tapped the jack-in-the-box which exploded onto the tire which rolled down onto the catapult, which did one more thing. The eyes of the audience ping-ponged back and forth as Ernie pointed at one object after another.

On the edge of his proverbial seat, Baxter excitedly demanded to know what the one more thing was. Ells said to answer that question, they needed to know… what Kip snuck out of this room earlier today! Della recognized her cue and stepped forward, pulling a violin case from behind her back. It had taken some searching, but she found it stashed behind some old costumes.

Ells looked at Kip and said that if all of this was nonsense, then the case would contain a violin. However, they had seen him carrying the violin and the case separately out of this room earlier, even though his arms were full with a very large coat. With that, she flipped the violin case open to reveal… a machete!

“That’s my machete,” said a surprised Muriel. “I use it to cut open coconuts for THUNK sound effects.” Muriel walked over to Ells and took the machete out of the violin case and before the detectives thought to stop her, set it on its normal place on the wall.

“WAIT!” cried Ells and Ernie, but they were too late. As soon as Muriel rested it on its stand, the machete pivoted and sliced clean through the rope Muriel had just replaced on the thunder machine.

There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by Ells quietly telling the group that the one more thing that the catapult did was break the stand that held the machete.

The group’s shock was interrupted by Kip who sneered at Ells and Ernie and demanded they explain what reason he could have for wanting the thunder machine to be broken.

Ernie told the group that they figured that out too. Kip had realized that part of Ronan’s monologue during the play was the exact thing he needed to get Ronan out of the way when the critic was here. “I can’t make it tonight. You take the lead. Break an egg.” Those three lines within the sous chef monologue were perfect, EXCEPT for the thunder noise in the background. Surely, Baxter would suspect the voicemail was a fake if he could hear the stage thunder. So, Kip formulated a plan to engineer the perfect moment of silence. He sewed two secret pockets into the lining of Della’s large coat. He stole an audio recorder from the tech department. He put the recorder in one pocket and a rock in the other, making the coat heavier, but balanced. After the matinee performance today, all he had to do was get the recorder back, play those three lines as a voicemail for Baxter, and make sure Ronan was tied up and out of the way.

Something snapped in Kip then and he growled at them that they had ruined everything, but that it didn’t matter and he’d do it all again for Della. All eyes went to a shocked Della who insisted she didn’t know what he was talking about.

Kip shouted at the group that Della was a star and Ronan didn’t deserve to share the stage with her ever, let alone on a night that the critic would be here. Baxter was a much better match for her talent and Kip would do everything in his power so that Della had the best performance of her life tonight. With a wild look in his eyes, he said he had been tracking Della’s career for years before becoming her assistant. Once he had the job, he was not going to let anything or anyone interfere with Della’s greatness.

Kip looked around the room for an exit while raving about how Ells and Ernie just had to send out a search party, and how they think they’re so smart. Kip smiled and told them that they’re not so smart, though. Kip reminded them that Ronan never saw who attacked him, so it could have been anyone. “Maybe it was Tilly!” he raved. Kip started nodding at his new train of thought, saying that the director would believe him and that Tilly had motive from being jealous of Ronan’s acting success.

Suddenly, Kip shoved a bookcase full of cowbells. The bookcase tipped over, and blocked everyone’s path except his own. He made to run out of the room, but before he could reach the exit, Della tossed the Automatic Door Closer 3000 to Ells, who pressed the button, and the sound effects room door slammed shut. At that same moment, the lights went out.

There were several shouts from the group: “Who turned off the lights?” and “Was it Kip?” Then, an unfamiliar voice sounded from the darkness and said, “No, it was me.” Ells fumbled for the light switch and called out, “Who said that?” As the lights flickered back to life, multiple shocked voices said in unison,–

Let’s stop there. The mystery has been solved and the culprit identified, but we still need to know who turned out the lights. Press the continue button now.