Murder mystery 'Death by Chocolate' benefits nonprofit

“He’s dead!” FBI Agent Avery shouted as she investigated the collapsed body of casino man Ace High.

Last night was filled with mystery and illusion at the St. Mark’s United Methodist Church as the Citizen Advocacy of South-Central Indiana, Inc. (CASCI) presented its annual fundraiser, “Death by Chocolate: Murder in Casino City.”

As people entered the spacious room, lent to CASCI by the church, they were greeted by a spread of round tables covered in chocolate-colored tablecloths and playing cards. Glasses full of ice water next to cups full of steaming coffee were on the tables.

The main attraction at each table was a large slice of rich brownie cake.

“Hello and welcome to Paramount Casino!” Adrianna Busick, playing casino owner Ronnie Trump, said. “I hope you are all prepared for an amazing night of games and chocolate but keep your eyes peeled. One of the employees is stealing money from my casino, and I need your help to figure out who it is.”

The audience immediately started whispering, trying to pinpoint the actors and actresses moving throughout the room.

Dressed in outlandish casino girl dresses, Elvis Presley suits and red-vested bartending outfits, the actors and actresses were easy to spot.

Gliding around from table to table, they would stop and have a friendly chat with the audience. Very discreetly, they tried to convince the individuals seated at each table that another actor or actress was the thief.

“If you ask me, it was that security guard Sam,” Danielle Bruce, acting as showgirl and gold digger Hustling Hailey, whispered to Ronna Papesh, a Bloomington local attending the show.

“Well I don’t know,” Papesh replied. “I’ll have to take that into consideration for sure.”
Papesh came ready to enjoy a good show due to her previous experience with the event.

“I really enjoyed the performance a few years ago, so I figured that this one would be great too,” Papesh said.

Papers filled with ‘evidence’ were passed around to the tables to make discovering the guilty party easier.

“Everyone! We found a napkin with mysterious numbers written on it,” Agent Avery said, interrupting the conversations.

Pulling a supposedly unsuspecting audience member from the crowd, Avery stepped back as she read off the numbers 99-624-7757.

“That’s our security codes!” Trump exclaimed.

The crowd roared with laughter as the audience member returned to her seat and the investigation continued.

Soon, all the guesses were collected in the bowl and given to Jo Gilbertson, a CASCI, Inc. board member, who announced the winners of the evening.

“First of all I just want to say that this is the biggest turnout we’ve ever had and I thank you all for coming tonight,” Gilbertson said. “We are grateful to everyone who helped out, including the IU volleyball team and members of this wonderful church.”

Applause greeted Gilbertson’s ending note and then the moment everyone had been waiting for came. The names of the murderer and the thief were announced.

“The murderer is Hustling Hailey,” Gilbertson said. “And the thieves were Ace High and Security Sam.”

Cheers of victory erupted from everyone who had guessed those three names.

The acting troupe gathered together and as everyone prepared to leave, they gave a final farewell performance of “I Will Survive.”