Bloom at Midnight

[SFX: Rain on glass. Ventilation fan; electronic lock]

NARRATOR: At midnight, every ghost orchid in Bellweather Conservatory opened at once. Beneath them lay Dr. Emil Saye, curator of endangered plants, dead inside a glasshouse locked by his own fingerprint. Tess Arden arrived before the petals closed.

TESS ARDEN: Do not turn on another light. Photograph which flowers face the lamps and which face the body.

DR VERA MOSS: Emil cultivated these for eleven years. They have never bloomed together.

FELIX CROW: Then his death produced a miracle.

NOAH WREN: Miracles do not smell of bitter roots.

NARRATOR: The glasshouse contained no weapon. Saye's tea was clean. His skin showed no injection. A yellow dust covered his cuffs, though no yellow-flowering plant grew inside. On the misting console, someone had typed four letters: CROW.

FELIX CROW: Convenient. Emil opposed my research partnership publicly.

LILA QUINN: He opposed your habit of patenting things other people kept alive.

[SFX: Camera shutter. Leaves rustling]

NARRATOR: One orchid remained closed. Its pot stood nearest Saye's hand and carried a blue chalk line around the rim. Tess touched the soil. It was warm.

TESS ARDEN: The flowers did not respond to death. They responded to a false night. Someone changed light and temperature to move the apparent time of this room.