On the night of the living dead

Dunston Hall Hotel in Norwich was enjoying a busy Saturday evening with all the restaurants and banqueting suites full. Like any other weekend evening there was a good atmosphere.

At about 8pm, the man playing the inspector for the murder mystery night stood on a chair in the Eton Suite and issued instructions to his group. Unfortunately, his disguise included a screen of smoke from a rather large cigar which promptly set off the fire alarms.

A full evacuation took place and everyone calmly proceeded to the assembly point. I was general manager of the hotel and happened to be in the main function suite on the first floor at the time. I immediately assisted with the evacuation by guiding people towards the fire exits.

After a few seconds, I heard loud screaming. A group of women at the front of the queue came racing back up the staircase towards me. Naturally, I assumed the fire (if there was one) was near the stairs.

My fears were unfounded. But as I moved towards the front, I saw, to my horror, what appeared to be a dead body on the staircase with a knife in its back.

As I approached cautiously, two people came around the corner with their notepads and said: "There's the body, and another clue."

It was at this point that I realised the murder mystery dinner was unaffected by the fire alarms. Indeed, the participants thought the alarms were part of the plot!

I tactfully asked "Clouseau" if he wouldn't mind being dead in the car park, so that the rest of our guests could evacuate without any obstacles.

I then spent an interesting hour with the ladies from the function suite, plying them with coffee for their nerves and trying to explain that they hadn't just seen the walking dead.