Murder at the Competitive Nap

How it begins

Mina Ren had been asked to judge the village nap contest because she was the only resident with professional experience of watching people sleep.

The hall clock ticked above them, giving every official minute more authority than the homemade competition seemed likely to deserve.

She had accepted before reading the phrase competitive pajamas.

Now fourteen adults lay in borrowed armchairs beneath the hall's wooden beams. A trophy stood beside a tray of biscuits. On the stage, a banner announced REST FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

Felix Nasser leaned toward her.

"Number seven brought his own pillow. Is that allowed?"

"The rules are remarkably silent on performance equipment."

"I asked the committee. They formed a subgroup."

Mina checked her clipboard. Fifteen minutes remained. The loudest snorer had been disqualified after his wife admitted he was playing a recording from a device under the chair.

For the first time since leaving the sleep laboratory, Mina missed the lab's relative dignity.

Then the woman beside chair nine raised her hand.

"He's not waking up."

Mina put down the clipboard. What followed was no longer part of a contest. She asked Felix to call the emergency services and moved people back, speaking calmly because calm was something she could still offer.

The hall changed around her. Biscuits remained on plates. The trophy kept shining. Someone switched off the recorded birdsong, leaving a silence that made the room seem much larger.

Later, while the police took statements, a man in striped pajamas insisted he'd heard the victim snoring at twelve fifteen.

Mina looked toward the small speaker beneath the stage.

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely. Like a tractor."

Felix followed her gaze.

The speaker had been unplugged at noon. She knew because she'd watched the extension cable being moved to the kettle.

Mina took out her notes.

A contest designed to reward doing nothing had apparently given someone a very useful fifteen minutes.