The Investigators, Inc. The Black House Mystery. Chapter 6. Odd Doors.

Aari and 5 others were assigned the task of checking out the disappearing window while some of the other guys continued to check out the big room under the shed. Theresa was thrilled to hear there might be ghosts in her house, Rock said that she was always the strange one in the family. Their mom, Martha, was definitely not thrilled. She thought that Theresa should sell the house to those Black Jacket people and Theresa could move in with her instead.

That seemed like a good idea to Rock and Bear, but Theresa said she was not going to be scared out of her house by ghosts or anyone else. She loved that old house, even though it was painted black. Apparently it had been painted black back in the 1940s when John Silverton’s first wife died. I guess the Black Jackets figured a black house would be perfect for them, and it was just far enough out of town that they could do things without the police watching them all the time.

Or perhaps there was another reason. Aari and the guys with him, plus Rascal, Tiger, Tracker and Squirrel were looking things over closely, but they just could not see how another window could be there. Aari thought there might be a small passageway which had a window in it, but there was just no room for a passageway of any kind along that wall. So, whoever they had seen was in that room, but what happened to the window? And so quickly too.

There was no way the person upstairs had time to get downstairs and outside to tranquilize Rascal and take him to the garage. That means someone else was already downstairs and outside waiting for an opportunity. That means that everyone is being watched closely, but who is doing the watching? I don’t believe it is the ghost of John Silverton, I don’t believe in ghosts period. Um, well, except maybe for our three ghosts. And I’m still not quite sure they are ghosts, even though they claim to be ghosts.

I told Matt they need to be more careful and especially watch the women. Squirrel asked Cal to hold him up along the wall approximately where that fourth window was located, so he did so. He first measured the distance between the existing windows, then measured to where the fourth window should be located. Squirrel sniffed around that area but noticed nothing. Then Cal felt a tugging at his leg. It was Rascal and he pointed to the baseboard.

Cal got down and looked. Sure enough there was a tiny button that blended in very well with the wood baseboard. He pushed it and a piece of the wall opened revealing a window. That proves that someone had been watching from that window earlier. But who was it? And where did he come from and where did he go? Aari called Matt and told him what they found, though it really didn’t help them much, except they now know that someone else is living in that house.

That is definitely cause for concern. Another point to consider is, where are these people staying exactly? That is, where in the house? There must be a secret room somewhere and the guys need to find it quickly. Matt and Rock insisted that Angel, Penny, Brook, Theresa and Martha need to sleep in the same room for now. There was one very large bedroom that they could use temporarily so Theresa and Martha agreed to the arrangement. Martha was especially relieved by this arrangement.

Aari, and the guys with him, went to the basement next, with the cats quickly beginning their check of the walls of the basement. Tracker, however, decided to go over the floor sniffing around and sure enough, after about 10 minutes he found something. The guys moved some boxes out of the way and swept the floor which revealed the shape of a door. There was even a door handle embedded in the concrete. Rock took hold of the handle and opened the heavy concrete door and to everyone’s surprise, there was a casket under the door.

“Well, that is certainly interesting,” said Aari, “although not totally unheard of for someone to be buried in the basement. I wonder how old this one is and to which of the Silverton’s does this skeleton belong?” Meowrrr.= Maybe empty box, not smell human skinny. Rock tried to lift it out, but without success, which was odd. He was afraid to pull on it any harder for fear of breaking the casket.

Instead, Alfred reached down and opened two latches, then opened the lid of the casket. Now they were looking at narrow stairs going down a short ways, then turning to the right. Aari called Matt and told him what they found, so the rest of the guys came over to check it out too. Aari and some of the smaller guys went down to check out the tunnel, with the cats going first so they could look for traps.

They had to crawl through the first part at the bottom of the stairs, but then they could stand up again in what was a very narrow passageway. Unfortunately they were unable to go far and they reached an area where it had caved in a long time ago. They were disappointed by this and turned around to come back. However, they only just began walking when Squirrel got very excited and pointed at the top of the tunnel. Meow!!= Stairs on ceiling!! There was a ladder and a wood “door”.

It was easy to pull the ladder down and up went Aari with Rascal. He undid the latch holding the door shut and it opened into a room of the house. Or so they thought anyway. There was no door into the house from this room, but it definitely was part of the house, and someone had been, and perhaps still is, living here. Oddly, there were no windows in this room either. But there was furniture and food so it is not ghosts that are living here.

However, I pointed out to Aari that our ghosts eat food. He thanked me for pointing that out and destroying his theory. I think he was being sarcastic. Meanwhile, our jet was just landing at the Montreal Airport. Our vans were waiting for us and we drove to our hotel. We will begin looking for Katresa’s former parents in the morning after breakfast…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.