After talking with Jim, Rock and I took our teams and began to look around in some of the other buildings on the castle grounds. There were several buildings within the walled area of the castle, plus a few outside the walls. All were made of thick stone, just like the castle itself. Only a couple of them were actually being used and they were locked. Two others were also locked even though Jim had told me earlier that they were not being used for anything.

The remaining buildings were not locked, but one of them outside the walls seemed to have a lot of traffic, foot traffic, that ended beside a large rock. I measured that rock and there was no way it would fit through either of the windows, or the door. That means it has been sitting here since this building was made, and who knows when that was.

Meowi=Writing on stone here. Crystal looked at the stone, part of the wall and behind the door, right close to the floor. It was a date, a little hard to read but it said “1584”. We have discovered the castle was built in 1544, just 40 years earlier. But why leave this big stone inside the building? Meow, meow.=Have little mark on stone in corner. Muffin was right, it was an arrow.

She followed it over to the wall and there was a small X marked on one of the stones, right near the floor. On the floor by the X was a small stone which I pressed. There was a rumble and the stone raised up on one side. Underneath was a set of stone stairs so we followed down. However, before going down I called Rock and let him know what we had found and that we were going to follow the stairs.

We followed a passageway which obviously went under the stone wall of the castle and it came to a large and very solid wood door. Oddly, it was not locked, but I guess no one figured it needed to be locked. It opened into a large, dark room and suddenly the lights came on which made me jump! “Sorry,” said Kyan, “just wanted to help by turning on the lights.” She giggled, as did Kat. Sigh.

We were in the same room with the forging equipment that we had found yesterday. Hmm, this is interesting. Andrew could easily come in here anytime he wanted and use this equipment to forge documents, and no one would know. Well, Jim would not know anyway since he does not know about the basement. Or at least that is what he says. However, Anne and that maid certainly know about the basement, and likely know about this hidden passageway too.

One of those two women is working with Andrew, but which one? We decide to go back the way we came so we do not make anyone suspicious, especially Anne. I really do not trust her anymore after that lie about the butler. Sigurbjorn came back to our room with Crystal and I, plus Muffin and Tiia. When we came into the room, there was the full time maid sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. She stood up immediately.

“Please, do not be angry with me,” she said, “I, I am scared, very scared!” She was actually shaking when she said this. I told her to sit down again and tell us why she was so scared. “Please, come back to my room with me,” she said, still shaking, “I, w, will show you.” We followed her back to her room which was on the main floor at the end of a long hall. I had gotten the rest of our team to come along as well.

The maid, Sunshine McClane, went into her room ahead of us, but told me to look in the closet. I did so, and there was the butler, hanging by a hook. “H,h, he was not there this m,morning,” she said, “b, but an hour ago, there he was. I, I was so scared, I could not say a word, I just ran to your bedroom and waited for you.”

“You did the right thing,” I said, then I sent a short text to Jim and Anne to come to the maid’s room. They both came, and strangely, both of them seemed genuinely shocked to see the butler hanging there. I figured just one of them would be shocked. Jim decided to call the police. I thought they would want us off the case, but since there was no real connection that they could see, it would be fine for us to stay for now.

I assured them we would share any relative information with them. After all the usual questions they left, and took the butler’s body with them. Anne said that Sunshine could move into another room and she asked if she could use a vacant room on the floor with us. Anne said that would be fine. She was amazingly agreeable, and also recovered quickly from her initial shock…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.