Note: This is an excerpt from my 100 Theme Challenge, "100 Little Somethings."
Chelmey shook his head slowly, rubbing his chin in thought. "I don't think he's here, Layton," he said carefully.
"In that, you are dead wrong. I am certain all the clues point to this location…" He surveyed the ordinary looking office with skilled eyes. It was, in fact, his very own office at Gressenheller University. He had yet to figure out how someone had gotten in here without his knowledge.
Chelmey shrugged and slipped his hands into his coat pockets. "Are you sure you don't know who took the boy?"
The professor closed his eyes, pulling down the brim of his famous top hat. "No…not a clue. Whoever they are, they are extremely clever. But they will lose this game of wits…for the answer…" He tipped his head to one side. "To this puzzle…" His head tilted the other way. "Is…there!" The archeologist pointed at his bookshelf, eyes filled with cold, worried determination.
He strode over to the bookshelf and began to systematically pull on certain books and knick-knacks. "Once I enter this combination, a slot on the wall should open to a hidden chamber. There, we will find Luke. If this kidnapper has followed the rules they set forth, he should be unharmed…"
Chelmey looked perturbed. "Hmph. What a load of-"
There was a loud click, and a panel on the wall beside the shelf slid open just as the professor said it would. The archeologist hastened to catch the limp form of his surrogate son before it could hit the floor.
"Luke? Can you hear me? …Luke? Luke?!"
Chelmey immediately called an ambulance, but it was all in vain. For once, the great Professor Layton had been dead wrong.