An Experiment

Chapter 1

She was arranging the ornaments on the mantelpiece when she found it. Some sort of deformity on the edge of the ledge itself. They would have to get that repaired, along with everything else.

She sighed, and ran her fingers across the cold stone. Maybe she could just push it back into place, it wasn't that obvious. She gently pushed. It moved as if there was a spring behind it, and maybe there was, because with a creak and a rattle, something moved in the fireplace. Dust billowed around her, and she coughed and spluttered. She stepped back, covering her eyes, and blinked a few times to try to dislodge the dust that had been trapped there.

"Sweetheart, what's going on?"

"Not sure," she spluttered, acknowledging her handsome husband with a tired smile. Moving was hard, she thought. This place was amazing. A family treasure everyone had seemed to have forgotten about. Sure, it needed a lot of work, but she appreciated the old world charm.

He bent down and gazed intently at the fireplace.

"Wow," he said, impressed. "I always though secret passages in these old places was a fantasy. How wrong could I be?"

Secret passage? She bent down, and made a move to enter the small doorway in the fire place.

"Wait a minute. What about snakes?"

"Snakes? I'm sure it would be too cold in there for snakes. We would have seen it from the outside if there were any exposed areas. It must be part of the natural cave structures of the local area."

"Are you sure?" He thought for a moment. "Bats, then. Be careful of the critters…"

She grabbed an old fashioned looking poker and brandished it like a sword. "Happy now?"

He grinned sheepishly. His phobia was extreme, but she was his wife. They were days out of their honeymoon, he had the right to worry.

She entered and let out a little squeal of delight. He raced into the room, hearing a very muffled sound. He was pleased for her. As a history professor, she loved all this stuff. It looked very well preserved. There was a desk, still covered in papers, like some long dead person had only just left it. The coating of dust, probably inches thick, seemed to make the scene spooky and other worldly. The light in his wife's eyes made him smile. It might be boring to him and probably a lot of other people. She had stumbled on a gold mine worth of history.

"This looks like a stabling area," she was saying with excitement. "And this, oh wow."

He approached her as she lifted a huge, heavy sword and stumbled with the weight of it. "Careful, it's not a toy," he warned. "Don't want to get tetanus from the dusty thing."

"Shined up, this could go in a museum for everyone to see. It's Spanish in origin," she stated. "Toledo steel and everything."

"Going to take up fencing, my love?"

"There is a whole rack of rapiers right here. I could open a school," she said with a smile. She went slowly around the room, and found a busy little area with glass beakers and it reminded her of a science classroom. "Wow. Someone was very busy. This is an early science lab," she said. This is what made him approach with a little more interest.

His work was forensics. Early lab work would be fascinating on some levels. Whatever level the lab has achieved, the disarray was a little disappointing. Wait, was that a notebook? Someone knew their stuff, even back then. He flicked through the book, sending more dust flying. Faint ink scrawled elegantly across the page. Spanish, he realised with a small frown. He didn't know much of the language.

"Do you think this was a de la Vega secret?"

"Why?"

"Obviously a secret, otherwise all this wouldn't be here. And it has been in your family for about 250 years," she said logically. James Vega glanced at his beautiful wife and smiled.

"I wonder if old great great great great grandfather romanced his girlfriend in here."

"We'd have to work out the 'greats', I think," she said with a smile. "Let's get our history right, my love."

"Accuracy is important, of course," James said with an answering grin. He handed his eager wife the notebook, and she exclaimed over it. Spanish was another passion of hers.

She turned to the fly leaf at the front. "Diego de la Vega," she read in a whisper.

"He was the guy that started the newspaper. All round trouble maker in the end. Investigative journalist, in his younger years, probably invented the profession. He was always the editor, of course."

"And now your father is the owner of the "Guardian". You and your family, walking history of Los Angeles. The Vegas have been here the longest, I am sure," she said. Putting the notebook carefully down on the nearest level surface, she went and embraced her beloved.

"Diego de la Vega…do you think all this was his?"

"Why is it still here?"

"Maybe he just forgot about it?"

"Why was it a secret? Why didn't he just store all this somewhere else? The de la Vegas were always among the wealthiest people in Los Angeles. Surely he could have added on more rooms or something."

"Who knows? He was always incredibly smart, maybe he was eccentric or something. That must be where I get my love for forensics."

"Who would have been romanced here if it was Diego?"

"I thought you were the history prof. Let me see… no, I can't remember. There is a family tree somewhere. We can ring Grandma Vicki and get a copy I'm sure."

"I love this place, the prominence here is amazing. How could all this be forgotten? The house itself is still in quite good condition."

"The Vegas have a habit of holding onto things that belong to them."

"I have noticed, my dear."