Chapter 10: Joanna's Dark Little Corner of this Dark Little World
Nancy headed down to the basement where the Furnace Room was located. As soon as she opened the door she saw at least a dozen rats running across the floor!
"Ah! I bet all those rats escaped from that cage! I better put them back." Nancy did so. And that's when she saw Mr. Mingles hiding behind a recliner.
"Hello, Nancy." A voice from behind her said. Nancy turned around to see a scary looking woman in a janitor's suit. "I'm Joanna Brown. Welcome to my dark little corner of this dark little world."
"Joanna Brown. Right. You're the janitor. How'd you know who I was?"
"Well, Nancy, when you spend all your time picking up after people, pretty soon you become invisible. They don't even know you're there anymore. But that's all right," Joanna's voice began to get slightly creepier, "Because it allows you to see and hear everything." Joanna noticed the cage full of rats, "What've you done to my rats?"
"Well," Nancy said nervously, "I thought maybe the dog had let them out of their cage, so I caught them and put them back.
"I was giving them their daily exercise." Joanna replied, "That's what makes their coats so lustrous. That and an occasional dose of Helfdan's leave-in conditioner. I love rats."
"You do? I mean, you do. Who doesn't? Anyway, since you're, as you put it, 'invisible', how much do you know about the 'construction accidents'?"
"How much do you know about the f.. I mean man you're working for? That's the real question, Nancy."
"Was she about to say fox?" Nancy thought. But before Nancy could ask the intercom came on, "Assistant Drew, please go to reception and fold the towels there."
"Towels. My brother could come up with a much better code than that. He's a writer. In fact he… never mind. You'd better go."
"But I still have to take this dog back to Mrs. Montague."
"I'll do it." Joanna walked over to Mr. Mingles and began to pick him up. This caused him to swallow the compound he had in his mouth!
"Oh no!" Nancy cried, "He swallowed it!"
"Hehe, he'll be fine. You'd better go to reception and do something about those towels."
Nancy headed back to the reception area and greeted Cassidy. "Una mas" was all that Cassidy said back. Nancy decoded the note left for her and found that the code word was "scissors". "This must mean I should go to the salon again." And off she went to the salon.