"So now we've got one murder victim and two missing persons," Hannibal said, "What does it all add up to? And why?"
"And how?" Face added, "How did somebody come in here in the dark and make someone disappear? It's impossible!"
"Is it?" Annabelle asked.
"Those blueprints," Nora said, "Did we ever find them?"
"No we didn't," Hannibal said.
"Meaning whoever has them knows the layout for this house," Nora told him, "Knows if there are any hidden rooms, secret passages, anything like that."
"Meaning," Annabelle leaned over to Hannibal and said quietly to him, "They also knew about the fireplace."
"Some secret," Hannibal replied, "A tunnel that doesn't go anywhere except a three quarter turn to end at the opposite side wall. For that they can keep the blueprints."
"But now what do we do?" Annabelle asked.
"What can we do?" Face asked.
"The only thing that we can, search the house from top to bottom, and enlist the help of the rest of the family and those 'cops'. After all they're supposed to specialize in missing people and right now we've got two of them, so they ought to come in handy for something."
"Don't forget, Hannibal," Face quietly murmured, "They helped cause one of those disappearances."
"Exactly," Hannibal told him, "And former thieves have the best knowhow for catching new ones."
Face rolled his eyes at the colonel's idea.
"Come on, let's start looking, Agnes has to be here somewhere," Hannibal told them, "That is one person I doubt could disappear into thin air."
Murdock slowly poked his head out as he entered the kitchen, and feeling secure that nobody was around, he giggled to himself as he strolled in, quietly singing to himself as he went over to the liquor cabinet and liberated a bottle of sherry, "I'm a ghost, woooooo, I'm a ghost, woooooo, and I haunt all the bad little boys who tell big fibs and break up toys. I'm a ghost, woooooo, I'm a ghost, woooooo, and I'm after kids who fuss and fight and never wash their necks at night." He cackled to himself as he left the kitchen and headed back down the stairs to the basement where he'd left Agnes sitting on a crate.
"Here you go, Anti," he said as he handed her the bottle.
She took it, but not without asking, "Why am I here?"
"Shhhh," he put his finger to his lips, "I'm hiding you down here."
"What for?" she demanded to know.
"To keep you safe," he answered, "Whoever killed Roland is going to kill off more members of this family before the night's over."
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"Because those two girls upstairs were told they'd be murdered if they came here tonight," Murdock told her, "Somebody's determined to get their hands on Grandpa's money and if they can kill off everyone else, that only leaves them to inherit it anyway. Besides, by you disappearing without it being a part of the killer's plan, he's going to start to panic and he's going to make a mistake so it'll be easier to catch him."
"And what makes you so sure about that?" Agnes wanted to know.
"Because I've had plenty of experience with the lowlifes in this world and I know how they think," Murdock explained, "You throw a monkey wrench into their plan and the whole thing crumbles to the ground, and lady, I am that monkey."
Agnes snorted and said, "I'll believe that."
Murdock shushed her again and told her, "You keep quiet and nobody's going to know you're down here."
"Well how fortunate for me," she said dryly, "And suppose you're the murderer?"
"Lady, do I look like I could have it in me to kill someone?" Murdock asked.
"Yes," she answered without missing a beat.
Murdock did a double take and told her, "Boy you really know how to hurt a guy. Don't be ridiculous, if I was the killer, it would be one thing to tell you why I'm doing it, but why would I explain what it took to blow my plan to hell?"
That comment left her speechless.
"Now you," Murdock said, "Be quiet, and nobody ought to find out you're down here, that completes my first trick, my next one is to get some of the others down here as well."
"But how are you going to know which ones of them aren't the murderer?" Agnes asked.
"That's why it's a trick," Murdock told her.
"I don't like this," Nora confided in Hannibal, "Those men, whoever they are, they know the layout of this house better than we do."
"That's why somebody's watching them," Hannibal told her.
"Who?" Annabelle asked.
Hannibal pointed out to the hall, they looked and saw B.A. was paying attention to what was going on in the next room through a crack in the door.
"Where do you think Aunt Agnes is?" Annabelle asked.
"I'm not sure," Hannibal replied, "However, I'm not above suspecting Murdock's behind it, it just seems like something he would do."
"Why would he do that?" Annabelle asked.
"If he's the one who made your aunt disappear into thin air, then he's doing it to throw the killers off, to make them worry, if they worry, if they panic for one minute, then they're going to slip up and it'll be easier for us to catch them."
"But don't we run the risk of finding him then?" Annabelle asked.
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that, Miss Wiest, Murdock has a habit of not being found when he doesn't want to be," Hannibal told her.
"I doubt that very much, Mr. Smith," Nora replied, "You don't know this family."
"We don't know that the killer is someone in the family," Hannibal reminded her, "I'm not ready to cross that two bit shyster lawyer and those ghouly house servants off the suspect list, until we find the money, anybody is fair game for the suspect list. If there is a working secret passageway somewhere in this house, then that's how they got back in after the house was locked up, and once we find that, we can find an easier way to get out of here and to get the police." He scratched his head and said again, "I'd like to find out who had the screwy sense of humor to make that tunnel behind the fireplace."
"Maybe whoever made it never had a chance to finish it," Annabelle thought.
Hannibal snorted and replied, "Come up with something that idiotic, whoever it was better hope that's all it is." He grabbed the sisters by their wrists and pulled them towards him and said, "Now remember what I told you, go over everything in this room, especially the walls, and the flooring under the furniture, even if it doesn't look big enough to squeeze a human body through, don't overlook it, there's no telling what kind of insane minds put this house together."
Murdock giggled to himself as he quietly shut the cellar door behind him and quietly sang to himself as he crept through the dark house, "I'm a ghost, woooooo I'm a ghost, woooooo, and I haunt all the bad little boys who tell big fibs and break up toys. Woooooo, don't tie cans to a doggie's tail, woooooo, I'll get you when the moon turns pale…"
He knew that by now Hannibal had to have worked his magic and gotten everybody upstairs to search the rooms, so he felt that he was safe to walk around for a bit and conduct a little investigation of his own. Hannibal wasn't the only one who possessed some knowledge about hidden rooms and secret passageways in older homes. As a teenager he had traveled and met with some of his more distant relatives down in the south and the northeast. Some old homes there, it was a family secret, were notorious for the walls jumping out at you whenever you touched something; he'd learned that some of those old places had been stations for the Underground Railroad during the Civil War and headquarters for the colonial spies during the Revolutionary War. Though they weren't close, it always gave him a sense of pride that his family was so active during those times. During his visits there he would try turning the houses inside out discovering all the hidden rooms and tunnels under the homes and the garages; after a while he'd felt like a mouse running a maze but he'd had a good time with it and after several tries managed to crack every hiding place in each home. So, he decided with everybody else upstairs, he could do a little checking of his own and see if there was anything they had overlooked during their initial scan of the place.
Moving along slowly, Murdock carefully ran his hands over every square inch of each wall, he checked every part of the floors that weren't common walking areas: under the tables, under throw rugs, under chairs, he even went into the closet they'd found Roland's body in and checked the back wall and the floor for a lever or a trap door, anything, but he found nothing. Of course it would be so much easier if they could just find the blueprints, but then where would the fun be in that? he asked himself. Well, so far his efforts were bringing him up empty handed. He didn't dare turn on the lights, even though he listened closely and didn't detect another person breathing anywhere nearby. He couldn't even hear the footsteps of the people walking around upstairs, then an idea occurred to him and he sure hoped everybody was still up there. He'd hate to think everybody disappeared at the same time.
He came to a closed door and used his memory of their search earlier to determine it was one of the downstairs bedrooms for the servants. The door was unlocked and he made his way in and resumed feeling his way along all the walls and the floor. He was able to squeeze himself under the bed since the bedstead was built higher like the old ones were, and he checked every inch of the floor under the bed but still found nothing. So he crawled out from under there and instead groped around the floor under the dresser's legs. Nothing on the floor, but his hand did brush against something that was on the bottom of the dresser. It felt like something had been taped there, he tried peeling it off with his fingernails; it took a few tries but he finally heard the tape rip off and he felt a folded up piece of paper. Pulling his arm out he felt an edge of the paper and shook it to unfold like a map. It was a large piece and he wasn't sure what it was, but he had his suspicions. Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to find out if his suspicions were correct because the next and last thing he felt was something hitting him in the back of the head.
"Did you hear that?" Annabelle asked.
"What?" Nora asked, and by now they also had Hannibal and Face's attention as well.
Annabelle looked to them and she said, "I thought I heard something downstairs."
"Maybe Aunt Agnes found her way back from that black hole," Face joked.
Hannibal signaled for Face to be quiet and he murmured to them, "Let's check it out," and one by one they left the room and crept down the stairs.
"Alright, where'd you hear it?" Hannibal asked her.
"I'm not sure," Annabelle replied, "I would've sworn I heard something drop."
"Alright," he told the others, "We'll take it one room at a time, keep your lights off until I say otherwise."
Everybody kept within arm's length of one another and slowly made their way through the dark rooms, up to a point, then once they got through the living room Hannibal noticed that there were a couple less set of feet to trip over. "Everybody still here?"
"Yes," they answered.
B.A. got further away from the others and he was able to hear the low sounds of somebody moaning. "Hey Hannibal," he whispered, "Over here."
They got into the hallway leading to the servants' rooms and about tripped over something in the middle of the floor. Hannibal turned on his flashlight and they were shocked to see Murdock laying crumpled on the floor with bloodstains under his head.
"Murdock!" Annabelle cried as she knelt down beside him.
"Is he dead?" Nora asked somewhat casually.
Hannibal also knelt down near the body and examined him. "No, just unconscious."
Annabelle gasped and picked up a fireplace poker, also covered in blood, and obviously what had been used to attack him.
"Who could've known he was here?" Face asked.
Annabelle was near hysterics again as she took his limp hands in hers and was nearly crying, "Oh, Murdock."
A noise escaped from the pilot's lips and everybody was shocked. He opened his eyes and in the dim lighting, he saw the beautiful girl hovering over him and he smiled, "Aw, Annabelle," he raised her hand to kiss it when he saw the red stains on it and he gasped, "Blood, there's blood on your hands, oh poor Annabelle they've murdered you."
"That's not her blood," Nora told him, "It's yours."
"My blood!" Murdock shot up, "They killed me, the dirty rats! Where are they? Ghost or no ghost I'm going to…"
"Murdock, calm down!" Hannibal told him, "Are you alright?"
Murdock reached around to the back of his head and said, "My head hurts, Colonel."
"No wonder," Face said, "Let's see how bad it is."
Hannibal repositioned his flashlight and they saw a small gash on the back of Murdock's head.
"Nothing that we can't take care of," Hannibal said, "But what happened?"
"I was in one of the bedrooms down here and somebody put my lights out," Murdock answered as he grimaced under Hannibal's touch.
"Which bedroom?" Nora asked.
"Ouch…I don't know, but I'd found something taped under the dresser, I'm not sure but I think it could've been the blueprints…that's when they hit me."
"Somebody else is in this house," Face realized.
"And they know who Murdock is," Annabelle said.
"Maybe not," Nora added as she noticed something, and she asked the pilot, "Where's your cap, and your jacket?"
"I left them down in the basement," Murdock answered.
Hannibal turned back to Nora and asked her, "Are we missing something here, Miss Wiest?"
"It's just that without them, from the back Murdock could be almost anybody, and from the back he does look a bit like Cousin Kyle."
"Then they probably thought that's who I was," Murdock realized.
"Unless it was Cousin Kyle," Face pointed out.
"We left them all upstairs," Hannibal reminded him, "They couldn't have gotten down here without somebody noticing they were gone."
"Are you sure about that?" Nora asked him.
Hannibal met her questioning gaze and paused for a few seconds before replying, "Almost completely."
The others groaned.
Working by the light of the flash lest they draw anybody else's attention, Hannibal cleaned Murdock's wound. "Fortunately he got you in a spot where you don't have too much hair to get in the way."
"Should've hit him in the front then," Nora said, "He's got about the tallest forehead I ever saw."
Murdock turned his nose up at her remark, and flinched at the sudden spike of pain that sent through the back of his head.
"You sure you're alright, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.
"Nothing that money won't cure," he joked.
"Murdock, I've got a question for you," Hannibal said, "Were you aware that Aunt Agnes has disappeared?"
"Hmm," Murdock tried to act innocent, "Yeah I may have known something about that."
"Where is she?" Annabelle asked.
"She's safe and sound down in the basement," he answered, "Last I checked on her she was nursing a bottle of sherry."
"Maybe you better get back down there and make sure she's still safe and sound," Hannibal suggested.
"I will," Murdock nodded and turned to go back the way he came.
"What do you think?" Hannibal asked the others.
"If he did have the blueprints, then whoever knocked him out has them now," Face replied.
"And they're going to find the money first," Nora said, "I'll still bet it's one of those cops."
"Couldn't be," Hannibal reminded her, "They're upstairs too."
"Sure, looking for the hidden room it's stored in," Nora said.
"Of course," Hannibal agreed.
"Then what're we doing down here leaving them unattended?" Face asked, "Come on."
"Well, Sherlock," Agnes said as Murdock made his way back down to the basement, "Any luck eliminating the suspects?"
"Not yet," Murdock answered as he rubbed the back of his head, "Somebody may not have had it in for me, but they got me all the same."
"What're you talking about?" she asked.
"I think I had the blueprints that explain where Grandpa's money is hidden, but somebody beat me in the head and stole them," Murdock explained.
"Can't you do anything right?" Agnes asked sharply.
Murdock looked at her and said, "Sure, come with me, I can throw you back to the wolves and let whoever plugged your nephew Roland take a few potshots at you too, maybe he can't hit the broad side of a barn but he might be able to give you a nose job you'll never forget."
"Get your hand off of me," Agnes said as she drew her arm back and jabbed him with her elbow.
"I should've left you up there," Murdock said, "Not only are you too mean to get murdered, if the killer wanted to get creative and tried to stab you, he'd wreck his knife."
"Oh yeah?" Agnes replied, "Well I never asked for your help."
"Ironic, ain't it?" Murdock asked, "You know what, Anti, despite you being a rotten excuse for a human being I really don't think you've got it in you to want to see those two young girls get butchered by a homicidal madman just over some inheritance money."
"Well," the middle aged woman said to him, "What do you propose to do about it? You already pointed out we don't have any way of determining who the killer is."
"No, that's right, we don't," Murdock responded, "So I'm just going to have to bring some more of them down."
"Whatever for?" Agnes asked.
"One unexpected disappearance is going to shake the killer up, but if relatives start disappearing left and right, he's going to think he's lost his mind," Murdock explained, "And that is my area of expertise…one of them anyway." He looked to the woman and told her, "That's going to be one trick, another one is going to be finding out who has those blueprints and getting them back from that person."
"And how," she asked him, clearly not convinced that he could do it, "Do you intend to find that out?"
"Obviously I'm going to need a plan," Murdock told her.
"And do you have one?" she asked haughtily.
Murdock thought about it for a minute and decided to rely on one of Hannibal's answers, "Not yet."
"I don't know who or what it is you're expecting to find up here," one of the cops told Hannibal, "But we've been up here for half an hour and there's nobody here yet."
"Oh you don't know Murdock," Hannibal assured him, "He's a master in the art of hiding, if he thought he could pull it off he'd squeeze himself into a vase if he didn't want somebody to find him."
"Uh huh, I see," the cop said condescendingly, "And where do you think your friend is hiding now, in the drawers?"
Hannibal looked to the dresser and said, "Na, too short…however, he may be hiding in the closet, or in that trunk, or under the bed, and he could be doing it in any room on this floor, or even up on…" he turned to the others and asked, "Say, what is up on the third floor?"
Everybody chorused back that they didn't know. Hannibal just shrugged and said, "Well, we'll have to search up there next, at least in the meantime, I think it's a safe bet that if he is up there, he won't be able to get past the second floor without our knowing."
"Unless he decides to jump out the window," the cop responded.
"Well there is always that possibility," Hannibal concurred, "However he's past that stage of thinking he's a bird, so I doubt that."
The cop did a double take and said, "Your 'friend' sounds like a real loon."
Hannibal nodded as if he was seriously considering it and said, "Well, there's that too."
Out in the hall, Face was going over the spot where presumably the suit of armor had fallen from earlier and found himself still trying to figure out how it had been pulled off. Obviously it hadn't just fallen, it had been knocked down the stairs, but from where? And by who? That was what he couldn't figure out, and to be honest he doubted he ever would, or that it would even matter much. One thing Face did think about though was that the armor must've brushed up against the grandfather clock that stood against the wall behind the banister because it had stopped. He checked his watch and was about to set it for the correct time and try to get it running again when the lights went out again.
"Boy this is some storm we're having," he commented dryly.
"Everybody stay together," Hannibal told them, "The last thing we need is a third person disappearing. Is everybody here?"
"Yes," he heard everybody respond.
"Hey!" Nora's voice broke through the others.
"What's the matter?" Hannibal asked.
"Annabelle's gone," Nora said.
"Boy whoever's doing this sure is good," Face noted, "Kidnaps somebody he can't even see, and this time he makes off with the pretty one. OUCH!" Even though it was dark and nobody could see who was standing next to them, somehow Nora managed to make her way over to Face and hit him.
A few seconds later the lights came on and then they could hear Annabelle screaming from somewhere down on the first floor; this time everybody went racing down the stairs and they found her in the dining room with her back against the piano as she sank to the floor.
"What happened?" was the question on everybody's mind.
Nora grabbed Annabelle and jerked her back to her feet and repeated the question, and Annabelle's only answer was, "Somebody grabbed me."
"Who?" Nora asked.
"Was it Murdock?" Hannibal asked.
"No!" Annabelle shook her head, "I felt somebody grab me in the dark and when the lights came on I saw him, and I screamed, it was so horrible!"
"Which way did he go?" the second cop wanted to know.
"He took off to the back and ran out the kitchen door," Annabelle pointed weakly as she was about ready to collapse again, "Oh it was horrible, I thought he was going to kill me."
The two cops looked at each other and one went to the back door and went out to investigate; the one who remained looked around at everybody as if trying to determine if this was a joke.
"How'd you get down here?" he asked Annabelle.
"Somebody grabbed me when the lights went out, he brought me down here," she answered.
"And why do you think he did that?"
"How should I know?" Annabelle asked, very close to losing it, "All I know is we came here tonight to inherit part of Grandpa's money, now there's a killer loose in this house, anybody who could tell us anything about what's happening has disappeared, and we're all walking around with prices on our heads." She groaned and added, "Oh I wish this night were over."
