Mrs. Calisto was getting more and more upset. "I checked all the other rooms on the floor. It isn't like him to just walk off...and with the other accident we almost had...."
Metanoia tried to calm her down. "Don't get yourself in a panic Mrs. Susan. I'm sure he just went to fix the fuse box or something."
"Yea" Joey added, "we could go look for him."
"Oh would you? Thank you so much" she started to calm down.
Metanoia, Yugi, Joey, and Tristen got flashlights from the kitchen and headed for the basement. Meanwhile Tea, Mai, Kaiba, and Bakura helped light candles around the house.
"Mr. Brown? Are you down here?" Tristen called into the cold cellar.
"Heels...and creaky wooden stairs...don't make a very good..." Metanoia stumbled a bit, "combination." She was trying to hold her dress up to avoid getting dust on it, and shine her light to see where she was going at the same time.
Searching the back wall, Joey found the fuse box. "Hmm, all the fuses seem to be fine. The power must have been knocked out by the storm," he concluded, shutting the door.
"But where's Brown?" Yugi asked, aiming the beam of light around the room.
Tristen shrugged, "well he's definitely not down here."
Tea was waiting for them at the door to the cellar, "no luck?"
"Nope," Joey said, "but we did find out that it wasn't a blown fuse that caused the blackout."
Metanoia groaned, "just great."
Kaiba took a flashlight from Yugi, "I'll check outside. Maybe he went out to smoke or something."
"I'll go with ya" Joey offered, starting to follow him.
"I don't need your help Wheeler," he said coldly, slamming the kitchen door.
"Excuse me" Joey snapped.
Metanoia shivered, "I hope the power comes back on so we can have some heat."
"We got a fire going in the living room" Tea suggested. "Let's head in there."
In the living room, Officer Wingfield was rotating a log in the fireplace with a metal rod. McBride was on the phone, with Calisto listening to his conversation carefully. Stone was on the couch with her boyfriend, looking miffed as usual. The fire lit the room with a soft orange glow. Mai stood right next to it, rubbing her arms.
"This feels good after being in that dank basement" Metanoia said, standing over by it. Mai handed her handbag back to her. "Oh that reminds me!" she exclaimed, digging through it. She unfolded the greasy piece of paper, and held it out to the firelight.
"What is it?" Yugi asked, trying to look over her shoulder.
Bakura read off its contents. "The number two, red. The number three, blue. The number four and five, green. And "first and basement empty" is scribbled at the bottom. That makes no sense."
"Maybe it's a type of code" Tristen suggested.
Suddenly, the kitchen door slammed. Kaiba, his feet caked with snow, came storming the room.
"Did you..." Mrs. Calisto started, but she stopped when she saw the look of urgency on his face.
"I checked power cables on the side of the house" he explained, "and they've been cut."
McBride hung up the phone. "Bad news everyone" he informed the party, "town hall says the plows can't make it up her for a few more hours, they have to clean the main streets first. We're stuck here."
The other guests began to complain. McBride tried to calm them down. "People please! This is no reason to panic. The plows will have the streets cleared soon enough."
"Well I'm leaving now" a woman in ivory huffed, turning to get her coat.
"I wouldn't suggest that" Kaiba told her, "there's almost a foot out there. Your car won't get far."
"But there's no heat, someone is missing, and there's someone out there...or worse...in here who's out to get us!" she screeched.
"Miss Salazar, there's no evidence that the ax was anything more than accident. Plus, Mr. Brown has to be around here somewhere" McBride reassured her.
"What about the cut wires?" the man in gray asked.
"Well I don't know.... that is to say..." he stuttered, wringing his hands nervously.
"I'm going outside to checkout those wires" Officer Wingfield told them, he headed for the hall to get his coat.
"I'll go looking for Mr. Brown upstairs" Metanoia volunteered, trying to put an end to some of the guests' worries.
"We'll go too" Kaiba offered.
Calisto nodded, "do be careful dears. Mind the floor boards."

Yugi, Bakura, and Joey had decided to join them.
"Who ever cut the power must still be in the house" Kaiba told them as they climbed the staircase. "The footprints led to the cut wires and back into the house."
"I'll bet good money it was Timbers," said Joey.
"Can't be, he was with the other guests in the cocktail room then, according to Wingfield" Bakura argued.
The teens came to the second floor and starting walking down the hall, checking each room.
"But then who?" Yugi mused.
"I'd hate to think there's someone else other than Timbers..." Metanoia's voice trailed off. She was concentrating on something her flashlight found.
"What is it?" Yugi asked curiously, following her gaze to the floor.
"The carpet is red." She carefully reached into the front of her dress, and took out the paper again.
Joey laughed, "why do girls put things down there?"
Metanoia shot him a ticked off look. "I don't have pockets, and I wanted to keep it safe" she retorted, unfolding it. She looked over it again, "two, red." Without a word, she took off up the stairs. The boys followed, eager to find out what she was up to. Metanoia began quickly checking the floor of each room with her light. She stopped at a room with a sky blue carpet. "This is starting to make sense. The house has five floors, the note is pointing out certain rooms in the house for some reason."
Joey walked into the room. He paused for a moment, "didn't McBride say something about a treasure before to Mr. Brown?"
"Supposedly there's a treasure like money or something hidden in the house by the first owner, General Kearny. It's only a myth though." Kaiba explained.
Joey scratched his head, "maybe Timbers is looking for it. The rooms he wrote down must be the ones he already searched."
Metanoia disagreed. "It sounds more like he wrote down those rooms to remind himself of something, like he hid something in them."
Joey opened the drawer to a dust old dresser. "One way to find out. Let's look around."
"Where's supposed to be looking for Brown" Bakura reminded them.
"Then you go" Joey told him, continuing his search.
Bakura and Metanoia went to look for Brown on the other floors. Yugi, Joey and Kaiba however scoured the room.
"Good thing we didn't have to dust up here" Yugi choked, waving away cloud of dust with his hand. He was looking behind a painting on the wall, Joey kept opening drawers. Kaiba was tapping the floorboards with the heel of his shoe.
"Hey Kaiba, a little help here?" Joey snapped at him. "Exactly what are you doing?"
He didn't answer, just continued his tapping.
Yugi flipped over to picture. "Hey, there's something written on the other side." He read it to himself, "looks like a riddle. It looks like it was written here a while ago though, so I don't think it has anything to do with..."
"Quiet!" Kaiba ordered. He hit the same board again. Instead of the usual hollow knock, it sounded more solid. He knelt down and starting pulling up the board. It slid aside easily.
"Hey! I think you're onto something!" Yugi exclaimed, kneeling down next to him.
Under the board, were a few brick shaped packages wrapped in newspaper and string. Joey began poking at one. "What are they?" he mused. His poking caused one to rip, and a very small plastic ziplock bag fell out. It contained a pure white, powdery substance. Joey picked it up, only to have Kaiba knock it out of his hand.
"Moron! Don't you know what those are!?" he yelled Joey, "dime bags!"
"Drugs?" Yugi wondered, "Timbers is hiding drugs in here?"
"That could explain where his new car came from" Joey scoffed.
Kaiba shook his head. He took a handkerchief from his pocket, and wrapped up one of the bags. Then, he carefully replaced the board.
"What's that for?" Joey asked him.
"In case the drugs are moved, this way we still have evidence. We're not even sure the note is his. Just to be on the safe side, let's not let on that we know anything about this. Let's try and trace whose note it is first."

"Mr. Brown, are you up here?" Metanoia called into the darkness. She and Bakura had searched every floor with no success. They were in the only place left to look, the attic. It was colder than the other floors. Moonlight leaking through the roof, along with some snow. An open window let a bitter wind blow in.
"This is insane" Metanoia shivered, "where is he?" Her breath froze as she spoke.
"The sooner we get out of here, the better" Bakura quivered, rubbing his arms. She starting walking towards the other side of the room. All of a sudden, one of the floorboards under her began to break. Metanoia screamed as she started to fall through. "Careful!" Bakura shouted, pulling her back by the waist. She stumbled to regain her balance, as the board felt through to the other level harmlessly.
She breathed a sigh of relief, "thanks a lot. That was a close..." He put his hand up to stop her from talking. "What?" she asked, after a few seconds.
"Did you hear that?" he asked, still trying to listen.
"No, what?"
They listened again. This time, a slight moaning noise echoed from the shadows. "That" Bakura said, following the sound. He shown his light into the darkness. There, sitting in a corner, was Mr. Brown. His hands were tied behind his back, and his had a large purple bump on this forehead.
"Oh no! Mr. Brown are you ok?!" Metanoia cried, running over to him and attempting to free his hands. He only groaned, his head swaying dizzily.
Loud footsteps thundered outside the room. Suddenly, the other boys ran in.
"What happened?" Yugi asked out of breath, "we heard a scream and a crash then...Mr. Brown!"
"Oh man! What happened to him?!" Joey gasped.
"We don't know" she responded, "give us a hand."
Kaiba examined the bruise. "He's out cold."
After untying him, Kaiba and Joey supported him on their shoulders and carrying him down the stairs.

"Oh dear! This is what I feared would happen!" Mrs. Calisto sobbed. They had brought Brown into the kitchen, and sat him up in a chair. McBride put a cold compress to his wound. "This party has turned out to be a disaster!"
Meanwhile, in another room, Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba let the others in on their find.
"Dude, Timbers has drugs up there?!" Tristen cried.
"Keep it down!" Kaiba said forcefully, "we can't let anyone know that we know they're up there. First he have to track down the owner of the note." He looked around to make sure no one was looking, then took out the small package from his coat pocket. He handed it to Metanoia, "keep this in your purse" he told her.
"What is it?" she asked, doing what she was told.
"Dime bags" Joey told her, smirking. She didn't look too comfortable to be handling it.
"I hate to say it", Tea paused, "but that might be the reason Brown was attacked. Maybe he found something and ...someone tried to shut him up."
"You maybe be right" Mai agreed.
"Ahhhhh, my head", Brown groaned from the kitchen. The teens entered to find him clutching his aching head, his eyes where still a bit unfocused.
"Robert! Robert!" Mrs. Calisto squealed, "can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you," he muttered, looking around. "How did I get down here?"
"We brought you down," Joey explained, "we'd like to know how you got up there!"
Brown sighed, "when the lights went out, I decided to check the fuse box. On my way to the cellar door, I see someone dressed in dark clothing running down the hall. I found this strange, so I followed the person. What was even stranger, they headed up the stairs, being careful that no one would see them. I followed them up quietly, all the way up. But by the time I got to the top floor, I had lost them. I was searching the attic when suddenly I was hit by something very heavy in the back of the head. It's all very blurry after that. Then I'm back down here again."
"You mean there's an armed man hiding someone in this house right now!" Mai wailed.
Surprisingly, Metanoia wore no expression of concern. "I wouldn't be too worried if I were you Mai."
Brown glared at her, "but I was attacked! That's a very good reason to be afraid!" She remained stone-faced.
McBride shook his head, "let's try to keep this quiet, so not to alarm the other guests."
"Why should the other guest be alarmed?" Mrs. Wingfield asked suspiciously, she had been standing in the doorway.
"Ellen!" Mrs. Calisto gasped. She paused, "Robert followed a unknown man to the upper floors, and was attacked."
She hastily cut through the crowd of teens, her heels slipping on the wet tile floor. She gasped at the sight of him. This news was not what she wanted to hear, her eyes shown with horror.
"Don't worry Mrs. Wingfield, we'll..." Tristen began.
"The reason I came in here was to ask if anyone had seen my husband. I don't think he came in yet, and when I stepped out a bit to call him, there was no answer!"
Almost instantly, McBride and the boys took off towards the door. Outside was bitter cold. The wind had picked up, and the churning snow made seeing more than a foot in front of your nose impossible.
"Officer Wingfield!" Bakura shouted, his voice was muffled by the howling wind.
Kaiba followed footprints back towards the cut cables, but found no one.
Suddenly, Yugi noticed something bright red in the white snow. He followed the trail of drops, until he made a ghastly find. There lay Officer Wingfield, face down in a drift. On his head, a massive gash. The gun holder he wore on his belt was empty.
"Guys!" Yugi screamed, "come here quick!"
Laying just a few feet away, was a large pair of industrial wire cutters, covered in blood.