Foreword: Sorry for the long wait! I've been very busy for the last few weeks. Now, it's spring break, and I'd love to work on the story more. Here is the newest chapter. What will happen to Callie who fell off the roof at the end of the previous chapter? Who can save her when Frank and Nancy missed? Will Joe come back and join the other detectives? Or will he does an investigation by himself in the town? To find out more, read this chapter! And don't forget to review!
Chapter 10
Return of the Detective
"Callie!" Frank shouted as he missed his girlfriend's hand.
The detective watched helplessly as the hand fell and disappeared into the misty fog.
No! he shouted in his mind. I missed! I missed her!
Devastated, he smashed his fist into the roof, but just a moment after he saw the hand disappear, he heard another sound from below.
"What?"
Nancy heard the sound, too, and stood up. She went down the ladder and into the hotel. She turned around the corner to the place right under the part where Callie had fallen. There, she saw Callie. She was lying on the floor, and a person sat next to her, gasping for air.
It was Ned.
"Ned!" Nancy shouted in glee. "You did it! You caught her in time!"
Frank went to the spot and saw what Ned had done. He immediately went to Callie and slapped her cheeks lightly. "Callie? Callie?"
The blond girl slowly started to open her eyes. "F…Frank…"
"She's okay!" Nancy shouted happily. "I'm so glad, Frank!"
Frank looked at Ned and grinned. "Thanks a lot, Ned."
Ned smiled. "It wasn't easy. When I heard Callie slip, I immediately went down the ladder and to the window right under the spot. I reached the window just as I saw her feet dangling in midair. I reached for it, but then, she started falling, so I reached out more and managed to get her wrist. Fortunately, I wasn't too late."
Callie opened her eyes completely and hugged Frank. "Oh, Frank!" she shouted. "I thought I was going to fall into the ocean for sure!"
"But I didn't save you," said Frank. "You should thank Ned for that. He caught you just when I missed your hand."
Callie turned to Ned. With a broad grin, she said, "Thanks, Ned."
Nancy saw Ned blush just the slightest bit, and felt uncomfortable.
The detectives then decided to call it the day. They were doing more detective work than they had in mind, and it was already time for lunch.
During lunch, the hotel's guests each ate in silence, while the hotel staff and the detectives talked.
Amy finished the lunch first and went upstairs, saying that she would skip dessert. Then, Henri went up. After eating dessert, Norma was the first to go back to her room, and the caretaker, Xavier, exited the dining room right after her.
Now, the only people left were Nancy, Ned, Callie, Frank, Edna, and Derek. Edna asked, "So how is the investigation going?"
"Not so good," answered Frank. "We're still baffled about the murder."
"Well, I thought you might want to know that Joe just called. He's regained consciousness."
Frank looked up with surprise. "Really? Did he sound okay?"
"He sounded quite mad that he missed all the excitement, but other than that, I think he is as good as ever." Edna smiled. "Of course, he's also very curious about this case. If you don't call him soon, I think the excitement might make his injury worse!"
Frank went to the lobby and dialed Joe's cell phone number. After ringing thrice, someone answered. It was Joe.
"Joe!" Frank called. "How is your head?"
"As good as ever. You didn't think that a puny truck can injure my head, did you?" answered Joe teasingly. "Anyway, I'm really jealous because you guys have been enjoying all the juicy mystery while I was in this smelly old hospital because of my stupid injury. I said that I can go to the hotel, but the doctor said no. He said that the road was filled with avalanches. I said that I can go by boat, but he said that it was too foggy outside. So I was forced to stay in this room doing absolutely nothing."
"Wow, that's too bad," murmured Frank, who knew that keeping Joe in a hospital would have taken more persuasion than forcing an agitated bull to calm down. "But I'm really stumped as to who did what."
"What? You mean that you and Nancy don't have a clue?"
Frank admitted, "I can say that the killer was very thorough. I couldn't even find a scrap of clue in the crime scene. Anything could have been helpful: a strand of hair, a set of footprints, anything!"
Frank then told Joe their investigations and the murder. He also told his brother the suspects and how each of them was strange and could not be trusted. After listening patiently, Joe thought for a moment. He said out loud, "It seems like you haven't searched thoroughly enough."
"Huh? I searched the place as thorough as a police! How do you think I missed something so vital?"
"I don't know. Sometimes, you're really like me, Frank. You can be careless, reckless, and blind about things going on around you."
Frank laughed out loud. "Joe, the last one is almost 100 about you! But yeah, I guess I can be reckless at times and careless, too."
The blond detective then hung up after saying goodbye. Frank returned to the dining room. Nancy asked concernedly, "How is Joe?"
"He's fine," answered Frank. "He just needs some time to get used to the hospital, that's all."
Ned looked down at Frank's shoes. "Hey, Frank," he called. "What's that on your shoe?"
Frank looked down also. There was something brown stuck to his sneaker. He looked at it. "It's iron rust."
"Rust?" asked Nancy. "But where did you get it? I don't think there's any rust in this room."
Frank thought for a moment. This could be an important clue, but he didn't know where he got it from.
"I'll go back to investigate more," he said, turning around. He got to the second floor and looked down. The floor was clean.
He then went to the window where Ned caught Callie when she almost fell down. He found something brown on the floor. Picking it up, he realized that it was the same rust that was stuck to his shoe.
Then, he looked around. He was standing right in front of the room in which June was murdered.
"Could this be connected to the murder?" he wondered.
He went downstairs and asked Edna for the key to June's room. She gave him the key, and he went back upstairs. The other detectives followed.
Back in the crime scene, Frank looked down on the floor with the magnifying glass. He found traces of rust leading from the door of the room and back. He then followed the rust on the floor. He then came to the bed.
Taking a closer look, Frank found out that the rust was coming from the wheel at the bottom of the bed. Because the wheel was made of iron, the rust must have come from the wheel.
"Why is there rust on the floor?" wondered Frank. "The rust looks quite new; could a person have rolled the bed out of the room and back in?"
"But why?" asked Callie, confused. "Why would someone want to do that?"
Ned thought about it. "Maybe…" But he stopped, continuing to think to himself.
The other detectives were already busy with checking the floors. After ten minutes of thorough search, they agreed that the rust was only on the floor leading to the bed.
"But this confuses me," murmured Nancy.
Joe looked at the clock on the wall of his hospital room. It was still three in the afternoon. He put on his shoes and got out of bed. Then, he felt his forehead and winced.
"It still hurts," he murmured. "I'd better be careful not to move too much and too suddenly, or the wound will open."
He went out of the room and looked around. The hallway was filled with patients and their families, along with nurses in their white uniforms and doctors with the stethoscopes. After looking around for a while, the detective decided to get out of the building.
The first place he went to was the local library. The library was a huge four-story building with brown surface and green roof. He then looked at the roof. There were many statues of birds and mythical creatures.
"Gosh, this looks more like a museum," he murmured.
The detective went inside. He went to the newspaper section of the library and took a bunch to read. He thought that those new information might help him solve the current mystery.
Joe first took the newspapers from five years ago, but he didn't see anything concerning the hotel. Then, he went to the newspapers from ten years ago, and then from fifteen years ago. He still found no clue, and it was already five o'clock when he looked up from the newspapers.
Sighing, he decided to read the newspapers from twenty years ago. He took three issues and sat down to read. The first newspaper had nothing interesting on it. The second one was just as uninteresting. The third one, however, caught his attention.
"Wait a minute…" he muttered, taking a closer look at the cover page. "Could this be…?"
He took the cover page and looked at the reporter's name. "This reporter's name is Pierre LaSalle."
LaSalle… He thought that the name sounded familiar. But where did he hear that name?
"I remember now! That's the last name of one of the suspects in this mystery!" he shouted. But then, people around him looked around and stared at him. Embarrassed, he sat down and started reading the article.
"This talks about the vandalism that occurred in the Piermont Estate." He then stopped. Piermont… That name sounded familiar, too.
"That's the name of the hotel!" he murmured, careful not to shout out too much. "But what is this vandalism about?"
He continued: "'The mansion of Piermont Estate has been vandalized several times this month. As the resident of the mansion, whose name was William Nguyen, 56, came home from his three-day trip to Vatican City, he found many tire marks around the mansion. Once inside, he was astounded to see that the place had been torn apart. Apparently, nothing of value was stolen, but the furniture was damaged and brought down onto the floor, creating a huge chaos within the estate.'"
He looked up. "Could this vandalism have something to do with the current mystery?" he wondered. He then decided to check this man. "I surely hope he's still alive to tell the tale."
He searched the name online, and he found a site about William Nguyen. Joe then read that the man was a renowned archaeologist who retired fifteen years ago but still does researches. He jotted down the telephone number and took out his cell phone.
"Oh," he muttered as he realized that no cell phone was allowed in the library. Joe quickly went outside and dialed the number.
"Hello?" an old, scratchy voice asked. Joe presumed that it was William Nguyen.
"Is this Mr. Nguyen?" he asked.
"That's me," the old man answered. "Whaddya want?"
"Well, I want to hear more about the vandalism that occurred twenty years ago and…"
Mr. Nguyen interrupted, "Do you mean the one in Piermont Estate?"
"Uh… Yeah, that. Do you mind telling me more about that?" After the man answered no, he asked, "How many times did that occur?"
"I'd say… twice or… thrice, at the most." Then, there was a pause. "Yeah, three times. I think the vandal was searching for something, but I didn't know what."
Joe thought about what to ask next when the man continued, "And there was a strange thing on the floor when I came in."
"Huh?" Joe asked. "What was on the floor?"
"Well, there was a piece of paper that was taped down on the floor when I discovered the vandalism for the third time. The message on the paper was: 'If you dare touch Magician's treasure, he will get his revenge.'"
Postscript: To the detective's surprise, the hotel had been haunted for more than a decade! Who could be making the mansion haunted? Why would someone do such a thing? The mystery has another twist as more and more clues are revealed. But what do all these clues mean? How do they go together? The truth is actually more complex than ever as detectives continue their investigation. Lies, deceptions, conspiracy, guilt, greed, hatred, and love play important roles in this complex mystery.
And don't forget about the main mystery! Is there a way to enter a lockedroom without a key? Or is it really the doing of a ghost that roamed the mansion for decades?
Read and Review, please!