Foreword: Finally! The last chapter before the detectives uncover the solution is up! Because in the next chapter, the detectives will start unveiling who the killers are and how they made the locked room, I'm adding tons of clues into this chapter! I'm sure that some of you might be able to figure out who the killers are by reading this chapter, and I'll be glad to hear what you think.

We left off with Nancy Drew in grave danger. How can she escape from the locked freezer? The solution is quite unbelievable. Please read and review!

Chapter 15

Detectives' Conclusion

Frank had a bad feeling that something was going wrong. But he didn't know what it was about, so he kept thinking about what the trick might be.

Callie came into the room with a grin. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Nothing," said Frank. "I'm just thinking about the murder."

Frank stared at the notes he had made. "The rust must have something to do with the murder, but I don't know how it can lead to the solution. He then looked at the next note. "And the hair in the cardboard box… I know those two go together, but how…?"

Nancy leaned against the door, but then, her head bumped into something hard and icy. "What is that?" she wondered, using her hands to feel what it was. She figured out that the iron bar was one of the hinges of the door. Then, she got something on her fingertips as she touched the hinge. It was rust. Nancy Drew immediately remembered the rust that was on the floor of the room where the first murder was committed.

"The rust must mean that someone had moved the bed. Because the rust led from the bed to the door and then back, someone must have moved the bed outside for a while and then moved it back in," she muttered. "But that would mean that a person went through all that trouble to achieve absolutely nothing! What would the purpose of moving the entire bed be?"

Closing her eyes, Nancy thought. "Could it have been one of the caretakers of the hotel?"

Then, she shook her head. "No, if a person wanted to clean the bed or the mattress, he or she would just take the mattress."

Clenching her fist, Nancy bit her lips. "But I still need to get out of here." Nancy shivered again, and the shiver made her remember that she was still locked in the freezer. Five minutes had already passed now, and her skin was starting to feel numb. "This is bad," she muttered. "I need a way out of here."

Just as she muttered so, something fell out of Nancy's pocket. With a clang, the object hit the ground.

"Wh-what was that?" murmured Nancy. She bent down and felt around the icy floor. Then, she found what she was looking for.

It was a quarter.

Grinning, Nancy took the quarter and jammed it into the hinge. She then took her freezing finger and pushed down on the edge of the quarter as hard as she could. When the quarter was slightly bent, she used the bent part of it and scratched all the rust off the hinge. Then, she did the same thing with the other hinge. When she had finished, the girl detective turned the hinges. Unfortunately, the hinge didn't come off, and Nancy bit her lip. She then remembered that she still had Ned's cell phone.

Taking the cell phone out, Nancy warmed it and tried to turn it on. But it didn't.

Nancy hoped that the cell phone could still work and clenched it tightly. Then, she tried to turn it on once more, but her hand was cold and shaking. She knew she didn't have enough time. As her hand shivered uncontrollably, the cell phone fell off her hand.

The girl detective grunted with frustration. She reached out and felt the floor. As she felt the cell phone, she accidentally pushed the on button. The screen lit up, and Nancy couldn't believe her luck. She immediately called Frank for help. A few seconds later, Frank, Ned, and Callie were in front of the freezer. Unlocking it, they were astounded to find the girl detective there, pale and shivering.

"Tell us what happened, Nancy," said Ned, feeling Nancy's hand, which was ice-cold.

"I will," replied the sleuth. "But first, I have to get something warm to drink."

Just as the girl sat down with a cup of hot coffee, the others sat around her in the dining room. "So tell us what happened," said Frank.

Nancy replied, "I solved the second clue and went to the painting of Piermont. When I turned the painting, I heard a click, so I decided to investigate. But when I found nothing after a brief search, I went outside to investigate. As I got to the woods, I noticed that someone was following me, so I turned around. The next thing I knew, I was locked in a freezer! I managed to escape by picking on the hinges."

Callie shivered. "Wow, that must have been terrible! So where do you think the click came from?"

Nancy shrugged. "I thought it came from inside the kitchen. But I don't know, since I didn't do a very thorough job."

"Then let's go and look for the passageway," suggested Ned. "Maybe we can find something if we look now."

The four detectives went into the kitchen to look. Frank opened the cabinet and found something strange. He called the other detectives.

"Hey, look here," he said, pointing to the bottom of the cabinet. Nancy looked. There was dirt in the cabinet. "This must mean that someone stepped into this cabinet for some reason. By looking at these shelves, I'm sure that they are removable. Once you remove all the objects in this cabinet, the secret door must appear."

They then took all the shelves out and looked inside. The cabinet was big enough to fit a normal adult inside, and there was a small space between the board at the back of the cabinet and the side of the cabinet. Frank put his fingers in the space and pulled. Immediately, the board came out and revealed a passage.

"We found it!" Callie said excitedly. "Now, we can finally find out what the secret of this mansion is. Who knows? Maybe we can find the long-lost treasure of Piermont!"

The detectives stepped in. Using her flashlight, Nancy looked around. The passage was quite narrow. Just as the detectives entered the passageway, they faced a dead end.

"What's this? This is the dead end already?" Ned touched the wall. "Huh…? This is…"

"Hey!" said Nancy. "I found another passage here!" She pointed the flashlight to her left. "I see a staircase."

The staircase was quite short. But when the detectives got to the top, they faced yet another dead end. This time, there was no passage to their right or their left. But right in front of them was a ladder.

"Strange," muttered Frank. He reached up and felt the panel above their heads. As he pushed, the panel moved, and they could see that they were right under the floor of the second floor. As the detectives got out, Frank muttered with a grin, "I understand now. The 'ghost' must have used this secret passage to 'disappear' when Edna followed her!"

Nancy nodded. "I get it. We couldn't find any secret door because we always assumed that the door was on the wall. In fact, it wasn't. It was in the floor all along!"

"So that's one mystery solved," said Callie. "But we still don't know what the meaning of this weird secret passage is. I don't think that the owner made it just for the heck of it."

Nancy sighed. "Well, we don't need to waste any more time now. Let's go to my room. I think it's cozier than the dining room."

The others agreed. As the detectives entered Nancy's room, which was right around the corner from the trapdoor, Ned noticed that Xavier was heading downstairs. He was holding a notebook. "Was he spying on us?" Ned wondered.

Still wondering what Xavier was up to, Ned followed the others into Nancy's room. Frank then thought of calling Joe to see if he had any news. Then, Nancy remembered that she had asked Bess and George to do some research for her on Henri. She took the phone in the hotel room and dialed Bess's number. The chubby blond girl answered, and Nancy asked immediately if she had any news.

"George and I were looking through the Internet," said Bess, "and found a particular site that introduced various books on Alphonse Piermont. And guess what? One of the books introduced there was by Henri LaSalle!"

"Really?" asked Nancy, astonished.

"Yeah, and according to the book, Alphonse apparently hid treasure that's worth a small fortune somewhere in the mansion where he once lived," said George. "In other words, there's a treasure hidden in that hotel right now that wasn't uncovered by anyone yet."

Nancy nodded. "That means Henri obviously has interest in Piermont. I just wonder why he tries so hard to do research on him…"

"Could it be that he is related to the magician?" asked Bess.

"That could be, but do you think he would kill two people because of that? I mean, I can't think of a reason to kill people just because of some treasure."

"You never know," George said. "Some people are blind when it comes to gaining a fortune. The only thing they can see is the money that's right in front of them."

Nancy sighed. "Okay. Thanks for the info, girls. I'll call you back later."

As Nancy hung up, Frank asked, "So, did you get any useful info from them?"

The girl detective shrugged. "Henri might or might not be connected to this case. In fact, I think he's way too suspicious. Do you remember the last three cases?"

Frank nodded. "Yeah. Come to think of it, all of them had the most surprising endings. I didn't even suspect a few of them that turned out to be the culprits!"

Nancy nodded. "Just because Henri is suspicious doesn't mean that he must be the killer. What I think we should do is to think about each of the suspects individually."

Callie nodded. "Okay, so I think the person who is least suspicious is Edna Kempton. She is the owner of the hotel and is Chet's aunt. I don't think she has the motive to kill two of her customers. She has alibi for the first murder but has no alibi for the second murder."

To this, Ned said, "But she might have killed the two because they figured out the place where the treasure was hidden. She might have wanted the money all to herself and killed them."

Frank shook his head. "I don't think so. The reason is that this hotel is her property. If anybody finds anything in here, whatever they found will be Edna's possession."

"And the most suspicious is Henri," declared Callie. "I think he knows a lot more than he tells. Besides, I don't know why he keeps such a detailed account on Nancy's cases. He didn't have an alibi for the first murder but has an alibi for the second one."

Nancy said, "I don't think we should be too concerned with him. After all, he is just one of the suspects. And I think that there may be two killers."

"So even if he was the killer," said Ned, "we still need to figure out the other one in order to close this case."

Frank looked at the list of suspects he jotted down. "So the next person who is suspicious is Xavier Churchill. He had an alibi for the first murder but didn't have one for the second murder."

Nancy nodded. "We still don't know why he stayed in this hotel after the previous owner died. Does he like this house that much? Or is it because he wants to stay in here for some other reason?"

"Like the treasure," murmured Callie. "I'm sure the reason he chose to be the caretaker after he lost his job as a gardener was because he wanted to continue looking for the treasure!"

Nancy looked at the list one more time. "Oh, and there's the cook Derek Ogden. He looks really nice and intelligent, but that could be misleading. He is the only one with two solid alibis. In the first murder, he was seen at the table when the noise was heard upstairs. And during the second murder, he was in the kitchen preparing for breakfast. So it's impossible for him to kill anybody even if he did have an accomplice."

"I'm sure he doesn't have anything to do with this case," Callie said. "But I have to admit that he might be suspicious. He was the one who first found the footprints on the floor when we went upstairs after we heard the sound of breaking glass."

"I just don't know who to trust here in this hotel," sighed Ned.

Nancy, after looking through the list once more, said, "And the next one is Amy Takahashi. When I searched in her room, I found a photograph of her with both my mom and me. She had an alibi for the first murder but didn't have an alibi for the second killing."

Callie thought for a while. "So it's clear that Amy knows your mother. No, I think she's more than that. I think she knew your mother well enough to be in a picture with her."

"And I don't think she's really that much of an airhead," added Ned. "I think she is really a smart person who is concealing her wits for some reason."

Scrolling down the list of suspects, Nancy said, "And we shouldn't forget about Norma."

Frank nodded. "I'm still suspicious about the picture frame I saw when Callie and I went to her room. I just don't know why she put the frame facedown after we noticed it?"

Nancy said, "When I searched her room, I found that photograph. There was a man, a woman, a girl, and a boy. But the boy's face was blurred, probably because of age. She doesn't have an alibi for the first killing but has one for the second killing."

"Hmm…" murmured Ned. "All these must mean something. I just feel like I'm missing something important here."

Nancy turned the page of her notebook. Just as she did so, the pen which she was holding scratched Ned on the arm.

"Oh! Sorry, Ned," she apologized, looking at the wound.

"It's okay," said Ned. "I get scratched and bruised a lot during football practices." He then chuckled lightly.

"I got a band-aid in my purse," said Nancy. "I'll look for it." After finding the band-aid, she applied it on to her boyfriend's arm.

Callie watched while Nancy applied the band-aid. Then, she stopped as she thought about the wound. "Wait a minute…" she muttered. "That person…"

Nancy looked at her with interest. She asked, "What is it?"

Callie shook her head. "It's nothing."

Ned then thought of something and got up. "I want to check out something," he said, then went out of the room. Nancy then took out her pen and started scribbling something with it. Frank watched her.

"Hey," he said. Nancy looked up. "I didn't know you owned a fountain pen."

Nancy looked at her pen. It was quite old-fashioned and worn. She smiled embarrassedly. "It's my dad's. He used it since when he first got a job as an attorney."

She then started scribbling again, but she found that the pen wasn't working as well as she hoped. She started shaking the pen. Instantly, some black ink flew out of the pen and landed on Callie. The girl shouted as the ink landed on her head. "Ah!"

"Oh, sorry again!" said Nancy. "I don't know why, but I'm clumsier than usual."

Frank watched as Callie took some tissue and started wiping her face. He then saw that some was on her shirt as well. "Hey, there are some spots on your shirt."

Callie looked down but didn't bother to wipe it. "It's okay. My shirt is black, and nobody can tell if I had some black spots on my black T-shirt…"

Something in Callie's mind clicked. Everything fell into place now. Her eyes got round. "That's it…" she muttered. "I got it…"

Frank looked at Callie in astonishment. "You mean…"

Callie nodded. "I know who the killers are. I also know what the evidences are!"

Frank couldn't hide his excited expression. "Really? I just figured out how the killer accomplished the impossible crime!"

Nancy and Callie looked at him in surprise. Nancy said, "I can't believe it! And I know what the motives for killing those two people are!"

Just then, Ned came into the room looking quite excited. "Guys!" he shouted. "I figured it out! I know where the treasure is!"

As the detectives looked at one another, they immediately knew that it was time to reveal the tricks to the bloody magic show.

"Everything is solved now," said Frank with a grin. "Now, it's time to reveal the truth!"

Postscript: Each of the detectives found out a portion of the truth to the bloody magic show. Who can be the killers? Why did they kill the two victims? What are the evidences? How did they commit such an impossible crime? And, last but not least, where is the treasure? Read the next chapter to find out!

Oh, and don't forget to review!