53

The afternoon of April 20th quickly approached. After school, Megan, Brooke, Toby, Katherine, Kyle, and Johanna met Rudolph and Zach at the Bates Motel. The whole town had dropped everything to see what would happen.

The group pushed through the crowd, through the protesters, and stopped as they saw the demolition crew gearing up to start. The crew was, not surprisingly, led by Duane Duke.

"We're not too late! Thank goodness!" Brooke said.

"No, we're close, though," Rudolph said. "All right, Megan, what's your plan?"

Megan explained the best she could without letting the demolition crew catch on. After she finished, she and her friends tried to act as normal as possible.

At that moment, Duane Duke said, "All right. Enough stalling. Start the demolition already."

Megan collapsed on the ground, screaming in pain.

"Oh, my gosh!" Brooke said. "Are you OK? What's wrong?"

She and her friends knelt down around Megan. Rudolph slipped in the crowd.

"I think it's time," Megan said, trying to sound like she wasn't faking.

While the crowd and the demolition crew were distracted, Rudolph rushed towards the old house, avoiding the demolition equipment. He scrambled up the stairs that went up to the house, up the small hill. He went around the right side of the porch to the door to the cellar, opened it, and went in.

After somewhat blindly searching for the pull switch to turn the light on, he turned it on. He began to look for the will. He searched the shelves, the coal-burning furnace, and the landing between the cellar and the first floor as thoroughly as he could with time running extremely short.

After about fifteen minutes, he heard an ambulance pull up outside. He guessed it was going to take Megan to the hospital. He was out of time, but he hadn't found the will.

As he heard the ambulance leave, he had one last idea. "Fruity, cell… Of course! Grandmother!"

He went back to the main part of the cellar from the landing and found the loose stone under which Lila Loomis hid her disguise that she used to try to drive Norman mad a second time. Rudolph lifted the stone away and pulled a stack of papers out of a hole in the ground.

"That's it!" he said.

As he heard machinery start up, he ran out of the cellar to the front of the house.

"Wait!" he yelled over the sound of the demolition equipment.

The crew shut the equipment off. Duke cursed under his breath. Someone in the crowd asked, "Who the heck is that kid?"

"I'm Rudolph Norman Francis Bates. My father used to own this hotel. I say stop the demolition!"