Mac hung up his phone and headed out of his office. He walked to Jo's office. "Our case just got bigger," he said.

"What happened?" Jo asked.

"Danny and Don went to the victim's mansion and found two more dead bodies."

"What is going on, Mac?"

"I don't know, but obviously it is bigger than mushrooms."

"I guess that cancels our date for tonight."

"I guess."

Mac and Jo went to the elevator and went to the crime scene where Danny was already taking pictures. "So, what have we got?" Mac asked.

"Well, it looks like one of these people may be the butler and the other is the maid," Don said. He looked around the house which was totally torn up. "I think someone was looking for something."

Mac had to agree with that. "Question is: what?" he said. "And did they find it?"

"Wow, this is a severe tossing," Jo remarked as she stepped over a broken table.

Mac shook his head. "They were sure looking for something." He looked at Don. "Is the whole place like this?"

"Yes," Don replied. "Upstairs is broken up too."

"Does it look like they found what they were looking for?"

"Can't tell, but everything that could contain something has been emptied and torn up."

Mac frowned. "Nothing left intact, huh?"

"Not a thing."

Danny finished taking the photos. "Looks like these two people didn't know what they were looking for either," he said.

"I would agree," Mac said. "If they had known, it doesn't look like they would have torn up the house once they found what they wanted."

"It's going to be hard to find out what they were looking for," Jo said.

"Surely someone else knows something."

"I would have to agree with Terrence," Don said. "I don't think that guy got this by owning a restaurant."

"Well, you never know," Mac replied. "He sold some pretty expensive dishes in there."

They began their collection of evidence from the bodies. "It looks like they were beaten," Mac pointed out. "Whoever did all this must have tried to make them talk."

"And they didn't know," Jo said. "Or they wouldn't have torn up this house. Chances are, they didn't find it."

"Whatever 'it' is."

Mac and Jo stood in a corner of the room and looked around them. "Now, if I didn't want someone to find something, where would I put it that they never would?" Mac asked.

Jo shook her head as she looked around the room which was quite large. It had an open stairway that wound up to the upper floor, and the entire place was made of varnished wood, and the walls in the living room were off-white. "Well, it obviously wasn't behind a picture or anything," she said. "Everything has been ripped off the walls."

Mac stared around them and let his gaze fall on the stairway. It was basically untouched. He thought it looked like there could be a small room under it. He walked over to the stairway, which was not an easy task with all the stuff in the way. He moved over to the stairway and investigated the width of the stairs and how far behind the enclosed area under the stairs went. It was definitely enough to have a secret compartment in there, and who knew how far back it could go. It looked like just the support for the stairs but Mac had seen stairs with small rooms under them.

Jo came over to him. "What are you looking for?" she asked.

"Anything that looks unusual," Mac replied thoughtfully as he continued to look at the stairs. He did not see anything in the wood that would indicate a door or anything, but he was sure it would not if someone wanted to hide something in there. He began to examine the stairs and went around to climb up the stairs as he looked at each one.

Jo watched him, wondering what he was doing, but she waited and did not ask questions. Mac stopped on the tenth step and stared down at the twelfth. He could see that it looked like the carpet was divided slightly at the back of the step. He knelt down and looked closer at the step. He pulled at the sides of the step but nothing happened from the back so he pulled at the front of it and discovered that it was like the top of a hinged box. Jo put her hands on her hips. "Just how did you find that?" she asked.

Mac looked at her and shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I just had a feeling there was something here." He lifted the top up and found that there was an electronic panel in it with a red button on it. He pressed the button and two lights flashed on the panel and then he heard a click below him, suddenly hoping that the steps were not going to move, but Jo looked around to the side of the steps.

"There is definitely a door here," Jo said.

Mac got up and went down to the door. He looked at Jo. "Well, maybe we're about to find out what they were looking for," he said.

Don was curious and came over there. He looked into the secret panel. "You going in there?" he asked.

"Yes," Mac answered.

Mac pushed the door on aside. "If this door closes, go up there and open it again," he said.

Jo followed Mac into the passage which was not very wide but wide enough to get down it. Mac shined his light around and found that the passage was well-kept, or visited often, because there was no dust and no cobwebs. Mac knew if it no one ever came in there, it would have dust and cobwebs. He looked at Jo and put his hand on his weapon as they continued down the passage. He hoped they did not find anyone down in there.

"Well, how far does this go?" Jo wondered out loud.

Mac was beginning to wonder that himself as he came to a stairway. "This must be quite a secret," he remarked.

"I can't wait to see it," Jo replied.

They finally came to a red door that had a gold handle and even had a peephole in it, which Mac thought was odd. The door opened inward. Mac turned the knob but it was locked. He looked at Jo. "Well, I guess we have to pick this lock before we can get in there," he said. He squatted and opened the forensics kit he had brought with him. He took out the lock picking set and got back to the knob.

"It's odd to me that this door wouldn't have some sort of electronic lock," Jo said.

"Maybe no one knows this is here."

"Well, why does it have a peephole and why is it locked?"

"Only certain people knew it was here?"

Mac heard the lock click and he put his lock kit away and stood up. He looked at Jo. "Question is: if the people upstairs knew this was here, why didn't they tell the ones who were searching?" he asked.

"Maybe they didn't," Jo said. "Maybe they just came here to clean the house. Maybe they didn't live here."

Mac turned the handle and pushed the door open. It was "almost" dark in the room, but there was a faint glow as though there was a lamp on in the room. He drew his weapon, and Jo did the same. After all, they did not know what was in this room. They moved slowly into the room and found that there was no one in there, and there was a lamp on in the room. However, what Mac and Jo noticed most of all was what was hanging on the walls and standing around in the room. Mac looked at Jo and she was even speechless as they gazed at the countless treasures there in the room.

"Mac, this stuff must be worth millions of dollars," Jo said.

"If they're real they are," Mac agreed.

"Why would you hide something like this if it wasn't real?"

"Right."

There were countless paintings on the walls that were priceless as well as jewelry and statues that should be in museums. Jo walked over to one of the paintings and shined her light on the signature. It simply said "Vincent". "Oh, my word," Jo said. "Mac…"

Mac looked at it. "These paintings must be stolen," he said. He looked at Jo. "There have been a lot of Van Gogh paintings stolen over the years. It looks like they are all here."

"A chef is an art thief?"

"Looks like it. This must be how he has made all his money…by selling priceless treasures like this."

"But where did he get them?"

"Who knows? He must have known how to get them."

Just then, Don Flack walked in. He looked around the room. "I thought I would come and see how you two were doing," he said. "Are these what I think they are?"

"They're priceless treasures," Mac said. "This must have had something to do with Mr. Manicotti's death."

Don walked over and looked at some of the paintings while Mac and Jo walked around. Jo picked up something that looked like an egg. "Mac, this just can't be what it looks like," she said.

Mac thought a moment and looked at Jo and Don. "I think our chef was a treasure hunter, and not always legal," he said. "But if he found these treasures, and someone found out about it, this could be the reason for his death, and this stuff is worth more than millions. I've read about these treasures."

"You think these are the real thing?" Jo almost whispered.

"No way to know until they're analyzed by someone besides me."

"No wonder he could afford this place," Don said. "Maybe he stole some of this stuff from people."

"And he had the restaurant just for a cover."

They were all still in awe as Mac called in the situation. Danny came in and looked around the room. "This is incredible," he said. "I wish Lindsey was here to see it. She loves this kind of stuff."

Don stood beside Danny. "I've never really been into art," Don said. "Especially when it starts costing this much."

"I agree, but some people are. This case is a lot bigger than we thought."

"But why would they kill the chef before they found this?"

Danny shook his head. "Maybe it wasn't about this at all."

"Then why tear up the house?"

"Too many unanswered questions."

Mac walked up beside them. "Questions that need answers," he said. "Maybe they thought he had it hidden somewhere else…and this could have been done before he was killed. We have to get the times of death of the two bodies found here and that will help shed a little light on this."

"It looks like they would have brought the chef back here to make him show them where all this was," Don said.

"I agree, but why they didn't is a mystery. Let's get busy."

An art and treasure expert from the museum was called in to collect the treasures. Once they were analyzed, they could find out more about where they had been and maybe whom the chef had gotten them from…