Thank you all for the reviews and PM. Always nice to hear from you and get your input.

-Carly

-7-

Chet pushed the massive door forward and with an eerie creek it swung open. Frank paused to look at the lock mechanism that had taken so much effort to open.

The door was unusually thick, Frank estimated it to be over four inches. "Wow, this thing is thick." He noted with an impressed look as he examined the mechanism. "The lock functions with some kind of electromagnetic function. Which is rather ingenious when you consider that the tumblers are triggered by some kind of ball bearings traveling through a channel to activate them individually."

Chet rolled his eyes, chaffing at the delay. He nudged his friend. "Frank, it's fascinating, but can we find Callie before we bother to examine the locks? We are inside, and that's all that matters for now.

Frank nodded sheepishly, and the group proceeded into the darkness.

Joe activated the flashlight on his phone, and Frank and Chet each took out their own flashlights. "Dark as pitch tar." Joe muttered as he flashed his beam through what appeared to be a sitting room."

"I wonder if this place has power." Iola wondered as she looked for a switch. Before she could find one the room flooded with light from a low hanging chandelier.

"Yep." Chet confirmed, his hand still on a switch near the entryway.

The group took the room in. The décor was quite lush and extravagant. It was also quite dated.

Frank took in a quick 360-degree inspection and nodded. "Place definitely screams that an old lady lives here." Noting the excessiveness of crystal and high dollar art glass in that room alone.

Joe nodded his agreement. "Very true, bro. This room has enough early 20th century Lalique and Tiffany to pay my salary for a year."

Chet gestured towards the opening at the other end of the room. "Come on, guys, let's find Callie. She has to be in this place somewhere."

Frank held up a hand. "I am with you, pal. But let's remember that we are in here illegally and have no idea if the home is occupied. Little old lady or not, if she is home, and not in France, she could be anywhere in the house. And it wouldn't be impossible to think they may be armed."

Chet nodded impatiently. "Ok, I hear ya. What do you want to do?"

Frank gestured as he took out his detective badge and placed it in the display position on his jacket. "While I have no actual jurisdiction here, I do not think it would be a bad idea to go from room to room and identifying myself as law enforcement."

"Good idea, Frank." Iola said with a nervous expression. "The last thing we need to do is freak out some old lady who thinks we are intruders."

Chet gestured to Frank to lead the way. "Ok, man, do your thing, but let's check these rooms out. Old lady is probably in France anyway."

Frank proceeded to lead them into the next room. "Possibly." He conceded, feeling for a light switch. Momentarily, he found one and flipped the switch, lighting up the room. "Detective Hardy, Bayport Police Department." He announced in a loud voice. "Is there anyone here?" There was no answer as they walked through another room which was also richly appointed. The group proceeded through 4 more additional rooms, all of which were similar in appearance. All of which had no inhabitants, and no evidence of Callie!

"At least we have power here." Joe whispered gratefully. "I'd hate to be searching this place with just a flashlight."

Chet and Iola both looked through each room intently for any clues after Frank led them in and determined it was safe. Chet ran his finger along a tabletop which had not been dusted in some time. "The maid hasn't been in for a while." He commented absently.

Frank nodded. "I was noticing the lack of dusting. But it's not terrible when you consider this place. I'd say it's only been a week or two of buildup. But didn't the sister tell Cal that this woman was semi disabled or something? A hip injury or some such thing?"

Chet nodded wearily. "Yeah, I thought she had mentioned that she spent part of her time in a wheel chair."

Joe's eyebrows perked up. "Wheelchair? In this house? We haven't seen the stairs yet, but I can't imagine how she would get up and down if she were even partially dependent on a wheelchair."

"Maybe she has one of those stair lifts that some of the more well to do seniors can afford to put in their homes." Iola speculated.

Frank led the group into the next room, which was the kitchen. This seemed to be the most updated room they had seen so far. And updated was a generous term in that the kitchen had many mid century influences.

Iola gave an amused laugh. "At least she updated the kitchen, back in the late 1950's or early 60's."

Frank nodded his agreement looking up at the atomic styled light fixtures, one of which had an annoying flickering. "Yeah, round fluorescent light bulbs. Nasty thing is flickering and would surely give me a headache if I spent enough time in here."

Joe opened one of the refrigerators and peeked inside. "Someone has been living here." He observed. Iola and Chet walked over and looked over his shoulder. A neatly arranged selection of food was displayed.

"Iola furrowed her brow and pointed. "Check that out. The selection is mostly older lady fare. Cottage cheese, fruits, eggs, and such. But look at that Styrofoam container carelessly tossed in the middle that isn't even completely closed. Looks like some kind of gross chicken wings coated in teriyaki sauce or something."

Joe nodded. "I have to agree with you, babe. I mean I have never seen such an obsessively clean and organized selection of old lady food. Not only is that chicken inconsistent with the rest of what's in there, but it was just tossed in there rather carelessly. There is even some sauce from the chicken splattered outside of the container on the shelf."

Chet looked at both of them. He didn't really see anything unusual. "I don't know what the big deal is. Maybe the old gal had a craving one day and got herself some hot wings."

"Maybe." Joe commented. "Does seem strange now that Iola pointed it out." He pointed at the container of milk. "Check the milk out. Been expired for a week. But also note the store brand, Thriftway. Same for the cottage cheese. Then look at the store generated price sticker on the hot wings."

"Kroger." Iola observed, excited her theory seemed to be supported.

Chet shook his head impatiently. "Ok, kind of strange, I grant you. But it's not helping us find Callie."

Frank gestured to the secondary entrance to the kitchen. "Right you are, Chet. Let's keep moving." The elder Hardy brother felt generally uneasy about them searching a home in which they had no warrant or probable cause to do so. Still, he knew the necessity of doing so given the circumstances. He was getting quite worried for his friend.

The group walked through a laundry room, and aside from the fact the washer and dryer both had unfinished loads, there was nothing to be found. They entered the adjoining room and Joe flipped the light on.

"Hey!" Frank pointed, snapping his fingers. "Looks like we have the mystery of how she gets from floor to floor solved." Everyone had their sight set on an old elevator in the corner, an open accordion style metal gate door on the front of the car.

Chet stepped forward and slid open the gate with a rickety clank and stepped cautiously upon the platform. The car creaked slightly under his weight but held firm. "Shall we?" He suggested to the others.

Frank hesitated, but finally nodded. "Alright." He gestured to the others who followed him into the small car. Joe found a lever which had a ascend and descend option and pushed the lever. The car did not move.

Joe, furrowed brow, looked around trying to determine why the elevator car did not move. Finally, he located a small junction box on a nearby wall and opened it. Upon flipping the power switch up they heard a humming sound from above. All eyes looked up but couldn't see much but darkness beyond the metal grate in the ceiling of the car.

"Let's try this again." When he pushed the lever this time the elevator car went slowly up.

"Progress." Iola said anxiously. Chet nodded nervously at her and put his arm around his sister. About thirty seconds later Joe stopped the car on the second floor, which was dark.

Frank slid the front gate open and stepped off the car. He took out his flashlight and looked for a light switch. He soon located one and the room filled in light. A large sitting room with lush velvet upholstered Victorian furniture throughout.

"Not being too ostentatious or anything." Iola observed with a smirk.

Frank pointed to a nearby hallway. "Let's try this way." He directed and the group followed him as he led the way. They soon had gone through no less than six bedrooms and three baths and one room which was clearly a library. Chet, feeling exhausted by the stress and the hour fell into one of the red upholstered reading chairs in the library. He looked over at the others with a glum expression. "I am not sure where she could be!" He lamented fretfully.

Joe sat down next to him and offered a consoling expression. "Have some faith, pal. We have one floor left to go."

Frank stood in the doorway of the library looking out into the hallway. He seemed to be in silent contemplation. Finally, he turned and looked at his brother. "Say, Joe, remember the Mead case? Doesn't something seem queer about this house. More specifically, the second floor. I have been running over a mental blueprint and I swear we are missing a room."

Joe stood up and walked over to his brother, then looked about the area thoughtfully. He slowly nodded. "I believe you're right, Frank!" He said excitedly, then gestured towards the wall of the library and looked at his brother.

Frank returned the acknowledgement. "The library wall!" They both stepped into the library and gazed at the far wall. Sure enough, the wall was decorated with a large amount of hand carved mahogany panels. Various animals and symbols were depicted on the wall. His eyebrows went up. "Sheesh! We could be here for hours working these carvings."

Joe nodded soberly. "But what better place to keep a kidnapped person? Behind a secret panel in a hidden room!"

Frank nodded, then rubbed his fatigued eyes. "True enough. I tell you what, I still want to look over the 3rd floor. Why don't you and Chet work this wall and see if you can find any hidden locks or even magnetic keyhole. Meanwhile, Iola and I can check out the floor above, and then the cellar."

Both Joe and Chet agreed that this would be the best solution to ensure they could search the entire home, yet also search for the hidden room as quickly as possible. Before they could do anything, they were all startled by the sound of rumbling in the sky.

"What was that?" Iola asked feeling startled.

"Thunder." Joe said uneasily and looked at his phone to check the forecast. "Thunderstorms moving in according to the weather report."

Chet looked about uneasily. "Great. As if everything else wasn't bad enough." An intense crack of lightning struck nearby making him almost jump out of his boots. He paused and took a deep breath. "Come on, Joe, let's find the opening to this room, if there is one."

"Right."

Frank gestured to Iola. "Yeah, let's get to the floor above."

She nodded and turned to her brother. "Have the faith, babe, we will find her!"

Chet nodded, offering his best feigned confidence. "Ok, you guys' text us if you find anything!" he pleaded.

Frank nodded. "Will do." The pair exited the library and Chet looked to Joe, then gestured towards the massive wall. They turned and took it all in. The elaborate carvings seem to fit perfectly in a library as they no doubt told a tale of their own. There were several carvings of animal and other symbols Chet was not familiar with.

He placed his hand over a symbol that appeared as a circular oval with a horizontal bar form. Various symbols were inside it. He shook his head and gestured to Joe. "I have no clue what this is. Ever see anything like it?"

Joe glanced over and studied the symbol, then nodded. "If I am not mistaken, it appears to be an Egyptian cartouche."

"Cartouche?" Chet echoed. "What is that?"

Joe pointed to the symbols inside the oval. "Egyptian hieroglyphs, uh, a symbol of royalty. Though not sure why it would be carved in a wall in a private library in the US. The oval is meant to protect the resting place of said royalty in the afterlife. I am not sure what these symbols inside identify to. I see a cross of sorts and the other one looks like a bird."

Chet's eyes broadened. "You mean this somehow serves as some kind of burial marker?"

Despite the situation at hand Joe couldn't help but offer a light chuckle to his chum. "Well, there is not much of a chance that any Egyptian pharaoh would be buried here. My best guess is that the person who owned the house all those years ago was a bit eccentric. Much like Mr. Mead and perhaps a friend or associate. I mean think about that door downstairs. No one designs a door like that unless they have certain eccentricities."

Chet closed his eyes for a moment and shook off the thought. "I can't even begin to comprehend the reason of why the owner did anything like this. All I can think about is finding Callie. If there is a secret room of some kind, then perhaps she is in there." His words faded as more lightning struck nearby, followed by the sound of what seemed like thousands of small animals running on top of the roof.

Joe glanced upwards. "Must be quite the torrent outside if we can hear the rain down here. I bet there is not only a third floor, but an attic as well."

Chet nodded nervously. "Metal roof probably magnifies the sound."

"No doubt." Joe agreed as he studied the symbols and started pushing and prying on them.

The third floor offered a stark contrast to the lower two levels for Frank and Iola. The walls and rooms were not decorated with the same lushness. There were three rather plain bedrooms and a kitchenette and single bathroom.

Iola looked about as they examined the area. "What happened up here? Did they just run out of money decorating the lower levels?"

Frank noted a much denser amount of dust in the rooms. He sat down in a plain wooden chair located in the kitchenette, then looked up at his sister-in-law. "Well, my best guess would be that this third floor was designed and used as a servant's quarters. And probably not recently judging by the dust and overall state of disuse of this floor. I mean back in the day, and even today of course, there is a certain distinction between the classes. They didn't need velvet curtains and deep carpet."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Iola agreed, then looked at him. "Well, she isn't up here. And judging by our footprints in the dust, we are the only ones that have been up here in some time."

Frank nodded as he looked at the dust covered hardwood floor. "Yeah, it would appear…" He was cut off by the sound of the forecasted rain finally pouring upon the house with great force.

Iola's eyes grew wide, and she looked up. "Well, now I figured out why the hired help got the top floor! When it rains, they get to hear it better than anyone else in the house."

Frank nodded his agreement as he winced upon hearing the torrential downpour strike the roof. "The metal roof doesn't help. Wow!"

The pair left the kitchenette and began walking. Halfway down the hall they saw a stairwell turn off to the left. Frank paused and looked at the stairs carefully, then shook his head. "No one has been walking on those recently." They continued on.

Iola paused and pointed at the door above. Apparently, it was the entrance to the attic. "I guess we don't need to bother with that."

Frank shook his head. "Not likely unless they were floating. I think the cellar is our best bet." They continued and soon reached the elevator car. Upon entering Frank slid the front gate closed and hit the lever. They descended slowly and were soon making their way below the first floor into the darkness of the cellar.

They had just watched the first floor disappear and suddenly the car stopped. Frank and Iola glanced at each other. They had not yet reached the cellar floor since they had just lost view of the first floor.

"What's up?" Iola asked with surprise. Frank turned on his flashlight and aimed the beam shot through the gate into the inky blackness. It was soon apparent that the floor of the cellar was about twelve feet below them. Frank flipped the switch back and forth. The elevator car refused to drop further. When Frank shoved the lever in the up position they heard a tremendous thunderclap! The faint light showing from the first floor through the elevator shaft flickered and then diminished completely!

Frank flipped the lever back and forth, but not only did the car fail to move, it became apparent that the motor which controlled it was no longer running. Frank heaved a heavy sigh. "I think that last lightning strike did it. The power must be out!"

Iola instinctively grabbed onto his jacket in fear. "Oh, God, this can't be happening!"

Frank placed his left arm around his distraught relative. "I'm afraid it has. And we appear to be trapped!"

Chet blinked several times into the blackness. "Well, isn't this lovely." He muttered.

"Storm must have knocked out a transformer." Joe said tersely and heaved a sigh. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. "This isn't going to go any faster by flashlight."

"Why should we bother at all?" Chet grunted. "With no power, how would the panel door open?"

Joe shook his head. "I don't believe this panel would open with electrical power. If I am to go with the mechanism which was used at the Mead house, the release would operate mechanically. I mean if we are pushing or pulling on objects, it suggests that the release probably works by wires and pulleys. And probably a tensioned spring hinge allows the opening to release without actual electrical power."

Chet, feeling encouraged by this explanation flipped on his light and renewed his efforts. "Makes sense to me. Hope Frank and Iola are finding a clue at least." He fretted as the thought of his wife being in danger weighed heavily upon him.

They worked for several minutes, trying to push and pull on several carved pieces in the wall. Finally, Joe stepped back and looked at the wall in the dim light of his phone flashlight. He studied the wall thoughtfully.

Chet glanced over at him. "You thinking something, man?"

Joe nodded and gestured towards the wall overall. The wall was a good twelve feet high and well over thirty feet long. He glanced at Chet. "Ok, so we have a wall that is roughly twelve feet high."

Chet nodded. "Well, yeah, seems like it's about that. What's your point?"

"Well, it stands to reason that the trigger is probably not higher that six feet up. I mean how could you reach it if the thing was ten feet up?"

His chum shook his head. "You couldn't."

Joe pointed to the left side of the wall, which was less accessible because there was several pieces of heavy furniture against the it. "And it doesn't look like you can really reach much on that side of the wall, so that leaves the right side."

"Agreed." Chet admitted. "And there doesn't seem to be anything in place over here on the right side. It's clearly open with nothing blocking it. This might suggest that the trigger and opening may be on this far right side."

"Sounds good, in theory." Joe concurred. The pair began to focus on that portion of the wall, looking for any possible piece of the wall that would actually move and actuate a release of a lock.

As unsettling to Chet as the cartouche was, he was drawn back to it. The Egyptian symbol seemed to be situated at a center point of the zone that they had selected. Inside the horizontal oval there was a bird symbol, an unusual looking cross and a pair of squiggly arrows. But as Chet tried to manipulate each symbol, he became more frustrated. "None of these damn symbols move!" he muttered between breath. In anger he slammed his open hand against the entire cartouche. He was surprised when the carving seemed to yield in an upward direction! "Hold on!" He cried excitedly.

Joe immediately turned his attention to his friend. "Got something?"

Chet gave an uncertain shrug, the took out a pocketknife and began prying along the lower part of the oval. Within moments the blade had apparently tripped a spring release and the entire cartouche slid upward on a wooden track revealing a space in the wall behind it. "I'd say that may be something." He confirmed in satisfaction.

Joe poked his flashlight beam into the narrow hole that was revealed. He smiled in satisfaction. "Looks like it might be a lever in there. Hard to tell."

While excited, Chet who had started to reach towards it paused and looked at the narrow hole hesitantly.

Joe gave him a sideways glance. "What's wrong?"

His chum bit his lower lip pensively and glanced back. "I dunno, but ever since I saw that guy in the movie The Mummy sticking his hand into a hole…"

Despite their overall predicament Joe couldn't help but give his chum an amused smirk. "Gee, Chet, it's not like we are actually in a tomb in the middle of some lost city of the dead. Get a grip."

Chet gestured towards the hole. "Be my guest."

Joe rolled his eyes and started to reach in. "Fine." He grabbed what felt like a small metal lever that was on one end of the hollowed-out cavity. With a bit of pressure, he pushed it to the opposite end. Before Joe could offer his friend a comment about still having his hand, they heard a rather loud clicking sound and noticed a portion of the wall to the right of them extruded from its position. Joe nodded in satisfaction. "Well, pal, looks like you got lucky and found the trigger." He gestured towards the panel which had opened about six inches from the wall.

Chet nodded uneasily as he saw the panel edge popping out in the eerie glow of the flashlight. He swallowed hard. "Yeah, lucky me." He quavered.

The two friends walked towards the panel door edge, and Joe looked at the panel with his light. "As I suspected, this panel probably is held in place by a spring-loaded hinge and latch system. Not quite as intricate with the release mechanism as the magnetic lock at the Mead house, but concealed quite well just the same."

Chet gave him a quick glance. "I'm glad you approve. Can we check this room out now and see if Callie is in there?" As disconcerting as it all was with the mansion that they weren't supposed to be in, and the storm outside blowing rain and wind against the roof, Chet had found a temporary dose of bravery. Even the power outage was seeming more of an inconvenience than magnifying his anxiety as it had previously been.

Joe took a sidestep and gestured to his friend. "Like you said, be my guest."

Chet took a step forward and he gave the edge of the panel a hard pull. But the panel, being made from solid mahogany as well as having an entire wall section attached did not yield easily. Chet glanced over his shoulder. "Give me a hand, would you?" he asked upon feeling the panel's weight.

Joe stepped forward and offered an assist, helping grab the panel. The two of them pulled and finally the panel began to swing open.

Before the panel had opened very far the two were greeted with a sickening odor. "Ugh! What the hell is that smell?!" Chet questioned.

Joe was more familiar with the scent. Dread filled his senses as he glanced over at his chum. "I could tell you what I suspect, but I don't think you want to know the answer."

Chet turned and shot him a look. His face clearly painted in fear in shock. "You mean Callie?!" Without waiting a moment more Chet flipped his own flashlight on, and abandoned all of his fear, stepping forward through the opening into the secret room that lay beyond. Before Joe could follow he heard Chet's flashlight fall to the floor.

Joe rushed in with his own light. "Chet?! Are you OK, man?" His light sliced through the darkness, and he did his best to not choke at the strong odor that met him full force. The sight that met Joe's light made him stop instantly.

He held his light with a shaky hand and looked forward. "Oh, my dear God!" he gasped.

"I think I just about got it!" Frank muttered.

Iola looked up at him from her seated position on the floor of the elevator car. She was watching her brother-in-law struggle with attempting to open the ceiling grate of the enclosure which had kept them captive. Frank had been going through the tedious process of loosening several bolts that held the ceiling panel in place. From her seated position she had been holding Frank's flashlight upward so he could see where to work. "Good to hear." Iola felt reassured. "I don't care for being held in a cage like this!"

"You and me both." He concurred. "Just one more bolt should do it." He grunted as he twisted the small pliers on his multi tool. A few moments later the bolt fell from its position and hit the elevator floor with a clink sound.

"Get it?" Iola asked hopefully.

Frank looked down and nodded. "Yeah, now this whole grate panel should lift up and we should be able to hop up on top of the elevator and climb back on to the first floor." With a grunt he applied pressure to the heavy piece of metal, and it yielded. He got a better grip and them pushed with all his might. The panel went crashing down to the cellar floor! Frank looked down with exhausted satisfaction. "We're free!"

Iola jumped to her feet with a look of relief. Frank extended himself up through the hole and pulled himself on top of the elevator car. He immediately turned and reached down, offering Iola a hand. "Thanks!" She said gratefully as he helped pull her out of the car. The two stood up and Frank aimed the flashlight about. Sure enough, they were within easy reach to climb through the shaft and onto the first floor. The pair scurried up and within moments were standing back on the first floor.

"I don't think I'll ride another elevator in a good long time." Iola claimed between breaths.

Frank nodded. "At least not old ones like that thing." He agreed.

Iola gestured towards the direction of the kitchen. "You think we can go get a drink? I saw a water cooler in the kitchen."

Frank nodded his agreement. "Sure, I think we could use a little hydration after that workout. Then we can see if it's possible to access the cellar from the outside."

"Ok!"

Joe shone his flashlight over where his chum seemed locked in place, unable to move after he had seen the ghastly sight. He seemed quite scared as he pointed. Joe Hardy retracted his beam back to the center of the room. There, in a wheelchair, was a woman seated. She was clearly deceased as one could not only tell from the pungent odor, but another obvious sign.

"She's got no eyes!" Chet quavered as he pointed.

It was indeed true. Sitting in the wheelchair was a woman of advanced years with her blank pale face looking forward. And the most unsettling reality of Chet's words. The woman seemed to have had her eyes removed!

Joe reached over and gave his chum a pull on the sleeve. "Chet, come on, let's get out of here." He directed with a cough. It was obvious they could do nothing else for her, and a quick inspection with the flashlight told Joe there was no one else in the room.

Chet finally found the ability to move himself and readily followed Joe from the secret room and back into the library. Before he could do anything, Chet quickly found a small wastebasket and bent over, heaving freely into it. Joe rushed over to his friend and rubbed his back during the process. "Easy, man. It's ok. It's not Callie."

Chet finally stood back up straight and found a nearby sofa to collapse on to. He looked up at Joe wearily. "I've never seen anything like that before, man. That was positively…" But he couldn't even find the words to finish.

Joe sat down beside him and nodded. "Yeah, I know. I was on a case once with dad and we had the misfortune to encounter a person who had been dead in their home for several days. I guess I knew what was in there before I saw it with the smell."

Chet tossed his hand in the air and seemed a bit disoriented. The fact they had found someone dead, and it was clearly a homicide distressed him even more. Knowing Callie was now out there, quite possibly in the hands of a murderer. "Just get Frank up here, man."

Joe nodded and took his phone out. A moment later he had his brother on the line.

"Yeah, Frank, are you still upstairs?" Joe paused and listed for several moments. "Well, scratch the cellar for now and get up here." Again, he listed to his brother talk, then interrupted him.

"Frank, just get up here. And call the sheriff's department back. Tell them we found their probable cause!"