The Mystery in the Mansion - 4. Down the Staircase

Meanwhile, Justin and Mary Lou had followed the narrow, rickety, old hidden staircase down, and down, and found that it led all the way down to the cellar of the old mansion, ending at what appeared to a dead end. In front of them and to their right were what appeared to be solid old wooden walls. The damp old limestone outside wall of the cellar was to the left.

“What the hell do we do now?” Justin asked in frustration.

“Well, this is clearly the cellar, Sherlock,” Mary Lou retorted. “So back up we go. I’m guessing there is an exit on the first floor of the house somewhere.”

Back up a level, they pushed and probed and eventually found an odd indentation in the wall which would correspond to the front parlor. With an enormous creak, part of the wall moved slowly forward, something crashed and clattered on the other side, and then Justin and Mary Lou stepped out into the parlor. They saw then that a large old settee had moved forward, and in the process had knocked over the antique table which sat in front of it.

“Shit, Miz Vivian will beat our asses for this,” Justin said, noticing that an antique cut glass candy dish had toppled off the table in the spill, breaking and scattering wrapped peppermints across the parlor rug.

“Really, Earheart, ‘beat our asses’,” Mary Lou commented. “What are we, twelve?”

“Fuck you,” Justin shot back.

“You wish,” Mary Lou replied with a grin. “Come on, our intruder apparently left this way.”

“And how the hell do you figure that, Mary Lou?” Justin asked. “This thing seems to have not moved in ages. Look at the cobwebs that scattered when it opened outwards. Plus, that coffee table and candy dish have been sitting there the whole time. Besides, if they did go out this way, they’re out the front door and long gone by now.”

“You’re probably right,” Mary Lou agreed. “But, remember, the deadbolt was locked when we got here. So if he went out that way, he must have had a key to lock it back. Anyway, let’s go see if we can figure out how to get out into the cellar downstairs.”

They had then gone back down the hidden staircase and managed to figure out how to open another old concealed pocket door, which led through what had appeared to be the wooden wall to the right, and came out in the cellar around behind the wine racks.

"How the hell did he get outside from here, though?" Justin asked. "He could have gone up the main stairs to the first floor from here in the cellar and then out the front door, but then the deadbolt on it would have been unlocked, same as if he had gone out via the opening in the parlor."

Mary Lou went back through the old pocket door to the foot of the hidden staircase and looked around, shining her flashlight. It quickly became apparent that the other wooden wall at the foot of the stairs wasn't really a wall either, but rather yet another one of the cleverly designed pocket doors.

"People in the era when this house was built found things like pocket doors and these clever little concealed mechanisms used to operate them to be quite the novelties to have around," Mary Lou commented, as she pushed the little hidden mechanism that was down to one side of the door. By now, they had learned very well how to do this, and it was actually quite simple once you knew how to find the mechanism and then how to work it. That door was short though, not quite six feet tall, and so was the very narrow brick-lined tunnel that Mary Lou saw leading away into yawning darkness behind it as she shined her light.

"This is all making sense now," Mary Lou said as she motioned for Justin to join her at the entrance to the old tunnel. "And not just from Nancy-fuckin'-Drew either. Ever been up to White Hall?" She asked Justin.

Mary Lou was referring to White Hall, the huge antebellum home of emancipationist newspaper publisher Cassius Marcellus Clay. Clay had also been Lincoln's Ambassador to Russia, and a cousin to the famous Kentucky Senator and 19th Century presidential candidate, Henry Clay. Cassius was also the namesake of legendary boxer Mohammed Ali, whose original given name had of course been Cassius Clay. White Hall was currently restored to its original 1860s splendor, and was a Kentucky State Historic Site.

"Yeah, but not since a middle school field trip, why?" Justin asked Mary Lou.

"Because, if you had paid attention on that field trip," Mary Lou replied, "you'd remember..."

Justin snapped his fingers, "Yes! Now I do remember. In the basement of White Hall there is an old brick tunnel that led out back to the kitchen, which in those days was always in a separate building from the main house, in case of fire. The tunnel was so that food could be brought in warm and dry during cold or bad weather."

"Exactly, and from the basement there was also a back staircase that led up directly to the third floor, although it also did have openings on each floor, and wasn't hidden in the airlock between the walls like this one is," Mary Lou concluded.

Mary Lou went on, "It is obvious now, though, why here in this house they would have decided to have the hidden staircase come out right next to the entrance to the tunnel from the cellar out to the kitchen. This would have been so that food could either have been taken out into the cellar, and then up the main stairs to the dining room, or, if a ball was going on up on the third floor, they could have come in through the tunnel, and then gone right up the hidden staircase to the ballroom."

"What about the doors behind the settee in the parlor and inside of the wardrobe on the second floor in the bedroom?" Justin asked.

"Well," Mary Lou ventured to guess, "Who knows? Maybe that room at one time was a sitting room or something, or maybe they wanted direct access from the kitchen, so that food could be taken directly to someone if they were sick in bed or something like that. Odd, though, that it was hidden behind the wardrobe like that. That one and the one behind the settee might also have been used to listen in on the servants or even visitors or as a potential escape route."

Mary Lou and Justin then shined their flashlights ahead and followed the damp, narrow tunnel, with Justin having to stoop down a bit. They soon came to a short flight of stone stairs leading upwards. There at the top of them, slumped down against the bottom of another wooden pocket door panel, was Miz Vivian's gardener, poor old Amos Granby. Granby was stone cold dead with a bullet hole in his back! They made sure the old man was in fact not still alive, and found that he was unfortunately also well beyond any attempt at resuscitation.

They then radioed in what was going on, and dispatch replied that they were still sending both EMS and the coroner anyway. (This was no doubt due to that nasty and well-publicized recent incident up in Rosemont, where first responders had left a "dead" woman lying in the rain for five hours, only to finally figure out that she was actually still alive. Sadly, she then really died before she finally reached the hospital.) Dispatch also said they would send backup officers, in case anything else was going to happen in the wake of Granby's apparent murder and the inability of anyone to reach Jack on the radio.

Mary Lou, Justin, nor dispatch could get any response on the radio from Jack now, which really worried them. Justin and Mary Lou opened the pocket door, and stepped over Amos Granby's dead body. As expected, they then found themselves in an old limestone outbuilding that was now used to store Miz Vivian's lawn mower and various other things that the gardener had used, but which had originally been the kitchen.

They then started outside, intending to cross the yard and go into the mansion to check on Jack before they did anything else, since nothing more could be done for the old gardener now anyway. But, before either of them could say anything, they heard voices coming from the other side of the tall hedges nearby, which divided Miz Vivian's large estate from another part of the much more modest subdivision which now surrounded it.

In a moment the shrubs were being pushed aside, and out stepped former officer Luke Hannity and Larry Cooper, the redneck new husband of Jack's ex-wife Holly! As they emerged from the bushes talking to one another, the pair did not at first see Mary Lou and Justin standing there at the door of the old kitchen.

"I told you, we'll take his old ass down in that tunnel and bury him in it, the floor is dirt and it's damp down there, so it won't be no trouble," Hannity said coldly.

"Good idea," Larry replied grimly. "The old lady don't even fuckin' know about the tunnel or the hidden stairway. We wouldn't have either, and would never have been able to get into the house like we have so far, if ol' Amos hadn't gotten drunk and told us all about 'em down at Billy Joe's that night."

"Well, if the ol' sumbitch hadn't threatened to turn us in when he caught us running up the stairs and out into the old kitchen after that damned new alarm system went off a while ago, he'd still be livin'!" Hannity sneered.

"FREEZE!" Mary Lou commanded, as she drew her weapon. Justin got both men cuffed, as Mary Lou informed the pair that they were under arrest for the murder of Amos Granby, and for breaking and entering, and quickly read them their rights. At that moment, they all heard the loud report of a gunshot from somewhere inside the old mansion, and then another!

Meanwhile, inside the mansion, Jack had slowly raised his hands in the air when the assailant, who had snuck out of the wardrobe when Jack turned his back for just a moment, had held a gun between Jack's shoulders. Miz Vivian was over near her bedside table taking off her earrings at that moment. "Oh, Lord!" She exclaimed.

"You're going to walk over to the old lady, nice and slow, Albertson. And don't even fuckin' think about answering those radio calls for you. I believe that the time has come for both of you to be punished as you deserve to be punished." You could hear in their voice that this person was clearly becoming increasingly deranged.

Jack pretended to go along with all of this, stepping forward a couple of steps. Then Jack quickly whirled around, jumped back from the gunman, and reached to draw his own gun, all in one very fast movement. But, he was still not quite fast enough. The gunman fired on Jack and hit him.