Mystery by Moonlight by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

9

What Lies Above

Nancy studied the door a moment. Someone had clearly gone to great lengths to camouflage it. However, time and the settling of the house had done their work. The outline of a door showed clearly behind the wallpaper. When Jen and Jason got around to repapering this room, they would have found the entrance.

Nancy pressed her ear to the door but heard nothing. Whoever was skulking around upstairs had left by some other way out.

Using her penknife, Nancy cut through the wallpaper along the edges of the door. She tugged at the ring. It was stiff, and Nancy was afraid she might break it. She grabbed a credit card from her bag and worked it between the latch and the door. She tried again. The door groaned open, the hinges stiff and rusty.

Nancy had to bend to get through the low door. It opened immediately onto a steep staircase. It went up several steps past Nancy’s room, and ended in a crawl space. It also continued down somewhere into the lower part of the house.

Maybe George had been right. Maybe Malone had been able to hide stuff away from the Feds before his arrest. A secret staircase, leading to a crawl space that subsequent house owners never even knew existed. Because, of course, it wouldn’t have appeared on the plans.

Nancy headed up the steps to investigate the crawl space. The dust was thick, and huge cobwebs festooned the low rafters. The crawl space had a solid floor. Stacked haphazardly in a far corner was an assortment of intriguing suitcases and trunks.

Keeping her head low to avoid the beams, Nancy started toward the stack of luggage. Suddenly, a door slammed behind her!

She went back down the few steps and, sure enough, the door to her room had closed. The wind had probably just blown it shut. Heaving a frustrated sigh, Nancy felt for the latch.

There was none. This side of the door had no knob. She threw her weight against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “I don’t believe this!” she exclaimed.

At least there was another way out of the crawl space. Aiming her flashlight on the steep, narrow stairs, Nancy started down. She’d find out where the staircase emerged.

As she neared the bottom, Nancy froze. A light was seeping under the door. Quickly she flicked off her flashlight. She tried to proceed quietly, but the stairs creaked with every step. She reached the last step and put her hand on the door.

Just as she touched it, there was the sudden sound of a bolt being thrown. The light went out, and Nancy found herself trapped.

“Let me out of here!” she shouted, banging on the door. But whoever was on the other side had locked her in on purpose. She stopped banging and pressed her ear to the door, but heard nothing. The prowler had probably already left the house.

Nancy went back up the stairs and began to pound on the door to her room. “George, Bess, Ned!” she yelled.

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