Page 41 of Hoodoo House
With Henry in the lead, Charlie, Declan and Mrs Cameron made their way down into the cellar, around the shelves and along the tunnel. They stood in front of the keypad.
“Would you care to do the honours?” Charlie said to Henry.
The boy beamed, then tapped the pad, bringing it to life. He carefully entered the four-digit code. There was a click.
Henry reached to push the door open, but Declan stopped him. “Better let me do that.”
“But I found the code,” Henry complained.
Declan shook his head. “I don’t know what’s in there, Henry. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Let me check it out first, then, when I know it’s safe, you can be the second one in. How’s that sound?”
Charlie could tell that Henry was disappointed. He was Howard Carter being told he couldn’t enter King Tut’s tomb. Still, the boy stepped back.
Declan pressed on the door to open it enough that he could reach his hand in and swipe it up the inside of the wall. Charlie figured he was trying to find a light switch. The lights came on in the secret room and Declan edged the door open enough to stick his head in. He pulled his head back out and said to Charlie, “Looks harmless enough.”
Declan opened the door wider and stepped in, then said, “Your security team says it’s okay to come in.” Henry entered, followed by the others.
Charlie scanned the room. There was some wooden framework with ropes attached. In one corner was a leather and chain swing that hung from the ceiling. In the other corner was a bed, and on the wall were various small whips, riding crops and other implements. The roof and walls had dark grey foam covered in small triangles. “The room is sound-proofed.”
Henry said, “This is a strange playroom.”
Mrs Cameron said, “Henry, perhaps you should go and do your homework.”
“But—”
“No buts. Upstairs, now!”
Henry, crestfallen, did as he was told.
Charlie walked over to a shelving unit by the door. On the upper shelf, he saw something. “Bingo,” he said.
“What did you find?” Declan asked.
Charlie stepped up on the lowest shelf to get a closer look and pointed to a cardboard box with a circular cutout about the size of a loonie. He lifted the box to reveal—
“It’s a high-res video camera that would normally be hooked up to…”
He pulled at the cable attached to it. He worked his way along the shelf, never letting go of the cable. He traced it the full length of the shelving unit then down the far end where it disappeared through a hole in a metal cabinet. The cabinet’s door was locked.
Charlie looked around and spied a sturdy metal rod laying on a counter. He wedged it in the hasp which secured the locked door. “May I?” he asked Mrs Cameron.
“Be my guest.”
He wrenched on it until it pulled free from the cabinet door. Inside he found what he had been looking for—a laptop that most likely belonged to Malcolm Tull.
Chapter Sixteen
Charlie opened the computer but was unable to get past the login screen. He tried some of the letter and number combinations from the sheet of paper they had found in the writing room. Tull had obviously used a password familiar enough to him that he hadn’t bothered to put it on the list he’d hidden away in Emily Post’s book.
“We’ll have to take it back to the office,” Charlie said. “I can use some software I have there to figure out the pass code. I hope you don’t mind, Mrs Cameron.”
“Take it,” she replied. “The less I know about what that man recorded on it, the better.”
Declan said, “Did you know about this room?”
“I knew about the tunnel, and I heard a rumour once that there was a hidden room to stash bootlegged whisky, but I’ll be truthful, I don’t like it down in the damp and never really explored too far. And that keypad looks new. Mr Tull must have had it installed on a day when I was out visiting my sister. How he knew about the room down here is a mystery that only he can explain, and he’s dead now.”
Declan said, “The room looks like it might have been used for…”
