Detective Rez Chamba in... The Case of the Restless Shovel

Chapter 5: The Night Intruder

Jagged needles of lightning struck the earth in the dark west horizon.  Cold wind began to blow strongly and later, the first droplets of rain, like small hails, fell from the night sky.

Rez assigned each one of them in every strategic position inside the house.

"Remember," he said to them calmly through their two-way-radios, "stay calm and watchful. The Shadow might intrude tonight, in a time which we didn't expect!"

Rez parted the curtain of the big window beside him by his forefinger, making a small slit, just enough to take a peep outside.

Lightning flashed again followed by deafening claps of thunder. Rez thought he saw someone standing outside the gate!

Who was that? He thought.

He waited for another flash of lightning but when it did, the gate outside and beyond was really deserted. There is no one there!

Rez sighed. Was his mind playing tricks with him?

Then the voices of the twin sisters of Caridad shrieked on the radio. "Rez, we think we are hearing some weird sounds in the basement!'

"Perhaps, it is the Shadow!" Rez warned. "Stay put! We are coming!'

As he cautiously walked briskly towards the basement, he told the others through their radios to go there, too. "But stay quiet and vigilant!' he added.

Was it really in the basement where the Shadow emerges and vanishes? He thought. Is the secret doorway hidden there all along?

When everybody was already gathered outside the semi-half open door to the basement down below, Rez whispered to wait for his signal.

They waited for any sound of human presence for a few minutes but....

"I think it was a false alarm," Rez said, finally.

Still very cautious, they eventually entered the basement, and the entire place lit up through their flashlights. Doc Caridad switched on the room's light bulb. The entire basement was very empty, except for a big generator at the corner.

"It was being used by the first owner of this house, perhaps," Doc Caridad said, "when electricity has not yet reached this village. I think its engine is no longer working, though."

"You have never used it for emergency?" asked Rez. "When the current is out?'

"No. Not that I can remember."

They looked around and explored the walls, feeling it with their hands, tapping for any hollow parts, but nothing. The four windowless walls are solid like the ground beyond them outside.

"What about the floor?" Fred suggested.

All the others gestured with their shoulders denoting for nothing. The floor is solid as the walls.

Suddenly, they heard a loud crash of breaking glass upstairs, in the living room window!

Someone was trying to break in!

The figure of a man standing outside the gate came to Rez's mind.

Quickly, Rez dashed up the stairs toward the door of the basement and took a peep. He saw a giant man standing in the living room! His broad back facing Rez, and in his hand, was a pistol!

He carefully closed and locked the door, even adding a barricade, and put his finger on his lips, signaling the others to be quiet.

He took out his phone and dialled the police line, but...

No signal.

Perhaps, because of the storm.

They all tried their two-way radios for any signal but there was nothing, too. They were totally cut off from the outside world!