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

Chapter 6: The Unexpected Ally

The storm outside grew fiercer as the tension inside the basement grew more intense while the clock ticked.

"Who could be him?" Caridad asked.

"Do you know anyone here in your village with a huge and tall body?" Rez put his arm on the doctor's shoulder.

Caridad's eyes suddenly widened but slowly shook his head. "No. It couldn't be him! Why would he do this?"

"Who is he, Doc?" Fred batted in.

The doctor began to summarize an uncanny encounter with someone....

YESTERDAY.....

After he found out that the shovel is missing, a huge man came to his house. His name was Hugo, the owner of the junk shop from where he bought the shovel itself, and begged Caridad to sell it back to him. He even offered to double the original price, which was very weird.

"Please, Doctor," he pleaded, almost kneeling, "I need it back. I made a grave mistake!"

Doc Caridad wasn't able to say anything but, "Sorry, I'm sorry. I can't! The shovel is gone!"

Doc Caridad sighed. "He walked away very lonely. I have never seen him so small before."

Fred frowned. 'I thought you said he is a giant man," he batted in.

Rez gave his friend a sharp gaze. Then he turned to the doctor. "I think something so fearful made him do that, Doc. Or, someone.
"It even forced him to intrude your house, with a gun, for that matter."

Fred's eyes widened. "I think, the shovel is not just an ordinary tool, Rez. It might be worth a fortune, so big, that someone is willing to do anything to get it!"

A loud thud on the basement's door was heard, as if someone kicked on it to open by force. Then, another, and another. Hugo was kicking onto it.

"Doctor Caridad!" His loud guttural voice called out. 'I just want to buy back the shovel! Come out and we will talk, man to man!"

From the way he spoke, slurring words, it was evident that he was drunked.

"Come! Let us try to move the generator!" Rez told the others. "I still think there is a hidden trapdoor beneath it."

They just need to find the way how to open it.

Fred and Rez grunted as they strained themselves to move the old engine, which was like a melted lump of metal, but they achieved nothing. The big and old engine is like a hardened lava and welded itself on the concrete floor for aeons. Rez noticed also that it was solidly united with its thick metal platform. No nuts or bolts to be seen.

A muffled sound of a gunshot was heard beyond the door of the basement. Hugo was getting wild and crazy. He shouted and screamed the name of the doctor.

The sisters were now very afraid and at the verge of crying, when...

The generator suddenly, but slowly, rising up, as if Superman was lifting it up towards the ceiling! A square metal post was being revealed under the engine, but the square metal post has a doorway on its side. And inside the doorway was the dark figure of the Shadow!

The Shadow seems very exhausted, as if it is catching its breath. One hand on its chest, the other on the one wall of the risen doorway.

When it raised its face and was met by the light of the basement, they saw the face of a young boy, shocked as they were.