Geoffrey Collins, the last case. ~

Geoffrey Collins, the last case ~ Chapter four

                                                                                                   Chapter 4

                                                                                                   43 hours 

 "How did you know?!"  I yelled.  He ran out of the cab immediately.  I followed him as he rounded a corner.  He ran toward some trees.  He entered them and I followed him.  The forest was dark and hard  to see through.  Branches snagged my clothing regularly  As I exited the trees and entered a cul-de-sac he was gone.  I couldn't find him anywhere.  Suddenly I remembered something that my uncle taught me.  That's right, old uncle Charlie.  He used to be on the force too, that's why I work kidnapping ...  But that's another story.  Anyway, Charlie told me:  "If you didn't see anything, what did you hear?"  I shut my eyes tightly and thought back just before I crossed out of the trees.  A "slam!"  What was the slam?  A car door?  No.  Some type of door. Not a car door, a house door!  But there were six houses on the cul-de-sac.  Which one could be the one?  How could I figure it out?   I looked at all the houses again and decided the easiest way to figure it out was the direct approach.  I knocked on a door where I thought someone would be home.  A man answered: "Look I'm not interested in Jeho-" At this I, somewhat rudely, cut him off: "Do you have any strange neighbors, or maybe someone who is away a lot?"  I asked.  "Well, there is that one man who lives across the street.  He's rarely home and I never see him leave until he has already come back!"  he replied.  "Which house?"  I asked.  "It's that one with the weird lantern over there, you can't miss it." He told me.  I thanked him profusely and ran for the house.  I noticed that the man was right, it was a strange lantern.  Could that have anything to do with it?  Besides the lantern it was a normal home.  It had wonderful white pillars, and it looked from the outside to be a two level house.  It was painted a strange pea-green color (To be honest, in my opinion it was more of a "Vomit-green" )

                                                                                                  42 hours

I kicked the door, and unlike in the movies it did not break.  It occurred to me that maybe he didn't even lock the door to begin with.  I felt somewhat ashamed as I opened the door with ease.  I peered inside and realized that this was a house, but definitely no home.  As I searched a few of the rooms it was apparent that there was no furniture in the house whatsoever.  I decided to search the cabinets next.  I searched two of the cabinets above the sink, but there was nothing there.  I ran up the stairs and searched the rooms there as well.  It appeared that the man had vanished. ''Where could someone be hiding in a house like this?''  I wondered.  Then, like a bolt from the blue, it hit me.  I once again remembered something from my past, it was my favorite place to hide when I played Hide & Seek.   I was always partial to underneath the kitchen sink, maybe he was too.    I ran down the stairs immediately, worried about how Samantha had less than two days left.  I ran once more into the kitchen and yanked open the cabinets underneath the sink.  I looked at the rusty pipes and saw a small piece of white fabric.  I picked it up, put it in a baggie, put that in my pocket and continued the search.  I also knew I was getting warmer because I saw half of a footprint.  Wait a minute, half of a footprint?  What could leave half of a footprint?  I looked closer at the floor of the cabinet.  There was a seam in the floor. I pried it open with my trusty pocket-knife to find a tunnel. Wait a minute, this was all starting to come together.  A strange lamp, a seam in the floor leading to a tunnel.  I knew why all this was built!  It was a mixture of obvious and the improbable, except there was nothing obvious. Literally this was standing on the brink of impossible.  Do you want to know the answer?