Chapter 5

Cole reaches over and grabs another piece of paper and quickly scribbles down what he thinks I could have been as a person by these photos - the number 1 was important and that I was very capable of detailing things pretty well, and that it was the first painting that I did and liked as the other photos didn't have any number nor a signature.

Carole is searching inside the box and hits a little button that made the side of the box come out making it look like it had a convertible pocket. "Hey, Cole, I think I found the next clue; 'a dark and spooky place is where I hide, under a creaky plank where the step is dusty, door locked, and a water fountain holds the key to solve this'..." Carole starts muttering 'creaky plank under the step... water fountain holds the key to solve...'. While, Cole takes the note and reads it himself and starts to go through the photos looking for a water fountain, as Carole starts walking around like she is looking for a creaky board in the ground and tries all the doors. "COLE!" yells Carole as she is on the top floor; "THERE ARE 3 LOCKED DOORS AND..." Carole runs down the stairs and into the kitchen, "I couldn't find any creaky boards, but I bet that it is behind one of the doors all we need to do is find the key for each one." Cole looks up at her and smiles, "I already figured out that it has to be in one of the rooms up stairs as there aren't many doors down here and when Carter gave us the tour he said that there were 3 doors upstairs that were locked and that his team could no get into because they were never given the key. I found 2 photos of a fountain on this property but I can't tell if there is only one or 2 because they look the same and different at the same time..." Cole hands the photos to her as he goes over to the map, that was drawn by Carters team, layout of the property. He notices that there are two circles within 500 feet of each other, he looks over to Carole; "Come look at this," he points to both circles as she walks over to him, "they are about 500 feet apart... What if they are both fountains, that means the key to solve this is in there..." Carole nods and interrupts; "then I'll take the one right there," pointing to the one that is to the right of the house. Cole nods and rolls up the blueprint; "Once you get there look in the water, on it and around and if you find anything that could be useful take it otherwise call me and then we can go from there but if you don't think anything will be of use come to me and help me look then we will go back to yours and see if you missed anything." Carole nods and walks outside heading to the fountain she chose.

As, she gets closer she notices that they water isn't running which is kind of weird as all of the electricity is working in the house as it is needed too for them. She looks down into the basin and notices how clean it looks like someone cleaned it recently, she steps in carefully and slowly treads over to the middle of it, being careful and cautious. She reaches to touch the water tubing and notices that it indented at her fingertips, 'weird' she thought... she looked around some more not able to find anything, so she gets out and looks around the base of it before she heads over to Cole.

Meanwhile, Cole, is searching everywhere, this fountain is running and is filled with gross looking water and smells terrible too. He is standing in the basin running his hands all around in the water trying to see if its just a key sitting at the bottom, then he gently touches the ground trying to see if there is a button or latch to press. He stands straight up and sighs, about to get out and go help Carole, when the middle of his fountain suddenly opens up and the water drains out as the water tubing slowly rises out as clean water is poured out and the top opens up revealing a small black and gold box. Carefully reaching over to it, Cole grabs it and steps back taking a look to see if it was a booby trap. Carole comes over just as he jumps back and looks at him questioning; "the water tubbing just sprouted up with clean water n the top open and this was inside so I grabbed it hoping it wasn't a booby trap..." Carole chuckles, "You and your silly theories about booby traps everywhere, just because it happens in books and on television doesn't mean it will happen in real life." Cole sighs... "I know, but it will happen one day Carole, I know it will." Carole nods smiling; "Okay, if you say so. Why don't you open the box and see what is inside of it?" He hands the box to her; "You open it, I know you want to." Carole smiles softly and takes the box opening to reveal a key. She examines the key and walks back into the house with Cole trialing behind her, "Which door are you going to tr first?" "I'm not sure yet... it depends on which one I feel like when we get there." Carole says as they reach the stairs to go up to the next floor, they head up and Carole walks over the door with a window right next to it, at the end of the hall, and sticks the key but it doesn't fit all the way, only a quarter of the key went in. She moves to the next door towards the stairs and tries it, but it doesn't go in either. Carole hands the key to Cole and he walks to the third door which is on the opposite side of the house and outs the key in the keyhole, it fits, he turns it and it unlocks; "Carole! I got it!" he calls, and Carole walks over and in looking around not hearing a creaky board that she is stepping on. Cole slowly walks in as it was very dusty, he walks around the room and steps onto a board that made an awful noise. Carole walks over and starts stomping on the board to break it in two. It works, she carefully moves the halves, so she doesn't get a splinter and reaches in the hole, grabs a hold of something and pulls it out slowly, she places it on the floor next to her and reaches back in to feel for anything else. She feels paper and grabs it pulling it out.

Cole is looking at the necklace that she pulled out, he grabs his notebook and quickly scribbles;

'silver chain around 18", 3 fake gold rings, different sizes and designs, the first one looks like an infinity rope that's turning green, he second one is raised a bit with diagonal slits carved in although it looks like it was just polished - reason?, the third one looks old, rusty and the gold paint is chipping off making it seem like it was worn a lot. 2 more notes were found. - - was most likely given to by someone close, and that they are fond of riddles'

He looks up and reaches for one of the notes from Carole, and reads it aloud confused; "'C, you must follow out the mission, kill who must be killed and bury what must be buried' what could this possibly mean?" Carole looks at him and sighs, "You're a dumb nut! Its not a clue nor important, it symbolizes the fact that this person liked riddles and metaphors, this obviously means that they wanted something buried and something killed, what if their pet went rabid so they wanted this C person to kill it because they couldn't?" Cole looks at her and nods, "Yeah, that could be true... what about the other note what does it say?" Carole hands him the note; "'Cramped, small, unnoticeable, you need to look in the mirror, place your hand to the right and push, but not too hard or it won't budge,' this is definitely not the same persons handwriting or wording. We better get back to the table to figure this one out." Carole nods and stares at the fountain trying to see if they missed anything, then head back with Cole.

Back inside, they place the rings in the evidence box, along with the paintings, and the notes that Cole had taken. Carole goes to the bathroom and places her hand to the right of the mirror, trying out what the really specific clue said to do and freaks out because a small square in the wall on the opposite side of the mirror opened up. Cole came running in to see what the matter was, and noticed that the wall was open, he reached inside but was having trouble grabbing what was inside as his hands were too big, so Carole tried and was able to grab it. Cole took the photo collage and walked to the table writing down notes trying to figure out why they wanted them to search this site for the clues.