Chapter 4
Long after dinner was over, when Marv and Knix had adjourned to the study, Bellamy had gone up to bed, and Texas had disappeared to his room to do something with his computers, I waited in the hallway for Marv and Knix to finish their meeting. When I couldn't stand waiting in the hallway like a creeper one moment longer, I headed towards the living room and collapsed onto the sofa, sinking low into the cushions. Cleo leaped up into my lap and I absently petted her, feeling along the ridges of her spine and allowing her purrs to lull me. Abruptly, I heard the study room door open, and I scrambled up from my position. Cleo meowed at me and darted away. Marv nodded as he left Knix's study and headed towards his room, and when he looked up and spotted me, he seemedsurprised.
"What are you still doing up?" he asked, taking in my polka dot pajama bottoms and loose t-shirt. "Don't you have trainingtomorrow?"
I nodded. "Yea, but I needed to talk to Knix before I went tobed."
"Oh," he frowned. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make youwait."
I shrugged. "It's fine. I can talk to himnow."
"You mind if I come see you after you're done?" heasked.
I smiled as I passed him, heading towards the open study door. "You know you're welcomeanytime."
He winked at me as he turned and kept walking. I knocked on Knix's open study door and stepped in when he looked up from his massive desk. He smiled and leaned back. "Hey, come onin."
"Do you mind if I close the door?" I asked, hesitating in thedoorway.
"Go ahead." When the door clicked shut, he stood up and circled the desk and leaned against the edge. "What's up, LittleBit?"
"What are you working on?" I asked at the same time. We paused, and both laughed as he turned towards the blueprints on hisdesk.
"A very special client is having a house custom built." I paused in front of the desk and looked over the graphedpaper.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing to an odd angled line in the corner of one of therooms.
He smirked and touched the side of his nose with a finger. "You've got a good eye," he said. "This client is a little...eccentric. He loves mystery books and movies. He's also wealthier than Midas. It's a secretstaircase."
My eyes bulged. "A secret staircase?" I looked back at theblueprints.
Knix nodded. "Yup. It doesn't go anywhere special. At least, not that one. Just to thebasement."
"Are you putting in other ones?" Iasked.
He nodded. "So close to the ocean," he started. "We don't usually build basements. But this one is special. It's going to be reinforced. Naturally, it'll be constructed out of a thick concrete slab. We have to make sure that the water beneath the soil won't decay the concrete. The client knows that it'll be likely that his basement will collapse after a few decades – if he'slucky."
"Are you getting paid a lot for this?" I couldn’t stop myself fromasking.
He laughed. "He's crazy to want a basement so close to the ocean. No one else is willing to even consider it. He'll be signing an ironclad agreement that states that he can't sue the company if it does, in fact, collapse and that he understands the risks. He still wants it, though, and we're the only ones that even gave him the time of day, so, yes, this will be a very profitablejob."
"Building secret passages and staircases sounds fun," Isaid.
He nodded. "Yes, it canbe."
"Will anyone else be able to tell if there are secret passages?" I couldn't imagine that a secret would be very fun if everyone knew by looking at a wall that there was a door in the paneling or if Knix's client told all of hisfriends.
"Well, it won't be easy. People are less observant than you think," hesaid.
I looked at him. "How couldIdoit?"
"Well," he started, "let's say there's a secret room between rooms. You can't enter it from the hallway, only from the rooms on either side. If one wall faces a room, one faces another room, and one faces the hallway, where does that leave the fourthwall?"
"Facing the outside?" Iguessed.
He nodded. "Yes, now let's say that on the outside, there's a window into each bedroom, but not in the secret room. If the two normal rooms were side by side, then their windows would be in very specific places. Instead, if you were to walk outside and look at them, you'd see a wider space between than when you're inside, in therooms."
As I thought about it, I realized he was right. It was easy to think about when he put it like that. I smiled. This kind of thing was just like my favorite mystery books. I grinned at him and he grinned back before sliding the blueprintsaway.