Not much had changed in the trashed den. The group of people there, with Mr. Kent and I in the lead, went up to the entrance to the secret passage and moved the pot of plant away. We heard some footsteps.
Soon, Theo emerged from the darkness and was equally surprised to see us all before her as everyone else was surprised to see her. Nobody spoke.
'What is this? I can't see!' Someone at the back of the crowd shouted and the silence was broken.
'You have a lot to answer for yourself, Theo, what is this?' Mr. Kent said, pointing at the secret passage.
'It's...don't you know about this?' Theo said, she had on a stumped expression and was an aftershock of the surprise on her face when she first saw all of us crowded around the entrance.
'Absolutely not, do explain.' Mr. Kent spread out his hands, indicating the full audience.
'Well...this...as you can see clearly...it's a sealed off air duct. That's right, I was wondering where the draft in the room was coming from, behind the bookshelf, so I moved it to check and I found this.' Theo said.
'Actually, I found it.' I said.
'Yes, he found it.' Theo said, perplexed. She gave me a look that seem to project the words: WHAT DID YOU DO? in capital letters.
I returned with a look that said: I told everyone that I found a secret passage and you said Kyle isn't to know anything about it. This look was hard to project and I didn't think Theo understood, so I decided to tell her in words in a little while.
'Don't you realize, this can be how the burglars came into the mansion,' Said one of Mr. Kent's detectives.
'We already knew how the burglars came in, the window was smashed.' Said a second detective.
'You don't know for sure, do you?' The first man responded.
'Well, it's blatantly obvious-'
'Why didn't you tell us you found this?' Mr. Kent asked Theo and the other voices fell silent.
'I don't think it's any news you should be concerned with, I did a little investigating in there, it's just a dead end, and the ground is quite dusty, I don't think anyone has been in there for a long time.'
'Ha! I told you so!' The second detective said to the first.
'That's no explanation,' Objected the first detective, 'Why would there be an air vent behind that bookshelf that is just the right height for a human to enter? It is too great a coincidence!'
'It is an old house, back in the old days the basement didn't have installed fans, the ventilation ducts had to be wider or else how was the air supposed to circulate?' Theo said, she raised an eyebrow convincingly.
The detective couldn't come up with anything to argue against that point, and the crowd dispersed, mumbling about the misapprehension. Mr. Kent brought up the rear of the crowd and ushered everyone out.
'Remember, everyone! Theo said Kyle shouldn't know anything about this secret passage!' I called out to remind them of Theo's directive.
Theo said, 'It's not a secret passage, just forget about it!'
'But it opened with a lever that is disguised as a fake copy of Kidnapped, why would anyone bother with that if it's just a ventilation duct?' I asked. Theo told me to quiet down.
'And I still didn't find a copy of Kidnapped, the other two copies I found turned out to be fakes too, they didn't open any more secret passages though.' I said, dejected.
'Here's a copy of Kidnapped,' Theo gave me a real copy of Kidnapped, it was in her hand all this time. 'Happy now?'
'Where did you find this?' I asked, pleasantly surprised. Theo didn't get to answer me, because just then, Mr. Kent came back into the room, and in a very hushed tone, he said, 'Okay Theo, everyone is gone, now you can tell me what you really found.'
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