I would like to thank Julie Demers for helping me develop all the secrets in this chapter!
The Discovery
Pete went down into his wine cellar to get a bottle of red wine to clear his head and think. He began to make a list of places he wanted to visit to talk to and get to know the people in the community. It read:
Rotary Club
Retirement homes
Library
Club district
Shops on Main Street
Town Hall
Lion's Club
Recycling Center
Nature Center
Stoneybrooke Housing Council
Just as he was finishing the list he felt a gust of air. He put on his sweater. He felt another gust. He knew these old houses were drafty. Especially places like the cellar. He knew there were probably some cracks in the bricks that he needed to mend. He had been so excited about his new cellar, he had moved his wine collection in and put a big mahogany table and chairs in the center of the room for the guys to come over and play cards. Now he felt he should have waited and sealed in the cracks. He got down on his hands and knees and turned the flashlight app on his cellphone. "That's weird," he thought.
There was a crack going almost down until it stopped and turned up the wall as far as he could see. 'It's not a crack. It's a gap." He thought. Pete began to push on the wall. He pushed and shoved and finally leaned his entire body into it. The wall gave in, and it was, indeed, a door. Pete fell to the floor in the final shove, which made him drop his phone in the process.
Once he got his bearings and dusted himself off he looked at where he had fallen into. It was a big, rectangular area of open space. It had brick walls and a bricked arched ceiling.
Dawn was eating her morning breakfast and reading The Stoneybrook Gazette when he turned to the gossip column. She could not believe it! There was a picture of her and Pete dancing together right there in the paper! The small paragraph under it read "Who is the mysterious blonde surprise mayor candidate " Sneaky Pete" was out dancing with over the weekend?"
Dawn didn't know what to think. On one hand, she thought it was kind of cool to have her photo in the paper, but on the other hand, they were kind of exploiting Pete and making him out to be kind of wild for a mayor nominee. She decided not to do anything until she talked to Pete. She took a screenshot and sent it to Pete.
"Have you seen this?"
"Oh wow! That's pretty cool."
"You don't care that they are kind of exploiting you? Painting you in a seemingly negative light by showing you out dancing with someone at a Mexican cantina?"
"Dawn, the Gazette is kind of a conservative paper. If I'm running for mayor of course the competition is going to have a negative slant. It's just part of politics. My job is to make it so the worst thing they could say about me is that I am newly divorced and went out dancing with a pretty girl."
It was then that Dawn realized that maybe she was a little worried that Bart would see it and think there was more between her and Pete than just old friends."As long as you're ok with it so am I." She still buzzed Mary Anne and Mona on the intercom to come to eat breakfast with her and she could show them the paper.
Later, Dawn and Bart got together to work on putting the goodie bags together for The Midnight Society. Dawn told Bart the story about Jared Mullray, the man who might have haunted the secret passage at her childhood home. Then she told him the story about how they had tricked Cokie Mason and her friends at Old Man Hickory's grave at midnight on Halloween after she had tricked Mary Anne with a "bad luck charm" to try to make Mary Anne look stupid in front of Logan. By the end, they were laughing.
Bart hesitated a minute. Should he tell her? Then he thought back about Pete and Dawn at the meeting. Then the photo on the paper. And then he knew that he had to tell her. He wasn't one to back down when faced with friendly competition.
"What?" Dawn asked.
Bart smiled. "I have something to show you." He grabbed Dawn's hand and lead her to his car.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"My house. I want to show you something."
In a few short minutes, they were at Bart's house across the street from the park. It was a beautiful old house completely restored. "You live here all by yourself?" She asked.
"No, I have Maurice, my housekeeper. He used to be my parent's gardener but since mom retired she likes to take care of it herself. And since I am doing so well with my job and the stick market I decided to hire him on for myself. He is more like a mentor. He is one of my best friends."
They went inside and Bart led her to his study and in the study was a closet. He opened the closet and in the back, he pushed back a panel door. "Go ahead, look inside."
Dawn walked inside and she couldn't believe it. It was a narrow hallway, just big enough for one person to get through. "A secret passage?"
"Yes," Bart said proudly. "I've never actually completely followed it. I do think it's part of the Underground Railroad at one time. If you go, this way it leads to a bigger room on the property. I've never followed it off the property because you never know who or what you might run into."
"I say let's get some flashlights and follow it."
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