Scales

Chapter Six

"Screw this," Cody blurted, clearly upset at the riddle that Jack had given us. He tossed the paper to me. "You solve it."

I shot him a sly look and snatched the paper. "Says the math coward."

Cody's smirk was so wicked the Joker would be jealous. I put my hand to my chin and thought the letter over. Clearly Jack was giving us a code made up of numerical digits, but presenting it in a manner in which we had to decode it to understand – obviously to thwart criminals who might pick up the letter before we did. But after ten minutes of brain cell-wracking work I'd cracked it: 5198.

"How did you get it?" Melanie asked me excitedly as we stepped onto the property.

"It's just a series of mathematical problems," I said casually. "The results are the digits in the code. Now Jack said about 'an extension to the left', which obviously means the extended portion of the driveway." I pointed to the left, and there laid out a long stretch of stone driveway. We all walked down it, coming upon a set of double garage doors.

"There it is," Melanie said, holding my arm and pointing at a small plastic pod on the wall beside one of the garage doors. I walked over and flipped up the cover, revealing a keypad. I typed in the code.

Cody and Melanie stood back in awe as the left garage door rolled up. Inside was a baby blue Lamborghini.

"No doubt that's Daddy's baby," Cody sneered. "Nice cool whip to look sexy in."

"Pick a vocabulary with some type of respect to it!" Melanie snapped, jabbing a finger at him. I cocked an eyebrow at her and stepped inside. Apart from the Lamborghini and a few shelves and containers the garage space was mostly empty. At the back was a door. Melanie ran to it and turned the handle.

"This one's unlocked!" she announced. As we all gathered at the doorway, I noticed a pair of electronic push switches on the wall. I pressed one, and the garage door began to close.

As the light faded, Melanie pulled a few plastic bags out of her pockets, and we all took off our shoes and slipped them into the plastic bags to avoid them dirtying the pristine floors.

"Just some common courtesy," I said to Cody with a smile.

We walked along an enclosed hall with no side doors or windows, though a low rumbling gurgle sound could be heard.

"I know that sound," Cody piped up. "It's a pool filter pump."

"Guess I was right after all," Melanie said proudly, shooting a cute wink at Cody and I.

Holding our plastic bags of shoes, we passed through another doorway into an open furnished area with no windows.

"Looks like the basement," I said. "Come on, let's find a way upstairs.

"Hello?" Cody mouthed as if doing a yodel, and displayed his palms. After stroking them his message became clear. Sticking together, we searched the basement for any water source. The only thing we found were a ton of storage space, a bar, and a gym.

"Remind me to exercise there later," Cody joked, patting his legs. "These drumsticks have gotten lazy after being on that bus for so long."

"Well, now," I said proudly. Cody and Melanie came over, and I pointed up to a set of stairs.

"So we weren't really in the basement, we were on the lower floor," I said, realizing how wrong I'd been. "We were on the bottom level. C'mon, let's go upstairs. There's bound to be a kitchen or bathroom of some sort."

The views that greeted us upon entering the second level of the house took our breath away. The stairs opened up onto a pristine family room with luxurious furnishings. Straight ahead lay a series of sliding doors, which opened up to a large deck and a pool.