“Well… this… is not… what I expected to find,” Sara muttered.
“You and me both,” Maria said.
“What’s he been up to in here?” Sara wondered. “This is so unlike him.”
Immediately after pouncing across the threshold of the janitor’s storage room, the two of them had been so startled, they had frozen in place. They had thought they were ready for anything, including an all-out attack by the gargantuan, broom-wielding custodian.
What they were not prepared to see was the colossal mess that completely enveloped the place. Formerly, the room had consisted of dozens of cabinets and shelves, each of them neatly stocked with supplies, bottles of cleaning solution, and implements of cleaning.
But the storeroom, which had been so neat and orderly before, looked as if it had been victimized by a tornado. It had been turned into a disaster zone of disorder, with shelves and racks having been overturned, and items of all sorts strewn across the floor.
Bottles and buckets lay on their sides. Brooms and mops lay in haphazard piles. Boxes of paper towels had been torn open, their contents scattered across the floor. A small metal desk was nestled in one corner, and all of its drawers had been left open, with papers and files strewn about.
Several of the bottles of cleaning solution had been punctured as they had been tossed about the room, and their leaked contents formed pools of liquid on the concrete floor. In the close quarters, the smell of pine and lemon cleaners filled the air, so strong that it made the girls’ nostrils burn.
Elongated, overhead bulbs provided a weird light that had a greenish trace to it, illuminating the area. However, this light was tinged by another source, one that glowed red. It seemed to radiate from the rear of the room, but it was hard to be sure, with all the debris that littered the place.
“Um, I hate to say this, but… do you think Jasper’s really lost it this time? I know we’ve always considered him to be more or less unhinged, but this is some truly insane stuff here. I mean, this is bananas,” Sara said.
“You could be onto something there… maybe we’ve finally pushed him over the edge this time. He has been through an awful lot lately. Not that I have any sympathy for him, mind you,” Maria said. “Everything that’s happened to him has been a result of his own evildoing. And the stuff he’s done to us - especially to Jack’s dad - has been downright horrible.”
The sisters slowly began walking farther into the room. They had to be careful where they stepped, for there was so much stuff scattered upon the floor, and so many overturned cabinets and shelving taking up space, there wasn’t much room left for their feet. There were crunches and squishes and squeaks beneath their sneakers, depending upon what they happened to step on at any given moment.
“Jasper has many flaws, but he’s the neatest person I’ve ever met. He could never tolerate this kind of disorder. It would be literally impossible for him to handle,” Sara commented, as she examined her surroundings, searching for clues.
Maria ducked low to scoot beneath a stainless steel rack, which had been tipped over and left leaning against one wall. “I’m worried you might be right about Jasper losing it and going full-on bonkers. He was enough trouble before, when he was at least somewhat predictable. But if he’s truly flipped his wig…”
“There’s no telling what he’ll do,” Sara finished.
“Maybe it was when his so-called ‘master plan’ that he cooked up with Ebenezer fell through. Maybe that’s what pushed him over the edge. You know, not only did that plot blow up in his face, but it resulted in the loss of the Black Hats’ stronghold,” Maria pointed out.
Sara grunted in agreement. “That’s true. It was a major setback, maybe even one that will prove impossible for the Black Hats to overcome. And knowing that doorknob, he probably blames us for everything going screwy on him.”
“Well, we did toss him down a trapdoor and get him stuck in the museum’s ductwork for a while,” Maria giggled. “Not that he didn’t have it coming for a real long time.”
“And there are some other factors to consider,” Sara said. “I mean, the whole building basically fell on his head, so who knows what kind of trauma that inflicted on his troubled gourd?”
“And don’t forget about the consequences of his exposure to Pan Gu,” Maria reminded her.
“That’s right. The creature totally stupefied him and all the other adults who were present. We heard Evelyn Magellan was recovering in the hospital, but we don’t know the details of her condition. Who’s to say what the lasting effects of such a thing could be on Jasper’s mind?” Sara asked.
“And this newfound instability… well, greater instability, I guess you might say… if Jasper’s truly blown a fuse, it might explain why he would do something as risky and unorthodox as capturing Dad - an officer of the law! He had to know there would be serious consequences for that, no matter what happened,” Maria speculated.
“But… but if Jasper’s lost his mind…” Sara stammered nervously, “then… then that means…”
“It means Dad’s in serious danger, and we need to get to him as soon as possible,” Maria concluded.
As the sisters continued working their way through the carnage of cleaning supplies, they neared the rear of the room. At the back wall, they could see another door, which had been left open.
It was from there that the reddish light emanated, and it was also from within that doorway that a loud thrumming noise radiated. As they drew closer, the girls could feel strong currents of warm air pouring forth and washing over them.
The sisters paused for a moment before the open door, peering into its depths.
“That must be the furnace room,” Sara said. “Interesting. It seems the way to access it was through Jasper’s supply room - the room he typically keeps locked up and off limits to others.”
“Hey! Did you see that?” Maria asked, pointing to the doorway.
Sara tensed, for she had seen it, as well. Both of them could catch glimpses of moving shadows bouncing around the room - implying somebody, or something, was in there.
The sisters were weary, but undaunted. Nothing was going to stop them, and there was neither room in their hearts nor time on the clock for fear.
“Let’s get to it,” Sara said firmly. “Let’s go in there.”
Chapter Fifteen
Gears and Sprockets
The Green Beans, Volume 5: The Phantom of the Auditorium Page 14
