Introduction

"Damn!" I cursed as the keys hit the floor of the front porch. I reached down to pick them up.

"Why am I nervous?" I asked myself. It seemed like an easy assignment. The owner of the house, an eccentric chemist/mechanical-engineer/biologist/computer-guru/inventor named Jack Hewitt had died recently at Memorial Hospital. I had his keys. The State had contracted our law firm to see if there were any claims to his estate. It was my job to search his house for documents.

What could be easier?

"I guess this falls under 'Other duties as assigned'" I muttered to myself.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Hours later I had finished searching the top two floors of the house with no luck. In fact, it didn't even seem like the house was lived in anymore. All the furniture was covered with sheets, and dust had collected everywhere. There was a study and a library, but all of the filing cabinets were empty.

Strange.

Of course, the search was taking forever. It was a huge house. Mr. Hewitt had made 100's of millions on his medical inventions.

Maybe I should give up and come back after vacation?

"Naah," I reasoned. I had told my boss that I would try and find the documents before I left. I was looking forward to being alone for a couple of weeks, camping along the continental divide, so it wouldn't matter if I got a late start tomorrow morning.

With the sun setting outside, it was time to search the basement. I opened the door and went down the steps. At the end of the stairs was a long corridor. Five doors branched off the corridor. Four of them were locked. I opened the fifth one and carefully stepped inside.