The Plot Thickens

O.K., I admit it. The more time goes by, the more time I have to ponder and to talk with Jeckle, the more mysterious things become.

One day, Mr Wizard and Jeckle had been at the house. Upon leaving, Mr. Wizard, as always, made sure every door was closed and locked, and the alarm was set. When he returned the next day, the door leading down to the basement from the hallway was wide open. He was quite freaked out.

Soon after that incident, Jeckle and Mr. Wizard were at the house when Jeckle decided she should look behind these two nasty, old mattresses in the basement, "just in case" (that's become her motto at the house). Lo and behold, there stood this cylinder. At first she thought it was a piece of PVC pipe. The fact that it was standing up struck her as odd enough, but upon closer inspection, she realized that the object was actually wooden, smooth, painted white, and "hermetically" sealed. It was not dusty so she surmised it had not been there long, even though it was behind these old mattresses.

She left it standing there and went on about her business until Mr. Wizard came downstairs.

"Look at this," she said, and went and got the object. When she handed it to Mr. Wizard, she heard a sound. There was something inside! With a certain amount of trepidation, they decided to take the object home and investigate further.

Opening it proved to be most difficult. They tried many different ways before they were finally successful.

The cylinder was filled with white powder.

Could it be that whoever Hyde had been spending time with (disreputable people, according to Cap'n John) were dealers, or that he himself was, and someone had come into the house looking for the cylinder, someone who knew the alarm code, and left the door to the basement open?

Two more creepy things: Again, in her desire to search everywhere, "just in case," Jeckle did a sweep under some piece of furniture in the basement and came upon a box of condoms. And while in the garage with the structural engineer, she and he both noticed that someone had "painted" on the wall with mud.

At this point, most of our conversations end with the following: "There is just no telling what Hyde was into and what was going on and that house!"