Ebert and the Mysterious Encounters and Finds

[GodlyD&D]

Dan, Rodston, and the new attendant known as Roy looked at each other. There was so much to this that even if it was an invention of creativity it was not likely to have been thought up on the spot there.

"Do you have materials here to show us of these things?" Roy asked.

"Um, we did have a few," Mr. Entemoor considered looking thoughtful, "but we have had such things purchased by interested parties who contact us. I will have to see if there are any of those remaining here."

"I really want to know, before going on," Roy said, "can you look now?"

Mr. Entemoor got up, reluctantly. "This will delay the training, and it might lessen the time for what you will learn today."

"That is alright, if I actually will see any of those materials on this at all."

Mr. Entemoor had walked over to a shelf with displayed books. He looked among them all, and it looked like he studiously looked again at the titles on the books. After a few minutes, he returned and said, "I guess this will be really important to you. If so we cannot work with you unless we have one of those materials to show you. Excuse me another minute, I will be right back."

The three who came for the training sat watching him as Mr. Entemoor went to the side of that interior where the counter was, and saw him going down behind it. Suddenly the one who was introduced as Roy, the undercover investigator, went quickly from where he was seated to the counter. He looked over it, and held up his hand to indicate to the two others to remain, and went around the counter, and the two others saw him descend behind it.

The other two were surprised. But they stayed where they were sitting.

The investigator, known here as Roy, had seen the open trapdoor in the floor behind the counter, with steps leading down to a passageway below, dimly lit from a light further on along that passage. He came to it and stepped lightly down the steps. Before reaching the bottom, he carefully bent down as he held a hand to the side wall to steady himself, to see further along the passage. There he saw what would be the profile of Mr. Entemoor standing further on with light still behind him, facing to the side as he spoke to someone, whose face just came out a little from a doorway there, which the investigator saw in a cut off profile as well. He listened carefully, as he put a free hand into a coat pocket to pull something out.

He heard this from the man standing in the passage. "They think there are materials about the other reality that I have them believing they can have access to. But I need to show them the materials. Where can I get it? Or do we have to deal with them now?"

"You fool!" shouted the other man at Mr. Entemoor from that door on the side. "You tell them there are materials on that subject? You found this stuff from across the country. You don't know if any of that would be around here. If you can't find any such material here, we will have to deal with them the hard way!"

The investigator backed up quietly along the steps, and came out from the trap door. He hurriedly came over to the other two still sitting and waiting, and he said to them, "These men are dangerous. You both need to leave, now, and never come back here. I will wait a little while to hold them off if needed, and then I will get proof that Raul Weckland has been hiding here. I will meet with you when I can. Go on, get going!" the investigator known here as Roy urged them, as they went to the door in the front of the building.

[GodlyD&D]

Dan and Rodston hurried out, and the investigator waited by the door, and he held the object he had pulled out from the coat pocket.

Dan and Rodston hurried on without looking back, going up along the street to where it intersected with the main street, and from there on to the suite in the hotel where Dan was staying for that day still with his friends, Lenny, Roger, and Terry, and Ebert for whom they had all come to help, that he would be cleared when his lookalike the felon would be caught.

Ebert was not back yet, Lenny and Terry were still out of town for what they were researching, and just Roger waited there. He peaked out the door to the suite, and saw Dan and Rodston there. He let them in, and asked, "What happened to the investigator, that Sherwood?"

Dan answered, "We were there with the instruction beginning, and Sherwood, as Roy, began asking about the other reality outside of this that the training was going to help us connect with. Mr. Entemoor told us some strange things, and Sherwood asked him for materials about those that he could look at. Mr. Entemoor said he would look around to see if they still had any of the materials on that there, as Supernatural Promotions should have something there on what they are promoting. He could not find any right away, he excused himself and went to the place under the building from the steps to it behind the counter there. Sherwood told us to wait right where we were, and he followed after him going down that way. A little afterward he hurried up again and came to us telling us to hurry out and get away from there, it was too dangerous now, and to not go back there. But he was still there by the door of the building as we managed to get away quickly!"

"He stayed there, and told you it was too dangerous?" Roger said in surprise. "Was he armed?"

"It seemed that Mr. Entemoor, and any who would come up with him, were armed," Rodston ecplained. "Sherwood must have wanted us to get out from there right away because of that. He would have waited to stop any of them coming to the door if they were coming after us. He held something that looked like it came out of his coat pocket, but I couldn't tell if it was a weapon or not."

"And there is no way for any of us to go find out what happened to him," Roger considered.

Dan said, "He told us to not go back. So it is too dangerous."

[GodlyD&D]

"We can't do anything now, then," Roger said. "Well I had some things out to eat. You might be hungry. Since we cannot do anything now otherwise, you can join me, you might be hungry too."

Dan and Rodston went to the table, as Roger finished heating up the soup. He soon brought out two bowls with the soup, and soup spoons in napkins, placing those where Dan and Rodston sat. He went to get his bowl of soup, and came back to the table to sit down there and join them.

"I wonder if will no longer be possible to find that felon, Raul Weckland," Roger said as he started eating the soup along with the two others.

Dan said, "No, it looks like we won't, then." Just then before he said more, they heard a loud knock on the door to the suite. They each looked at one another.

Roger finally got up, and went to the door. He called out before opening it, "Who is it?"

The voice came through the closed door, "It is Sherwood Stephanwick. I am alone."

Roger opened the door enough to peek out, then he opened it further, and let Sherwood enter in. Sherwood saw the two others at the table, watching him, and he walked over to where they were sitting.

[GodlyD&D]

"What happened?" Rodston asked.

Sherwood answered, "Mr. Entemoor came out, after a little time, and there was another with him. It was the guy you said looks like Ebert. They came to me and Mr. Entemoor said, 'Where did those others you came with go?'

"I told him, 'They had second thoughts, and decided they didn't think well of training here. They left right away.'

"Mr. Entemoor then said, 'And you think you would leave now? You should know, they will not get their initial payment back, and you would not either if you leave. But before you give up, I would tell you I found what would interest you. Come back in and see what we found.'

"I said, 'That is alright, I decided I would rather not.'

"He then grabbed onto my arm, and told me, 'You really should come see it.' "

The others looked in amazement as Sherwood described these events. "What did you do?" Dan asked.

"I told Mr. Entemoor, 'Unhand me right now, or you will really be sorry!'

"He said, 'No, you will really be sorry!' "

"I said, as Mr. Entemoor still had a hold on me, 'You will still be more sorry. Do you hear the sirens? The authorities are coming here now. They have been alerted to come here.'

"Mr. Entemoor said, 'What does that mean? Did you call them? With what basis?'

"I told him, 'You are harboring a fugitive from the law.' He still had a hold on me as authorities came into the lot in front of the Supernatural Promotions building. When he saw them, Mr. Entemoor then let go of me, the one who looks like Ebert hurried to the door to go back in, but officers came already and said for everyone to stay right where they are. Ebert's lookalike hesitated, and then hurried in through the door."

[GodlyD&D]

"Several of the officers hurried to the building. One stopped to question the two of us still standing outside the building, three others went quickly to the door and went in."

Sherwood went on, "Of course neither Mr. Entemoor nor I knew what happened inside the building then. Mr. Entemoor no longer put his grip on me, as the one remaining officer stood with us. The officer there asked us, 'What is going on?'

"As Mr. Entemoor stood there with sweat beginning to show, I answered the officer, 'This man was supposedly giving service to me and my friends with training we paid for. I witnessed his interaction with Raul Weckland, who is a fugitive from the law, here in this building. That is why you were notified.'

"The officer looked at Mr. Entemoor, and he said, 'What do you say to that?'

"Mr. Entemoor answered, 'I am a legitimate businessman and qualified Instructor. This man and his friends still owed payment on the instruction when they ran out. I don't know the name of this man who he mentions. The one other man here had claimed he was the building owner, and he was then trying to force me to cooperate with what he would do, and came bringing me after this one who was still from those being trained.'

"I said, 'That isn't what happened at all. You were grabbing me yourself to pull back into the building!' "

Sherwood Stephanwick went on, describing what had developed at the Supernatural Promotions building. "The officer there looked at Mr. Entemoor, and then he said, 'I will need to get your names. Do you have identification with you?'

"I knew that the officer would want identification from both of us. I had introduced myself there as Roy Albers, but I did not have identification with me showing that. But I did have my own identification, and my card as a licensed investigator. I brought it out to be ready to show it, hoping that the officer would then know who I was, though I wouldn't have been recognized with use of the disguise I wore, and then know to not blow my cover saying my real name then. He had looked at that Mr. Entemoor, who then brought out his own identification to show. The officer looked at it, and then said, 'This is a passport and travel Visa. It shows this is your last day here, Mr. Endemort. How would you go on training anyone when you should be getting ready to depart from the country?' "

[GodlyD&D]

"This one revealed to be Mr. Endemort looked at me, and then the officer asking him that, and he said, 'Had the two others not run out and would have paid the remaining fee, along with this one who I assume was really leaving too, I was going to finish completely training them for what they wanted from this, today. They were cheating themselves, too, as I won't be able to finish training on another day.'

"The officer said, 'You are supposed to be on your way out, today, so that you would not be in this country tomorrow. Now you will be delayed for questioning.' He turned to me, and asked, 'What about you?'

"I handed over my identification with the hope that he would respond as I desired. Right then, two of the officers who had entered the building came out the door to it just then.

"The officer who took my identification had only looked at it right when the two other officers came out. I could only hope he had understood I was there for the investigation. But he said to those others, 'What happened in there?'

"One of the others answered, 'We hurried in soon after that other man ran back in, but we did not see him. It is kind of like a store in there, with aisles. We went along those looking. And Jim here went to the counter by the front. He saw something on the floor, and called us over to it. We saw that it looked like a trapdoor and it was large enough for it. But it didn't move. The man who ran in there was nowhere in sight, this was the only other place to look. This thing we were sure was a trapdoor had a raised portion along each side, but we could tell it must have been latched shut from below. We all joined with using our strength to pull at it together. It took a little while, for it was hard to pull at it, but it finally broke free and flew violently open. There were steps leading down to a dimly lit passage below. We each went down, one at a time, Jim first and me after him. We went along the passage. There was an open room on one side, but no one was there. A light that hung from the ceiling was a little way past that, the passageway still went on further. It came to a corner, and it opened up there to a very large space, almost like an auditorium. But rather than seating, it had many large boxes all over the place, there were also a few statues, we paused not knowing if they were people standing still at first. And as there was nowhere else to look for the man who had run into the building, we carefully started searching among the large boxes.'

"The officer explained, 'Of course we realized one who fled here would hide anywhere behind boxes, so we went carefully around them looking as we combed the area across this large space, prepared in case that one who would have gone this way was armed. There was not much light there, only the dim light from behind us. And we did not realize at first if any boxes there were empty. But when I brushed against one, which easily moved, I understood that one was empty. So I nudged other boxes. Some were full with something, though some other boxes were empty. So I looked into the first one that I could tell contained something, the top lifted easily off. That first one gave me a fright. It looked like a large creature with a bony skull face, reddish eyes, and long hair around it. It was still inanimate, sort a of a bizarre statue. Jim came over and looked at it too. And other full boxes that contained something we checked after that one. Almost all of them contained other sorts of statues, some surreal and some classical in style. I wondered what these would have to do with this place. But a few boxes were full of books, and one was full of smaller containers of items. There were more boxes that had been emptied. And we found one that seemed to have a different sort of statue. All three of us came over, looking carefully at what we saw. We finally figured out it was this man hiding in there, wearing a disguise to look like a figure among statues there, he had a long coat, a wig, and old style hat, and had his face held low, for us to not see him. So that man is being questioned, while Jim and I were sent back to report to you.'

"I said to them, 'That man is Raul Weckland, the fugitive felon!'

"The officer who had explained what had happened in the building said, 'He will be brought up here shortly. If it is him, he will be taken into custody.'

"The officer that had stayed outside asking us questions handed back the identification I had showed him, and he said, 'We will find out shortly who we have, sir.' "

[GodlyD&D]

"Indeed, about a moment later or so, the other officer came out with this other man, handcuffed. That one no longer had a wig or any hat, we could see who he was, but he still had that long coat of an old style for some play. It was the man who had a close resemblance to Ebert. The officer asking us questions then said, 'You are Raul Weckland!'

"This handcuffed man said, 'No, but I have heard I look like that, he is a lookalike to me. I know where he is. I have seen him go into that hotel up the street from here.'

"The officer who had remained outside with us asked the bound man, 'Why should I believe you? You were fleeing us?'

"That man said then, 'Believe me, for I have valuables here that this Raul Weckland you are after would know he could claim if I am taken out of the way as him. He does look like me, and I saw that he is there, staying at that hotel. You would only have to go look, and you would find him.'

"I was concerned, but did not want to say anything that I might still have my cover as just Roy Albers, a friend of Dan, who came for the training that he was coming for, in case Mr. Endemort still needed to think that with further investigation if this real Raul Weckland got off. I was sure that Ebert would not be here if they were going to look for this guy's lookalike.

"That officer said, 'We still want to know what those valuables are. We can check the hotel soon anyway, but you are still in our custody until we actually find that there is another that is the real Raul Weckland. So what do you claim are the valuables that you say you don't want another to claim?'

"This guy who was certainly really Raul Weckland said, 'Don't you see? This whole building of Supernatural Promotions has a great treasure of resources that show real history of our societies and environments that are not found anywhere else, and these include great artifacts.'

"That officer said, 'Really? Jim, you should have really been looking in there, and notifed what things of value are in there.'

"Jim answered, 'Well, there was the fancy merchandise in front. When we went below, to pursue this guy, we came to that space further back with all the many boxes in there. But it was dark, and we were focused on finding him.'

"The officer first speaking with us said, 'We can come back with you, if the rest is checking out, and we will have a look at what valuable artifacts needs to be protected. Mr. Endemort, go ahead and lock this building closed, you and this one we have reason to believe is the Raul Weckland that we are after will then come with us to the precinct. We will go over everything we can then.' "

[GodlyD&D]

That guy who surely the felon said then, 'What about checking the hotel, where I saw that Raul Weckland was at?'

" 'We will go check there afterward if we need to. You will still let us check your fingerprints.'

"So the officers brought us all to the precinct. The one who looked like Ebert was fingerprinted. He had actually tried earlier to burn off his fingerprints, but he did not do that well, and the prints matched the records showing he was Raul Weckland, the fugitive they were after. He is now locked up. Mr. Endemort was questioned further. He maintains that he has really managed the Supernatural Promotions store, and that he was appointed by the owner after communication by mail, through his representative who was sent there. He claimed, 'I only just met this man, who identified himself as that owner by name, so I believed it was him.'

"The officer questioning him said, 'But you have said he was forcing you to cooperate in something. Can you elaborate on that?'

"Mr. Endemort said that man now known to be Raul Weckland told him that someone was after the position he had over the business. Mr. Endemort said, 'He was the one said to be at that hotel, and that he would send others there to spy it out. So he was pushing for us to question these ones who came for lessons.'

"The officer said, 'But you are temporarily in this country, and your stay is over with this day. Why would you have started this work, why would you have been employed for that if you honestly said you were about to leave?'

"Mr. Endemort protested, 'I didn't just start. I have been there nearly a year, and it was for that position just for that long.'

"The officer said then, 'You were there that long, and the actual owner never met with you?' "

"Mr. Endemort said, 'The owner had representatives, but he said he was living so far to oversee things directly with enough frequency. We still communicated frequently, and a couple of times he meant to travel here to this building, but he had to cancel those times because of circumstances.'

"The officer said then, 'You realize we cannot just let you go without communicating with the real owner, this fugitive we caught is not him. You will then need to give the real contact information for us to reach him, which we then need to do. When we do speak with him, and you are then identified as really having been employed at that Supernatural Promotions, you will then leave, but must leave this country immediately, as your stay is expired tomorrow.'

"Mr. Endemort said, 'I will go along with that.' He then reached into a pocket, and looked through various small notepapers he had pulled out.

"I was there the whole time, but knew you would be waiting, and I had other things to manage after coming to you to let you know what happened. So I asked, 'Do you need me here for anything more?'

"The officer said, 'No, I guess not, that would be all. You are free to go, then, Sherwood.'

"Mr. Endemort shot me a look, but the officer said then, 'What is wrong? Can't you find that contact information?'

"Mr. Endemort said, 'It must be back in the Supernatural Promotions building, I would have to go back there.'

"The officer said then, 'Alright, we will take you back there. But you had better find it very quickly then, or we will take you into custody.' "

Sherwood Stephanwick looked around at Roger, Dan, and Rodston. "That is about it. We left that building at the same time, and the officers went with that Mr. Endemort along the direction toward the Supernatural Promotions building, and I turned going in this direction, but slow enough that I was not seen coming to this hotel. If the officers are persuaded to look here, which I don't think would happen because they already have Raul Weckland, the felon they were after, Ebert isn't here as anyway. I think he intended to be gone all day."

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Rodston said, "But you don't know if that Mr. Endemort was really employed to work there or not, then. You just know he claimed to have contact information of the owner who would verify he worked there. And if he was, he would be leaving anyway."

Sherwood answered, "Right. If there wasn't this information, he would be taken into custody, and will probably not be leaving as soon."

Dan said, "I think we should know more about him."

Sherwood said, "That is up to you. If you want me to still be involved, we will have to discuss the further arrangements. What I agreed to is accomplished. So if that is all you will want I can accept the payment for that."

Roger said, "I think that will be all we want help with. That felon, Raul Weckland, is in custody. That is really what we came here for."

Sherwood left soon afterward, leaving Roger, Dan, and Rodston desiring to find out anything more they could about Mr. Endemort on their own. They thought that if officers came looking at this hotel, as they might, Dan who had been at the Supernatural Promotions building could ask them about that manager. He would have to remember to ask about Mr. Entemoor, the name he had been given there, and call him the manager, as he had been led to believe him to be.

"But how will we learn if they do not come here?" Roger asked at length.

"Do you think one of us could go back to the Supernatural Promotions building to see if we can find out if he went back there?" Dan asked.

Rodston said, "He wouldn't be there. Remember, he would be in custody, or he would be on his way out leaving the country."

Dan said, "Then one of us might go to their precinct and find out what happened at the Supernatural Promotions building. We might learn if he is there or not that way. We can say we were interested in returning there."

"You would have to say you expect that Mr. Entemoor to be there," Rodston said.

Someone was at the door then, and being startled, they looked. It was being opened.

[GodlyD&D]

Roger, Dan, and Rodston were not expecting anyone to come in just then, and it surprised them. Then they saw it was Lenny and Terry, who had left very early that day to travel to the printing press in Shiny Shelves. Lenny said, ""We are back, and we can tell you some things that we did find out."

"We found out things too," Roger said, "but we were left with more questions. But Raul Weckland is caught. It looks like Ebert will be off the hook, and they won't be suspicious of him at work, now."

"That is great," Lenny said, enthusiastically. "We were told that materials like the one Ebert was looking at went to a Mr. Acheridge at Supernatural Promotions. I asked them if they knew of Mr. Entemoor, and they said they did not know his name, it was not on any accounts."

"Alright," Dan said. "We found out that he wasn't the owner, and his real name was actually Mr. Endemort, and it seems the owner hired him, and he claimed they had communicated between other representatives, and he did not know Raul Weckland, who claimed to be the owner, was not really him."

"But he still claimed that the man who Ebert, and you, Rodston, pursued had vanished from this reality. So he was not being honest."