Minecraft

I had to sell the house and I moved into a motorhome that I had to keep moving to avoid getting ticketed. I found myself parked outside a crime scene one morning. I overheard the detectives talking about a serial killer. I decided that I'd better go buy a gun to protect myself.

The police wanted to question me so brought me to the house, which I assumed was the scene of the crime. There was a basement access in what would be the closet of my office. We climbed down the stairs, and I noticed that instead of a basement, we were in a vertical shaft that continued down quite a ways.

We passed a waterfall, the steps damp and slick from the mist. "Are you sure your person isn't just lost down here?" I asked, pointing to several side passages as we delved deeper.

"Quite sure," one of the detectives stated. We came out in a large chamber, and I could see that the rock in part of the cave floor was glowing red. I warned them that there was lava there and we should go around. But, they continued on, making me hop over the lava area as fast as I could to keep from melting the bottom of my shoes.

Someone had used sandbags to guide the flow of water over the lava to make a wet path of sorts. Although the water was very warm, it wasn't melting my shoes so I stayed in it. I warned the detectives to stay in it as well, because there might still be lava to either side.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

We came around a large pillar of crystal studded rock to find a huge steel tube plunged into the center of a twenty foot diameter lava pit. There was a glassy stone walk all the way around it with safety rails to keep one from falling in. It was hot, but there was a cool moist breeze from behind us.

"We were hoping you could tell us."

"A geothermal power thingy?" I guessed. By this point I was thinking that you would have to tunnel a ways, and very carefully, to get around the lava lake that was below our feet. I explained that I didn't live here, I lived in my vehicle and was just parked on the street until a spot opened up at a nearby campground.

The layout of the house was similar to my old house, so I wondered if it had been made by the same contractor.

They then wanted to know where the rest of the family was. I didn't know, of course, as I wasn't involved in their case. I just happened to park outside their house last evening when I couldn't get a spot at the local campground. I showed them my reservation for tonight through next weekend.

"Is that time accurate?"

"As far as I know, you could check the campground computer to make sure."

"We'll do that."

"Do you mind if we take that," the detective said in a way that indicated that he didn't care if I minded or not.

"Of course not, they emailed me a copy at the same time"

"He could have been here before going to the campground."

I could tell from the detective's face that he was sure the campground receipt completely ruled me out as his most convenient suspect. I also knew that I had dinner and gas receipts for the times leading up to the point where I made reservations, and I wasn't a stranger to the people in either place.

"I 'd like a receipt for that." I pointed to the receipt in his hands, but he just handed it back.

We started back, but almost immediately came to a split in the tunnel up, and it wasn't clear which shaft to take, as both had LED lights along the walls.

One tunnel had the lights on the right and the other had them on the left. I was pretty sure the lights had been on the left as we'd come down, but the detective led us into the tunnel where the lights were on the left. At least we had a source of water and the cops all had flashlights.