Chapter One
Lance Landt awoke to the clamorous knocking on his office door. The top three buttons of his wrinkled white shirt were unbuttoned. His gray and silver checkered pattern tie hung loosely around his neck. His dark black hair was ruffled and unruly.


He groggily rose from his brown leather ON desk chair imported from Italy. As he got up, his black suit jacket fell off the back of the chair and landed in a pile of crumpled paper. The knocking continued. Lance stretched his arms up as far as he could. He glanced at his watch which read 6:00 a.m. I wonder who that could be, Lance thought. “I’m on my way. No need to wake everybody up,” said Lance. The knocking ceased and Lance took his time walking to the door. He typed in the four-number password and clicked the bright green button labeled open. His fingers habitually pressed 7-1-3-7. The door swung outwards in a swift but smooth motion. Lance scanned the hallway for the source of the knocking.
Lance was just able to see a man creeping into the elevator. He looked down and saw a plain cardboard box with nothing but a sticker on it. The sticker read, “To Detective Lance Landt. Penthouse of The Landt Tower, New York City.” “A large, formally dressed Hispanic man just left a box on my doorstep… Just another average day in the life of Detective Lance Landt I guess,” thought Lance. Instead of picking up the box immediately, Lance went back inside his room. He walked to his disgracefully wrinkled suit jacket on the floor, picked it up, and took out a white die from the inside pocket. He threw his jacket where he found it and quickly walked over to the wall on the right. He stopped in front of the famous painting entitled “Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The painting was attached to the wall behind it. He slid the painting to the left, turned it upside down and slid it back. The painting pulled out and a hidden drawer was revealed. The contents of the drawer were cluttered and disorganized. “I really have to clean my equipment more often,” Lance thought.
Lance was the proud owner of the large and successful Landt Tower Hotel. At the young age of 23, Lance was a multi-millionaire. Although most rich people work extremely hard to become successful, Lance reached his successful heights by doing absolutely nothing. Lance’s father put his life into the creation of the only five-star hotel in NYC. When Lance was only ten, his father was murdered. The murder case was a very peculiar one. No evidence was left at all. His father had so many enemies that the suspects were too numerous to count. Eventually, the case died down, and the murderer was never brought to justice. Lance devoted his life to be a detective. Because Lance was the only child and family, his father gave everything to Lance. The large amount of money really helps in funding his detective operations. He scavenged the drawer for a remote like device. Once he found it, he blew all the dust off and turned the device on.
The device was a rectangular remote-like machine with a small screen. On the top of the remote was a small square crevice. Lance looked at his die, tossed in the air once and caught it. He placed the small die into the crevice so that the three side was pointing out. The device came alive. The screen on the device blinked “Ray” for about five seconds. Lance grinned at Ray. It was one of his first inventions. He designed it to x-ray packages or objects for any signs of recognizable harmful substances. If a weapon, chemical, poison, or other harmful material is found, the light on Ray blinks red and the dangerous material is highlighted on the screen. Of course, it is not perfect, but it does the job.

Lance walked back to the door and activated Ray. The machine took a minute to process every detail. Finally, the machine was done checking and the screen said clear. Lance picked up the box and brought it inside. He closed the door behind him. He came to his table and brushed off the loose papers and folders to the side. He slowly opened the box. Inside the box was a single envelope. He ripped open the envelope and before he was able to read the letter, everything was becoming foggy. The room was spinning. Everything was getting dark. He got up, slowly waddled to the painting on the wall. He took the die, threw it across the room, and turned it around. With the remaining strength he had, he pushed the painting back into the wall. Suddenly everything went black and Lance collapsed.











Chapter 2
The sun’s rays reflected off the clear water of the four feet ovular in-ground pool.
Leon Landt reclined on his leather sofa in the den. The custom ordered 83” SAMOLED Samsung flat screen hung from the wall opposite him. Leon was watching Frank the weatherman on Channel 12 Long Island news. “Goooooooooooddddd afternoon Long Island! It is currently 12 o’clock pm and incase you haven’t noticed, it is HOT! This 106 degree weather is setting records! To all you good folks watching, be careful in this kind of heat. Heat stroke, fires, are very serious and present dangers in this kind of weather.” Leon took another sip from his bottle of ice-cold beer. “Keep yourselves hydrated! Go easy on the kids, let them have their fun in the sun...back to you Sam.” Leon let out a small laugh.

Although it was a Saturday, Leon, Lance’s father, made Lance finish all his homework before he could have any fun. A pool of sweat was collecting on the desk the poor boy was sitting on. Lance had only calculus to finish. Being very smart for his age, Lance was two years advanced in math. Lance was dying to go out and jump in the pool to cool down. “I am probably the only kid on Long Island stuck at home doing homework today!” thought Lance with distaste. He turned unlocked his phone and went through his last two texts again.

Text from George at 11:23 a.m.: Yo Lance, come out to the local public pool, we all gonna head there to chill. Stephanie will be there ;). She’ll prob b in a bathing suit, if you know what I mean. Maybe you can actually make your move today.
Text from Stephanie at 11:35 a.m.: Hey! Are you going to come to the pool? We’re all going to jump in soon! Hurry up! Well, if you need to contact anyone, you can call Sammy, he won’t be going in the water because he’s feeling a little sick. Ttyl! ?

“Ugh, this is taking way too long...” groaned Lance. He answered the last ten questions with complete nonsense. The clock struck a small tune meaning it was 12:15. Going to the pool as soon as possible was the only thought in his mind. Desiring to look as good as possible for Stephanie, Lance stood in front of his mirror and fixed up his hair. He then proceeded to practice his smile for the next minute or so.

Once Lance deemed himself ready, he went downstairs to quickly tell his father that he was going to go. When he stepped into the den Lance called out to his father but there was no reply. The loud blaring of the show “How I Met Your Mother” was playing on the TV. Lance went over to the remote and turned the TV off. “Father?” Lance called out in the empty room. He noticed the back door was open so he walked over to it. His Dad was out in the burning sun working on the screen door.

“What happened to the door, Father?” Lance asked when Leon finally looked up.

“The suspension on the door is broken. The door was swinging too far and slamming into the wall every time someone opened it. I’m afraid the bricks will get worn down.”

“The heat is scorching! Can’t you just wait until tomorrow or some day after to do this?”

“Lance, in life you should never leave for tomorrow what you can complete today. Procrastination is a very bad trait in people. My Father before me taught me the same. He taught me the value of hard work.”

Lance suddenly felt guilty that his dad was stuck doing all this work in the sun while he goes to the pool. Lance again stared at his father. Leon looked very uncomfortable and tired. Lance decided to crouch down over the glass outer door and help his father.

“I don’t need pity, son. I can finish this on my own. You go have fun at the pool.” Leon retorted while simultaneously wiping his forehead of sweat.

A soft smile appeared on Lance’s face.“I’ll help with this first and then go to the pool after. I don’t want to come back and see you unconscious. Besides… I’ve already taken a short swim in my own pool while doing homework.”

Leon chuckled and said, “Ok so here is the plan. Yes, the glass outer door was broken and off its hinges, but I had a plan to change all that.” Leon with utmost pride proceeded to divulge his plan to Lance.

“Ahh that is brilliant!” Lance noticed the gleam in his father’s eyes. The excitement of invention, building, and technology was obviously passed down to Lance because Lance too had the same gleam.

Leon and Lance proceeded to work on the door for the rest of the day. By about 9 at night, they created a spring-action automated door that opened from either a person inside or a special key you have to press to activate. Both father and son were so proud of what they accomplished they decided to buy something special for dinner. While Lance went to take a shower, Leon, with a secret agenda, planned a small surprise for his son whom he was proud of.
Leon invited George and Stephanie for dinner because he felt bad Lance missed out in going to the pool today. He bought four dishes of steak. He bought one for himself, one for lance, one for George, and one for Stephanie. When Lance went down to the kitchen, his hair was messy, and he had on a pair of shorts… Only shorts. Because it was so hot he thought he would eat dinner topless to keep cool. Lance was in for a huge surprise.

Then darkness surrounded Lance. He howled in pain. There were large scratches on his wrists from where the handcuffs were digging into his skin. Lips cracked and throat parched from lack of water, Lance could not bring enough strength to speak. For what seemed like an hour, Lance remained idol, handcuffed and on his knees. He remembered the opening of the package and the dizzy feeling before he had collapsed. Where am I? How did I get here? How can I get out? The pain Lance felt was excruciating. Lance was debating whether this or the embarrassing memory of seeing Stephanie that night was worse. He was leaning toward the Stephanie incident when suddenly the door opened and a short bald man walked in holding a pistol in his hand.