No Way Out

Whit wakes in a sealed, windowless room with a head injury and a broken leg. A nervous man named Lester says that Whit has been unconscious for a long time and calls the hidden chamber his home. Whit cannot find a door, his cell phone is missing, and Lester refuses to explain anything connected with the repeated phrase 3-18-99.

At Whit's End, Jason notices that his father has missed a planned visit and does not answer his phone. A message on the answering machine begins with Whit saying he has had trouble and cannot come, then records him shouting at someone to stop before the call abruptly ends. Jason realizes that the interruption may be serious.

The Washington family is still unpacking in the McAlister house after Xavier has begun his trip home to Chicago. Pickles, cheese doodles, Tamika's childhood blanket, and other belongings have disappeared. Marvin and Tamika accuse each other, but strange sounds behind the furniture suggest that someone else may be moving through the house.

David Dockhart, lawyer for the McAlister estate, brings Ed an extra key and mentions another mystery. Records suggest that the late Ernie McAlister turned an old family fortune into even greater wealth but distrusted banks. No money has been found, and Dockhart asks the Washingtons to report any documents or valuables hidden in the house.

Jason contacts the police, hospitals, friends, and family, but the police will not begin an official missing-person search until Whit has been gone for twenty-four hours. Unwilling to wait, Jason begins investigating on his own while Whit cries for help from a room Lester says no one can hear.

Lester has secretly left through a trapdoor whenever Whit sleeps. He returns with food, missing household items, and enough practical skill to build a splint. He becomes angry when he thinks Whit considers him stupid and says that people named Aunt Irma and Mrs. Olsen have treated him that way. He also fears returning somewhere because he believes Mrs. Olsen will shoot him.

At the McAlister house, a plumber named Mac investigates a serious leak in the downstairs bathroom. He offers to continue alone while the family attempts a picnic, but rain quickly drives them home. Marvin turns the kitchen into a crime scene and plants a recorder to catch the mysterious cheese-doodle thief.

Following the strange music they have heard, Marvin and Tamika find a damaged cell phone in a muddy window well. Jason, meanwhile, uses audio filtering on Whit's interrupted message. He isolates the sound of five o'clock bells and the familiar melody of an ice-cream truck, giving him a way to narrow the neighborhood where Whit made the call.

Whit discovers the trapdoor in the ceiling, but his fever and injured leg prevent him from escaping. Lester says he will never go upstairs again because that is where Mr. Al died. From Lester's treasured bag, Whit learns that his mother died when he was seven, his absent father once promised to return, and Mr. Al gave him a one-hundred-dollar bill.

Lester offers Whit prescription pain medicine that belonged to Ernie McAlister. Whit realizes that Ernie is the mysterious Mr. Al and that the hidden room may be part of the McAlister house. Then he finds Xavier Washington's name inside a jacket Lester has brought into the room. Fearing that another person may be in danger, Whit demands to know what Lester has done with Xavier.