“When was Brack supposed to meet Dragonstone last night?” asked Charlie.

“The rehearsal was at eight o’clock,” answered Annie. “When Brack never showed up, we called upstairs, but he didn’t answer.”

They were standing in a hallway on the twelfth floor. They figured that floor was the best place to start their search for Ty. And if they found Ty, they might find Brack.

Charlie figured it was too much of a coincidence that both friends had vanished within 24 hours of each other. Their disappearances had to be connected.

“And Dragonstone was there already?” said Charlie.

Annie nodded. “He got to the hotel right before the rehearsal. He didn’t even have time to eat or go to his room. And while we waited onstage, he said that he wanted Brack to introduce his final act, the Empty Straitjacket.”

“Really?” said Charlie. “So who was that DeVille guy?”

“A friend of Mr. Dragonstone’s,” said Annie. “When the rehearsal was almost over and Brack still hadn’t shown up, Dragonstone called DeVille. DeVille came to the hotel this morning.”

“This morning?”

“Yes, right after Tyler left for school.”

“So when did they have time to rehearse the Glass Door Trick?” asked Charlie.

“I’m not sure about that,” said Annie. “I don’t think Dragonstone even mentioned it last night. It seemed like something DeVille came up with on his own.”

There’s something fishy about that, thought Charlie. But if Brack disappeared last night, Dragonstone might not be involved. Not if he was at rehearsal the whole time Brack was absent.

Still, magicians were awfully tricky characters.

“Now what was it you wanted to show me?” asked Annie, sidling up closer to him.

Charlie pulled out the fake red beard and mustache from his backpack and explained them to her.

Then he knelt down on the thick hallway carpet and unrolled the blue paper he had found in the dressing room closet. Annie knelt down next to him.

“I found this in Dragonstone’s dressing room,” Charlie told her. “I’m sure it came out of an empty tube I found up at Brack’s place. This stamp is on both of them.” He pointed to the official words at the edge of the paper. He saw two more words he hadn’t noticed before in the dim closet: ORIGINAL COPY.

Annie gasped. “It’s the hotel,” she said. “The Hocus Pocus — I mean, the Abracadabra. It’s the whole hotel.”

The blue roll of paper was actually made up of several sheets. And as Charlie stared at the top sheet in front of them, he realized Annie was right. These were blueprints for the old hotel.

It made sense that Brack would have kept them over the years, knowing how much the building meant to him.

“There’s the theater,” Annie said, pointing. “There’s the lobby. Those circles are the pillars. There are the elevators.”

Charlie flipped through the sheets. One of them showed a plan of the roof. “That’s Brack’s place,” he said.

“See if you can find the twelfth floor,” said Annie. “See if it has the glass door and keyhole in it.”

“Good idea,” said Charlie. He separated all the sheets and laid them out next to each other. Soon the hallway seemed to be re-carpeted with blue paper.

“There must be a dozen pages,” said Annie.

“One for each floor,” said Charlie.

But though they carefully examined each sheet, they could not find one for Floor 12.

“Here’s fourteen,” said Annie. “Twelve is missing!”

“No, said Charlie. “It’s been stolen. The twelfth floor is where the magic act took place, and the floor where Ty disappeared. Someone took that page on purpose.”

“Mr. Dragonstone?” whispered Annie.

“Look at this,” said Charlie.

He pulled a page from the far end of the sheets.

“It’s the whole hotel,” said Annie.

Charlie liked the drawing. Faint white lines against a blue background showed the entire building, floor by floor, room by room.

“Here’s the glass door,” Annie said. “See?”

“Aha!” Charlie said. “That’s how it was done!”

A thump sounded somewhere in the hall. Annie and Charlie froze and stared at each other.

“What was that?” whispered Annie.

“Footsteps?” asked Charlie.

They both held their breath and listened. The thumping stopped.

“The only way to get to these floors is by elevator, right?” whispered Charlie.

“And the stairwells,” said Annie. “Every hotel needs stairs in case there’s a fire. Then the elevators shut off, and even if you’re on the twentieth floor, you have to use the stairs.”

“Where are they?” said Charlie.

After a few moments of scanning the sheets, they found the drawing of the stairwell on the west side of the building. Something looked odd.

“Why is that flight of stairs longer than the others?” Charlie asked.

Annie peered closer. “You’re right. The stairs from twelve to fourteen are longer. Weird.”

A light exploded in Charlie’s brain. That’s it, that’s it! he thought.

“Are you going to be sick?” asked Annie.

“The stairs!” he shouted. “The stairs!”

They heard another thump. This one seemed closer.

Charlie jumped to his feet. “We don’t have any time to lose. Come on, where’s the door to the stairs?”

Annie’s face was pale. “But Charlie, those noises . . .”

“If I’m right,” said Charlie, “I think someone is trying to communicate with us.”

“A ghost?” asked Annie.

“No,” said Charlie with a smile. “Ty.”