Cass and Max-Ernest manage to escape the magician’s house and evade Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais. Back at Max-Ernest’s house, the two examine the notebook and find all the pages blank, save for a coded message at the beginning in the form of a poem with certain words in each line capitalized. Max-Ernest realizes that the capitalized words can be arranged into pairs of anagrams; after pairing all the anagrams together, they are left with just one: “THEN UNREAD.” After trying different words and phrases that can be made up from the letters of THEN UNREAD, Max-Ernest finally realizes that the word they’re looking for must be UNDERNEATH, which is the clue they need to find the true contents of the magician’s notebook. Before they can investigate the matter further, Cass’s mother arrives to take her home. She breaks the news that she will have to go away on a business trip, so Cass must stay with Larry and Wayne for the next week. Although her mother is clearly regretful about leaving Cass behind, Cass is excited, as she knows she will have more freedom to conduct her investigation without adult interference.