#0445

I was gonna draw another sticker sheet like [this one] but I spent all day crocheting instead

Hello, @flosscat! Very pleased to welcome you on this blog.

I would argue that Dewey’s secret library has very likely survived. That was, after all, the whole point of Kit’s plan to burn down the hotel: making the villains believe all the collected evidence had been lost forever, while in reality V.F.D. kept it safe. What’s really funny is that her brother Lemony used the exact same strategy in “Shouldn’t You Be In School”. And if you believe my theory about J.S. (Link) the taxi driver (Link), you also know that Lemony is very much part of Kit’s and Dewey’s conspiracy. There’s no point in burning down the hotel if the secret library can’t be saved in the doing.

Another reason to believe it survived is that it is probably underwater as well as undergound. You’re supposed to dive into the pond to access it (that’s where the inscription “Hotel Denouement” appears in the right way). That’s also why enemies of the volunteers never found it: they were focused on the Hotel (a red herring) and never thought to inspect its reflection.

What really confirms this theory is this passage in “The Beatrice Letters” where Beatrice Jr follows Lemony in the city. Lemony then goes to a “library” where documents related to Beatrice and V.F.D. are kept.

Afterward, you sat on the bench in the park, examining a ring etched into the surface of the wood by someone careless with their drinking glass, before strolling along the edge of a nearby pond.[The Beatrice Letters, B.B. to L.S. #4]

I think the library is Dewey’s secret library. The “park” is actually what remains of the gardens of Hotel Denouement, which were reconverted ten years after the fire. The pond is still there and the bench with the ring on it was last seen in the lobby of Hotel Denouement:

The manager followed the bellboy into the crowd, leaving the Baudelaires standing alonenext to a large, wooden bench marked with the number 128. Klaus ran his hand along thebench, which was etched with rings, from people setting down glasses without using coasters.[The Penultimate Peril, Chapter Three]

Sorry little dude, coming through. Gotta put you down for a bit. You figure you've left him hanging long enough.