The Mystery of the Missing Heiress (17 page)

“She was!” Honey said. “Trixie always does things nobody else has nerve enough to do.”

“You’re telling me!” the sergeant said.

“She finishes them, too,” Honey said. “Sergeant Molinson, who do you think took those warning signs away from that place? Who is trying to injure Janie?”

“Wait just a minute, young lady. Those warning signs having been removed doesn’t necessarily mean that someone wanted the girl to fall over the cliff, does it?”

“What other possible reason?” Trixie asked. “Maybe the county engineer’s department was making some kind of a survey before undertaking anti-erosion work there. The signs may have been in their way.”

“So they threw them over the cliff?” Trixie asked. “That doesn’t wash.”

“How do you know anyone threw them over the cliff?” the police sergeant asked.

“Because,” Jim said, “we found them down below, smashed. We think someone moved them on purpose.”

“Yes, we do,” Trixie agreed. “And if you’ll give me a chance, I’ll tell you about a lot of other odd things that have been happening. Some strange man was hanging around the surveyors. Some strange man put our station wagon out of commission in the Bronx. Some strange man was parked near our house the night—”

“What on earth does that have to do with the young girl Janie?” Sergeant Molinson said, smiling indulgently and sending a crimson flush to Trixie’s cheeks.

“There
is
some connection someplace. An important police officer like you should find it. You just get me all confused. Anyway, with all the experts working on the case, nobody yet has been able to find out what or who hit Janie and left her unconscious.”

“These things aren’t accomplished in a day, Trixie. We have to have time.”

“And nobody has the slightest notion what her name is, where she came from, or who her family is,” Trixie went on. “It’s awfully hard on Janie not to know.” Trixie’s voice saddened, remembering Janie’s bewilderment.

“That, too, takes time, Trixie.”

“In the meantime, some terrible thing is going to happen to her. I
know
someone is trying to harm her. They’ve tried twice—once when they left her unconscious on Glen Road, when she lost her memory, and yesterday, when she fell. Who knows? Maybe the next time they’ll succeed. Isn’t there
something
someone can do?”

“Trixie, we don’t just sit here and twiddle our thumbs.”

“I m sorry.“

“Sit down here, now, all of you. Tell me exactly what happened yesterday. Begin at the first, when you missed Janie. Tell me in detail. You start, Trixie.”

Trixie started. When she came to the place where she went over the cliff, Jim took over.

The sergeant listened intently. He asked questions at intervals, then sat back and listened again, glancing from time to time at Trixie.

“Then we pulled Trixie back, as slowly as we possibly could. We were scared to death that edge would give way with her. But it didn’t!” Jim finished triumphantly.

Sergeant Molinson said sternly, “Trixie, I’m wasting my breath, but I’m strongly advising you to be careful, to leave perilous adventures such as yesterday’s to people whose job it is to do them.”

“I was right there,” Trixie said. “It had to be done then.”

Sergeant Molinson threw up his hands. “I give up. At least three people have been to see the mayor today about a medal for bravery for you, Trixie.” Trixie gasped.

“She deserves it,” the sergeant told the other Bob-Whites. “I'll have to admit she gets in my hair; nevertheless, I could name some of my men who could use a little of Detective Belden s perseverance and inquisitive turn of mind. Remember this, Trixie,” he continued, “we re doing everything in our power to investigate every facet of Janie’s case. It’s a matter of the greatest concern to my department.”

“I know it is,” Trixie said. “Thank you, Sergeant Molinson.”

Spider Kicks Up a Clue • 15

JEEPERS!” Trixie said as they left the sergeant’s office. “Did you hear what he called me? ‘Detective Belden.’ This must be his “be kind to people day.’ It’s the first time I’ve ever left his office without being shushed out. Oh-oh... here it comes now.” Sergeant Molinson opened his door and called down the hall. “Jim!”

“Yes, sir?”

“Will you, to save us all from going crazy, see if you can keep that cousin of yours from haunting this courthouse? She’s here when we open in the morning and here when we close. She’s driving the recorder of deeds nuts.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll try... I mean... well, we’ll try.”

“I see what you mean.”

“His 'kind to people day’ didn’t last long, did it, Trix?” Jim asked. “How can Juliana haunt the courthouse, when she’s busy every day sewing on those dolls?”

“She probably does ask every morning,” Trixie answered. “They’ve told her they’ll let her know as soon as the papers arrive. Why do you suppose she’s in such a frantic rush?”

Mart shrugged his shoulders. “Search me! It could be she doesn’t like this little hick town’ of Sleepyside.”

“Could be.” Brian agreed. “What now?”

“How about hamburgers down at Wimpy’s?” Jim suggested.

“That’s an idea!” Mart seconded. “It seems as though we never have time for Wimpy’s anymore— not since school closed, anyway. Remember the old days, when we’d run into Spider Webster?”

“Oh, yes!” Trixie cried. “I
wish
Spider were on the police force here now. I suppose he did want to take a job with more money, and that’s why he went to White Plains. We never see him anymore.”

“Speak of the devil!” Mart cried. “Do you see who’s right inside that window? Spider! Hi!” he called, waving.

Eagerly the Bob-Whites crowded through the door. Spider, grinning from ear to ear, shook hands with each one as they came through. “Say, this is great!” he said. “It’s like old times. Every time I used to have a lunch break, I’d run into one or more of you kids here. Let’s line up at the counter again, huh?”

“Our treat!” Jim said. Then he called out, “Mike, hamburgers, french fries, and malts for all of us. Say, Spider, how have you been? Where’s Tad?”

“My brother is working at a summer camp upstate in the woods. Say, I never have stopped being grateful to you Bob-Whites for the way you helped me straighten Tad out.”

“Don’t say a word about it,” Brian said. “Mrs. Vanderpoel misses both of you a lot.”

“And do we ever miss her cooking! Boy! I hear she has some dame staying with her now—the one who inherited that strip of marsh where they’re going to build the factory.” He whistled. “Nice little sum of money she’ll get for that... one hundred and fifty thousand dollars!”

“How come you know all about that, when you re never in Sleepyside anymore?” Jim asked. She's my cousin, you know.”

“I know that, too. I was in Molinson’s office on business this morning, and she had just been in the recorder’s office inquiring about something. You know Molinson; he doesn’t like dames too well, huh, Trixie?”

“Now he does. Now he doesn’t,” Mart said. “This morning he almost pinned a medal on Trix.”

“I heard about that rescue, too. Say, Trixie, that was some stunt you pulled up there on the bluff. That girl who lost her memory is staying at your house, isn’t she? Makes a guy believe in miracles to look up at that bluff and think she wasn’t—”

“Murdered!” Trixie said grimly. “That’s what it was, Spider—an attempt at murder. The second one, too. How did you know about Janie—we call her Janie—”

“I saw the poster in the Missing Persons Bureau in White Plains. I didn’t connect it with you Bob-Whites till I stopped at the station today. When I talked to the sergeant, I found out this Janie is staying at Crabapple Farm. There’s no news of who she really is, is there? Has the sergeant any clue to how she came to be on Glen Road? Hit-and-run, was it? What a shame!”

“It’s tragic, Spider,” Honey said. “She’s the loveliest girl.”

“It's awfully sad.” Trixie’s face grew solemn as she thought about Janie’s predicament. “I
wish
we could help find out who she is.”

“Sometimes they just disappear, girls and boys, grown men and women, too,” Spider said, “and no one ever hears a word about them.”

“Does it happen the other way, too?” Trixie asked. “When nobody ever makes an inquiry about a missing person?”

“Often,” Spider said, “but it’s mostly some no-good bum nobody wants to find, someone like that stepfather of yours, Jim. Nobody cried up a storm when he disappeared, did they? I guess he knows better than to show his face around these parts again.”

“No fear,” Mart said. “When he realized he wasn’t going to get anything out of Mr. Frayne’s estate, that it all went to Jim, he beat it.”

Spider laughed. “It’s a good thing he did, or he’d have landed in the clink, with a good push from me. What are you kids up to? I’ll give one guess. Trixie and Honey are on the trail of that hit-and-run criminal and are now trying to figure out what happened yesterday. Right, Trixie?”

“We are concentrating on trying to find Janie’s identity,” Trixie said. “We didn’t think we could do much about what caused her accident on Glen Road. Then a lot of other things began to happen, Spider. Yesterday was the worst. We’re certain that someone is trying to harm Janie.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“No, we don’t. We’re completely baffled. Someone is definitely out to get Janie. I don’t think Sergeant Molinson agrees with us yet about this. He’s trying to discover who moved those warning signs yesterday. He thinks the workmen who have been busy there may have done it, that maybe it has nothing to do with Janie. I don’t. I have a hunch.”

“I’d bank on your hunches, Trixie. I’ve had experience with them before.”

“Tell it to the sergeant,” Mart suggested.

“He’s had experience with them, too. You say he’s trying to find out if someone moved the warning signs, and if they did, why. Do you mean the signs along that trail in the woods?”

“Yes. They were in place a little over a week ago when we were riding through the woods, exercising the horses. That’s when we found out about the factory that’s to be built. We climbed down that path to the marsh.... Oh, Spider, I do wish you were on the police force in Sleepyside now. You wouldn’t keep saying, ‘It all takes time/ the way Sergeant Molinson does. You’d move.”

“Do you want me to go with you now and take a look around that cliff? Not that I’d be likely to find a thing, because investigation really does take time, Trixie, as the sergeant said. I’m taking the rest of the afternoon off. We can run out to the woods. Maybe I can stop and see Mrs. Vanderpoel,
too.“

“Would you, Spider? That would be super. Has everyone finished eating? Brian, how about settling with Jim for our hamburgers?”

“You forgot I said it was my treat, Trixie—on account of Spider,” Jim said. He paid the bill, and they went out.

“You haven’t seen the new Bob-White bus, have you, Spider? Well, open your eyes and look!” Mart opened the station wagon door with a flourish. “Our name’s on it, and everything.”

Spider looked, struck his forehead, and fell back, as though dazzled.

“Have you been picking up some more rewards, you and Honey?” he asked Trixie. “Boy, oh, boy, is it ever snazzy!”

“Mr. Wheeler gave it to us. They have a new Continental sedan,” Trixie said.

“I might have known it came from him.” Spider whistled. “I wish all kids had the setup the Bob-Whites have—your own clubhouse, and now your own car. Not that you don’t have it all coming to you, always trying to help people. Let’s see how the Bob-White bus rides.”

Jim stopped the car on Glen Road where the trail entered the woods, and they all got out. As they neared the end of the bridle path, they could hear the sound of men working, voices shouting, hammers pounding.

“It’s the men putting up the guard fence my dad ordered, ” Jim said. “It sure didn’t take long to get them going.”

“Money makes the mare go,” Spider said. “That’s what my old daddy used to tell me when he tried to make me save. No kidding, Jim, when your dad wants a thing done, it’s as good as done. I wish we could have come up here before they got under way, though. There isn’t much chance of finding anything significant now; probably never was.”

“It’s a ghastly place over there,” Trixie said, pointing to where the shelf of soil was breaking away. “It didn’t used to be that bad when we went down to the marsh for specimens. At least, I don’t remember it being scary. We’ve climbed down that path often enough.”

“I always thought your stepfather escaped this way, Jim, after your great-uncle’s house was burned. That old river has provided a getaway for many a crook, with all the boats and barges lined up down there. Hey, you!” he called to one of the workmen. “Is this a hole where one of the warning signs was in place?”

“I don’t know. Ask the county engineer. They’re puttin’ up new signs. We're buildin this fence right across the path where you’re standin’. Can’t nobody go beyond there then. We’re gonna paint KEEP OUT! in red paint on the fence when we’re done.”

“It seems to me it needs a sign here, too, at the top of this trail down to the river,” Spider said, pointing to the hole, widened and gaping where a sign had been hastily pulled up.